<title>Technical Notes</title>
<h2>What Is A "Technote"?</h2>
In Fossil, a "technical note" or "technote" (formerly called an "event")
is a special kind of [./wikitheory.wiki | wiki page]
that is associated with a point in time rather than having a page name.
Each technote causes a single entry to appear on the
[/timeline?y=e | Timeline Page].
Clicking on the timeline link will display the text of the technote.
The wiki content, the timeline entry text, the
time of the technote, and the timeline background color can all be edited.
As with check-ins, wiki, and tickets, all technotes automatically synchronize
to other repositories. Hence, technotes can be viewed, created, and edited
off-line. And the complete edit history for technotes is maintained
for auditing purposes.
Possible uses for technotes include:
* <b>Milestones</b>. Project milestones, such as releases or beta-test
cycles, can be recorded as technotes. The timeline entry for the technote
can be something simple like "Version 1.2.3" perhaps with a bright
color background to draw attention to the entry and the wiki content
can contain release notes, for example.
* <b>Blog Entries</b>. Blog entries from developers describing the current
state of a project, or rationale for various design decisions, or
roadmaps for future development, can be entered as technotes.
* <b>Process Checkpoints</b>. For projects that have a formal process,
technotes can be used to record the completion or the initiation of
various process steps. For example, a technote can be used to record
the successful completion of a long-running test, perhaps with
performance results and details of where the test was run and who
ran it recorded in the wiki content. The technote can be added
from a script.
* <b>News Articles</b>. Significant occurrences in the life cycle of
a project can be recorded as news articles using technotes. Perhaps the
domain name of the canonical website for a project changes, or new
server hardware is obtained. Such happenings are appropriate for
reporting as news.
* <b>Announcements</b>. Changes to the composition of the development
team or acquisition of new project sponsors can be communicated as
announcements which can be implemented as technotes.
* <b>Signed Checksums</b>. Technotes containing cryptographically signed
checksums can be linked to repository artifacts, thereby creating a
traceable, auditable chain so that users can readily verify the integrity
and authenticity of project deliverables. And the command line interface
to technotes enables embedding such processes in scripts.
No project is required to use technotes. But technotes can help many projects
stay better organized and provide a better historical record of the
development progress.
<h2>Viewing Technotes</h2>
Because technotes are considered a special kind of wiki,
users must have permission to read wiki in order read technotes.
Enable the "j" permission under the /Setup/Users menu in order
to give specific users or user classes the ability to view wiki
and technotes.
Technotes show up on the timeline. Click on the hyperlink beside the
technote title to see the complete text.
<h2>Creating, Editing and Viewing Technotes</h2>
There is a hyperlink under the /wikihelp menu that can be used to create
new technotes. And there is a submenu hyperlink on technote displays for
editing existing technotes.
Technotes can also be created using the <b>wiki create</b> command:
<verbatim>
fossil wiki create TestTechnote -t now --technote-bgcolor lightgreen technote.md
Created new tech note 2021-03-15 13:05:56
</verbatim>
This command inserts a light green technote in the timeline at 2021-03-15 13:05:56, with
the contents of file <b>technote.md</b> and comment "TestTechnote". Specifying a different time using
<b>-t DATETIME</b> will insert the technote at the specified timestamp location in the timeline.
Different technotes can have the same timestamp.
The first argument to create, <b>TECHNOTE-COMMENT</b>, is the title text for the technote
that appears in the timeline.
To view all technotes, use the <b>wiki ls</b> command:
<verbatim>
fossil wiki ls --technote --show-technote-ids
z739263a134bf0da1d28e939f4c4367f51ef4c51 2020-12-19 13:20:19
e15a918a8bed71c2ac091d74dc397b8d3340d5e1 2018-09-22 17:40:10
</verbatim>
A technote ID is the UUID of the technote.
To view an individual technote, use the <b>wiki export</b> command:
<verbatim>
fossil wiki export --technote version-2.16
Release Notes 2021-07-02
This note describes changes in the Fossil snapshot for ...
</verbatim>
The <b>-t|--technote</b> option to the <b>export</b> subcommand takes one of
three identifiers: <b>DATETIME</b>; <b>TECHNOTE-ID</b>; and <b>TAG</b>.
See the [/help?cmd=wiki | wiki help] for specifics.
Users must have check-in privileges (permission "i") in order to
create or edit technotes. In addition, users must have create-wiki
privilege (permission "f") to create new technotes and edit-wiki
privilege (permission "k") in order to edit existing technotes.
Technote content may be formatted as [/wiki_rules | Fossil wiki],
[/md_rules | Markdown], or a plain text.