Change List of Changes for TYPO3 release to include links to commit msg on github

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1

Discussion Topic

The list of changes in the release notes (example: 8.7.10, scroll down to Changes section) look like they are automatically generated from the commit history. Can we change it slightly to make each change a link to the commit msg on github?

changes-result drop-shadow

Each item in the list would link to respective commit msg, e.g. [BUGFIX] EXT:form - fix array overrules within YAML preprocessing · TYPO3/typo3@a509d71 · GitHub

Advantages

  • Often the subject of the commit message is not clear enough, if someone is unsure of a change, they can click on the commit message to get more information
  • Often, the commit msg contains very valuable additional information, that is nowhere else available
  • This will make contributions more visible and is a nice add-on for the proposal “Visualize contribution in commit messages” from Mathias Schreiber

Disadvantage

Viewing a commit msg on Github may be a little too technical and overwhelming for some people. But if you consider, that most people glancing through the Changelogs will most likely have at least a little technical background, this possible objection can be dismissed, IMHO.

Implementation

Construct link to commit msg like this:

https://github.com/TYPO3/TYPO3.CMS/commit/<commit-id>

Apparently, this should work regardless of the branch.

Remarks and notes

I am hoping, this will be quick to implement as not to put too much of a burden on the person, who constructs the Changelog. If I can help, I would be happy to do so (so I’m not just the person making the suggestions where other people have to do the work).

Organizational

Topic Initiator: Sybille Peters
Topic Mentor: ?

2

Hey Sybille,

awesome. let’s do it. No need to discuss, I will talk to @look if we can implement that quickly.

3

Wait, why GitHub and not Gerrit? GitHub is just a mirror and one can not contribute via it.

4

@kevin-ditscheid For me, either solution would be an improvement.

If the Github solution is implemented, in the commit msg on Github, you will see a link to the Review on Gerrit. So, to get to the Gerrit review, it’s one more click.

What I was trying to acchieve here was just a detail view for the changelogs. For this, the commit message (and possibly the list of diffs in the files is important). Github + Gerrit both supply it. For me, Github would be more a public read-only view, while Gerrit contains more internal information on the review. Not everyone is interested in that internal info so it may actually be better to use Github.

5

The mirror on GitHub was made to use Travis CI, later a hook was made to move pull requests automatically to Gerrit. Some people thought that using GitHub would increase the number of contributions quite a bit because of the huge number of developers on that platform. So far 105 PRs since 2012, the last 12 months 44 PRs.
Just to indicate that our presence on GH isn’t that important.
If someone likes to make something for this, fine. But I wouldn’t make it a priority.

6

I like the idea, too.

I do believe that increasing the “importance” on github could be another great topic, too.

7

I like the idea and would prefer linking to GitHub. Gerrit has an old school look and feel and could scare people. Either way, let’s go for it!

8

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