Haystack is open-source and, as such, grows (or shrinks) & improves in part due to the community. Below are some guidelines on how to help with the project.
- Haystack is BSD-licensed. All contributed code must be either
- the original work of the author, contributed under the BSD, or...
- work taken from another project released under a BSD-compatible license.
- GPL'd (or similar) works are not eligible for inclusion.
- Haystack's git master branch should always be stable, production-ready & passing all tests.
- Major releases (1.x.x) are commitments to backward-compatibility of the public APIs. Any documented API should ideally not change between major releases. The exclusion to this rule is in the event of either a security issue or to accommodate changes in Django itself.
- Minor releases (x.3.x) are for the addition of substantial features or major bugfixes.
- Patch releases (x.x.4) are for minor features or bugfixes.
So you've found a bug or have a great idea for a feature. Here's the steps you should take to help get it added/fixed in Haystack:
-
First, check to see if there's an existing issue/pull request for the bug/feature. All issues are at https://github.com/toastdriven/django-haystack/issues and pull reqs are at https://github.com/toastdriven/django-haystack/pulls.
-
If there isn't one there, please file an issue. The ideal report includes:
- A description of the problem/suggestion.
- How to recreate the bug.
- If relevant, including the versions of your:
- Python interpreter
- Django
- Haystack
- Search engine used (as well as bindings)
- Optionally of the other dependencies involved
-
Ideally, creating a pull request with a (failing) test case demonstrating what's wrong. This makes it easy for us to reproduce & fix the problem.
Github has a great guide for writing an effective pull request: https://github.com/blog/1943-how-to-write-the-perfect-pull-request
Instructions for running the tests are at http://django-haystack.readthedocs.org/en/latest/running_tests.html
You might also hop into the IRC channel (#haystack on irc.freenode.net)
& raise your question there, as there may be someone who can help you with a
work-around.
If you're ready to take the plunge & contribute back some code/docs, the process should look like:
- Fork the project on GitHub into your own account.
- Clone your copy of Haystack.
- Make a new branch in git & commit your changes there.
- Push your new branch up to GitHub.
- Again, ensure there isn't already an issue or pull request out there on it. If there is & you feel you have a better fix, please take note of the issue number & mention it in your pull request.
- Create a new pull request (based on your branch), including what the problem/feature is, versions of your software & referencing any related issues/pull requests.
In order to be merged into Haystack, contributions must have the following:
- A solid patch that:
- is clear.
- works across all supported versions of Python/Django.
- follows the existing style of the code base (mostly PEP-8).
- comments included as needed to explain why the code functions as it does
- A test case that demonstrates the previous flaw that now passes with the included patch.
- If it adds/changes a public API, it must also include documentation for those changes.
- Must be appropriately licensed (see Philosophy).
- Adds yourself to the AUTHORS file.
If your contribution lacks any of these things, they will have to be added by a core contributor before being merged into Haystack proper, which may take substantial time for the all-volunteer team to get to.