# Contributing to this project

Please take a moment to review this document in order to make the contribution
process easy and effective for everyone involved.

Following these guidelines will help us get back to you more quickly, and will
show that you care about making Chosen better just like we do. In return, we'll
do our best to respond to your issue or pull request as soon as possible with
the same respect.

_**Please Note:** These guidelines are adapted from [@necolas](https://github.com/necolas)'s
[issue-guidelines](https://github.com/necolas/issue-guidelines) and serve as
an excellent starting point for contributing to any open source project._


## Using the issue tracker

The [issue tracker](https://github.com/harvesthq/chosen/issues) is the
preferred channel for [bug reports](#bugs), [features requests](#features)
and [submitting pull requests](#pull-requests), but please respect the
following restrictions:

* Support issues or usage question that are not bugs should be posted on
[Stack Overflow, using the `chosen.js`](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/chosen.js) tag
(related tags: [`jquery-chosen`](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/jquery-chosen),
[`prototype-chosen`](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/prototype-chosen)).

* Please **do not** derail or troll issues. Keep the discussion on topic and
  respect the opinions of others.


<a name="bugs"></a>
## Bug reports

A bug is a _demonstrable problem_ that is caused by the code in the repository.
Good bug reports are extremely helpful &mdash; thank you!

Guidelines for bug reports:

1. **Use the [GitHub issue search](https://github.com/harvesthq/chosen/search?type=Issues)** &mdash; check if the issue has already been
   reported.

2. **Check if the bug has already been fixed** &mdash; try to reproduce it using the
   repository's latest `master` changes.

3. **Isolate the problem** &mdash; ideally create a [reduced test
   case](http://css-tricks.com/6263-reduced-test-cases/) and a live example
   (perhaps a [fiddle](http://jsfiddle.net)).

A good bug report shouldn't leave others needing to contact you for more
information. Please try to be as detailed as possible in your report. What is
your environment? What steps will reproduce the issue? What browser(s) and OS
experience the problem? What outcome did you expect, and how did it differ from
what you actually saw? All these details will help people to fix any potential
bugs.

Example:

> Short and descriptive example bug report title
>
> A summary of the issue and the browser/OS environment in which it occurs. If
> suitable, include the steps required to reproduce the bug.
>
> 1. This is the first step
> 2. This is the second step
> 3. Further steps, etc.
>
> `<url>` - a link to the reduced test case
>
> Any other information you want to share that is relevant to the issue being
> reported. This might include the lines of code that you have identified as
> causing the bug, and potential solutions (and your opinions on their
> merits).

**Note:** In an effort to keep open issues to a manageable number, we will close any issues
that do not provide enough information for us to be able to work on a solution.
You will be encouraged to provide the necessary details, after which we will reopen the issue.

<a name="features"></a>
## Feature requests

Feature requests are welcome. But take a moment to find out whether your idea
fits with the scope and aims of the project. It's up to *you* to make a strong
case to convince the project's developers of the merits of this feature. Please
provide as much detail and context as possible.

Building something great means choosing features carefully especially because it
is much, much easier to add features than it is to take them away. Additions
to Chosen will be evaluated on a combination of scope (how well it fits into the
project), maintenance burden and general usefulness.

Creating something great often means saying no to seemingly good ideas. Don't
dispair if your feature request isn't accepted, take action! Fork the
repository, build your idea and share it with others. We released Chosen under
the MIT License for this purpose precisely. Open source works best when smart
and dedicated people riff off of each others' ideas to make even greater things.



<a name="pull-requests"></a>
## Pull requests

Good pull requests &mdash; patches, improvements, new features &mdash; are a fantastic help.
They should remain focused in scope and avoid containing unrelated commits.

**Please ask first** before embarking on any significant pull request (e.g.
implementing features, refactoring code, porting to a different language),
otherwise you risk spending a lot of time working on something that the
project's developers might not want to merge into the project. You can solicit
feedback and opinions in an open feature request thread or create a new one.

Please use the [git flow for pull requests](#git-flow) and follow Chosen's
[code conventions](#code-conventions) before submitting your work. Adhering to
these guidelines is the best way to get your work included in Chosen.

<a name="git-flow"></a>
#### Git Flow for pull requests

1. [Fork](http://help.github.com/fork-a-repo/) the project, clone your fork,
   and configure the remotes:

   ```bash
   # Clone your fork of the repo into the current directory
   git clone git@github.com:<YOUR_USERNAME>/chosen.git
   # Navigate to the newly cloned directory
   cd chosen
   # Assign the original repo to a remote called "upstream"
   git remote add upstream https://github.com/harvesthq/chosen
   ```

2. If you cloned a while ago, get the latest changes from upstream:

   ```bash
   git checkout master
   git pull upstream master
   ```

3. Create a new topic branch (off the main project development branch) to
   contain your feature, change, or fix:

   ```bash
   git checkout -b <topic-branch-name>
   ```

4. Commit your changes in logical chunks. Please adhere to these [git commit
   message guidelines](http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-about-git-commit-messages.html)
   or your code is unlikely be merged into the main project. Use Git's
   [interactive rebase](https://help.github.com/articles/interactive-rebase)
   feature to tidy up your commits before making them public.

5. Locally merge (or rebase) the upstream development branch into your topic branch:

   ```bash
   git pull [--rebase] upstream master
   ```

6. Push your topic branch up to your fork:

   ```bash
   git push origin <topic-branch-name>
   ```

7. [Open a Pull Request](https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests/)
    with a clear title and description.

**IMPORTANT**: By submitting a patch, you agree to allow the project owner to
license your work under the [MIT License](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License).

<a name="code-conventions"></a>
#### Chosen Code Conventions

1. Make all changes in CoffeeScript files, **not** JavaScript files.
2. Use [Grunt](#grunt) to build the JavaScript files.
3. For feature changes, update both jQuery *and* Prototype versions
4. Don't manually update the version number in `package.json`. This is done using a Grunt task on deployment.

<a name="grunt"></a>
#### Using CoffeeScript and Grunt


To install all development dependencies, in the project's root directory, run

    npm install && gem install bundler && bundle install

Once you're configured, building the JavaScript from the command line is easy:

    grunt build                # build Chosen from source
    grunt watch                # watch coffee/ for changes and build Chosen

If you're interested, you can find the task in [Gruntfile.coffee](https://github.com/harvesthq/chosen/blob/master/Gruntfile.coffee).