# Vue.js Contributing Guide

Hi! I’m really excited that you are interested in contributing to Vue.js. Before submitting your contribution though, please make sure to take a moment and read through the following guidelines.

- [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/vuejs/vue/blob/dev/.github/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
- [Issue Reporting Guidelines](#issue-reporting-guidelines)
- [Pull Request Guidelines](#pull-request-guidelines)
- [Development Setup](#development-setup)
- [Project Structure](#project-structure)

## Issue Reporting Guidelines

- Always use [https://new-issue.vuejs.org/](https://new-issue.vuejs.org/) to create new issues.

## Pull Request Guidelines

- The `master` branch is basically just a snapshot of the latest stable release. All development should be done in dedicated branches. **Do not submit PRs against the `master` branch.**

- Checkout a topic branch from the relevant branch, e.g. `dev`, and merge back against that branch.

- Work in the `src` folder and **DO NOT** checkin `dist` in the commits.

- It's OK to have multiple small commits as you work on the PR - we will let GitHub automatically squash it before merging.

- Make sure `npm test` passes. (see [development setup](#development-setup))

- If adding new feature:
  - Add accompanying test case.
  - Provide convincing reason to add this feature. Ideally you should open a suggestion issue first and have it greenlighted before working on it.

- If fixing a bug:
  - If you are resolving a special issue, add `(fix #xxxx[,#xxx])` (#xxxx is the issue id) in your PR title for a better release log, e.g. `update entities encoding/decoding (fix #3899)`.
  - Provide detailed description of the bug in the PR. Live demo preferred.
  - Add appropriate test coverage if applicable.

## Development Setup

You will need [Node.js](http://nodejs.org) **version 6+** and [Java Runtime Environment](http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html) (needed for running Selenium server during e2e tests).

After cloning the repo, run:

``` bash
$ npm install
& npm run setup
```

The `setup` script links two git hooks:

- `pre-commit`: runs ESLint on staged files.
- `commit-msg`: validates commit message format (see below).

### Commiting Changes

Commit messages should follow the [commit message convention](./COMMIT_CONVENTION.md) so that changelogs can be automatically generated. If git hooks have been properly linked, commit messages will be automatically validated upon commit. It is recommended to use `npm run commit` instead of `git commit`, which provides an interactive CLI for generating proper commit messages.

### Commonly used NPM scripts

``` bash
# watch and auto re-build dist/vue.js
$ npm run dev

# watch and auto re-run unit tests in Chrome
$ npm run dev:test

# build all dist files, including npm packages
$ npm run build

# run the full test suite, include linting / type checking
$ npm test
```

There are some other scripts available in the `scripts` section of the `package.json` file.

The default test script will do the following: lint with ESLint -> type check with Flow -> unit tests with coverage -> e2e tests. **Please make sure to have this pass successfully before submitting a PR.** Although the same tests will be run against your PR on the CI server, it is better to have it working locally beforehand.

## Project Structure

- **`build`**: contains build-related configuration files. In most cases you don't need to touch them. However, it would be helpful to familiarize yourself with the following files:

  - `build/alias.js`: module import aliases used across all source code and tests.

  - `build/config.js`: contains the build configurations for all files found in `dist/`. Check this file if you want to find out the entry source file for a dist file.

- **`dist`**: contains built files for distribution. Note this directory is only updated when a release happens; they do not reflect the latest changes in development branches.

  See [dist/README.md](https://github.com/vuejs/vue/blob/dev/dist/README.md) for more details on dist files.

- **`flow`**: contains type declarations for [Flow](https://flowtype.org/). These declarations are loaded **globally** and you will see them used in type annotations in normal source code.

- **`packages`**: contains `vue-server-renderer` and `vue-template-compiler`, which are distributed as separate NPM packages. They are automatically generated from the source code and always have the same version with the main `vue` package.

- **`test`**: contains all tests. The unit tests are written with [Jasmine](http://jasmine.github.io/2.3/introduction.html) and run with [Karma](http://karma-runner.github.io/0.13/index.html). The e2e tests are written for and run with [Nightwatch.js](http://nightwatchjs.org/).

- **`src`**: contains the source code, obviously. The codebase is written in ES2015 with [Flow](https://flowtype.org/) type annotations.

  - **`compiler`**: contains code for the template-to-render-function compiler.

    The compiler consists of a parser (converts template strings to element ASTs), an optimizer (detects static trees for vdom render optimization), and a code generator (generate render function code from element ASTs). Note the codegen directly generates code strings from the element AST - it's done this way for smaller code size because the compiler is shipped to the browser in the standalone build.

  - **`core`**: contains universal, platform-agnostic runtime code.

    The Vue 2.0 core is platform-agnostic - which means code inside `core` should be able to run in any JavaScript environment, be it the browser, Node.js, or an embedded JavaScript runtime in native applications.

    - **`observer`**: contains code related to the reactivity system.

    - **`vdom`**: contains code related to vdom element creation and patching.

    - **`instance`**: contains Vue instance constructor and prototype methods.

    - **`global-api`**: as the name suggests.

    - **`components`**: universal abstract components. Currently `keep-alive` is the only one.

  - **`server`**: contains code related to server-side rendering.

  - **`platforms`**: contains platform-specific code.

    Entry files for dist builds are located in their respective platform directory.

    Each platform module contains three parts: `compiler`, `runtime` and `server`, corresponding to the three directories above. Each part contains platform-specific modules/utilities which are then imported and injected to the core counterparts in platform-specific entry files. For example, the code implementing the logic behind `v-bind:class` is in `platforms/web/runtime/modules/class.js` - which is imported in `entries/web-runtime.js` and used to create the browser-specific vdom patching function.

  - **`sfc`**: contains single-file component (`*.vue` files) parsing logic. This is used in the `vue-template-compiler` package.

  - **`shared`**: contains utilities shared across the entire codebase.

