Want to contribute to the Civic Tech DC website? Awesome! We welcome pull requests from anyone who wants to help improve the project. Here are some steps to follow:
Before you start working on a feature, it's best to create a new branch off of the main branch. This will allow you to work on your changes without messing with the main codebase. To create a new branch, run the following command in your terminal:
git checkout -b <your-new-branch-name>Replace <your-new-branch-name> with the name you want to give your new branch.
Once you have a new branch, it's time to start making changes! Open the Civic Tech DC repository in your favorite code editor or IDE, and start modifying files and adding new features.
Once you've made some changes, commit them to your branch by running the following command in your terminal:
git add .
git commit -m "Your commit message goes here"Be sure to include a meaningful commit message that describes what you changed and why. This will help others understand your changes when they review your PR.
Now that you have committed your changes, push them to your own fork of the Civic Tech DC repository on GitHub. This will create a new remote branch with your changes. To do this, run the following command in your terminal:
git push origin <your-new-branch-name>Replace <your-new-branch-name> with the name of your new branch.
Once you have pushed your changes to your own fork, it's time to create a pull request! Go to the Civic Tech DC repository on GitHub and click the "New pull request" button. Select the branch you want to merge (in this case, your new branch), add a title and description of your changes, and click "Create pull request."
Once you've created a pull request, it will initiate a CircleCI build that runs a series of checks on your changes. You can watch the build process in real-time on the Civic Tech DC repository page. If there are any failures or issues with your code, you'll see them highlighted in the build results. Don't worry – this is a normal part of the contribution process! Just address any comments or requests from reviewers and resubmit your PR when you're ready.
Once a project maintainer has reviewed your changes and approved them, they'll merge your pull request into the main branch! An updated version of the website will automatically be deployed, and you can see the results in action at Civic Tech DC.
Thank you for contributing! If you have any questions or get stuck at any point, feel free to ask for help in the #civictechdc-website slack channel. Happy coding!