forecasting/CONTRIBUTING.md

# Contribution Guidelines

Contribution are welcome! Here's a few things to know: 

* [Setup](./SETUP.md)
* [Microsoft Contributor License Agreement](#microsoft-contributor-license-agreement)
* [Steps to Contributing](#steps-to-contributing)
* [Coding Guidelines](#forecasting-team-contribution-guidelines)
* [Code of Conduct](#code-of-conduct)


## Setup
To get started, navigate to the [Setup Guide](./SETUP.md), which lists instructions on how to set up your environment and dependencies.

## Microsoft Contributor License Agreement

Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.


## Steps to Contributing

Here are the basic steps to get started with your first contribution. Please reach out with any questions.
1. Use [open issues](https://github.com/Microsoft/Forecasting/issues) to discuss the proposed changes. Create an issue describing changes if necessary to collect feedback. Also, please use provided labels to tag issues so everyone can easily sort issues of interest.
2. [Fork the repo](https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/) so you can make and test local changes.
3. Create a new branch for the issue. We suggest prefixing the branch with your username and then a descriptive title, e.g. chenhui/python_test_pipeline.
5. Make code changes.
6. Ensure unit tests pass and code style / formatting is consistent (see [wiki](https://github.com/Microsoft/Recommenders/wiki/Coding-Guidelines#python-and-docstrings-style) for more details).
7. We use [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/) package to run our pre-commit hooks. We use [black](https://github.com/ambv/black) formatter and [flake8](https://pypi.org/project/flake8/) for linting on each commit. In order to set up pre-commit on your machine, follow the steps here, please note that you only need to run these steps the first time you use `pre-commit` for this project.
   
    * Update your conda environment, `pre-commit` is part of the yaml file or just do
        ```
        $ pip install pre-commit
        ```    
    * Set up `pre-commit` by running following command, this will put pre-commit under your .git/hooks directory. 
        ```
        $ pre-commit install
        ```
        > Note: Git hooks to install are specified in the pre-commit configuration file `.pre-commit-config.yaml`. Settings used by `black` and `flake8` are specified in `pyproject.toml` and `.flake8` files, respectively.
    * When you've made changes on local files and are ready to commit, run
        ```
        $ git commit -m "message" 
        ```
    * Each time you commit, git will run the pre-commit hooks on any python files that are getting committed and are part of the git index. If `black` modifies/formats the file, or if `flake8` finds any linting errors, the commit will not succeed. You will need to stage the file again if `black` changed the file, or fix the issues identified by `flake8` and and stage it again.

    * To run pre-commit on all files just run
        ```
        $ pre-commit run --all-files
        ```
    
    
8. Create a pull request (PR) against __`staging`__ branch.


We use `staging` branch to land all new features, so please remember to create the Pull Request against `staging`. To work with GitHub, please see the next section for more detail about our [working with GitHub](#working-with-github).

Once the features included in a milestone are complete we will merge `staging` into `master` branch and make a release. See the wiki for more detail about our [merge strategy](https://github.com/Microsoft/Forecasting/wiki/Strategy-to-merge-the-code-to-master-branch).

### Working with GitHub

1. All development is done in a branch off from the `staging` and named following this convention: `<user>/<topic>`.
To create a new branch, run this command:
    ```shell
    $ git checkout -b <user>/<topic>
    ```

    When done making the changes locally, push your branch to the server, but make sure to sync with the remote first. 

    ```
    $ git pull origin staging
    $ git push origin <your branch>
    ```

2. To merge a new branch into the `staging` branch, please open a pull request. 

3. The person who opens a PR should complete the PR, once it has been reviewed and all comments addressed.

4. We will use *Squash and Merge* when completing PRs, to maintain a clean merge history on the repo.

5. When a branch is merged into the `staging`, it must be deleted from the remote repository.

    ```shell
    # Delete local branch
    $ git branch -d <your branch>

    # Delete remote branch
    $ git push origin --delete <your branch>
    ```


## Coding Guidelines

We strive to maintain high quality code to make it easy to understand, use, and extend. We also work hard to maintain a friendly and constructive environment. We've found that having clear expectations on the development process and consistent style helps to ensure everyone can contribute and collaborate effectively.

Please review the [coding guidelines](https://github.com/Microsoft/Recommenders/wiki/Coding-Guidelines) wiki page to see more details about the expectations for development approach and style.


## Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the [Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/).

For more information see the [Code of Conduct FAQ](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/faq/) or contact [opencode@microsoft.com](mailto:opencode@microsoft.com) with any additional questions or comments.

Apart from the official Code of Conduct developed by Microsoft, in the Forecasting team we adopt the following behaviors, to ensure a great working environment:

#### Do not point fingers
Let’s be constructive.

<details>
<summary><em>Click here to see some examples</em></summary>

"This method is missing docstrings" instead of "YOU forgot to put docstrings".

</details>

#### Provide code feedback based on evidence 

When making code reviews, try to support your ideas based on evidence (papers, library documentation, stackoverflow, etc) rather than your personal preferences. 

<details>
<summary><em>Click here to see some examples</em></summary>

"When reviewing this code, I saw that the Python implementation the metrics are based on classes, however, [scikit-learn](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/classes.html#sklearn-metrics-metrics) and [tensorflow](https://www.tensorflow.org/api_docs/python/tf/metrics) use functions. We should follow the standard in the industry."

</details>


#### Ask questions do not give answers
Try to be empathic. 

<details>
<summary><em>Click here to see some examples</em></summary>

* Would it make more sense if ...?
* Have you considered this ... ?

</details>