Please consider integration with https://cla-assistant.io/

Currently we have a rather odd workflow for new contributors that require them to do the following:

1. They create (or already own) a GH account and try to contribute
2. The CLA check fails and a contributor ask them to sign the CLA
3. They create (or already own) a Eclipse account
4. One has to add the GH name to the Eclipse Acount to connect both and wait some hours

Not that it is cumbersome to sign up for twice services, it is rather manual and error prone (wrong mail address, missing name in profile, not patient enough ...), and I recently came across a very nice integration with the https://cla-assistant.io/ when contribution to an Apache OSS project that worked the following:

1. I created a PR
2. An automatic message is added and I can click on the button to sign the CLA

It would be great to have such one-click workflow for the Eclipse CLA as well!

FYI @akurtakov @mistria @emerks @aloskutov ... maybe more ... spread the word ...

added ECA label

added IT-prioritylow IT-severitylow ~16280 labels

added team:releng team:webdev labels

In terms of future plans, this sort of thing is somewhere in the pipe as we have discussed the feature. You're very right that it would be an awesome addition! There is work to do for it that isn't trivial and that makes it harder to fit into the schedule.

@cguindon I know we've talked about this in the past, is there any room in the next few quarters to start implementing this? You know the roadmap better than I do.

If you're looking for feedback on whether CLAassistant would work for EF, my gut says probably not. We have the signed electronic documents in our own private DBs that are not publically accessible, and I'm pretty sure that's a strict internal requirement for these documents. There's also the fact that we have some business logic that isn't covered by CLAassistant that wouldn't be available (specifications and bot users, as an example).

CLA Assitant is open source: https://github.com/cla-assistant/cla-assistant so for sure one could implement "something" that stores the data else where, e.g. calling a webservice or similar, a very first step to start would maybe that i can sign in to eclipse using a Github account when I go to: https://accounts.eclipse.org/user/register and it creates an eclipse account for me with everything set-up. Bot users do already exits as far as I know...

Also see https://github.com/cla-assistant/cla-assistant#setup-your-own-instance-of-cla-assistant

marked this issue as related to #436

a very first step to start would maybe that i can sign in to eclipse using a Github account when I go to: https://accounts.eclipse.org/user/register and it creates an eclipse account for me with everything set-up.

+1 See #569 (moved) and eclipsefdn/it/websites/accounts.eclipse.org#9 (moved)

a very first step to start would maybe that i can sign in to eclipse using a Github account when I go to: > > https://accounts.eclipse.org/user/register and it creates an eclipse account for me with everything set-up.

+1 See #569 (moved) and eclipsefdn/it/websites/accounts.eclipse.org#9 (moved)

@fgurr @lmisingnamem8k Based on the issue, it's not clear to me what problem you both are trying to solve here.

As mentionned by Fred, there is already an issue about allowing users to login with their Github account but I don't think this issue is about that.

Based on the subject, this is about integrating a particular project to our stack: https://cla-assistant.io/

I think we are doing this in the reverse order.

May I recommend that we take a step back and instead of focusing on a solution, let's work on describing the problem that we believe we need to fix. We might be able to provide a simpler solution if we focus on that...

• Is this about simplifying the registration process, if so then let's close this issue as a duplicate for eclipsefdn/it/websites/accounts.eclipse.org#9 (moved)

• Is this about giving more information to contributors on PRs on how they can sign our ECA? If so, perhaps the solution is to mimic cla-assistant.io and post a comment on failed PR using our ECA app with a direct link to allow users to sign the ECA: https://accounts.eclipse.org/users/eca

Since that signing the ECA is not the only way to be covered, we could also include some information about the MCCA to remind folks to let us know if they work with an Eclipse Member with an MCCA on file.

These are examples but once we have a good problem statement written down, we can start discussing solutions.

Or is this about:

It would be great to have such one-click workflow for the Eclipse CLA as well!

If so, what does that mean to you? Is this about allowing users to sign the ECA without clicking all the checkboxes and entering their Electronic signature?

We can definitely use this issue to have this conversation but at the very least, this would require some input from @wbeaton.

It is not particular that I want to recommend cla-assistant.io but

1. It already integrates greatly with GH
2. It is open source and might be adjusted to our needs
3. It can be run on own-infra if desired
4. came up with a similar solution would most likely require much more work

So if EF can provide a similar (automatic, one click, gh integrated) solution where I don't need to interact with the user and explain them all the currently required steps I'm fine with that.

If so, what does that mean to you? If is it about allowing users to sign the ECA without clicking all the checkboxes and entering their Electronic signature?

For sure it would not really be "one click without any interaction", in cla-assistant it is the following (and similar to other OpenSource products e.g. microsoft-mssql-jdbc driver):

1. I click on the button
2. I'm asked to allow "cla-assistant" to access my e-mail and name from my github account
3. I get a form that shows me the CLA, there is maybe some other forms to fill out and I click "agree"

In your opinion, does the link that I shared with you solve this? https://accounts.eclipse.org/users/eca

If you have a valid account, you will be asked to log in and then you will be redirected to the ECA form.

If you don't have a valid account, you will register, and once log in. You are then asked to sign the ECA after logging in automatically.

If so, then we could re-purpose this issue to ask us to post a comment on failed MR asking contributors to sign the eca via https://accounts.eclipse.org/users/eca

I understand that allowing users to register with a Github account would simplify the registration process and we will address that part with eclipsefdn/it/websites/accounts.eclipse.org#9 (moved).

In your opinion, does the link that I shared with you solve this? https://accounts.eclipse.org/users/eca

When i visit it I get Unfortunately, you don’t have permission to enter this area of the site.)

If so, then we could re-purpose this issue to ask us to post a comment on failed MR asking contributors to sign the eca via

That would be a first step already I think

I understand that allowing users to register with a Github account would simplify the registration process

Yes, ideally it will immediately show the Oauth page, so I just need to give Eclipse access to my email and then I'm either logged in with my existing account (will I need to enter my password then? I assume yes) or create a new one (will I later be asked for a password? Which one?)

In your opinion, does the link that I shared with you solve this? https://accounts.eclipse.org/users/eca

When i visit it I get Unfortunately, you don’t have permission to enter this area of the site.)

Sorry about that, It would probably help if I give you the right link... https://accounts.eclipse.org/user/eca

Yes this would be suitable, If I now can login with Github and get an automatic reply when ECA is missing, that would be comparable to what cla-assistant offers.

Yes, ideally it will immediately show the Oauth page, so I just need to give Eclipse access to my email and then I'm either logged in with my existing account (will I need to enter my password then? I assume yes) or create a new one (will I later be asked for a password? Which one?)

I think these are valid questions that we need to figure out via eclipsefdn/it/websites/accounts.eclipse.org#9 (moved).

I would imagine that we would need to create a custom workflow where new users are asked to enter additional information such as a password + employment status. If the user does not work for an Eclipse Member with a valid MCCA on file, the workflow would need to prompt the user to sign the ECA as we are doing now with https://accounts.eclipse.org/user/eca

removed team:releng label

As we recently had a confused user again here: https://github.com/eclipse-tycho/tycho/pull/1238 are there any updates on this?

Anything we/swt can do to push this forward?

@lmisingnamem8k Integrating cla-assistant is not really a priority for us at the moment. For me to consider changing how we mange and store ECAs, I would need a solution that supports both GitHub and GitLab.

However, we do have some related priorities coming up:

1- Migrate our existing GitHub validation APP to our ECA validation API:https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/it/api/git-eca-rest-api

2- Allow users to login to accounts.eclipse.org using their Github credentials: eclipsefdn/it/websites/accounts.eclipse.org#9 (moved)

Once our migration to our ECA API is done is done, we can use this issue to implement a new feature in our ECA validation API that would add a comment on the issue asking authors without an ECA to login/create an eclipse account and login.

WDYT?

Once our migration to our ECA API is done is done, we can use this issue to implement a new feature in our ECA validation API that would add a comment on the issue asking authors without an ECA to login/create an eclipse account and login.

Sure, claassitant is not a requirement if it works similar I'm fine with that. Just another reference for Users confused and we need additional human resources to direct them into the right track:

https://github.com/eclipse-platform/.github/issues/65

As we recently has seen contributors struggling with the ECA is there any progress in having a more automated / integrated workflow for github?

Hi @claeubrich,

Can you share links to examples where contributors are struggling?

We haven't made any progress on this topic yet but it's it's something that we plan to work on in the future.

@cguindon sorry for the delay, here is a recent example (FYI @jograham @akurtakov):

https://github.com/eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde/pull/784

with the current workflow that's far from optimal:

1. New contributor provides a fix
2. Committer has to take action to see CLA failed
3. Contributor even has singed ECA
4. Even more committer involvement required
5. Some guess work and command line git recommendations to "fix" the issue
6. Soon the PR is completely messed up and committer has to give up on that
7. In the happy case contributor is not frustrated (enough) here an recreates PR
8. Now all previous reviews and comments are lost and committer must start all over again
9. Finally we can merge

So what is desired an I see on other open source projects (and that where I get in touch with cla-assistant.io):

1. New contributor provides a fix
2. Automatic response that CLA should be signed
3. Simple workflow that guides through the process in some simple steps at not requiring any special account creation but reusing github sign on
4. Committer has to review and merge

marked this issue as related to #593 (closed)

mentioned in issue #593 (closed)

fyi: I came across EasyCLA from the CNCF that gets triggered when contributing to a project of them.

Was a pretty nice experience, see this PR https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/prow/pull/280

A comment was added to the PR that I did not sign a CLA yet, could click a link where I sign a document. I did need to approved an oauth application though.

mentioned in issue #5209 (closed)