Contributing to geocat-comp#
Introduction#
Thank you for considering making a contribution to geocat-comp
! There are
many ways to contribute to this project, including reporting bugs, requesting
additional or new functionality, improving our documentation, or contributing
your own code and we appreciate all of them.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us on GitHub Discussions. You can also reach us by email at geocat@ucar.edu.
Where to start#
Look through our open issues and see if there is anything you would like to take on! We recommend working with core developers to implement new functionality. We can help you get started and make sure your code is consistent with the rest of the project.
Also check out any beginner-friendly issues we have tagged with good first issue.
We do not officially “assign” issues to contributors, but if you are interested in working on an issue, please comment on the issue to let us know you are working on it. This will help us avoid duplicate work.
The code for geocat-comp
is hosted on GitHub. If you do not have one, you
will need to create a free GitHub account.
The GitHub Quickstart Guide is a great place to get
started with git and GitHub.
Reporting bugs#
Something not working as expected? We would love to hear about it! Please report any bugs you find by opening an issue on GitHub. See our bug report template to get started.
When reporting a bug, please include as much information as possible. This will help us reproduce the bug and fix it efficiently. For more information on how to write a good bug report, see this stackoverflow post on how to make a good bug report.
Requesting new features#
Have an idea for a new feature? Want to know how to do something in Python that you used to do in NCL? See our feature request template to get started.
You can also use our Feature Request Form to submit a feature request.
Improving Documentation#
We are always looking for ways to improve our documentation. If you find something that is unclear or confusing, please let us know by opening an issue. To contribute to our documentation yourself, see the Documentation section of this guide.
Development workflow overview#
This is a brief overview of the development workflow we use for geocat-comp
.
A more detailed description of each step is provided in following sections.
Get set up to develop on your local machine
Make your changes
Contribute your code
Wait for your pull request to be merged.
Get set up to develop on your local machine#
Fork and clone the repository#
Get started by forking the NCAR/geocat-comp repository on GitHub. To do this, find the “Fork” button near the top of the page and click it. This will create a copy of the project under your personal github account.
Next, clone your forked copy to your local machine.
git clone https://github.com/your-user-name/geocat-comp.git
Enter the project folder and set the upstream remote to the NCAR/geocat-comp repository. This will allow you to keep your fork up to date with the main repository.
cd geocat-comp git remote add upstream https://github.com/NCAR/xarray.git
For more information, see the GitHub quickstart section on forking a repository.
Create a development environment#
To run and test any changes you make in geocat-comp
, you will need to create
a development environment. We recommend installing and using conda
and/or mamba.
Use the following commands to create a new conda environment to develop
geocat-comp
in.
# Create a new conda environment
conda create -c conda-forge -n geocat_comp_build python=3.10
# Use the environment file to populate the environment with the required
dependencies conda env update -f build_envs/environment.yml
# Activate your new environment
conda activate geocat_comp_build
# Install your local copy of geocat-comp in interactive mode
pip install -e .
To test your new install, open a python session and try importing
geocat.comp
. You can also try printing the version number, which should be
unique to the latest commit on your fork.
>>> import geocat.comp as gc
>>> gc.__version__
'2023.5.1.dev8+g3f0ee48.d20230605'
You can follow a similar process to create our documentation environment,
gc-docs
from the build_envs/docs.yml
file.
See the conda documentation for more information.
Create a branch for your changes#
We highly recommend creating a new branch on your fork for each new feature or bug that you work on.
To create and check out a new branch, use the following command:
git checkout -b <branch-name>
You can see a list of all branches in your local repository by running:
git branch
For more information on branching, check out this learn git branching interactive tool.
Install pre-commit hooks#
geocat-comp
uses pre-commit hooks to ensure a standardized base-level code
formatting and style.
The pre-commit
package is installed by default when using the
build_envs/environment.yml
file. To set up the pre-commit hooks, run the
following command from the root of the repository:
pre-commit install
Now, whenever you commit changes, the pre-commit hooks will run and may make small modifications to your code. If the pre-commit hooks make any changes, you will need to re-add the files and commit them again in order to successfully make the commit.
To manually run the pre-commit hooks, use the following command:
pre-commit run --all-files
You can skip the pre-commit hooks by adding the --no-verify
flag to your
commit command like this:
git commit -m "your commit message" --no-verify
For more information on pre-commit hooks, see the pre-commit documentation.
Make your changes#
After you’re all set up to develop geocat-comp
, you can start making your
changes. This section describes where, how, and what to change to add your
contributions to the geocat-comp
codebase.
Understanding the codebase#
The geocat-comp
top-level directory is organized as follows:
geocat-comp
├── build_envs
├── docs
├── geocat
│ └── comp
└── test
The
build_envs
directory contains theenvironment.yml
file used to create your development environment. It also contains additional environment files used for testing and building the documentation.The
docs
directory contains thesphinx
documentation forgeocat-comp
.The
geocat/comp
directory, contains the code for thegeocat.comp
package. This is the place to add new functionality. Thegeocat.comp
code is organized into modules, each of which is contained in its own file. It is recommended that you add new functionality to an existing file, though it may be appropriate to make a new file.The
test
directory contains the unit tests forgeocat-comp
. Each module ingeocat.comp
has a corresponding test module in thetest
directory.
When adding new functionality, there are multiple auxiliary files that you may need to modify to incorporate your code into the package. These include:
geocat/comp/__init__.py
: This file imports all of the functions intended for the public API.docs/internal_api/index.rst
anddocs/user_api/index.rst
: These files are used to generate the API documentation from docstrings.docs/release-notes.rst
: This file documents changes to the codebase that we add to in the same PR as the code changes.tests/test_<module>.py
: This file contains the unit tests for the module you are adding to. It is highly encouraged to add unit tests for any new functionality you add togeocat-comp
.
Write and run tests#
geocat-comp
uses pytest for unit tests. Currently,
we have unit tests written in both pytest
and unittest
. We are in the
process of converting all of our tests to pytest
and we encourage you to
write new tests using pytest
.
To run the tests locally, use the following command from the root of the repository:
pytest
To run a specific test, use the following command:
pytest tests/test_mod.py::test_func
These tests will also run automatically when you open a pull request using
GitHub Actions and the .github/workflows/ci.yml
file.
See the pytest documentation for more information.
Documentation#
geocat-comp
uses sphinx and
ReadTheDocs to build and host the
documentation.
Docstrings#
The most common situation in which you will need to add to the documentation is through docstrings.
geocat-comp
uses numpydoc style docstrings. See
sphinx’s example numpydoc docstring.
To include your docstring documentation in the API reference, you will need to
add it to either the docs/internal_api/index.rst
or
docs/user_api/index.rst
file, depending on whether the function is intended
for internal or external use.
Editing other documentation files#
We welcome changes and improvements to all parts of our documentation (including
this guide)! You can find these files in the docs
directory.
These files are mainly written in reStructuredText,
but additional file types such as .md
and .ipynb
are also used.
Important documentation files to know about include:
docs/index.rst
: This file is the main page of the documentation. Files added totoctree
blocks in this file will be included in the documentation as top-level subpages.docs/contrib.rst
: This file is the source for this guide!docs/conf.py
: This file contains the configuration for building the documentation.docs/examples/*.ipynb
,docs/examples.rst
, anddocs/gallery.yml
: These files are used to generate the jupyter notebook examples in the documentation. Notebooks in thedocs/examples/
directory are added to the documentation by adding them to thetoctree
indocs/examples.rst
and linked to their cover picture by adding them to thedocs/gallery.yml
file.
See the sphinx documentation for more information about writing sphinx documentation.
Generate the documentation locally#
To generate the documentation locally, follow the steps below.
Create and activate the
gc-docs
conda environment using thebuild_envs/docs.yml
file.Enter the
docs
directory.Run
make html
or to build the documentation.Open
docs/_build/html/index.html
in your browser to view the documentation.
Check the documentation#
As well as checking local documentation generation, you should also check the preview documentation generated as part of a PR. To do this, scroll down to the “checks” section of the PR and click on the “Details” link next to the “docs/readthedocs.org:geocat-comp” check. This will take you to the corresponding build on ReadTheDocs, where you can view the documentation built from your PR and see any warnings or errors on your build.
Contribute your code#
Once you have prepared your changes and are ready for them to be reviewed by the GeoCAT team, you can open a pull request. This section describes how to open a pull request and what to expect after you open it.
Push your changes to your fork#
Once you have made your changes locally, you will need to push them to your branch on your fork on GitHub. To do this, use the following command:
git push
From here, you can request that your changes be merged into the main repository in the form of a pull request.
Open a pull request#
GitHub has extensive pull request guides and documentation that we recommend. This section describes the basics for our workflow.
From your branch on your fork, open the “Pull requests” tab and click the “New pull request” button. Make sure the “base repository” is “NCAR/geocat-comp” and the “base” branch is set to “main”, with the “head repository” and “compare” branch set to your fork and prepared branch, respectively.
From this page, you can see a view of the changes you have made in your branch.
We recommend adding a short, descriptive title to your pull request. The body of the pull request should autofill with our pull request template, which has it’s own set of directions. Please fill out the relevant sections of the template, including adding a more detailed description of your changes.
Once you have filled out the template, click the “Create pull request” button.
This will open your pull request on the geocat-comp
repository.
If you want to open a pull request but are not ready for it to be reviewed, you can open the pull request as a draft. This is also a good way to get feedback on your work that might not be ready to contribute yet.
Address feedback#
After you open your pull request, the GeoCAT team will review it and may provide feedback like asking for changes or suggesting improvements. You can address this feedback by making changes to your branch and pushing them to your fork. The pull request will automatically update with your changes.
The GeoCAT team appreciates your contributions and the interactive process of reviewing pull requests, and will do our best to review your pull request in a timely manner. It is totally normal to have to make several rounds of changes to your pull request before it is ready to be merged, especially if you are new to the project.
Once your pull request is approved by a core maintainer and passes the relevant checks, it will be merged into the main repository!
Delete your branch#
We recommend deleting your branch after your pull request is merged. This will help keep your fork clean and organized, but is not required.