## Contributing to Mongoose

If you have a question about Mongoose (not a bug report) please post it to either [StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/mongoose), our [Google Group](http://groups.google.com/group/mongoose-orm), or on the #mongoosejs irc channel on freenode.

### Reporting bugs

- Before opening a new issue, look for existing [issues](https://github.com/learnboost/mongoose/issues) to avoid duplication. If the issue does not yet exist, [create one](https://github.com/learnboost/mongoose/issues/new).
  - Please describe the issue you are experiencing, along with any associated stack trace.
  - Please post code that reproduces the issue, the version of mongoose, node version, and mongodb version.
  - _The source of this project is written in javascript, not coffeescript, therefore your bug reports should be written in javascript_. 
  - In general, adding a "+1" comment to an existing issue does little to help get it resolved. A better way is to submit a well documented pull request with clean code and passing tests.

### Requesting new features

- Before opening a new issue, look for existing [issues](https://github.com/learnboost/mongoose/issues) to avoid duplication. If the issue does not yet exist, [create one](https://github.com/learnboost/mongoose/issues/new).
- Please describe a use case for it
- it would be ideal to include test cases as well
- In general, adding a "+1" comment to an existing issue does little to help get it resolved. A better way is to submit a well documented pull request with clean code and passing tests.

### Fixing bugs / Adding features

- Before starting to write code, look for existing [issues](https://github.com/learnboost/mongoose/issues). That way you avoid working on something that might not be of interest or that has been addressed already in a different branch. You can create a new issue [here](https://github.com/learnboost/mongoose/issues/new).
  - _The source of this project is written in javascript, not coffeescript, therefore your bug reports should be written in javascript_. 
- Fork the [repo](https://github.com/learnboost/mongoose) _or_ for small documentation changes, navigate to the source on github and click the [Edit](https://github.com/blog/844-forking-with-the-edit-button) button.
- Follow the general coding style of the rest of the project:
  - 2 space tabs
  - no trailing whitespace
  - comma first
  - inline documentation for new methods, class members, etc
  - 1 space between conditionals/functions, and their parenthesis and curly braces
    - `if (..) {`
    - `for (..) {`
    - `while (..) {`
    - `function (err) {`
- Write tests and make sure they pass (tests are in the [test](https://github.com/LearnBoost/mongoose/tree/master/test) directory).

### Running the tests
- Open a terminal and navigate to the root of the project
- execute `npm install` to install the necessary dependencies
- execute `make test` to run the tests (we're using [mocha](http://visionmedia.github.com/mocha/))
  - or to execute a single test `T="-g 'some regexp that matches the test description'" make test`
  - any mocha flags can be specified with `T="..."`

### Documentation

To contribute to the [API documentation](http://mongoosejs.com/docs/api.html) just make your changes to the inline documentation of the appropriate [source code](https://github.com/LearnBoost/mongoose/tree/master/lib) in the master branch and submit a [pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests/). You might also use the github [Edit](https://github.com/blog/844-forking-with-the-edit-button) button.

To contribute to the [guide](http://mongoosejs.com/docs/guide.html) or [quick start](http://mongoosejs.com/docs/index.html) docs, make your changes to the appropriate `.jade` files in the [docs](https://github.com/LearnBoost/mongoose/tree/master/docs) directory of the master branch and submit a pull request. Again, the [Edit](https://github.com/blog/844-forking-with-the-edit-button) button might work for you here.

If you'd like to preview your documentation changes, first commit your changes to your local 3.6.x branch, then execute `make docs` from the project root, which switches to the gh-pages branch, merges from the 3.6.x branch and builds all the static pages for you. Now execute `node static.js` from the project root which will launch a local webserver where you can browse the documentation site locally. If all looks good, submit a [pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests/) to the 3.6.x branch with your changes.

### Plugins website

The [plugins](http://plugins.mongoosejs.com/) site is also an [open source project](https://github.com/aheckmann/mongooseplugins) that you can get involved with. Feel free to fork and improve it as well!

### Sharing your projects

All are welcome to share their creations which use mongoose on our [tumbler](http://mongoosejs.tumblr.com/). Just fill out the [simple submission form](http://mongoosejs.tumblr.com/submit).