[Resolved] Changelogs With Actual Changes

[Author]

Posts

[Scott]

Hi all,

This is more a heads-up/borderline rant...

Regarding Changelogs. Of late there's been a trend creeping in (it's not just Toolset for the record, it's happening right across the WP ecosystem, but until now Toolset hasn't been affected.)

Changelogs - there are no details in the most recent updates. Given that one is deploying changes to sites (even on staging) it's a pretty big deficit not to know what's been fixed, added or otherwise modified.

For example - small changes and fixes - I'll usually deploy these much faster and with more confidence than I would a major update with new features. '

It makes it a gamble. I know Changelogs are a PITA to manage - but Toolset is a tool used by businesses for businesses. It's pretty poor not to give even an indication. I'll wear it on Beta versions. But today Types 2.2 was released. You guessed it - not Changelog.

Please, please, please, please - before releasing code in the wild - which may be breaking - release it with a changelog.

Please?

Thank you!

Scott

[garenM]

Agreed. +1

[Juan Supporter Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+02:00)]

Hi Scott

Thanks for the feedback.

Mmmm I am not entirely sure I follow your request. Types 2.2 was released today on wordpress org and we included a chnagelog there:
hidden link
It is not available right now here, as we link there and we are in the middle of the complete release for everything else in Toolset, but once available here, you can see also full changelogs for releases. We have dedicated "version" posts that list the new features and improvements, along with bugfixes, with detailed information and screenshots:
https://toolset.com/version/types-2-2/

So maybe you are expecting this information to arrive in another way. Would you mind being a little more specific on how you would like to get it?

Regards.

[Scott]

Hi Juan,

I don't check the repository at WP for updates to Premium tools, mate. Reason being there's nearly always a difference between the Premium versions and the free versions in the repository.

Now - it may be the case that wp-types is there - but usually I'll do the checking from within WP. Todays update' changelog isn't available from within WP (clicking on the Details option for the update in the plugin update within the dashboard.)

Now - an update for Toolset Genesis integration came down the pipes too. Here's the changelog excerpts attached as screenshots:

That's basically useless. Nor can one go to WP and check the Genesis update. It's only available through you.

[Juan Supporter Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+02:00)]

Hi Scott

Thanks again for the feedback.

Ouch, you are absolutely right. The Genesis integration changelog is beyond useless, it is empty. We should not releas something like this.

Some of our plugins do not include a changelog file that WordPress can use on its modal window, but we should provide a shared way to check it. So I am creating a feature request in our internal tracking system for this., including two items:
- First, design a shared method for showing changelogs. We cna craft a dedicated admin page that, given a plugin and, eventually, a version number, displays the changelog for it.
- Second, enforce that everyone remembers to register into this system by making this a mandatory item in out releases checklist.

Hope this at least improves the lack of changelogs inside Toolset plugins, and the need to get to this site for information.

Regards.

[Scott]

Hi Juan,

Thanks, very much indeed, mate. Really appreciate it!!!!

[julieP]

I agree 100% with Scott's comments.

When can we expect to see full changelog details appearing within the Toolset site/download page please?

[Juan Supporter Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+02:00)]

Hi Julie (and Scott)

Thanks for the feedback (question in this case).

We are talking about different things here.

Scott was asking about changelogs being displayed when you go to ses the details for a plugin in the Plugins listing page inside your WordPress backend. Clicking the "View details" link should open a dialog wit the plugin description and the plugin changelog.

About that changelog, it comes directly from our site, and it basically uses the version post content. Now, the verson post is a deicated post we create on each Toolset plugin release, an contains dedicated information about that release. Some plugins include just a bulleted list, some go further with a full release notes document incluiding screenshots, some prodice basically nothing. A full list of version posts can be found here:
https://toolset.com/version/
Each entry with a "Full description" link goes to a version post. Note that some entries are empty, some offer a bulleted list and some offer this link, depending on the changeog we collect for the release. Because of that some plugins changelogs in their details dialog will contain detailed release notes, bulleted lists, or nothing.

We are currently in the process of unifying how this all works, so we offer pure and real, buleted lists, changelogs in that dialog. I hopw that Scott likes this piece of news. And the best part is thta this will happen silently, as the cnage happens in one file o our servers, and not inside each plugin, so we will nto need to wait or address any plugin update for this.

Now, on the specific question by Julie, as part of this uniformizatio, we will also unufy how we display version posts in the page I linked. When a plugin has release notes, they will be linked from there, but in any case there will be a list of changes there. We are enforcing developers to pass changelogs properly to our own site, so they get into that versions list and in any place displayig changelogs.

Long story short: in our site, we should be updatig old version posts wit missing info, and filling that info for any new release onwards. On your WordPress backend, you wil be able to get that information after we update how we collect and operate over it, but that process was already started.

Hope it helps.

Regards.