Tag: Release Notes

Octokit, Merge Commits, and the Story So Far

In the last post we hadĀ reduced our commits by matching them against pull requests; next, we canĀ look for noise in the commit message content itself. AlthoughĀ I have been using the Octokit.NET repository as the target for testing with itsĀ low noise,Ā high quality commit messages, we canĀ envisage a less consistent repository that has some noisy commits. For example, how often have you seen or written commit messages like "Fixed spelling",Ā "Fixed bug", or "Stuff"1?

How we detect these noisy commits is important; if our filtering is too simple, we remove too many things and if it is too strict, we remove too few. Rather than go deep into one specific implementation, I just want to introduce the idea of filtering based on message content.Ā In the long term, IĀ think it would be interesting to apply learning algorithms, Ā but I'm sure some simple, configurable pattern matching should suffice2.

If I run the filtering I have described so far3 on the Octokit.NET latest release, this is what we get:

Fix the credit format 
Release notes for release 0.17.0 
Merge pull request #972 from naveensrinivasan/json-serialization

Json serialization for Unicode 
Merge pull request #976 from octokit/elbaloo-better-merge-exception-rebased

better merge exception rebased 
Merge pull request #973 from naveensrinivasan/appveyornuget

Generate nuget packages on appveyor 
Merge pull request #917 from alfhenrik/feature-webhookhelper

Add helper class for creating web hooks 
Merge pull request #807 from octokit/codeformatter

added a tailored CodeFormatter to Octokit 
Merge pull request #956 from octokit/vs2015-support

VS2015 migration 
Merge pull request #921 from naveensrinivasan/samples

Adds octokit samples 
Merge branch 'gitignore-exception' 
Merge pull request #918 from willsb/download-timeout

Adds overloads to GetArchive for adding custom timeouts 
Merge pull request #957 from octokit/clean-up-some-fixes

clean up some pending PRs 
Merge pull request #943 from naveensrinivasan/AssetDownload

Fixes for Downloading ReleaseAsset zip File 
Merge pull request #942 from alfhenrik/bug-repohasissues

Make NewRepository.HasIssues nullable as it's optional 
Merge pull request #940 from naveensrinivasan/build-sh

Created build.sh 
Merge pull request #929 from elbaloo/issue-389

Add .com links to PrivateRepositoryQuotaExceededException 
Merge pull request #927 from naveensrinivasan/octokit-logo

Updated with the logo 
Merge pull request #922 from naveensrinivasan/fixes-for-fake-warning

Fixes for FAKE Xunit warning 
Merge pull request #919 from adamralph/system-framework-assembly

add System to required framework assemblies for net45 
Merge pull request #909 from willsb/disposable-repositories

Disposable repositories 
Merge pull request #916 from octokit/consolidate-committer-info

Consolidate committer info 
Merge pull request #915 from octokit/docs

Add a bunch of XML doc comments 
Merge pull request #907 from naveensrinivasan/encodedcontent-public-#861

Making Encodedcontent public #861 
Merge pull request #908 from khellang/clarify-failing-convention-tests

Clarify why convention tests are failing 
Merge pull request #906 from naveensrinivasan/update-readme

Updated the readme with reactive octokit. 
Merge pull request #903 from willsb/commit-committer

Changes GitHubCommit.Author/Committer 
Merge pull request #902 from naveensrinivasan/build-mono

Build fix for Xamarin Studio Solution 
Merge pull request #901 from alfhenrik/feature-issueeventsurl#885

Add Events URL to the Issue class. 
Merge pull request #900 from alfhenrik/update-testtargetnames-in-docs

Updated test target names in the shipping releases doc 
Merge pull request #898 from octokit/release

Release of v0.16 - ironic ties 
better merge exception rebased 
Generate nuget packages on appveyor  
Json serialization for Unicode 
Add helper class for creating web hooks 
added a tailored CodeFormatter to Octokit 
VS2015 migration 
clean up some pending PRs 
Fixes for Downloading ReleaseAsset zip File  
Adds overloads to GetArchive for adding custom timeouts  
Make NewRepository.HasIssues nullable as it's optional 
Created build.sh 
Gitignore exception 
Add .com links to PrivateRepositoryQuotaExceededException 
Updated with the logo 
Adds octokit samples 
Fixes for FAKE Xunit warning 
add System to required framework assemblies for net45 
Disposable repositories 
Consolidate committer info 
Add a bunch of XML doc comments 
Making Encodedcontent public #861 
Clarify why convention tests are failing 
Updated the readme with reactive octokit. 
Changes GitHubCommit.Author/Committer 
Build fix for Xamarin Studio Solution 
Add Events URL to the Issue class. 
Updated test target names in the shipping releases doc 
Release of v0.16 - ironic ties

The value of this is clearer if we see the commit list before processing:

Fix the credit format 
Release notes for release 0.17.0 
Merge pull request #972 from naveensrinivasan/json-serialization

Json serialization for Unicode 
Merge pull request #976 from octokit/elbaloo-better-merge-exception-rebased

better merge exception rebased 
Merge branch 'better-merge-exception-rebased' of https://github.com/elbaloo/octokit.net into elbaloo-better-merge-exception-rebased 
Merge pull request #973 from naveensrinivasan/appveyornuget

Generate nuget packages on appveyor 
The test targets were deleting the nuget packages

The test targets were deleting the nuget packages so had to include the
CreatePackages at the end. 
Removed the disable on PR. 
Create packages in turn calls build app

Create packages in turn calls build app so no need to call it. 
appveyor nuget packages

appveyor nuget packages 
Checked for the serialized data

Compared if the serialized data has what was expected. Not just
deserialized data. 
Tests for Unicode character serialization

Tests for Unicode character serialization 
Fixes for json serialization bug

Fixes for json serialization issue when unicode is present. 
Merge pull request #917 from alfhenrik/feature-webhookhelper

Add helper class for creating web hooks 
A bit of code cleanup 
Add unit test to ensure correct message is returned when duplicate keys exists. 
Throw exception with helpful message if duplicate webhook config values exists. 
Fix up XML comments as per PR review 
Conform NewRepositoryWebHook to new request model guidelines 
Update existing integration test to use new web hook helper class 
Add unit tests 
Add helper class to create a web hook.

Fixes octokit/octokit.net#914 
Merge pull request #807 from octokit/codeformatter

added a tailored CodeFormatter to Octokit 
aaaand format the code 
skip unicode character editing 
format the code in the script 
local install of code formatter 
Merge pull request #956 from octokit/vs2015-support

VS2015 migration 
Merge pull request #921 from naveensrinivasan/samples

Adds octokit samples 
Merge branch 'gitignore-exception' 
Merge pull request #918 from willsb/download-timeout

Adds overloads to GetArchive for adding custom timeouts 
a bit more cleanup of the README 
one more malformed xml-docs tag 
Merge branch 'master' into vs2015-support 
Merge pull request #957 from octokit/clean-up-some-fixes

clean up some pending PRs 
address feedback 
added tests for the merged qualifier 
added "Merged" in searchissues which allows search repos by merged date with existing syntax.
it generates a CA1502 code excessive complexity warning and i suppressed it. 
Fixed the problem in the constructor. 
run build fixproject 
Added NewArbitraryMarkdown class, RenderArbitraryMakrdown method and unit tests for it. 
added assignee property to pull request. 
tidy up some xml-docs while i'm in here 
actually some real errors 
just suppressing some warnings, nbd 
update README to indicate we're using VS2015 
update the target to use netcore451 
bump the ToolsVersion 
bump to netcore451 
tweak ignore file 
update to the latest MSBuild scripts 
Merge branch 'master' into better-merge-exception-rebased 
Merge pull request #943 from naveensrinivasan/AssetDownload

Fixes for Downloading ReleaseAsset zip File 
Fixed the spacing

Fixed the spacing of comma and aligned the arguments. 
Fixes for Downloading ReleaseAsset zip File #854

This commit  addressed the `BuildResponse`  wasn't handling
response `content-type` `application/octet-stream` for binary items. 
Merge branch 'master' into download-timeout 
Make new merge exceptions inherit from 'Octokit.ApiException'
Affect 'Octokit.PullRequestNotMergeableException'
and 'Octokit.PullRequestMismatchException' 
Merge pull request #942 from alfhenrik/bug-repohasissues

Make NewRepository.HasIssues nullable as it's optional 
Make HasIssues nullable as it's optional 
Merge pull request #940 from naveensrinivasan/build-sh

Created build.sh 
Created build.sh

Included build.sh to build form non-windows 
:poop:

brainfart 
Add tests for merge exceptions to PullRequestsClientTests 
Add System.Net namespace used to check for HttpStatusCode in PullRequestClient.Task<PullRequestMerge> Merge(string, string, int, MergePullRequest) 
sketching out the exception necessary when raising specific merge exceptions 
Changes the way the exception is verified 
Merge pull request #929 from elbaloo/issue-389

Add .com links to PrivateRepositoryQuotaExceededException 
Add .com links to PrivateRepositoryQuotaExceededException

Add following links:
- 'Deleting a repository' at https://help.github.com/articles/deleting-a-repository/
- 'What plan should I use?' at https://help.github.com/articles/what-plan-should-i-choose/ 
Merge pull request #927 from naveensrinivasan/octokit-logo

Updated with the logo 
Changed the octokit logo to smaller size 
Updated with the logo

Updated it with the logo 
Validate Linqpad Samples as part of CI

Validates Linqpad Samples as part of CI for every commit. 
Removed the integration test options

Removed the integration test options because lprun has compileonly
option. 
The nuget package includes the samples

This will include the samples in the nuget package. 
Throwing proper exception on RepositoresClient 
Merge pull request #922 from naveensrinivasan/fixes-for-fake-warning

Fixes for FAKE Xunit warning 
Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/fixes-for-fake-warning' into fixes-for-fake-warning

Conflicts:
  build.fsx 
Fixes for fake warning

Fixes for the FAKE warning 
Adds InvalidGitIgnoreTemplateException 
Fixes for fake warning

Fixes for the FAKE warning 
Including LINQPad.exe

Including LINQPad.exe to compile the samples after every commit 
Fixed the command line args

Fixed the args parameter to compile using lprun.exe 
linqpad samples

Linqpad samples 
Removes integer overload

Plus extra ensures 
Merge pull request #919 from adamralph/system-framework-assembly

add System to required framework assemblies for net45 
add System to required framework assemblies for net45 
Adds overloads for adding custom timeouts 
Merge pull request #909 from willsb/disposable-repositories

Disposable repositories 
Merge pull request #916 from octokit/consolidate-committer-info

Consolidate committer info 
Merge remote-tracking branch 'octokit/master' into disposable-repositories

Conflicts:
  Octokit.Tests.Integration/Clients/DeploymentStatusClientTests.cs
  Octokit.Tests.Integration/Clients/DeploymentsClientTests.cs
  Octokit.Tests.Integration/Clients/PullRequestsClientTests.cs 
Refactors the remaining test classes 
Add doc comments for Author and Committer 
Move Committer into Common folder

This object is used both in requests and responses. 
Add a README for model objects 
Replace SignatureResponse and CommitEntity with Committer

A recent PR added CommitEntity but we already had
SignatureResponse expressly for this purpose.

So this commit renames SignatureResponse to Committer
and removes CommitEntity and replaces it with Committer. 
Merge pull request #915 from octokit/docs

Add a bunch of XML doc comments 
Add this PR number for these fixes

So meta! 
Add Description to OrganizationUpdate 
Add Before property to NotificationsRequest 
Added Description property to NewTeam

Teams can have descriptions! 
Added Content property to NewTreeItem 
Add a bunch of doc comments

We get a lot of build output because of missing XML comments that we
ignore. I'd like to stop ignoring them. To do that, we need to doc the
:poop: out of everything. 
Deployment state is required for deployment status

Breaking change. This constructor parameter is now required. 
Add missing properties to NewDeployment

Added `RequiredContexts`, `Environment`, and `Task` parameters. Removed
the obsolete `Force` parameter.
Also made ref a required constructor parameter. This is a breaking
change. 
Add the ability to create a readonly deploy key 
Rename Message to CommitMessage

According to the docs
(https://developer.github.com/v3/pulls/#merge-a-pull-request-merge-button),
this should be sent as "commit_message" thus we need to name it
`CommitMessage`
Fixes #913 
Refactors tests up to PullRequestsClientTests 
Adds common properties to RepositoryContext

A lot of classes use the name and the owner of the repository, so for
consistency I added those as properties of the Context 
Refactors a whole bunch of tests 
Refactors AssigneesClient and CommitsClient tests 
Refactors BranchesClientTests 
Refactors StatisticsClient 
Refactors GithubClient and RepositoryContents 
Merge pull request #907 from naveensrinivasan/encodedcontent-public-#861

Making Encodedcontent public #861 
Refactors RepositoriesClientTests

Changes the tests in RepositoriesClientTests to use the new using block
syntax 
RepositoryContext class and Extension methods 
fix for making the setter private

fix for making the setter private 
Merge pull request #908 from khellang/clarify-failing-convention-tests

Clarify why convention tests are failing 
Clarify why convention tests are failing 
Making EncodedContent public

Making EncodedContent public to get the raw bytes of a file. #861 
Merge branch 'octokit/master' of https://github.com/naveensrinivasan/octokit.net into octokit/master 
Merge pull request #906 from naveensrinivasan/update-readme

Updated the readme with reactive octokit. 
Update read with reactive octokit.

Updated the readme to include the nuget reference to Octokit.Reactive 
Merge pull request #903 from willsb/commit-committer

Changes GitHubCommit.Author/Committer 
Merge pull request #902 from naveensrinivasan/build-mono

Build fix for Xamarin Studio Solution 
Merge pull request #901 from alfhenrik/feature-issueeventsurl#885

Add Events URL to the Issue class. 
Makes integrations tests happy 
Build fix for Xamarin Studio Solution

Build fix for Xamarin Studio Solution 
Creates CommitEntity for GitHubCommit

Creates the entity that corresponds to the actual payload returned by
the server to represent the Author and Committer of a commit 
Merge pull request #900 from alfhenrik/update-testtargetnames-in-docs

Updated test target names in the shipping releases doc 
Add Events URL to the Issue class. 
Update the names of the test targets 
Merge branch 'master' into octokit/master 
Merge pull request #898 from octokit/release

Release of v0.16 - ironic ties 
Update FAKE and SourceLink

The work so far has reduced a list of 135 commits down to 58, and so far, it looks like we have not lost any really useful "release note"-worthy information. However, the eagle-eyed among you may noticed that our 58 messages contain duplicate information. This is because each pull request is listed twice; once for the pull request title I inserted in place of its individual commits, and again for the merge commit that merged that pull request. These merge commitsĀ are not filtered out because they do not belong to the commits inside the pull request. Instead, they are an artifact of merging the pull request4.

At first, I thought the handy `MergeCommitSha` property of the pull request would help, but it turns out this refers to a test merge and is to be deprecated5. Instead, I realised that the messages IĀ wanted to remove all had "Merge pull request #" in them, followed by the pull request number. This seems like a perfect use case for our pattern matching filtering. Since we have the pull requests, we could use their numbers to match each merge message exactly, but I decided to do the simpler thing of excluding any message starting with "Merge pull request #".

Filtering for messages that begin with "Merge pull request #" gives us a shortlist of just 31 messages:

Fix the credit format 
Release notes for release 0.17.0 
Merge branch 'gitignore-exception' 
better merge exception rebased 
Generate nuget packages on appveyor  
Json serialization for Unicode 
Add helper class for creating web hooks 
added a tailored CodeFormatter to Octokit 
VS2015 migration 
clean up some pending PRs 
Fixes for Downloading ReleaseAsset zip File  
Adds overloads to GetArchive for adding custom timeouts  
Make NewRepository.HasIssues nullable as it's optional 
Created build.sh 
Gitignore exception 
Add .com links to PrivateRepositoryQuotaExceededException 
Updated with the logo 
Adds octokit samples 
Fixes for FAKE Xunit warning 
add System to required framework assemblies for net45 
Disposable repositories 
Consolidate committer info 
Add a bunch of XML doc comments 
Making Encodedcontent public #861 
Clarify why convention tests are failing 
Updated the readme with reactive octokit. 
Changes GitHubCommit.Author/Committer 
Build fix for Xamarin Studio Solution 
Add Events URL to the Issue class. 
Updated test target names in the shipping releases doc 
Release of v0.16 - ironic ties

I think this is a pretty good improvement over the raw commit list. Combining this list with links back to the relevant commits and pull requests should enable someone to discern the content of a release note much faster than using the raw commit list alone. I will leave that as an exercise or perhaps a future post. As always, thanks for reading. If you find yourself using Octokit to trawl your own repositories for release note information, I would love to hear about it in the comments.

  1. We're all friends here, you can admit it [↩]
  2. TheĀ filtering should be configurable so that weĀ can tailor it to the repository we are processing [↩]
  3. excluding the last step of filtering by message content [↩]
  4. Perhaps stating the obvious [↩]
  5. https://developer.github.com/v3/pulls/ [↩]

Octokit and Noise Reduction with Pull Requests

Last time in this series on Octokit we looked at how to get the commits that have been made between one release and another. Usually, these commits will contain noise such as lazy commit messages and merge flog ("Fixed it", "Corrected spelling", etc.), merge commits, or commits that formed part of a larger feature change submitted via pull request. Rather than include all this noise in our release note generation, I want to filter those commits and either remove them entirely, or replace them with their associated pull request (which hopefully will be a little less noisy).

Before we filter out the noise, it seems prudent to reduce the commits to be filtered by matching them to pull requests. As with commits, we can queryĀ pull requests using a specific set of criteria; however, thoughĀ we can request the results beĀ sorted a certain way, we cannot specify a date range. To get all the pull requests that were merged before our release, we need to query for all the pull requests and then filter by date locally.

This query can be slow, since we are getting all closed pull requests in the repository. We could speed it up by providing a base branch name in the query criteria. However, toĀ remove as much commit noise as possible, I would like to include pull requests that wereĀ merged to a different branch besides justĀ theĀ release branch1. We could make things more performant byĀ managingĀ a list of active release branches and then querying pull requests for eachĀ of those branches only rather than the entire repository, but for now,Ā weĀ will stick with the less optimal approach as it keeps the code examples a little cleaner.

var prRequest = new PullRequestRequest
{
    State = ItemState.Closed,
    SortDirection = SortDirection.Descending,
    SortProperty = PullRequestSort.Updated
};

var pullRequests = await gitHubClient.PullRequest.GetAllForRepository("RepositoryOwner", "RepositoryName", prRequest);
var pullRequestsPriorToRelease = pullRequests
    .Where(pr => pr.MergedAt < mostRecentTwoReleases[0].CreatedAt);

Before we can start filtering our commits against the pull requests, we need to get the commits that comprise eachĀ pull request. When requesting a collection of items (like we did for pull requests), the GitHub API returns just enough information about each itemĀ so that we can filter and identify the ones we really care about. Before we can do things with other properties on the items,Ā we have to requestĀ additional information.Ā More information on each pull request can be obtained about a specific pull request by using the `Get`, `Commits`, `Files`, and `Merged` calls. The `Get` call returns the same type of objects as the `GetAllForRepository` method, except that all the data is now populated instead of just a few select properties; the `Merged` callĀ returns a Boolean value indicating if the PR has been merged (equivalent to the `Merged` property populated by `Get`); the `Files` method returns the files changed by that pull request; and the `Commits` method returns the commits.

var commitsForPullRequest = await gitHubClient.PullRequest.Commits("RepositoryOwner", "RepositoryName", pullRequest.Number);

At this point, things are looking pretty good: we can getĀ a list of commits in the release and a list of pull requests that might be in the release. Now, we want to filter that list of commits to remove items that are covered by a pull request. This is easy; we just compare the hashes and remove the matches.

var commitsNotInPullRequest = from commit in commitsInRelease
                              join prCommit in prCommits on commit.Sha equals prCommit.Sha into matchedCommits
                              from match in matchedCommits.DefaultIfEmpty()
                              where match == null
                              select commit;

Using the collection of commits for the latest release, we join the commits from the pull requests using the SHA hash and then select all release commits that have no matching commit in the pull requests2.Ā However, we don't want to lose information just because we're losing noise, so we have to maintain a list of the pull requests that were matched so that we can build our release note history. To keep track, we will hold off on discarding any information by pairing up commits in the release with their prospective pull requests instead of just dropping them.

Going back to where we had a list of pull requests merged prior to our release, let us revisit getting the commits for those pull requests and this time, pairing them with the commits in the release to retain information.

var commitsFromPullRequests = from pr in pullRequestsPriorToRelease
                              from commit in github.PullRequest.Commits("RepositoryOwner", "RepositoryName", pr.Number).Result
                              select new {commit,pr};

var commitsWithPRs = from commit in commitsInRelease
                     join prCommit in commitsFromPullRequests on commit.Sha equals prCommit.commit.Sha into matchedPrCommits
                     from matchedPrCommit in  matchedPrCommits.DefaultIfEmpty()
                     select new
                     {
                         PullRequest = match?.pr,
                         Commit = commit
                     };

Now we have a list of commits paired with their parent pull request, if there is one. Using this we can build a more meaningful set of changes for a release. If I run this on the latest release of theĀ Octokit.NET repository and then group the commits by their paired pull request, I can see thatĀ the original list of 135 commits would be reduced to just 58Ā if each commit that belonged to a pull request were bundled into just one entry.

Next, we need to process the commits to remove those representing merges and other noise. These are things to discuss in the next post of this series where perhaps we will take stock and seeĀ whether this effort has been valuable in producing more meaningful release note generation. Until then, thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a comment.

  1. often changes are merged forward from one branch to another, especially if there are multiple release branches to support patch development and such [↩]
  2. The `join` in this example is an outer join; we are taking the join results and using `DefaultIfEmpty()` to supply an empty collection when there was nothing to join [↩]

Octokit and the Content of Releases

I started out myĀ series on Octokit byĀ defining a goal; to use GitHubĀ repository history to build aĀ basic summary of changes contained in a release. In order to do this, we need to define what a release is and then determine how we get the pertinent information to say what changes that release contains.

At a basic level, a release is a tagged point in the git repository.Ā GitHub takes this one step further by making a release a first class conceptĀ asĀ a lightweight git tag with additional attributes like a title and release notes. Octokit even allows first class access to GitHub releases in a repository, like so:

var releases = await gitHubClient.Release.GetAll("RepositoryOwner", "RepositoryName");

Great! With a little extra code, we can determine which release was the latest and then get all the commits in that release.

var latestRelease = releases.MaxBy(r => r.CreatedAt);

var commitRequest = new CommitRequest
{
    Until = latestRelease.CreatedAt,
    Sha = latest.TagName
};
var commits = await github.Repository.Commits.GetAll("RepositoryOwner", "RepositoryName", commitRequest);

In the above code, we use MoreLinq to get the most recent release and then request all the commits in the repository on the same branch as that release up until the date the release was created. We request these commits using a `CommitRequest` object that specifies the query parameters. In this case, we want all the commits until the date of the release for the tag on which the release was made1.Ā Of course, this will include everything ever done in that branch since the beginning of time, which is a bit of information overload. What we really want are the commits since the previous release.

var mostRecentTwoReleases= releases
    .OrderByDescending(r => r.CreatedAt)
    .Take(2)
    .ToArray();

var commitRequest = new CommitRequest
{
    Until = mostRecentTwoReleases[0].CreatedAt,
    Sha = mostRecentTwoReleases[0].TagName,
    Since = mostRecentTwoReleases[1].CreatedAt
};
var commits = await github.Repository.Commits.GetAll("RepositoryOwner", "RepositoryName", commitRequest);

Now we have taken the releases and used their `CreatedAt` dates to determine the most recent two and used the previous releaseĀ date to setĀ the `Since` date in our request. However, this code still has a flaw; we never said what branch the releases should be from. For all we know, the most recent two releases are on entirely different branches. To fix that, we need to filter the releases to just the branch we want.

var mostRecentTwoReleases= releases
    .Where(r => r.TargetCommitish = "myBranch")
    .OrderByDescending(r => r.CreatedAt)
    .Take(2)
    .ToArray();

var commitRequest = new CommitRequest
{
    Until = mostRecentTwoReleases[0].CreatedAt,
    Sha = mostRecentTwoReleases[0].TagName,
    Since = mostRecentTwoReleases[1].CreatedAt
};
var commits = await github.Repository.Commits.GetAll("RepositoryOwner", "RepositoryName", commitRequest);

The highlighted line is where we filter on the appropriate branch (it took some investigation to discover that the `TargetCommitish` property of a release is its branch name). We now have just the commits for the release branch we careĀ about between the most recent release and the one before it.

In the next post, we will look at reducing the noise in the commit history using pull requests. Until then, thank you for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment.

 

  1. The `Sha` property of the `CommitRequest` can be either a commit hash or branch/tag name [↩]

Octokit and the Documentation Nightmare

Before I get into the meat of this series of posts, I would like to set the scene.Ā Like manyĀ organisations that perform some level ofĀ software development these days, we use GitHub. Here at CareEvolution, some developers use the web interface extensively, some use the command line, and others use the GitHub desktop client1, but most use a combination of two or more, depending on the task. This works great for developers, who have each found a comfortable workflow for getting things done, but it is not so great for those involved with DevOps, QA, or documentation where there is a need to find out user-friendly details of what the developers did. Quite often, a feature or bug fix involves several commits and while each has a comment or two, and perhaps an associated pull request (PR)Ā or issue has a general description, but there is no definitive list of "this is what release X contains" that can be presented to a customer.Ā Not only that but sometimes a PR or issue is resolved in an earlier release and merged forward. While we have lists of what a release is going to include, quite often there is more detail that we would like to include, and we often have additional changes as we adapt to the changing requirements of our customers. All this means that one or more people end up trawling the commits, trying to determine what the changes are. It is not a happy task.

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."

Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince (1532)

Now, I know that this could all be avoided if people documented changes more clearly, perhaps added release notes to commits, raised issues for documentation changes, or created release notes on the release when it is made. However, no matter how noble change may be, anyone who has worked in process definition for any length of time will know that changing the behaviour of people is the hardest task of all, and therefore it should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. It was with that in mind that I decided mining the existing data for information would be an easier first step than jumping straight to asking people to change.Ā So, with the aim of making life a little easier, I started looking at ways to automate the trawling.

I figured that by throwing out noisy andĀ typical developer non-descriptive commits like "fixed spelling" or "updated comment", and by combining commits under the corresponding PR or issue, I could create useful summary of changes. This would not be customer-ready, but it would be ready for someone to turn into a release note without needing to trawl git history. In fact, if I included details of who committed the changes, it might even provide a feedback loop that would improve the quality of developer commit messages; developers do not like interruptions, so anyone asking for more detail on a commit they made should start to reinforce that if they wrote better commits, PRs, issues, they would get less interruptions.

Octokitty2

Octokit .NET logoAfter a dismissing using git locally to perform this task (I figured those who might need this tool would probably not want to get the repository locally) and reading up on the GitHub API a little, I cracked open LINQPad ā€”my tool of choice for hackingā€” and went looking for a Nuget package to help. It was during that search that I happily stumbled on Octokit, the official GitHub library for interacting with the GitHub API. At the time of writing, Octokit reflects the polyglot nature of GitHub users, providing variants for Ruby, .NET, and Objective C, as well as experimental versions for Python, and Go.Ā I installed the Octokit Nuget package into LINQPad and started hacking (there is also a reactive version for `IObservable` fans).

PokingĀ around the various objects, and reading some documentation on GitHub (Octokit is open source), IĀ got a feel for how the library wrapped the APIs. Though, I had not yet got any code running, IĀ was making progress. Confident that this would enable me to create the tool I wanted to create, I started writing some code to gather a list of releases for a specific repositoryĀ and stumbled over my first hurdle;Ā authentication. It turns out it is not quite as straight-forward as I thought (the days of username and password are quite rightly behind us3), and so, my adventure began.

And then…

This is a good place to stop for this week, I think. As the series progresses, I will beĀ piecing together the various parts of my "release note guidance" tool and hopefully, end up with a .NET library to augment Octokit with some useful history mining functionality. Next time, we will take a look at authentication with Octokit (and there will be code).

  1. OSX and Windows variants [↩]
  2. or, James Bond for kids [↩]
  3. OK, that's a lie, but I want to encourage good behaviour [↩]