July 2022 Summaries

Axolo has released new features and improvements, including a GitLab integration, a notification in the channel when someone pushes new commits to an already approved PR, and the ability to change the number of reviewers while inviting a team as a reviewer on GitHub. Additionally, they have made several enhancements such as preventing archiving of team-specific channels not created by Axolo, adding a warning for incomplete engineer profiles, and allowing prevention of engineers from onboarding themselves. They also fixed issues with PR reminders and incoming webhook optimization.

Sydney Cohen shares their experience migrating Axolo's backend from Heroku to Digital Ocean, reducing costs from $560 to $67 per month for a similar type of server. They discuss reasons for migration, including pricing and scaling limitations on Heroku. The migration process took two days and involved creating an app on DO, connecting MongoDB and Redis databases, setting up cron jobs using EasyCron, and transferring DNS settings. Some trade-offs were identified, such as less insightful monitoring UI, slower build times, and more complex add-on setups compared to Heroku. The author also mentions alternative cloud providers like Kinsta, which offers unlimited crons, usage-based pricing, and a custom-built dashboard.

The text discusses updates to a PR analytics tool, including new features and improvements. Key points include the creation of individual pages for each analytics, allowing bots to send messages in pull request channels, and implementing a label manager that defines Axolo's behavior based on specific GitHub labels. Additionally, reminders are now calculated considering only business days, tips have been added to the onboarding Slack message, and only merged PRs are considered for the PR length graph. A bug fix is also mentioned regarding line numbers in code review comments.

This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to create a GitHub bot using the Probot framework on Node.js and send notifications in Slack. The process involves creating a Slack app, setting up incoming webhooks, creating a GitHub app, coding time for reacting upon specific events like review requests, and deploying the app. The author also provides examples of applications built with Probot and tips on how to handle permissions and environment variables.

The text discusses four Discord GitHub bots for managing pull requests, namely Remindub, Discord Bot GitHub, Meta API, and Zapier/Integromat. Each bot has its own features, setup requirements, and pricing plans. Remindub is a simple reminder tool that requires Docker installation, while Discord Bot GitHub needs a Heroku server to function. Meta API allows for flexible event handling but requires coding knowledge. Lastly, Zapier/Integromat offer plug-and-play connectors for easy setup but can be pricey for multiple events. The author encourages readers to share their experiences with these bots or suggest other options in the comments section.