CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

Where to start

All contributions, bug reports, bug fixes, documentation improvements, enhancements, and ideas are welcome.

The best place to start is to check the issues for something that interests you.

Bug Reports

Please include:

1. A short, self-contained Python snippet reproducing the problem. You can format the code by using GitHub markdown. For example:

   ```py
   from prelude_parser import parse_to_classes
   
   data = parse_to_classes("my_file.xml")
   ```
   

2. Explain what is currently happening and what you expect instead.

Working on the code

Note: This project uses uv to manage dependencies. If you do not already have uv installed you will need to install it with the instructions here

In order to work on this project you will need to have Rust, uv, and just in addition to Python.

Fork the project

In order to work on the project you will need your own fork. To do this click the "Fork" button on this project.

Once the project is forked clone it to your local machine:

git clone git@github.com:your-user-name/prelude-parser
cd prelude-parser
git remote add upstream git@github.com:pbs-data-solutions/prelude-parser

This creates the directory prelude-parser and connects your repository to the upstream (main project) repository.

Next create a vitural environment and activate it.

uv venv

. .venv/bin/activate

Then install the dev requirements. This will also build the Rust module in dev mode and install it.

just install

When changes are made to the Rust code, build and install the new module with:

just develop

Creating a branch

You want your main branch to reflect only production-ready code, so create a feature branch for making your changes. For example:

git checkout -b my-new-feature

This changes your working directory to the my-new-feature branch. Keep any changes in this branch specific to one bug or feature so the purpose is clear. You can have many my-new-features and switch in between them using the git checkout command.

When creating this branch, make sure your main branch is up to date with the latest upstream main version. To update your local main branch, you can do:

git checkout main
git pull upstream main --ff-only

Code Standards and tests (ruff, mypy, pytest, clippy, rustfmt, and pre-commit)

prelude-parser uses ruff, and mypy, clippy, and rustfmt to ensure consistent code formatting.

You can run linting on your code at any time with:

just lint

It is also suggested that you setup pre-commit in order to run linting when you commit changes to you branch. To setup pre-commit for this project run:

pre-commit install

After this pre-commit will automatically run any time you check in code to your branches. You can also run pre-commit at any time with:

pre-commit run --all-files

Type Hints

At a minimum all variables/arguments that receive data should contain type hints, and all functions/methods should specify the return type. For Rust functions and/or classes type stubs should be provided.

Accepted examples:

def my_function(argument: str) -> None:
    ...


def another_function(num: int) -> int:
    return num + 1

Rejected examples:

def my_function(argument):
    ...


def another_function(num):
    return num + 1

Type hints on files in the tests directory are not required.

Testing

This project uses pytest for testing. Please ensure that any additions/changes you make to the code have tests to go along with them. Code coverage should not drop blow it's current level with any pull requests you make, if it does the pull request will not be accepted. You can view the current coverage level in the codecov badge on the main github page. You can run tests and see the code coverage by running:

just test

In additon to mainting the coverage percentage please ensure that all tests are passing before submitting a pull request.

Committing your code

Once you have made changes to the code on your branch you can see which files have changed by running:

git status

If new files were created that and are not tracked by git they can be added by running:

git add .

Now you can commit your changes in your local repository:

git commit -am 'Some short helpful message to describe your changes'

If you setup pre-commit and any of the tests fail the commit will be cancelled and you will need to fix any errors. Once the errors are fixed you can run the same git commit command again.

Push your changes

Once your changes are ready and all linting/tests are passing you can push your changes to your forked repository:

git push origin my-new-feature

origin is the default name of your remote repository on GitHub. You can see all of your remote repositories by running:

git remote -v

Making a Pull Request

After pushing your code to origin it is now on GitHub but not yet part of the prelude-parser project. When you’re ready to ask for a code review, file a pull request. Before you do, once again make sure that you have followed all the guidelines outlined in this document regarding code style, tests, and documentation.

Make the pull request

If everything looks good, you are ready to make a pull request. This is how you let the maintainers of the prelude-parser project know you have code ready to be reviewed. To submit the pull request:

1. Navigate to your repository on GitHub
2. Click on the Pull Request button for your feature branch
3. You can then click on Commits and Files Changed to make sure everything looks okay one last time
4. Write a description of your changes in the Conversation tab
5. Click Send Pull Request

This request then goes to the repository maintainers, and they will review the code.

Updating your pull request

Changes to your code may be needed based on the review of your pull request. If this is the case you can make them in your branch, add a new commit to that branch, push it to GitHub, and the pull request will be automatically updated. Pushing them to GitHub again is done by:

git push origin my-new-feature

This will automatically update your pull request with the latest code and restart the Continuous Integration tests.

Another reason you might need to update your pull request is to solve conflicts with changes that have been merged into the main branch since you opened your pull request.

To do this, you need to rebase your branch:

git checkout my-new-feature
git fetch upstream
git rebase upstream/main

There may be some merge conficts that need to be resolved. After the feature branch has been update locally, you can now update your pull request by pushing to the branch on GitHub:

git push -f origin my-new-feature

Delete your merged branch (optional)

Once your feature branch is accepted into upstream, you’ll probably want to get rid of the branch. First, merge upstream main into your main branch so git knows it is safe to delete your branch:

git fetch upstream
git checkout main
git merge upstream/main

Then you can do:

git branch -d my-new-feature

Make sure you use a lower-case -d, or else git won’t warn you if your feature branch has not actually been merged.

The branch will still exist on GitHub, so to delete it there do:

git push origin --delete my-new-feature