1<title>Technical Notes</title> 2 3<h2>What Is A "Technote"?</h2> 4 5In Fossil, a "technical note" or "technote" (formerly called an "event") 6is a special kind of [./wikitheory.wiki | wiki page] 7that is associated with a point in time rather than having a page name. 8Each technote causes a single entry to appear on the 9[/timeline?y=e | Timeline Page]. 10Clicking on the timeline link will display the text of the technote. 11The wiki content, the timeline entry text, the 12time of the technote, and the timeline background color can all be edited. 13 14As with check-ins, wiki, and tickets, all technotes automatically synchronize 15to other repositories. Hence, technotes can be viewed, created, and edited 16off-line. And the complete edit history for technotes is maintained 17for auditing purposes. 18 19Possible uses for technotes include: 20 21 * <b>Milestones</b>. Project milestones, such as releases or beta-test 22 cycles, can be recorded as technotes. The timeline entry for the technote 23 can be something simple like "Version 1.2.3" perhaps with a bright 24 color background to draw attention to the entry and the wiki content 25 can contain release notes, for example. 26 27 * <b>Blog Entries</b>. Blog entries from developers describing the current 28 state of a project, or rationale for various design decisions, or 29 roadmaps for future development, can be entered as technotes. 30 31 * <b>Process Checkpoints</b>. For projects that have a formal process, 32 technotes can be used to record the completion or the initiation of 33 various process steps. For example, a technote can be used to record 34 the successful completion of a long-running test, perhaps with 35 performance results and details of where the test was run and who 36 ran it recorded in the wiki content. The technote can be added 37 from a script. 38 39 * <b>News Articles</b>. Significant occurrences in the life cycle of 40 a project can be recorded as news articles using technotes. Perhaps the 41 domain name of the canonical website for a project changes, or new 42 server hardware is obtained. Such happenings are appropriate for 43 reporting as news. 44 45 * <b>Announcements</b>. Changes to the composition of the development 46 team or acquisition of new project sponsors can be communicated as 47 announcements which can be implemented as technotes. 48 49 * <b>Signed Checksums</b>. Technotes containing cryptographically signed 50 checksums can be linked to repository artifacts, thereby creating a 51 traceable, auditable chain so that users can readily verify the integrity 52 and authenticity of project deliverables. And the command line interface 53 to technotes enables embedding such processes in scripts. 54 55No project is required to use technotes. But technotes can help many projects 56stay better organized and provide a better historical record of the 57development progress. 58 59<h2>Viewing Technotes</h2> 60 61Because technotes are considered a special kind of wiki, 62users must have permission to read wiki in order read technotes. 63Enable the "j" permission under the /Setup/Users menu in order 64to give specific users or user classes the ability to view wiki 65and technotes. 66 67Technotes show up on the timeline. Click on the hyperlink beside the 68technote title to see the complete text. 69 70<h2>Creating, Editing and Viewing Technotes</h2> 71 72There is a hyperlink under the /wikihelp menu that can be used to create 73new technotes. And there is a submenu hyperlink on technote displays for 74editing existing technotes. 75 76Technotes can also be created using the <b>wiki create</b> command: 77 78<blockquote> 79<b> 80fossil wiki create TestTechnote -t now --technote-bgcolor lightgreen technote.md<br> 81<tt>Created new tech note 2021-03-15 13:05:56</tt><br> 82</b> 83</blockquote> 84 85This command inserts a light green technote in the timeline at 2021-03-15 13:05:56, with 86the contents of file <b>technote.md</b> and comment "TestTechnote". Specifying a different time using 87<b>-t DATETIME</b> will insert the technote at the specified timestamp location in the timeline. 88Different technotes can have the same timestamp. 89 90The first argument to create, <b>TECHNOTE-COMMENT</b>, is the title text for the technote 91that appears in the timeline. 92 93To view all technotes, use the <b>wiki ls</b> command: 94 95<blockquote> 96<b> 97fossil wiki ls --technote --show-technote-ids<br> 98<tt>z739263a134bf0da1d28e939f4c4367f51ef4c51 2020-12-19 13:20:19</tt><br> 99<tt>e15a918a8bed71c2ac091d74dc397b8d3340d5e1 2018-09-22 17:40:10</tt><br> 100</b> 101</blockquote> 102 103A technote ID is the UUID of the technote. 104 105To view an individual technote, use the <b>wiki export</b> command: 106 107<blockquote> 108<b> 109fossil wiki export --technote version-2.16<br> 110Release Notes 2021-07-02 111 112This note describes changes in the Fossil snapshot for ... 113</b> 114</blockquote> 115 116The <b>-t|--technote</b> option to the <b>export</b> subcommand takes one of 117three identifiers: <b>DATETIME</b>; <b>TECHNOTE-ID</b>; and <b>TAG</b>. 118See the [/help?cmd=wiki | wiki help] for specifics. 119 120Users must have check-in privileges (permission "i") in order to 121create or edit technotes. In addition, users must have create-wiki 122privilege (permission "f") to create new technotes and edit-wiki 123privilege (permission "k") in order to edit existing technotes. 124 125Technote content may be formatted as [/wiki_rules | Fossil wiki], 126[/md_rules | Markdown], or a plain text. 127