What? 💭

A Web App to copy GitHub labels from one repo to another.

Why? 🤷‍♀️

Having a standard list of labels across all of your projects means you can move between repositories quickly and effectively. However, manually adding labels to a new GitHub repository can become old, fast.
This app saves you time by automating the addition of labels to a new project, copying from a selected repo and creating them on the target repo.

Our main criteria is that the tool must be faster than manually adding labels. We offer a hosted version of the app if you don't want to configure/run the app yourself.

At dwyl we use labels a lot on issues and pull requests to communicate about the status of the work on a project. We work remotely and the labels allow us to quickly know what is going on. For example we can quickly see from the list of issues on a repository if someone is working on a specific issue (in-progress label), if a task is finished but awaiting-review or in-review.

See the complete list of labels and their description below.

This process streamlines communication and allows us to focus on developing features instead of spending time on "chat" explaining the status of an issue. It also allows us to communicate quickly with our clients & stakeholders as they know when to test and approve/reject a feature with the label please-test.

Who?

Any person that uses GitHub and has multiple repos they want to keep labels consistent across. i.e: people that value their time! ⏰

How?

A simple and intuitive UI authenticated with GitHub using elixir-auth-github and make requests to the GitHub API on your behalf.

After authentication via GitHub login simply have to submit a form with the following fields.

• Source repo name and owner.
• Target repo name and owner.

You can also copy labels again to previously synchronized repositories. If you need to make changes.

What happens to existing labels in target repo? 🤔

labels is non-destructive. If there are existing labels with the same name but a different colour, the colour will change to match the source repo. Other than this, it will simply add any labels that don't already exist and won't touch the existing ones.

Run the App! 🏃‍♀️

To run the labels app on your localhost, follow these steps:

1. Clone the project ⬇️

git clone git@github.com:dwyl/labels.git && cd labels

2. Install dependencies ⏳

mix setup

3. Configure Environment Variables 📝

labels uses elixir-auth-github for authentication, follow the instructions in: create-a-github-app-and-oauth2-credentials to get your GitHub Auth keys.

Create an .env file root or project with the two variables:

GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=<your-client-id>
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=<your-client-secret>

Once you've added the environment variables to the .env file and saved the file, run the command:

source .env

That will make your environment variables available to the App.

4. Run the App 🚀

mix s

Now visit: localhost:4000 in your web browser.

You should see something similar to the following:

This repository is our "single source of truth" of labels used across all @dwyl projects, see: github.com/dwyl/labels/labels

An explanation of each can be found below, starting with the custom dwyl labels, which we use in conjunction with our contributing process/guidelines.

Clicking on a label will take you to an issue with further discussion on its existence and meaning:

• awaiting-review #f39c12 - added to issue once a PR with its resolution has been assigned to a reviewer (replaces in-progress)
• chore #3A2716 - routine tasks that must be done for every project but require little active brain power
• discuss #60EEEE - invites discussion from contributors
• documentation #0075ca - Improvements or additions to documentation
• epic #000059 - big issues that span multiple days & need to be broken down
• external-dependency #e6e6e6 - no further work can be carried out until a third party completes an action (specified in a comment in the issue)
• in-progress #009688 - added when you start working on an issue (and have assigned it to yourself)
• in-review #128A0C - added to PR by QA/reviewer to show a review is in progress
• merge-conflicts #E74C3C - added to a PR when it has merge conflicts that need to be fixed by the PR's creator
• please-test #08E700 - added after PR is merged and the feature/fix/change has been deployed to somewhere the Product Owner can actually test it (assign issue to PO)
• priority-1 #0D47A1 - drop everything and work on this (used only when completely necessary)
• priority-2 #1976D2 - high priority issue (what needs doing now)
• priority-3 #42A5F5 - high priority (what needs doing next)
• priority-4 #8DC9F9 - low priority (to be upgraded later)
• priority-5 #C5DEF5 - lowest priority (non-urgent changes and backlog ideas)
• research #82f2d6 - additional research required to make progress on a story/task. Be specific in the issue description/comment.
• starter #27AE60 - issues that those with not much coding experience can contribute to
• T[x]d #F06292 - estimated time in 'x' days the issue will take to resolve
• T[x]h #F7C6C7 - estimated time in 'x' hours the issue will take to resolve
• technical #D4C5F9 - technical tasks e.g. deployment
• tech-debt #FF3636 - A feature/requirement implemented in a sub-optimal way & must be re-written. see: What is Technical Debt?
• user-feedback #E91E63 - requests or features that have been added to the backlog as a direct result of user testing
• va-task #128214 - denotes administrative tasks that can be done by 'Virtual Assistants', usually for non-developers

Github also gives you a pre-populated list of labels with every repo:

• bug #EE0701 - report a bug, not to be confused with a request for additional changes to the code
• duplicate #CCCCCC - duplicate issue (link to duplicate in comments)
• enhancement #84B6EB - improving existing code
• help-wanted #128A0C - signals author of the issue is looking for help or expertise on a subject (NB. if you'd like to see where dwyl is in need of a helping hand, check out https://tudo-app.herokuapp.com/)
• invalid #E6E6E6 - issue is not valid (not used in dwyl)
• question #CC317C - for open questions
• wontfix #ffffff - when an issue won't be addressed (add a comment to the issue as to why this is the case

Feedback / Questions / Suggestions 🙏

We hope you find the application useful! We really want to make the process of setting up a repo as fast as possible so hope this helps.

If you need something cleared up, have any requests or want to offer any improvements then please create an issue. We love hearing your thoughts. 😊