tao-release-notes

A CLI tool for extracting release notes from Github repos

Project setup

From npm:

npm install -g @oat-sa/tao-release-notes # installs globally and creates the 'taoReleaseNotes' binary

From Github:

git clone https://github.com/oat-sa/tao-release-notes.git
cd tao-release-notes
npm i && npm link # installs and creates the 'taoReleaseNotes' binary

Prerequisites

• Github account

The first time the tool is run, it requires a Github Personal Access Token to be manually installed. The tool will prompt you to create one by opening https://github.com/settings/tokens. This token needs repo rights.

The token will be stored for subsequent use in $HOME/.tao-release-notes.

Running the tool

The tool has 3 modes, specified by the command line options.

1. Composers mode - specify 2 local files when prompted

taoReleaseNotes composers

You will be prompted for the paths to 2 composer.json files (local to the current working directory). The composers can contain flat lists of extensions, and can also reference tao-community versions. If tao-community is included in your composer, the version will be looked up online and its dependencies will be added to the parent composer for the current run.

Once the 2 composers are loaded and resolved, extraction of each extension's notes will begin. For most extensions, the version range will be automatic. You will be prompted for the start version of any extension missing from composer #1, and the end version of any extension missing from composer #2.

When you are prompted for versions, there will be a suggestion auto-filled - it represents the earliest or latest version available. Press Enter to accept, or type a different version.

You can also press s to skip notes for that extension.

2. Composers mode - pass 2 local files as params

taoReleaseNotes composers --c1 <path/to/composer1.json> --c2 <path/to/composer2.json>

Same as the other composers mode, except you must pass the file paths explicitly.

3. Single extension mode

taoReleaseNotes single -e <repo-name>

This command fetches the release notes for a single extension you specify as a parameter. It should be in the form of the Github repo name, e.g. extension-tao-items.

You will be prompted to enter the start and end version of your desired release notes range.

Full list of CLI parameters

Short & long form	Type	Modes available in	Description
--c1 <file>		composers	Relative path to first composer file
--c2 <file>		composers	Relative path to second composer file
-a, --autoVersions	Flag	composers	Automatically select missing versions
-f, --format <ext>		composers	Generate output in csv (default) or md
--extension <extension>		single	Repo name of an individual extension

Output

All extracted notes will be put into a folder release_notes/{timestamp}/.

At the end of the run, a concatenated file, all_notes.csv, will be generated in the same location.

Troubleshooting

For extremely large numbers of extensions and notes it could happen that you run into rate limits on Github's API. In such cases, the tool's execution will fail at some point.

A manual workaround at this stage is to split the job into 2 parts by temporarily editing the lists of extensions in your composer files.

In case you have downloaded most of the notes you wanted but the rate limit has been hit before the tool's final concatenation step, a possible command to concatenate your existing files is (on *NIX systems) is:

cat *.csv > all_notes.csv

Happy downloading!