Release Process

Documentation guide based on the releases of 4.0.5 and 4.1.0 on January 31, 2021.

Updated for 4.1.6 on December 24, 2021.

-MGatner

Changelog

When generating the changelog each Pull Request to be included must have one of the following labels:

bug ... PRs that fix bugs
enhancement ... PRs to improve existing functionalities
new feature ... PRs for new features
refactor ... PRs to refactor

PRs with breaking changes must have the following additional label:

breaking change ... PRs that may break existing functionalities

To auto-generate, start drafting a new Release and use the "Auto-generate release notes" button. Copy the resulting content into CHANGELOG.md and adjust the format to match the existing content.

Preparation

Work off direct clones of the repos so the release branches persist for a time
Clone both codeigniter4/CodeIgniter4 and codeigniter4/userguide and resolve any necessary PRs
Vet the admin/ folders for any removed hidden files (Action deploy scripts do not remove these)

CodeIgniter4

Note: Most changes that need noting in the User Guide and docs should have been included with their PR, so this process assumes you will not be generating much new content.

Create a new branch release-4.x.x
Update system/CodeIgniter.php with the new version number: const CI_VERSION = '4.x.x';
Update user_guide_src/source/conf.py with the new version = '4.x' (if applicable) and release = '4.x.x'
Replace CHANGELOG.md with the new version generated above
Set the date in user_guide_src/source/changelogs/{version}.rst to format Release Date: January 31, 2021
Create a new changelog for the next version at user_guide_src/source/changelogs/{next_version}.rst and add it to index.rst
If there are additional upgrade steps, create user_guide_src/source/installation/upgrade_{ver}.rst and add it to upgrading.rst
Commit the changes with "Prep for 4.x.x release" and push to origin
Create a new PR from release-4.x.x to develop:
- Title: "Prep for 4.x.x release"
- Decription: "Updates changelog and version references for 4.x.x." (plus checklist)
Let all tests run, then review and merge the PR
Create a new PR from develop to master:
- Title: "4.x.x Ready code"
- Description: blank
Merge the PR then fast-forward develop to catch the merge commit
Create a new Release:
- Version: "v4.x.x"
- Title: "CodeIgniter 4.x.x"
- Description:

CodeIgniter 4.x.x release. 

See the changelog: https://github.com/codeigniter4/CodeIgniter4/blob/develop/CHANGELOG.md

Watch for the "Deploy Framework" Action to make sure framework and appstarter get updated
Run the following commands to install and test AppStarter and verify the new version:

composer create-project codeigniter4/appstarter release-test
cd release-test
composer test && composer info codeigniter4/framework

User Guide

See "Sphinx Installation" below if you run into issues during make

Still in the CodeIgniter4 repo enter the user_guide_src directory
Clear out any old build files: rm -rf build/
Build the HTML version of the User Guide: make html
Build the ePub version of the User Guide: make epub
Switch to the userguide repo and create a new branch release-4.x.x
Replace docs/ with CodeIgniter4/user_guide_src/build/html
Ensure the file docs/.nojekyll exists or GitHub Pages will ignore folders with an underscore prefix
Copy CodeIgniter4/user_guide_src/build/epub/CodeIgniter.epub to ./CodeIgniter4.x.x.epub
Commit the changes with "Update for 4.x.x" and push to origin
Create a new PR from release-4.x.x to develop:
- Title: "Update for 4.x.x"
- Description: blank
Merge the PR
Create a new Release:
- Version: "v4.x.x"
- Title: "CodeIgniter 4.x.x User Guide"
- Description: "CodeIgniter 4.x.x User Guide"
Watch for the "github pages" Environment to make sure the deployment succeeds

Website

Currently the User Guide on the website has to be updated manually. Visit Jim's user home where the served directory codeigniter.com exists. Copy the latest docs folder from the User Guide repo to public/userguide4 and browse to the website to make sure it works.

Announcement

Note: This forum is restricted to administrators.

Make a new topic in the "News & Discussion" forums: https://forum.codeigniter.com/forum-2.html
The content is somewhat organic, but should include any major features and changes as well as a link to the User Guide's changelog

After Publishing Security Advisory

Send a PR to PHP Security Advisories Database.
- E.g. https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/pull/606
- See https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories#contributing
- Don't forget to run php -d memory_limit=-1 validator.php, before submitting the PR

Appendix

Sphinx Installation

You may need to install Sphinx and its dependencies prior to building the User Guide. This worked seamlessly on Ubuntu 20.04:

sudo apt install python3-sphinx
sudo pip3 install sphinxcontrib-phpdomain
sudo pip3 install sphinx_rtd_theme

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