Software developers are able to identify bugs and errors earlier by using AnthillPro to track, collate, and test changes in real time to a collectively maintained body of computer code.
This process of "build, deploy, unit test" for every occasion of checked-in code is referred to as continuous integration (CI).
[citation needed] The original Anthill software tool, released in 2001, was a simple continuous integration server and is still available today.
According to agile software development, the main line of code should be ready to ship at any time; it may not be feature complete, but it must be of sufficient quality to be releasable.
[12]: 49 AnthillPro supports such methodologies[citation needed] by monitoring the organization's various source control systems and triggering a build when a developer commits to a change.
After the build was complete, AnthillPro created binary artifacts that were then tested, deployed and promoted through a lifecycle on their way to production release.
This version of AnthillPro included many new features, such as enriched reporting, release management, enhanced security, and the ability to execute workflow steps in remote machines.
AnthillPro version 3.8, released in February 2012, integrates with over sixty[citation needed] third-party products, including J2EE servers, databases, build systems, infrastructure, and the Microsoft Platform.
Additionally, AnthillPro supports external plugins that extend its automation framework to accommodate virtually any software that can be driven from the command line.
In 2006, UrbanCode released the third generation of AnthillPro, a complete rewrite which added support for distributed builds and control over the post-build lifecycle.
[17] AnthillPro version 3.6 (released in 2008) extended the tool-set to Application lifecycle management (ALM)[24] using centrally-managed automation for build, deploy, and test.
[18] Other new features supporting this consolidation included detailed review of historical test results, flexible resource locking, and preflight builds.