Contributing
Source:CONTRIBUTING.md
These rules apply to SigRepo and SigRepo_Server. They are meant to be followed rather than read, so they are short.
The point of all of them: someone outside the project should be able to open the tracker and tell, without asking, what is being worked on, what is waiting, and what has been decided.
The rules
Every change starts as an issue. Create the branch from the issue, so the two are linked before any code is written:
gh issue create --repo montilab/SigRepo_Server --title "..." --body "..."
gh issue develop <number> --base master --checkoutBranch names carry no type prefix — not fix/, not feat/, not chore/. The default <number>-<title-slug> that gh produces is what we want.
Every pull request closes its issue. Put Closes #NNN in the description. This is the rule the rest depends on: it is what lets the board move by itself and what leaves the reason for a change next to the change.
Ideas and work are different things. An idea states a goal, is labelled idea, and is never closed by a pull request. A task or bug is real work: it links to the idea it serves, and it is closed by the pull request that resolves it. An idea is closed only when it has been decided against, or when the work it called for is done and its issues are closed.
A bug report says what was run, what happened, and the error. SigRepo#75 is the standard to copy. The bug form asks for exactly these three things.
Every issue carries one type label and one status label. If neither fits, the issue is not ready — see the table below.
Branches are short-lived and merged on GitHub. Not locally, so the review and the history stay in one place. Delete the branch when its pull request merges.
Nothing is closed silently. Say what happened and link the pull request or the commit. A closed issue with no explanation is a question someone has to ask later.
The board is a by-product, not a chore. Status on the project board is set by automation. If you find yourself updating it by hand, something upstream is wrong — usually a missing Closes #NNN or an issue that was never added to the board.
If you cannot state the next step, the issue is not ready. Write the next step in the issue, or label it needs-decision and say what the decision is.
Stale means ninety days. Untouched issues get asked about once, then closed if nobody answers. Closing is not a judgement on the idea; reopen it when it matters again.
Labels
Exactly one type label, and exactly one status label.
| Type | Use for |
|---|---|
bug |
Something is broken. What was run, what happened, the error. |
enhancement |
New behaviour or a change to existing behaviour. |
documentation |
Vignettes, README, roxygen, this file. |
idea |
A goal, not a task. Never closed by a pull request. |
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
ready |
The next step is stated and anyone could pick it up. |
needs-decision |
Blocked on a choice a person has to make. Say which choice. |
blocked |
Blocked on something outside this issue. Link it. |
Two more labels exist for specific jobs:
-
no-changelog— the change is not user-visible, so it needs noNEWS.mdentry. -
data-quality— the code is fine; the data in the repository is wrong.
Which repository
-
SigRepo — the R client:
addSignature(),getSignature(),runHypeR(), reference dictionaries, vignettes. - SigRepo_Server — the API, the Shiny app, MySQL, Docker, the installer, and anything about sigrepo.org.