GitLab Create Code Review Group, 16 Sep 2021

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From YouTube: GitLab 14.4 Kickoff - Create:Code Review

Description

Kickoff for the 14.4 GitLab Release in Create:Code Review

Planning Issue: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/create-stage/-/issues/12912
Release board: https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/boards/2159734?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&label_name%5B%5D=group%3A%3Acode%20review&milestone_title=14.4

Better defined mergeability: https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/5598
Restructure MR Widget: https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/5589
Merge Request Report Widgets: https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/6647

Supporting more GitLab versions in VS Code: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-vscode-extension/-/issues/428

A

Hi, my name is kai armstrong and I'm the senior product manager for the code review group at gitlab, and I'm here today to talk about the upcoming gitlab 14.4 release and what the code review group will be working on. So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen and we will jump right into what we're talking about today. So let me just click that tab and then let's go so.

A

The first thing I want to talk about is an effort that we've talked about previously, with the back end and they're, working on what we're calling better defined, mergiability and so inside of the merge requests.

A

When we go to check the status of the merge button and whether or not a merge request can be merged or whether or not there are additional pipelines that have to pass approvals that are needed, discussions that aren't resolved and all those things that's our big long process for completing a merge check and so we're working on improving the way mergeability is calculated and defined.

A

So it's easier to troubleshoot issues that we have and also easier to insert new types of checks into the system for other things that we might extend in the future, and so this work is begun in 14-3, which is the previous milestone and we'll be continuing. This work in 14.4 as part of the ongoing improvements that we're making to merge request.

A

The next thing I want to talk about is the merge widget. So this is the actual area where the merge button is and there's merge commits, and it sort of tells you what's going on, and so we've been working over the last several milestones to improve and work on this and we're in the process of we've only got about a couple.

A

More issues left that we'll be working in 14, 4 and we'll be getting very close to a state that looks like this for the merge widget, and so, if we go back here and you take a look, this is sort of what the merge widget looks like today.

A

um It's got a merge, buttonness, there's a figma file that you can find in this epic, which I'll link down below that shows you sort of all the different messages that could be included in states and we'll just be simplifying that so one really clean looking area that lets you know what's going to happen, what are the actions that can be taken and provides a really simple, merge button, so all that information will move to one simple spot with a sort of consistent experience of how information is presented to you there.

A

So this is a really nice user experience enhancement that we've been working on again for several milestones, and we expect to finish up the last couple of issues down in 14 4.. You can see that here, it'll probably be 14 5 before this is fully rolled out, but I wanted to give you an update on where we are with this and then the last one that I want to talk about is a new effort.

A

Coming to the engineering side, it's been in a design and research phase for a little while- and these are what we call our merge report widgets, and so these are actually the widgets, and this is a little bit easier if I show you in a in this file. These are actually these widgets here that sort of show you um what's going on with code quality or what's going on with status checks or what's going on with security vulnerabilities, and so these are those widgets um that provide all that information.

A

That's in the top area of the merge request, and so um just if you look at this there's sort of some differences in design and information presentation, and so we've been working really hard and you can find this in our pajamas design system. This is public and anyone can take a look. This is how we're now talking about these as merge request reports and what we want to see, information, structured and look like.

A

So it's really easy to go through and consume these reports as you scroll down through a merge request and as you're looking for this information and part of this, and so this has been in design and research for a little while to to get a consistent style and design and now we're moving into implementation, and so um our team will be starting, although other teams across gitlab will be working on sort of the core component that we use for this making sure it can meet the design specs that we now have for these and then we'll be working on rolling this out and integrating all the report widgets into sort of one unified design.

A

So I'm really excited about this one. This is a big deal for um usability and readability of the merge requests, and so this is really in line with everything that we've just talked about, which is improving the way merge checks happen, so you have a better user experience when you're trying to merge improving the merge widget. So you understand what's going on and improving these merge widgets so that you understand all the information being presented to you.

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So we're really focused on usability and making sure that we're moving the merge request forward in a way that lots of users can be involved and all that information is presented very clearly.

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The last thing I want to talk about on shift gears out of the merge request and I want to go to the vs code extension, and so this will be a feature that hopefully is a little bit transparent, but it's really important and something I want to talk about. The the vs code extension that we have is something that we've been working on for quite a while, and we added a number of features, including the ability to do merge, request reviews in there.

A

We've also had to add features and improvements to the extension that were dependent on upstream fixes into the get lab project, and so what this has meant is that sometimes we would roll out a new feature in the extension and it needed to consume a new api, or sometimes it would have a bug fix and it needed to consume a new endpoint or a fixed endpoint.

A

That was only available in the latest version of gitlab and what they started to do was fragment little bits and pieces of the extension to where we actually had to require a minimum version of gitlab in order to support everything that the extension was capable of doing.

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We've talked about this and we've had some feedback and what we want to do is we want to change some logic in the extension to where, instead of requiring gitlab, to have a minimum version, we may just make it so some features don't work or aren't fully supported in the vs code extension, as opposed to the extension sort of not being supported entirely because your gitlab version isn't up to date, there's still a ton of great features in there that don't rely on the latest and greatest gitlab version, and so we want to be cautious about how we deal with this and so we're starting in 14.

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3 it'll extend into 14 4. we're working on, and you can see this here and you'll be able to track this effort, we're working on building in logic, any extension that knows based on the gitlab version. What path, what code path it needs to take in the extension to either? Let you use that feature in a different way, or maybe disable that feature entirely, and so I'm really excited about this. We want to.

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We want to bring the vs code extension back to more users across more versions of gitlab, and so this is a really important change to do that and should greatly improve everyone's ability to to use the extension and adopt it. So I'm really excited about this one too.

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That's it for what uh listen highlights. That's what it that's the highlights of what we're going to be doing in code review for 14.4.

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I will link boards and planning issues like we always do down below and I'll link all these epics. All these issues, all these sigma files that have been opened, um so you can take a look at them yourself. Let us know what you think about what's coming in 14 4 and what you're most excited about for code review thanks.