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Contributing to the Firebase C++ Quickstarts

We'd love for you to contribute to our source code and to make the Firebase C++ Quickstarts project even better than they are today! Here are the guidelines we'd like you to follow:

Code of Conduct​

As contributors and maintainers of the Firebase C++ Quickstarts project, we pledge to respect everyone who contributes by posting issues, updating documentation, submitting pull requests, providing feedback in comments, and any other activities.

Communication through any of Firebase's channels (GitHub, StackOverflow, Google+, Twitter, etc.) must be constructive and never resort to personal attacks, trolling, public or private harassment, insults, or other unprofessional conduct.

We promise to extend courtesy and respect to everyone involved in this project regardless of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, race, ethnicity, religion, or level of experience. We expect anyone contributing to the project to do the same.

If any member of the community violates this code of conduct, the maintainers of the Firebase C++ Quickstarts project may take action, removing issues, comments, and PRs or blocking accounts as deemed appropriate.

Got a Question or Problem?​

If you have questions about how to use the Firebase C++ Quickstarts, please direct these to StackOverflow and use the firebase tag. We are also available on GitHub issues.

If you feel that we're missing an important bit of documentation, feel free to file an issue so we can help. Here's an example to get you started:

What are you trying to do or find out more about?

Where have you looked?

Where did you expect to find this information?

Found an Issue?​

If you find a bug in the source code or a mistake in the documentation, you can help us by submitting an issue to our GitHub Repository. Even better you can submit a Pull Request with a fix.

See below for some guidelines.

Submission Guidelines​

Submitting an Issue​

Before you submit your issue, search the archive, maybe your question was already answered.

If your issue appears to be a bug, and hasn't been reported, open a new issue. Help us to maximize the effort we can spend fixing issues and adding new features, by not reporting duplicate issues. Providing the following information will increase the chances of your issue being dealt with quickly:

  • Overview of the Issue - if an error is being thrown a stack trace with symbols helps
  • Motivation for or Use Case - explain why this is a bug for you
  • Operating System - is this a problem for all operating systems?
  • Reproduce the Error - provide a live example or a unambiguous set of steps.
  • Related Issues - has a similar issue been reported before?
  • Suggest a Fix - if you can't fix the bug yourself, perhaps you can point to what might be causing the problem (line of code or commit)

If you get help, help others. Good karma rulez!

Here's a template to get you started:

Operating system:
Operating system version:

What steps will reproduce the problem:
1.
2.
3.

What is the expected result?

What happens instead of that?

Please provide any other information below, and attach a screenshot if possible.

Submitting a Pull Request​

Before you submit your pull request consider the following guidelines:

  • Search GitHub for an open or closed Pull Request that relates to your submission. You don't want to duplicate effort.

  • Please sign our Contributor License Agreement (CLA) before sending pull requests. We cannot accept code without this.

  • Make your changes in a new git branch:

    git checkout -b my-fix-branch main

  • Create your patch, including appropriate test cases.

  • Follow our Coding Rules.

  • Avoid checking in files that shouldn't be tracked (e.g .tmp, .idea). We recommend using a global gitignore for this.

  • Commit your changes using a descriptive commit message.

    git commit -a

    Note: the optional commit -a command line option will automatically "add" and "rm" edited files.

  • Build your changes locally and run the applications to verify they're still functional.

  • Push your branch to GitHub:

    git push origin my-fix-branch

  • In GitHub, send a pull request to firebase/quickstart-cpp:main.

  • If we suggest changes then:

    • Make the required updates.

    • Rebase your branch and force push to your GitHub repository (this will update your Pull Request):

      git rebase main -i
      git push origin my-fix-branch -f

That's it! Thank you for your contribution!

After your pull request is merged​

After your pull request is merged, you can safely delete your branch and pull the changes from the main (upstream) repository:

  • Delete the remote branch on GitHub either through the GitHub UI or your local shell as follows:

    git push origin --delete my-fix-branch

  • Check out the main branch:

    git checkout main -f

  • Delete the local branch:

    git branch -D my-fix-branch

  • Update your main with the latest upstream version:

    git pull --ff upstream main

Coding Rules​

We generally follow the Google C++ style guide.

Signing the CLA​

Please sign our Contributor License Agreement (CLA) before sending pull requests. For any code changes to be accepted, the CLA must be signed. It's a quick process, we promise!

This guide was inspired by the AngularJS contribution guidelines.