Collaborative Workflow with Forking and Pull Requests

Let's go through a practical step by step process, from forking the repository to creating a feature branch, making changes, and finally submitting a pull request for review and merging.

Scenario

Let's imagine that Alice, a developer, wants to contribute to an open-source project called "AwesomeApp." The project is hosted on a platform like GitHub, which supports the forking and pull request workflow.

Step 1: Forking the Repository

To contribute to "AwesomeApp," Alice needs to fork the repository. Forking creates a copy of the project under Alice's GitHub account, allowing her to freely make changes without affecting the original codebase.

• Alice goes to the "AwesomeApp" repository on GitHub.

• She clicks on the "Fork" button in the top-right corner of the repository page.

• GitHub creates a copy of the repository under Alice's GitHub account.

Step 2: Cloning the Forked Repository

After forking the repository, Alice needs to clone it to her local machine to start working on the changes.

• Alice opens a terminal on her machine.

• She uses the following Git command to clone the forked repository

git clone https://github.com/Alice/AwesomeApp.git

Note: Replace "Alice" with her GitHub username.

• The repository is now cloned to Alice's local machine.

Step 3: Creating a Feature Branch

To make changes to the project, Alice should create a new branch dedicated to her feature or bug fix.

• Alice navigates into the cloned repository's directory:

cd AwesomeApp

• She creates a new branch, naming it descriptively:

git checkout -b alice-add-new-feature

This command creates and switches to the new branch, alice-add-new-feature

Step 4: Making Changes

Now that Alice has created a feature branch, she can start making the desired changes to the codebase.

• Alice opens the code files using her preferred text editor or IDE.

• She makes the necessary modifications, adds new functionality, or fixes bugs.

Step 5: Committing Changes

Once Alice has made the desired changes, she needs to commit them to the feature branch.

• Alice stages the changes she made:

git checkout -b alice-add-new-feature

• This command stages all the modified and new files for commit.

• She commits the changes with a descriptive message:

git commit -m "Add new feature: XYZ"

Replace "XYZ" with a brief description of the added feature.

Step 6: Pushing the Feature Branch

After committing the changes locally, Alice needs to push the feature branch to her forked repository on GitHub.

• Alice pushes the feature branch:

git push origin alice-add-new-feature

• This command pushes the branch to Alice's forked repository.

Step 7: Creating a Pull Request

Now that Alice has pushed her feature branch, she can open a pull request to propose the changes to the original "AwesomeApp" repository.

• Alice navigates to her forked repository on GitHub.

• She clicks on the "New Pull Request" button near the top of the repository page.

• GitHub compares the changes in Alice's feature branch with the main branch of the original repository.

• Alice reviews the changes, adds a descriptive title and comment, and clicks on the "Create Pull Request" button

Step 8: Review and Merge

After Alice has created the pull request, the project maintainers will review her changes and decide whether to merge them into the main codebase.

• The maintainers of "AwesomeApp" receive a notification about the new pull request.

• They review the proposed changes, provide feedback, and discuss any necessary modifications with Alice through comments.

• Alice can continue making changes and pushing them to the feature branch based on the feedback until the pull request is approved.

• Once the maintainers are satisfied with the changes, they merge Alice's pull request into the main branch of "AwesomeApp."

• Alice's contribution is now a part of the project, and her feature is available to all users of "AwesomeApp."