# Contributing to Phoenix

Please take a moment to review this document in order to make the contribution
process easy and effective for everyone involved!
Also make sure you read our [Code of Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) that outlines our commitment towards an open and welcoming environment.

## Using the issue tracker

Use the issues tracker for:

* [Bug reports](#bug-reports)
* [Submitting pull requests](#pull-requests)

For requesting help and discussing new features:

* [The Phoenix subforum on the Elixir Forum](https://elixirforum.com/c/phoenix-forum)
* **[#elixir](irc://irc.libera.chat/elixir)** on [Libera](https://libera.chat/) IRC

We do our best to keep the issue tracker tidy and organized, making it useful
for everyone. For example, we classify open issues per perceived difficulty,
making it easier for developers to [contribute to Phoenix](#pull-requests).

## Bug reports

A bug is either a _demonstrable problem_ that is caused by the code in the repository,
or indicates missing, unclear, or misleading documentation. Good bug reports are extremely
helpful - thank you!

Guidelines for bug reports:

1. **Use the GitHub issue search** &mdash; check if the issue has already been
   reported.

2. **Check if the issue has been fixed** &mdash; try to reproduce it using the
   `main` branch in the repository.

3. **Isolate and report the problem** &mdash; ideally create a reduced test
   case.

Please try to be as detailed as possible in your report. Include information about
your Operating System, as well as your Erlang, Elixir and Phoenix versions. Please provide steps to
reproduce the issue as well as the outcome you were expecting! All these details
will help developers to fix any potential bugs.

Example:

> Short and descriptive example bug report title
>
> A summary of the issue and the environment in which it occurs. If suitable,
> include the steps required to reproduce the bug.
>
> 1. This is the first step
> 2. This is the second step
> 3. Further steps, etc.
>
> `<url>` - a link to the reduced test case (e.g. a GitHub Gist)
>
> Any other information you want to share that is relevant to the issue being
> reported. This might include the lines of code that you have identified as
> causing the bug, and potential solutions (and your opinions on their
> merits).

## Feature requests

Feature requests are welcome and should be discussed on the [Phoenix subforum](https://elixirforum.com/c/phoenix-forum). But take a moment to find
out whether your idea fits with the scope and aims of the project. It's up to *you*
to make a strong case to convince the community of the merits of this feature.
Please provide as much detail and context as possible.

## Contributing Documentation

Code documentation (`@doc`, `@moduledoc`, `@typedoc`) has a special convention:
the first paragraph is considered to be a short summary.

For functions, macros, and callbacks say what it will do. For example write
something like:

```elixir
@doc """
Marks the given value as HTML safe.
"""
def safe({:safe, value}), do: {:safe, value}
```

For modules, protocols, and types say what it is. For example write
something like:

```elixir
defmodule Phoenix.HTML do
  @moduledoc """
  Conveniences for working HTML strings and templates.
  ...
  """
```

Keep in mind that the first paragraph might show up in a summary somewhere, long
texts in the first paragraph create very ugly summaries. As a rule of thumb
anything longer than 80 characters is too long.

Try to keep unnecessary details out of the first paragraph, it's only there to
give a user a quick idea of what the documented "thing" does/is. The rest of the
documentation string can contain the details, for example when a value and when
`nil` is returned.

If possible include examples, preferably in a form that works with doctests.
This makes it easy to test the examples so that they don't go stale and examples
are often a great help in explaining what a function does.

## Pull requests

Good pull requests - patches, improvements, new features - are a fantastic
help. They should remain focused in scope and avoid containing unrelated
commits.

**IMPORTANT**: By submitting a patch, you agree that your work will be
licensed under the license used by the project.

If you have any large pull request in mind (e.g. implementing features,
refactoring code, etc), **please ask first** otherwise you risk spending
a lot of time working on something that the project's developers might
not want to merge into the project.

Please adhere to the coding conventions in the project (indentation,
accurate comments, etc.) and don't forget to add your own tests and
documentation. When working with git, we recommend the following process
in order to craft an excellent pull request:

1. [Fork](https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/) the project, clone your fork,
   and configure the remotes:

   ```bash
   # Clone your fork of the repo into the current directory
   git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/phoenix

   # Navigate to the newly cloned directory
   cd phoenix

   # Assign the original repo to a remote called "upstream"
   git remote add upstream https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix
   ```

2. If you cloned a while ago, get the latest changes from upstream, and update your fork:

   ```bash
   git checkout main
   git pull upstream main
   git push
   ```

3. Create a new topic branch (off of `main`) to contain your feature, change,
   or fix.

   **IMPORTANT**: Making changes in `main` is discouraged. You should always
   keep your local `main` in sync with upstream `main` and make your
   changes in topic branches.

   ```bash
   git checkout -b <topic-branch-name>
   ```

4. Commit your changes in logical chunks. Keep your commit messages organized,
   with a short description in the first line and more detailed information on
   the following lines. Feel free to use Git's
   [interactive rebase](https://help.github.com/articles/about-git-rebase/)
   feature to tidy up your commits before making them public.

5. Make sure all the tests are still passing.

   ```bash
   mix test
   ```

6. Push your topic branch up to your fork:

   ```bash
   git push origin <topic-branch-name>
   ```

7. [Open a Pull Request](https://help.github.com/articles/about-pull-requests/)
    with a clear title and description.

8. If you haven't updated your pull request for a while, you should consider
   rebasing on main and resolving any conflicts.

   **IMPORTANT**: _Never ever_ merge upstream `main` into your branches. You
   should always `git rebase` on `main` to bring your changes up to date when
   necessary.

   ```bash
   git checkout main
   git pull upstream main
   git checkout <your-topic-branch>
   git rebase main
   ```

Thank you for your contributions!

## Guides

These Guides aim to be inclusive. We use "we" and "our" instead of "you" and
"your" to foster this sense of inclusion.

Ideally there is something for everybody in each guide, from beginner to expert.
This is hard, maybe impossible. When we need to compromise, we do so on behalf
of beginning users because expert users have more tools at their disposal to
help themselves.

The general pattern we use for presenting information is to first introduce a
small, discrete topic, then write a small amount of code to demonstrate the
concept, then verify that the code worked.

In this way, we build from small, easily digestible concepts into more complex
ones. The shorter this cycle is, as long as the information is still clear and
complete, the better.

For formatting the guides:

- We use the `elixir` code fence for all module code.
- We use the `iex` for IEx sessions.
- We use the `console` code fence for shell commands.
- We use the `html` code fence for html templates, even if there is elixir code
  in the template.
- We use backticks for filenames and directory paths.
- We use backticks for module names, function names, and variable names.
- Documentation line length should hard wrapped at around 100 characters if possible.
