# Contributing

Ultrasonic development is a community project, and contributions are
welcomed.

First, see if your issue haven’t been yet reported
[here](https://gitlab.com/ultrasonic/ultrasonic/issues), then, please, first
discuss the change you wish to make via [a new
issue](https://gitlab.com/ultrasonic/ultrasonic/issues/new).

## Contributing Translations

Interested in help to translate Ultrasonic? You can contribute in our
[Weblate team](https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/ultrasonic/).

## Contributing Code

By default, merge requests should be opened against the **develop** branch
from your own branch, MR against the **master** branch should only be used
for critical bug fixes.

### Here are a few guidelines you should follow before submitting:

1. **License Acceptance:** All contributions must be licensed as [GNU
   GPLv3](LICENSE) to be accepted. Use `git commit --signoff` to acknowledge
   this.
2. **No Breakage**: New features or changes to existing ones must not
   degrade the user experience.
3. **Coding standards**: best-practices should be followed, comment
   generously, and avoid "clever" algorithms. Refactoring existing messes is
   great, but watch out for breakage.
4. **No large PR**: Try to limit the scope of PR only to the related issue,
   so it will be easier to review and test.
5. **Make your own branch**: When you send us a merge request, please do it
   from your own branch. Avoid using the `develop` branch.

### Merge request process

On each merge request GitLab runs a number of checks to make sure there are
no problems.

Take special note of point five of the previous paragraph. Do not use the
`develop` branch, make your own. Not following this step will cause your
merge request to be rejected without even checking it.

#### Signed commits

Commits must be signed. [See here how to set it
up](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/repository/gpg_signed_commits/).

#### KtLint

This programm checks if the source code is formatted correctly. You can run
it yourself locally with
```
./gradlew -Pqc ktlintFormat
```
Running this command will fix common problems and will notify you of
problems it couldn't fix automatically.

#### Detekt

Detekt is a static analyser. It helps to find potential bugs in our code.
You can run it yourself locally with
```
./gradlew -Pqc detekt
```
There is a "baseline" file, in which errors which have been in the code base
before are noted. Sometimes it is necessary to regenerate this file by
running:
```
./gradlew -Pqc detektBaseline
```

#### Lint

Lint looks for general problems in the code or unused resources etc. You can
run it with
```
./gradlew -Pqc lintRelease
```
If there is a need to regenerate the baseline, remove
`ultrasonic/lint-baseline.xml` and rerun the command.