Preview Merge Request Changes

Overview

This page shows different ways to preview merge request (MRs) changes. For the full review process, see Product Designer MR Reviews.

Preview options

You can preview MR changes for the app, documentation, Pajamas, or company handbook using these methods:

• Gitpod (Get started and Help): Cloud environment that provides a ready-to-use app with one click. Works for GitLab instances (using GDK, see below), docs, Pajamas, and handbook.
• GitLab Development Kit (GDK) (Get started and Help): Run GitLab on your local machine. Requires technical knowledge and can break during updates.
• Review Apps (Get started): Unique links created for each MR. Great for documentation but limited for GitLab instances (improvements planned).
• Sync with author: Although we have a bias towards asynchronous communication, sometimes a quick call with the MR author is the most efficient approach.

Contributing

Product Designers should have general knowledge of Git and DevOps flows. Using GitLab in a live environment and making small contributions helps build:

• Empathy for user workflows.
• Understanding of the product.
• Skills to make small improvements directly (UI copy, component migration, etc.).

Gitpod

To use Gitpod:

1. Create a free Gitpod account.
2. Connect it to your GitLab account. This happens automatically when launching from GitLab.com, but if it doesn’t work, see how to manually connect them.

Resources:

• Launch Gitpod
• Gitpod for the GitLab project (i.e. cloud GDK)
• 📺 Get started with Gitpod
• 📺 Review MRs with Gitpod
• GDK commands (start, stop, update, etc.)
• Preview/change GitLab
• Preview/change docs
• Apply GitLab paid license
• Configure additional GitLab features (runners, feature flags, advanced search, etc.)
• More how-to topics for GDK
• Check out branches
• Commit and push changes
• Prevent auto-deleting workspaces
• Gitpod official documentation

GDK

• One-line installation
• 📺 Review MRs with GDK
• Browse your dev server
• GDK commands (start, stop, update, etc.)
• Preview/change GitLab
• Preview/change docs
• Apply GitLab paid license
• Toggle feature flags
• More how-to topics for GDK

Review Apps

• Use Review Apps in MRs
• Log into Review Apps
• Prevent auto-stopping
• 📺 Toggle feature flags. You can enable feature flags using tools like curl or Postman..

Help

If you get stuck:

1. If using GDK (locally or in Gitpod), try to troubleshoot it yourself first. Then, don’t hesitate to reach out for help (see below).
2. Gitpod help
   1. Ask in the #gitpod-gdk Slack channel.
   2. Contact: Marcel van Remmerden
3. GDK help
   1. See getting help.
   2. Ask in the #gdk Slack channel.
   3. Contact: Taurie Davis, Sunjung Park

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