Contributing

Bug reports, feature suggestions and other contributions are greatly appreciated! While I can’t promise to implement everything, I will always try to respond in a timely manner.

You can also contribute by testing pull request or performing code reviews. If you help out in ways that don’t involve hacking the code, please add your name under the Thanks header in the AUTHORS.rst file. We appreciate the time you have given to improve this project.

Short version

  • Submit bug reports and feature requests at GitHub

  • Make pull requests to the develop branch

Bug reports

When reporting a bug please include:

  • Your operating system name and version

  • Any details about your local setup that might be helpful in troubleshooting

  • Detailed steps to reproduce the bug

Feature requests and feedback

The best way to send feedback is to file an issue at GitHub.

If you are proposing a feature:

  • Explain in detail how it would work.

  • Keep the scope as narrow as possible, to make it easier to implement.

  • Remember that this is a volunteer-driven project, and that code contributions are welcome :)

Development

To set up aacgmv2 for local development:

  1. Fork aacgmv2 on GitHub.

  2. Clone your fork locally:

    git clone git@github.com:your_name_here/aacgmv2.git
    
  3. Build the local code to allow for local Python development:

    pip install -e .
    
  4. Create a branch for local development:

    git checkout -b name-of-your-bugfix-or-feature
    

    Now you can make your changes locally. Add tests for bugs and new features in tests/test_py_aacgmv2.py (for the wrapper), test_c_aacgmv2.py (for the C extension), or tests/test_cmd_aacgmv2.py (for the command-line interface). tests/test_dep_aacgmv2.py includes tests for deprecated functions. The tests are run with pytest and can be written as normal functions (starting with test_) containing a standard assert statement for testing output, or use the numpy testing suite.

  5. When you’re done making changes, run the local unit tests using pytest:

    python -m pytest
    
  6. Commit your changes and push your branch to GitHub:

    git add .
    git commit -m "Brief description of your changes"
    git push origin name-of-your-bugfix-or-feature
    
  7. Submit a pull request through the GitHub website. Pull requests should be made to the develop branch.

Pull Request Guidelines

If you need some code review or feedback while you’re developing the code, just make a pull request.

For merging, you should:

  1. Include passing tests (run tox) [1]

  2. Update/add documentation if relevant

  3. Add a note to CHANGELOG.rst about the changes

  4. Add yourself to the end of AUTHORS.rst and the .zenodo.json files