Flexblock relies on student contributions, so we want to makle it as easy as possible for you to contribute. Before you can contribute, you must have a GitLab account. You can click here to sign up for one. You will also need to download git.
Most of the time you contribute to Flexblock, you will be fixing an issue. Issues allow contributors to discuss problems with the current state of the application. If you are contributing to fix a problem you discovered yourself, you should open a new issue about the problem. We also set aside issues that are good for new contributors. If you are looking for something to contribute, check out these issues.
We also keep a list of witty loading messages that make a great first contribution.
Forking a project makes a copy of the project on your own GitLab account. If you are unsure of how to fork, read GitLab's documentation on forking. After you fork, you should make a feature branch to contain the changes you want to make. See GitLab's documentation on branching.
After you have forked the project and created a feature branch, you
should create a merge request. A merge request is exactly what it
sounds like: a request that changes you make be merged into the
project. Go to Flexblock's merge request page,
and create a new merge request from your fork's feature branch to
Flexblock's master branch. Your merge request title should start
with WIP: to show that you are still working on changes. For more
information about creating a merge request, see GitLab's
documentation.
Once you create a merge request, you should start making your changes. Clone your fork of Flexblock to your local computer. You should organize your changes into logical commits using git. For more information about using git, check out these resources. After you make your changes, push them back to GitLab. They will be automatically tested, and if they pass the tests, they will probably be merged.