Merge pull request #517 from facultyai/release-instructions

Update release instructions

Author: tcbegley

docs/how-to-release.md

@@ -1,19 +1,22 @@
-
 # How to release dash-bootstrap-components
 
-This is a set of instructions for releasing to Pypi. The release process is somewhat automated with an [`invoke`](http://docs.pyinvoke.org/en/latest/getting_started.html>) task file. You will need `invoke` and `semver` installed.
+This is a set of instructions for releasing _dash-bootstrap-components_. The release process is somewhat automated with an [`invoke`](http://docs.pyinvoke.org/en/latest/getting_started.html>) task file. You will need `invoke` and `semver` installed.
+
+- Run `invoke prerelease <version>`, where `version` is the version number of the release candidate. If you are aiming to release version `0.0.7`, this will be `0.0.7-rc1`. This will automatically bump the version numbers and push a release branch to GitHub.
+
+- Create a pull request with this branch, and document changes in the release in the comment of your pull request. The title and comment of the pull request are used by GitHub Actions to make the release on GitHub. See the other releases or the [changelog](https://dash-bootstrap-components.opensource.faculty.ai/changelog/) for previous release summaries.
 
-- Run `invoke prerelease <version>`, where `version` is the version number of the release candidate. If you are aiming to release version `0.0.7`, this will be `0.0.7-rc1`. This will automatically bump the version numbers and upload the release to Pypi.
+- Merge the pull request. This will trigger a GitHub Action that will build the package and upload to PyPI.
 
 - Verify that you can install the new version and that it works correctly with `pip install dash-bootstrap-components==<new version>`. It's best to verify the installation on a clean virtual machine (rather than just in a new environment) since installation is more complex than for pure Python packages.
 
 - If the manual installation tests failed, fix the issue and repeat the previous steps with `rc2` etc. If installing worked, proceed to the next steps.
 
-- Run `invoke release <version>`, where `version` is the version number of the release (e.g. `0.7.0`). You will be prompted to enter a changelog. This will create a release, push it to Pypi and add a tag on current main.
+- Run `invoke release <version>`, where `version` is the version number of the release (e.g. `0.7.0`). This will push a release branch to GitHub.
 
-- Verify that the new version is available by running `pip install dash-bootstrap-components` in a new virtual environment.
+- As before, open a pull request and use the title and comment to document changes to the package. When the pull request is merged GitHub Actions will build the packages and upload it to PyPI.
 
-- Run `invoke postrelease <version>`, where `version` is the version number of the new release. This will change the version numbers back to a `-dev` version.
+- Verify that the new version is available by running `pip install -U dash-bootstrap-components` in a new virtual environment.
 
 # Releasing documentation changes
 

tasks.py

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ def prerelease(ctx, version):
         "dash_bootstrap_components/__init__.py "
         "tests/test_version.py"
     )
-    run(f'git commit -m "Set version to {version}"')
+    run(f'git commit -m "Prerelease {version}"')
     run(f"git push origin prerelease/{version}")
 
 
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ def release(ctx, version):
         "dash_bootstrap_components/__init__.py "
         "tests/test_version.py"
     )
-    run(f'git commit -m "Bump version to {version}"')
+    run(f'git commit -m "Release {version}"')
     run(f"git push origin release/{version}")