Happy 18th Birthday My Princess!

On the special occasion of my elder daughter's 18th Birthday!

Below is a textual form

Dear Princess  and respected young Ladies (by the way, you girls look stunningly beautiful this evening.)      Thank you for coming here today and be part of this important event.      Oh sorry, I forgot to formally introduce myself. I'm the father of the princess, but I'm still trying to  figure out my own title. The princes is not helpful, because she sometimes calls me 'bro' or a 'man' or even "queen!". So, I'm having difficult time. Please somebody help!       Okay, enough about me. It's her day. She's the princess - a fine young lady, very kind hearted, funny (obviously, when she's not mad) and genuinely smart. Yes, baby, we (I meant your mom, sister, and I) are really proud of you. Being your father has been the most meaningful achievement of my life and I constantly see my success through you.        When you were small, I used to carry you around on my arms and shoulders, which I may not be able to do anymore (because I stopped going to gym - because of coronavirus lockdown), but I'll always carry you on my heart.       Looks like aeroplanes do not fly these days (because the covid-19 pandemic has closed the borders), However, the time still flies. I thought, it was just yesterday, you were a little girl - playing dress up, or hide and seek with your younger sister and today, look at you, you're eighteen, an independent (you can at least drive now, right?) and going to university, ready to fly away. I'm little sad (sorry, I'm little bit selfish, sometimes I wished you were still little), but no worries, I'm mostly happy and grateful to have a daughter like you. Happy birthday my princess! May you forever shine like the star (the one - remember twinkle twinkle little star...?)       I still remember, how sad you're when you couldn't make to ICDC1 last year. This year were able to make it but could not go because of Covid-19. It's the way the life is. There will be so many more highs and lows in life, but stay the course. As long as you have the dream and the goal, one day you will achieve it no matter what - one way or the other. Always be optimistic, always be happy. Happy birthday my little star!!      As we all know, great friends are the most important part of any body's life, and you are lucky, you are surrounded by them. Thank you you young ladies, we really appreciate your presence here today. Just relax, and enjoy the evening. Russians say 'Tanchui poka molodoi"- meaning "dance while you are still young", (because when you are old and break your bone while dancing, it's very hard to patch).       Finally, I'd like to repeat that we are really proud of not for only your accomplishments but for the person who you truly are becoming. We love you baby and God bless you. Happy 18th birthday!!!  Lots of Love, Dad

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Sharing here so that it remains eternal forever. 

Notes:

1 - ICDC - International Career Development Conference

SonarQube issue - Could not find branches

SonarQube allows branch level (for example, if you are using Git, you may want to scan your feature branch and fix identified issues before creating a Pull/Merge Request to the develop branch) analysis. In order to do branch level analysis, you need to specify your branch using SonarQube parameter 'sonar.branch.name' and optionally 'sonar.branch.target' (the name of the branch into which the temporary branch specified with 'sonar.branch.name' will be merged.
However, if SonarQube project does not exist for the given source code repository yet and you are scanning your source code repository for the first time and you specified your branch name using 'sonar.branch.name', you'll get the following error:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.sonarsource.scanner.maven:sonar-maven-plugin:3.6.0.1398:sonar (default-cli) on project web-mywebapps: Could not find branches. A regular analysis is required before creating branches. -> [Help 1] [ERROR] [ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch. [ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging. [ERROR] [ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:

As you can see from the error message, it says "...could not find branches. A regular analysis is required...". So, for the first scan whatever branch you are scanning, do not use parameter 'sonar.branch.name' One way to tackle this issue is to write some conditional logic in your SonarQube job. Below is a kind of a pseudo code example. Here the -Dsonar.branch.name property and value is passed to Maven goal only if the variable 'FIRST_TIME_BUILD' is false.
Note: 'FIRST_TIME_BUILD' is not a SonarQube built in variable, I've used it as an example to specify the condition.

<goals>clean install sonar:sonar -Dsonar.host.url=\$SONAR_HOST_URL <% if(!FIRST_BASELINE_BUILD) {%> -Dsonar.branch.name=<%= sonarBranchName%> <%}%> -Dorg.xml.sax.driver=com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.SAXParser -U</goals>

Hope it helps. For details on SonarQube branch analysis, visit https://docs.sonarqube.org/latest/branches/overview/

My First C.N. Tower Climb for United Way

Thank you All who supported me to raise funds for United Way. With your support and contribution, I was able to raise $331 and proudly climbed the CN Tower’s 1,776 steps yesterday. As per United Way, "all funds raised for the 2015 CN Tower Climb for United Way go directly toward the work of United Way Toronto & York Region, supporting a network of roughly 240 agencies across the region. Your time, efforts and generosity are moving people from poverty to possibility, building strong communities, and helping kids be all that they can be. Together, we are creating opportunities for a better life for everyone in our region." 
My wife and I climbed together and it took us 34 minute and 19 seconds. We raised $531  (combined total) together. Below is my T-shirt generously given by United Way!

Winter Festival of Lights in Dufferin Islands

Some beautiful pictures I captured while visiting "Winter Festival of Lights" in around Dufferin Islands (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada) on January 23, 2016. If interested see more pictures from official site http://www.wfol.com/the-lights/dufferin-islands

My First 10K Run

   Today, I was one of the runners participating in 10 KM race at beautiful Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto (http://www.tommythompsonpark.ca/) organised by MEC Toronto. The weather was fantastic around 22℃ and I fully enjoyed the race. My wife and two daughters were there from early morning to support and cheer for me. It was the first race in my life, so I was little nervous as well as thrilled and I completed the 10 KM distance in 58 minute 22 seconds. Not bad for me :)

Jenkins Job Chain and How to Resolve Issue with Parameter Passing

You can trigger a dependent (or other) job in Jenkins automatically from your current job. This way you can have multi-step builds or job chain. One of the use case scenarios for this is - let's say you have a parent build that creates a EAR file which relies on the successful completion of the child build(s) which creates some jar files.
In some situation, you also need to pass the parameters and their values while triggering the other build. But what to do, if you pass the parameter when triggering a job, but the parameter is not available in the triggered job?

Here we will examine the these situations and possible resolutions:

1) Triggering the other job without passing the parameter(s):

If you don't need to pass the parameters, then it's easy. You can just use either the <<Build Other Projects>> as a  Post Build Action for your current job or <<Build after other projects are built>> as a Build Triggers for the other job.

Let's say, if I have a build job called  <<build_jars_no_param>>, it compiles source code and creates bunch of Jars files, which will be used by a EAR file created by <<build_ear>> job. So, as soon as the <<build_jars_no_param>> job is completed, I want <<build_ear>> job is kicked off.
In this case, I just need to define following in the Post Build Action of <<build_jars_no_param>> job as follows:

Post Build Action - Build Other Projects

This triggers the <<build_ear>> job once the <<build_jars_no_param>> job is successfully completed. Multiple projects can be specified delimited by comma in the "Projects to build" input field.

Other than building the other projects that have a dependency on the current project, this can also be used to split a long build process into multiple jobs.

2) Triggering the other job with parameter(s) and their value(s)

If you need to pass the parameters along with triggering the other job, you can use Parameterized Trigger Plugin (https://wiki.jenkins.io/display/JENKINS/Parameterized+Trigger+Plugin) and this can be used both as a Pre Steps or as a Post Steps. This call also provides option to block the current job until the completion of the triggered builds.  

However, there is a security related catch with the use of Parameterized Trigger Plugin. This is one of the Plugins affected by fix for SECURITY-170/CVE-2016-3721. After this fix, Jenkins only allows build parameters that have been explicitly defined in a job's configuration. Any other arbitrary parameters added to a build by plugins will not be available by default.

So, your triggered job (with parameters passing), which might have worked in the prior version (the fix was first included in Jenkins versions 1.651.2 and Jenkins 2.3) is not working in the newer version of Jenkins. 

Here are three ways to resolve:

1. Work-around #1: restore the previous behavior by setting the system property:
   

   -Dhudson.model.ParametersAction.keepUndefinedParameters=true Example: java -Dhudson.model.ParametersAction.keepUndefinedParameters=true -jar jenkins.war

   This could be a security risk, so use it just as a short-term workaround only.
   
   
2. Work-around #2: white-list parameters by setting system property
   

   -Dhudson.model.ParametersAction.safeParameters=<comma-separated list of safe parameter names> Example: java -Dhudson.model.ParametersAction.safeParameters=FOO,BAR,ref_release_number -jar jenkins.war

   
   
3. Convert/define the other job (the job to be triggered from your current job) with parameters using option "This project is parameterized" in the General section of the job definition. 

From the security point of view, the 3rd option is the preferred option. However, if you have legacy jobs and looking for short term work-around before (re) defining a triggered jobs to be a parameterized projects, you can use option #1 or #2. Option #2 is better than #1, because option #1, just blindly restores the previous behavior.   

Let's look through an example:

1) I've a project  called <<build_ear>> which calls <<build_jars_with_params>> job. Below diagram shows the Pre Steps setting of <<build_ear>> project, and as you can see it defines parameter ref_release_number=2.1.0.${BUILD_NUMBER} to be passed to the triggered job.

Pre Steps - defining a job to be triggered from this project.

On the other hand, here is how I'm testing the the value of the passed parameters in the <<build_jars_with_params>> downstream/triggered project.

Triggered job - testing the passed parameter. 

I'm using Jenkins ver. 2.150.1, which means it includes the fix for SECURITY-170, and I don't see the value of the passed parameter. 

Passed parameter is not available in downstream job

Now, let me use the above mentioned resolution options:

1st option (work-around), I'll have to start the Jenkins with '-Dhudson.model.ParametersAction.keepUndefinedParameters=true'option:

And here, the triggered job, shows the value of ${ref_release_number}

Passed parameter (from upstream job) is available in triggered job.

Use 2nd option. Here I'm starting Jenkins with '-Dhudson.model.ParametersAction.safeParameters=ref_release_number' system property so that 'ref_release_number' is considered as a safe parameter.

Define all parameters to be passed to triggered job as safe parameters using system property.

And here, the triggered job, shows the value of ${ref_release_number}

Passed parameter (from upstream job) is available in triggered job.

Now, here is how to use the 3rd (preferred) option. For this, I have to redefine the <<build_jars_with_params>> as a parameterized project and add 'ref_release_number' as an input parameter.

Define triggered job as a parameterized project.

When my triggered (downstream) job is defined as a parameterized project and I define the parameter 'ref_release_number' here, my upstream job can safely pass this parameter when triggering this job and Jenkins will allow it, no more work-around.

So, here I'm starting Jenkins without any system properties:

And my triggered job still correctly displays the value of the paramter passed from upstream job:

You may be interested reading the following Jenkins related blog:
How to Retrieve Info Using Jenkins Remote Access API
Jenkins Pipeline - Few Troubleshooting Tips

How to Retrieve Info Using Jenkins Remote Access API

We can use REST-like Remote Access API in Jenkins to post or retrieve information in XML or JSON format.  General format of the URL is <Jenkins-URL>/<data-context>/api/xml|json.
Below are few examples:

1) Retrieve Build Result.
Below examples shows the build result in JSON format for job 'web-apps-build-pkgvalidator' and build number ''6'. Credential is passed using '--user <user-name>:<password>'
result is piped to 'jq' to pretty print.
Notes:

•  'jq' is jQuery library. For more info visit https://jquery.com
• Instead of using password in your Jenkins API call, you can use API token. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45466090/how-to-get-the-api-token-for-jenkins provides some quick instruction for generating Jenkins API token associated with your user. 

$> curl -X GET http://localhost:9090/job/web-apps-build-pkgvalidator/6/api/json --user ppoudel:<password> | jq   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed   100  1765  100  1765    0     0  14120   0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 16192 {   "_class": "hudson.maven.MavenModuleSetBuild",   "actions": [     {},     {       "_class": "hudson.model.CauseAction",       "causes": [         {           "_class": "hudson.model.Cause$UserIdCause",           "shortDescription": "Started by user Purna Poudel",           "userId": "ppoudel",           "userName": "Purna Poudel"         }       ]     },     {       "_class": "hudson.plugins.git.util.BuildData",       "buildsByBranchName": {         "refs/remotes/origin/release/release-2.0.3": {           "_class": "hudson.plugins.git.util.Build",           "buildNumber": 6,           "buildResult": null,           "marked": {             "SHA1": "2c60eff4fef13e9346ae7c6b848efdc2fbf31026",             "branch": [               {                 "SHA1": "2c60eff4fef13e9346ae7c6b848efdc2fbf31026",                 "name": "refs/remotes/origin/release/release-2.0.3"               }             ]           },           "revision": {             "SHA1": "2c60eff4fef13e9346ae7c6b848efdc2fbf31026",             "branch": [               {                 "SHA1": "2c60eff4fef13e9346ae7c6b848efdc2fbf31026",                 "name": "refs/remotes/origin/release/release-2.0.3"               }             ]           }         }       },       "lastBuiltRevision": {         "SHA1": "2c60eff4fef13e9346ae7c6b848efdc2fbf31026",         "branch": [           {             "SHA1": "2c60eff4fef13e9346ae7c6b848efdc2fbf31026",             "name": "refs/remotes/origin/release/release-2.0.3"           }         ]       },       "remoteUrls": [         "https://pppoudel@bitbucket.org/pppoudel/pkgvalidator.git"       ],       "scmName": ""     },     {       "_class": "hudson.plugins.git.GitTagAction"     },     {},     {       "_class": "hudson.maven.reporters.MavenAggregatedArtifactRecord"     },     {},     {},     {}   ],   "artifacts": [],   "building": false,   "description": null,   "displayName": "#6",   "duration": 37633,   "estimatedDuration": 39130,   "executor": null,   "fullDisplayName": "web-apps-build-pkgvalidator #6",   "id": "6",   "keepLog": false,   "number": 6,   "queueId": 150,   "result": "SUCCESS",   "timestamp": 1546274196419,   "url": "http://localhost:8080/job/web-apps-build-pkgvalidator/6/",   "builtOn": "",   "changeSet": {     "_class": "hudson.plugins.git.GitChangeSetList",     "items": [],     "kind": "git"   },   "culprits": [     {       "absoluteUrl": "http://localhost:8080/user/ppoudel",       "fullName": "Purna Poudel"     }   ],   "mavenArtifacts": {},   "mavenVersionUsed": "3.5.4" }

2) Below example shows use of /api/xml with 'xpath' to get just the build status from the build report.

$> curl -X GET http://localhost:9090/job/web-apps-build-pkgvalidator/6/api/xml?xpath=/*/result --user ppoudel:<password> % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 24 0 24 0 0 102 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 110 <result>SUCCESS</result>

3) Getting build status using /api/json. The following example shows retrieving job name, build number, build status and timestamp.

$> curl -X GET http://localhost:9090/job/web-apps-build-pkgvalidator/6/api/json?tree=fullDisplayName,number,result,timestamp --user ppoudel:<password>   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100   152  100   152    0     0   1216      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  1394 {"_class":"hudson.maven.MavenModuleSetBuild","fullDisplayName":"web-apps-build-pkgvalidator #6","number":6,"result":"SUCCESS","timestamp":1546274196419}

4) Retrieving all jobs under certain view:
Note: here I'm piping the result through 'jq' and 'grep', which is optional.

curl -X GET http://localhost:9090/job/Web/job/mobile-apps/view/mobile-apps/api/json --user ppoudel:<password> | jq | grep name "name": "mobile-apps-xyzmportal", "name": "mobile-apps-holportal", "name": "mobile-apps-tpl", ... ... "name": "mobile-apps-bcs_jpj",

 5) Retrieving JUnit test summary report:

$> curl http://localhost:9090/job/web-apps-build-pkgvalidator/6/testReport/api/json?tree=failCount,skipCount,totalCount,urlName --user ppoudel:<password> % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100   127  100   127    0     0    451      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- - 579 {"_class":"hudson.maven.reporters.SurefireAggregatedReport","failCount":0,"skipCount":0,"totalCount":20,"urlName":"testReport

6) Below steps can be used to retrieve the SonarQube analysis result using Jenkins' remote REST like API.
6.1) Get the taskId from the build providing build number
Note: http://localhost:9090 is Jenkins server URL.

curl -X GET http://localhost:9090/job/web-apps-build-pkgvalidator_sonarqube/6/api/json --user ppoudel:<password> | jq | grep ceTaskId   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100  5182  100  5182    0     0  18507      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 20811       "ceTaskId": "AWfXjftAinfFqLzOhqqe",

6.2)  Get the analysisId using taskID:
Note: http://localhost:8000 is SonarQube URL.

$> curl -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/ce/task?id=AWfXjftAinfFqLzOhqqe --user ppoudel:<password> | jq | grep analysisId   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100   518  100   518    0     0   2770      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  3029     "analysisId": "AWfXjgNNVNzkngEjXoPD",

6.3) Get the analysis report using analysisId:

$> curl -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/qualitygates/project_status?analysisId=AWfXjgNNVNzkngEjXoPD --user ppoudel:<password> | jq   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100  1438  100  1438    0     0   4608      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  4841 {   "projectStatus": {     "status": "ERROR",     "conditions": [       {         "status": "OK",         "metricKey": "new_maintainability_rating",         "comparator": "GT",         "periodIndex": 1,         "warningThreshold": "1",         "actualValue": "1"       },       {         "status": "OK",         "metricKey": "new_reliability_rating",         "comparator": "GT",         "periodIndex": 1,         "warningThreshold": "1",         "actualValue": "1"       },       {         "status": "OK",         "metricKey": "new_security_rating",         "comparator": "GT",         "periodIndex": 1,         "errorThreshold": "1",         "actualValue": "1"       },       {         "status": "OK",         "metricKey": "sqale_rating",         "comparator": "GT",         "warningThreshold": "3",         "actualValue": "1"       },       {         "status": "ERROR",         "metricKey": "security_rating",         "comparator": "GT",         "errorThreshold": "1",         "actualValue": "5"       },       {         "status": "WARN",         "metricKey": "reliability_rating",         "comparator": "GT",         "warningThreshold": "3",         "actualValue": "5"       },       {         "status": "ERROR",         "metricKey": "blocker_violations",         "comparator": "GT",         "errorThreshold": "0",         "actualValue": "180"       },       {         "status": "WARN",         "metricKey": "critical_violations",         "comparator": "GT",         "warningThreshold": "0",         "actualValue": "3806"       },       {         "status": "WARN",         "metricKey": "major_violations",         "comparator": "GT",         "warningThreshold": "0",         "actualValue": "2878"       },       {         "status": "WARN",         "metricKey": "coverage",         "comparator": "LT",         "warningThreshold": "80",         "actualValue": "0.1"       },       {         "status": "ERROR",         "metricKey": "vulnerabilities",         "comparator": "GT",         "errorThreshold": "0",         "actualValue": "107"       }     ],     "periods": [       {         "index": 1,         "mode": "previous_version",         "date": "2018-12-15T15:11:09-0500",         "parameter": "1.5.8-SNAPSHOT"       }     ],     "ignoredConditions": false   } }

7) If you need to get all the configured projects (paginated output) in SonarQube you can use the following URL:
Note: http://localhost:8000 is SonarQube URL.

# First page: $> curl -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/components/search?qualifiers=TRK&p=1

8) Or get detail of a specific project:
Note: http://localhost:8000 is SonarQube URL.

$> http://localhost:8000/api/components/show?key=<project-key&gt

For more information on Remote access API visit https://wiki.jenkins.io/display/JENKINS/Remote+access+API

You may be interested reading the following Jenkins related blog:
Jenkins Job Chain and How to Resolve Issue with Parameter Passing
Jenkins Pipeline - Few Troubleshooting Tips