PixelDroid-App-Android/CONTRIBUTING.md

If you want to contribute to PixelDroid, you can do so in several ways:

# Translation

You can help to translate PixelDroid to your favourite language. Please do not submit Merge Requests directly, but use our weblate at https://weblate.pixeldroid.org/projects/pixeldroid/pixeldroid/ .

You can add a new language by using the "Start new translation" button on the bottom left of the page.

Before translating, please take a look at the [TRANSLATION.md](TRANSLATION.md) file for details and some guidance.

# Creating issues on the issue tracker

If you encounter a problem or have an idea about how to make PixelDroid better, you should make an issue about it on our [GitLab project](https://gitlab.shinice.net/pixeldroid/PixelDroid/-/issues). If you encountered a problem, please make sure to document how to reproduce it, and include screenshots if possible. If you are making a suggestion, please try to be detailed in your description.

# Contribute changes or fix bugs

You can also help us solve one of the existing issues, or improve the application in some other way, by contributing changes yourself. To do this you can fork the project and submit a Merge Request.

Before starting to work on an issue or an improvement, you can ask us on our Matrix channel (#pixeldroid:gnugen.ch) what we think, or make a comment on the relevant issue, so that we might point you in the right direction, and to make sure someone else is not already working on it.

## How to get started

Download the latest version of [Android Studio](https://developer.android.com/studio)

Then clone the project: you need to clone it with submodules: `git clone --recurse-submodules`.
You can find more information about submodules [here](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules)

When first opening the project, you might encounter this issue: 

![Gradle issue](Screenshots/gradle-issue.png)

F-Droid requires ``distributionSha256Sum``. You are given three links to solve this issue, choose the first one:

![Click on this link](Screenshots/gradle-solution.png)

### Changing Gradle dependencies

Every time you change any dependency in ``build.gradle``, you will encounter the following error:

![Gradle dependency](Screenshots/gradle-dependency-verification.png)

This is because PixelDroid has [dependency verification](https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/dependency_verification.html) enabled.
Dependency verification is useful to protect against supply chain attacks.
Only dependencies which are in the `verification-metadata.xml` file are allowed to be used.

However, this means that whenever the dependencies change (for example updates or new dependencies),
we have to update the `verification-metadata.xml` file. To avoid doing this manually, you can follow
the following steps:

In the top toolbar, go to ``Edit Configurations... > Gradle`` and click on ``+`` in the top left corner to add a new run configuration.
In the field ``Run``, write the command that triggered the dependency error,
which in your case is probably ``assembleDebug`` (command executed when pressing the play button) and give it the arguments ``--write-verification-metadata sha256``.

![Run Configuration](Screenshots/run-configuration.png)

You can now build PixelDroid this new configuration: select it and then press the play button.

![Run with new config](Screenshots/run-new-config.png)

This has to be done only once when you encounter this error, then you can run the app as usual again,
by selecting the "app" Run Configuration.

`--write-verification-metadata` has now added the new dependencies to the `verification-metadata.xml` file.
When you do a Merge Request, we will check that the added values make sense.

### Getting your changes into the app

Once you are done with your changes, you should create a Merge Request. 
Depending on if you were given write access to the repository, you may have to create a fork and submit a merge request from there.
Consult the [GitLab documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/creating_merge_requests.html) for more details, 
and don't hesitate to ask on our Matrix channel (#pixeldroid:gnugen.ch) if you get stuck :)