1388150 - Move from Nucleus to a Git repo containing YAML files

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(www.mozilla.org :: Release notes, enhancement)

Description

[Paul [:pmac] McLanahan]

It is now a common technique to manage data like release notes, security advisories, product details, and other formatted data in static files in git repositories. We already manage security advisories in this way[0] for example. The Thunderbird org is also moving their release notes management to a similar system[1]. We'd like to do the same for several reasons:

1. Easier access management, and by more people (Github)
2. Easier automation potential (github webhooks)
3. Better auditing and easier roll-backs to any point in history
4. Fewer services for our limited websites team members to maintain
5. Better potential for local preview prior to publishing
6. Easier to have branches that will deploy to specific bedrock instances (e.g. dev, stage, prod) for full testing before going to prod.

This bug covers building tools to convert the current RNA database into YAML files for import into a git repo and easy preview and maintenance tools for ongoing authoring of said files.

[0] https://github.com/mozilla/foundation-security-advisories
[1] https://github.com/thundernest/thunderbird-notes

Comment 1

[Kohei Yoshino]

It would also be great if the new solution makes notes localizable, as discussed in Bug 722914.

Comment 2

[Paul [:pmac] McLanahan]

(In reply to Kohei Yoshino [:kohei] from comment #1)
> It would also be great if the new solution makes notes localizable, as
> discussed in Bug 722914.

Couldn't agree more! Thanks for the reminder Kohei. 

I do believe this model of files in a git repo would be more easily translated than entries in a DB. Would a method like we're using for legal-docs[0] be appropriate for this? i.e. using separate files in the same repo named for the locale? 

[0] https://github.com/mozilla/legal-docs/tree/master/websites_privacy_notice

Comment 3

[Paul [:pmac] McLanahan]

After discussions with Release Management it's clear that they require a graphical management interface for the Release Note data. Because of this I'm moving forward with some changes to the proposal:

1. We'll still be storing and retrieving the data in a git repository[0], but it will be in JSON format since human readability isn't a requirement.

2. We'll not be looking to decommission Nucleus any time soon, but will instead modify Nucleus to export these JSON files which will be checked into said git repo.

3. Bedrock will be modified to sync this git repo and use the JSON data to display the release notes and system requirements data.

Comment 4

[Paul [:pmac] McLanahan]

Apologies for the extra bugmail: forgot to include the link to the data repo on github:

https://github.com/mozilla/release-notes

Comment 5

[GitHub Bugzilla PR Linker]

Attachment: Link to GitHub pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/pull/5120

Comment 6

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

you are still ok for not doing that before 57, right?

Comment 7

[Paul [:pmac] McLanahan]

:sylvestre,

Nothing will change on your end before 57. We may switch bedrock over to using the JSON files before then because it's a more robust solution for updating the data there, and that would be good for the potentially increased traffic for 57. All that said, we'll be sure that there is no disruption for 57 no matter what. If we do make the change but find issues we'll be able to roll back easily if need be.

Comment 8

[[github robot]]

Commits pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/f9d55e9fc4f1524c8ab5a1c21e55c1daf2a26aba
Bug 1388150: Convert release notes to use git repo and JSON

Will allow us to simplify bedrock by not installing RNA.

Remove:

* django-mozilla-rna
* django-restframework
* django-synctool

Do markdown conversion on load of release: Helps with cache and perf.

Add tests for new release models

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/0a6a710ab89fdbc80465acdc64086e3cafd73f77
Merge pull request #5120 from pmac/release-notes-from-git

Bug 1388150: Convert release notes to use git repo and JSON