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Contribution Guide

How to contribute new features or bug fixes?​

  1. Select a feature you want to implement or a bug you want to fix from the lost issue list
    • If you have a new feature, create a new feature request
  2. State in the issue comments that you are willing to implement the feature / fix the bug
  3. We will respond to your comment
  4. Implement the feature
  5. Create a pull request

How to do backend development?​

The backend is written in python. We use flask for the webserver and celery to execute time consuming tasks.

If you want to adjust backend code and test your changes please perform the following steps:

  1. Install LOST as described in LOST QuickSetup <quick-setup>.
  2. Adjust the LOST_DEBUG_MODE variable in the .env config file. This file should be located at <lost_install_dir>/docker/compose/.env. 
    LOST_DEBUG_MODE=True
  3. In oder to run your code, you need to mount your code into the docker container. You can do this by adding docker volumes in the compose.yml file. The file should be located at lost_install_dir/docker/compose/compose.yml. Do this for all containers in the compose file that contain lost source code (lost-backend) 
    services
       backend:
           image: l3pcv/lost-backend:${LOST_VERSION}
           env_file:
             - .env
           volumes:
             - app:/home/lost/app
             - data:/home/lost/data
             - </path/to/lost_clone>/backend:/code/
           restart: always
           labels:
             - traefik.enable=true
             - traefik.http.routers.backend.rule=PathPrefix(`/api`)||PathPrefix(`/swaggerui`)
             - traefik.http.routers.backend.entrypoints=web
             - traefik.http.routers.backend.service=backend
             - traefik.http.services.backend.loadbalancer.server.port=5000
           depends_on:
             db:
               condition: service_started
Note

Because flask is in debug mode, code changes are applied immediately. An exception to this behaviour are changes to code that are related to celery tasks. After such changes, lost needs to be restarted manually for the code changes to take effect.

How to do frontend development?​

The Frontend is developed with React and CoreUI (and Redux, but this will be removed in the future)

  1. To start developing frontend follow the LOST QuickSetup <quick-setup> instruction.
  2. Change directory to the frontend folder and install npm packages
cd lost/frontend/lost/
npm i

  1. [Optional] Set the ports as you need them in the compose.yaml

  2. Start development server with

npm start

To access the most common parts to develop for the frontend, search the containers and components directories.

Building lost containers locally​

  • The whole build process is described in .gitlab-ci.yml.

  • All required docker files are provided in lost/docker within the lost repository.

There are 2 containers unique to LOST, that will be executing scripts and the webserver:

  • lost-backend-1: Handles the execution of scripts and the API

  • lost-frontend-1: Handles the GUI

You can find the LOST containers and their official names in the compose.yaml