# Contributing Guidelines

## Questions, Feature Requests, Bug Reports, and Feedback…

…should all be reported on the Github Issue Tracker .

## Setting Up for Local Development

1. Fork marshmallow-sqlalchemy on Github.

    $ git clone https://github.com/marshmallow-code/marshmallow-sqlalchemy.git
    $ cd marshmallow-sqlalchemy

2. Install development requirements. It is highly recommended that you use a virtualenv. Use the following command to install an editable version of marshmallow-sqlalchemy along with its development requirements.

    # After activating your virtualenv
    $ pip install -e '.[dev]'

3. Install the pre-commit hooks, which will format and lint your git staged files.

    # The pre-commit CLI was installed above
    $ pre-commit install --allow-missing-config

## Git Branch Structure

marshmallow-sqlalchemy abides by the following branching model:

`dev`

  Current development branch. New features should branch off here.

`X.Y-line`

  Maintenance branch for release `X.Y`. Bug fixes should be sent to the most recent release branch.. The maintainer will forward-port the fix to `dev`. Note: exceptions may be made for bug fixes that introduce large code changes.

Always make a new branch for your work, no matter how small. Also, do not put unrelated changes in the same branch or pull request. This makes it more difficult to merge your changes.

## Pull Requests

1. Create a new local branch.

    # For a new feature
    $ git checkout -b name-of-feature dev

    # For a bugfix
    $ git checkout -b fix-something 1.2-line

2. Commit your changes. Write good commit messages.

    $ git commit -m "Detailed commit message"
    $ git push origin name-of-feature

3. Before submitting a pull request, check the following:

- If the pull request adds functionality, it is tested and the docs are updated.

- You’ve added yourself to `AUTHORS.rst`.

4. Submit a pull request to `marshmallow-code:dev` or the appropriate maintenance branch. The CI build must be passing before your pull request is merged.

## Running Tests

To run all To run all tests:

    $ pytest

To run formatting and syntax checks:

    $ tox -e lint

(Optional) To run tests in all supported Python versions in their own virtual environments (must have each interpreter installed):

    $ tox

## Documentation

Contributions to the documentation are welcome. Documentation is written in reStructuredText (rST). A quick rST reference can be found here. Builds are powered by Sphinx.

To build the docs in “watch” mode:

    $ tox -e watch-docs

Changes in the `docs/` directory will automatically trigger a rebuild.