Ideas for automation of release process

[jayaddison]

• Ensure changelog is populated prior to release
• Ensure release commit is tagged and that an associated release is packaged (solved via Docker Hub container upload automation using GitHub Actions #111)
• Ensure upstream grocy version tag is used consistently (i.e. in Makefile, docker-compose, package.json, ...)
  • Migrate GitHub actions workflow to retrieve application version from git tag (GitHub Actions: Determine the grocy application version to bundle based on the image tag to publish #169)
  • Removed package.json and package-lock.json files (and the associated container release version references in them) (Reduce the number of files in which the GROCY_IMAGE_TAG value has to be updated during version upgrades #170)
  • Makefile version reference improvements
  • docker-compose.yml version reference improvements
• Rebuild package-lock.json automatically? (outdated due to file removal in Reduce the number of files in which the GROCY_IMAGE_TAG value has to be updated during version upgrades #170)
• Push images automatically? (solved via Docker Hub container upload automation using GitHub Actions #111)
• Reconsider how release notes are handled; these are currently copy-paste from the changelog, which is a manual process where mistakes could occur
• Tag the latest image on Docker Hub? (currently a WONTDO)

It may be possible to perform some of these checks by using git pre-commit / pre-push scripts.

[Kritzefitz]

Rebuild package-lock.json automatically?

I don't have much experience with javascript tools, but in other languages that use similar constructs, I found it most helpful to have the developer update package-lock.json and commit it as usual, but then have a CI component that performs some basic checks that ensure that the package-lock.json is compatible with the package.json. I'm not sure how to do this with npm, but I will try to have a look at it, when I have time for it.

[jayaddison]

Validating the lockfile using a continuous integration step sounds like a good plan to me 👍