Visualization of CI/CD Flows Using Eiffel Events: An interactive dashboard for viewing pipelines of Eiffel Events

Abstract

The Eiffel protocol was developed by Ericsson to enable technology agnostic communication between continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) ecosystems. In the Eiffel protocol, every action taken in a CI/CD pipeline is an event. Currently, there is no open-source tool available to get a clear overview of events or view a pipeline flow that is intuitive and easy to understand. The goal was to create a web application that uses the data from Eiffel events and displays the sequence of events and their contents with a dashboard. The application was built using Next.js, Express.js, and MongoDB. It is possible to browse through repositories and branches, and select pipelines to view in their entirety. The visually accessible page showcasing the event pipeline helps the user understand how different events relate to each other and how one sequence led to another. The resulting web application has been validated through positive feedback by stakeholders at Nexer and has helped lay the foundation for how an event-visualizing web application could look and function. An application similar to the one created in this project can in the future help developers and stakeholders follow and analyze Eiffel event pipelines with ease.