Automate Website Update on Processing Release with GitHub Workflows

[SableRaf]

Problem Statement

The Processing download page does not currently update automatically when a new version is released. As a result, the website must be updated manually through a multi-step process, which can be time-consuming for maintainers.

Proposed Solution

Instead of manually triggering fetchReleases.js, the update of the website can be automated with GitHub workflows whenever a new version of Processing is released. The automation process will fetch the releases from both the Processing and Processing4 repositories and write them to JSON files in the content/download/releases directory. For more information, refer to fetchReleases.js.

The action should make a new release for the website and deploy it by interacting with the existing deploy workflow.

Note: this change will require the Processing4 repository to dispatch an event upon the creation of a new release.

Benefits

• The website will always be up-to-date, providing users with accurate information about the latest version of Processing.
• The manual process of updating the website will be automated, reducing the workload on maintainers and improving efficiency.
• A better user experience, as users will have access to the latest information about Processing at all times.

References

Dispatch event: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/26323#discussioncomment-3251448

Notes

The corresponding issue on the processing4 repository can be found at benfry/processing4#665

[shahnoor-khan]

I can work on this! Can u assign this to me ?

[SableRaf]

Hi @shahnoor-khan! Sure. Let me know if you need any input on this.

I would suggest you post on the corresponding issue on the Processing repo so I can assign it to you too: benfry/processing4#665

Thanks in advance for your help!

[shahnoor-khan]

Thanks @SableRaf! I work on this issue and will ping u, if help is needed.

yeah pls assign me that issue as well.

[SableRaf]

Hi @shahnoor-khan. I'd like to suggest a small change to the proposed solution. Instead of automatically updating the website, it would be better to automatically create a Pull Request. This way, there would still be a human in the loop to review and approve the changes before they go live.

[shahnoor-khan]

Okay @SableRaf. Will definitely try it that way.