June 2016 Summaries

The tutorial provides a detailed guide on deploying GitLab on OpenShift Origin, an open-source container application platform developed by RedHat. It begins with setting up a local testing environment using an all-in-one VirtualBox image managed by Vagrant, ensuring all necessary tools like Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift are pre-installed. The process involves using OpenShift's web console and CLI (oc) to create a new project and import a GitLab template from the Omnibus GitLab repository. The tutorial highlights deploying GitLab using the imported template, managing and scaling the GitLab instance, and addressing potential issues with the all-in-one VM setup. While the tutorial acknowledges constraints like disabling certain security features for testing, it emphasizes that deploying GitLab on OpenShift has become more streamlined. It encourages users to explore OpenShift's capabilities further through official documentation, noting that the tutorial offers only a glimpse into its potential.

Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have recently distrusted StartCom certificates issued after October 21, 2016, prompting StartCom to work on a resolution by January 2017. The text discusses the importance of HTTPS for websites, even static ones hosted on platforms like GitLab Pages, due to its role in securing user data and preventing content alteration. It compares free SSL/TLS certificates from StartSSL and Let's Encrypt, highlighting features like cost, expiration, and domain validation methods. The post provides a step-by-step guide on securing GitLab Pages with StartSSL Class 1 certificates, emphasizing the significance of adhering to HTTPS protocols for a safer internet. It notes that while StartSSL Class 1 offers several attractive features, it also has limitations such as not supporting wildcard DNS records and limiting certification to five domains. The guide concludes by encouraging the use of secure URLs to contribute to a safer internet environment.

GitLab 8.9 introduces support for the FIDO Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) protocol, enhancing user authentication by integrating hardware security through YubiKey devices. This advancement leverages public key cryptography to combat phishing and strengthen the security of servers, code, and sites, addressing the growing security challenges posed by multiple device access. U2F simplifies the authentication process by allowing users to log in with a simple touch of the YubiKey, which is compatible with various services like Google and Dropbox without sharing personal data. The integration of U2F into GitLab builds on its existing two-factor authentication capabilities, providing users the flexibility to choose their preferred authentication methods while maintaining robust security measures.

GitLab's integration with Docker has significantly enhanced its capabilities for testing, building, and deploying applications, leveraging Docker's virtualization to offer a fast, scalable, and efficient environment. The GitLab Docker image facilitates quick deployment and experimentation with new features, while the integration of Docker into GitLab CI allows tasks to run concurrently in isolated, clean environments using a Docker executor. This integration supports autoscaling through Docker Machine, optimizing resource utilization and reducing wait times for task execution. Additionally, the GitLab Container Registry offers a secure, integrated solution for managing Docker images, streamlining development workflows. Despite some initial challenges with build speed and reliability, the transition to Docker has improved GitLab's testing and build processes, demonstrating the potential for enhanced productivity and developer satisfaction.

The third article in a series about Static Site Generators (SSGs) explores how to use GitLab Pages to host and build SSG sites, offering insights into various GitLab CI configurations for different environments, such as Ruby, Node.js, Python, and Go. The series aims to help those familiar with web development understand the deployment of SSGs using GitLab, highlighting the free hosting benefits on GitLab.com, including support for custom domains and SSL/TLS certificates. It emphasizes the importance of the .gitlab-ci.yml configuration file in setting up a site, with examples showcasing community contributions. While recommending Jekyll for beginners due to its comprehensive documentation and ease of use, it suggests experimenting with multiple SSGs to find a suitable fit based on programming language familiarity. The article encourages community participation and offers resources for further assistance, concluding the series with an invitation to share preferences and experiences through a quick survey.

Contributing to open-source projects offers numerous benefits, such as solving personal issues more efficiently and positively impacting favorite projects, but newcomers often face high entry barriers due to perceived skill gaps, unclear guidelines, or unresponsive maintainers. Overcoming these challenges involves taking small initial steps, like improving documentation, engaging in issue tracking, or starting with simple bug fixes, which build confidence over time. Open-source contributions are not limited to coding; they can include documentation improvements and issue triaging, which are valuable to project maintenance. GitLab, for example, facilitates contributions by providing clear guidelines and labels, like "up-for-grabs," to assist newcomers in identifying suitable tasks and encourages adherence to contribution guidelines to reduce rejections or delays. Despite frustrations like unresponsive maintainers or conflicting priorities, patience and open-mindedness help maintain a positive experience, and experienced contributors can even consider starting their small projects to enhance personal learning and development.

Static Site Generators (SSGs) are tools that automate the creation of static websites by converting dynamic content into static files, offering benefits such as faster coding, cost savings on web hosting, and quicker page loading times compared to dynamic sites. Key components of SSGs include the environment, template engine, markup language, preprocessors, and directory structure, all of which contribute to efficient site development. SSGs often use lightweight markup languages like Markdown to simplify content creation and can include features like blog-awareness for managing posts without databases. Despite their advantages, SSGs have limitations, such as the inability to perform server-side processing tasks like user registration or sending emails, but these can be partially addressed using third-party services. The series of articles explores the use of SSGs with GitLab Pages, providing examples and configurations for deploying static sites, emphasizing that while dynamic websites offer extensive functionality, SSGs provide a streamlined and effective alternative for sites that do not require complex features.

Convox is an open-source platform designed to facilitate the deployment, management, and monitoring of applications on cloud infrastructure, aiming to boost developer productivity, reduce costs, and ensure architectural resilience and compliance. It recently integrated with GitLab to enhance Continuous Delivery (CD) workflows, enabling developers to push code and automatically deploy it to robust cloud environments. By using Convox with GitLab, teams can quickly set up a private deployment cloud, create production-ready applications, and automate builds, tests, and deployments through webhooks and continuous integration tools. This integration supports a seamless workflow, allowing for rapid and safe code releases, while also providing enterprise-grade options for secure and isolated environments. Convox's integration with AWS services and Slack further streamlines the process, ensuring efficient notifications and updates. Both Convox and GitLab are committed to evolving their open-source projects to enhance continuous delivery automation, inviting community participation to further improve their offerings.

GitLab is an open-source platform with a vibrant community, and this post is part of a series celebrating its 1,000 contributors. It provides a detailed guide for developers interested in contributing to GitLab by setting up a development environment using the GitLab Development Kit (GDK). The setup process involves installing prerequisites specific to different platforms, cloning the GDK repository, and forking relevant GitLab repositories to submit merge requests. The post emphasizes that community members need to fork GitLab repositories to contribute, as they do not have privileges in the main projects. It further guides contributors on making changes, running tests using commands like rake spinach and rake spec, and finally, submitting merge requests for review. The instructions are extracted from the comprehensive GDK README file, which serves as a primary resource for developers. By following the steps outlined, new contributors can effectively develop features or fixes for GitLab and become an integral part of its community.

After the release of GitLab 8.5, a team embarked on a mission to improve the user interface, addressing the issues of a confusing navigation hierarchy and an overloaded sidebar that frustrated both new and experienced users. An initial attempt to redesign the navigation by collapsing dashboard links and introducing a project-specific menu was scrapped after negative feedback revealed it caused even more confusion. In response, the team devised a new approach by standardizing the left sidebar with a static dark color and grouping related navigation elements by color and context, making it easier for users to orient themselves across different pages. This change, which was positively received, improved the mobile interface by hiding the sidebar by default and was successfully integrated into GitLab 8.8. Looking forward to GitLab 8.9, the focus is on refining the navigation of the most-used "Projects" page by logically grouping pages under fewer tabs, reducing the menu items, and enhancing overall user experience. The team is seeking feedback to ensure the new design meets user needs and continues to improve usability.

The text explores the differences between static and dynamic websites, emphasizing that static sites present the same content to all users and require manual updates, while dynamic sites adjust content based on user interactions and data, providing a more personalized experience. Static sites, typically composed of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, are simpler and can be faster for users but lack scalability and customization, whereas dynamic sites, which involve server-side processing and database interactions, offer flexibility and personalization at the cost of complexity and potentially slower load times. The text highlights the historical evolution of web development from the first static webpage in 1990 to the advent of dynamic web applications enabled by the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) in 1993, and the rise of Static Site Generators (SSGs) in the early 2000s as an innovative approach to combine dynamic coding with static delivery. SSGs allow developers to write dynamic code that outputs static pages, mitigating security concerns associated with dynamic sites by avoiding user data processing. The text also notes that static web hosting, such as that provided by GitLab Pages, is generally less costly, and it foreshadows future articles that will delve deeper into modern SSGs and their integration with GitLab Pages.

In Austin, TX, the GitLab team convened for the first time, combining work, leisure, and participation in OSCON, where team members engaged with fellow open-source enthusiasts and hosted a booth featuring games like Jenga to win GitLab merchandise. The week included a mix of activities such as bubble soccer, kayaking, and a pig roast, alongside strategic meetings and pushing their regular monthly release, highlighting the productivity and enjoyment of face-to-face interactions for a remote-first company. Planning ahead, GitLab announced their participation in several upcoming events, including North America South East Linux Fest, Lean Poker SF, Docker Con, and Red Hat Summit, where various team members and their CEO will be present, as well as engagements in South America and Europe, like the Ruby on Rails Bootcamp in Chile and Shift Split in Croatia.