Issue and Merge Request Suggestions System

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Description

Allow suggestions to be posted to issuable resources via quick actions and the API.

Proposal

This proposal is for a suggestions feature that allows users to post suggestions for issues and merge requests to voice their opinion and allow follow up from a project maintainer/member.

There is a need to allow non-project members to suggest changes to issues There is a need to allow automated system to post suggestions to issues and merge requests

  • Duplicate detection systems
  • Label suggestions systems

Suggestions can be posted for the following changes to issuables:

  • Add labels
  • Remove labels
  • Add milestone
  • Remove milestone
  • Add assignee
  • Remove assignee(s)
  • Change status
  • Duplicate issue
  • Weight

A number of identical suggestions could be posted. Should these be combined into similar suggestions or form a separately actionable suggestion?

Once these suggestions are posted, project maintainers will need to be notified to take action.

We could:

  • Send a notification upon suggestion creation
  • Create a project-level dashboard for actioning suggestions

Posting suggestions via the Web UI

Suggestions would be posted in the web interface using quick actions

/suggest add_labels ~bug ~"reproduced on GitLab.com" 
/suggest remove_labels ~"feature proposal" 
/suggest change_status closed
/suggest duplicate #issue_number

Posting suggestions via the API

Suggestions could be posted via the API opening up the opportunities to developed external automated suggestion systems

POST /projects/:id/issues/:issue_iid/suggestions
Attribute Type Required Description
add_labels string no Comma separated list of labels to add
remove_labels string no Comma separated list of labels to remove
add_milestone integer no The ID of a milestone to assign
remove_milestone integer no The ID of a milestone to remove
assignee_ids Array[integer] no The IDs of a users to assign
status_change string no Represent a status change suggestions
weight integer no The weight to assign to the issue

Notifications of suggestions

Who should be notified of suggestions?

  • Subscribe to project suggestions notifications
  • New notification level for suggestions

Suggestions dashboard

Something similar to StackOverflows review system but on a project level:

Suggestions dashboard will index all suggestions and whether they have been actioned

Links / references

Documentation blurb

Overview

What is it?

A new suggestions system for allowing users to post suggested actions that should be taken on individual issues and merge requests

Why should someone use this feature?

  • To harness the power of their community and external users to suggest changes in their issue tracker
  • To employ an external automated system that will help with project management

What is the underlying (business) problem?

Furthering Community involvement and streamlining the issue triage process

How do you use this feature?

Use cases

Who is this for? Provide one or more use cases.

  • Project managers and maintainers

Feature checklist

Make sure these are completed before closing the issue, with a link to the relevant commit.

/cc @victorwu @rymai @smcgivern

Edited by 🤖 GitLab Bot 🤖