Configuring GitLab

GitLab is a web-based hosting service for Git repos. You can have both local and remote copies of your repos, which makes it easy to collaborate.

You can configure GitLab as a tool integration in your toolchain so that you can manage source code in a new or existing repo on GitLab.com or your company's GitLab instance. Engage in social coding through wikis, issue tracking, and merge requests.

If you are configuring this tool integration as you are creating the toolchain, follow these steps:

If you are storing your source code in a GitLab repo, in the Configurable Integrations section, click GitLab. If you are configuring this tool integration on IBM Cloud Public, you must authorize IBM Cloud to access GitLab by choosing either OAuth or Personal Access Token.
- If you choose OAuth, click Authorize to go to the GitLab website. If you don't have an active GitLab session, you are prompted to log in. Click Authorize Application to allow IBM Cloud to access your GitLab account. If you have an active GitLab session but you didn't enter your password recently, you might be prompted to enter your GitLab password to confirm.
- If you choose Personal Access Token, you must enter the personal access token to use to authorize with GitLab to clone repos and perform other actions on your behalf. If you don't have a personal access token, you can follow the documentation on the GitLab website to create one. Make sure that your personal access token has api rights.
If you are using a repo on your own GitLab server, in the Configurable Integrations section, click Add custom server.

a. Type a title for your custom GitHub server, specify the root URL for the server, and enter your personal access token.

b. If you don't have a personal access token, you can follow the documentation on the GitLab website to create one.

c. If your GitHub server is air-gapped or is not accessible on the public internet, you can connect and integrate a Delivery Pipeline Private Worker to run on your own Kubernetes infrastructure to access internal or on-premises resources. For more information about Delivery Pipeline Private Workers, see Working with Delivery Pipeline Private Workers.
Review the default target repo locations for the GitLab repos. Those repos are cloned from the sample repos. If needed, change the names of the target repos.

If you have a toolchain and are adding this tool integration to it, follow these steps:

From the IBM Cloud console, click the Menu icon > Platform Automation > Toolchains. On the Toolchains page, click the toolchain to open its Overview page. Alternatively, on your app's Overview page, on the Continuous delivery card, click View toolchain. Then, click Overview.
Click Add tool.
In the Tool Integrations section, click GitLab.
Click the GitLab server that you want to use.
If you have a GitLab repo and want to use it, for the repository type, click Existing and type the URL.
If you want to use a new GitLab repo, type a name for the repo, type the URL for the repo that you are cloning or forking, and select the repository type:

a. To create an empty repo, click New.

b. To create a copy of a GitLab repo, click Clone.

c. To fork a GitLab repo so that you can contribute changes through merge requests, click Fork.
If you want to create a public repo on the server, clear the Make this repository private checkbox.
If you want to use GitLab's Issues for issue tracking, select the Enable GitLab Issues checkbox.
If you want to track the deployment of code changes by creating tags and comments on commits, and labels and comments on issues that are referenced by the commits, select the Track deployment of code changes checkbox. For more information, see Track where your code is deployed with toolchains.
Click Create Integration.
From your toolchain's Overview page, on the Repositories card, click the GitLab repo that you want to work with. Depending on the repo that you selected, either the GitLab website or your company's GitLab repo opens, where you can view the contents of the repo.
If you enabled GitLab Issues, click GitLab Issues to open it. You can use this instance of GitLab Issues for your entire toolchain, even if the toolchain contains multiple GitLab repos.

If you don't have owner or master privileges for the repo that you are linking to, your integration is limited because you can't use a webhook. Webhooks are required to automatically run a pipeline when a commit is pushed to the repo. Without a webhook, you must start your pipelines manually.

Configuring GitLab by using the API

The GitLab tool integration supports the following configuration parameters that you can use with the Toolchain HTTP API and SDKs when you create, read, and update tool integrations.

You must specify the tool_type_id property in the request body with the gitlab value.

GitLab tool integration parameters
Parameter	Usage	Type	Terraform argument	Description
api_root_url	optional, updatable	String	api_root_url	The URL of the GitLab API.
api_token	optional, updatable	Password	api_token	The Personal Access Token (PAT). This parameter is required only if the `auth_type` is set to `pat`, otherwise it is ignored.
auth_type	optional, updatable, `Default: oauth`	String	auth_type	Set the authentication method to use to access the Git provider.
blind_connection	optional, updatable, `Default: false`	Boolean	blind_connection	Set this value to true to indicate that the server is not addressable on the public internet because IBM Cloud can't validate the connection details that you provide. Certain functions that require API access to the Git server will be disabled. Delivery Pipeline works only by using a private worker that has network access to the Git server.
default_branch	optional, updatable	String	default_branch	The name of the default branch of the Git repo.
enable_traceability	optional, updatable, `Default: false`	Boolean	enable_traceability	Set this value to `true` to track the deployment of code changes by creating tags, labels and comments on commits, pull requests, and referenced issues.
git_id	optional, immutable	String	git_id	Set this value to `gitlab` for gitlab.com, or to the GUID of a custom GitLab server.
has_issues	optional, updatable, `Default: true`	Boolean	toolchain_issues_enabled	Set this value to `true` to enable Issues on the GitLab repo and add an Issues tool integration card to the toolchain. Set this value to `false` to remove the tool integration card from the toolchain. This action does not impact whether issues are enabled on the GitLab repo itself.
integration_owner	optional, updatable	String	integration_owner	Select the user that Git operations are performed as.
owner_id	optional, immutable	String	owner_id	The GitLab user or group that owns the repo. This parameter is required when you create a repo, or clone or fork a repo. This value is computed when you link to an existing repo.
private_repo	optional, immutable, `Default: true`	Boolean	private_repo	Set this value to `true` to make the repo private when you create a repo, or clone or fork a repo. This parameter is not used when you link to an existing repo.
repo_id	optional, immutable	String	repo_id	The ID of the GitLab project.
repo_name	optional, immutable	String	repo_name	The name of the GitLab repo to create. This parameter is required when you create a repo, or clone or fork a repo. This value is computed when you link to an existing repo.
repo_url	optional, immutable	String	repo_url	The URL of the GitLab repo for this tool integration. This parameter is required when you link to an existing repo. This value is computed when you create a repo, or clone or fork a repo.
source_repo_url	optional, immutable	String	source_repo_url	The URL of the repo that you want to fork or clone. This parameter is required when you fork or clone a repo, but it is not used when you create a repo or link to an existing repo.
token_url	optional, updatable	String	token_url	The token URL that is used to authorize with the GitLab server.
type	required, immutable	String	type	The operation to perform to initialize the new tool integration. Use `new` to create a Git repo, `clone` to clone an existing repo into a new Git repo, `fork` to fork an existing Git repo, or `link` to link to an existing Git repo.