Gitlab Integration Improvements

[hugaleno]

Gitlab integration using source type Project

Everything it's working as expected.

Gitlab integration using source type Group/All

When using group as source type we got some problems.

Related issues:

• Gitlab Integration: Open in Browser uses wrong URL if project id is used #2543
• Gitlab integration issue #2115
• Support GitLab groups/subgroups when querying API for projects/issues #2529

Understanding the problem

To better understand that let's point some things out.

• Groups/Subgroups can have one or more projects
• Gitlab uses the attribute id unique for each issue
• Gitlab uses the attribute iid unique for an issue inside a project, which means I can have different issues with same iid inside a group but in distinct projects
• When importing an issue to a task superproductivy only saves the issueId and the issue Title

The main difficulty here is to get the issue unique/related(comments) URLs. Let me explain:

1. Gitlab api do have an endpoint to get a single issue by using the id, which would be perfect, but unfornately is restricted to administrators.

The only id a normal user can use in the api is the iid

2. Gitlab api do have an endpoint to get a single project issue by using the iid and the project ID/path. And that's why gitlab integration using a specific project is working like a charm.
3. Gitlab api do have an endpoint to get all issues within a group.
4. Gitlab api do have an endpoint to get all issues that the user have access to.
5. Gitlab api do not have an endpoint to get a single group issue/single user issue by using the iid and the group ID/path

Possible solutions I could think to begin

1. We could use the endpoints in 3 and in 4 and use a query param to filter the iid but as I pointed before, we can have multiple iid's inside a group.

   Likely to have multiple results.

2. We could also use endpoints in 3 and 4 and use a query param to filter the issue with the title.

   Very likely to have multiple results.

3. Combine 1 and 2 in a query to filter out a issue with a title and iid.

   Very unlikely to have multiple results I think.

4. Save more information when importing an gitlab issue to a task.

   Need to change task model to handle that specifics from gitlab.

Final thoughts

I think that to add support for gitlab groups/subgroups we gonna need another approach to the way is done today(and works pretty well on all other integrations) or make some adjustments to fit gitlab specific needs.

WDYT @johannesjo

[johannesjo]

THank you very much for your input @hugaleno ! I will try to review this on Friday.

[johannesjo]

After giving this some thought I think the best solution is probably 4. Something like this has been implemented and issueUrls were saved to the task model, but this was sometimes problematic as those urls could possibly change (for Jira issues if I remember correctly). But maybe that is less of a problem for gitlab. We might also recheck for changed issue urls whenever issue data is loaded (e.g. when the side task side panel is opened) , to provide at least some clunky way for users to get the right url working in case they have changed.

It's very unfortunate that 1 only works for admins. I don't see why this is. Maybe it's also possible to get in touch with the gitlab team about this?

[hugaleno]

Alright, thank you. I will try to take a look at it after #2355