Create a personal GitHub account if you don't have one yet.

1. You are advised to choose a sensible GitHub username as you are likely to use it for years to come in professional contexts.

2. Strongly recommended: Complete your GitHub profile. In particular,

   • Specify your full name.
   • Upload a profile photo that matches our requirements.

   The GitHub profile is useful for the tutors and classmates to identify you. If you are reluctant to share your info in your long-term GitHub account, you can remove those details after the module is over or create a separate GitHub account just for the module.

3. You are discouraged from changing your GitHub username during the semester/exam/grading period as it can cause our auto-grading scripts to miss your GitHub activities. If you do change your GitHub username during that period, please let us know immediately.

 

• The purpose of the profile photo is for the teaching team to identify you. Therefore, you should choose a recent individual photo showing your face clearly (i.e., not too small) -- somewhat similar to a passport photo. Some examples can be seen in the 'Teaching team' page. Given below are some examples of good and bad profile photos.
  

• If you are uncomfortable posting your photo due to security reasons, you can post a lower resolution image so that it is hard for someone to misuse that image for fraudulent purposes. If you are concerned about privacy, you can request permission to omit your photo from the page by writing to prof.

Organization setup

Please follow the organization/repo name format precisely because we use scripts to download your code or else our scripts will not be able to detect your work.

After receiving your team ID, one team member should do the following steps:

• Create a GitHub organization with the following details:
  • Organization name : SEMESTER-TEAM_ID. e.g.  AY1920S1-CS2113T-W12-2 or AY1920S1-CS2113-T13-1
  • Plan:  Open Source ($0/month)
• Add members to the organization:
  • Create a team called developers to your organization.
  • Add your team members to the developers team.

Repo setup

Only one team member:

1. Fork nuscs2113-AY1920S1/PersonalAssistant-Duke to your team org.
2. Rename the forked repo as main. This repo (let's call it the team repo) is to be used as the repo for your project.
3. Ensure the issue tracker of your team repo is enabled. Reason: our bots will be posting your weekly progress reports on the issue tracker of your team repo.
4. Ensure your team members have the desired level of access to your team repo.
5. create a team PR for us to track your project progress: i.e., create a PR from your team repo master branch to [nuscs2113-AY1920S1/PersonalAssistant-Duke] master branch. PR name: [Team ID] Product Name e.g., [AY1920S1-CS2113-T13-1] Contact List Pro.  As you merge code to your team repo's master branch, this PR will auto-update to reflect how much your team's product has progressed. In the PR description @mention the other team members so that they get notified when the tutor adds comments to the PR.

All team members:

1. Watchthe main repo (created above) i.e., go to the repo and click on the watch button to subscribe to activities of the repo
2. Fork the main repo to your personal GitHub account.
3. Clone the fork to your Computer.
4. Recommended: Set it up as an Intellij project.

Note that some of our download scripts depend on the following folder paths. Please set up the these paths in your project carefully.

• /src/main
• /src/test
• /docs

Workflow

Before you do any coding for the project,

• Ensure you have set the Git username correctly (as explained in Appendix E) in all Computers you use for coding.
• Read our reuse policy (in Admin: Appendix B), in particular, how to give credit when you reuse code from the Internet or classmates:

 

Setting Git Username to Match GitHub Username

We use various tools to analyze your code. For us to be able to identify your commits, you should use the GitHub username as your Git username as well. If there is a mismatch, or if you use multiple user names for Git, our tools might miss some of your work and as a result you might not get credit for some of your work.

In each Computer you use for coding, after installing Git, you should set the Git username as follows.

1. Open a command window that can run Git commands (e.g., Git bash window)
2. Run the command git config --global user.name YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME
   e.g., git config --global user.name JohnDoe

More info about setting Git username is here.

 

Policy on reuse

Reuse is encouraged. However, note that reuse has its own costs (such as the learning curve, additional complexity, usage restrictions, and unknown bugs). Furthermore, you will not be given credit for work done by others. Rather, you will be given credit for using work done by others.

• You are allowed to reuse work from your classmates, subject to following conditions:
  • The work has been published by us or the authors.
  • You clearly give credit to the original author(s).
• You are allowed to reuse work from external sources, subject to following conditions:
  • The work comes from a source of 'good standing' (such as an established open source project). This means you cannot reuse code written by an outside 'friend'.
  • You clearly give credit to the original author. Acknowledge use of third party resources clearly e.g. in the welcome message, splash screen (if any) or under the 'about' menu. If you are open about reuse, you are less likely to get into trouble if you unintentionally reused something copyrighted.
  • You do not violate the license under which the work has been released. Please  do not use 3rd-party images/audio in your software unless they have been specifically released to be used freely. Just because you found it in the Internet does not mean it is free for reuse.
  • Always get permission from us before you reuse third-party libraries. Please post your 'request to use 3rd party library' in our forum. That way, the whole class get to see what libraries are being used by others.
  • This also ensures you learn the ethics to attribute credits to the correct stake holders/owners.

Giving credit for reused work

Given below are how to give credit for things you reuse from elsewhere. These requirements are specific to this module  i.e., not applicable outside the module (outside the module you should follow the rules specified by your employer and the license of the reused work)

If you used a third party library:

• Mention in the README.adoc (under the Acknowledgements section)
• mention in the Project Portfolio Page if the library has a significant relevance to the features you implemented

If you reused code snippets found on the Internet  e.g. from StackOverflow answers or
referred code in another software or
referred project code by current/past student:

• If you read the code to understand the approach and implemented it yourself, mention it as a comment
  Example:

  //Solution below adapted from https://stackoverflow.com/a/16252290
  {Your implmentation of the reused solution here ...}
  

• If you copy-pasted a non-trivial code block (possibly with minor modifications  renaming, layout changes, changes to comments, etc.), also mark the code block as reused code (using @@author tags)
  Format:

  //@@author {yourGithubUsername}-reused
  //{Info about the source...}
  
  {Reused code (possibly with minor modifications) here ...}
  
  //@@author
  

  Example of reusing a code snippet (with minor modifications):

  persons = getList()
  //@@author johndoe-reused
  //Reused from https://stackoverflow.com/a/34646172 with minor modifications
  Collections.sort(persons, new Comparator<CustomData>() {
      @Override
      public int compare(CustomData lhs, CustomData rhs) {
          return lhs.customInt > rhs.customInt ? -1 : (lhs.customInt < rhs.customInt) ? 1 : 0;
      }
  });
  //@@author
  return persons;
  

Adding @@author tags to indicate authorship

• Mark your code with a //@@author {yourGithubUsername}. Note the double @.
  The //@@author tag should indicates the beginning of the code you wrote. The code up to the next //@@author tag or the end of the file (whichever comes first) will be considered as was written by that author. Here is a sample code file:

  //@@author johndoe
  method 1 ...
  method 2 ...
  //@@author sarahkhoo
  method 3 ...
  //@@author johndoe
  method 4 ...
  

• If you don't know who wrote the code segment below yours, you may put an empty //@@author (i.e. no GitHub username) to indicate the end of the code segment you wrote. The author of code below yours can add the GitHub username to the empty tag later. Here is a sample code with an empty author tag:

  method 0 ...
  //@@author johndoe
  method 1 ...
  method 2 ...
  //@@author
  method 3 ...
  method 4 ...
  

• The author tag syntax varies based on file type e.g. for java, css, fxml. Use the corresponding comment syntax for non-Java files.
  Here is an example code from an xml/fxml file.

  <!-- @@author sereneWong -->
  <textbox>
    <label>...</label>
    <input>...</input>
  </textbox>
  ...
  

• Do not put the //@@author inside java header comments.
  👎

  /**
    * Returns true if ...
    * @@author johndoe
    */
  

  👍

  //@@author johndoe
  /**
    * Returns true if ...
    */
  

What to and what not to annotate

• Annotate both functional and test code There is no need to annotate documentation files.

• Annotate only significant size code blocks that can be reviewed on its own  e.g., a class, a sequence of methods, a method.
  Claiming credit for code blocks smaller than a method is discouraged but allowed. If you do, do it sparingly and only claim meaningful blocks of code such as a block of statements, a loop, or an if-else statement.

  • If an enhancement required you to do tiny changes in many places, there is no need to annotate all those tiny changes; you can describe those changes in the Project Portfolio page instead.
  • If a code block was touched by more than one person, either let the person who wrote most of it (e.g. more than 80%) take credit for the entire block, or leave it as 'unclaimed' (i.e., no author tags).
  • Related to the above point, if you claim a code block as your own, more than 80% of the code in that block should have been written by yourself. For example, no more than 20% of it can be code you reused from somewhere.
  • 💡 GitHub has a blame feature and a history feature that can help you determine who wrote a piece of code.

• Do not try to boost the quantity of your contribution using unethical means such as duplicating the same code in multiple places. In particular, do not copy-paste test cases to create redundant tests. Even repetitive code blocks within test methods should be extracted out as utility methods to reduce code duplication. Individual members are responsible for making sure code attributed to them are correct. If you notice a team member claiming credit for code that he/she did not write or use other questionable tactics, you can email us (after the final submission) to let us know.

• If you wrote a significant amount of code that was not used in the final product,

  • Create a folder called {project root}/unused
  • Move unused files (or copies of files containing unused code) to that folder
  • use //@@author {yourGithubUsername}-unused to mark unused code in those files (note the suffix unused) e.g.

  //@@author johndoe-unused
  method 1 ...
  method 2 ...
  

  Please put a comment in the code to explain why it was not used.

• If you reused code from elsewhere, mark such code as //@@author {yourGithubUsername}-reused (note the suffix reused) e.g.

  //@@author johndoe-reused
  method 1 ...
  method 2 ...
  

• You can use empty @@author tags to mark code as not yours when RepoSense attribute the to you incorrectly.

  • Code generated by the IDE/framework, should not be annotated as your own.

  • Code you modified in minor ways e.g. adding a parameter. These should not be claimed as yours but you can mention these additional contributions in the Project Portfolio page if you want to claim credit for them.

 

At the end of the project each student is required to submit a Project Portfolio Page.

• Objective:

  • For you to use  (e.g. in your resume) as a well-documented data point of your SE experience
  • For us to use as a data point to evaluate your,
    • contributions to the project
    • your documentation skills

• Sections to include:

  • Overview: A short overview of your product (can use the product introduction you wrote earlier) to provide some context to the reader.

  • Summary of Contributions:

    • Code contributed: Give a link to your code on Project Code Dashboard, which should be https://nuscs2113-ay1920s1.github.io/dashboard/#=undefined&search=github_username_in_lower_case (replace github_username_in_lower_case with your actual username in lower case e.g., johndoe). This link is also available in the Project List Page -- linked to the icon under your photo.
    • Features implemented: A summary of the features you implemented. If you implemented multiple features, you are recommended to indicate which one is the biggest feature.
    • Other contributions:
      • Contributions to project management e.g., setting up project tools, managing releases, managing issue tracker etc.
      • Evidence of helping others e.g. responses you posted in our forum, bugs you reported in other team's products,
      • Evidence of technical leadership e.g. sharing useful information in the forum

  • Relevant descriptions/terms/conventions: Include all relevant details necessary to understand the document, e.g., conventions, symbols or labels introduced by you, even if it was not introduced by you.

  • Contributions to the User Guide: Reproduce the parts in the User Guide that you wrote. This can include features you implemented as well as features you propose to implement.
    The purpose of allowing you to include proposed features is to provide you more flexibility to show your documentation skills. e.g. you can bring in a proposed feature just to give you an opportunity to use a UML diagram type not used by the actual features.

  • Contributions to the Developer Guide: Reproduce the parts in the Developer Guide that you wrote. Ensure there is enough content to evaluate your technical documentation skills and UML modelling skills. You can include descriptions of your design/implementations, possible alternatives, pros and cons of alternatives, etc.

  • If you plan to use the PPP in your Resume, you can also include your SE work outside of the module (will not be graded)

• Format:

  • File name: [TEAM_ID]-[Your Name]PPP.pdf e.g., [AY1920S1-CS2113T-F10-3][John Doe]PPP.pdf

  • Use one-half spacing between the lines for legibility

  • Follow this example. A PDF version of the same has been uploaded on LumiNUS.

  • 💡 You are free to choose any (collaborative) software to write the documents. However, try to follow the format of the sample user guide, developer guide and PPP given.

  • Do note that extra effort is needed in duplicating and maintaining consistency across UG/DG and PPP. This is a cost of not using automated document generation.

  • It is assumed that all contents in the PPP were written primarily by you. If any section is written by someone else  e.g. someone else described the feature in the User Guide but you implemented the feature, clearly state that the section was written by someone else  (e.g. Start of Extract [from: User Guide] written by Jane Doe).  Reason: Your writing skills will be evaluated based on the PPP

• Page limit:

  Content	Limit
  Overview + Summary of contributions	0.5-1 (soft limit)
  Contributions to the User Guide	2-4 (soft limit)
  Contributions to the Developer Guide	3-5 (soft limit)
  Total	5-8 (strict)

  • Reason for page limit: These submissions are peer-graded (in the PE) which needs to be done in a limited time span.
    

  • If you have more content than the limit given above, you can give a representative samples of UG and DG that showcase your documentation skills. Those samples should be understandable on their own. For the parts left-out, you can give an abbreviated version and refer the reader to the full UG/DG for more details.
    

  • It's similar to giving extra details as appendices; the reader will look at the UG/DG if the PPP is not enough to make a judgment. For example, when judging documentation quality, if the part in the PPP is not well-written, there is no point reading the rest in the main UG/DG. That's why you need to put the most representative part of your writings in the PPP and still give an abbreviated version of the rest in the PPP itself. Even when judging the quantity of work, the reader should be able to get a good sense of the quantity by combining what is quoted in the PPP and your abbreviated description of the missing part. There is no guarantee that the evaluator will read the full document.

Follow the forking workflow in your project up to v1.1. In particular,

• Get team members to review PRs. A workflow without PR reviews is a risky workflow.
• Do not merge PRs failing CI. After setting up Travis, the CI status of a PR is reported at the bottom of the PR page. The screenshot below shows the status of a PR that is passing all CI checks.
  
  If there is a failure, you can click on the Details link in corresponding line to find out more about the failure. Once you figure out the cause of the failure, push the a fix to the PR.

 

Project Management → Revision Control →

Forking Flow

In the forking workflow, the 'official' version of the software is kept in a remote repo designated as the 'main repo'. All team members fork the main repo create pull requests from their fork to the main repo.

To illustrate how the workflow goes, let’s assume Jean wants to fix a bug in the code. Here are the steps:

1. Jean creates a separate branch in her local repo and fixes the bug in that branch.
2. Jean pushes the branch to her fork.
3. Jean creates a pull request from that branch in her fork to the main repo.
4. Other members review Jean’s pull request.
5. If reviewers suggested any changes, Jean updates the PR accordingly.
6. When reviewers are satisfied with the PR, one of the members (usually the team lead or a designated 'maintainer' of the main repo) merges the PR, which brings Jean’s code to the main repo.
7. Other members, realizing there is new code in the upstream repo, sync their forks with the new upstream repo (i.e. the main repo). This is done by pulling the new code to their own local repo and pushing the updated code to their own fork.

• A detailed explanation of the Forking Workflow - From Atlassian

Issue tracker setup

We recommend you configure the issue tracker of the main repo as follows:

• Delete existing labels and add the following labels.
  💡 Issue type labels are useful from the beginning of the project. The other labels are needed only when you start implementing the features.

Issue type labels:

• type.Epic : A big feature which can be broken down into smaller stories e.g. search
• type.Story : A user story
• type.Enhancement: An enhancement to an existing story
• type.Task : Something that needs to be done, but not a story, bug, or an epic. e.g. Move testing code into a new folder)
• type.Bug : A bug

Status labels:

• status.Ongoing : The issue is currently being worked on. note: remove this label before closing an issue.

Priority labels:

• priority.High : Must do
• priority.Medium : Nice to have
• priority.Low : Unlikely to do

Bug Severity labels:

• severity.Low : A flaw that is unlikely to affect normal operations of the product. Appears only in very rare situations and causes a minor inconvenience only.
• severity.Medium : A flaw that causes occasional inconvenience to some users but they can continue to use the product.
• severity.High : A flaw that affects most users and causes major problems for users. i.e., makes the product almost unusable for most users.

• Create following milestones : v1.0, v1.1, v1.2, v1.3, v1.4,

• You may configure other project settings as you wish. e.g. more labels, more milestones

Project Schedule Tracking

In general, use the issue tracker (Milestones, Issues, PRs, Tags, Releases, and Labels) for assigning, scheduling, and tracking all noteworthy project tasks, including user stories. Update the issue tracker regularly to reflect the current status of the project. You can also use GitHub's Projects feature to manage the project, but keep it linked to the issue tracker as much as you can.

Using Issues:

During the initial stages (latest by the start of v1.2):

• Record each of the user stories you plan to deliver as an issue in the issue tracker. e.g. Title: As a user I can add a deadline
Description: ... so that I can keep track of my deadlines

• Assign the type.* and priority.* labels to those issues.

• Formalize the project plan by assigning relevant issues to the corresponding milestone.

From milestone v1.2:

• Define project tasks as issues. When you start implementing a user story (or a feature), break it down to smaller tasks if necessary. Define reasonable sized, standalone tasks. Create issues for each of those tasks so that they can be tracked.e.g.

  • A typical task should be able to done by one person, in a few hours.

    • Bad (reasons: not a one-person task, not small enough): Write the Developer Guide
    • Good: Update class diagram in the Developer Guide for v1.4

  • There is no need to break things into VERY small tasks. Keep them as big as possible, but they should be no bigger than what you are going to assign a single person to do within a week. eg.,

    • Bad:Implementing parser (reason: too big).
    • Good:Implementing parser support for adding of floating tasks

  • Do not track things taken for granted. e.g., push code to repo should not be a task to track. In the example given under the previous point, it is taken for granted that the owner will also (a) test the code and (b) push to the repo when it is ready. Those two need not be tracked as separate tasks.

  • Write a descriptive title for the issue. e.g. Add support for the 'undo' command to the parser

    • Omit redundant details. In some cases, the issue title is enough to describe the task. In that case, no need to repeat it in the issue description. There is no need for well-crafted and detailed descriptions for tasks. A minimal description is enough. Similarly, labels such as priority can be omitted if you think they don't help you.
      
      

• Assign tasks (i.e., issues) to the corresponding team members using the assignees field. Normally, there should be some ongoing tasks and some pending tasks against each team member at any point.

• Optionally, you can use status.ongoing label to indicate issues currently ongoing.

Setting Git Username to Match GitHub Username

We use various tools to analyze your code. For us to be able to identify your commits, you should use the GitHub username as your Git username as well. If there is a mismatch, or if you use multiple user names for Git, our tools might miss some of your work and as a result you might not get credit for some of your work.

In each Computer you use for coding, after installing Git, you should set the Git username as follows.

1. Open a command window that can run Git commands (e.g., Git bash window)
2. Run the command git config --global user.name YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME
   e.g., git config --global user.name JohnDoe

More info about setting Git username is here.

1. Create a branch named after the level.
2. Commit your changes to that branch. Push to your fork.
3. Create a Pull Request against the master branch of the repo https://github.com/nusCS2113-AY1920S1/{repo_name} e.g. https://github.com/nusCS2113-AY1920S1/duke