Contributing

Contributions are welcome, and they are greatly appreciated! Every little bit helps, and credit will always be given.

You can contribute in many ways:

Types of Contributions

Report Bugs

Report bugs at https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb-driver/issues.

If you are 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.

Fix Bugs

Look through the GitHub issues for bugs. Anything tagged with “bug” and “help wanted” is open to whoever wants to implement it.

Implement Features

Look through the GitHub issues for features. Anything tagged with “enhancement” and “help wanted” is open to whoever wants to implement it.

Write Documentation

bigchaindb-driver could always use more documentation, whether as part of the official bigchaindb-driver docs, in docstrings, or even on the web in blog posts, articles, and such.

Submit Feedback

The best way to send feedback is to file an issue at https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb-driver/issues.

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 contributions are welcome :)

Get Started!

Ready to contribute? Here’s how to set up bigchaindb-driver for local development.

  1. Fork the bigchaindb-driver repo on GitHub.

  2. Clone your fork locally and enter into the project:

    $ git clone git@github.com:your_name_here/bigchaindb-driver.git
    $ cd bigchaindb-driver/
    
  3. Create a branch for local development:

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

    Now you can make your changes locally.

  4. When you’re done making changes, check that your changes pass flake8 and the tests. For the tests, you’ll need to start the RethinkDB and BigchainDB servers:

    $ docker-compose up -d rdb
    $ docker-compose up -d bdb-server
    
  5. flake8 check:

    $ docker-compose run --rm bdb-driver flake8 bigchaindb_driver tests
    
  6. To run the tests:

    $ docker-compose run --rm bdb-driver pytest -v
    
  7. Commit your changes and push your branch to GitHub:

    $ git add .
    $ git commit -m "Your detailed description of your changes."
    $ git push origin name-of-your-bugfix-or-feature
    
  8. Submit a pull request through the GitHub website.

Pull Request Guidelines

Before you submit a pull request, check that it meets these guidelines:

  1. The pull request should include tests.
  2. If the pull request adds functionality, the docs should be updated. Put your new functionality into a function with a docstring, and add the feature to the list in README.rst.
  3. The pull request should work for Python 3.5, and pass the flake8 check. Check https://travis-ci.org/bigchaindb/bigchaindb-driver/pull_requests and make sure that the tests pass for all supported Python versions.

Tips

Development Environment with Docker

Depending on what you are doing, you may need to run at least one BigchainDB node. You can use the docker-compose.yml file to run a node, and perform other tasks that depend on the running node. To run a BigchainDB node, (for development), you start a RethinkDB node, followed by the linked BigchainDB node:

$ docker-compose up -d rdb
$ docker-compose up -d bdb-server

You can monitor the logs:

$ docker-compose logs -f

Tests

To run a subset of tests:

$ docker-compose run --rm bdb-driver pytest -v tests/test_driver.py

Important

When running tests, unless you are targeting a test that does not require a connection with the BigchainDB server, you need to run the BigchainDB and RethinkDB servers:

$ docker-compose up -d rdb
$ docker-compose up -d bdb-server

Dependency on Bigchaindb

By default, the development requirements, BigchainDB server Dockerfile, and .travis.yml are set to depend from BigchainDB’s master branch to more easily track changes against BigchainDB’s API.