August 2017 Summaries

GitLab updated its email policy on September 30, 2018, emphasizing an explicit opt-in approach for most marketing communications to enhance user experience and control over received content. Previously, signing up for GitLab.com automatically subscribed users to newsletters, but the new policy requires users to actively choose their communication preferences via the subscription center. This change allows users to specify their interests, such as event notifications or security alerts, while still receiving essential system-related emails. The aim is to ensure users only receive valuable information, respecting their choices and maintaining an unsubscribe option in all communications.

GitLab emerges as a valuable platform for collaborative research, particularly in academia, due to its ability to facilitate code sharing and reproducibility. Reproducibility is crucial in both software engineering and research, allowing for independent verification and building upon previous work. GitLab provides integrated features like hosting, Large File Storage (LFS), and Continuous Integration (CI) without relying on third-party services, supporting reproducibility through containerization with tools like Docker. These features allow researchers to manage the visibility of their projects and enable streamlined reproduction of results by secondary users. GitLab's CI capabilities, including multi-project pipelines and the flexibility to use different containers per workflow step, are highlighted as key advantages. Vicky Steeves, the guest author, underscores GitLab's role in enhancing research quality and openness, advocating for integrating reproducible practices into research workflows.

Zapier's new integration with GitLab offers a range of Zap templates designed to automate workflows and enhance team collaboration, such as triggering tweets for new commits and sending Slack messages when Merge Requests are opened or closed. Zapier, a tool that facilitates integrations between otherwise non-communicative applications like Gmail, Slack, Twitter, Trello, Asana, and now GitLab, is highly customizable, allowing users to create personalized integrations using the "Make a Zap" feature. UX Lead Sarrah Vesselov praised the variety of pre-set Zaps available for GitLab, noting that integrations with Trello, Asana, Gmail, and Twitter were straightforward to set up and beneficial for numerous workflows. The integration holds significant potential for leveraging Issues and Merge Requests to automate processes and boost team productivity. Users can explore popular GitLab Zaps or create their own, with the option to suggest ideas to Zapier via Twitter.

GitLab has developed its Issue Board as a tool to enhance collaboration and streamline the software development lifecycle by integrating conversation-driven practices within its platform, allowing teams to focus on their work instead of tool configuration. Since its initial release in GitLab 8.11, the Issue Board has evolved through regular, incremental updates, adding features such as drag-and-drop list organization, multiple custom workflows, and improved search and filter interfaces. These enhancements enable users to plan and track projects with greater efficiency, integrating Agile and Scrum methodologies through functionalities like milestones and issue prioritization. GitLab's approach to software development emphasizes rapid iteration, frequent feedback, and quick deployment of functional changes, allowing the platform to adapt swiftly to market demands and user feedback. As part of its collaborative ethos, GitLab invites users to share their experiences with the Issue Board, celebrating its impact on various workflows and offering a chance to win GitLab merchandise as a token of appreciation.

Linagora, a strong proponent of open-source solutions, recently migrated from Atlassian's JIRA and Bitbucket to GitLab, aiming to fully utilize GitLab as their sole open-source development tool. The migration from Bitbucket was straightforward due to Git's capabilities, but transferring JIRA issues to GitLab presented challenges due to the lack of a native migration tool, leading them to rely on REST API calls. The process involves gathering necessary information from both JIRA and GitLab, using a preferred HTTP client like Axios, and mapping JIRA issue fields to GitLab's format, including user assignments and comments. The migration strategy ensures that even if JIRA users do not exist in GitLab, they can still be mapped using a GitLab token. This approach allows developers to perform daily REST API calls to facilitate seamless issue migration, aligning with Linagora's open-source philosophy and their invitation to new talents to join their team.

Sid Sijbrandij, CEO of GitLab, shares insights on open source strategies and remote work during a meeting with Jake Stein, co-founder of Stitch. Stein sought advice on making their open source ETL project, Singer, successful and was introduced to Sijbrandij through mutual investor August Capital. During their conversation, Sijbrandij emphasized the importance of transparency and improving user experience to drive growth, suggesting bundling Singer with a PostgreSQL database and an open source visualization tool to expedite users' goals. GitLab's business model evolved from a free open source tool to incorporating paid tiers as its user base grew, differing from Stitch’s initial freemium SaaS model. The meeting provided Stein with valuable lessons from GitLab's journey, helping to inform Stitch’s own strategic direction. Jake Stein's background includes co-founding RJMetrics, later acquired by Magento, and he holds a degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

DevOps is a collaborative practice that integrates development and operations teams to enhance communication and efficiency, as demonstrated by a case study from the Government of Nova Scotia. The Linux Ops team faced a challenge when asked to host a legacy Ruby application, requiring a decision between using an outdated RHEL 6 VM or containerizing the application as a proof of concept. Opting for containerization, they utilized Docker and GitLab CI to streamline the deployment process, allowing for automatic updates with minimal downtime. Through this process, the Ops and Dev teams collaboratively improved the application's code, such as removing hard-coded values and enhancing the security via automated scanning tools like Brakeman and Red Hat's atomic scanner. This DevOps initiative resulted in faster application delivery, reduced failure rates, and a shared understanding of the application architecture, setting a framework for future collaboration and technology improvements across government teams.

GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij and FormAssembly CEO Cedric Savarese discussed the complexities of managing remote work culture and scaling in a high-tech remote organization. They explored how remote sales teams can succeed even without the traditional in-person "boiler room" environment, emphasizing GitLab's approach of valuing results over physical presence. Communication and collaboration in a remote setting are addressed by creating written "artifacts" like Google docs and issues, which help maintain a coherent company culture and prevent message dilution as the organization grows. GitLab's use of a comprehensive handbook aids in cultural cohesion despite the absence of in-person interactions during hiring or onboarding, though they recommend occasional face-to-face meetings when feasible. While the leadership team conducts remote executive gatherings to work on quarterly plans, there is an ongoing effort to improve focus on important discussion topics during these meetings.

GitLab's auto deploy feature simplifies the process of deploying applications by integrating deployment into the CI/CD pipeline within the GitLab interface, automatically deploying applications whenever new commits are made to the master branch. This feature packages applications into Docker images, which are then deployed to a Kubernetes cluster, with GitLab's container registry storing the images. Setting up auto deploy involves configuring the GitLab project with valid credentials to access the Kubernetes cluster, which can be easily created using Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) due to its user-friendly interface, free tier, and the maturity of Google's service. The author shares their experience of setting up a Ruby application to be automatically built and deployed to staging, with the option for manual production deployment, providing a quick start guide for newcomers to Kubernetes who want to explore GitLab's auto deploy capabilities.

GitLab is organizing a quarterly issue bash event in September, inviting the community to help resolve issues in the GitLab Community Edition issue tracker. The event, open to all, runs from 00:01 UTC on September 2nd to 23:59 UTC on September 3rd, encouraging contributions from both technical and non-technical participants. Contributors can win various prizes, including T-shirts, pajama pants, notebooks, PocketCHIPs, and a messenger bag filled with all items. The event includes a random draw for prizes, and participants can find more information on the Issue Bash landing page, where they can also provide feedback or propose changes. GitLab team members will be available to assist with any questions or issues, ensuring an inclusive and engaging experience for all involved.

Plapadoo, a software startup from Hannover, Germany, emphasizes the importance of a robust IT infrastructure tailored to their needs by prioritizing open-source software, strong encryption, and lightweight solutions with minimal dependencies. The company has meticulously chosen software tools to support its operations, such as Matrix for chat, a self-hosted email server for secure communication, Radicale for calendar and contact management, and Syncthing for decentralized file synchronization. They leverage GitLab for version control and continuous integration, using Docker for software isolation to enhance security. For voice conferencing, they opted for uMurmur over Murmur due to dependency concerns and password vulnerabilities encountered with the latter. Backup and traceability are ensured using BorgBackup with borgmatic, alongside etckeeper to track system configuration changes. By integrating these software solutions, plapadoo achieves high transparency and productivity, setting them apart in a competitive landscape.

GitLab has launched a new swag store offering a variety of merchandise that was previously exclusive to events, including socks and hand-knit tanuki plush toys, alongside new items like hoodies, pajama pants, speakers, hats, flasks, and notebooks. To celebrate the launch, GitLab is offering a limited-time 25% discount on all items, along with free global shipping, encouraging customers to stock up on GitLab gear. Additionally, a promotional campaign is in place where every 25 retweets of the announcement will enter participants into a draw to win a GitLab hoodie. Despite a temporary pause due to overwhelming demand, the store is now fully operational again, and GitLab is welcoming suggestions for future swag items as part of their inclusive community ethos.

StackPointCloud has collaborated with GitLab to offer an efficient, end-to-end Kubernetes solution that accelerates the deployment process from concept to production. This partnership addresses the challenges some teams face with setting up and configuring Kubernetes clusters by providing a turn-key solution that simplifies the process significantly. Kubernetes, known for its capabilities in managing applications across various resources and clouds, offers benefits such as self-healing, on-demand scaling, and cost efficiency, which have contributed to its strong community support. However, GitLab users often encounter difficulties because they need a functional Kubernetes cluster before utilizing GitLab's comprehensive software development lifecycle services. The partnership with StackPoint.io provides a streamlined solution that enables users to set up a Kubernetes cluster quickly, demonstrated in a webcast that showcases how this approach can "close the last mile" in under ten minutes.