CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Sakai

Contributions to Sakai from all comers are welcome and encouraged.

Please use these guidelines and the information in README.md to assure that your contributions are compatible with our (evolving) workflow and practices.

Jira

Bugs and features against Sakai are tracked in our Jira instance and contributions must reflect a Jira reference number in the messages and git branch names (e.g., SAK-29469). To file or comment on a bug or feature, you will need a Jira account.

Initial Git/GitHub setup and advice

You need to do some initial work to set your local environment. In the steps below, the following references are used:

• local = A copy of Sakai on your workstation (this is where everyone typically does work)
• origin = Your personal copy of Sakai on GitHub (you clone this repository on your workstation to make the local copy for everyday work)
• upstream = Main Sakai GitHub project (everyone forks this project into their GitHub account to make the origin)

To work on and contribute to Sakai:

• Set up Git, create a GitHub account, and set your name and e-mail address correctly as Git global variables on your local workstation

• Fork the central Sakai repository to your own GitHub account

• Clone your origin repository onto your local workstation (this example uses HTTPS as the transport mechanism):

  git clone https://github.com/GITHUBACCOUNTNAME/sakai

• Add a remote to receive updates from the upstream repository:

  git remote add upstream https://github.com/sakaiproject/sakai

• Update your local repository frequently to stay up to date:

  git checkout master (switch to local master branch)

  git pull upstream master (pull in any upstream changes)

  git push origin master (push the changes up to the origin)

Working on bugs and features

Never work in your local master branch.

This branch should always be the same as what is in Sakai's upstream master and if you make commits into your local master, it complicates things.

General workflow

To fix a bug or add a feature, the general Git workflow is:

• Create a local branch using Jira reference for the branch name:

  git checkout -b SAK-29469

• Do work

• Add changed or new files:

  git add -u

• Make your local commit:

  git commit -m "SAK-29469 Add some documentation about contributing"

• Share branch back to origin:

  git push origin SAK-29469

• Create a pull request (PR) using GitHub from the branch against the upstream master for review by others

Respond to a pull request (PR) by updating proposed changes

You will often receive friendly advice to improve or fix the changes you proposed in a p. To update your changes and maintain the existing PR, you should:

• Change to your local branch:

  git checkout SAK-29469

• Make changes and/or improvements in response to PR comments

• Add changed or new files:

  git add -u

• Update existing commit (this updates the previous commit rather than making a new one):

  git commit --amend -C HEAD

• Share your new local changes back to the origin branch and the original PR (by force is required for amending commits. You should only ever push by force into your own repo):

  git push -f origin SAK-29469

• Make a comment on the existing PR to alert reviewers to your changes

Questions and support

More documentation and notes can be found in the Git Setup confluence page.

Questions are always welcome on the Sakai Developer mailing list. To join the list, send an email to [email protected].