[openlp-dev] Exploring GitLab

[Simon Hanna]

Hi,

I've created a repository on GitLab, and copied all the history over
(takes about 15 minutes on my laptop). I've created it to play around
with it, and to be able to showcase stuff. It's available here
https://gitlab.com/thelinuxguy/openlp

For the testing, I've created docker images which are available here
https://github.com/simhnna/openlp-docker The images are built
automatically and pushed to the docker repository here
https://hub.docker.com/r/simhnna/openlp/tags/ I've created three images:
ubuntu, debian-stable and debian-buster. This allows for easy testing
using the respective distros. All CI configuration lives in one file
https://gitlab.com/thelinuxguy/openlp/blob/gitlab/.gitlab-ci.yml

The CI jobs are not as customizable as jenkins, but you can do most of
the things you can with jenkins. Here's the output of one job
https://gitlab.com/thelinuxguy/openlp/-/jobs/90836097

Coverage doesn't get rendered in html by default, but we can use the
builtin "Pages" feature to serve them like I did in Mailman here
https://mailman.gitlab.io/postorius/

Issues/Bugs can be tracked using the issue tracker
https://gitlab.com/thelinuxguy/openlp/issues and can be organized using
kanban boards https://gitlab.com/thelinuxguy/openlp/boards

Theoretically the crash reports could be directly sent to GitLab using
the service desk https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/service_desk.html

Merge requests would look like this
https://gitlab.com/thelinuxguy/openlp/merge_requests/1

Theoretically small fixes and such can be written write in the browser
using their webide https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/web_ide/

GitLab also comes with a wiki, but I think that the existing wiki in use
today is superior. 


Things that I think would improve by using GitLab/Git:

* Easier to use web interface

* Active and Rapid development of GitLab (new/good features are added
constantly)

* Easier to configure and run CI (All I did was write a couple of lines
and it already does most of the stuff automatically)

* Git has IDE support, for people who don't like command line

* Basically every developer today knows something about git while

* Easier to find tutorials/documentation

* Git is much faster than bzr for branching/merging/showing
logs/pushing/pulling ...

* CI for Mac is integrated (you need to provide a runner yourself
though)
https://about.gitlab.com/2016/03/10/setting-up-gitlab-ci-for-ios-projects/

* CI for Windows apparently also works (you also need to provide a
runner) but I haven't tried it yet. Appveyor should also work

* Integration with jenkins is available, so the current setup can be
used as well

* Popularity of bzr is low https://goo.gl/gjBcUs (I don't think search
trends should be the norm, but it shows something)


Importing Code from bzr to git, is no problem. Importing existing bug
reports however doesn't seem to be very transparent. There is a request
on GitLab's issue tracker about importing from launchpad, but it's not
implemented yet https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/47399

Mailman did import the old bugs
(https://gitlab.com/mailman/mailman/issues/10) but you loose some
information like authors. Other projects appear to just not import the
bugs, and maintain two trackers during a transition period especially
when there are lots of old bugs that might not be relevant anymore