How to release a version

Before releasing, ensure that you're on the main branch.

New in Blacklight > 7: Make sure that the JavaScript package was successfully built when updates were contributed.

$ npm run js-compile-bundle

If this produces changes, make sure to follow the pull request contribution workflow to submit these changes.

1. Update the version number in ./VERSION and ./package.json

   {major}.{minor}.{patch}
   

2. Fix GitHub issue tracker to know about the release

   • Create a milestone in GitHub for the NEXT version.
   • Move any open tickets for released version to the next version.
   • Mark the milestone as closed.

3. Release the gem and npm package

   $ rake release

4. Write Github release notes for the tag, using this template:

   [Commit History](https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/compare/v5.x.0...v5.x.0) | [Milestone](https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/issues?q=milestone:{milestone here})
   
   (anything important about this release, themes, etc)
   
   ### New Features and improvements
   
   (#ticketnumber and a human-readable description of the ticket, usually the ticket title. If the ticket title doesn't make sense, either edit the ticket directly, or provide an alternative title here)
   
   ##  Bug Fixes
   
   ### Upgrade Notes
   
   (anything special that needs to be called out)
   
   ### Tested dependencies
   
   This version of Blacklight works on Ruby on Rails 6.1 - 7.0. (This can be found in https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/blob/main/.github/workflows/ruby.yml)
   

5. Prepare announcement

   • Include URL to GitHub closed issues for version
   • Include URL to github commits between tags. github can show all commits between two versions with a URL of this form: http://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/compare/v2.5.0...v2.6.0 Replace with previous version and current release version tags.
   • Include URL to the Github release notes