Release process review

During the recent release, a few "sticky" points were noticed making the release a bit more complicated than necessary
Below is a list of points to consider with potential solutions

• Release of the various omero-* packages e.g. omero-model.

  • Possible switch to MavenCentral. Note we do not have control on when the artifacts will appear on Maven central, we do on artifactory when a package is pushed via GHA see https://github.com/ome/omero-model/blob/master/.github/workflows/gradle.yml
  • Doc job needs to be triggered manually to copy the doc (javadoc, slice2html doc) to our infra See https://ci.openmicroscopy.org/job/OMERO-DEV-release-artifacts/.

• Release of openmicroscopy

  • omero dependencies version bump. Automated see https://github.com/ome/openmicroscopy/pull/6329
  • Current generation of artifacts using https://ci.openmicroscopy.org/job/OMERO-DEV-release/
    - creates the artifacts under downloads.o.org
    - then they are manually copied to GitHub.
    - Redirects are manually updated.
  • Proposal
    • creates artifacts using GHA See https://github.com/ome/openmicroscopy/pull/6318
    • No manual copy
    • Redirect to put in place if we want to keep downloads.o.org or remove that step too (long term)
    • Check: download stats from GitHub
  • https://github.com/ome/omego/pull/132 changes to retrieve artifacts from GitHub (not using redirect)

• Documentation update. The documentation release is now happening via RTD

  • Not applicable this time but generation of model glossary is manual and required a running server. Automated see https://github.com/ome/omero-documentation/pull/2258/commits/c756aa708d927b67a9a0382cf5a6f1c624475e4b
  • Dependencies version bump is currently updated manually (missed).
    • Automated via GHA: https://github.com/ome/omero-documentation/pull/2258
  • https://github.com/ome/omero-documentation#release-process was not mentioned on the release board and missed during the process. See https://github.com/ome/omero-documentation/pull/2260
  • Usage of omego for installation of server i.e. replace https://github.com/ome/omero-install/blob/develop/linux/step04_all_omero_install.sh#L15. To avoid update when switching to release like 5.7. See https://github.com/ome/omero-install/pull/266

cc @sbesson @joshmoore

Start by reviewing the linked .github/workflows/gradle.yml, OMERO-DEV-release-artifacts and OMERO-DEV-release jobs, and the release-process documentation. Compare the linked automation pull requests and the linux/step04_all_omero_install.sh entry point. Done should mean a defined release scope with automated artifact, dependency, documentation, redirect, and installation steps, plus updated process documentation.