renovate VS rife2

There is no built-in Renovate Bot on a self-hosted GitLab. What can we do to set it up and enjoy all the benefits of automatic dependency updates?

> Yes, it is awesome until you have to sysadmin it, apply updates, patch it, fix security holes, etc. I am not saying all self-hosted solutions are like that. There are exceptions. However, the majority of open-source self-hosted solutions require a lot of extra work.

I'm currently self-hosting 10 different applications on my local server, which represents everything I've ever seen that looked fun or useful to me. Every one of them had a Docker image with an example compose file, which means updating them just requires periodically running Renovate [0] on the repo that stores all my compose files and then running a script that docker compose pulls the updates. It takes maybe 10 minutes every other week, and is actually kinda fun.

It helps that all the apps are only accessible from within my VPN, so I'm not too worried about fixing security updates within a tiny time window.

[0] https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate

This is a big deal! Where did you read this? I found:

https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/discussions/26917

Renovate is an automated dependency management tool that can be used to keep your dependencies up-to-date. It can be configured to automatically create pull requests to update your dependencies, and it supports a wide range of package managers and platforms.

To get started with Mend Renovate, the comprehensive official documentation provides detailed instructions on installation, configuration, and best practices. Additionally, the Mend Renovate community forum offers a platform for users to connect, share experiences, and access the collective knowledge base.

It is a good practice to keep software up to date. To track changes in upstream software, we can utilize automatic dependency tracking systems such as Dependabot or Renovate. This is a broad topic and requires a separate article to be covered. If you would like to read about it, please vote in the comments section below.

So do other forges: I have Renovate [0] set up on my self-hosted Forgejo and it's worked great so far.

[0] https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate

You can ease some of the burden for yourself though using tooling. If you are using GitHub, dependabot can be configured to make automatic PRs to your repo whenever there are dependencies to update. If you're not a GitHub user, you can use renovate which even supports self hosting.

Hello! I'm using Helm in K8s and curious if there is a solution that could keep tabs on the deployed chart dependency versions and either alert us when something is out of date or when a new release is available. Does this exist? I was thinking something like Dependabot or Renovate, but neither seems to be able to manage this.

It is possible, and I realize we've not written docs about it yes, we'll fix that soon. We're using two modules in RIFE2 and bld itself, one for the main build and one for the framework examples https://github.com/rife2/rife2/tree/main/src/bld/java/rife

There's more detail in the readme on GitHub:

https://github.com/gbevin/rife2

Including:

> RIFE2 has features that after 20 years still can't be found elsewhere: web continuations, bidirectional template engine, bean-centric metadata system, full-stack without dependencies, metadata-driven SQL builders, content management framework, full localization support, resource abstraction, persisted cron-like scheduler, continuations-based workflow engine.

Doesn't appear to have websocket support, though.

I'm very excited to see what web projects, both big and small, can be accomplished with such a self-contained framework like RIFE2. And we've only scratched the surface! There's a built-in template system, Continuations, and much more. Definitely read the docs if you want to dig deeper into this framework. Also, be sure to thank the framework author, Geert Bevin, for the amount of effort he has put into this!

The validation and meta-data however doesn't require the model to extend a class, there's the possibility to use meta-data merging to have a sibling class that implements the RIFE2 specific logic, which will be merged at runtime through bytecode instrumentation: https://github.com/gbevin/rife2/wiki/Metadata-Merging

RIFE2 does support arbitrary parameters, in various ways. The manual way is when generating a URL with urlFor, you can add parameters to it c.urlFor(route).param(key, value).param(key, value). You can also annotated Element class fields with @Parameter which will have RIFE2 automatically inject the incoming value, there's an additional annotation attribute that can be set to specific the flow of the data: in, out or inout. When you generate a URL with c.urlFor(route), RIFE2 will look at the element currently in your context, the element targeted by your route and any out parameters that have corresponding in parameter names on the target, will be automatically added to the generated URL with the value they currently hold. Some of that is documented here, but it could definitely use some more love: https://github.com/gbevin/rife2/wiki/Field-Annotations

Java seems to have gained a second wind in recent years, and the innovation in this ecosystem is speeding up. Java 20 and LTS release 21 are expected to happen this year. RIFE2, an actively-developed pure-Java web framework, has recently caught my attention. Like Javalin, it appears to be built on top of the successful Jetty server. I also started exploring FXGL for building games with Java. Lastly, as concerns over COVID-19 variants wane I expect an increase in Java developers participating in community events. For example, Chicago finally had its first in-person JConf event and the Chicago Java User Group (CJUG) is easing back into in-person events.

There's a step-by-step readme to get a quick glance at the feel and the approach: https://github.com/gbevin/rife2/blob/main/README.md, a series of concise examples https://github.com/gbevin/rife2/tree/main/app/src/main/java/rife and a growing full manual: https://github.com/gbevin/rife2/wiki