conventional-changelog-angular

What is conventional-changelog-angular?

The conventional-changelog-angular package is designed to generate changelogs and release notes automatically based on Angular's commit message conventions. It parses commit messages, categorizes them into various types (such as features, fixes, and breaking changes), and generates a changelog file that summarizes the changes in a readable format. This tool is particularly useful for projects that follow semantic versioning and want to automate the process of changelog generation.

What are conventional-changelog-angular's main functionalities?

Generate changelog

This code demonstrates how to generate a changelog using the conventional-changelog-angular preset. It streams the generated changelog content into a file named CHANGELOG.md.

const conventionalChangelog = require('conventional-changelog');
const fs = require('fs');
const changelogStream = conventionalChangelog({ preset: 'angular' });
const outputStream = fs.createWriteStream('CHANGELOG.md');
changelogStream.pipe(outputStream);

Customize changelog generation

This code snippet shows how to customize the changelog generation process. It sets the releaseCount to 0 to generate logs for all releases and transforms 'feat' commit types to be labeled as 'Features' in the changelog.

const conventionalChangelog = require('conventional-changelog');
const fs = require('fs');
const changelogStream = conventionalChangelog({
  preset: 'angular',
  releaseCount: 0, // Generate all releases
  transform: (commit, cb) => {
    if (commit.type === 'feat') {
      commit.type = 'Features';
    }
    cb(null, commit);
  }
});
const outputStream = fs.createWriteStream('CUSTOM_CHANGELOG.md');
changelogStream.pipe(outputStream);

Other packages similar to conventional-changelog-angular

standard-version

Similar to conventional-changelog-angular, standard-version automates versioning and CHANGELOG generation, adhering to Semantic Versioning and Conventional Commits. It wraps around the conventional-changelog library, providing a simpler CLI interface and additional features like automatic version bumping.

semantic-release

semantic-release goes a step further by automating the whole package release workflow including determining the next version number, generating the release notes, and publishing the package. It uses a similar commit message format to conventional-changelog-angular but offers a more comprehensive solution for continuous integration (CI) environments.

lerna

While lerna is primarily a tool for managing JavaScript projects with multiple packages, it includes functionality for generating changelogs based on conventional commits. It compares to conventional-changelog-angular in its support for generating changelogs but is more focused on monorepo management.

README

conventional-changelog-angular

conventional-changelog angular preset.

Issues with the convention itself should be reported on the Angular issue tracker.

Install

# yarn
yarn add -D conventional-changelog-angular
# pnpm
pnpm add -D conventional-changelog-angular
# npm
npm i -D conventional-changelog-angular

Angular Convention

Angular's commit message guidelines.

Examples

Appears under "Features" header, pencil subheader:

feat(pencil): add 'graphiteWidth' option

Appears under "Bug Fixes" header, graphite subheader, with a link to issue #28:

fix(graphite): stop graphite breaking when width < 0.1

Closes #28

Appears under "Performance Improvements" header, and under "Breaking Changes" with the breaking change explanation:

perf(pencil): remove graphiteWidth option

BREAKING CHANGE: The graphiteWidth option has been removed. The default graphite width of 10mm is always used for performance reason.

The following commit and commit 667ecc1 do not appear in the changelog if they are under the same release. If not, the revert commit appears under the "Reverts" header.

revert: feat(pencil): add 'graphiteWidth' option

This reverts commit 667ecc1654a317a13331b17617d973392f415f02.

Commit Message Format

A commit message consists of a header, body and footer. The header has a type, scope and subject:

<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<BLANK LINE>
<body>
<BLANK LINE>
<footer>

The header is mandatory and the scope of the header is optional.

Revert

If the commit reverts a previous commit, it should begin with revert: , followed by the header of the reverted commit. In the body it should say: This reverts commit <hash>., where the hash is the SHA of the commit being reverted.

Type

If the prefix is feat, fix or perf, it will appear in the changelog. However if there is any BREAKING CHANGE, the commit will always appear in the changelog.

Other prefixes are up to your discretion. Suggested prefixes are build, ci, docs ,style, refactor, and test for non-changelog related tasks.

Details regarding these types can be found in the official Angular Contributing Guidelines.

Scope

The scope could be anything specifying place of the commit change. For example $location, $browser, $compile, $rootScope, ngHref, ngClick, ngView, etc...

Subject

The subject contains succinct description of the change:

• use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes"
• don't capitalize first letter
• no dot (.) at the end

Body

Just as in the subject, use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes". The body should include the motivation for the change and contrast this with previous behavior.

Footer

The footer should contain any information about Breaking Changes and is also the place to reference GitHub issues that this commit Closes.

Breaking Changes should start with the word BREAKING CHANGE: with a space or two newlines. The rest of the commit message is then used for this.

A detailed explanation can be found in this document.