MERL Center Developer Guide
Table of Contents
*For this guide, please replace text surrounded by <> with the appropriate text for each command. Do not include <> characters in your commands.
Set Up Local Dev Environment
1. Check if you have git installed with the command below.
git --version
If you do not have git on your machine, follow the installation instructions here
2. Fork your own copy of merl-center-public repository on GitHub by clicking the fork button in the top right corner of the repository page
see screenshot
3. Clone your forked repository
git clone <your-fork-url>.git
see screenshot
4. Navigate into root directory of repository you just cloned
cd MERL-Center-public
5. You have two options for starting the server locally
Option #1 - Using Docker (recommended)
1a. Check if you have Docker installed locally. If you don’t have Docker installed, follow the instructions here
docker -v
1b. Run this command to build the Docker image
docker compose build
1c. Run this command to start the server locally
docker compose up
Option #2 - Using Ruby directly
2a. Check if you have Ruby installed locally. If you don’t have Ruby installed, follow the instructions here to install Ruby
ruby -v
2b. Install the bundler gem with this command
gem install bundler
2c. Install dependencies from Gemfile with this command
bundle install
2d. Run this command to start the server locally
bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload
6. Navigate to localhost:4000 in your browser to see the site running locally
7. Add a remote called upstream to your local repository that points to the main repository
git remote add upstream https://github.com/MERLCenter/MERL-Center-public.git
Verify that the origin remote points to your fork and the upstream remote points to the main repository
git remote -v
8. Add fetch configuration to simplify pulling down branch data for pull request reviews
git config --add remote.upstream.fetch "+refs/pull/*/head:refs/remotes/upstream/pr/*"
This command adds additional fetch instructions to your .git/config file so that you can more easily pull down branches from pull requests on the upstream repository
Review A Pull Request
1. Add yourself as a reviewer of the pull request on Github
see screenshot
2. Make sure you are on the main branch of your local repository
git switch main
3. Pull down latest changes from main branch of upstream repository
git pull upstream main
4. Fetch all pull request data from the main repository using the upstream remote that was modified in step 8 of setting up your local dev environment
git fetch upstream
5. Checkout the specific pull request you want to review
git checkout upstream/pr/<number>
6. Run the start script from our package.json
npm run start
7. Navigate to localhost:4000 in your browser to check if the changes from the pull request are working as expected
8. Go back to github and find the “Files Changed” tab of the pull request to submit feedback
see screenshot
You have three options for submitting feedback:
- Leave a comment on the pull request
- Approve the pull request which will allow for merging
- Request changes which will prevent pull request from being merged until changes are made and you re-review the pull request
Create A Pull Request
1. Switch to the main branch
git switch main
2. Pull down latest changes from main branch of upstream repository
git pull upstream main
3. Create a new branch for each issue you work on
git checkout -b <relevant-branch-name>
4. Verify that you are on your newly created branch from step 3 and NOT on the main branch
git branch
5. Make necessary changes to code in order to satisfy the requirements of the issue you are working on
6. Add the changes to staging area
git add .
7. Commit the changes to your local repository
git commit -m "short descriptive commit message"
8. Push the changes to your forked repository using the origin remote
git push --set-upstream origin <relevant-branch-name>
Note: replace <relevent-branch-name> with the name of the branch you created in step 3