Merge pull request #2053 from SchrodingersGat/contributing

Update contributing.md

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -1,22 +1,102 @@
-Contributions to InvenTree are welcomed - please follow the guidelines below.
+Please read the contribution guidelines below, before submitting your first pull request to the InvenTree codebase.
 
-## Feature Branches
+## Branches and Versioning
 
-No pushing to master! New featues must be submitted in a separate branch (one branch per feature).
+InvenTree roughly follow the [GitLab flow](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/topics/gitlab_flow.html) branching style, to allow simple management of multiple tagged releases, short-lived branches, and development on the main branch.
 
-## Include Migration Files
+### Version Numbering
+
+InvenTree version numbering follows the [semantic versioning](https://semver.org/) specification.
+
+### Master Branch
+
+The HEAD of the "main" or "master" branch of InvenTree represents the current "latest" state of code development.
+
+- All feature branches are merged into master
+- All bug fixes are merged into master
+
+**No pushing to master:** New featues must be submitted as a pull request from a separate branch (one branch per feature).
+
+#### Feature Branches
+
+Feature branches should be branched *from* the *master* branch.
+
+- One major feature per branch / pull request
+- Feature pull requests are merged back *into* the master branch
+- Features *may* also be merged into a release candidate branch
+
+### Stable Branch
+
+The HEAD of the "stable" branch represents the latest stable release code.
+
+- Versioned releases are merged into the "stable" branch
+- Bug fix branches are made *from* the "stable" branch
+
+#### Release Candidate Branches
+
+- Release candidate branches are made from master, and merged into stable.
+- RC branches are targetted at a major/minor version e.g. "0.5"
+- When a release candidate branch is merged into *stable*, the release is tagged
+
+#### Bugfix Branches
+
+- If a bug is discovered in a tagged release version of InvenTree, a "bugfix" or "hotfix" branch should be made *from* that tagged release
+- When approved, the branch is merged back *into* stable, with an incremented PATCH number (e.g. 0.4.1 -> 0.4.2)
+- The bugfix *must* also be cherry picked into the *master* branch.
+
+## Migration Files
 
 Any required migration files **must** be included in the commit, or the pull-request will be rejected. If you change the underlying database schema, make sure you run `invoke migrate` and commit the migration files before submitting the PR.
 
+*Note: A github action checks for unstaged migration files and will reject the PR if it finds any!*
 
-## Testing
+## Unit Testing
 
-Any new code should be covered by unit tests - a submitted PR may not be accepted if the code coverage is decreased.
+Any new code should be covered by unit tests - a submitted PR may not be accepted if the code coverage for any new features is insufficient, or the overall code coverage is decreased.
+
+The InvenTree code base makes use of [GitHub actions](https://github.com/features/actions) to run a suite of automated tests against the code base every time a new pull request is received. These actions include (but are not limited to):
+
+- Checking Python and Javascript code against standard style guides
+- Running unit test suite
+- Automated building and pushing of docker images
+- Generating translation files
+
+The various github actions can be found in the `./github/workflows` directory
+
+## Code Style
+
+Sumbitted Python code is automatically checked against PEP style guidelines. Locally you can run `invoke style` to ensure the style checks will pass, before submitting the PR.
 
 ## Documentation
 
 New features or updates to existing features should be accompanied by user documentation. A PR with associated documentation should link to the matching PR at https://github.com/inventree/inventree-docs/
 
-## Code Style
+## Translations
 
-Sumbitted Python code is automatically checked against PEP style guidelines. Locally you can run `invoke style` to ensure the style checks will pass, before submitting the PR.
+Any user-facing strings *must* be passed through the translation engine.
+
+- InvenTree code is written in English
+- User translatable strings are provided in English as the primary language
+- Secondary language translations are provided [via Crowdin](https://crowdin.com/project/inventree)
+
+*Note: Translation files are updated via GitHub actions - you do not need to compile translations files before submitting a pull request!*
+
+### Python Code
+
+For strings exposed via Python code, use the following format:
+
+```python
+from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
+
+user_facing_string = _('This string will be exposed to the translation engine!')
+```
+
+### Templated Strings
+
+HTML and javascript files are passed through the django templating engine. Translatable strings are implemented as follows:
+
+```html
+{% load i18n %}
+
+<span>{% trans "This string will be translated" %} - this string will not!</span>
+```