Before releasing, ensure that you're on the main branch.

1. Update the version number in ./VERSION and ./package.json

   {major}.{minor}.{patch}
   

   For pre-releases, rubygems versions look like eg 3.0.0.beta1, but npm package versions (which don't allow a fourth period) look like 3.0.0-beta1.

2. Fix GitHub issue tracker to know about the release

   • Create a milestone in GitHub for the NEXT version.
   • Move any open tickets for released version to the next version.
   • Mark the milestone as closed.

3. Release the gem and npm package

   $ bundle exec rake release
   $ bundle exec rake build:npm
   $ npm publish

   The npm build step is necessary before publishing, because it creates some artifacts that are required.

   • (For Blacklight 7, it may be npm run js-compile-bundle instead of bundle exec rake build:npm)

   • If you are a blacklight committer who does not privileges to release ruby gem or npm package, ask someone else who does to add you!

     • https://rubygems.org/gems/blacklight/
     • https://www.npmjs.com/package/blacklight-frontend

4. Write Github release notes for the tag, using this template:

   [Commit History](https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/compare/v5.x.0...v5.x.0) | [Milestone](https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/issues?q=milestone:{milestone here})
   (anything important about this release, themes, etc)
   ### New Features and improvements
   (#ticketnumber and a human-readable description of the ticket, usually the ticket title. If the ticket title doesn't make sense, either edit the ticket directly, or provide an alternative title here)
   ##  Bug Fixes
   ### Upgrade Notes
   (anything special that needs to be called out)
   ### Tested dependencies
   This version of Blacklight works on Ruby on Rails 6.1 - 7.0. (This can be found in https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/blob/main/.github/workflows/ruby.yml)
   

5. Prepare announcement

   • Include URL to GitHub closed issues for version
   • Include URL to github commits between tags. github can show all commits between two versions with a URL of this form: https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/compare/v2.5.0...v2.6.0 Replace with previous version and current release version tags.
   • Include URL to the Github release notes