/CC-guides

CC GUIDES

Hello everyone. I’ve read through the contributions guides and I am going to break it down for most of us that are having difficulties understanding them.

I understand that it is overwhelming being faced with lots of information and links to click on. Below I have listed pointers to the repositories and an explanation on how to contribute.

What you need to know.

CC has different project repositories that require contribution, not just the Vocabulary repo. As pointed out by @possumbilities and as listed in the project list page, they include:

  1. creativecommons/vocabulary: A cohesive system of design for Creative Commons
  2. creativecommons/search: Creative Commons Search Portal
  3. creativecommons/cc-resource-archive: Collection of resources on Creative Commons (CC) tools and other open topics
  4. creativecommons/legaldb: CC Legal Database: curated repository of Case Law and Scholarship data from around the world in a Django based website.

And others, but these are the highlighted ones.

Steps on how to contribute to a project

Once you get to the repo of any project you want to contribute to: Click on “issues”. Go through the issues and specifically look out for the ones with the following tags or text: i. help wanted ii. good first issue
iii. status: ready to work

2.When you’ve seen an issue you would want to work on:

You do not need to ask for permission to start working on the issue. You do not need to ask to be assigned the issue. You can start. Fork the repo.

How do you fork a repo?

i. When you get to the github repo at the top right hand side of your screen you’ll see “Fork” ii. Click on the drop icon near it and you’ll see “Create a new fork” iii. Click on it and it will take you to a page. iv. scroll down and you’ll see a button with a green background with the text “create fork”, click on it and you’ll have your copy of it in your github repositories. Now, you’ve forked the repo. Create a branch.

How do you create a branch?

i. Once you fork the repo, it will take you to the repo. At the top left corner of your screen, you’ll see “Branch” (The second button). ii. Click on it. At the top left corner of your screen, you’ll see a green button with the text “New Branch”. iii. Click on it and you’ll be asked to name your branch. Name it in accordance with the change you want to implement.

Now you have your branch. You can now clone your branch. i. It is the same way as cloning a normal repo. Only that. You’ll click on the branch you created. And Follow the instructions as I mentioned in an earlier thread (I’ll post the link). Now, you are ready to make your changes.

What if there are issues but they do not have the tags mentioned?

That is totally fine. You can fork and clone the repo, get it running in your localhost and go through the interface to identify possible bugs you notice or features you would want to suggest. If you find any, go to the project’s main repository:

  1. Click on “issues”.
  2. At the top right corner of your screen, you’ll see a button with the text “ New issue”
  3. Click on it. If the issue is a Bug you found or a Feature you want to suggest.
  4. Proceed to click on the “get started” button.

Follow the guides on how to Name and describe your issue(It is listed there. Don’t panic). You don’t need to rush. Calmly read the texts. Once you’ve named and described your issue. Scroll down and click on the green button.

How to get started

Firstly, go to the github repo and fork and clone the forked repo.

How do you clone?

  1. Create a folder in your computer.
  2. Go to the github repo, you’ll see a green button with the text “Code”
  3. Click on it. Proceed to copy the link you see.
  4. Go to your cmd or VSCODE terminal, cd to the folder you created. For instance, if the name of the folder is: “Vocab”, type in cd Vocab in your terminal.
  5. After you’ve switched to the folder, type in “git clone https://github.com/creativecommons/vocabulary” (this link is the github repo link you copied).
  6. After you’ve cloned, cd to vocabulary “cd vocabulary”
  7. If you used cmd to clone, type in “code .”. This will open the folder in your VSCODE.
  8. If you use the vscode terminal, click on the Explorer icon, you’ll see a button with the text “Open folder” click on it and open the folder you cloned your repo in. Alternatively, you can click on “File” at the top left corner, scroll down and click on “Open folder”

To get your code running in your local server, at the bottom right corner of your VSCODE, you’ll see “Go live”. Make sure you have a live extension installed. Once you open a particular html file and click on “Go live”, you have your project running in your local server.

You’re good to go. The aim is to carry everyone along. Happy coding!

Regards, Chioma.