treestyletab/CONTRIBUTING.md

# Tree Style Tab Contribution Guideline

If you are planning to open a new issue for a bug report or a feature request, or having additional information for an existing issue, or hoping to translate the language resource for your language, then please see this document before posting.

This is possibly a generic guideline for contributing any Firefox addon project or a public OSS/free software project.

## Good, helpful bug reports including feature requests

A good report is the fastest way to solve a problem.
Even if the problem is very clear for you, possibly unclear for me.
Unclear report can be left unfixed for long time.
You'll see an example of [good report](https://github.com/piroor/treestyletab/issues/1134) and [another report with too less information](https://github.com/piroor/treestyletab/issues/1135).

Here is a list of typical questions I asked to existing reports:

 * **Does the problem appear with the [latest develpment build](http://piro.sakura.ne.jp/xul/xpi/nightly/)?**
   Possibly, problems you met has been resolved already.
   On Firefox 43 and later you need to set `xpinstall.signatures.required` to `false` via `about:config`, to try such unsigned packages of development builds.
   For Firefox 46 and later, you'll have to try an unbranded Firefox (including Beta, Aurora, and Nightly) to try development builds because the option will be removed on official Firefox 46 and later.
 * **Does the problem appear without Tab Mix Plus or something other tab related addon?**
   If a compatibility issue with other addons is reported without such information, it is very hard to be resolved.
   See also the next to next.
 * **Is the "problem" really introduced by TST?**
   If you use TST with other addons, please confirm which addon causes the problem you met - TST or one of others.
   If the problem doesn't appear with no other addon, it can be introduced by others.
   See also the next.
 * **Does the problem appear with a clean profile?**
   You can start Firefox with temporary clean profile by a command line `-profile`, like: `"C:\Program Filex (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -no-remote -profile "%Temp%\FirefoxTemporaryProfile"`
   If the problem doesn't appear with a clean profile, please find complete reproduction steps out.
 * **Is the main topic single and clear?**
   Sometimes I got an issue including multiple topics, but such an issue is hard to be closed, then it often stays opened for long time and confuses me.
   If you have multiple topics, please report them as separate issues for each.

For future requests, some more important information:

 * **Did you find other addon which provide the feature you are going to request?**
   If there is any other addon for the purpose, then TST should become compatible to it instead of merging the feature into TST itself.
 * **Please add `[feature request]` tag into the summary.**
   Sometimes a feature request can be misunderstood as a simple bug report.

Then, please report the bug with these information:

 * **Detailed steps to reproduce the problem.** For example:
   1. Prepare Firefox version XX with plain profile.
   2. Install Tree Style Tab version XXXX.
   3. Install another addon XXXX version XXXX from "http://....".
   4. Click a button on the toolbar.
   5. ...
 * **Expected result.**
   If you have any screenshot or screencast, it will help me more.
 * **Actual result.**
   If you have any screenshot or screencast, it will help me more.
 * **Platform information.**
   If the problem appear on your multiple platforms, please list them.

## Please don't join to an existing discussion if your problem is different from the originally reported one

Even if the result is quite similar, they may be different problem if the reproduction steps for yours are different from the one originally reported.
Then, you should create a new issue for yours, instead of adding comment to the existing issue.
Otherwise, I'll be confused if the original reporter said "the issue is a compatibility issue with another addon" but another reporter said "I saw this problem without any other addon".

To avoid such a confusion, please post your report with detailed reproduction steps always.

## Feature requests can be tagged as "out of purpose"

Please see [the readme page](./README.md) before you post a new feature request.
Even if a requested feature is very useful, it is possibly rejected by the project policy.

Instead, please tell me other addon which provide the feature and report a new issue as "compatibility issue with the addon, TST should work together with it".
I'm very positive to make TST compatible to other addons.

## Translations, pull requests

If you've fixed a problem you met by your hand, then please send a pull request to me.

Translations also.
Pull requests are easy to merge, than sending ZIP files.
You'll do it without any local application - you can do it on the GitHub.
For example, if you hope to fix an exsiting typo in a locale, you just have to click the pencil button (with a tooltip "Edit this file") for a language resource file.