Development Process

This doc is work in progress. If something is unclear, or you have some ideas how we can improve the process, let's discuss it.

Quick Overview

1. Grab an Issue
2. Write some code
3. Send Pull Request
4. Somebody reviews your code and eventually approves it
5. Merge your Pull Request

Now with a little more detail.

Grab an Issue

Technically it's done like this:

1. Go to Projects and click on the project the team is currently working on. There should be only one.
2. Find the issue you want to grab in To do column.
3. Drag it to In progress column.
4. Click on it. This should take you to the Issue page.
5. Assign the issue to yourself. There is a link in top right.

To figure out which issue to take, talk to your teammates and the project advisor. This is not to ask for permission: the main idea is not to step on someone else's toes.

Code!

Please follow Google Jave Style Guide in your code.

When writing code, don't do it on a master branch, because you won't be able to submit it this way. If you are unfamiliar with git I would suggest you create one branch for yourself and use it for the duration of the entire CodeU project. To do this, from the directory where you've checkout out the code, run:

git checkout -b YOUR_BRANCH_NAME

The branch name has to be unique within the project, so don't pick simple generic names like "feature" or "stuff".

If you are familiar with git, feel free to experiment with branches.

You can push your locally submitted changes any time by running git push. The first time you do this, it will probably ask you to link your branch to upstream branch (you'll see a very helpful message).

Once your code is good enough to be seen by others, you are ready for the next step.

Send Pull Request

Before sending a pull request, you need to merge your own branch with master, to avoid conflicts.

With your branch checked out, do this:

git pull
git merge master

Resolve all conflicts (if any) and test your code again before you create Pull Request!

Once merged, push your branch again (git push).

The rest is done in the github UI. Go to our repository root and click New pull request.

Choose master as base, and your branch as compare. Click Create Pull Request. Now your code is ready to be reviewed.

Review the Code

You'll be reviewing someone else's code, while your teammates will be reviewing yours. This process may require a few iterations.

1. Someone leaves a comment on your code, asking you to change it.
2. You make a change, commit it locally (git commit on the same branch) then push it. This will update the Pull Request.
3. Respond in the Code Review thread that you have updated the Pull Request.