guide to making changes
[dygraphs.git] / docs / changes.html
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3 <title>dygraphs input types</title>
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12 <h2>Guide to making dygraphs changes</h2>
13
14 <p>So you've made a change to dygraphs and would like to contribute it back
15 to the open source project. Wonderful! This is a step-by-step guide
16 explaining how to do it.</p>
17
18 <p>The list of steps may look a bit daunting, but it's not too bad,
19 especially if you have any familiarity with git or github. If you run into
20 any problems while following the instructions, feel free to contact
21 dygraphs-users.</p>
22
23 <p>Why not just take patches? This process means less work for me (the
24 maintainer) and it also results in your name appearing in the list of
25 dygraphs commits. This lets you take credit for your work.</p>
26
27 <ol>
28 <li>Create an account on <a href="http://github.com">github</a>. This is
29 free, painless and will let you claim credit for your changes.
30
31 <li>Install git. github has a good writeup <a
32 href="http://help.github.com/git-installation-redirect">here</a>.
33
34 <li>Create a fork of the dygraphs repository on github by
35 clicking <a href="https://github.com/danvk/dygraphs">this link</a> and
36 then the "Fork" button.
37
38 <li>You should see a URL along the lines of
39 <code>git@github.com:yourname/dygraphs.git</code><br/>Copy this, open up a
40 terminal and run<br/>
41 <pre>git clone git@github.com:yourname/dygraphs.git</pre> This
42 pulls the dygraphs code down onto your local disk.
43
44 <li>cd into the dygraphs directory and make your changes.<br/>
45 If you've already got them somewhere else, just copy them over.<br/>
46 I try to adhere to Google's <a
47 href="http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/javascriptguide.xml">
48 JS style guide</a> and would appreciate it if you try to as well.
49
50 <li>Be a good citizen!
51 <ul>
52 <li>If you've added a new feature, add a test for it (in the tests/
53 directory).
54 <li>If you've added a new option, add it to the list of options on the
55 documentation page (docs/index.html).
56 </ul>
57 You'll have to do this before I accept your changes, so you may as well
58 do it now
59
60 <li>Commit your changes locally: run
61 <pre>git add .
62git commit</pre>
63 Type in a description of your change. This will
64 eventually appear in the dygraphs <a
65 href="https://github.com/danvk/dygraphs/commits/master">commit list</a>.
66
67 <li>Push your changes to github by running <pre>git push</pre>This will
68 send your changes to your forked repository on github.
69
70 <li>Go to your fork of dygraphs on github (i.e.
71 github.com/yourname/dygraphs).<br/>
72 Click the "Pull Request" button.<br/>
73 This will send me an email with a pointer to your changes.
74
75 <li>I'll review your changes and (unless your code is perfect!) give you
76 some feedback. Make these suggested changes in your local git client and
77 re-run "git commit" and "git push" so that I can see them.
78
79 <li>Once your change is ready, I'll pull it into the main dygraphs
80 repository and publish it to the web.
81 </ol>
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