Feedback Issue: Breaking Changes RSS Feed
tl;dr
- Users can receive Breaking Changes notifications by subscribing to an RSS feed at:
https://about.gitlab.com/breaking-changes.xml
- This is an MVC. Only share it with your customers who understand they are testing a beta solution.
Overview
In 15.6 we are introducing an RSS feed that is populated with items from gitlab-org/gitlab/-/tree/master/data/deprecations
where breaking_change: true
.
This will allow anyone to receive Breaking Changes notifications using their preferred feed reader (Slack, RSS reader, etc.) by subscribing to https://about.gitlab.com/breaking-changes.xml
Background
We heard repeatedly in our 15.0 Breaking Changes retro that requiring users to regularly visit and parse our Docs for notices that could break their workflow is inefficient and creates a poor user experience.
We explored our options for creating an opt-in email list to push Breaking Changes notifications to customers, but it would be difficult to implement and maintain, and it would be expensive to add large volumes of seats to our email delivery service.
An RSS feed is extremely simple to implement, adds zero cost to GitLab, and allows users to consume the notifications in a variety of environments.
Status of this MVC
- The data population of this feed is 100% manual.
-
@brhea
will add entries on a ~weekly basis during this trial period. - There is no current documentation.
- The purpose of this MVC is to share the option with the Product team in order to collect feedback from a small sample of customers before investing in automation, documentation, and wider promotion.
This is how the feed looks in Feedly:
I am exploring options with the design team for a batch of GitLab-branded options for the image. RSS tools expect an image and we should at least provide a default image so that our feed doesn't look broken.
Reference Material
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