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Contributing
When making a contribution to the BDFR project, please open an issue beforehand so that the maintainers can weigh in on it. This helps create a trail on GitHub and keeps things organised.
Please don't open an issue on GitHub unless you are reporting a bug or proposing a feature. For questions, there is a discussion tab on the repository's GitHub page where you can interact with the developers and ask questions. If you believe that something is a bug, or that a feature should be added, then by all means open an issue.
All communication on GitHub, Discord, email, or any other medium must conform to the Code of Conduct. It's not that hard to stay respectful.
Opening an Issue
Before opening a new issue, be sure that no issues regarding your problem already exist. If a similar issue exists, try to contribute to the issue.
Bugs
When opening an issue about a bug, please provide the full log file for the run in which the bug occurred. This log file is named log_output.txt in the configuration folder. Check the README for information on where this is. This log file will contain all the information required for the developers to recreate the bug.
If you do not have or cannot find the log file, then at minimum please provide the Reddit ID for the submission or comment which caused the issue. Also copy in the command that you used to run the BDFR from the command line, as that will also provide helpful information when trying to find and fix the bug. If needed, more information will be asked in the thread of the bug.
Feature requests
In the case of requesting a feature or an enhancement, there are fewer requirements. However, please be clear in what you would like the BDFR to do and also how the feature/enhancement would be used or would be useful to more people. It is crucial that the feature is justified. Any feature request without a concrete reason for it to be implemented has a very small chance to get accepted. Be aware that proposed enhancements may be rejected for multiple reasons, or no reason, at the discretion of the developers.
Pull Requests
Before creating a pull request (PR), check out ARCHITECTURE for a short introduction to the way that the BDFR is coded and how the code is organised. Also read the Style Guide section below before actually writing any code.
Once you have done both of these, the below list shows the path that should be followed when writing a PR.
- If an issue does not already exist, open one that will relate to the PR.
- Ensure that any changes fit into the architecture specified above.
- Ensure that you have written tests that cover the new code.
- Ensure that no existing tests fail, unless there is a good reason for them to do so.
- If needed, update any documentation with changes.
- Open a pull request that references the relevant issue.
- Expect changes or suggestions and heed the Code of Conduct. We're all volunteers here.
Someone will review your pull request as soon as possible, but remember that all maintainers are volunteers and this won't happen immediately. Once it is approved, congratulations! Your code is now part of the BDFR.
Preparing the environment for development
Bulk Downloader for Reddit requires Python 3.9 at minimum. First, ensure that your Python installation satisfies this.
BDfR is built in a way that it can be packaged and installed via pip. This places BDfR next to other Python packages and enables you to run the program from any directory. Since it is managed by pip, you can also uninstall it.
To install the program, clone the repository and run pip inside the project's root directory:
$ git clone https://github.com/aliparlakci/bulk-downloader-for-reddit.git
$ cd ./bulk-downloader-for-reddit
$ python3 -m pip install -e .
-e parameter creates a link to that folder. That is, any change inside the folder affects the package immidiately. So, when developing, you can be sure that the package is not stale and Python is always running your latest changes. (Due to this linking, moving/removing/renaming the folder might break it)
Then, you can run the program from anywhere in your disk as such:
$ python3 -m bdfr
Style Guide
The BDFR must conform to PEP8 standard wherever there is Python code, with one exception. Line lengths may extend to 120 characters, but all other PEP8 standards must be followed.
It's easy to format your code without any manual work via a variety of tools. Autopep8 is a good one, and can be used with autopep8 --max-line-length 120 which will format the code according to the style in use with the BDFR.
Hanging brackets are preferred when there are many items, items that otherwise go over the 120 character line limit, or when doing so would increase readability. It is also preferred when there might be many commits altering the list, such as with the parameter lists for tests. A hanging comma is also required in such cases. An example of this is below:
test = [
'test 1',
'test 2',
'test 3',
]
Note that the last bracket is on its own line, and that the first bracket has a new line before the first term. Also note that there is a comma after the last term.
Tests
Running Tests
There are a lot of tests in the BDFR. In fact, there are more tests than lines of functional code. This is one of the strengths of the BDFR in that it is fully tested. The codebase uses the package pytest to create the tests, which is a third-party package that provides many functions and objects useful for testing Python code.
When submitting a PR, it is required that you run all possible tests to ensure that any new commits haven't broken anything. Otherwise, while writing the request, it can be helpful (and much quicker) to run only a subset of the tests.
This is accomplished with marks, a system that pytest uses to categorise tests. There are currently the current marks in use in the BDFR test suite.
slow- This marks a test that may take a long time to complete
- Usually marks a test that downloads many submissions or downloads a particularly large resource
online- This marks a test that requires an internet connection and uses online resources
reddit- This marks a test that accesses online Reddit specifically
authenticated- This marks a test that requires a test configuration file with a valid OAuth2 token
These tests can be run either all at once, or excluding certain marks. The tests that require online resources, such as those marked reddit or online, will naturally require more time to run than tests that are entirely offline. To run tests, you must be in the root directory of the project and can use the following command.
pytest
To exclude one or more marks, the following command can be used, substituting the unwanted mark.
pytest -m "not online"
pytest -m "not reddit and not authenticated"
Configuration for authenticated tests
There should be configuration file test_config.cfg in the project's root directory to be able to run the integration tests with reddit authentication. See how to create such files here. The easiest way of creating this file is copying your existing default_config.cfg file from the path stated in the previous link and renaming it to test_config.cfg Be sure that user_token key exists in test_config.cfg.
For more details, review the pytest documentation that is freely available online.
Many IDEs also provide integrated functionality to run and display the results from tests, and almost all of them support pytest in some capacity. This would be the recommended method due to the additional debugging and general capabilities.
Writing Tests
When writing tests, ensure that they follow the style guide. The BDFR uses pytest to run tests. Wherever possible, parameterise tests, even if you only have one test case. This makes it easier to expand in the future, as the ultimate goal is to have multiple test cases for every test, instead of just one.
If required, use of mocks is expected to simplify tests and reduce the resources or complexity required. Tests should be as small as possible and test as small a part of the code as possible. Comprehensive or integration tests are run with the click framework and are located in their own file.
It is also expected that new tests be classified correctly with the marks described above i.e. if a test accesses Reddit through a reddit_instance object, it must be given the reddit mark. If it requires an authenticated Reddit instance, then it must have the authenticated mark.