GitLab Integrations Framework

17 posts · Jul 2016 – Jan 2023

What this trail covers

GitLab's integration capabilities are being expanded through a four-pronged approach: using GitLab to deploy to external platforms or host runners, hosting GitLab Server on external platforms, integrating with the development cycle via APIs and webhooks to display outputs in merge requests, and deep application integration requiring architectural understanding. The GitLab VS Code extension is being developed to bring merge request review functions. Sentry's integration with GitLab has been enhanced.

All GitLab trails

Feb 2023Efficient DevSecOps workflows: Hands-on python-gitlab API automationThis post introduces and demonstrates the practical application of the python-gitlab library for automating DevSecOps workflows. It covers basic usage, configuration via environment variables, managing API objects, pagination, and provides concrete use cases for both reading and writing data to the GitLab API. Specific examples include listing branches, inventorying CI/CD variables, moving epics, ensuring project settings compliance, and generating release notes. It also touches upon containerizing API scripts and integrating them into CI/CD pipelines.
Jan 20234 approaches to GitLab integrationsThis post outlines four distinct approaches to integrating external systems with GitLab: 1. Using GitLab to deploy applications to external platforms or host GitLab runners on external infrastructure. 2. Hosting GitLab Server on external platforms. 3. Integrating with the development cycle using GitLab's APIs and webhooks to display outputs within merge requests (e.g., security reports, metrics). 4. Deep application integration requiring architectural understanding of GitLab, with examples like managed PostgreSQL or Redis services.
Nov 2021Four new tools for your Visual Studio Code and GitLab tool beltThis post introduces several new features and improvements to the GitLab Workflow VS Code extension: Snippet patches for suggesting arbitrary-sized code changes in MR reviews, improved CI status display with individual job status and current branch sync, the ability to checkout MR branches locally for interactive review, and the 'Remote Repositories' feature for browsing large repositories without cloning. These features are largely community-contributed.
May 2021Visual Studio code editor: Eight tips for using GitLab VS CodeThis post details eight tips for using the GitLab VS Code extension to improve developer productivity. It covers cloning projects, viewing MRs and issues with custom queries, creating MRs via a status bar button, configuring GitLab CI with autocompletion and validation, creating and pasting project snippets, copying web URLs for project files, and troubleshooting source control issues. It also highlights the functionality of the GitLab Workflow extension.
Feb 2021A new era of Kubernetes integrations on GitLab.comThis post announces the availability of the GitLab Agent for Kubernetes on GitLab.com (SaaS). It details the Agent's architecture, comprising `agentk` and `kas` components, and its secure communication mechanism using websockets or gRPC. The post explains the shift from certificate-based integrations to a more secure, pull-based approach with the Agent, emphasizing its role in enabling fine-grained access control and serving as a foundation for future Kubernetes integrations. It also mentions the integration with Cilium for Kubernetes network security alerts and outlines ongoing development efforts towards general availability and integration with GitLab CI for push-based deployments.
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Nov 2020VS Code extension development with GitLabThis post details the development of the GitLab VS Code extension, explaining the VS Code Extension API, marketplace, and how GitLab leverages these for integration. It highlights the use of Commands, Tree View, and Status Bar to bring GitLab features into the editor, enabling users to interact with issues, merge requests, and pipelines without leaving the editor. It also provides an example project for developing and publishing VS Code extensions using GitLab CI/CD.
Sep 2020Understand the new GitLab Agent for KubernetesThis post introduces the initial release of the GitLab Agent for Kubernetes, a new integration designed to address weaknesses in previous Kubernetes integrations. Key contributions include establishing a permanent communication channel between GitLab and Kubernetes, enabling pull-based deployments using the gitops-engine, and focusing on security by restricting GitLab's cluster rights and avoiding internet exposure. It also outlines design goals centered on being cloud-native, serving expert Kubernetes platform engineers, and offering a secure solution.
Jul 2020How we created a GitLab Workflow Extension for VS CodeThis post announces the official maintenance and support of the GitLab Workflow Extension for VS Code by GitLab. It details the history of the extension, its community contributions, and the improvements made since GitLab took over maintenance, including an application security review, a security release process, and foundational work for future testing. The post also outlines future plans, focusing on triaging existing issues, capturing new bugs, and improving the test suite and code quality to ensure a trustworthy extension.
Jan 2020Teams speed development with GitLab & Mattermost ChatOpsThis post details the integration of Mattermost for ChatOps with GitLab. It highlights how Mattermost can be used to interact with CI/CD jobs through messaging, with output posted back to chat channels. Specific examples include a GitLab plugin for Mattermost that provides notifications for new issues, review requests, daily reminders, and sidebar buttons for tracking reviews, unread messages, assignments, and open merge requests. It also describes how GitLab commits can be pushed to a Mattermost channel via webhooks for management visibility and how separate 'Heartbeat' channels can be used for application event notifications.
Nov 2019Native code intelligence is coming to GitLabThis post details the integration of Sourcegraph's code intelligence capabilities directly into the GitLab codebase. This includes adding native support for 'go-to-definition' and 'find references' within hover tooltips in various code views. The integration was achieved through collaboration between Sourcegraph and GitLab engineering teams, resulting in a browser-based developer platform without requiring extra plugins for users on GitLab.com. For self-managed instances, a private Sourcegraph instance is required. The rollout strategy on GitLab.com involves dogfooding within the _gitlab-org_ group first, with plans to extend to public projects.
Jan 2019Sentry's GitLab integration streamlines error remediationThis post details the enhancements to the Sentry-GitLab integration, specifically the addition of release and commit tracking, and the suspect commits feature. It also highlights the existing functionality of issue management and creation directly within the Sentry UI, and the ability to link existing GitLab issues. The post mentions future work to integrate Sentry errors directly into the GitLab interface.
Dec 2018A visual prototype of Drupal.org's GitLab integrationThis post details the technical collaboration between Drupal.org and GitLab to integrate Drupal.org's version control system with GitLab. Key contributions include: - Drupal.org developing a `versioncontrol_gitlab` module that extends the `versioncontrol_git` module. - Collaboration with the GitLab engineering team to address specific issues, including: - `git merge-base web API` - API for confirming user email addresses - Configuration of display URL for clone instructions - Ability to hide user email addresses from GitLab UI - Allowing developer role to delete tags - Setting `GL_REPOSITORY` in update hooks for API-initiated requests - Deduplication of Git objects to reduce disk space of repository forks.
Mar 2018A VS Code extension for GitLab: GitLab WorkflowThis post details the development of the GitLab Workflow VS Code extension. It covers the initial iteration of displaying assigned issues and merge requests, followed by further iterations that added features like pipeline status display in the status bar, advanced pipeline actions (view, create, retry, cancel), issue and MR search, viewing MRs and closing issues from the status bar, opening active files with line highlighting, creating snippets, comparing branches with master, and validating `.gitlab-ci.yml` files.
Jan 2017Tower launches GitLab integration on WindowsThis post details the integration of Tower, a Git desktop client for Windows, with GitLab. It highlights features such as a Services Manager for account management and one-click repository cloning, productivity boosters like automatic fetching and stashing, a visual Conflict Wizard for resolving merge conflicts, and beginner-friendly features that abstract away command-line operations. It also mentions advanced features for professionals like discarding single lines of code and support for git-flow.
Jul 2016Koding + GitLab: Contribute code fasterThis post introduces an integration with Koding, enabling one-click IDE environment creation for GitLab issues and merge requests. This aims to reduce the time developers spend setting up development environments, allowing them to contribute code faster. The integration allows any GitLab repository to be built on any cloud, facilitating faster contribution to merge requests and inspection of failing tests.