See #327: changelog and easier contribution documentation

CONTRIBUTING

@@ -12,6 +12,42 @@ This document will guide you through common operations such as:
 - Writing unit tests to validate your work
 - Submit your work
 
+A quick path to contribute on the front-end
+-------------------------------------------
+
+The next sections of this document include a full installation guide to help
+you setup a local, development version of Funkwhale. If you only want to fix small things
+on the front-end, and don't want to manage a full development environment, there is anoter way.
+
+As the front-end can work with any Funkwhale server, you can work with the front-end only,
+and make it talk with an existing instance (like the demo one, or you own instance, if you have one).
+
+If even that is too much for you, you can also make your changes without any development environment,
+and open a merge request. We will be able to to review your work easily by spawning automatically a
+live version of your changes, thanks to Gitlab Review apps.
+
+Setup front-end only development environment
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+1. Clone the repository::
+
+    git clone ssh://git@code.eliotberriot.com:2222/funkwhale/funkwhale.git
+    cd funkwhale
+    cd front
+
+2. Install [nodejs](https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/) and [yarn](https://yarnpkg.com/lang/en/docs/install/#debian-stable)
+3. Install the dependencies::
+
+    yarn install
+
+4. Launch the development server::
+
+    # this will serve the front-end on http://localhost:8000
+    WEBPACK_DEVSERVER_PORT=8000 yarn dev
+
+5. Make the front-end talk with an existing server (like https://demo.funkwhale.audio),
+   by clicking on the corresponding link in the footer
+6. Start hacking!
 
 Setup your development environment
 ----------------------------------

changes/changelog.d/327.feature

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+Funkwhale's front-end can now point to any instance (#327)
+
+Removed front-end and back-end coupling
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Eventhough Funkwhale's front-end has always been a Single Page Application,
+talking to an API, it was only able to talk to an API on the same domain.
+
+There was no real technical justification behind this (only lazyness), and it was
+also blocking interesting use cases:
+
+- Use multiple customized versions of the front-end with the same instance
+- Use a customized version of the front-end with multiple instances
+- Use a locally hosted front-end with a remote API, which is especially useful in development
+
+From now on, Funkwhale's front-end can connect to any Funkwhale server. You can
+change the server you are connecting to in the footer.
+
+Fixing this also unlocked a really interesting feature in our development/review workflow:
+by leveraging Gitlab CI and review apps, we are now able to deploy automatically live versions of
+a merge request, making it possible for anyone to review front-end changes easily, without
+the need to install a local environment.