Document the Dropwizard release process (dropwizard#1592)

* Document the Dropwizard release process

Add a simple document, which describes the technical aspects of making a release of Dropwizard.
This information is mostly exist in the form emails between Dropwizard commiters and personal
experience, so it's quite easy to a maintainer to forget some steps during a release and make a
mistake. It would be great, if we wrote it down in the repository and make accessible to the community.
This should make Dropwizard a more transparent project and allow to improve our release process.

[ciskip]

Use script

* Add a script for prepating Dropwizard docs

This script builds the project documentation, copies it to `gh-pages`
branch and commits it.

This allows in some regard to automate the process of preparing
documentation for publication to the site.

[ci skip]

Author: arteam

RELEASES.md

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# Dropwizard Release Process
+
+This document describes the technical aspects of the Dropwizard release process.
+
+## Who is responsible for a release?
+
+A release can be performed by any member of the Dropwizard project with the commit rights to the repository.
+The person responsible for the release MUST seek an approval for it in the `dropwizard-committers`
+mailing list beforehand.
+
+## Prerequisites for a new maintainer
+
+* Register an account in the Sonatype's [Jira](https://issues.sonatype.org)
+* Create a Jira ticket asking to obtain the right permissions to push artifacts belonging
+to the `io.dropwizard` group.
+* Write an email to @joschi or @carlo-rtr, so they can approve the request in the Jira ticket.
+* Generate a gpg key with an email linked to your Github/Sonatype account
+`gpg --gen-key`
+* Distribute the key
+`gpg --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu --send-keys XXXX` # XXXX - the code of the generated key
+
+## Performing a release
+
+* Edit `docs/source/about/release-notes.rst` and set the release date;
+* Edit `docs/source/about/docs-index.rst` and set the link to the release docs;
+* Run `mvn release:prepare` in the master branch;
+* Observe that all tests passed, there is no build errors and the corresponding git tag was created;
+* Run `mvn release:perform -Dgoals=deploy`;
+* Login at Sonatype's OSS Nexus `https://oss.sonatype.org`;
+* Click "Staging repositories";
+* Find the `io.dropwizard` group, and click on the close button on the top bar;
+* Wait while the Nexus server will perform some checks that artifacts were uploaded correctly;
+* Click the refresh button;
+* Select `io.dropwizard` again, and hit the release button on the top bar;
+* Normally the release will be available in the Maven Central repository in 3-4 hours (this may vary depending on the
+indexing process).
+* Publish the documentation. Run the script `prepare_docs.sh` and verify it completed successfully.
+Push the changes to the remote `gh-pages` branch.
+
+## Making an announcement
+
+After the release has been uploaded to the repository and the documentation has been updated, a release announcement
+should be published in the `dropwizard-user` and `dropwizard-dev` mailing lists. There is no formal structure for
+the announcement, but generally it should contain a short description of the release, the artifact coordinates in the
+Maven Central, a link to documentation, a link to the release notes, and a link to the bug tracker.

prepare_docs.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Builds the documentation of the Dropwizard project for the specified
+# release, copies and commits it to the local gh-pages branch.
+#
+# Usage: ./prepare_docs.sh v1.0.1
+#
+
+set -e
+
+[[ "$#" -eq 0 ]] && { echo "No release branch is specified"; exit 1; }
+
+release_branch="$1"
+release_number="${release_branch:1}"
+
+echo -e "\nGenerating Dropwizard documentation"
+echo "Release branch: $release_branch"
+echo "Release number: $release_number"
+
+echo -e "\n-------------------------------"
+echo "Moving to $release_branch branch"
+echo "-------------------------------"
+
+git checkout "$release_branch"
+
+echo -e "\n-------------------------------"
+echo "Generating documentation"
+echo -e "-------------------------------\n"
+
+mvn clean site
+
+echo -e "\n-------------------------------"
+echo "Staging documentation"
+echo "-------------------------------"
+mvn site:stage
+
+echo -e "\n-------------------------------"
+echo "Moving to the gh-pages branch"
+echo -e "-------------------------------\n"
+git checkout gh-pages
+
+echo -e "\n-------------------------------"
+echo "Creating a directory for documentation"
+echo -e "-------------------------------\n"
+mkdir "$release_number"
+
+echo -e "\n-------------------------------"
+echo "Copy documentation"
+echo -e "-------------------------------\n"
+cp -r target/staging/* "${release_number}"/
+
+echo -e "\n-------------------------------"
+echo "Add and commit changes to the repository"
+echo -e "-------------------------------\n"
+git add .
+git commit -m "Add docs for Dropwizard $release_number"
+
+echo -e "\nDone!"
+echo "Please review changes and push them with if they look good"
+exit $?