Added a contributing file to appear in pull requests and issues

https://github.com/blog/1184-contributing-guidelines
Signed-off-by: Alex Bilbie <alex@alexbilbie.com>

1 files changed, 159 insertions, 0 deletions

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+###########################
+Contributing to CodeIgniter
+###########################
+
+CodeIgniter is a community driven project and accepts contributions of code
+and documentation from the community. These contributions are made in the form
+of Issues or `Pull Requests <http://help.github.com/send-pull-requests/>`_ on
+the `EllisLab CodeIgniter repository
+<https://github.com/EllisLab/CodeIgniter>`_ on GitHub.
+
+Issues are a quick way to point out a bug. If you find a bug or documentation
+error in CodeIgniter then please check a few things first:
+
+- There is not already an open Issue
+- The issue has already been fixed (check the develop branch, or look for
+  closed Issues)
+- Is it something really obvious that you fix it yourself?
+
+Reporting issues is helpful but an even better approach is to send a Pull
+Request, which is done by "Forking" the main repository and committing to your
+own copy. This will require you to use the version control system called Git.
+
+**********
+Guidelines
+**********
+
+Before we look into how, here are the guidelines. If your Pull Requests fail
+to pass these guidelines it will be declined and you will need to re-submit
+when you’ve made the changes. This might sound a bit tough, but it is required
+for us to maintain quality of the code-base.
+
+PHP Style
+=========
+
+All code must meet the `Style Guide
+<http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/styleguide.html>`_, which is
+essentially the `Allman indent style
+<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indent_style#Allman_style>`_, underscores and
+readable operators. This makes certain that all code is the same format as the
+existing code and means it will be as readable as possible.
+
+Documentation
+=============
+
+If you change anything that requires a change to documentation then you will
+need to add it. New classes, methods, parameters, changing default values, etc
+are all things that will require a change to documentation. The change-log
+must also be updated for every change. Also PHPDoc blocks must be maintained.
+
+Compatibility
+=============
+
+CodeIgniter is compatible with PHP 5.2.4 so all code supplied must stick to
+this requirement. If PHP 5.3 or 5.4 functions or features are used then there
+must be a fallback for PHP 5.2.4.
+
+Branching
+=========
+
+CodeIgniter uses the `Git-Flow
+<http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/>`_ branching model
+which requires all pull requests to be sent to the "develop" branch. This is
+where the next planned version will be developed. The "master" branch will
+always contain the latest stable version and is kept clean so a "hotfix" (e.g:
+an emergency security patch) can be applied to master to create a new version,
+without worrying about other features holding it up. For this reason all
+commits need to be made to "develop" and any sent to "master" will be closed
+automatically. If you have multiple changes to submit, please place all
+changes into their own branch on your fork.
+
+One thing at a time: A pull request should only contain one change. That does
+not mean only one commit, but one change - however many commits it took. The
+reason for this is that if you change X and Y but send a pull request for both
+at the same time, we might really want X but disagree with Y, meaning we
+cannot merge the request. Using the Git-Flow branching model you can create
+new branches for both of these features and send two requests.
+
+Signing
+=======
+You must sign your work, certifying that you either wrote the work or
+otherwise have the right to pass it on to an open source project. git makes
+this trivial as you merely have to use `--signoff` on your commits to your
+CodeIgniter fork.
+
+::
+
+	git commit --signoff
+
+or simply::
+
+	git commit -s
+
+This will sign your commits with the information setup in your git config, e.g.
+
+	Signed-off-by: John Q Public <john.public@example.com>
+
+If you are using Tower there is a "Sign-Off" checkbox in the commit window. You 
+could even alias git commit to use the -s flag so you don’t have to think about 
+it.
+
+By signing your work in this manner, you certify to a "Developer's Certificate 
+or Origin". The current version of this certificate is in the `DCO.txt` file
+in the root of this repository.
+
+
+************
+How-to Guide
+************
+
+There are two ways to make changes, the easy way and the hard way. Either way
+you will need to `create a GitHub account <https://github.com/signup/free>`_.
+
+Easy way GitHub allows in-line editing of files for making simple typo changes
+and quick-fixes. This is not the best way as you are unable to test the code
+works. If you do this you could be introducing syntax errors, etc, but for a
+Git-phobic user this is good for a quick-fix.
+
+Hard way The best way to contribute is to "clone" your fork of CodeIgniter to
+your development area. That sounds like some jargon, but "forking" on GitHub
+means "making a copy of that repo to your account" and "cloning" means
+"copying that code to your environment so you can work on it".
+
+#. Set up Git (Windows, Mac & Linux)
+#. Go to the CodeIgniter repo
+#. Fork it
+#. Clone your CodeIgniter repo: git@github.com:<your-name>/CodeIgniter.git
+#. Checkout the "develop" branch At this point you are ready to start making
+   changes. 
+#. Fix existing bugs on the Issue tracker after taking a look to see nobody
+   else is working on them.
+#. Commit the files
+#. Push your develop branch to your fork
+#. Send a pull request http://help.github.com/send-pull-requests/
+
+The Reactor Engineers will now be alerted about the change and at least one of
+the team will respond. If your change fails to meet the guidelines it will be
+bounced, or feedback will be provided to help you improve it.
+
+Once the Reactor Engineer handling your pull request is happy with it they
+will post it to the internal EllisLab discussion area to be double checked by
+the other Engineers and EllisLab developers. If nobody has a problem with the
+change then it will be merged into develop and will be part of the next
+release. Keeping your fork up-to-date
+
+Unlike systems like Subversion, Git can have multiple remotes. A remote is the
+name for a URL of a Git repository. By default your fork will have a remote
+named "origin" which points to your fork, but you can add another remote named
+"codeigniter" which points to git://github.com/EllisLab/CodeIgniter.git. This
+is a read-only remote but you can pull from this develop branch to update your
+own.
+
+If you are using command-line you can do the following:
+
+#. git remote add codeigniter git://github.com/EllisLab/CodeIgniter.git
+#. git pull codeigniter develop
+#. git push origin develop
+
+Now your fork is up to date. This should be done regularly, or before you send
+a pull request at least.
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