This week I made code contribution to my classmate Yumei's GitHub repo, ConvertTxtToHtml. ConvertTxtToHtml is written in Java and is a command-line program which converts .txt files to .html. I added a two new features to the program:
- to allow .md files as input in addition to .txt files
- to convert md syntax links to html syntax links
Here is the process I went through to make my contribution:
1) First I filed an issue on her main project GitHub. This allowed her to give me feedback on how she would like me to handle the issue.
2) Next I forked the project on GitHub, and cloned my fork. I created a branch for my work and named it issue-7 after the issue I filed earlier.
3) On my local machine, I tested the existing program to make sure there were no bugs. I read the code thoroughly to understand how it worked, and to familiarize myself with her coding style and formatting style. Then I added my new features, taking care to make as little change to the existing program as possible. To do this, I created private helper functions to separate my code, and then called those functions in a few locations in her existing code. I also added comments, and updated the existing README file to include my changes. After testing my changes and adding a test file to her folder of test files, I pushed the changes to my branch.
4) I created a Pull Request in her main project repo and submitted my branch. I described what changes I made and asked for her review and her feedback on any changes she required.
5) Yumei commented on my pull request with changes she wanted me to make:
- fix a bug where
[someText][linkText](http://linkgoeshere)would display someText as a link rather than linkText - make link conversion only occur for .md files (not .txt files)
6) I fixed the issues she brought up, and pushed the changes to my branch. I then replied to her comment that each item was fixed.
7) Yumei commented that my changes looked good and merged my Pull Request. Since I used the keyword "Closes #7" in my pull request, the issue I raised was automatically closed.
Initially I had some problem trying to figure out the best way to convert links from md to html. I did some research online and decided to use regular expressions. I did a lot of testing with the Pattern and Matcher classes so that I understood how to use regex to identify patterns in a string. Then I wrote my private helper function which converted links from md to html.
Aside from learning how to use regex to parse strings in Java, I also learned to do more thorough testing. Yumei found a bug which I could have caught myself if I had tested with more edge cases. Next time I make a contribution, I will create a series of test input files to test multiple edge cases and document my testing in a file so that I ensure I test all the scenarios.
Yumei also contributed to my Open Source application, which was a similar program, go-go-web, but written in Python. She raised an issue and submitted a Pull Request to my repo. Here are the steps I took to review and merge her pull request.
1) Read the details of her Pull Request. It include the following features:
- support for .md files
- converting md syntax bold and italics text to html syntax bold and italics text
- changes to version file and README file
2) I cloned her branch to my local so that I could review the code. I used the following command:
git clone --single-branch --branch <branchname> <remote-repo>
3) I read and tested her code. I found a bug, which I took screenshots of and asked her to fix in a comment to her Pull Request. The bug was that the italics conversion was erasing a space. I also asked her to add a test file that tests both the bold and italics conversion.
4) She fixed the issues I mentioned and I merged the Pull Request.
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