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Development Policy

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Simonas Marcišauskas edited this page May 16, 2021 · 12 revisions

Development Policy

Anybody is welcome to contribute to the development of the RAVEN Toolbox, but please abide by the following guidelines.

Each function should start with a commented section describing the function and explaining the parameters. Existing functions can clarify what style should be used.

Bugfixes, New Features and Functions

  • For any development, whether bug fixes, introducing new functions or new/updated features for existing functions: make a separate branch from devel and name the branch for instance after the function/feature you are fixing/developing. If you work on a fix, start the branch name with fix/, if you work on a feature, start the branch name with feat/. Examples: fix/format_reactions or feat/new_algorithms.
  • Make commits to this branch while developing. Aim for backward compatibility, and try to avoid very new MATLAB functions when possible, to accommodate users with older MATLAB versions.
  • When you are happy with your new function/feature, make a pull request to the devel branch. Also, see Pull request below.

Semantic Commits

Use semantic commit messages to make it easier to show what you are aiming to do:

  • chore: updating binaries, KEGG or MetaCyc database files, etc.
  • doc: updating documentation (in doc folder) or explanatory comments in functions.
  • feat: new feature added, e.g. new function introduced / new parameters / new algorithm / etc.
  • fix: bugfix.
  • refactor: see code refactoring.
  • style: minor format changes of functions (spaces, semi-colons, etc., no code change).

Examples:

feat: exportModel additional export to YAML
chore: update KEGG model to version 83.0
fix: optimizeProb parsing results from Gurobi

A more detailed explanation or comments can be left in the commit description.

External Software Update

  • Once the newer version for any external software (BLAST+, CD-HIT, DIAMOND, HMMER, MAFFT, WoLFPSORT) is available, identify the newest version which is simultaneously available for macOS, Unix/Linux and Windows
  • Create a separate branch from the devel branch and name it e.g. chore/updateBinaries
  • Commit the changes for each program and operating system separately, e.g. chore: update HMMER (Win) to 3.2.1
  • As soon as all binaries for particular program are updated through commits, update the corresponding license file, if available and place it in e.g. software/blast+ directory.
  • Update the version number in RAVENdir/software/version.txt file.
  • Do some testing to ensure that the new binaries are working correctly. Upon successful tests, create a Pull Request to the devel branch.

Pull Requests

  • No changes should be directly committed to the master or devel branches. Commits are made to side branches, after which pull requests are made for merging with master or devel.
  • The person making the pull request and the one accepting the merge cannot be the same person.
  • Typically, wait a few days before merging, to allow for other developers to inspect the pull request.
  • A merge with the master branch invokes a new release (see versioning).

Versioning

RAVEN Toolbox follows semantic versioning. After each successful Pull Request (PR) to master, the version.txt file should be updated in a separate PR. When this PR is merged, a new release should be specified, with a list detailing the most significant changes since the previous release.

Ensure that the documentation is also updated (in devel) before creating a PR to master. It can be updated by running updateDocumentation().

Categorize Releases

  • PRs pushed into master should be patch releases by default.
  • Developers who push PRs to devel may propose target release categories (e.g. minor or patch) that can be commented on and discussed by reviewers and other developers.
  • As a result of the above step, minor releases hopefully can be determined.
  • To help the process of categorizing releases, some conditions are suggested qualification for minor releases:
    • with database updates (e.g. KEGG, MetaCyc)
    • script reusability (i.e. with parameter changes in RAVEN functions)
    • with binary file changes
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