CONTRIBUTING.md

Getting Started

Mirador uses node.js and a build system to assemble, test, and manage the development resources. If you have never used these tools before, you may need to install them.

1. Install Node, if you haven't already (available at the link above)
2. Clone the mirador repository (if you haven't already done so above); git clone https://github.com/ProjectMirador/mirador.git
3. On the command line, go into the mirador folder
4. Install all dependencies with npm install. Run npm start

npm start will run a local server that is available at localhost:8000.

How to Contribute

Making Changes

Contributions are always welcome, however, it will always be helpful to begin any large change by submitting an issue, or reviewing an existing issue. This will give the developer community a chance to point you in the right direction, let you know of any connected issues that may not be obvious, and provide feedback about how the feature might fit into the current roadmap. Contributions that involve major changes to the UI will need to have a design audit completed before they can be fully integrated. See the Design section below for information about the design review process.

To make a contribution, update the master and develop branches. The master branch is the current stable version, though each release also has a tag. The develop branch is the current working branch into which pull requests will be merged for upcoming releases. After creating a new branch off of develop, make a discrete change representing a bite-sized chunk of work, and write an informative commit message. We do not enforce any rebasing strategy, but we may ask you to rebase if you have many small and intermediate commits with unhelpful messages. "One commit per PR" is a worthy goal.

Making Small Changes

Even small changes should follow the branching strategy outlined above, though they may not need a long discussion. It may still be helpful to create an issue for them, though it is not strictly necessary.