Get Involved

Contribution Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to ListenCast! We appreciate your efforts to help us build and improve our solutions to the community.

These guidelines outline how you can contribute to our project, ensuring a smooth and efficient collaboration process.

Table of Contents:

  1. Getting Started
    • 1.1 Code of Conduct
    • 1.2 How Can I Contribute?
    • 1.3 Reporting Bugs
    • 1.4 Suggesting Enhancements
  2. Your First Contribution
    • 2.1 Setting Up Your Development Environment
    • 2.2 Finding an Issue
    • 2.3 Making Changes
    • 2.4 Committing Changes
    • 2.5 Pull Requests
  3. Style Guides
    • 3.1 Code Style
    • 3.2 Documentation Style
    • 3.3 Commit Message Guidelines
  4. Additional Notes
    • 4.1 Licensing
    • 4.2 Communication Channels

1. Getting Started

1.1 Code of Conduct

We are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment. Please review and adhere to our Code of Conduct before participating in our project.

1.2 How Can I Contribute?

You can contribute in many ways, including:

  • Reporting bugs and issues
  • Suggesting new features or enhancements
  • Writing or improving documentation
  • Submitting code changes to fix bugs or implement new features
  • Participating in code reviews
  • Helping others with questions or issues

1.3 Reporting Bugs

  • Before submitting a bug report, please search the existing issues to avoid duplicates.
  • If you find a new bug, create a new issue with a clear and descriptive title.
  • Include the following information:
    • A detailed description of the bug
    • Steps to reproduce the bug
    • The expected behavior
    • The actual behavior
    • Your operating system and version
    • The version of [Your Software/Project Name] you are using
    • Any relevant error messages or screenshots

1.4 Suggesting Enhancements

  • Before suggesting an enhancement, please search the existing issues and discussions to avoid duplicates.
  • If you have a new idea, create a new issue with a clear and descriptive title.
  • Include the following information:
    • A detailed description of the enhancement
    • The motivation for the enhancement
    • Potential implementation details (if applicable)

2. Your First Contribution

2.1 Setting Up Your Development Environment

  • [Provide detailed instructions on how to set up the development environment, including required software, dependencies, and build instructions. For example:]
    • Clone the repository: git clone [repository URL]
    • Install dependencies: npm install or pip install -r requirements.txt
    • Run the development server: npm start or python main.py

2.2 Finding an Issue

  • Look for issues labeled “good first issue” or “help wanted.” These are typically good starting points for new contributors.
  • You can also browse the existing issues and find something that interests you.
  • Comment on the issue that you intend to work on, to let others know.

2.3 Making Changes

  • Create a new branch for your changes: git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name or bugfix/your-bugfix-name
  • Make your changes, following the style guides outlined below.
  • Test your changes thoroughly.
  • Ensure that all tests pass.

2.4 Committing Changes

  • Write clear and concise commit messages.
  • Follow the commit message guidelines outlined below.
  • Commit your changes: git commit -m "Your commit message"

2.5 Pull Requests

  • Push your changes to your fork: git push origin feature/your-feature-name
  • Create a pull request (PR) from your branch to the main or develop branch of the main repository.
  • In your PR description, include:
    • A clear and concise description of your changes
    • Links to any relevant issues
    • Any relevant screenshots or GIFs
  • Be prepared to address any feedback or requested changes from the maintainers.

3. Style Guides

3.1 Code Style

  • Follow the existing code style in the project.
  • [If applicable, specify coding standards, such as PEP 8, or a linter configuration file.]
  • [Provide instructions on how to run any linters or code formatters.]

3.2 Documentation Style

  • Write clear and concise documentation.
  • Use proper grammar and spelling.
  • Provide examples and use cases where appropriate.
  • [If applicable, specify documentation standards, such as Markdown or reStructuredText.]

3.3 Commit Message Guidelines

  • Use the following format for commit messages:
<type>(<scope>): <subject>

<body>

<footer>
  • <type>: Must be one of the following:
    • feat: A new feature
    • fix: A bug fix
    • docs: Documentation changes
    • style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)  
    • refactor: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
    • perf: A code change that improves performance
    • test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests  
    • build: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies (example scopes: gulp, broccoli, npm)
    • ci: Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts (example scopes: Travis, Circle, BrowserStack, SauceLabs)  
    • chore: Other changes that don’t modify src or test files
    • revert: Reverts a previous commit
  • <scope>: (Optional) A scope indicating the area of the code that was changed.  
  • <subject>: A short description of the change (max 50 characters).
  • <body>: (Optional) A more detailed description of the change.
  • <footer>: (Optional) Any closing issues or breaking changes.

Example:

fix(login): prevent user from logging in with invalid credentials

Fixed an issue where users could log in with invalid credentials.

Closes #123

4. Additional Notes

4.1 Licensing

  • By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the [License Name] license.

4.2 Communication Channels

  • [List any communication channels, such as Slack, Discord, mailing lists, or forums.]
  • [Provide links to those channels.]

Thank you for your contributions! We look forward to working with you.