GitHub Workflow

The work-flow illustrated here is the way we should handle content and source in the master branch of the xaml-docs repository.

Minor Changes

Minor changes like fixing typos, grammatical corrections can be directly pushed in the master branch, without making a Pull Request, or creating a new branch.

1. Make sure you are working with the latest changes pulled from GitHub (Pull with Re-base);

2. Implement the required changes;

3. Stage the affected files (Stage Files);

4. Commit the changes locally (Committing);

5. Again, pull any changes from GitHub to make sure that the push will be sucessful (Pull with Re-base);

6. Push your commit to GitHub (Pushing Commits)

7. Rebase your changes into the vNext branch so everyone works with the latest content (Merging Changes from one Branch to Another)

Major Changes

Major changes are more complex fixes, re-structuring articles etc. Working on such tasks should be done in a branch, that later to be used for a Pull Request.

1. Make sure you are working with the latest changes pulled from GitHub (Pull with Re-base);

2. Create and Checkout branch with a meaningful name (Create new Branch and Checkout Branch);

   Tip: You can use one command for both actions git checkout -b MyBranch

3. Publish the branch to GitHub (Push Branch to GitHub);

4. Changes made on the branch can be done in several commits (as much as you need, in order to have proper history/backlog) (Push Commits to Branch).

   If there are other collaborators working on this branch, you should periodically pull and push changes to the piblished branch in GitHub.

   You should also rebase your branch from its base branch before you start working. This will ensure it is always up to date with its source branch and you work with the latest version of the content.

5. When the task is done, make sure the branch is synced with the parent branch (usually master) (Syncing Changes from the Remote's master Branch);

6. Push any additional changes derived from the master branch (Push Commits to Branch);

7. Initiate a Pull Request from GitHub (Pull Requests).

   Important: GitHub will alert you if the Pull Request is clean. If this is not so, go back to your local repository and make sure any conflicts are locally resolved.

Article Review

Generally, articles should be reviewed by another person before going live to improve their quality.

For new articles that have not existed yet or modifying an existing one, it is best to create a branch.

It is recommended that articles pass through peer review by your team before they are published and/or sent for copy editing by a single person. If this is impossible, it is still good to have the peer review after the copy-editing phase, and if there are changes they should be copy-edited again.

Always keep the Style Guide in mind when writing/editing/reviewing.

Here follows a general description of the processes.

Once you are done writing, you should:

1. Get a Peer Review from your team, if possible, and apply the changes you agreed on.

2. Open a Pull Request and assign it to the person who will review it (e.g., copy editor).

3. When you are done with the discussion, rebase your change/feature branch from the source branch and merge it to the base branch (master).

4. In most cases you can then delete the change/feature branch afterwards.

Working with a reviewer in GitHub:

• Important: Make sure to look for reviewer/editor comments in the content, they will usually be something like (COMMENT: comment goes here) and make sure to delete them before the article goes live (after applying any necessary changes, of course).

• If there are only minor issues (typos, commas, etc.) the reviewer will directly commit to the specified branch (denoted in the Issue or the compare branch in the Pull Request). Who will merge this branch is to be determined in the Pull Request but it is usually the writer.

• If there are many issues (e.g., with the Style Guide adherence, sentences/paragraphs not making sense, etc.), the reviewer/editor may not fix them, but leave a comment for the writer to fix them.

  • Team members must monitor the Pull Requests section and quickly deal with new ones.

  • The Issue is to be closed after the Pull Request is merged.