Each time the main branch (i.e. the master branch) on this repo changes, the following website changes in response to that change: https://rwth-crmasters-wise2122.gitlab.io/deep-music-visualizer-showdown/

The process responsible of this is called DevOps and is described in the file named .gitlab-ci.yml at the root of this repo.

An Example of a Website Development Process

Using a Static-Site-Generation tool named HUGO and a repository made up of markdown files, images/videos and HTML templates.

Below is a diagram of what happens each time we change the repository:

In any development team, you have to be on the same page with other developers in the team with regard to:

1. The file-naming policy: how to name the files we add to the repo in different directories
2. The branch-naming policy: how do we call our branches
3. The merge-request documentation:

• when to mark the merge request as a draft,
• how to name the merge request,
• what information to add to the merge-request body

In the session on the 1st of December, 2021 of the DSSIPD course, we did not have clear policies. This resulted in a lot of inconsistency which would make managing the development difficult, and hence would be unacceptable in a professional environment.

Hence, when joining a new development team, even if you are a consultant, a content creator, or a manager, it is important to ask how things are expected to be done to maximize the impact of your contributions and to minimize friction with coworkers and line managers.

Contribution Guidelines to this Repo

In order to mitigate the problems above and to help you grow professionally, we came up with the following guidelines after the session on the 1st of December:

1. Filenames: all filenmes should be in small-caps, dashes in-between words, and no spaces/special characters. More specifically:
   1. Filenames in ./static/videos/ (for the competition entry videos) use either your first name or your last name, depending on which one is more unique (if both are equally unique, then it is up to you to decide). If more than one video needs to be pushed, use a dash and a number before the extension (e.g. orwa-1.mp4, orwa-2.mp4)
   2. Filenames in ./content/post (for the competition entry articles) follow the format "YYYY-MM-DD-first-last.md" (please see the examples in that directory)
2. Branch names:
   1. For branches adding a new competition entry: use "competition-first-last" to indicate that it is a branch designating a competition entry and that it belongs to you.
   2. For branches fixing an issue: use "bugfix-issue-number" where number is the issue number.
   3. For branches fixing a problem that had not been documented in an issue: use "bugfix-first-last"
   4. For other types of improvements after your requirements are met: use "feature-(first|last)-..." where the part (A|B) means either A or B and the three dots ... stand for anything you want assuming it is:
      1. All in small caps
      2. Uses dashes in-between the words
      3. No special characters
3. Merge request: please mark the merge request as a draft until you are sure that it runs correctly (using the preview_website batch file ran locally) and that all the changes you have made locally are already pushed to your branch on the remote. The title for the merge request should be:
   1. "Competition entry for first last" in case of requesting a merge of a competition entry
   2. "Bugfix for issue #number" in case of requetsing a merge of a requested change (using the issues feature in GitLab)
   3. "Improved first last's content" in cae of requesting a merge of an improved .md page

In the meantime, we do not require any information or documents to be attached to the body of the merge request.

Adding a competition entry

After creating your own branch (following the guidelines above). Follow these steps:

1. Look for your video file in the ./static/video folder on this repo, this has one of two possible outcomes:
   1. You found the video file(s), they have been pushed by the instructor from Moodle. Keep note of the filename stem (without the extension), and let's call that video and go to step 2 below.
   2. The file is not there, because you did not submit on time. In this case, you will have to commit your video file to ./content/video (please follow the naming guidelines above). The stem of this filename (without the extension) is assume to be video in step 2 below.
2. After you identified the video, this is the time to add a new .md file in the ./content/post directory of the repo (please follow the naming guidelines above). In this file, please use the contents of 2021-12-01-orwa-diraneyya.md as a template while changing this line:

   {{<video "...">}}
   

   to include the video filename stem video where the three dots ... are (without the extension).
3. Use the preview_website.bat batch file to ensure that the two changes above result in adding your competition entry to the showdown website.
4. Commit the changes above to your own created branch and push the chages to the remote.
5. Go to GitLab.com and create a merge request (please follow the merge-requet guidelines above).

References

• Deep Music Visualizer: Is a repository on GitHub that we use in this project to generate music visualizations from a music file and a list of image classes from a public dataset.
• HUGO: Is a computer program that generates a website from a set of .md files containing the content, which are formatted using a number of .html Go templates.
• GitLabs CI/CD: Is a DevOps system where pushes to GitLab repository triggers a computer script that can then generate something useful, in this case a website.
• GitLab Pages: Is the part of GitLab where GitLab CI/CD generates a website and GitLab provides a URL where this DevOps-generated website can be served.