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Contributing to a Project with a Pull Request
5:25Contribute some code back into an open source project!
Let's actually contribute some code
back to the open source project.
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We already created a fork of
the hello-treehouse Project earlier.
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Let's clone your version of
the repository locally, make the fix and
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create a pull request.
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For this video we'll use
your local environment and
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I'll walk you through each step.
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First, let's make sure we have a copy
of the fork repository locally.
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To find the fork repository
from the GitHub dashboard,
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click on the context switch or on the top
left, and choose our organization's name.
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Now you should see a list of
repositories on the right.
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Let's click the hello-treehouse
repository.
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We'll copy the URL from GitHub and
then go to our terminal.
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We'll run git clone and paste the URL.
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Then we'll move into the hello-treehouse
folder and I'll clear our console.
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To make a change, the first thing
we'll want to do is create a branch.
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By creating a branch, we're creating an
easy way for us to create a pull request.
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If you remember in the git basics course
you can create a branch using git checkout
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-b and
let's call this branch fix treehouse-bug.
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Great now we have a new branch and git has
automatically moved us on to that branch.
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Now let's make the simple fix.
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If I open up the start.rb file using vim,
we can see, there's the error.
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We're raising a runtime error that says,
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don't start it will explode,
let's remove that.
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I'm gonna save this file, and
then now let's add this change to git,
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And we'll create a new commit.
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Add a simple commit message,
And then Save the commit.
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Last but not least we need to
push this change to GitHub.
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We'll do that by running git push origin
fix-treehouse-bug, and add our user name.
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All right, we've created the branch,
made the fix, and pushed it up to GitHub.
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Now, let's go create our pull request.
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Let's go back to the fork of
the hello-treehouse project on
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the GitHub site.
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You'll notice now that there's this
new section called recently pushed
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branches are fixed treehouse bug
branches here and now we can
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easily create a pull request by clicking
on the Compare and pull request button.
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This looks a lot like the pull request
window we saw earlier in the course, but
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there is one big difference.
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This pull request is comparing
our fork to the original project.
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This means that we're trying to move this
code from our fork into the original
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projects master branch.
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This is how most open source projects
get changes from contributors.
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The contributor forks creates a branch and
then opens a pull request between their
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forks branch and
the original projects master branch.
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Now let's fill in this pull request form,
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similar to how we submitted the open
source issue let's add a clear name.
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GitHub already provides a sub title
from the commit that we created, and
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then let's describe
the change that we made.
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Great, for a more complex pull request or
a real open source project,
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there are a few other guidelines
that are worth following.
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These extra guidelines are often
spelled out in the projects read me or
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in a contributing file,
but I'll share a few now.
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It's best to include tests, every time you
make a change to an open-source project,
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add a unit test to cover
what you've changed.
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This helps maintainers know that the code
does exactly what you say it does.
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Include screenshots if
it's a visual change.
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This saves maintainers time so
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they don't need to test out your
change in a variety of browsers.
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Always make your changes in
the style of the project.
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Even though you may have a preferred
way of solving a coding problem,
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or a certain style you'd like to stick
to make sure your change fits in with
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the larger project.
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Now let's add a cross reference back
to the issue that we created earlier in
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the course.
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Let's type a # sign, and find the issue
we created in the last video.
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Once we find it we can click Enter and
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it will populate a link to
the issue inside the pull request.
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If we use the phrase Closes #1 when this
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PR gets merged the issue will
be automatically closed.
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Now all we need to do is
click Create pull request.
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Now it's up to the maintainer to decide
if they'd like to merge the changes that
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you've created.
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>> It's important to remember that not
all pull requests will get merged.
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This doesn't mean your poor quest was bad
or wrong, sometimes the maintainer will
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disagree with the approach or know about
another change that's already underway.
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Submitting a pull request at
all is a big accomplishment.
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So don't worry if your pull request
isn't merged right away or at all.
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Well, that's it you're well on
your way to becoming a GitHub pro.
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>> If you wanna check out
even more ways to use GitHub,
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head over the guides.github,com.
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Remember, if you get stuck, you can ask
for help in the Treehouse community.
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>> Thanks for taking this course with us,
we'll see around Treehouse.
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