---
id: contributing
title: Contributing
---

Thanks for taking the time to checkout this project and being willing to contribute!

Here are some of some of ways you can help:

* [Reporting Bugs](#reporting-bugs)
* [Suggesting a Feature](#suggesting-a-feature)
* [Responding to Issues](#responding-to-issues)
* [Improving the Documentation](#improving-the-documentation)
* [Implementing Bug Fixes and Improvements](#implementing-bug-fixes-and-improvements)

## Reporting Bugs

React Native Elements is used by many people, in fact they're over 9000 persons using it in their projects.
With that many use cases, bugs are sure to come up from time to time. We release almost every two weeks,
so sometimes we may accidentally miss something along the way. When you think you've found a bug here's what to do:

1. Check your version. Most of the time, a fix has been made and released in new a new version. However you may still
   be on an old version. The easiest way to validate this, it to update your version of react-native-elements to the latest.

2. Search the existing [issues](https://github.com/react-native-training/react-native-elements/issues) and
   [pull requests](https://github.com/react-native-training/react-native-elements/pulls) for one like what you're seeing.
   If you see one, add a 👍 reaction (please no +1 comments). Read through the comments and see if you can
   provide any more valuable information to the thread. The more use cases we have, the easier it is to solve the issue.

3. If there are no other issues like yours then create a new one. New issues come with a issue template,
   so make sure to fill out as much information as possible.

If this is your first open source contribution, please take a look at
[this](https://egghead.io/courses/how-to-contribute-to-an-open-source-project-on-github) guide.

## Suggesting a feature

Have a cool idea for a component? Think you can implement an existing feature better?
Go ahead and open and issue, describe what you want to accomplish and lastly, why you think
React Native Elements would benefit from it.

A few things to consider/add:

* As clearly as possible, attach screenshots, concepts of how this feature should behave
* Do you have any thoughts on how to implement this feature? Have you done something similar already?
* Hold off on submitting feature pull requests until the feature has been discussed.
  Once the feature has been established and agreed upon, create the pull request.

## Responding to Issues

When someone posts an issue, a maintainer might not be able to respond right away. Or a person may post
and issue that has incomplete information. As a contributor you can help by answering the issue yourself
if you know the cause of it, or help the maintainers by making sure that all the information necessary to
validate the issue is there.

## Improving the Documentation

Our documentation is built with an open-source tool called [Docusaurus](https://docusaurus.io).
It has a ton of great features, the most important being versioning - which allows us to have documentation for
every version we release.

The easiest way to contribute to a particular doc is through the Edit button on the page. It'll take you directly
to the exact file for that page on the repo.

Since all documents are versioned, it might be bit tricky to find which file needs changing. You can use the rule
below to figure out which file you need to edit.

### I'm making a change for an existing doc on version that's to be released

These files are located in the `/docs` folder. So if I wanted to add a new prop on the Avatar component, I'll need
to document that in `/docs/avatar.md`.

### I'm adding documentation for a new component not yet released

You'll be creating your `.md` file in the `/docs` folder. Be sure to fill out the header at the top of the file:

```
---
id: my-component
title: My Component
---
```

Lastly you'll need to add it to sidebar. This sidebar file is `/website/sidebars.json`. Then add the `id`
from the document we just created into one of the sidebars.

### I'm rewording, adding missed info, or making a typo for a released version

These files are located in: <br />
`/website/versioned_docs/version-{version_name}/{file-name}`. <br />
The last directory will differ depending on what version you are submitting docs for.

> Docusaurus only creates new versions of files if `original` document in
> the `/docs` folder has changed since a release was made.

If I added docs for `Avatar.md` and it was our ever first release say `0.19.0`, when releasing that version it'll create
`/website/versioned_docs/version-0.19.0/avatar.md`.

Now if I go to release `0.20.0` and didn't change `/docs/Avatar.md`, then
they'll be **no** `/website/versioned_docs/version-0.20.0/avatar.md`.
Docusaurus will simply point to the old version from `0.19.0`.

### I'm editing an existing page that's not docs or components

These files are located in: `/website/pages/en/`.

Be sure to check out the documentation over at [docusaurus.io](https://docusaurus.io) if you have any other queries.

## Implementing Bug Fixes and Improvements

If you wish to submit a pull request for a new feature or issue then this is guide for you. On Github,
we extensively use labels to reflect the content and status of issues.

For all issues that are bugs check [here](https://github.com/react-native-training/react-native-elements/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Abug).

Improvements are separated into two categories:

* [New components](https://github.com/react-native-training/react-native-elements/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22New+Component%22).
* [Enhancements](https://github.com/react-native-training/react-native-elements/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3AEnhancement).

Check out the [Labels guide](labels.md) for a more descriptive info on our usage of labels.

---

To begin you should start by forking this repository first. This should get you setup on your local machine:

### Setup

* Install [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) if you have not already. (_We suggest you to use node v6.x.x_)
* Fork the **react-native-elements** repo [here](https://github.com/react-native-training/react-native-elements)
* `git clone <your-forked-repo-url> && cd react-native-elements`
* `yarn install` OR `npm install`
* `npm test`

One you have done this, create a new branch with a name that loosely describes the issue on which you will be working. Once you think you have the addressed the issue in question, submit a pull request to the `next` branch.

### Committing and Pushing Changes

We like to provide informative and useful commit messages when pushing changes to the repo. This helps tremendously when sifting through the commit history to find a particular changeset. A useful guide for creating meaningful commit messages can be found [here.](https://github.com/conventional-changelog-archived-repos/conventional-changelog-angular/blob/ed32559941719a130bb0327f886d6a32a8cbc2ba/convention.md)
