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CONTRIBUTING.md

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Contributing to ZettaNote

🎉 ZettaNote is an open-source note-taking app in active development, and we welcome contributions from everyone! By participating in this project, you agree to abide by its Code of Conduct.

💡 How to Contribute

We appreciate all forms of contribution, including:

  • Code Contributions: Implementing new features, fixing bugs, refactoring, and improving performance.
  • Documentation: Improving existing documentation or adding new guides.
  • Testing: Writing unit, integration, or end-to-end tests.
  • Feedback & Ideas: Sharing suggestions for new features or improvements.
  • Reporting Bugs: Identifying and reporting issues.

Reporting Bugs

If you find a bug, please:

  1. Check the existing [Issues] to see if it has already been reported.
  2. If not, open a new Issue and use the "Bug Report" template.
  3. Include a clear title, a description of the bug, steps to reproduce it, and your environment details (OS, Node version, etc.).

Suggesting Features

If you have an idea for a new feature or improvement:

  1. Check the planned features on [ZettaNote] and the existing [Issues].
  2. If it's new, open a new Issue and use the "Feature Request" template.
  3. Describe the feature, why it would be useful, and any potential implementation details you've considered.

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed:

  • Node.js (v18+ recommended)
  • MongoDB (local or cloud instance)
  • pnpm (recommended) or npm

🔧 Backend Setup

  1. Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/braydenidzenga/zettanote.git
cd ZettaNote/backend

  2. Install dependencies

    pnpm install

  3. Configure environment variables

    # Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your variables
cp .env.example .env

  4. Start the backend server

    pnpm dev

📮 Test APIs with Postman

  1. Open Postman
  2. Click Import
  3. Select backend/postman_collection_for_api_testing.json
  4. Start testing endpoints (ensure backend is running at http://localhost:4000)

🎨 Frontend Setup

  1. Navigate to frontend directory

    cd ZettaNote/frontend

  2. Install dependencies

    pnpm install

  3. Update configuration

    # Create .env file and add your backend URL
echo "VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:4000" > .env

  4. Start the development server

    pnpm dev

💻 Submission Guidelines

When you're ready to contribute code:

  1. Create a new branch for your work. Use a descriptive name like feat/new-feature-name or fix/issue-description. 
    git checkout -b your-feature-branch-name
  2. Commit your changes with clear and concise messages.
  3. Push your branch to your forked repository. 
    git push origin your-feature-branch-name
  4. Open a Pull Request (PR) against the main branch of the original braydenidzenga/zettanote repository.

In your Pull Request:

  • Provide a clear title and description of your changes.
  • Reference the relevant issue number (e.g., Fixes #123).
  • Ensure all tests pass (if applicable).
  • Be ready to address feedback and make further changes!

Need Help?

  • Check the README for setup instructions.
  • Ask questions or suggest ideas in the Discussions or Issues tab.

Thank you for your interest in making ZettaNote better!

About force-pushing and rebasing

When working on branches, avoid using git push --force (force-push) unless you're explicitly rebasing your branch to clean up history or otherwise required to rewrite commits. In most cases you do not need to worry about preserving every intermediate commit — we use squash merges for pull requests, so the final merged commit will be a single clean commit.