News
June 8th, 2020
We've added a more flexible system for creating scheduled freezes. Previously the only option was to create weekly recurring freezes. You can now have much more customized scheduled freezes for example "Every 2 weeks on a Friday" or "Every 3rd Monday of the month".
One-off scheduled freezes are now also possible.
May 26th, 2020
We've added a bunch more options to our Slack integration. You can now unblock / re-block single pull requests through Slack and unblock / re-block deployments. Notifications for these actions are also sent to Slack now.
May 18th, 2020
You can now unblock multiple pull requests when a freeze has been implemented. Previously you could only unblock one, and if you needed to unblock another one you'd have to re-block the first one, which was super annoying. But no longer!
May 7th, 2020
It's now possible to freeze or unfreeze your project via the web API.
To freeze or unfreeze you'll need to send a POST request. Here's an example for implementing a freeze:
curl -d "frozen=true&user_name=Scooby Doo" -X POST https://www.mergefreeze.com/api/branches/my-org-name/my-repo-name/master/?access_token=[my-access-token]
May 5th, 2020
We have a new logo! Not sure what to name him/her yet. Freezy McFreezeface?
March 6th, 2020
We have now implemented non-admin restrictions on many actions that were previously able to be performed by anyone who had access to a repository.
From now on only administrators of a repository can:
- Add a protected branch to the repository
- Edit a protected branch
- Delete a protected branch
- Add/edit/delete/disable/re-enable a recurring freeze
- Add/refresh an API access token
- Add/edit/delete a Slack integration
- Edit the freeze method of a protected branch
February 28th, 2020
We've just released a new way of implementing a merge freeze, so now you have two options. Let's take a look at what they are:
Option 1: Push a status update to all PRs (default)
Freezing and unfreezing will push a new merge freeze status update to all open pull requests. All PRs will see this:
Pros
- The "Unblock 1 pull request" feature will be available to use.
- Services such as PolicyBot need status checks to report statuses of success or failure for certain things. This method fulfills that requirement.
Cons
- If you have many open PRs you may hit rate limits. Github has a limit of 5,000 requests per hour. Every time you freeze or unfreeze we need to make an API call to every open pull request. More info on Github rate limits.
Option 2: Toggle a branch protection rule
Freezing will add a protected branch rule on the repository, unfreezing will remove it again. All PRs will see this:
Pros
- No need to worry about rate limits.
Cons
- The "Unblock 1 pull request" feature will not be available.
- Services such as PolicyBot need status checks to report statuses of success or failure for certain things. This method does not report a status to each pull request.
Option 2 requires write permissions to your repository's "administration" privilege. Unfortunately Github's permissions aren't granular enough to be able to update a branch protection rule without this permission being granted. Existing users will receive an email from Github telling them that the Merge Freeze app is requesting these new permissions. The above new option is the reason for this request.