7.1 KiB
How to contribute
Hello 👋. We are glad to have you here.
GIT AND GITHUB
Before continuing we want to clarify the difference between Git and GitHub. Git is a version control system(VCS) which is a tool to manage the history of our Source Code. GitHub is a hosting service for Git projects.
We assume you have created an account on GitHub and installed Git on your System.
Now tell Git your name and E-mail (used on GitHub) address.
$ git config --global user.name "YOUR NAME"
$ git config --global user.email "YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS"
This is an important step to mark your commits to your name and email.
FORK A PROJECT -
You can use GitHub explore - https://github.com/explore to find a project that interests you and match your skills. Once you find your cool project to workon, you can make a copy of project to your account. This process is called forking a project to your GitHub account. On Upper right side of project page on GitHub, you can see -
FINDING A FEATURE OR BUG TO WORKON -
Open Source projects always have something to workon and improves with each new release. You can see the issues section to find something you can solve or report a bug. The project managers always welcome new contributors and can guide you to solve the problem. You can find issues in the right section of project page.
CLONE THE FORKED PROJECT -
You have forked the project you want to contribute to your GitHub account. To get this project on your development machine we use clone command of git.
$ git clone https://github.com/<your-account-username>/<your-forked-project>.git
Now you have the project on your local machine.
ADD A REMOTE (UPSTREAM) TO ORIGINAL PROJECT REPOSITORY
Remote means the remote location of project on GitHub. By cloning, we have a remote called origin which points to your forked repository. Now we will add a remote to the original repository from where we had forked.
$ cd <your-forked-project-folder>
$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/<author-account-username>/<project>.git
You will see the benefits of adding remote later.
SYNCHRONIZING YOUR FORK -
Open Source projects have a number of contributors who can push code anytime. So it is necessary to make your forked copy equal with the original repository. The remote added above called Upstream helps in this.
$ git checkout main
$ git fetch upstream
$ git merge upstream/main
$ git push origin main
The last command pushes the latest code to your forked repository on GitHub. The origin is the remote pointing to your forked repository on GitHub.
CREATE A NEW BRANCH FOR A FEATURE OR BUGFIX -
Normally, all repositories have a master branch which is considered to remain stable and all new features should be made in a separate branch and after completion merged into master branch. So we should create a new branch for our feature or bugfix and start working on the issue.
$ git checkout -b <feature-branch>
This will create a new branch out of master branch. Now start working on the problem and commit your changes.
$ git add --all
$ git commit -m "<commit message>"
The first command adds all the files or you can add specific files by removing -a and adding the file names. The second command gives a message to your changes so you can know in future what changes this commit makes. If you are solving an issue on original repository, you should add the issue number like #35 to your commit message. This will show the reference to commits in the issue.
REBASE YOUR FEATURE BRANCH WITH UPSTREAM-
It can happen that your feature takes time to complete and other contributors are constantly pushing code. After completing the feature your feature branch should be rebase on latest changes to upstream master branch.
$ git checkout <feature-branch>
$ git pull --rebase upstream main
Now you get the latest commits from other contributors and check that your commits are compatible with the new commits. If there are any conflicts solve them.
SQUASHING YOUR COMMITS-
You have completed the feature, but you have made a number of commits which make less sense. You should squash your commits to make good commits.
$ git rebase -i HEAD~5
This will open an editor which will allow you to squash the commits.
PUSH CODE AND CREATE A PULL REQUEST -
Till this point you have a new branch with the feature or bugfix you want in the project you had forked. Now push your new branch to your remote fork on GitHub.
$ git push origin <feature-branch>
Now you are ready to help the project by opening a pull request means you now tell the project managers to add the feature or bugfix to original repository. You can open a pull request by clicking on green icon -
Remember your upstream base branch should be master and source should be your feature branch. Click on create pull request and add a name to your pull request. You can also describe your feature.
Awesome! You have made your first contribution. If you have any doubts please let me know in the comments.
BE OPEN!
For Front End
Got to frontend directory by typing $ cd frontend in your terminal.
In the frontend directory, you can run:
yarn
yarn start
Runs the app in the development mode.
Open http://localhost:3000 to view it in the browser.
The page will reload if you make edits.
You will also see any lint errors in the console.
For Back End
Got to backend directory by typing $ cd backend in your terminal.
In the backend directory, you can run:
yarn
yarn dev
Runs the app in the development mode.
Open http://localhost:5000 to view it in the browser.
Make sure you have Nodemon installed in your system, either globally or locally for this project
Contributing to repository
Commit Message Format
This is the list of type of commits that we accept:
- chore : Updating deps, docs, linting, etc.
- ci : Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts
- docs : Documentation only changes.
- feat : A new feature.
- fix : A bug fix.
- perf : A code change that improves performance.
- refactor : A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature.
- revert : Reverts the previous commit.
- style : Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc).
- test : Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests.
✔ Participant are requested to give regular updates regarding their progress to the project leads.
✔ If the participant is not able to contribute to the assigned issue due to any reason, kindly let the project leads know so that the issue is assigned to some other participant.