Provide different output formats

[pvandervelde]

It would be really nice to not only have a Markdown file as the output but maybe also a text file and and XML / JSON file. The use cases for the latter two files are:

• The text file could be used to update the NuSpec file with release notes. Given that NuSpec doesn't process Markdown there is no point in formatting it in Markdown format. Raw text would probably look cleaner.
• The XML file can be parsed by other tools. In my case what I would want to do is to get a list of all issues that were closed and (in the case of using YouTrack) mark all those issues with the build and version numbers when a release is created. e.g. when creating the release for MyAwesomeTool 1.3 I would like to update all the issues that were closed in release 1.3 with the build (Fixed in build) and version numbers (Fix version).

[JakeGinnivan]

The idea of using http://www.semanticreleasenotes.org/ was for exactly this reason, instead of xml the markdown is actually layed out in a semantic way so it can be parsed into a data structure. For example http://www.semanticreleasenotes.org/#Editor

Now this is in a working state, I will start pushing the required changes into the spec. The thing we need is a semantic release notes parser, which there is an f# implementation underway at avanderhoorn/Semantic-Release-Notes#13

The question is, what are the best small steps to take to get us there, and do what we need now :)

[pvandervelde]

Sounds good! I guess I'll wait for a suitable parser then.

[AnneTheAgile]

@JakeGinnivan , maybe one very small step is to pre-validate each release notes with the live editor ? http://www.semanticreleasenotes.org/#Editor

Maybe you already do that? (I did not with my PR #63 - just saw it!).

The project does not seem to be getting much attention - the repo is 2 years since a commit.

[laedit]

I had the same issue, so I made a project which allow to parse and format a Semantic Release Notes.
Sadly the current version of the spec doesn't handle multiples releases on the same file, but with the current format of GitReleaseNotes they are recognized as sections.

[AnneTheAgile]

@laedit, ty! I will try it out. I got all distracted looking into the appveryor build syntax, I had not seen them before.

[GeertvanHorrik]

I think this can be merged with #55. Will close this, feel free to re-open if I am mistaken.