Loop/Loop-client Release Process

Background

Loop-client is the "standalone" part of Firefox Hello. It consists of hosted pages that can be accessed from any browser.

The definitive source files are in mozilla-central, mainly under the standalone directory, however some of the files are shared with desktop.

The source files for the standalone are automatically extracted into the loop-client repository every hour.

Automatic updating of loop-client

The master branch of Loop-client is automatically updated from mozilla-central by a script each hour.

The script lives in loop-client repository and is called extract_from_hg.py.

The development server runs a cronjob ever hour which runs the script on the loop-client directory on the server (using the mozilla-central hg clone as a base). This also ensures that the development server is automatically updated as well.

Release Cycle

loop-client releases happen when necessary. If strings have changed, there is typically an approximately 2 week cycle to allow them to translate. Current release schedules are tracked on the calendar.

What to Release?

• If no string changes have occurred since the previous release:
  • Release from latest master.
• If string changes have occurred, either:
  • Start an L10n release with over a 2 to 3 week cycle
  • or, if there are small bug fixes to ship sooner, create/use branch from previous release and port only the minor changes

Automatic updating of loop-client

The master branch of Loop-client is automatically updated from mozilla-central by a script each hour.

The script lives in loop-client repository and is called extract_from_hg.py.

The development server runs a cronjob ever hour which runs the script on the loop-client directory on the server (using the mozilla-central hg clone as a base). This also ensures that the development server is automatically updated as well.

Start an L10n release

• Ensure CHANGELOG is up to date on latest master.
• Next talk to mathjazz in #l10n; confirm that all the strings for Hello are checked in, ready for an L10n release.
• Pull the latest l10n strings into loop-client
• Then copy the en-US files to the verbatim directory.

 # Clone or update as needed
 git clone git@github.com:mozilla/loop-client-l10n.git
 
 # Copy the en-US file (note the change from - to _)
 cp loop-client/content/l10n/en-US/loop.properties loop-client-l10n/l10n/en_US/loop.properties
 
 # Verbatim also needs it in the templates directory
 cp loop-client/content/l10n/en-US/loop.properties loop-client-l10n/l10n/templates/loop.properties
 
 # Now commit and push
 cd loop-client-l10n
 git commit -m "Merge latest en-US strings from loop-client commit <revision>" -a
 git push origin master

• Tell mathjazz the push is complete
• mathjazz will then ensure verbatim gets updated.
• Decide on the version number
  • Version numbers are generally arbitrary, however, we've so far been following the major.minor.sub version scheme. For releases from the same branch, major and minor stay the same. When a new release occurs with string changes, the minor version gets bumped.
• Create a branch from the latest revision of loop-client's master, i.e. the where the loop.properties for en-US is the same as what was copied to loop-client-l10n.

 git checkout -b 0.14.x
 git push origin 0.14.x

• Send an email to mozilla.dev.l10n, with a deadline that is at least 2 weeks in the future, including 2 weekends.
  • Subject: "Several new strings for Firefox Hello Standalone now in verbatim"
  • Body template:

Hi All,

We've added a few new strings to the Firefox Hello standalone app. They are in verbatim and pontoon and ready for you to localise.

[Add information about what the strings will relate to]

Deadline: [Insert date]

Updated words: [This can be obtained from verbatim once its synced - look for old previously completed locales, and see what the defect number now is]

Verbatim:
https://localize.mozilla.org/projects/loop/

How to merge latest L10n changesets

This is required for the sections below.

• Pull in the latest L10n changes:

 # Update the L10n repository
 cd loop-client-l10n
 git pull origin master
 
 # Change back to loop-client repo
 cd ../loop-client
 # Pull across L10n changes
 ./locale-update.py

At this stage, check:

1. Diffs - to check the changes look sane
2. git status - to check for any added locales (and if so, "git add" them)

 # Commit the L10n changes
 git commit -m "Update L10n from changeset <revision>" -a

Releasing loop-client for staging

If there's no branch for the current release:

• Check to see if there were any string changes since the previous release.
• If there were, cut a branch before the string changes, and if required, merge/port across any additional (non-string) changesets.
• If not, then the release can be done from master.

To do the actual release:

• Decide on the version number
  • Version numbers are generally arbitrary, however, we've so far been following the major.minor.sub version scheme. For releases from the same branch, major and minor stay the same. When a new release occurs with string changes, the minor version gets bumped.
• Check out the required changeset or branch
• Merge latest L10n changesets
• Update the CHANGELOG file:
  • Add version and date
  • Add bug references
  • Indicate if L10n were updated
  • Note any configuration option changes/additions
• Commit the CHANGELOG file

 git commit -m "Update changelog for <version>" CHANGELOG

• Push the changes

 git push origin <branch>

• Create the release

 # Replace <version> with whatever the version is, e.g. 0.14.0
 ./create_release.sh <version>

• File a bug, use one of the previous bugs as a template:
  • https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?list_id=12590497&short_desc=loop-client%20stage&resolution=FIXED&query_format=advanced&short_desc_type=allwordssubstr&component=Operations%3A%20Deployment%20Requests&product=Cloud%20Services
  • (This will hopefully be automated soon)
• Update the bug with the specifics of any configuration changes if needed.