Build server: Best practices managing third party components?

Question

I\'m maintaining a quite large legacy application. The source tree is a real mess. I\'m trying to set up a build server.

On the source tree, I\'ve third party component

Answer 1

Similar situation here, fortunately it did not start with a big mess. It is true that the real problem lies in the IDE configuration, which needs to point to the correct versions of the third party components if you check out an older version. The only solution I have heard of is the use of different registry branches for the different product release configurations.

The components are kept in a separate directory structure, and use version numbers in the directory names when possible. This makes it easier to check out old versions and have the build scripts point to the correct version.

We use Apache Ant as the main build tool for years now and it really does everything we need, including unit test invocation and Innosetup script generation.

Compilation of packages is only necessary you ship the executable with BPLs, otherwise it is not necessary on a build server.

Installing the components in the IDE is also not necessary on the build server.