Grouping steps into stages

Group steps in pipelines for better visualization

With Codefresh you can create really complex pipelines with any number of steps.

To better visualize the pipeline, you can group several steps into a single stage. The stage with the group of steps is displayed as a separate column in the pipeline view.

In this example, the pipeline has four stages.

Assigning steps to a stage

Stages are completely optional, and for really small pipelines they are not needed at all. By default, all pipeline steps are shown one after the other.

This view works ok for small pipelines, but for a big number of steps it is better to group them into pipeline stages like shown below:

The number of stages (i.e columns) and their titles is completely configurable. To enable this view, you need to make two modifications at the codefresh.yml file:

Here is the skeleton:

codefresh.yml

version: '1.0'
stages:
 - [stage-name-1]
 - [stage-name-2]

steps:
  step-name:
    [step-contents]
    stage: [name-of-stage]
  another-step:
    [step-contents]
    stage: [name-of-stage]
  the-very-last-step:
    [step-contents]
    stage: [name-of-stage]

As you can see the modifications needed are:

1. To list all the stage names at the root of the pipeline file
2. To use the stage property on each step to assign it to a stage

NOTE
This updated pipeline view affects only the visualization of the pipeline. It does not affect the order of step execution. Steps are still executed in the same order as listed in the codefresh.yml file.
If you wish to use parallel execution and advanced workflows see the parallel steps page.

Example pipeline with several stages

Here is a more concrete example that you can use as a starting point:

codefresh.yml

version: '1.0'
stages:
 - prepare
 - test
 - build
 - scan
 - integration
 - deploy
steps:
    step1:
        stage: 'prepare'
        image: node
        commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 1!"'
    step2:
       image: node
       stage: 'prepare'
       commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 2!"'
    step3:
        image: node
        stage: 'test'
        commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 3!"'
    step4:
        image: node
        stage: 'build'
        commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 4!"'
    step5:
        image: node
        stage: 'scan'
        commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 5!"'
    step6:
        image: node
        stage: 'scan'
        commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 6!"'
    step7:
        image: node
        stage: 'integration'
        commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 7!"'        
    step8:
        image: node
        stage: 'deploy'
        commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 8!"'    
    step9:
        image: node
        stage: 'deploy'
        commands:
            - 'echo "Hello Step 9!"'
                

If you run the pipeline you will see this view

Remember that the assignment of a step to a stage is happening only for graphical grouping purposes. It does not affect the way your steps run. All steps will still run in the same order mentioned in the codefresh.yml file.

Also notice if you enable this view a stage called default will show all build steps that are not explicitly assigned to a stage.

Using spaces in stage names

If you wish to have spaces in stage names you need to quote them like this:

codefresh.yml

version: '1.0'
stages:
- 'my build phase'
- 'my test phase'
steps:
  MyAppDockerImage:
    title: Building Docker Image
    stage: 'my build phase'
    type: build
    image_name: my-app
    dockerfile: Dockerfile
  MyUnitTests:
    title: Unit testing
    stage: 'my test phase'
    image: ${{MyAppDockerImage}}
    commands: 
    - npm run test

Related articles

Steps in pipelines
Parallel workflows