Contributing
Please read the contribution guidelines below, before submitting your first pull request to the InvenTree codebase.
Quickstart¶
The following commands will get you quickly configure and run a development server, complete with a demo dataset to work with:
Devcontainer¶
The recommended method for getting up and running with an InvenTree development environment is to use our devcontainer setup in vscode.
Devcontainer Guide
Refer to the devcontainer guide for more information!
Docker¶
To setup a development environment using docker, run the following instructions:
git clone https://github.com/inventree/InvenTree.git && cd InvenTree
docker compose run inventree-dev-server invoke install
docker compose run inventree-dev-server invoke setup-test --dev
docker compose up -d
Bare Metal¶
A "bare metal" development setup can be installed as follows:
git clone https://github.com/inventree/InvenTree.git && cd InvenTree
python3 -m venv env && source env/bin/activate
pip install invoke && invoke
pip install invoke && invoke setup-dev --tests
Read the InvenTree setup documentation for a complete installation reference guide.
Setup Devtools¶
Run the following command to set up all toolsets for development.
invoke setup-dev
We recommend you run this command before starting to contribute. This will install and set up pre-commit to run some checks before each commit and help reduce errors.
Branches and Versioning¶
InvenTree roughly follow the GitLab flow branching style, to allow simple management of multiple tagged releases, short-lived branches, and development on the main branch.
Version Numbering¶
InvenTree version numbering follows the semantic versioning specification.
Master Branch¶
The HEAD of the "main" or "master" branch of InvenTree represents the current "latest" state of code development.
- All feature branches are merged into master
- All bug fixes are merged into master
No pushing to master: New features must be submitted as a pull request from a separate branch (one branch per feature).
Feature Branches¶
Feature branches should be branched from the master branch.
- One major feature per branch / pull request
- Feature pull requests are merged back into the master branch
- Features may also be merged into a release candidate branch
Stable Branch¶
The HEAD of the "stable" branch represents the latest stable release code.
- Versioned releases are merged into the "stable" branch
- Bug fix branches are made from the "stable" branch
Release Candidate Branches¶
- Release candidate branches are made from master, and merged into stable.
- RC branches are targeted at a major/minor version e.g. "0.5"
- When a release candidate branch is merged into stable, the release is tagged
Bugfix Branches¶
- If a bug is discovered in a tagged release version of InvenTree, a "bugfix" or "hotfix" branch should be made from that tagged release
- When approved, the branch is merged back into stable, with an incremented PATCH number (e.g. 0.4.1 -> 0.4.2)
- The bugfix must also be cherry picked into the master branch.
API versioning¶
The API version needs to be bumped every time when the API is changed.
Environment¶
Software Versions¶
The core software modules are targeting the following versions:
| Name | Minimum version | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Python | 3.9 | Minimum required version |
| Invoke | 2.0.0 | Minimum required version |
| Django | 4.2 | Pinned version |
| Node | 18 | Only needed for frontend development |
Any other software dependencies are handled by the project package config.
Auto creating updates¶
The following tools can be used to auto-upgrade syntax that was depreciated in new versions:
pip install pyupgrade
pip install django-upgrade
To update the codebase run the following script.
pyupgrade `find . -name "*.py"`
django-upgrade --target-version 4.2 `find . -name "*.py"`
Credits¶
If you add any new dependencies / libraries, they should be added to the credits page.
Migration Files¶
Any required migration files must be included in the commit, or the pull-request will be rejected. If you change the underlying database schema, make sure you run invoke migrate and commit the migration files before submitting the PR.
Note: A github action checks for unstaged migration files and will reject the PR if it finds any!
Unit Testing¶
Any new code should be covered by unit tests - a submitted PR may not be accepted if the code coverage for any new features is insufficient, or the overall code coverage is decreased.
The InvenTree code base makes use of GitHub actions to run a suite of automated tests against the code base every time a new pull request is received. These actions include (but are not limited to):
- Checking Python and Javascript code against standard style guides
- Running unit test suite
- Automated building and pushing of docker images
- Generating translation files
The various github actions can be found in the ./github/workflows directory
Run tests locally¶
To run test locally, use:
invoke test
To run only partial tests, for example for a module use:
invoke test --runtest order
To see all the available options:
invoke test --help
Code Style¶
Code style is automatically checked as part of the project's CI pipeline on GitHub. This means that any pull requests which do not conform to the style guidelines will fail CI checks.
Backend Code¶
Backend code (Python) is checked against the PEP style guidelines. Please write docstrings for each function and class - we follow the google doc-style for python.
Frontend Code¶
Frontend code (Javascript) is checked using eslint. While docstrings are not enforced for front-end code, good code documentation is encouraged!
Running Checks Locally¶
If you have followed the setup devtools procedure, then code style checking is performend automatically whenever you commit changes to the code.
Django templates¶
Django are checked by djlint through pre-commit.
The following rules out of the default set are not applied:
D018: (Django) Internal links should use the { % url ... % } pattern
H006: Img tag should have height and width attributes
H008: Attributes should be double quoted
H021: Inline styles should be avoided
H023: Do not use entity references
H025: Tag seems to be an orphan
H030: Consider adding a meta description
H031: Consider adding meta keywords
T002: Double quotes should be used in tags
Documentation¶
New features or updates to existing features should be accompanied by user documentation.
Translations¶
Any user-facing strings must be passed through the translation engine.
- InvenTree code is written in English
- User translatable strings are provided in English as the primary language
- Secondary language translations are provided via Crowdin
Note: Translation files are updated via GitHub actions - you do not need to compile translations files before submitting a pull request!
Python Code¶
For strings exposed via Python code, use the following format:
from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _
user_facing_string = _('This string will be exposed to the translation engine!')
Templated Strings¶
HTML and javascript files are passed through the django templating engine. Translatable strings are implemented as follows:
{ % load i18n % }
<span>{ % trans "This string will be translated" % } - this string will not!</span>
Github use¶
Tags¶
The tags describe issues and PRs in multiple areas:
| Area | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Triage Labels | ||
| triage:not-checked | Item was not checked by the core team | |
| triage:not-approved | Item is not green-light by maintainer | |
| Type Labels | ||
| breaking | Indicates a major update or change which breaks compatibility | |
| bug | Identifies a bug which needs to be addressed | |
| dependency | Relates to a project dependency | |
| duplicate | Duplicate of another issue or PR | |
| enhancement | This is an suggested enhancement, extending the functionality of an existing feature | |
| experimental | This is a new experimental feature which needs to be enabled manually | |
| feature | This is a new feature, introducing novel functionality | |
| help wanted | Assistance required | |
| invalid | This issue or PR is considered invalid | |
| inactive | Indicates lack of activity | |
| migration | Database migration, requires special attention | |
| question | This is a question | |
| roadmap | This is a roadmap feature with no immediate plans for implementation | |
| security | Relates to a security issue | |
| starter | Good issue for a developer new to the project | |
| wontfix | No work will be done against this issue or PR | |
| Feature Labels | ||
| API | Relates to the API | |
| barcode | Barcode scanning and integration | |
| build | Build orders | |
| importer | Data importing and processing | |
| order | Purchase order and sales orders | |
| part | Parts | |
| plugin | Plugin ecosystem | |
| pricing | Pricing functionality | |
| report | Report generation | |
| stock | Stock item management | |
| user interface | User interface | |
| Ecosystem Labels | ||
| backport | Tags that the issue will be backported to a stable branch as a bug-fix | |
| demo | Relates to the InvenTree demo server or dataset | |
| docker | Docker / docker-compose | |
| CI | CI / unit testing ecosystem | |
| refactor | Refactoring existing code | |
| setup | Relates to the InvenTree setup / installation process |