Tasks to complete before releasing Steeltoe 4.0.0

[TimHess]

Beta 1

• Review/update all Steeltoe package metadata #1460
• Rename package Steeltoe.Logging.DynamicLogger to Steeltoe.Logging.DynamicConsole #1466
• Review SourceLink and pdb configurations (embed pdb files?) #1461
• Pin dependency versions (keep wildcard at patch level, update comments) #1470
• Update Documentation for v4 Documentation#317
• Update readme #1463
• Update for Steeltoe v4 and .NET 9 NetCoreToolTemplates#98
• Fix warning in Visual Studio Schema#12
• Update JSON configuration schema for Steeltoe 4 MainSite#158
• Allow including templates from source during PR builds NetCoreToolService#11
• Update Initializr InitializrConfig#121
• Update JSON Schema (by running the tool at https://github.com/SteeltoeOSS/Schema and updating MainSite) MainSite#155
• Run package update on all samples Samples#380
• Run integration tests in Samples

Release Candidate 1

• Update nbgv to allow pre-releases #1486
• Spring Boot Admin Integration enhancements #490
• Review skipped tests #995
• Review Management tests  #1028
• HeapDump actuator produces invalid gcdump file #1399
• Update tests to xUnit v3 #1420
• Is the 503 status code correct when the request to check permissions in CF fails #1446
• Review header redaction #1447
• Unify syntax for dictionary initializers #1449
• Revisit reloading of post-processors #1450
• Review flaky tests #1469
• Address Sonar warnings in cibuild #1472
• Apply guidance for multi-threaded / async code #1475
• DataProtection.KeyManagement.XmlKeyManager warning: No XML encryptor configured. #1476
• Remove DOTNET_SKIP_FIRST_TIME_EXPERIENCE usage #1479
• Build warning: This project cannot be packaged because packaging has been disabled #1485
• Revisit broker support in Connectors #1494
• Samples
  • Isolate integration test runs by branch Samples#278
  • Update samples based on guidelines Samples#319
  • Add a sample console application using certificate auth Samples#335
  • Update broken links in READMEs Samples#348
  • Create a universal .cfignore file in all sample directories Samples#350
• Documentation
  • Make sure PublishSingleFile is covered Documentation#311
  • Shell command samples in markdown should use the same code-fence language identifier Documentation#334
  • Update references from Twitter to X Documentation#349
• MainSite
  • Update site for Twitter's rebrand to X MainSite#152
  • Features that no longer exist should not be in marketing content Documentation#368
• Update suffix to rc in https://github.com/SteeltoeOSS/Steeltoe/blob/main/version.json, create GitHub Release and publish NuGet packages

Final release

• Finalize Shipped/Unshipped API text files (scripts at https://github.com/dotnet/aspire/tree/release/9.0/eng/apicompat and https://github.com/AzureAD/azure-activedirectory-identitymodel-extensions-for-dotnet/blob/8.4.0/Tools/mark-shipped.ps1)
• Create Steeltoe GitHub release and publish new NuGet packages
• Address Provide user guidance about merged packages #1242 and Make use of nuget depreciation warnings #1241
• Search/replace branch names (and verify no broken links) in Samples, Documentation and MainSite
• If the JSON configuration schema has changed, create tag v4.0.0 in the Schema repository and deploy updated schema to MainSite at https://steeltoe.io/schema/v4/schema.json
• Initializer: Split "Steeltoe 4.0.x (pre-release)" into "Steeltoe 4.0.x (stable)" and "Steeltoe 4.0.x (main)"
  • Add/replace 4.0.*-* with 4.0.* in NetCoreTool CLI template and IDE template
  • Make inclusion of nuget.config conditional on whether the selected version is a pre-release, so packages from the Azure DevOps feed are used
  • Release NetCoreToolTemplates v4.1.1 to NuGet
  • Update NuGet version in NetCoreToolService
  • Update InitializrConfig to use 4.0.x for stable and add 4.0.x-x for unstable, update names
• Tag branches in samples/docs/schema after release, update README badges

[bart-vmware]

I'd like to suggest the following branch names:

• "main" in Steeltoe/Samples/Documentation/MainSite: ongoing development
• "release/2.x" and "release/3.x" in Steeltoe: the latest stable release, available for hotfixes (earlier releases can be identified by tag)
• "2.x" and "3.x" in Samples: source for linking to from documentation
• "release/latest" in Documentation/MainSite: what's deployed to steeltoe.io production ("main" deployed to staging dev.steeltoe.io)

Cross-links in main branches remain problematic. They need to be updated each time a major release ships.

Once these changes have been applied, we should run a tool like https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/tutorials/broken-link-checker/ to discover broken links.

[TimHess]

We'll have to make some changes to the release process for Documentation/MainSite to account for the new strategy (along with potentially merging the documentation back into mainsite while updating docfx), but I agree with all of the above.