How to Easily Fetch Commits on a Specific Date Using GitLab API

Learn how to accurately retrieve commits from the GitLab API for a specific date using proper date formatting guidelines.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/72285294/ asked by the user 'Shadman Jahangir' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2816001/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/72285839/ provided by the user 'Tolis Gerodimos' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/10463211/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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How to Accurately Query Commits on a Specific Date Using GitLab API

GitLab is an excellent platform for source code management, and the GitLab API allows developers to interact with GitLab programmatically. One common issue that developers encounter is fetching commits on a specific date. This guide aims to guide you through the process of retrieving commits from GitLab's API for an exact date, ensuring you have the correct formats and methods to get the information you need.

The Problem at Hand

You might be familiar with performing API queries to fetch commits, but what if you want to filter commits not just by a range of dates but for a particular day? For example, you would like to see commits made on April 18, 2022, without including those from surrounding days. Your initial attempt using the GitLab API may have looked something like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Unfortunately, this query did not yield the desired results, as it likely returned commits from other dates as well, making it frustrating when you're in search of something more specific.

The Solution

The key to retrieving commits for a specific date lies in the correct use of the ISO 8601 date format and specifying an entire timeframe for that day. Here’s how to do it effectively.

Utilizing the ISO 8601 Format

To accurately filter commits by date, ensure that you specify the dates in ISO 8601 format. This format requires you to indicate the time as well as the date. Here’s how you can structure your cURL command:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Breaking It Down

since parameter: This marks the beginning of the specified timeframe. For April 18, 2022, this starts at midnight UTC on that day (2022-04-18T00:00:00Z).

until parameter: This marks the end of the specified timeframe. For the same date, this ends just before midnight UTC of the next day (2022-04-18T23:59:59Z).

Filter by first_parent: This option can be used when you want to focus only on the primary branch's commits for clarity.

Final Command Example

By combining the since and until parameters, your final command will look as follows:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

Fetching a specific day's commits using the GitLab API is possible and straightforward if you adhere to the ISO 8601 date format and define the timeframe appropriately. By ensuring that since starts at the beginning of the day and until ends at the end of the day, you can effectively filter your results to retrieve exactly what you want.

With this guide, you are now equipped to tackle similar queries and retrieve commits efficiently for any specified date.

If you have any more questions about the GitLab API or need clarification on other topics, don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Happy coding!

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