Thanks for the interest in contributing to Ionic Framework!

Contributing Etiquette

Please see the Contributor Code of Conduct for information on the rules of conduct.

Creating an Issue

  • If you have a question about using the framework, please ask on the Ionic Forum or in the Ionic Worldwide Slack group.

  • It is required that you clearly describe the steps necessary to reproduce the issue you are running into. Although we would love to help our users as much as possible, diagnosing issues without clear reproduction steps is extremely time-consuming and simply not sustainable.

  • The issue list of the Ionic repository is exclusively for bug reports and feature requests. Non-conforming issues will be closed immediately.

  • Issues with no clear steps to reproduce will not be triaged. If an issue is labeled with "needs: reply" and receives no further replies from the author of the issue for more than 30 days, it will be closed.

  • If you think you have found a bug, or have a new feature idea, please start by making sure it hasn't already been reported. You can search through existing issues to see if there is a similar one reported. Include closed issues as it may have been closed with a solution.

  • Next, create a new issue that thoroughly explains the problem. Please fill out the populated issue form before submitting the issue.

Creating a Pull Request

  • We appreciate you taking the time to contribute! Before submitting a pull request, we ask that you please create an issue that explains the bug or feature request and let us know that you plan on creating a pull request for it. If an issue already exists, please comment on that issue letting us know you would like to submit a pull request for it. This helps us to keep track of the pull request and make sure there isn't duplicated effort.

  • Looking for an issue to fix? Make sure to look through our issues with the help wanted label!

Setup

  • Download the installer for the LTS version of Node.js. This is the best way to also install npm.
  • Fork the Ionic repository.
  • Clone your fork.
  • Create a new branch from master for your change.
  • Navigate into the directory of the package you wish to modify (core, angular, etc.).
  • Run npm install to install dependencies for this package.
  • Follow the steps for the specific package below.

Core

Modifying Components

Preview Changes

Lint Changes

  • Run npm run lint to lint the TypeScript and Sass.
  • If there are lint errors, run npm run lint.fix to automatically fix any errors. Repeat step 1 to ensure the errors have been fixed, and manually fix them if not.
  • To lint and fix only TypeScript errors, run npm run lint.ts and npm run lint.ts.fix, respectively.
  • To lint and fix only Sass errors, run npm run lint.sass and npm run lint.sass.fix, respectively.

Modifying Documentation

  • Locate the readme.md file in the component's directory.
  • Modify the documentation above the line that says <!— Auto Generated Below —> in this file.
  • To update any of the auto generated documentation below that line, make the relevant changes in the following places:
    • Usage: update the component's usage examples in the component's usage/ directory
    • Properties, Events, or Methods: update the component's TypeScript file (*.tsx)
    • CSS Custom Properties: update the component's main Sass file (*.scss)

Modifying Tests

  • Locate the test to modify inside the test/ folder in the component's directory.
  • If a test exists, modify the test by adding an example to reproduce the problem fixed or feature added.
  • If a new test is needed, the easiest way is to copy the basic/ directory from the component's test/ directory, rename it, and edit the content in both the index.html and e2e.ts file (see Screenshot Tests for more information on this file).
  • The preview/ directory is used in the documentation as a demo. Only update this test if there is a bug in the test or if the API has a change that hasn't been updated in the test.
Screenshot Tests
  • If the test exists in screenshot, there will be a file named e2e.ts in the directory of the test.
  • A screenshot test can be added by including this file and adding one or more test() calls that include a call to page.compareScreenshot(). See Stencil end-to-end testing and existing tests in core/ for examples.
  • Important: each test() should have only one screenshot (page.compareScreenshot()) call or it should check the expect at the end of each test. If there is a mismatch it will fail the test which will prevent the rest of the test from running, i.e. if the first screenshot fails the remaining screenshot calls would not be called unless they are in a separate test or all of the expects are called at the end.
  • To run screenshot locally, use the following command: npm run test.screenshot.
    • To run screenshot for a specific test, pass the path to the test or a string to search for.
    • For example, running all alert tests: npm run test.screenshot alert.
    • Or, running the basic alert tests: npm run test.screenshot src/components/alert/test/basic/e2e.ts.

Building Changes

  • Once all changes have been made and the documentation has been updated, run npm run build inside of the core directory. This will add your changes to any auto-generated files, if necessary.
  • Review the changes and, if everything looks correct, commit the changes.
  • Make sure the build has finished before committing. If you made changes to the documentation, properties, methods, or anything else that requires an update to a generate file, this needs to be committed.
  • After the changes have been pushed, publish the branch and create a pull request.

Submit Pull Request

  • Create a new pull request with the master branch as the base. You may need to click on compare across forks to find your changes.
  • See the Creating a pull request from a fork GitHub help article for more information.
  • Please fill out the provided Pull Request template to the best of your ability and include any issues that are related.

Commit Message Format

We have very precise rules over how our git commit messages should be formatted. This leads to readable messages that are easy to follow when looking through the project history. We also use the git commit messages to generate our changelog. (Ok you got us, it's basically Angular's commit message format).

type(scope): subject

Type

Must be one of the following:

  • feat: A new feature
  • fix: A bug fix
  • docs: Documentation only changes
  • style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)
  • refactor: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
  • perf: A code change that improves performance
  • test: Adding missing tests
  • chore: Changes to the build process or auxiliary tools and libraries such as documentation generation

Scope

The scope can be anything specifying place of the commit change. For example action-sheet, button, menu, nav, etc. If you make multiple commits for the same component, please keep the naming of this component consistent. For example, if you make a change to navigation and the first commit is fix(nav), you should continue to use nav for any more commits related to navigation.

Subject

The subject contains succinct description of the change:

  • use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes"
  • do not capitalize first letter
  • do not place a period . at the end
  • entire length of the commit message must not go over 50 characters
  • describe what the commit does, not what issue it relates to or fixes
  • be brief, yet descriptive - we should have a good understanding of what the commit does by reading the subject

License

By contributing your code to the ionic-team/ionic GitHub Repository, you agree to license your contribution under the MIT license.