Add release notes functionality to dandiset publishing process by bendichter · Pull Request #2606 · dandi/dandi-archive

bendichter · 2025-10-20T15:30:02Z

Updated publish functions to accept optional release notes.
Introduced PublishVersionSerializer for handling release notes in requests.
Enhanced UI to allow users to input release notes during publishing.
Display release notes for published versions in the UI.

Screen.Recording.2025-10-20.at.11.25.55.AM.mov

Requires dandi/dandi-schema#185 to be released

mvandenburgh

We may want to rethink how we're passing release_notes around, but I'll get back to you on that. Aside from that, this generally looks good.

Note - we will need dandi/dandi-schema#185 to be released before this PR can be merged.

mvandenburgh · 2025-10-28T14:09:11Z

dandiapi/api/views/serializers.py

+    def get_release_notes(self, version: Version) -> str | None:
+        """Extract release notes from version metadata."""
+        return version.metadata.get('releaseNotes')
+
+    def to_representation(self, instance):
+        """Remove release_notes from representation if it's None."""
+        representation = super().to_representation(instance)
+        if representation.get('release_notes') is None:
+            representation.pop('release_notes', None)
+        return representation
+


We should be able to access the releaseNotes directly from the metadata in the frontend, which would remove the need for this extra logic in this serializer. To do that, we'll first need dandi/dandi-schema#185 to be released so we can update https://github.com/dandi/dandi-archive/blob/master/web/src/types/schema.ts.

mvandenburgh · 2025-10-28T14:29:27Z

dandiapi/api/tasks/__init__.py


 @shared_task
-def publish_dandiset_task(dandiset_id: int, user_id: int):
+def publish_dandiset_task(dandiset_id: int, user_id: int, release_notes: str | None = None):


I'm not sure about the implications of accepting an arbitrary string as a Celery task argument w.r.t. serialization/deserialization from RabbitMQ. Normally, we try to avoid this and store such values in the DB for the Celery task to query for itself, passing only primary keys to the tasks themselves. On the other hand, I don't see a natural way for release_notes to fit into that paradigm, so maybe this is the best solution. I'll look into this

mvandenburgh · 2025-10-28T14:30:40Z

dandiapi/api/views/serializers.py



+class PublishVersionSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
+    release_notes = serializers.CharField(required=False, allow_blank=True, source='releaseNotes')


We should set a max_length here.

bendichter · 2025-10-28T14:50:30Z

Thanks for looking a this, @mvandenburgh!

mvandenburgh · 2025-10-29T17:01:52Z

I rebased this on master to resolve merge conflicts - I'll open another PR on top of this one with my suggested changes.

yarikoptic · 2026-03-24T01:14:57Z

@bendichter I feel like this one was "so close". github CI doesn't show me failing logs ATM (keeps scrolling... dunno) but I wondered if worth bringing it closer to finish line?

little comments from trying on and actually issuing a release with (presumably) a changelog entry on https://deploy-preview-2606--sandbox-dandiarchive-org.netlify.app/dandiset/217838/0.260324.0110?page=5&sortOption=0&sortDir=-1&showDrafts=true&showEmpty=false&pos=34 (bug in itself that all navigation options carry into dandisets ... uff):

informational window should at least have text wrapped or minimized to just point to docs.dandiarchive.org about "Best practices for release notes" instead of

That release note is nowhere to be seen on DLP, neither I found it in meditor, nor I found it in metadata record -- https://api.sandbox.dandiarchive.org/api/dandisets/217838/versions/0.260324.0110/ . So I guess it just didn't store it ?

- Updated publish functions to accept optional release notes. - Introduced PublishVersionSerializer for handling release notes in requests. - Enhanced UI to allow users to input release notes during publishing. - Display release notes for published versions in the UI.

This is unnecessary, as we can simply set the field to `null` to simplify the response type interface

This has the benefits of not having to pass `release_notes` around through multiple nested function calls + trusting celery's python string (de)serialization functionality (since we were placing the entire `release_notes` string onto the queue before).

- Remove `test_version_publish_without_release_notes` test. This is just testing the existing publish functionality, which we already have tests for. - Fix `test_version_build_publishable_with_release_notes` so that it passes - Remove `test_version_rest_publish_empty_release_notes` test, as it is no longer applicable. `Version.release_notes` is no longer a nullable field, instead defaulting to empty string (best practice for CharField)

- Rename migration 0030 -> 0031 to resolve conflict with 0030_alter_asset_path - Always update release_notes on draft when publishing (clear old notes if none provided, preventing stale notes from carrying over) - Add releaseNotes to strip_metadata to prevent it leaking into draft metadata - Add max_length=5000 to PublishVersionSerializer (matching model field) - Add counter/maxlength to frontend textarea - Increase release_notes max_length from 512 to 5000 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

bendichter · 2026-03-24T02:52:47Z

Rebased onto master and fixed several issues:

Migration conflict (CI fix): Renamed 0030_version_release_notes.py → 0031_version_release_notes.py and updated its dependency to 0030_alter_asset_path. This was the root cause of all CI failures — every test errored because Django detected conflicting migrations.
Stale release notes bug: publish_dandiset() only updated release_notes on the draft version when new notes were provided. If a user published with notes, then later published without notes, the old notes would carry over to the new version. Fixed by always updating the field (clearing to '' when no notes are provided).
releaseNotes not stripped from metadata: Added 'releaseNotes' to Version.strip_metadata(). Without this, if releaseNotes somehow ended up in draft metadata, it could persist in a published version even when no release notes were provided (since _build_publishable_version_from_draft only overwrites releaseNotes when the model field is non-empty).
Missing max_length on serializer: PublishVersionSerializer.release_notes wasn't enforcing the model's character limit — validation would only fail at the database level.
Increased max_length from 512 to 5000: 512 characters is only ~3-4 sentences, too short for meaningful release notes. Updated across the model, migration, serializer, and frontend (added counter and maxlength to the textarea).

bendichter requested a review from jjnesbitt October 20, 2025 18:29

mvandenburgh self-requested a review October 22, 2025 19:37

mvandenburgh reviewed Oct 28, 2025

View reviewed changes

mvandenburgh force-pushed the enh/add-release-notes branch 3 times, most recently from b2e86d8 to 268c4c9 Compare October 29, 2025 17:00

waxlamp mentioned this pull request Oct 29, 2025

Add ability to downgrade schema all the way to 0.6.10 dandi/dandi-schema#342

Open

3 tasks

mvandenburgh force-pushed the enh/add-release-notes branch 2 times, most recently from 6427e5e to 7757d45 Compare November 10, 2025 16:37

mvandenburgh mentioned this pull request Nov 10, 2025

Fix bug in publishing process #2636

Merged

mvandenburgh force-pushed the enh/add-release-notes branch 2 times, most recently from 9472b1e to fb5e66e Compare November 14, 2025 18:56

mvandenburgh mentioned this pull request Nov 17, 2025

Release note suggested changes #2647

Merged

jjnesbitt force-pushed the enh/add-release-notes branch from 349810d to 1a5118d Compare January 16, 2026 17:32

bendichter and others added 6 commits March 23, 2026 22:41

Add tests for publishing dandisets with and without release notes

520fc89

Remove conditional field in API response

1b33ee8

This is unnecessary, as we can simply set the field to `null` to simplify the response type interface

bendichter force-pushed the enh/add-release-notes branch from 1a5118d to cbba7a8 Compare March 24, 2026 02:52

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Add release notes functionality to dandiset publishing process#2606

Add release notes functionality to dandiset publishing process#2606
bendichter wants to merge 6 commits intomasterfrom
enh/add-release-notes

bendichter commented Oct 20, 2025 •

edited by mvandenburgh

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		class PublishVersionSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
		release_notes = serializers.CharField(required=False, allow_blank=True, source='releaseNotes')

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bendichter commented Oct 20, 2025 •

edited by mvandenburgh

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