Changelog software
reddit / selfhosted

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Individual-Judge-243 · 2023-11-13 22:47

Hey all,


I am looknig for changelog software recommendations.  I have spent a
little time looking, and honestly not found anything that seems to
suit our use-case.


I work for a smallish MSP, and we are looking for a way to document
everything we do for a particular customer from a technical
standpoint.  We aren't looking fo ranything that will allow public or
customer interaction or viewing, but rather something that we can use
internally to keep track of details we need for reference and info.


Some requirements:


* open source, prefer free for self hosted.
* ability to collaborate (so, accounts/logins and update/edit the same
log)
* searchable logs
* usable on mobile
* ability to QUICKLY add entries/updates
* Perhaps some ability to format entriies (though there is resisitance
to markdown for this purpose- too slow)
* 'pretty' factor matters to some of our team
* ability to add images or other things that might be required to
document changes

I had at one point suggest Workflowy, which I use daily and love
keeping track of things, but was shot down pretty quickly (due to the
inability to add images, not self hosted... and I would argue not
pretty emough for the team).


It doesn't seem to me that there is a lot in the space that is
streamlined in the way we are looking for... most seem to involve
customer interaction, posting info to a site, 'tracking' specific
types of changes, or are very narrowly purpose driven.


Any suggestions at all?  Does such a thing exist?

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Individual-Judge-243 · 2023-11-13 22:49

I should add that we steer away form all-in-one type solutions, and
prefer single purpose solutions.

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vogelke · 2023-11-14 07:07

Something like a wiki holding pages for each customer?

[Dokuwiki](https://github.com/dokuwiki/dokuwiki/) comes to mind.

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Individual-Judge-243 · 2023-11-15 04:37

Thanks for the suggestion!


Looking at Docuwiki, I think it would be too involved entering
changes.  We really need something that would allow a rapid entry, or
else it will fall behind and then to the side.  We are a small shop
but we are extremely busy, and if it takes too long to make entries it
will fall out of use.

Let's say I make changes to the sharepoint structure for a tenant... I
should be able to document those changes and move on in a minute or
two tops.

However, I would also need to be able to include images of, say, a map
of the client's network infrastructure.

I am begining to think that there really isn't a good fit.  We might
need a custom solution.

A 'prettier' Workflowy that is open source, self hosted, and allowed
images in-line... and allow tagging of customer viewable content and
restricted content.  Not sure if my team would go for that but I think
that is essentially what I am looking for.

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vogelke · 2023-11-15 07:32

> I think it would be too involved entering changes.

I completely understand that -- I use vim coupled with some keyboard
shortcuts wrapped in a script for my changelogs.  More details here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/c9md8i/changelog_tool/

I thought a wiki might be easiest for people to edit different
changelogs at the same time.  The **moinmoin** wiki has excellent
navigation and display formatting, and it can both send and receive
email:
http://moinmo.in/HelpOnConfiguration/EmailSupport

If your team is comfortable sending email with attachments, you could
set up something like a *changelog* address -- mail to that with a
given tag or logname in the subject could append a date/username line
to the changelog, followed by the contents of the message with any
attachments.