Nikita Pohrebniak, a software development manager at ImageX, highlights the benefits of using the Acquia Build and Launch Tool (BLT) to streamline web project setups and deployments. The document details BLT's features for developers and technical architects, including project standardization, Drupal installation, and automated testing. It also discusses extending and overriding BLT functionalities for customized command management.

1. Nikita Pohrebniak,
Software
Development
Manager
Acquia BLT for the Win, or
How to speed up the project setup,
development and deployment

2. SPEAKER
2
Software Development Manager
ImageX
nikitap@imagexmedia.com
Nikita Pohrebniak

3. ABOUT IMAGEX
● Founded in 2001, have successfully
launched 500+ web initiatives
● Offices in Vancouver, Kelowna & Kiev
● 70 full-time web specialists, including
dedicated design/UX, SEO/digital
marketing teams
● Global offices provide broad time-zone
coverage, 20+ hours/day
● One of the highest rated customer satisfaction
scores globally for web agencies (Clutch.co)
● Higher education division with specialized
project team
● Bjorn Thomson & Laura Ballay, 15 years at UBC
& 10 Years at CMU & SFU, respectively
● Clients include: Stanford University, University
of Arizona, UC Irvine, CSU - Stanislaus, Trinity
University, YMCA
3

4. 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Yet another tool?! The Problem.
Acquia BLT. The Solution.
What’s under the hood? The key features and how
to speed up the development process using BLT.
Raising the bar: ways to use Acquia BLT by the
Technical Architects/Lead Developers.
What if I need more? No problem! Extending and
overriding Acquia BLT.
Q&A.
AGENDA
444

5. Yet another tool?
The problem.1

6. ● Projects with different requirements and level of complexity.
● Various hosting platforms.
● Distributed teams.
● Lack of standards.
6
Yet another tool? The problem.

7. The following standard scripts and tools were required
● Boilerplate project, with Docksal in mind;
● Check the coding standards;
● Run the tests;
● Build script for Bitbucket Pipelines;
● Standardize the deployment process;
● Make everyone happy!
7
Yet another tool? The problem.

8. Acquia BLT.
The Solution.2

9. 9
What’s under the hood
Acquia Build and Launch Tool. The Solution.
For the Technical Architects:
● Add Drupal VM to the project;
● Generate the multisite;
● Generate empty config_splits;
● Generate the default CI configuration;
● Build Artifacts.
● Even more.
For the Developers:
● Install/Reinstall Drupal;
● Add git hooks;
● Pull DB and Files from remote;
● Build the frontend assets;
● Run tests;
● Make coffee (Finally).

10. BLT Features for the
Developers.3

11. 11
Install/Reinstall Drupal
BLT Features for the Developers.
● blt source:build //Generates all required files for a full build
● blt drupal:install
public function build() {
$this->invokeCommands([
'tests:behat:init:config',
// source:build:composer must run prior to blt:init:settings to ensure
// that scaffold files are present.
'source:build:composer',
'blt:init:git-hooks',
'blt:init:settings',
'source:build:frontend',
]);
$this->invokeHook("post-setup-build");
}

12. 12
Git Hooks
BLT Features for the Developers.
● blt:init:git-hooks

13. 13
Pull DB and Files from Remote
BLT Features for the Developers.
● blt drupal:sync:default:site
● blt drupal:sync:default:db
● blt drupal:sync:files
● blt drupal:sync:private-files
drush:
aliases:
remote: projectname.prod
local: self
ci: self
default_alias: '${drush.aliases.local}'

14. 14
Build/compile the frontend assets
BLT Features for the Developers.
● source:build:frontend-reqs
● source:build:frontend-assets
● source:build:frontend
command-hooks:
frontend-reqs:
dir: '${project.theme.dir}'
command: 'npm install && cd ${docroot}/modules/custom/program_finder && npm install && cd
${docroot}/modules/custom/event_finder && npm install'
frontend-assets:
dir: '${project.theme.dir}'
command: 'npm run build && cd ${docroot}/modules/custom/program_finder && npm run build && cd
${docroot}/modules/custom/event_finder && npm run build'

15. 15
Run tests
BLT Features for the Developers.
● blt tests:all
● tests:phpunit
● blt tests:behat
● blt tests:frontend
● blt validate:composer
● blt validate:phpcs
● blt validate:twig
● blt validate:yaml
● blt tests:security-updates

16. BLT Features for the
Technical Architects &
Lead Developers.
4

17. 17
Add Drupal VM to the Project
BLT Features for the Technical Architects & Lead Developers.
● blt recipes:drupalvm:init

18. 18
Generate the multisite
BLT Features for the Technical Architects & Lead Developers.
● blt recipes:multisite:init
blt recipes:multisite:init
This will generate a new site in the docroot/sites directory.
Site machine name (e.g. 'example') subsite
Local domain name [http://local.subsite.com]
Would you like to configure the local database credentials? (y/n) n
Default remote drush alias [subsite.remote]
Default local drush alias [subsite.local]
> blt:init:settings
Hash salt already exists.
New site generated at /var/www/docroot/sites/subsite
Drush aliases generated:
* @subsite.remote
Config directory created for new site at config/subsite

19. 19
Generate empty config_splits
BLT Features for the Technical Architects & Lead Developers.
● blt recipes:config:init:splits
git:(master) ✗ blt recipes:config:init:splits
This command will generate configuration and directories for the following environment
based splits: Local, CI, Dev, Stage, and Prod.
[FilesystemFilesystemStack] mkdir ["/var/www/docroot/../config/envs/local"]
[FileWrite] Writing to
/var/www/docroot/../config/default/config_split.config_split.local.yml.
[FilesystemFilesystemStack] mkdir ["/var/www/docroot/../config/envs/ci"]
[FileWrite] Writing to
/var/www/docroot/../config/default/config_split.config_split.ci.yml.
[FilesystemFilesystemStack] mkdir ["/var/www/docroot/../config/envs/dev"]
[FileWrite] Writing to
/var/www/docroot/../config/default/config_split.config_split.dev.yml.
[FilesystemFilesystemStack] mkdir ["/var/www/docroot/../config/envs/stage"]
[FileWrite] Writing to
/var/www/docroot/../config/default/config_split.config_split.stage.yml.
[FilesystemFilesystemStack] mkdir ["/var/www/docroot/../config/envs/prod"]
[FileWrite] Writing to
/var/www/docroot/../config/default/config_split.config_split.prod.yml.

20. 20
Generate the default CI configuration
BLT Features for the Technical Architects & Lead Developers.
● blt recipes:ci:gitlab:init
● blt recipes:ci:pipelines:init
● blt recipes:ci:probo:init
● blt recipes:ci:travis:init
stages:
- validate
- build
- test
- deploy
variables:
APP_NAME: Project
before_script:
- echo "hello world"
validate:
stage: validate
script:
- blt validate:all
build:
stage: build
script:
- composer validate --no-check-all --ansi
- composer install --ansi
- blt source:build --ansi --verbose
test:
stage: test
script:
- blt tests --define tests.run-server=true --ansi --no-interaction
--verbose
production:
stage: deploy
script:
- echo "Launching application"
environment:
name: production
url: http://$APP_NAME.example.com
only:
- master

21. 21
Build and Deploy Artifacts
BLT Features for the Technical Architects & Lead Developers.
● blt artifact:build
● blt artifact:deploy
In blt.yml
drush:
aliases:
remote: projectname.prod
local: self
ci: self
default_alias : '${drush.aliases.local}'
In bitbucket-pipelines.yml
${BIN_DIR}/blt -vvv artifact:deploy --commit-msg "Bitbucket build - $BITBUCKET_BUILD_NUMBER, Commit
$BITBUCKET_COMMIT" --branch "$BITBUCKET_BRANCH" --no-interaction

22. 22
Build and Deploy Artifacts
BLT Features for the Technical Architects & Lead Developers.
if ($options['dry-run']) {
$this->logger->warning("This will be a dry run, the artifact will not be pushed.");
}
$this->checkDirty($options);
if (isset($options['ignore-platform-reqs'])) {
$this->ignorePlatformReqs = $options['ignore-platform-reqs'];
}
if (!$options['tag'] && !$options['branch']) {
$this->createTag = $this->confirm("Would you like to create a tag?", $this->createTag);
}
$this->commitMessage = $this->getCommitMessage($options);
if ($options['tag'] || $this->createTag) {
// Warn if they're creating a tag and we won't tag the source for them.
if (!$this->tagSource) {
$this->say("Config option deploy.tag_source if FALSE. The source repo will not be tagged.");
}
$this->deployToTag($options);
}
else {
$this->deployToBranch($options);
}

23. 23
And even more cool features
BLT Features for the Technical Architects & Lead Developers.
● blt recipes:simplesamlphp:init
● blt recipes:acsf:init:all
● blt recipes:behat:init
● blt recipes:aliases:init:acquia
● blt source:fix:php-standards

24. Extending and overriding
Acquia BLT.5

25. 25
Extending and overriding Acquia BLT.
● Built with “Robo” and “Annotated Command”.
● Supports defining new custom commands.
● Allows hooking into existing commands.
● Replace/override a Robo command using “Replace Command Hook”.
● Disable command.

26. 26
Define new command
Extending and overriding Acquia BLT.
● blt recipes:blt:command:init
**
* Defines commands in the "custom" namespace.
*/
class ExampleCommands extends BltTasks {
/**
* Print "Hello world!" to the console.
*
* @command custom:hello
* @description This is an example command.
*/
public function hello() {
$this->say("Hello world!" );
}
}

27. 27
Hook into the existing command
Extending and overriding Acquia BLT.
/**
* Defines commands in the "custom" namespace.
*/
class ExampleCommands extends BltTasks {
/**
* This will be called before the `custom:hello` command is executed.
*
* @hook command-event custom:hello
*/
public function preExampleHello (ConsoleCommandEvent $event) {
$command = $event->getCommand();
$this->say("preCommandMessage hook: The {$command->getName()} command is about to run!" );
}
}

28. 28
Replace/override a BLT command
Extending and overriding Acquia BLT.
class CustomHelloReplaceCommandHook {
/**
* Parameters must match original command method.
*
* @hook replace-command custom:hello
*/
public function myHelloReplacement () {
$this->say("Goodbye world!");
}
}

29. 29
Disable command
Extending and overriding Acquia BLT.
In blt.yml
disable-targets:
custom:
hello: true

30. Q&A.
6

31. QUESTIONS?
31
Software Development Manager
ImageX
nikitap@imagexmedia.com
Nikita Pohrebniak