February 2016 Summaries

GitLab has announced the opening of their Swag Shop, offering items like t-shirts and stickers, with updates available in their Field Marketing Handbook and on Twitter. A Swag Portrait Contest was held, where participants shared photos of their laptops adorned with GitLab stickers, and all participants received additional stickers as a prize. The contest recognized two winners, Fabio and Vincent, who were awarded t-shirts for their creativity and luck. The initiative highlights the enthusiasm within the GitLab community, with numerous users showcasing their passion for the brand through personalized "swag portraits." Additionally, GitLab MVPs are set to receive special gifts as a token of appreciation for their contributions.

GitLab's recent webcast showcased the new features in GitLab 8.5, offering a detailed tutorial by Job van der Voort on its workflow, which emphasized collaboration enhancements. The release included updates such as Sidebar UI improvements, a Todos list, and the ability to revert any commit, alongside the introduction of GitLab Geo Alpha for enterprise users. The session also featured live Q&A and community news, with attendees encouraged to propose and vote on feature ideas to help prioritize development efforts. Additionally, an upcoming webcast in partnership with Perforce was announced, focusing on managing Git teams, issue tracking, CI integration, and the advantages of a mono repo, with options for live viewing and on-demand access. Attendees are invited to provide feedback through a survey, and those interested in GitLab's development can explore the open project tracker for current projects and future roadmaps.

GitLab 8.5 introduced several performance enhancements aimed at optimizing various processes, including fetching issues closed by a merge request, improving the retrieval of last update times for events, and setting the autocrlf option only when necessary. To address these issues, GitLab implemented a combination of production monitoring systems like GitLab Performance Monitoring with InfluxDB and Grafana, and development tools such as Sherlock and benchmark-ips, to effectively track and measure application performance. The improvements included refactoring the method for fetching closed issues by merging multiple commit messages into a single string, simplifying the retrieval of event update times by reusing already sorted event lists, and modifying the autocrlf setting process to occur only during necessary operations. These enhancements resulted in significant reductions in processing times, such as decreasing issue closure timings from up to 2.5 seconds to under 15 milliseconds, and reducing Atom feed update times from around 10 seconds to mere milliseconds. Despite these advancements, GitLab acknowledges the ongoing need for performance optimization and continues to work on various areas to ensure efficient application functioning.

GitLab Community Edition has been selected as a project for the upcoming Rails Girls Summer of Code, where students will work on enhancing GitLab for all users, including major organizations like SpaceX, NASA, CERN, and IBM. The initiative aims to provide regular updates and improvements, with beginner-friendly issues marked as "up-for-grabs" to help new contributors get started. Each student will ideally have two coaches, who will assist with GitLab-specific tasks, and the program emphasizes coach availability based on student locations, preferably in the Americas or Europe. The initiative supports students with basic knowledge of Ruby and Git, providing an opportunity for in-person coaching for those near Amsterdam. GitLab is proud to sponsor this program, and further sponsorship opportunities are available through a crowdfunding campaign to support full-time scholarships for participants.

When encountering the "port 22: Connection refused" error while pushing changes to GitLab, users can now utilize an alternate SSH port (443) on GitLab.com to bypass network restrictions that block the standard SSH port. This is particularly beneficial in environments where only ports 80 and 443 are allowed due to firewall rules. GitLab has implemented a solution using Azure and HAProxy to forward connections from port 443 to port 22, thereby enabling users to connect via a commonly open port without requiring significant configuration changes. To use this alternate SSH connection, users must modify their SSH configuration file by specifying the hostname altssh.gitlab.com and port 443. Upon first connection, users will need to verify the server’s key fingerprint, which matches that of GitLab.com. This setup provides a seamless way to maintain GitLab connectivity without relying on potentially blocked tools like VPNs or more complex network configurations.

Navigating project files in GitLab is streamlined through the interface's file browser, allowing users to efficiently create files, directories, branches, or tags via a single dropdown menu. Users can generate a new file by selecting 'New file,' inputting a file name, content, commit message, and choosing a branch, with an option to initiate a new merge request. For binary data, the 'Upload file' option is available, supporting drag-and-drop or link-based uploads, with previews and commit messaging. Directories can be organized by selecting 'New directory' and specifying a name, commit message, and target branch. New branches are created by choosing 'New branch' and can originate from a designated branch, tag, or commit SHA, facilitating multiple file changes before merging. Tags, useful for marking significant milestones, are generated from a branch or commit SHA, with options for naming, messaging, and attaching release notes in markdown format.

GitLab, Inc. has published its comprehensive Strategy document to provide transparency and accountability regarding its strategic objectives and decision-making processes. By sharing this document, GitLab aims to enhance user understanding of its choices and encourage community engagement in shaping the company's direction. The Strategy document outlines GitLab's assumptions, operational constraints, and tactical plans for 2016, inviting feedback and contributions from the community to refine and improve the company's approach. This transparency is intended to clarify the rationale behind GitLab's priorities, investments, and incentives, ultimately enhancing the user experience and fostering a collaborative environment where potential team members can align with the company's mission.

Efforts to improve diversity in the tech industry are gaining momentum, and organizations are increasingly supporting events dedicated to underrepresented groups. A recent initiative offers $500 sponsorship to diversity-focused tech events globally, without geographical restrictions, to enhance inclusivity beyond major tech hubs like New York and the Bay Area. Interested event organizers can apply for sponsorship by emailing the provided contact with event details and registration links. Additionally, if an event is in a location with a GitLab team member, they may offer coaching or speaking engagements. The initiative has already supported events such as RailsGirls and MeHackIt, demonstrating a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusivity in tech worldwide.