Submitting a Patch

Patches are the best way to provide a bug fix or to propose enhancements to Park-Manager.

Step 1: Setup your Environment

Install the Software Stack

Before working on Park-Manager, setup a friendly environment with the following software:

  • Git;
  • Docker 17 (and DockerCompose) or above.
  • Makefile

Tip

The tests are run using Docker so you don’t have to worry about additional software requirements or side affects.

Make sure you have the latest Docker and Docker-compose installed (The old Docker toolbox is not officially supported and requires manual configuring).

If you don’t have Makefile installed obtain a copy for your system using the systems software repository. macOS can install the last version of xCode, Windows users can either use the Linux subsystem (Windows 10) or use GnuWin.

Configure Git

Set up your user information with your real name and a working email address:

$ git config --global user.name "Your Name"
$ git config --global user.email you@example.com

Tip

If you are new to Git, you are highly recommended to read the excellent and free ProGit book.

Tip

If your IDE creates configuration files inside the project’s directory, you can use global .gitignore file (for all projects) or .git/info/exclude file (per project) to ignore them. See GitHub’s documentation.

Tip

Windows users: when installing Git, the installer will ask what to do with line endings, and suggests replacing all LF with CRLF. This is the wrong setting if you wish to contribute to Park-Manager! Selecting the as-is method is your best choice, as Git will convert your line feeds to the ones in the repository. If you have already installed Git, you can check the value of this setting by typing:

$ git config core.autocrlf

This will return either “false”, “input” or “true”; “true” and “false” being the wrong values. Change it to “input” by typing:

$ git config --global core.autocrlf input

Replace --global by --local if you want to set it only for the active repository.

Get the Park-Manager Source Code

Get the Park-Manager source code:

  • Create a GitHub account and sign in;
  • Fork the Park-Manager repository (click on the “Fork” button);
  • After the “forking action” has completed, clone your fork locally (this will create a park-manager directory):
$ git clone git@github.com:USERNAME/park-manager.git
  • Add the upstream repository as a remote:
$ cd park-manager
$ git remote add upstream git://github.com/park-manager/park-manager.git
  • Adjust your branch to track the Park-Manager master remote branch, by default it’ll track your origin remote’s master:
$ git config branch.master.remote upstream

Check that the current Tests Pass

Note

If you plan to only contribute documentation you may skip this step, and run make doc instead.

Now that Park-Manager is installed, check that all unit tests pass for your environment:

$ make install # This uses Docker to install dependencies, but files are stored locally
$ make test

If all went well you are now ready to start contributing, see also the related sections about the projects coding standards and used conventions.

Step 2: Work on your Patch

The License

Before you start, you must know that all the patches you are going to submit must be released under the MPL-v2.0. license, unless explicitly specified in your commits.

Choose the right Branch

All patches must be targeted against the master branch, including bug fixes and minor corrections like typo’s.

Keep in mind that your changes will be cherry-picked to lower branches by maintainers after the merge if they are applicable.

Create a Topic Branch

Each time you want to work on a patch for a bug or on an enhancement, create a topic branch:

$ git checkout -b BRANCH_NAME upstream/master

Tip

Use a descriptive name for your branch (like ticket_XXX where XXX is the ticket number is a good convention for bug fixes).

The above checkout commands automatically switch the code to the newly created branch (check the branch you are working on with git branch).

Use your Branch in an Existing Project

If you want to test your code in an existing project that uses park-manager/park-manager, you can use the link utility provided in the Git repository you cloned previously.

This tool scans the vendor/ directory of your project, finds Park-Manager packages it uses, and replaces them by symbolic links to the ones in the Git repository.

$ php link /path/to/your/project

Before running the link command, be sure that the dependencies of the project you want to debug are installed by running composer install inside it.

Work on your Patch

Work on the code as much as you want and commit as much as you want; but keep in mind the following:

  • Follow the coding standards (use git diff --check to check for trailing spaces – also read the tip below);
  • Add (unit) tests to prove that the bug is fixed or that the new feature actually works;
  • Try hard to not break backward compatibility (if you must do so, try to provide a compatibility layer to support the old way) – patches that break backward compatibility have less chance to be merged;
  • Do atomic and logically separate commits (use the power of git rebase to have a clean and logical history);
  • Squash irrelevant commits that are just about fixing coding standards or fixing typos in your own code;
  • Never fix coding standards in some existing code as it makes the code review more difficult;
  • In addition to this “code” pull request, you must also update the documentation when appropriate. See more in contributing documentation section.
  • Each patch defines one clear and agreed problem, and one clear, minimal, plausible solution. If done properly using Conventional Commits will automatically help you to make your commits atomic and clear;
  • Write good commit messages (see the tip below).

Tip

When submitting pull requests, Travis CI checks your code for common typos and verifies that you are using the coding standards as defined other chapters.

A status is posted below the pull request description with a summary of any problems it detects or any build failures.

A good commit message uses the Conventional Commits guide lines, with the following additions:

  1. Separate subject from body with a blank line
  2. Limit the subject line to 50 characters
  3. Capitalize the subject line
  4. Do not end the subject line with a period
  5. Use the imperative mood (add/fix not added/fixed)
  6. Wrap the body at 72 characters
  7. Use the body to explain what and why vs. how

For <type> use the following values:

  • build: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies (example docker, webpack, travis)
  • ci: Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts (example scopes: Travis CI, BrowserStack, SauceLabs)
  • 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
  • style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, phpdoc comments, etc)
  • test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests

For scope use the name of the Module (in lowercase), either: core, webhosting, customer, domainreg, etc.

Prepare your Patch for Submission

When your patch is not about a bug fix (when you add a new feature or change an existing one for instance), it must also include the following:

  • An explanation of the changes in the relevant CHANGELOG file(s) (the [BC BREAK] or the [DEPRECATION] prefix must be used when relevant);
  • An explanation on how to upgrade an existing application in the relevant UPGRADE file(s) if the changes break backward compatibility or if you deprecate something that will ultimately break backward compatibility.
  • A BREAKING CHANGE: entry the commit message.

Step 3: Submit your Patch

Whenever you feel that your patch is ready for submission, follow the following steps.

Rebase your Patch

Before submitting your patch, update your branch (needed if it takes you a while to finish your changes):

$ git checkout BRANCH_NAME
$ git rebase --pull upstream/master

When doing the rebase command, you might have to fix merge conflicts. git status will show you the unmerged files. Resolve all the conflicts, then continue the rebase:

$ git add ... # add resolved files
$ git rebase --continue

Check that all tests still pass and push your branch remotely:

$ git push --force origin BRANCH_NAME

Make a Pull Request

You can now make a pull request on the park-manager/park-manager GitHub repository.

To ease the core team work, always include the modified components in your pull request message, like in:

[Core] fix something
[Webhosting] [Core add something

The default pull request description contains a table which you must fill in with the appropriate answers. This ensures that contributions may be reviewed without needless feedback loops and that your contributions can be included into Park-Manager as quickly as possible.

Some answers to the questions trigger some more requirements:

  • If you answer yes to “Bug fix?”, check if the bug is already listed in the Park-Manager issues and reference it/them in “Fixed tickets”;
  • If you answer yes to “New feature?”, you must update the documentation when appropriate;
  • If you answer yes to “BC breaks?”, the patch must contain updates to the relevant CHANGELOG and UPGRADE files;
  • If you answer yes to “Deprecations?”, the patch must contain updates to the relevant CHANGELOG and UPGRADE files;
  • If you answer no to “Tests pass”, you must add an item to a todo-list with the actions that must be done to fix the tests;
  • If the “license” is not MPL-v2.0, just don’t submit the pull request as it won’t be accepted anyway.

If some of the previous requirements are not met, create a todo-list and add relevant items:

- [ ] fix the tests as they have not been updated yet
- [ ] submit changes to the documentation
- [ ] document the BC breaks

If the code is not finished yet because you don’t have time to finish it or because you want early feedback on your work, add an item to todo-list:

- [ ] finish the code
- [ ] gather feedback for my changes

As long as you have items in the todo-list, please prefix the pull request title with “[WIP]”.

In the pull request description, give as much details as possible about your changes (don’t hesitate to give code examples to illustrate your points). If your pull request is about adding a new feature or modifying an existing one, explain the rationale for the changes. The pull request description helps the code review and it serves as a reference when the code is merged (the pull request description and all its associated comments are part of the merge commit message).

Rework your Patch

Based on the feedback on the pull request, you might need to rework your patch. Before re-submitting the patch, rebase with upstream/master or the branch your pull request is targeting, don’t merge; and force the push to the origin:

$ git rebase -f upstream/master
$ git push --force-with-lease origin BRANCH_NAME

Note

When doing a push --force-with-lease, always specify the branch name explicitly to avoid messing other branches in the repo (--force-with-lease tells Git that you really want to mess with things so do it carefully).

Often, Park-Manager team members will ask you to “squash” your commits. This means you will convert many commits to one commit.

To do this, use the rebase command:

$ git rebase -i upstream/master
$ git push --force-with-lease origin BRANCH_NAME

After you type this command, an editor will popup showing a list of commits:

pick 1a31be6 first commit
pick 7fc64b4 second commit
pick 7d33018 third commit

To squash all commits into the first one, remove the word pick before the second and the last commits, and replace it by the word squash or just s. When you save, Git will start rebasing, and if successful, will ask you to edit the commit message, which by default is a listing of the commit messages of all the commits. When you are finished, execute the push command.