Add a release notes link to `textpattern_update_available`; add release notes to .com

[petecooper]

Currently, we have (en):

New Textpattern version {version} <a href=\"https://textpattern.com/download\" rel=\"external\">available for download</a>.

Since this gets eyeballs, we have another opportunity to prevent someone blundering through an upgrade if they don't reach the minimum ride height. Something like:

New Textpattern version {version} <a href=\"https://textpattern.com/download\" rel=\"external\">available for download</a>. Please refer to the release notes before upgrading.

Throw in a link to the release notes (prettied up as a page on .com?), perhaps a note for non-English languages that the release notes are in English, and I reckon that'll do it.

[Bloke]

Actually, yeah, is it worth having a /release-notes section on .com as a long-tail archive of everything that's been done? Easy to set up with a bunch of articles in that section, each of which lists the relevant bit taken from HISTORY.txt? The landing page lists all articles.

It's just a little grunt work to add a section, go through the history file and copy/paste each chunk into a new article and set the article's publish date to the release date. A quick win for SEO and for a link from this gTxt string.

[petecooper]

I was thinking of something very similar - a release notes landing page and then a link over to HISTORY.txt (either the live one in dev or link to the one attached to each release tag…this is probably best) for the person to peruse. We can tack on important pre-flight stuff into the release notes page.

[Bloke]

Ah right, okay so you were thinking of a single release notes page containing a link to the repo's HISTORY.txt. That would also work. Doesn't have the SEO 'refreshability look at me' but less potential work so I'm easy however way we slice it. A landing page endpoint for the gTxt string is the main goal. Anything else is icing sugar.

EDIT: presumably if we link to a file in a repo on the 'main' branch, that always stays valid and points to the 'current' state of affairs, even when we tinker with it and push new commits afterwards? Just trying to avoid having to update the link each time we merge a release to the main branch.

[petecooper]

There's a risk of duplicated content if we're copying HISTORY.txt from GitHub to .com…but then I guess anyone can republish the release notes anywhere…so I'm overthinking.

And we could have a sticky article with "here's the current stuff" + a link, then dated articles with chunks from the respective release. I prefer your idea, thinking on it.

[petecooper]

Landing page is now set (/release-notes) but not styled or populated.

Edit: I've started processing releases, oldest first. We can figure out styling etc when the content is in.

Edit: I've cribbed the blog page and tweaked for release notes (inc metadata), perhaps we could offer an article list instead of the excerpt? It'd look tidier and be more easily reference-able.

[petecooper]

To tidy up and format, set to 'pending' for review, audit with fresh eyes (@petecooper & @Bloke):

• 479 Textpattern 4.8.8 - Release Notes
• 478 Textpattern 4.8.7 - Release Notes
• 477 Textpattern 4.8.6 - Release Notes
• 476 Textpattern 4.8.5 - Release Notes
• 475 Textpattern 4.8.4 - Release Notes
• 474 Textpattern 4.8.3 - Release Notes
• 473 Textpattern 4.8.2 - Release Notes
• 472 Textpattern 4.8.1 - Release Notes
• 471 Textpattern 4.8.0 - Release Notes
• 470 Textpattern 4.7.3 - Release Notes
• 469 Textpattern 4.7.2 - Release Notes
• 468 Textpattern 4.7.1 - Release Notes
• 467 Textpattern 4.7.0 - Release Notes
• 466 Textpattern 4.6.2 - Release Notes
• 465 Textpattern 4.6.1 - Release Notes
• 464 Textpattern 4.6.0 - Release Notes
• 463 Textpattern 4.5.7 - Release Notes
• 462 Textpattern 4.5.5 - Release Notes
• 461 Textpattern 4.5.4 - Release Notes
• 460 Textpattern 4.5.3 - Release Notes
• 459 Textpattern 4.5.2 - Release Notes
• 458 Textpattern 4.5.1 - Release Notes
• 457 Textpattern 4.5.0 - Release Notes
• 456 Textpattern 4.4.1 - Release Notes
• 455 Textpattern 4.4.0 - Release Notes
• 454 Textpattern 4.3.0 - Release Notes
• 453 Textpattern 4.2.0 - Release Notes
• 452 Textpattern 4.0.8 - Release Notes
• 451 Textpattern 4.0.7 - Release Notes
• 450 Textpattern 4.0.6 - Release Notes
• 449 Textpattern 4.0.5 - Release Notes
• 448 Textpattern 4.0.4 - Release Notes
• 447 Textpattern 4.0.3 - Release Notes
• 446 Textpattern 4.0.2 - Release Notes
• 445 Textpattern 4.0.1 - Release Notes

Other stuff:

• landing page scaffold tweaks
• landing page copy

[petecooper]

I'd like to bump this to 4.8.8 GA milestone if that's doable. If we leave it for 4.9 then it'll be at least 4.9.1 before anyone sees it.

This means we need to get the bulk of the release notes articles processed by - say - end of January, along with the landing page presentation scaffold tweaks (maybe a @philwareham gig?), and tweak the textpattern_update_available to link to the landing page post-beta.

(We could change the textpattern_update_available text now, I guess, since there's not gonna be newer-than-4.8.8 release for some time to come.)

[philwareham]

What is the status on this? Thanks.

[petecooper]

I'm moving this from 4.9.0 milestone for now, if I get time I'll backfill the remaining release notes and update #307 (comment) - reassigning to 4.9 milestone.