# How to contribute

CakePHP loves to welcome your contributions. There are several ways to help out:
* Create a ticket in Lighthouse, if you have found a bug
* Write testcases for open bug tickets
* Write patches for open bug/feature tickets, preferably with testcases included
* Contribute to the [documentation](https://github.com/cakephp/docs)

There are a few guidelines that we need contributors to follow so that we have a
chance of keeping on top of things.

## Getting Started

* Make sure you have a [GitHub account](https://github.com/signup/free)
* Submit a ticket for your issue, assuming one does not already exist.
  * Clearly describe the issue including steps to reproduce when it is a bug.
  * Make sure you fill in the earliest version that you know has the issue.
* Fork the repository on GitHub.

## Making Changes

* Create a topic branch from where you want to base your work.
  * This is usually the master branch
  * Only target release branches if you are certain your fix must be on that
    branch
  * To quickly create a topic branch based on master; `git branch
    master/my_contribution master` then checkout the new branch with `git
    checkout master/my_contribution`. Better avoid working directly on the
    `master` branch, to avoid conflicts if you pull in updates from origin.
* Make commits of logical units.
* Check for unnecessary whitespace with `git diff --check` before committing.
* Use descriptive commit messages and reference the #ticket number
* Core testcases should continue to pass. You can run tests locally or enable
  [travis-ci](https://travis-ci.org/) for your fork, so all tests and codesniffs
  will be executed.
* Your work should apply the CakePHP coding standards.

## Which branch to base the work

* Bugfix branches will be based on master.
* New features that are backwards compatible will be based on next minor release
  branch.
* New features or other non-BC changes will go in the next major release branch.

## Submitting Changes

* Push your changes to a topic branch in your fork of the repository.
* Submit a pull request to the repository in the cakephp organization, with the
  correct target branch.

## Testcases and codesniffer

CakePHP tests requires [PHPUnit](http://www.phpunit.de/manual/current/en/installation.html)
3.5 or higher. To run the testcases locally use the following command:

    ./lib/Cake/Console/cake test core AllTests --stderr

To run the sniffs for CakePHP coding standards

    phpcs -p --extensions=php --standard=CakePHP ./lib/Cake

Check the [cakephp-codesniffer](https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp-codesniffer)
repository to setup the CakePHP standard. The README contains installation info
for the sniff and phpcs.


# Additional Resources

* [CakePHP coding standards](http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/contributing/cakephp-coding-conventions.html)
* [Bug tracker](https://cakephp.lighthouseapp.com/projects/42648-cakephp)
* [General GitHub documentation](http://help.github.com/)
* [GitHub pull request documentation](http://help.github.com/send-pull-requests/)
* #cakephp IRC channel on freenode.org
