Ravid12
commented
5 years ago Update
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do this ticket, and ran into a few issues on the way. Just going to document what I tried and learned from it here:
UI
I first spent some time figuring out how to implement a way for users to add a tag. I figured this would take place in the same modal that pops up when a user clicks a commit on the graph screen.
- In "misc/graphSetup", there is a method named "drawGraph()". This method has the HTML for creating the modals when a node on the graph is clicked. By adding a small input field for the Tag Name, and a button, I was able to add Tags to certain commits.
- I was able to identify which nodes were commits by adding a property named "type: commit" to the method "makeAbsNode" in "misc/graphing", in the JSON block labelled absNode.add({});
Add Tag Logic
- Adding a Tag was as simple as calling nodegit's "Repository.createTag()" for the certain commit.
Display Tag Logic
This was where I had the most trouble.
- had to spend a good 2-3 hours using the chrome debug tools to figure out what actually happens when the graph is constructed.
- There are a few methods in "misc/graphing.ts" named "makeAbsNode", "makeBasicNode". I could not figure out the difference between each node, but "makeAbsNode" is the method for creating the commits and branches we see on the graph screen.
- In "misc/repo.ts" there is a method named "refreshAll()" which appears to be called everytime the graph screen is opened or updated. This method calls repository.getReferences(Git.Reference.TYPE.LISTALL) which lists all the references which are HEADS, REMOTES, and TAGS.
- The "refreshAll()" method only had specific logic for handling Remotes but ran the same code for Heads and Tags. I tried to add logic for adding Tags, but spent around 4 hours trying to fix this error:
the requested type does not match the type in the ODB. It appears this issue comes from the fact that somewhere in the code, we are looking for a TAG object by commit, which causes a mismatch. (See https://github.com/nodegit/nodegit/issues/953).
After a lot of time debugging and further google searching, I was unable to fix this, and ended up working on other things.
Please find my attempt at changing this here: https://github.com/Ravid12/VisualGit_SE701_2019_1/tree/feature/29-raha837-add-tagging-support
Feature request:
Add support for tagging commits in the past and/or the current commit that has yet to be pushed. This will allow users to mark important points in their repository for example "v1.0" without needing to search for a certain commit message/checksum. Users should also be able to view the tags on the main page.