consider using GitHub actions to automatically label PRs

[alee]

https://github.com/actions/labeler

UPDATE: please consider upvoting https://github.community/t5/GitHub-Actions/GitHub-actions-are-severely-limited-on-PRs/m-p/54669# to improve awareness of this issue to the GitHub team. Having a GitHub action be able to automatically label a PR based on its context would be pretty helpful!

[cmbarton]

Outstanding!!!

[alee]

unfortunately it appears this only works on pull requests that originate from this repository, not forks:

Note that only pull requests being opened from the same repository can be labeled. This action will not currently work for pull requests from forks -- like is common in open source projects -- because the token for forked pull request workflows does not have write permissions.

[alee]

So we'll probably need to create PR templates like @cpritcha did for issues following a similar pattern:

https://help.github.com/en/github/building-a-strong-community/creating-a-pull-request-template-for-your-repository

using query parameters to the label the PR appropriately:

https://help.github.com/en/github/managing-your-work-on-github/about-automation-for-issues-and-pull-requests-with-query-parameters

[cmbarton]

Is this something we can do this week? Or do we need to give out labeling permissions to participants and do it manually?

[alee]

We should be able to get it done this week but we need to test out the PR templates. @cpritcha and @chrstngyn and I are discussing at the moment

[cpritcha]

Multiple PR templates aren't easily possible to take advantage of because we can't pass through the needed template information to the edit URL. You can only pass the template information if you're on a branch comparison page like develop...interop-edits (so https://github.com/openmodelingfoundation/openmodelingfoundation.github.io/compare/develop...interop-edits?template=accessibility.md if it were setup)

Instead I created a single PR template with a checklist for contributors to complete. This is what it looks like now:

Before you submit this pull request be sure to

- [ ] label the PR appropriately
- [ ] assign it to a suitable project
- [ ] request reviewers
- [ ] associate the PR with one or more issues using [references](https://help.github.com/en/github/writing-on-github/autolinked-references-and-urls#issues-and-pull-requests)

[cmbarton]

First 2 required. Second 2 optional. The suggester may not know who to suggest for review. We will ultimately have this worked out but not yet. There may not be an issue for a PR.

[cmbarton]

Also, people doing a PR must have permission to label and assign it to a project for this to be meaningful.

[alee]

right, I'm not sure this template makes sense for new contributors who by definition will not have any permissions on the repository. But it may be fine for the workshop..

@cpritcha can you explain why multiple pull request templates don't work? From this post it appears that the selection menu isn't available but you can still pass template=FOO.md to select an appropriate PR template.

https://github.community/t5/How-to-use-Git-and-GitHub/Multiple-Pull-Request-Templates/td-p/20909

[cpritcha]

It's not a matter a matter of passing the template on pr creation time as a query parameter it's a matter of getting to that page in the first place. When you click on the suggest edits button you get to a page to edit the markdown document and commit the results. Passing a template query parameter to https://github.com/openmodelingfoundation/openmodelingfoundation.github.io/edit/develop/content/en/conformance/documentation/_index.md doesn't pass the template parameter on the create pull request page. It needs to be on something like https://github.com/openmodelingfoundation/openmodelingfoundation.github.io/compare/develop...interop-edits?template=accessibility.md

[alee]

That makes total sense now, thanks for clarifying! I forgot the edit page isn't the create PR page and we'd need to thread that template query parameter into the "Create pull request" somehow..

[cmbarton]

The check list does not work and needs to be rethought. It pops up in the description box (in edit form not clean preview) at the time to actually create the PR. But at that stage, it is not possible to label the PR, assign it to a project, etc. So people will look at this and go 'how can I do that'?