| # How to contribute |
| |
| We'd love to accept your patches and contributions to this project. There are a |
| just a few small guidelines you need to follow. |
| |
| ## Contributor License Agreement |
| |
| Contributions to any Google project must be accompanied by a Contributor License |
| Agreement. This is not a copyright **assignment**, it simply gives Google |
| permission to use and redistribute your contributions as part of the project. |
| |
| When submitting a pull request, if you have not already signed the |
| [Contributor License Agreement (CLA)][CLA], then a bot will remind you. |
| Code cannot even be evaluated without this step. |
| |
| ## Submitting a patch |
| |
| 1. It's generally best to start by opening a new issue describing the bug or |
| feature you're intending to fix. Even if you think it's relatively minor, |
| it's helpful to know what people are working on. Mention in the initial |
| issue that you are planning to work on that bug or feature so that it can be |
| assigned to you. |
| |
| 2. Follow the normal process of [forking] the project, and setup a new branch |
| to work in. It's important that each group of changes be done in separate |
| branches in order to ensure that a pull request only includes the commits |
| related to that bug or feature. |
| |
| 3. Any significant changes should almost always be accompanied by tests. The |
| project already has good test coverage, so look at some of the existing |
| tests if you're unsure how to go about it. |
| |
| 4. All contributions must be licensed Apache 2.0 and all files must have a copy |
| of the boilerplate licence comment (can be copied from an existing file). |
| Files should be formatted according to Google's [java style guide]. |
| |
| 5. Do your best to have [well-formed commit messages] for each change. This |
| provides consistency throughout the project, and ensures that commit |
| messages are able to be formatted properly by various git tools. |
| |
| 6. Finally, push the commits to your fork and submit a [pull request]. |
| |
| [CLA]: https://cla.developers.google.com |
| [forking]: https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo |
| [java style guide]: https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html |
| [well-formed commit messages]: http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-about-git-commit-messages.html |
| [pull request]: https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request |
