Automate your changelogs! Release Drafter

[Almost] nobody likes writing documentation, and same for the changelogs! So, can we automate them and improve both user and developer experiences? Of course!

We will review the Release Drafter - a handy changelog automation tool for those who use GitHub or GitHub Enterprise. It can be used as a GitHub Action and can easily generate changelog drafts, using pull requests and labels as a foundation. Many advanced features are included, e.g. text formatting and substitutions, semantic versioning support, and management at the organization level. So let’s take this tool and configure it for a project together!

During the presentation we will also review the changelog automation examples from WireMock, Testcontainers, Jenkins and other open source communities. Those examples just need copy and paste.

Transcript

1. Oleg Nenashev @oleg_nenashev
2. > whoami @oleg_nenashev oleg-nenashev Dr. Nenashev / Mr. Jenkins Developer tools hacker Community builder FOSS/DevRel consultant #RussiansAgainstPutin #StandWithUkraine
3. My Open [and not so] Communities Time * Once a contributor, [almost] always a contributor
4. Q&A: #developer-productivity-engineering on Gradle Slack DPE Forum: https://discuss.gradle.org/c/dpe/39
6. Takeaways 6 • Automate changelog drafts • There are tools for pull requests, not just [conventional?] commits • Release Drafter • Add tools to your release Pipeline
7. * parody content
8. • jenkins.io Changelogs in Jenkins 8
9. • jenkins.io • CHANGELOG.md / Wiki Changelogs in Jenkins 9
10. • jenkins.io • CHANGELOG.md / Wiki • GitHub Releases • Changelogs elsewhere • No changelogs Changelogs in Jenkins 10
12. 12 * parody content
13. 13 * parody content
14. 14 * parody content
15. 15 * parody content
16. 16 * parody content
17. • jenkins.io • CHANGELOG.md / Wiki • GitHub Releases • Changelogs elsewhere • No changelogs Changelogs in Jenkins 17
19. • jenkins.io ⇔ GitHub Releases • Jenkins Wiki • CHANGELOG.md on GitHub ⇔ (often) GitHub Releases • GitHub Releases • Changelogs elsewhere • No changelogs In Jenkins… 19
20. github.com/release-drafter
21. 21 • Created by Tim Lucas, @toolmantim • Co-maintained by Joseph Petersen, @jetersen • GitHub Releases & Markdown • Based on the Probot & GitHub Actions • **Very** flexible, not just a semver • Pull requests, not [not so?] Conventional Commits GitHub: release-drafter/release-drafter
22. 22 • Powered by pull request titles and labels • If needed, Maintainers edit PR titles and labels before the merge (or release) • No reliance on commit history by default github.com/gradle/gradle-profiler/pulls? q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed
23. 23 • Release Drafter generates changelog drafts • Most likely you’ll have to copy-edit the drafts before the release github.com/gradle/gradle-profiler/releases
25. 25 • You publish the release • Manual or automatic, depends on your Pipeline • Assets & Co can be attached to the draft too wiremock/wiremock-testcontainers-go/rel eases/tag/v1.0.0-alpha-7
26. And it’s flexible! 26 github.com/testcontainers/ testcontainers-go/releases
27. github.com/release-drafter
28. Minimum Viable Configuration [1/2] github.com/marketplace /actions/release-drafter 28
29. .github/release-drafter.yml Minimum Viable Configuration [2/2] 29
30. Categories, powered by labels 30
31. github.com/release-drafter
32. • Uses Probot Config engine, powered by deepmerge • Global config repo: https://github.com/jenkinsci/.github • Minimal configuration in repositories Inheritance! 32
33. Replacers 33 Hyperlinks Acronyms
34. Editable Markdown layout 34 // Injecting YAML changelogs into Markdown
35. Variables for injection into the code/configurations Output variables for subsequent GitHub Actions Automatic resolution in the drafts Version resolvers 35
36. Well, good luck! :) Automatic labeling 36
37. Not only markdown? 37
38. Good for social media 38 * Better than GitHub Releases
39. Gradle Plugin for Jenkins
40. 3.0.0-beta-13 Example: Opengraph for release
41. Jenkinsfile Runner 1.0-beta-30
42. 1.0-alpha-1 bit.ly/faascinator 🚀 New features and improvements • Initial implementation, powered by Quarkus and picocli • Support running the CLI commands via "/" endpoint • Support for printing help via the "/help" endpoint • Configure target JAR and main class via runtime properties • Docker images, based on AdoptOpenJDK 11 Hotspot 📝 Documentation updates • Initial docs: Overview, Quick Start, and Usage Guide • First "Current Time” demo for local and Docker runs • Create Contributor Guide 👻 Maintenance • Add continuous integration for the project • Enable continuous delivery of Docker images to ghrc.io • Release tagged versions of Docker images
43. github.com/release-drafter
44. 4 years with Release Drafter in Jenkins • Almost all development tools use Release Drafter • Global configuration by default in templates/archetypes • 500+ plugins use Release drafter • 6 contributors to Release Drafter from Jenkins 44
45. • jenkins.io ⇔ GitHub Releases • Jenkins Wiki • CHANGELOG.md on GitHub • GitHub Releases • Changelogs elsewhere • No changelogs In Jenkins… 45
46. github.com/release-drafter
47. Takeaways • Use changelog automation • Make them a part of your release Pipeline • Consider Release Drafter for a custom development Pipeline • There are other tools, esp. for integrated releases or Conventional commits: JReleaser, Git Cliff
48. Release Drafter Docs release-drafter/release-drafter GitHub Action https://github.com/marketplace/actions/release-drafter Useful links 48
49. Global configurations / projects • Jenkins: jenkinsci/.github/blob/master/.github/release-drafter.adoc https://github.com/jenkinsci/.github/blob/master/.github/release-drafter.yml • WireMock: https://github.com/wiremock/.github/blob/main/.github/release-drafter.yml Local configurations: • testcontainers/testcontainers-java • oleg-nenashev/testcontainers-c Examples 49
51. GitHub: oleg-nenashev Twitter: @oleg_nenashev QUESTIONS? Gradle Community Slack, #developer-productivity-engineering