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docassemble.GithubFeedbackForm

PyPI version

A package that uses the GitHub API to gather feedback and then submit issues to Github that can be embedded into a Docassemble interview. Makes it easy to collect per-page feedback.

This package is designed to support the following workflow:

  1. Work is stored on a public GitHub repository, or at least, you setup a repository to collect feedback.
  2. There is one package per "interview"/"app".
  3. Each question block has a unique question ID.
  4. Preferably--questions are triggered in an interview order block. If you use a series of mandatory blocks instead of a single mandatory block, the variable listed in the bug report may not be as useful.

Getting started

  1. Create a new GitHub user and create a personal access token on it. The personal access token needs minimal permissions. Specifically, it needs to be allowed to make pull requests. Pull request access is allowed for anyone by default when you create a new, public GitHub repository.

  2. Edit your config, and create a block like this:

    github issues:
      username: "YOUR_NEW_DEDICATED_ISSUE_CREATION_ACCOUNT"
      send to github: True # Make this false if you want to store feedback on the server
      token: "..." # A valid GitHub personal access token associated with the username above
      default repository owner: YOUR_GITHUB_USER_OR_ORG_HERE
      allowed repository owners: # List the repo that your account will be allowed to create issues on
        - YOUR_GITHUB_USER_OR_ORG_HERE 
        - SECOND_GITHUB_USER_OR_ORG
      # If user agrees, will save the session ID of their current interview on the server and link it to their
      # feedback issue on github. You can browser the linked sessions in `browse_feedback_sessions.yml`
      feedback session linking: True
      # Will ask users filling in feedback if they want to be in a panel, and get their email if they want to
      ask panel: True

    Note that it is important to provide a list of allowed repository owners. This is used to prevent your form from being used to spam GitHub repositories with feedback.

  3. Add a link on each page, in the footer or under area.
    You can use the feedback_link() function to add a link, like this: [:comment-dots: Feedback](${ feedback_link(user_info()) } ){:target="_blank"}

    Optional parameters:

    • i: the feedback form, like: docassemble.AssemblyLine:feedback.yml
    • github_repo: repo name, like: docassemble-AssemblyLine
    • github_user: owner of the repo, like: suffolklitlab
    • variable: variable being sought, like: intro
    • question_id: id of the current question, like: intro
    • package_version: version number of the current package
    • filename: filename of the interview the user is providing feedback on.

    Each has a sensible default. Most likely, you will limit your custom parameters to the github_repo if you want feedback links to work from the docassemble playground.

    You will also need to include the github_issue.py module in your parent interview, like this:

    ---
    modules:
      - docassemble.GithubFeedbackForm.github_issue
  4. Optionally, create your own feedback.yml file. If you want a custom feedback.yml, it should look like this, with whatever customizations you choose:

    include:
      - docassemble.GithubFeedbackForm:feedback.yml
    ---
    code: |
      al_feedback_form_title = "Your title here"  
    ---
    code: |
      # This email will be used ONLY if there is no valid GitHub config
      al_error_email = "your_email@yourdomain.com"
    ---
    code: |
      # Will be the name of the Github label added to new issues
      al_github_label = 'user feedback'
    ---
    template: al_how_to_get_legal_help
    content: |
      If you need more help, these are free resources:
    
      ... [INCLUDE STATE-SPECIFIC RESOURCES]

    You may also want to customize the metadata: title, exit url and override any specific questions, add a logo, etc.

  5. If you enabled feedback session linking in the configuration, you can visit the https://myserverurl.com/start/GithubFeedbackForm/browse_feedback_sessions to view

    sessions that users agreed to link to their description of a bug, so you can reproduce the issue. This interview also will show you the list of emails of users who agreed to join a qualitative research panel.

Author

Quinten Steenhuis, qsteenhuis@suffolk.edu