GitLab Next

Problem to solve

Users want to be able to attach release plans to their Releases in GitLab. They want to be able to see tasks related to a specific release, which means on the Release Landing page as well as in the Release Dedicated view.

Target audience

• Release Managers and teams involved in executing releases
• Our internal customers are the #production team (for runbooks in general) and #delivery team (for release plans).

UX Proposal

As a first step, this MVC will address creating the visibility by enabling users to add an Asset Link to the Runbooks using the UI of GitLab. In the Release page, users will be able to click the link and see the runbook linked.

🖼 SEE UX PROTOTYPES IN THE DESIGN TAB 🖼

User stories

As a Release Manager, I want to link assets to my release, so that I can combine planning all items, whether or not they are in GitLab, into my release plan.

Acceptance criteria:

• While creating a release using GitLab's UI, user sees a new Links option in the form, under the new section header Assets.
• A helper text should be displayed in the UI to inform users how to work with Links in releases, and it should point to a new section in the Releases documentation page.
• User should be able to enter a link url in the URL input field.
  • Form validation is provided for the URL input field. If the user enters an invalid URL, the input should display an error state and helper message.
• User should be able to add a name to the Link in the Link title input field.
• User should be able to add multiple links to the form. By clicking the Add another link option, a new set of URL and Link title form fields are displayed below the existing ones.
• User should be able to remove a link from the form by clicking the Remove button next to the fields.
  • A tooltip should be displayed when hovering the button. It should read Remove link.
  • Clicking the button removes the fields from the UI.
  • If there is only one (1) entry for a link in the row, and the user clicks the option to remove it, the information should be removed but the input fields remain in the UI. We always display at least one (1) set of input fields for URL and Link title.
• The behaviour is valid for both create and edit release forms.
• All fields are mandatory.

View created link

As a user, I want to see the data related to the link associated to a Release, so I can have access to assets that related to the release.

• When the user creates a Release with a Link added to it, the new information should be displayed in the newly created Release item under the Assets section (view page/release detail page).
  • The icon to identify the link should be the 🔗 Pajamas icon.
• When user provided a title for the link, the name should be rendered on the Release view.
• If the URL or Link title are long, and span across the container width, an ellipsis should be added. Hovering the truncated link should display a tooltip with the full URL or Title.
  • Links URL or Title should not break into multiple lines.
• Each link should render in a different row.

Out of scope

• Any updated to the counter badge for assets.

Dev proposal (NEEDS UPDATE)

• Connecting a release, including Upcoming Release, to an instance of a runbook
• Link Release pages to the runbook which displays:
  • Runbook status - running, complete, failed
  • Runbook name, ID

Technical Instrumentation steps

• Front End & Back End spec
  • Same field for Assets
  • Fields for manually populating tasks/ completed tasks and % complete
  • Upload of runbook via API and populates to the runbook section

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

As a factor of adoption, this feature should increase the number of runbooks linked in release pages.

Documentation

Yes, this feature will require updates to our documentation.

Links / references

Opportunity canvas