ER: Developers are creating branches off hackforla/website

[roslynwythe]

Dependency

• How to delete a branch from the Website repo #6416

Emergent Requirement - Problem

Developers inadvertently create extraneous branches off the hackforla/website repository (instead of creating branches on their fork) but they do not have rights to delete the extraneous branches. We need to prevent developers from creating these branches, and we require an issue template for instances for use when such a branch has been created and needs to be deleted.

Issue you discovered this emergent requirement in

• N/A

Date discovered

discussed at meeting 6/12/2023

Did you have to do something temporarily

• YES
• NO

We are currently pruning the branches manually, which is a waste of time.

Who was involved

Bonnie Wolfe, @JessicaLucindaCheng

What happens if this is not addressed

The branches will persist until deleted by a lead and the lead will need to figure out which branches can be deleted, which can take a lot of time and research.

Resources

Recommended Action Items

• Make a new issue
• Discuss with team
• Let a Team Lead know

Potential solutions [draft]

• prevent write members who are not part of merge team from creating branches

  • @JessicaLucindaCheng implemented the solution for preventing members (aside from merge team) from creating branches off hackforla/website in the future by doing the following:

    Click here to see the detailed instructions

    1. On the repo, select Settings.
    2. On the left menu, select Branches.
    3. Select Edit for the branch rule named *. (Yes, the branch rule is named with the asterisk symbol).
    4. Scroll toward the bottom of the page. Then, you'll see the Restrict pushes that create matching branches; make sure the checkbox next to it is selected.
       

• Write an issue for a back-end developer to work on creating an issue template that includes both:

  • A section for reporting that a branch created on the Website repo needs to be removed
  • A section with instructions for how to remove the branch.
    • Instructions can be copied and pasted from [Insert link to instructions] into the issue template

[JessicaLucindaCheng]

@ExperimentsInHonesty

@JessicaLucindaCheng I updated the possible solutions template part. From

Write an issue for a back-end developer to work on creating an issue template for reporting that a branch created by the Merge Team needs to be removed.

to

Write an issue for a back-end developer to work on creating an issue template for reporting that a branch created by the Merge Team needs to be removed. The issue template can be the report and the instructions for removing all in one.

If you agree, add ready for prioritization label, otherwise leave comment.

• I think the report and instructions can be included in the issue template together. However, I think a person on the website-admins team would have to write the instructions because I don't think other members of the team would necessarily know how within the context of the repo's branch rules set up. So, I wrote How to delete a branch from the Website repo #6416.
• Also, I rewrote the instructions to be:

• Write an issue for a back-end developer to work on creating an issue template that includes both:
  • A section for reporting that a branch created on the Website repo needs to be removed
  • A section with instructions for how to remove the branch.
    • Instructions can be copied and pasted from [Insert link to instructions] into the issue template

Next steps

• Product:
  • Prioritize How to delete a branch from the Website repo #6416
  • For this ER (ER: Developers are creating branches off hackforla/website #4876),
    • Remove the ready for product label
    • Add a ready for dev lead label
    • Move this ER into the Ice Box

[JessicaLucindaCheng]

Merge Team member or Technical Lead

• Once the issue in the Dependency section of this ER is closed, review this ER and make it ready for prioritization. Add a ready for prioritization label.