Feat: match template helper

[w33ble]

Adds a matches helper to the handlebars runtime, which allows for matching a value from the commit objects based on some pattern. It uses RegExp behind the scenes.

{{#matches message "BREAKING"}}**BREAKING**{{/matches}}

You can also optionally pass flags into RegExp constructor.

{{#matches message "breaking" flags="i"}}**BREAKING**{{/matches}}

It also supports inverse matching, in case that's useful.

{{#matches message "breaking" flags="i"}}**BREAKING**{{else}}*non-breaking*{{/matches}}

This allows users to get some base functionality to meet #39 as part of the template.

Happy to add tests, just let me know what you'd like to see.

[w33ble]

Any feedback on this? I'd really appreciate having this for my projects.

[w33ble]

I'm guessing that this probably won't make it in now that the #commit-list helper is done. I'll close this, feel free to re-open if you'd like I guess.

[cookpete]

@w33ble yeah I like it and want to get it in for 1.5.0 but just didn't have time yesterday. I think it's a nice alternative for people who don't want a whole different list for breaking changes. However:

• Would be nice to have some tests to keep coverage up. I was planning to write some myself.
• There's no guarantee that a breaking commit will be listed if you have the default commit limit of 3 or lower. The commits are sorted by line changes, so breaking changes with few line changes may not get listed at all if default settings are used.

I wonder if a better way would be a --breaking-pattern option that sets breaking: true on commits (as you originally suggested in #39) and then when sorting commits we can ensure that any breaking commits are listed first, and the default templates can do something like:

  {{#each commits}}
    - {{#if breaking}}**Breaking change:** {{#/if}}{{subject}} [`{{shorthash}}`]({{href}})
  {{/each}}

Thoughts?

[w33ble]

I don’t personally use the commit limit, I don’t understand it’s usefulness. I always configure it to 0 and just filter on commits I don’t want in the changelog (tests, chore stuff, etc.).

Are you saying that “breaking” commits would ignore that rule, or would just come first in the output to ensure at least some show up?

I think both this matches helper and a ‘breaking: true’ property and probably helpful. Matches is more flexible because it can match any field in the output, while the breaking prop is more focused and can be configured outside of the template.

And I’m happy to add tests to this pr if you’ like the idea and implementation. I just didn’t spend the time because it was more of a proposal.

[cookpete]

I don’t personally use the commit limit, I don’t understand it’s usefulness.

It's mainly there because using commit log diffs as changelogs is a bad idea, and to prevent logs from becoming huge and no longer useful for larger projects, with possibly hundreds of commits between releases.

Are you saying that “breaking” commits would ignore that rule, or would just come first in the output to ensure at least some show up?

Yeah, I think if we had a --breaking-option and someone used it, those commits should be listed in the release regardless of the commit limit.

[w33ble]

@cookpete I added tests for the matches helper. Let me know if there's something else you think I should cover.

I also opened #41 to track the breaking-pattern idea.

[w33ble]

@cookpete any chance of this landing, or at least of a 1.5.0 build with the current template helper landing soon? I'd really like to update my changelogs.

[cookpete]

Published in 1.5.0. Sorry for the delay @w33ble! Nice work.

[w33ble]

Yussss! Thanks! 🍾