Usage ping requests

Support Operations documentation page for usage ping requests

What is the usage ping request form?

The usage ping request form is a simple HTMl form generated via GitLab Pages that is sent to Zapier for processing.

The source code for it is located here.

How does it all work?

The usage ping request form, when submitted, sends an AJAX request to Zapier. This then runs python code within the zap itself.

Python code in zap
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
import requests

def body(hostname, email):
  message = "To whom it may concern,\n\n" \
            "I am requesting the deletion of usage ping data related to the hostname of my GitLab instance: `%s`.\n\n" \
            "Thank you." % (hostname)
  return message

def subject(hostname):
  message = "Usage ping request - %s" % hostname
  return message

email = input_data['email']
hostname = input_data['hostname']

url = 'https://api.mailgun.net/v3/mg.gitlab.com/messages'
files = {
  'from': (None, 'techsupport@gitlab.com'),
  'to': (None, 'incoming+gitlab-com-usage-ping-request-27544965-issue-@incoming.gitlab.com'),
  'subject': (None, subject(hostname)),
  'text': (None, body(hostname, email)),
  'h:Reply-To': (None, email),
}
requests.post(url, files=files, auth=('api', input_data['mailgun_key']))

The zap will create an issue in the Usage Ping Request project via service desk.

Change management

As these are maintained via sync repositories, our standard change management process applies to all usage ping request changes. See standard change management for more information.

Labels to use

For all issues and MRs involving usage ping request form changes, the label Support-Ops-Category::Forms should be used.

For all issues and MRs involving usage ping request processor changes, the label Support-Ops-Category::GitLab Projects should be used.

Change criticality

All issues/MRs related to any of the components of usage ping request will be classified as either criticality 3 or criticality 4

Last modified May 19, 2023: Adding new roles (b88e5bb)