Update on Open Source Contribution: April 14

Hey there folks!

This week I worked on lots of projects and also continued working on Microsoft calculator. Check out my previous blog post to know more about it.

Project link

Issue link

Pull Request link

While testing we encountered internal server problem with the Azure pipelines. It was fixed by one of the code maintainers when he closed and re-opened the PR. And then, suddenly tests started working. I have never seen this kind of fix ever.

I have already finished my tasks. I am just waiting for them to get it merge with the main codebase.

Firefox Fenix

Fenix is a Mozilla project. Soon, the default Mozilla Firefox browser will be archived and Fenix will take over it. I think it’s because fenix had lots of cool features. The main one is that Fenix can save state of your browsing. In programming world it’s like saving the state of collection of numerous tabs.

Its written in Kotlin.

Project link

In this project, I worked on two bugs.

Fenix(Issue-1)

The scroll was working fine in portrait mode but broken in landscape mode. To fix the problem I added Scroll view around Linear layout which simply fixed the problem and scroll was working fine in landscape mode.

Issue link

Pull Request link

Fenix(Issue-1)

Again the problem was related to landscape mode of the app. This time the search input text used to lost whenever user tried to switch his device from portrait mode to landscape mode or vice versa. So, to fix it I found a very common and effective solution to this problem. And, it solved the bug but unfortunately code maintainers didn’t liked my fix.

Issue link

Pull request link

Overall, I really liked working with fenix. I am still looking forward to fix more of its issues.

Mifos mobile

Its an Android Application built on top of the MifosX Self-Service platform for end-user customers to view/transact on the accounts and loans they hold. Data visible to customers will be a sub-set of what staff can see.

This is a native Android Application written in Java with POJO classes in Kotlin.

Project link

In this project, I worked on two bugs.

Mifos(Issue-1)

It was my first time working on this new project so I tried to chose a easy issue to fix and luckily I found a issue related to UI. All I had to do was to align the text(Account Number) in center.

Before

After

Issue link

Pull request link

Mifos(Issue-2)

Now time was to do something that I have never done before. I found a issues in which they needed a confirmation dialog box whenever a user tries to change the password. So I used material dialog class to do it.

New changes

I always wondered how to implement those fancy dialog boxes and today I actually implemented it myself

Issue link

Pull request link

This week I found developers don’t give much importance to the landscape layout of android apps and due to which number of issues are filed related to the app orientation.

Overall, I feel proud to work on so many projects in just two weeks. Most importantly I got a good opportunity to work on Microsoft and Mozilla project.

I will be still looking out for some other exciting Open Source projects to work on so let me know in comments if you have any recommendations.

Stay Tuned!

Contribution to AntennaPod: March22

Hey folks,

This week I am working on an issue in AntennaPod. It’s a podcast manager which allows you to subscribe, download top podcasts available in the market.

The project is written in Java and XML.

For the issue, I am adding empty views to various pages. At first I thought the task will be easy but later I found its not that simple. Especially understanding fragments code was a challenge. For almost two days I was lost I had no idea how fragments work. Not only that fragments can be coded in many different ways which makes it more complex to understand as every developer has its own style of writing code. So, I had to do some digging about it.

Issue link

Later I was able to create empty views for some pages. But I wasn’t sure if
my code is according to their project coding standards. So I sent a pull request of my current work for review. Luckily, it passed all the test (hurray!)

Pull request

Then, one of contributor recommended to create only one empty view(xml) instead of recreating empty views for each page. But, he didn’t said anything about my java code (main code) so I believe it’s a good sign.

Now, I am finishing off remaining work and I believe I will submit my final PR to resolve the issue by next week.

Stay Tuned!

Future Open Source Contribution Plan: March Edition

Hey there folks!

This week I will be working on an WordPress android application.

Personally, I have been using wordpress for a quite some time and I love it. It is just so clean and simple to use. Recently, I found that there is an android app for the WordPress which is an Open Source project(repo). These days I have been investing lot of time learning cool things in android development. Soon, I will be uploading my ongoing android projects on Github as Open Source.

For now, I am going to fix some existing bugs or maybe add some cool feature in WordPress app. In process, I will also try to find some undiscovered bugs.

I have already setup my workspace. Throughout the project, I really loved the variable/function naming convention. But, I have to become more familiar with the codebase and get down to work on bugs.

The issues that I am planning to work are as follows:

Issue 1

Issue 2

Issue 3

I will be still looking out for some other exciting Open Source projects to work on so let me know in comments if you have any recommendations.

Stay Tuned!

Open Source Contribution Summary: Feb Edition

As may have seen my older blog posts in which I posted stuff about my participation in Open Source projects whether it is fixing a small bug, improving UI, fixing typos in a document or implementing a cool feature.

If not, check out my previous posts to get more information about my work on Open Source projects in detail.

Pull Requests

Github Account

Lessons learned…

Earlier when I was finding a good first issue, my main concern was about fixing an issue, but later I got to know setting up the project on a personal desktop is the real pain. So, always check if the project dependencies are compatible with your machine prior to the installation process.
You need to know basic Git commands like push, pull.
Find issue easily by filtering search results using label. My favourite label ones are good first issue and bug
There so many ways to fix a problem and there might be times when code maintainers don’t like your fix so don’t feel bad instead learn from it.
Writing comments above your code is a good practice.
Don’t look around too much for a solution, its okay to ask for help from your fellow developers or Open Source community.
At the end of the day Stack overflow will be your best friend.
Don’t rush, take it easy and enjoy the process.

Some cool things…

My GitHub contribution activity table has started looking green now.

I was invited to join Code For Boston community on slack and worked with awesome developers.
I was added on MojiScript contributors list by the owner.

Reflection

I am getting very comfortable with React and Android.
I learned to implement APIs in a web application and it will be very helpful in future projects.
While finding issues, I discovered several projects that uses machine learning and I am looking forward to work on it.

Overall, it was a great experience!

In upcoming weeks, I will be working and fixing more issue in Open Source projects and definitely will post a blog update about it.

Stay Tuned!

Update on Open Source Contribution: Mar01

Hey there folks!

This week I worked on two projects and learned a bunch of cool stuff.

MojiScript

The first project that I worked on this week is MojiScript.

I worked on the issue given below:

Setting up the project was easy.

Even the fix was also pretty simple. I just searched for ‘mojiscript/types/is’ text in VS Code search box and found the file (is.mdx) which contain this line of code. And then, I just changed the line from ‘mojiscript/types/is’ to ‘mojiscript/type/is’.

Later, I also change the same code of line in ‘unless.mdx’ and ‘when.mdx’.

In the end, I submitted the pull request with my changes and it got merged.

Project Repo Lin k

Issue Link

Pull Request Link

And then an amazing thing happened

Joelnet (Main code maintainer) added me on MojiScript’s contributor’s list with a link to my personal website.

Yes, Kanye is right!

Another project that I worked on this week is the Brewery Finder.

Brewery Finder

This is a website built to find any local or nearby brewer. Currently, it only provides breweries information located in the United States.

The website is written in React.

Again, It was a great opportunity for me to work with React.

Also, in one of my school course, I have to work with a project which uses APIs to fetch data. So, my professor recommended me to check some projects on GitHub which utilize APIs to get an idea of implementing APIs in projects. So, Brewery Finder was a good project to work on.

I worked on the issue given below:

The fix was not that easy I had to search for hours to find the best solution. Then suddenly JQuery came across my mind and I fixed the issue in minutes.

The owner seems to like my fix.

I submitted the pull request with my changes and it got merged.

Project Repo Link

Issue Link

Pull Request Link

And then suddenly…

The owner reopened the issue and he fixed the issue without Jquery.

He fixed it with just one line i.e. given below:

onMouseDown={e => e.preventDefault()}

Ahhh, I didn’t know we can use ‘OnMouseDown’ method. Before fixing it with Jquery I tried the same way but instead, I used the ‘onClick’ method. However, it didn’t work for me.

Well, now I know.

In upcoming weeks, I will be working and fixing more issue in Open Source projects and definitely will post a blog update about it.

Stay Tuned!

Update on Open Source Contribution: Feb14

Hey there folks!

This week I worked on The Teacher Fund unreleased website. This website is maintained by Joel Wasserman who also works at Google.

TeacherFund is a charity to support teachers in a way that encourages great teachers to stay, and potentially great teachers to choose to teach as a career path. This includes providing supplemental funds and supplies to school teachers in need.

The website is written in React using Next.js.

So this was a great opportunity for me to work with React and NextJS.

Since I am taking initial steps in contributing to the Open Source projects. I tried finding an issue which is easy to fix. It almost took me four hours to find an issue

Later, I asked for permission to work on the issue and soon, I got assigned to work on it.

Setting up the project was easy. I just forked, cloned and did ‘npm install’.

Now the goal is to add a background image to the SignIn/SignUp page.

To add a background image to React, I did some research on google and found an easy way to do it by just adding a style attribute with backgroundImage to the div.

And all I added was just one line to the div element

<div className="main-container" style={{backgroundImage:`url(${"/static/images/abc_blackboard.jpg"})`, backgroundSize:'100% 80%', backgroundRepeat: 'no-repeat'}}>

Voila…

In the end, I submitted the pull request with my changes and it got merged.

Project Repo Link

Issue Link

Pull Request Link

In upcoming weeks, I will be working and fixing more issue in Open Source projects and definitely will post a blog update about it.

Stay Tuned!

Git Commands that can come in handy

You may be using Git for a long time or new to it. But, today I am going to introduce you to Git Log and Git Remote commands which might come very useful in your day to day interaction with the Git and can make your life pretty simple.

But first, you need to know the difference between Git and Github.

Git is Version Control System.

GitHub is a web-based service for version control using Git.

In easy words…

Git helps us to keep track of our files and any changes made to those files on our local machine.

Github is a website that contains source code in different repositories managed through Git

Alright now, let’s get started with Git Log

Git Log

Shows the commit logs.

Functions

It allows us to keep track of our works.
This command helps give context and history for a repository.
It let users customize the formatting of each commit output of the log.
It also lets users filter commits in the log output.

Let us explore some options that can be helpful with Git Log command:

Graphs

Draws a text-based graphical representation of the commit history on the left-hand side of the output.

git log --graph

Here is an example of the log output with –graph keyword.

(The output is a big list, not just five commits) As shown in the above image, the “git log –graph” retrieved the commit history on the branch (issue-667) of the filer project.

(The list continues) As shown in the above image, the “–graph” shows you previous merge represented by a different color for each branch.

Link to view my pull request. Also, check out my previous post to know more.

oneline

The standard “git log” command isn’t very terminal friendly as it displays lots of text. So, if you want to view commit history with only commit message then, oneline can be very convenient.

As shown in the above image, with “–online” shows the commit history with just commit message.

Grep

To filter commits by their commit message

As shown in the above image, with “–grep” shows only those commits which include “fs.readdir.spec.js” in their commit message.

Click on this link to know other options of Git Log.

Git Remot e

This Git command is used to manage your Central servers for hosting your git repositories.

Function

It lets you create, view, and delete connections to other repositories.
This command is also responsible for syncing change.
The git remote command is essentially an interface for managing a list of remote entries that are stored in the repository’s ./.git/config file.

Using git remote to connect other repositories — For example, the above diagram shows two remote connections from your repo into the central repo and another developer’s repo. Instead of referencing them by their full URLs, you can pass the origin and john shortcuts to other Git commands. (Source)

git remote

This command shows the list of all remote connections you have to other repositories.

To add a connection to John’s repo

git remote add john http://dev.example.com/john.git

To remove John’s connection

git remote rm john

It has only one option i.e.

verbose

git remote -v

This command shows the list of all remote connections you have to other repositories with the URL of each remote connection.

Sample output(Source)

git remote -v
origin  git@bitbucket.com:origin_user/reponame.git (fetch)
origin  git@bitbucket.com:origin_user/reponame.git (push)
upstream  https://bitbucket.com/upstream_user/reponame.git (fetch)
upstream  https://bitbucket.com/upstream_user/reponame.git (push)
other_users_repo  https://bitbucket.com/other_users_repo/reponame  (fetch)
other_users_repo  https://bitbucket.com/other_users_repo/reponame  (push)

Official Documentation links

Git Log

Git Remote

Some Cool Videos

Check out this video to learn some cool tricks with git-log