Contributing to pyradiomics
===========================

There are many ways to contribute to pyradiomics, with varying levels of effort.  Do try to
look through the documentation first if something is unclear, and let us know how we can
do better.

  * Ask a question on the [pyradiomics email list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pyradiomics)
  * Submit a feature request or bug, or add to the discussion on the [pyradiomics issue tracker](https://github.com/Radiomics/pyradiomics/issues)
  * Submit a [Pull Request](https://github.com/Radiomics/pyradiomics/pulls) to improve pyradiomics or its documentation

We encourage a range of Pull Requests, from patches that include passing tests and
documentation, all the way down to half-baked ideas that launch discussions.

The PR Process, Circle CI, and Related Gotchas
----------------------------------------------

#### How to submit a PR ?

If you are new to pyradiomics development and you don't have push access to the pyradiomics
repository, here are the steps:

1. [Fork and clone](https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/) the repository.
3. Create a branch.
4. [Push](https://help.github.com/articles/pushing-to-a-remote/) the branch to your GitHub fork.
5. Create a [Pull Request](https://github.com/Radiomics/pyradiomics/pulls).

This corresponds to the `Fork & Pull Model` mentioned in the [GitHub flow](https://guides.github.com/introduction/flow/index.html)
guides.

If you have push access to pyradiomics repository, you could simply push your branch
into the main repository and create a [Pull Request](https://github.com/Radiomics/pyradiomics/pulls). This corresponds to the
`Shared Repository Model` and will facilitate other developers to checkout your
topic without having to [configure a remote](https://help.github.com/articles/configuring-a-remote-for-a-fork/).
It will also simplify the workflow when you are _co-developing_ a branch.

When submitting a PR, make sure to add a `Cc: @Radiomics/developers` comment to notify pyradiomics
developers of your awesome contributions. Based on the
comments posted by the reviewers, you may have to revisit your patches.

#### How to integrate a PR ?

Getting your contributions integrated is relatively straightforward, here
is the checklist:

* All tests pass
* Consensus is reached. This usually means that at least one reviewer added a `LGTM` comment
and a reasonable amount of time passed without anyone objecting. `LGTM` is an
acronym for _Looks Good to Me_.

Next, there are two scenarios:
* You do NOT have push access: A pyradiomics core developer will integrate your PR.
* You have push access: Simply click on the "Merge pull request" button.

Then, click on the "Delete branch" button that appears afterward.

#### Automatic testing of pull requests

Every pull request is tested automatically using CircleCI each time you push a
commit to it. The Github UI will restrict users from merging pull requests until
the CI build has returned with a successful result indicating that all tests have
passed and there were no problems detected by the linter.

#### Sphinx documentation updates

If you contribute a change that will add a new module/function to pyradiomics, the
package index used by sphinx for auto-generating documentation needs to be updated.
To do that, follow the instructions on this page to set up sphinx on your system

 https://github.com/Radiomics/pyradiomics/wiki/Documentation-infrastructure

and update the package index file radiomics-api.rst by issuing the following command
from the docs folder (make sure you include the updated file in your PR!)

 sphinx-apidoc -f -o . ../radiomics