# How to contribute to Phinx

Phinx relies heavily on external contributions in order to make it the best database migration
tool possible. Without the support of our 70+ contributors we wouldn't be where we are today!
We encourage anyone to submit documentation enhancements and code.

Issues, feature requests and bugs should be submitted using the Github issue tool:
https://github.com/robmorgan/phinx/issues.

This document briefly outlines the requirements to contribute code to Phinx.

## Considerations

Before you submit your pull request take a moment to answer the following questions.

Answering '**YES**' to all questions will increase the likelihood of your PR being accepted!

* Have I implemented my feature for as many database adapters as possible?
* Does my new feature improve Phinx's performance or keep it consistent?
* Does my feature fit within the database migration space?
* Is the code entirely my own and free from any commercial licensing?
* Am I happy to release my code under the MIT license?
* Is my code formatted using the [PSR-2](https://github.com/php-fig/fig-standards/blob/master/accepted/PSR-2-coding-style-guide.md) coding standard?

**Note:** We accept bug fixes much faster into our development branch than features.

## Getting Started

Great, so you want to contribute. Let's get started:

1. Start by forking Phinx on GitHub: https://github.com/robmorgan/phinx

1. Clone your repository to a local directory on your development box.

1. If you do not have Composer set up already, install it:

    ```
    curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
    ```

1. Change to your Phinx clone directory and pull the necessary dependencies:

    ```
    php composer.phar install
    ```

1. Copy the `phpunit.xml.dist` template to `phpunit.xml` and change the configuration to suit your environment. If you are not using any particular adapter you can disable it in the `phpunit.xml` file.

1. Run the unit tests locally to ensure they pass:

    ```
    php vendor/bin/phpunit --config phpunit.xml
    ```

1. Write the code and unit tests for your bug fix or feature.

1. Add any relevant documentation.

1. Run the unit tests again and ensure they pass.

1. Open a pull request on the Github project page. Ensure the code is being merged into the latest development branch (e.g: `0.5.x-dev`) and not `master`.

## Documentation

The Phinx documentation is stored in the **docs** directory using the [RestructedText](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html) format. All documentation merged to `master` is automatically published to the Phinx documentation site available
at: http://docs.phinx.org. Keep this in mind when submitting your PR, or ask someone to merge the development branch back down to master.
