5 ms·

Show HN: Git Timeline Generator – Visualize contributions to any Git project

85 points by matt1 4y ago

Sujan 4y ago
This is super nice. Used Gitpod to quickly run the Git command on our two repos prisma/prisma (https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/prisma/prisma https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/prisma/prisma) and prisma/prisma-engines, downloaded the files, then spent 5 minutes to remove some bots and combine some users, and tadaaa: https://www.preceden.com/git/prisma-prisma-contributors/830302/6fd1e64592235760 https://www.preceden.com/git/prisma-prisma-contributors/8303... + https://www.preceden.com/git/prisma-engines-contributors/830310/19814879ecd9644e https://www.preceden.com/git/prisma-engines-contributors/830...
Jenk 4y ago
For something more abstract and "pretty": I've used gource[0] in the past to visualise the growth of a product to org members outside of tech. One particular success story for was contributing to a presentation showing how the tech dept had made a success of expansion. It got some audible "ooo"s like a fireworks display does [0]: https://gource.io/ https://gource.io/
- arraypad 4y ago
  Gource is great indeed, it can be really mesmerising watching projects with long histories. To add a couple of "pretty" alternatives (full disclosure: both mine): - Repography[0] makes posters from the same data, with a few different designs - Work/Artwork[1] is the same concept but even more abstract [0]: https://repography.com/ https://repography.com/ [1]: https://workartwork.org/ https://workartwork.org/
  - Jenk 4y ago
    Very nice!
michaelmure 4y ago
One thing I've always wanted to see visualized if how the distribution of authorship of code evolve over time. Who wrote most of the code? Does that code remains or does it get rewritten? Who wrote the most foundational and time resistant code?
- sangupta 4y ago
  This would be pretty interesting.
- mfontani 4y ago
  See https://github.com/erikbern/git-of-theseus https://github.com/erikbern/git-of-theseus
ncann 4y ago
This is only limited to the top 50 contributors? Also would be nice if the lines are sorted by last commit date, so that we can see a cascade graph of people joining/leaving the project as time goes by.
- matt1 4y ago
  Creator here. As you realized, it is limited to top 50 contributors and is automatically sorted by descending commit count. Love the suggestions for tweaking this behavior - added them to my todo list. Thank you for the feedback!
wuliwong 4y ago
I worked at a startup a number of years back where we had some pretty cool timeline software. I always tried to push using git and github integrations as our goto market product. I got shutdown though. :) We also were integrating Slack and pivotal tracker as well; it really was a novel way to look at all the data. They never did find a product-market fit though. It really was more a case of analysis paralysis versus not finding a fit. We never really even attempted to launch a product the two years I was there. I think they could have found a fit if they took more of the lean approach to try something, get feedback, and iterate.
smusamashah 4y ago
I thought it will be doing it locally, it uploads the CSV to server. Please also provide a way to delete the timeline.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- matt1 4y ago
  Drop me a note and I'd be happy to delete it: help@preceden.com. Eventually will build a way to do this in-app too.
avgcorrection 4y ago
Will this work with commit name "Average Correction, Esquire"? Does it support tab as a separator?
- matt1 4y ago
  The git log command will generate a comma-separated file which is what the tool expects. The CSV won't include commit messages.
  - avgcorrection 4y ago
    I said commit name. Not commit message. Maybe I should have said committer name.
mixcocam 4y ago
This is built into fossil-scm
Rychard 4y ago
Might I recommend using the following command to generate the CSV file: git log --full-history --date=short --pretty=format:"%ad,%aN" > gitlog.csv The only difference is changing %an to %aN. This leverages the existence of the .mailmap file to resolve author names, which is especially handy if any committers have ever changed their `user.email` configuration, and you'd like to associate them together.

85 points by matt1 4y ago

This is super nice. Used Gitpod to quickly run the Git command on our two repos prisma/prisma (https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/prisma/prisma https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/prisma/prisma) and prisma/prisma-engines, downloaded the files, then spent 5 minutes to remove some bots and combine some users, and tadaaa: https://www.preceden.com/git/prisma-prisma-contributors/830302/6fd1e64592235760 https://www.preceden.com/git/prisma-prisma-contributors/8303... + https://www.preceden.com/git/prisma-engines-contributors/830310/19814879ecd9644e https://www.preceden.com/git/prisma-engines-contributors/830...

Jenk 4y ago

For something more abstract and "pretty": I've used gource[0] in the past to visualise the growth of a product to org members outside of tech. One particular success story for was contributing to a presentation showing how the tech dept had made a success of expansion. It got some audible "ooo"s like a fireworks display does [0]: https://gource.io/ https://gource.io/

arraypad 4y ago
Gource is great indeed, it can be really mesmerising watching projects with long histories. To add a couple of "pretty" alternatives (full disclosure: both mine): - Repography[0] makes posters from the same data, with a few different designs - Work/Artwork[1] is the same concept but even more abstract [0]: https://repography.com/ https://repography.com/ [1]: https://workartwork.org/ https://workartwork.org/
- Jenk 4y ago
  Very nice!

michaelmure 4y ago

One thing I've always wanted to see visualized if how the distribution of authorship of code evolve over time. Who wrote most of the code? Does that code remains or does it get rewritten? Who wrote the most foundational and time resistant code?

sangupta 4y ago
This would be pretty interesting.
mfontani 4y ago
See https://github.com/erikbern/git-of-theseus https://github.com/erikbern/git-of-theseus

ncann 4y ago

This is only limited to the top 50 contributors? Also would be nice if the lines are sorted by last commit date, so that we can see a cascade graph of people joining/leaving the project as time goes by.

matt1 4y ago
Creator here. As you realized, it is limited to top 50 contributors and is automatically sorted by descending commit count. Love the suggestions for tweaking this behavior - added them to my todo list. Thank you for the feedback!

wuliwong 4y ago

I worked at a startup a number of years back where we had some pretty cool timeline software. I always tried to push using git and github integrations as our goto market product. I got shutdown though. :) We also were integrating Slack and pivotal tracker as well; it really was a novel way to look at all the data. They never did find a product-market fit though. It really was more a case of analysis paralysis versus not finding a fit. We never really even attempted to launch a product the two years I was there. I think they could have found a fit if they took more of the lean approach to try something, get feedback, and iterate.

smusamashah 4y ago

I thought it will be doing it locally, it uploads the CSV to server. Please also provide a way to delete the timeline.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
matt1 4y ago
Drop me a note and I'd be happy to delete it: help@preceden.com. Eventually will build a way to do this in-app too.

avgcorrection 4y ago

Will this work with commit name "Average Correction, Esquire"? Does it support tab as a separator?

matt1 4y ago
The git log command will generate a comma-separated file which is what the tool expects. The CSV won't include commit messages.
- avgcorrection 4y ago
  I said commit name. Not commit message. Maybe I should have said committer name.

mixcocam 4y ago

This is built into fossil-scm

Rychard 4y ago

Might I recommend using the following command to generate the CSV file: git log --full-history --date=short --pretty=format:"%ad,%aN" > gitlog.csv The only difference is changing %an to %aN. This leverages the existence of the .mailmap file to resolve author names, which is especially handy if any committers have ever changed their `user.email` configuration, and you'd like to associate them together.