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dev docs: Improve new contributor guide. 

The main focus is on improving the instructions around claiming issues
to try to create less issue claiming spam.

Additionally, we haven't done a detailed update in a few years, and
some of the content is stale/irrelevant.
This commit is contained in:
Alya Abbott 2021-11-23 08:31:34 -08:00 committed by Tim Abbott
parent 6ad1c5c8ed
commit d09997f32e
2 changed files with 194 additions and 135 deletions
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328
CONTRIBUTING.md
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@ -8,18 +8,11 @@ The
[Zulip community server](https://zulip.com/developer-community/)
is the primary communication forum for the Zulip community. It is a good
place to start whether you have a question, are a new contributor, are a new
user, or anything else. Make sure to read the
user, or anything else. Please review our
[community norms](https://zulip.com/developer-community/#community-norms)
before posting. The Zulip community is also governed by a
[code of conduct](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/code-of-conduct.html).
You can subscribe to
[zulip-devel-announce@googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/g/zulip-devel-announce)
or our [Twitter](https://twitter.com/zulip) account for a very low
traffic (<1 email/month) way to hear about things like mentorship
opportunities with Google Summer of Code, in-person sprints at
conferences, and other opportunities to contribute.
## Ways to contribute
To make a code or documentation contribution, read our
@ -41,18 +34,18 @@ needs doing:
and manually testing pull requests.
**Non-code contributions**: Some of the most valuable ways to contribute
don't require touching the codebase at all. We list a few of them below:
don't require touching the codebase at all. For example, you can:
- [Reporting issues](#reporting-issues), including both feature requests and
- [Report issues](#reporting-issues), including both feature requests and
bug reports.
- [Giving feedback](#user-feedback) if you are evaluating or using Zulip.
- [Give feedback](#user-feedback) if you are evaluating or using Zulip.
- [Sponsor Zulip](https://github.com/sponsors/zulip) through the GitHub sponsors program.
- [Translating](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/translating/translating.html)
Zulip.
- [Outreach](#zulip-outreach): Star us on GitHub, upvote us
on product comparison sites, or write for [the Zulip blog](https://blog.zulip.org/).
- [Translate](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/translating/translating.html)
Zulip into your language.
- [Stay connected](#stay-connected) with Zulip, and [help others
find us](#help-others-find-zulip).
## Your first (codebase) contribution
## Your first codebase contribution
This section has a step by step guide to starting as a Zulip codebase
contributor. It's long, but don't worry about doing all the steps perfectly;
@ -72,91 +65,121 @@ to help.
getting help in
[#development help](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/49-development-help)
if you run into any troubles.
- Read the
[Zulip guide to Git](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/git/index.html)
and do the Git tutorial (coming soon) if you are unfamiliar with
Git, getting help in
[#git help](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/44-git-help) if
you run into any troubles. Be sure to check out the
[extremely useful Zulip-specific tools page](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/git/zulip-tools.html).
- Familiarize yourself with [using the development environment](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/development/using.html).
- Go through the [new application feature
tutorial](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/new-feature-tutorial.html) to get familiar with
how the Zulip codebase is organized and how to find code in it.
- Read the [Zulip guide to
Git](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/git/index.html) if you
are unfamiliar with Git or Zulip's rebase-based Git workflow,
getting help in [#git
help](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/44-git-help) if you run
into any troubles. Even Git experts should read the [Zulip-specific
Git tools
page](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/git/zulip-tools.html).
### Picking an issue
### Where to look for an issue
Now, you're ready to pick your first issue! There are hundreds of open issues
in the main codebase alone. This section will help you find an issue to work
on.
Now you're ready to pick your first issue! Zulip has several repositories you
can check out, depending on your interests. There are hundreds of open issues in
the [main Zulip server and web app
repository](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
alone.
- If you're interested in
[mobile](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-mobile/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue),
[desktop](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-desktop/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue),
or
[bots](https://github.com/zulip/python-zulip-api/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue)
development, check the respective links for open issues, or post in
[#mobile](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/48-mobile),
[#desktop](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/16-desktop), or
[#integration](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/127-integrations).
- For the main server and web repository, we recommend browsing
recently opened issues to look for issues you are confident you can
fix correctly in a way that clearly communicates why your changes
are the correct fix. Our GitHub workflow bot, zulipbot, limits
users who have 0 commits merged to claiming a single issue labeled
with "good first issue" or "help wanted".
- We also partition all of our issues in the main repo into areas like
Any issue with the "good first issue"
label is a good candidate when you are getting started. In addition, many of the
issues with the "help wanted" label may be approachable as well.
- [Server and web app](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
- [Mobile apps](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-mobile/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
- [Desktop app](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-desktop/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
- [Terminal app](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-terminal/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A"help+wanted")
- [Python API bindings and bots](https://github.com/zulip/python-zulip-api/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
### Picking an issue to work on
There's a lot to learn while making your first pull request, so start small!
Many first contributions have fewer than 10 lines of changes (not counting
changes to tests).
We recommend the following process for finding an issue to work on:
1. Read the description of an issue and make sure you understand it.
2. If it seems promising, poke around the product
(on [chat.zulip.org](https://chat.zulip.org) or in the development
environment) until you know how the piece being
described fits into the bigger picture. If after some exploration the
description seems confusing or ambiguous, post a question on the GitHub
issue, as others may benefit from the clarification as well.
3. When you find an issue you like, try to get started working on it. See if you
can find the part of the code you'll need to modify (`git grep` is your
friend!) and get some idea of how you'll approach the problem.
4. If you feel lost, that's OK! Go through these steps again with another issue.
There's plenty to work on, and the exploration you do will help you learn
more about the project.
Note that you are _not_ claiming an issue while you are iterating through steps
1-4. _Before you claim an issue_, you should be confident that you will be able to
tackle it effectively.
If the lists of issues are overwhelming, you can post in
[#new members](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/95-new-members) with a
bit about your background and interests, and we'll help you out. The most
important thing to say is whether you're looking for a backend (Python),
frontend (JavaScript and TypeScript), mobile (React Native), desktop (Electron),
documentation (English) or visual design (JavaScript/TypeScript + CSS) issue, and a
bit about your programming experience and available time.
Additional tips for the [main server and web app
repository](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22):
- We especially recommend browsing recently opened issues, as there are more
likely to be easy ones for you to find.
- All issues are partitioned into areas like
admin, compose, emoji, hotkeys, i18n, onboarding, search, etc. Look
through our [list of labels](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels), and
click on some of the `area:` labels to see all the issues related to your
areas of interest.
- If the lists of issues are overwhelming, post in
[#new members](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/95-new-members) with a
bit about your background and interests, and we'll help you out. The most
important thing to say is whether you're looking for a backend (Python),
frontend (JavaScript and TypeScript), mobile (React Native), desktop (Electron),
documentation (English) or visual design (JavaScript/TypeScript + CSS) issue, and a
bit about your programming experience and available time.
- Avoid issues with the "difficult" label unless you
understand why it is difficult and are highly confident you can resolve the
issue correctly and completely.
We also welcome suggestions of features that you feel would be valuable or
changes that you feel would make Zulip a better open source project. If you
have a new feature you'd like to add, we recommend you start by posting in
[#new members](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/95-new-members) with the
feature idea and the problem that you're hoping to solve.
### Claiming an issue
Other notes:
#### In the main server and web app repository
- For a first pull request, it's better to aim for a smaller contribution
than a bigger one. Many first contributions have fewer than 10 lines of
changes (not counting changes to tests).
- The full list of issues explicitly looking for a contributor can be
found with the
[good first issue](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22)
and
[help wanted](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
labels. Avoid issues with the "difficult" label unless you
understand why it is difficult and are confident you can resolve the
issue correctly and completely. Issues without one of these labels
are fair game if Tim has written a clear technical design proposal
in the issue, or it is a bug that you can reproduce and you are
confident you can fix the issue correctly.
- For most new contributors, there's a lot to learn while making your first
pull request. It's OK if it takes you a while; that's normal! You'll be
able to work a lot faster as you build experience.
Post a comment with `@zulipbot claim` to
the issue thread. [Zulipbot](https://github.com/zulip/zulipbot) is a GitHub
workflow bot; it will assign you to the issue and label the issue as "in
progress". You can only claim issues with the
[good first issue](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22)
or
[help wanted](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
labels. Zulipbot will give you an error if you try to claim an issue
without one of those labels.
New contributors can only claim one issue until their first pull request is
merged. This is to encourage folks to finish ongoing work before starting
something new. If you would like to pick up a new issue while waiting for review
on an almost-ready pull request, you can post a comment to this effect on the
issue you're interested in.
#### In other Zulip repositories
There is no bot for other repositories, so you can simply post a comment saying
that you'd like to work on the issue.
Please follow the same guidelines as described above: find an issue labeled
"good first issue" or "help wanted", and only pick up one issue at a time to
start with.
### Working on an issue
To work on an issue, claim it by adding a comment with `@zulipbot claim` to
the issue thread. [Zulipbot](https://github.com/zulip/zulipbot) is a GitHub
workflow bot; it will assign you to the issue and label the issue as "in
progress". Some additional notes:
- You can only claim issues with the
[good first issue](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22)
or
[help wanted](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
labels. Zulipbot will give you an error if you try to claim an issue
without one of those labels.
- You're encouraged to ask questions on how to best implement or debug your
changes -- the Zulip maintainers are excited to answer questions to help
you stay unblocked and working efficiently. You can ask questions on
chat.zulip.org, or on the GitHub issue or pull request.
you stay unblocked and working efficiently. You can ask questions in the
[Zulip development community](https://zulip.com/developer-community/),
or on the GitHub issue or pull request.
- We encourage early pull requests for work in progress. Prefix the title of
work in progress pull requests with `[WIP]`, and remove the prefix when
you think it might be mergeable and want it to be reviewed.
@ -165,22 +188,55 @@ progress". Some additional notes:
changes when you post a comment, so if you don't, your PR will likely be
neglected by accident!
### And beyond
It's OK if your first issue takes you a while; that's normal! You'll be
able to work a lot faster as you build experience.
A great place to look for a second issue is to look for issues with the same
For more advice, see [What makes a great Zulip
contributor?](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/overview/contributing.html#what-makes-a-great-zulip-contributor)
below.
### Beyond the first issue
To find a second issue to work on, we recommend looking through issues with the same
`area:` label as the last issue you resolved. You'll be able to reuse the
work you did learning how that part of the codebase works. Also, the path to
becoming a core developer often involves taking ownership of one of these area
labels.
### Common questions
- **What if somebody is already working on the issue I want do claim?** There
are lots of issue to work on! If somebody else is actively working on the
issue, you can find a different one, or help with
reviewing their work.
- **What if somebody else claims an issue while I'm figuring out whether or not to
work on it?** No worries! You can contribute by providing feedback on
their pull request. If you've made good progress in understanding part of the
codebase, you can also find another "help wanted" issue in the same area to
work on.
- **What if there is already a pull request for the issue I want to work on?**
Start by reviewing the existing work. If you agree with the approach, you can
use the existing pull request (PR) as a starting point for your contribution. If
you think a different approach is needed, you can post a new PR, with a comment that clearly
explains _why_ you decided to start from scratch.
- **Can I come up with my own feature idea and work on it?** We welcome
suggestions of features or other improvements that you feel would be valuable. If you
have a new feature you'd like to add, we recommend you start by posting in
[#new members](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/95-new-members) with the
feature idea and the problem that you're hoping to solve.
## What makes a great Zulip contributor?
Zulip has a lot of experience working with new contributors. In our
experience, these are the best predictors of success:
- Posting good questions. This generally means explaining your current
understanding, saying what you've done or tried so far, and including
tracebacks or other error messages if appropriate.
- Posting good questions. It's very hard to answer a general question like, "How
do I do this issue?" When asking for help, explain
your current understanding, including what you've done or tried so far and where
you got stuck. Post tracebacks or other error messages if appropriate. For
more information, check out the ["Getting help" section of our community
guidelines](https://zulip.com/developer-community/#getting-help) and
[this essay][good-questions-blog] for some good advice.
- Learning and practicing
[Git commit discipline](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/version-control.html#commit-discipline).
- Submitting carefully tested code. This generally means checking your work
@ -191,11 +247,17 @@ experience, these are the best predictors of success:
- Posting
[screenshots or GIFs](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/screenshot-and-gif-software.html)
for frontend changes.
- Clearly describing what you have implemented and why. For example, if your
implementation differs from the issue description in some way or is a partial
step towards the requirements described in the issue, be sure to call
out those differences.
- Being responsive to feedback on pull requests. This means incorporating or
responding to all suggested changes, and leaving a note if you won't be
able to address things within a few days.
- Being helpful and friendly on chat.zulip.org.
[good-questions-blog]: https://jvns.ca/blog/good-questions/
These are also the main criteria we use to select candidates for all
of our outreach programs.
@ -219,8 +281,8 @@ if appropriate.
**Reporting security issues**. Please do not report security issues
publicly, including on public streams on chat.zulip.org. You can
email security@zulip.com. We create a CVE for every security
issue in our released software.
email [security@zulip.com](mailto:security@zulip.com). We create a CVE for every
security issue in our released software.
## User feedback
@ -243,6 +305,10 @@ to:
- Organization: What does your organization do? How big is the organization?
A link to your organization's website?
You can contact us in the [#feedback stream of the Zulip development
community](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/137-feedback) or
by emailing [support@zulip.com](mailto:support@zulip.com).
## Outreach programs
Zulip participates in [Google Summer of Code
@ -278,70 +344,62 @@ important parts of the project. We hope you apply!
### Google Summer of Code
The largest outreach program Zulip participates in is GSoC (14
students in 2017; 11 in 2018; 17 in 2019; 18 in 2020). While we don't control how
students in 2017; 11 in 2018; 17 in 2019; 18 in 2020; 18 in 2021). While we
don't control how
many slots Google allocates to Zulip, we hope to mentor a similar
number of students in future summers.
number of students in future summers. Check out our [blog
post](https://blog.zulip.com/2021/09/30/google-summer-of-code-2021/) to learn
about the GSoC 2021 experience and our participants' accomplishments.
If you're reading this well before the application deadline and want
to make your application strong, we recommend getting involved in the
community and fixing issues in Zulip now. Having good contributions
and building a reputation for doing good work is the best way to have
a strong application. About half of Zulip's GSoC students for Summer
2017 had made significant contributions to the project by February
2017, and about half had not. Our
[GSoC project ideas page][gsoc-guide] has lots more details on how
Zulip does GSoC, as well as project ideas (though the project idea
a strong application.
Our [GSoC project ideas page][gsoc-guide] has lots more details on how
Zulip does GSoC, as well as project ideas. Note, however, that the project idea
list is maintained only during the GSoC application period, so if
you're looking at some other time of year, the project list is likely
out-of-date).
out-of-date.
We also have in some past years run a Zulip Summer of Code (ZSoC)
program for students who we didn't have enough slots to accept for
GSoC but were able to find funding for. Student expectations are the
same as with GSoC, and it has no separate application process; your
In some years, we have also run a Zulip Summer of Code (ZSoC)
program for students who we wanted to accept into GSoC but did not have an
official slot for. Student expectations are the
same as with GSoC, and ZSoC has no separate application process; your
GSoC application is your ZSoC application. If we'd like to select you
for ZSoC, we'll contact you when the GSoC results are announced.
[gsoc-guide]: https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/gsoc-ideas.html
[gsoc-faq]: https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/faq
## Zulip outreach
## Stay connected
**Upvoting Zulip**. Upvotes and reviews make a big difference in the public
perception of projects like Zulip. We've collected a few sites below
where we know Zulip has been discussed. Doing everything in the following
list typically takes about 15 minutes.
Even if you are not logging into the development community on a regular basis,
you can still stay connected with the project.
- Follow us [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/zulip).
- Subscribe to [our blog](https://blog.zulip.org/).
- Join or follow the project [on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/zulip-project/).
## Help others find Zulip
Here are some ways you can help others find Zulip:
- Star us on GitHub. There are four main repositories:
[server/web](https://github.com/zulip/zulip),
[mobile](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-mobile),
[desktop](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-desktop), and
[Python API](https://github.com/zulip/python-zulip-api).
- [Follow us](https://twitter.com/zulip) on Twitter.
For both of the following, you'll need to make an account on the site if you
don't already have one.
- "Like" and retweet [our tweets](https://twitter.com/zulip).
- [Like Zulip](https://alternativeto.net/software/zulip-chat-server/) on
AlternativeTo. We recommend upvoting a couple of other products you like
as well, both to give back to their community, and since single-upvote
accounts are generally given less weight. You can also
[upvote Zulip](https://alternativeto.net/software/slack/) on their page
for Slack.
- [Add Zulip to your stack](https://stackshare.io/zulip) on StackShare, star
it, and upvote the reasons why people like Zulip that you find most
compelling. Again, we recommend adding a few other products that you like
as well.
- Upvote and post feedback on Zulip on comparison websites. A couple specific
ones to highlight:
We have a doc with more detailed instructions and a few other sites, if you
have been using Zulip for a while and want to contribute more.
**Blog posts**. Writing a blog post about your experiences with Zulip, or
about a technical aspect of Zulip can be a great way to spread the word
about Zulip.
We also occasionally [publish](https://blog.zulip.org/) long-form
articles related to Zulip. Our posts typically get tens of thousands
of views, and we always have good ideas for blog posts that we can
outline but don't have time to write. If you are an experienced writer
or copyeditor, send us a portfolio; we'd love to talk!
- [AlternativeTo](https://alternativeto.net/software/zulip-chat-server/). You can also
[upvote Zulip](https://alternativeto.net/software/slack/) on their page
for Slack.
- [Add Zulip to your stack](https://stackshare.io/zulip) on StackShare, star
it, and upvote the reasons why people like Zulip that you find most
compelling.

1
tools/linter_lib/custom_check.py
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@ -870,6 +870,7 @@ markdown_rules = RuleList(
},
{
"pattern": r"\][(][^#h]",
"exclude_pattern": "mailto:",
"include_only": {"README.md", "CONTRIBUTING.md"},
"description": "Use absolute links from docs served by GitHub",
},