Quickstart
Summary
A quickstart guide for the docs release process.
Concepts
Changelog
With every release, the Changelog (Private) expands to include the following types of updates (with docs links, when applicable):
- Features
- Enhancements
- Fixes
- Breaking Changes
- Deprecation Notices
Highlights
The first sections of any release notes will contain an overview highlighting specific features and enhancements of a release.
This is made up of:
- Overview of features, enhancements, and/or breaking changes of importance in the release.
## Highlights
: Changelog items referenced in the overview.## Everything Else
: Changelog items not referenced in the overview.
Early Seed
These are pre-release versions of Dendron extensions made available to Environmentalist (Private).
- Release cadence: Every Other Tuesday (PST)
Release Notes
Release notes are done with the General Release of Dendron that comes out each Tuesday. These provide quite a bit more context compared to the changelog notes, including:
- Highlights
- Upcoming events
- Discord community messages from the today-i-learned (Private) and starboard (Private) channels
- Community contributions: Contributors that have been raising issues, contributing code, contributing docs, etc. For more information, view the documentation on Discord Roles (Private)
- General announcements: Blog posts, videos, other events/resources of note, etc.
The release notes also serve as the content submitted to subscribers of the Dendron Newsletter.
Newsletter
Dendron sends out a weekly newsletter, scheduled for every Wednesday at 6AM PST.
Dendron uses Buttondown for managing a newsletter. It's a simple interface that uses Markdown formatting. To make our lives easier, we use a newsletter template and the Markdown Export Pod to send subscribers a copy of our weekly release notes.
Prerequisites
- Permissions to merge to
dev
andmaster
in dendron-site - Access to the Buttondown Email Dendron credentials for sending out the newsletter
- Permissions to post to
#announcements
and#releases
channels in the Dendron Discord - Your Discord account may need to boost the Dendron Discord in order to unlock a higher character limit within posts.
Steps: Early Seed Release Docs Process
Day before
- The evening before, create a new Discord thread in
#dendron-team
with the titleearly-seed yyyy-mm-dd
- Template: Discord Thread Start
- This is done to give the teams a heads up to get docs in, remaining updates to the
Ready to Ship
section, etc. ahead of time
Day of
- Make sure Early Seed Changelog (Private) is updated by following the process here. This should be submitted as a PR to
dendron-site
.
- Example: Loom recording showing example update to early seed changelog, up to the submission of a PR
- When the PR is approved, merge into
dev
dev
intomaster
indendron-site
git checkout dev git pull git checkout master git pull git merge dev git push
Merge - Check that the changes have made it to the main page
- Use the Discord Announce template to write the announcement message
- Announce the release in the environmentalist (Private) channel.
Footnotes
Steps: General Release Docs Process
Before the release
- due: 23:00 UTC Monday
- Run
workspace sync
in your localdev
branch fordendron-site
vault - Create a new release branch with format
release/<version>
(eg.release/083
) - Update the changelog > Changelog Update
- Create a new release under
changelog.release.{date-with-dashes}
- NOTE: date should line up with the tuesday of the coming week and should be created in
dendron-site
- a template will fill after you create the note
- eg. 0.84 (Private)
- Fill out the highlights using Release Highlights
- NOTE: date should line up with the tuesday of the coming week and should be created in
- Fill our community highlights using Community Highlights (Private)
- Add to and update everything under
## Community
- See General Updates (Private) from the weekly journal
- Add Greenhouse to Release Notes (if applicable - should be first week of month)
- Add Crop Updates to Release Notes (if applicable)
- Highlight Published Sites on Release Notes
- Any other announcements
- Starbord and TIL Highlights
- Dendron Reading Series
- Event Reminders
- Make sure to include PST and UTC times
- If Greenhouse Talk information is known, make sure the Subject and Description is populated.
- Update Changelog range at bottom of release note
- NOTE: the current oncall should have done the contributor updates for support issues in dendron repo, you should check
dendron-site
site anddendron-blog
blog for additional issues
- See General Updates (Private) from the weekly journal
- commit and push changes as an open PR
- The evening before, create a new Discord thread in
#dendron-team
with the titleweekly-release yyyy-mm-dd
- Template: Discord Thread Start
- Make sure to change the values of hours estimate, and of the weekly journal names
- Hours estimate: Amount of hours before 10AM PST
- Make sure to change the values of hours estimate, and of the weekly journal names
- This is done to give the teams a heads up to get docs in, remaining updates to the
Ready to Ship
section, etc. ahead of time - Add second comment in Discord thread with link to release PR, tagging Kevin
- ex.
@kevin In-progress release/changelog PR: <PR Link>
- ex.
Day of release
- Video example: https://youtu.be/UTEHbTO5bnA?t=1597
-
ping @john (Private) about transferring community highlights to the release notes
- He needs to create the
weekly.journal.*.contributions
contributor highlights - after john has finished transferring highlights, pull down changes and create a thread in
dendron-team
titledweekly-release {date-with-dashes}
and use the Release template
- He needs to create the
-
after approval, merge changes to
master
and push- First confirm that
dev
currently includes all commits inmaster
- Once confirmed, merge
dev
intomaster
# In the dendron.dendron-site repo git checkout dev git pull # Gets latest changes git checkout master git pull # Gets latest changes git merge dev # Adds changes in dev to master git push # Publishes updated master
- First confirm that
-
verify that changes are up
-
use markdown export pod to copy to clipboard on release notes (ensure wikilinkToUrl is true)
-
create release notes under
area.product.release.{date}.notes
- NOTE: loom video embed links will not render in discord, use a regular loom link instead (eg. https://www.loom.com/share/c6e8e75605d5416a9a8aa67465a6df17)
- Add
@everyone
to the top - to create release notes, copy everything above
## Community
and Thank Yous - This should include:
- Release Highlights descriptions
- Highlights section
- Everything Else section
- Thank Yous
- example: Notes (Private)
- Add the URL link to the release directly beneath
Dendron {version} has sprouted
- example:
Dendron 0.87 has sprouted :seedling: https://wiki.dendron.so/notes/qcwfzax4uaqj54evgp8li5y/
- example:
-
create announcement notes under
area.product.release.{date}.announcement
- Add
@ServerNotify
to the top - to create announcement notes copy everything in
## Community
but leave out Thank Yous, Starboard, Changelog, and Reading Series sections - This sections should include:
- General
- Events
- NOTE: make sure all discord mentions come out properly so that folks are notified for their contribution
- example: Announcement (Private)
- Add
-
create reading series notes under
area.product.release.{date}.reading-series
- Use Template
- Make sure you had already followed Reading Series
After the release
-
Announce release on discord
- Add contents of
area.product.release.{date}.reading-series
into#teatime
channel- Add an emoji related to the story
- Add contents of
area.product.release.{date}.notes
into#releases
channel- Add a
:seedling:
emoji
- Add a
- Add contents of
area.product.release.{date}.announcement
into#announcements
channel- Add a
:farmer:
emoji
- Add a
- Add contents of
-
Announce release on twitter
-
Use a format similar to the following:
Dendron 0.84 has sprouted 🌱 - Speed improvements in "Dendron: Show Preview" - Pod V2 is now available to use directly from dendron-cli - New "Community Teatime" events starting this week - Contribute #opensource to good first issues in Dendron code https://wiki.dendron.so/notes/qcwfzax4uaqj54evgp8li5y/
-
-
Announce release on mastodon
-
Use a format similar to Twitter, but optimized for Mastodon. Threads don't work the same in Mastodon, so don't make a thread. It's a one message kind of deal. You can always send a second message (such as upcoming events) at another time.
-
Example format with slight modifications to above:
Dendron 0.84 #release has sprouted 🌱 - Speed improvements in "Dendron: Show Preview" - Pod V2 is now available to use directly from dendron-cli - New "Community Teatime" events starting this week - Contribute #opensource to good first issues in Dendron code #dendron #vscode #vscodium https://wiki.dendron.so/notes/qcwfzax4uaqj54evgp8li5y/
-
-
Release the newsletter updates via Weekly Newsletter
Footnotes
Checklists
Early Seed Docs and Announcements Checklist
- Day Before
- Notice given to team
- Day of
- Update Early Seed Changelog (Private) is updated via PR
- Early Seed Changelog PR approved, merged to
dev
, anddev
is merged tomaster
- Verify website is updated with latest content
- Announcement made to Environmentalists
- Discord Announce
- Announce in the
#environmentalist
channel
General Release Docs and Announcements Checklist
Day Before Release
- Create Draft PR that includes:
- New Dendron Reading Series (
dendron.events.reading-series.yyyy.mm.dd
) - Update Changelog (Private)
- New Weekly Release Notes (
changelog.release.yyyy-mm-dd
)
- New Dendron Reading Series (
- Notice given to team of upcoming release
Day Of Release
- Add contributors information to PR once finalized and formatted by team
- Address any review feedback in PR
- PR approved, merged to
dev
, anddev
is merged tomaster
(indendron-site
) - Verify website is updated with latest content
Announcements After Release
-
Discord
-
#teatime
: Reading Series with@ServerNotify
-
#releases
post with@everyone
- Release highlights
##Highlights
## Everything Else
-
#announcements
post with@ServerNotify
-
Everything under
## Community
except### Starboard and TIL Highlights
### Dendron Reading Series
## Changelog
-
Replace
### Event Reminders
section with### Event Reminders - Visit our events calendar: https://link.dendron.so/luma - This week we have `<event name(s)>`!
-
-
#publishing
: Add any publishing-related updates to the publishing channel (Private) with@PublishNotify
-
-
Twitter announcement
-
Mastodon announcement
-
Schedule Weekly Newsletter