add the option to reorder/disable stack list in PR bodies

[foxfirecodes]

i love the idea of having a list of branches in the stack in my PR bodies, but i dont love that it's at the bottom of the PR body. i would prefer if it was at the top. so it would nice to be able to choose between top/bottom. it would also be nice if i could disable it entirely, as i have my own script for updating PR bodies with a stack list that has functionality that is specific to a specific repo.

a future feature to customize the format would be nice, but im not including that as part of this request.

it looks like this would be pretty easy to handle, as it seems like the logic lives here and would just need to be changed to take an option that decides whether to prepend or append:

gitbutler/apps/desktop/src/lib/forge/shared/prFooter.ts

Lines 125 to 136 in 66ecd65

	function updateBody(
	body: string | undefined,
	prNumber: number,
	allPrNumbers: number[],
	symbol: string,
	) {
	const head = (body?.split(STACKING_FOOTER_BOUNDARY_TOP).at(0) || "").trim();
	const tail = (body?.split(STACKING_FOOTER_BOUNDARY_BOTTOM).at(1) || "").trim();
	const footer = generateFooter(prNumber, allPrNumbers, symbol);
	const description = head + "\n\n" + footer + "\n\n" + tail;
	return description;
	}

happy to open a PR for this! it seems like most of the tech/decision complexity is just in adding a new setting and adding it to the UI somewhere

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for this suggestion.

Such a setting would also have to affect the CLI, which can also create stacked PRs. Code affected would be the CLI directly and probably both front ends depending on how it's implemented. For all I know, the backend doesn't do that yet, but I might be wrong, and @estib-vega would know.

[estib-vega]

Yep, this is a great idea. For sure we should implement it. Thanks for raising this @foxfirecodes!

For all I know, the backend doesn't do that yet, but I might be wrong, and @estib-vega would know.

Yep, we just need the frontend to call the same backend APIs and update both to be toggle-able and customizable

[estib-vega]

Assigned it to myself in order to take this as bandwidth allows. Especially since this probably would require design input which is also bandwidth constrained at the moment.

[masecla22]

Are you guys open to external contributions here? This is something in sturggling with actively. My team is loving git butler, but only certain members of the team use it. As such, the ones who don't are very disgruntled with their own MRs being modified.

[masecla22]

At the very least, I'd be down to integrate an enable / disable switch.

Id see this implemented in two places, either we jam an option in the Git stuff sidebar option:

Something like this.

That being said, I can totally imagine these options being a bit more annoying to implement overtime, so it'd be possibly nice to get a "Forge Specific Options", which shows up either as literally "Forge Options", or shows up with the detected forge's name, aka Gitlab Options, Github Options, etc etc.

Something like this:

(of course with the right Icon being applied).

Once in that, you could place whatever options you want.

I'm super enjoying this tool and would be happy to start implementing these things! Let me know if you're willing to let go of the task (given that you've already assigned it to yourself), and if so, I'm happy, with a bit of guidance on the design side, implement this myself.

[Byron]

Thanks for digging into this.

My feeling here is that stacked PRs are probably something to revisit, based on GitHub now supporting them natively, while they are non-native for other forges, which in fairness right now might only be GitLab anyway.

If native GitHub stacked PRs would be used, then it will decide on the UI for this. For GitLab stacked PRs, their display would then be GitButler controlled and could fit into forge-specific options.

It might be best to wait with submitting any PRs though until @estib-vega had a chance to steer their direction.

[masecla22]

Im unsure how Github does stacked PRs (I havent' seen one, if you have a link send it over!!), but this is how gitlab does them:

[Byron]

Ah, great, so GitLab also supports stacked PRs natively, I wasn't aware.

It looks like this is how GitHub presents them: https://github.github.com/gh-stack/introduction/overview/#stack-map-in-the-pr-ui

[masecla22]

Yep, so all the much more reason to be able to disable these within these two forges. @estib-vega any thoughts and comments on this?

[estib-vega]

Yep, no question about having to have the option to disable them.

As to whether we want to support the native stacking for the specific forges, it's more of a product question.
As long as they offer public facing APIs, we should be able to implement support for them. It's just a question about whether this becomes a deeper integration into one or the other forge. I'd take that as a separate issue

[masecla22]

I looked through gitlab and as far as I can tell this type of stacking in Gitlab is simply determined by MR branch order. A->B->C will show up as a stack. You can't manage the stacks on Gitlab, they are entirely determined by branch ordering of MRs. That being said, @estib-vega would you be okay with me prototyping this? I'm enjoying Butler quite a bit and would love to contribute it. I would just add an option for disabling it, and I think that's more than enough. Maybe include a dropdown like: "Top of MR, Bottom of MR, Disable" type of thing.

[estib-vega]

@masecla22 We'd love to have a contribution for that :)!
I'd opt for that being something you control from the project settings, but if you're down to have a conversation about that and iterate I'm down as well.

Ping me if you need help or if you want me to review something