Coding guidelines

Coding guidelines#

The coding standards for the entire NGCP project is here. It is required to read this if you are to contribute to GCS.

Everything else discussed in this page talks about guidelines specific to GCS.

Working with GCS#

Running GCS#

To run GCS, you need to first install all the required package dependencies:

cd GCS
npm install

Then you can run the GCS by running this command:

npm run start

Once GCS is running, code changes you make will automatically be applied to GCS. There is no need to re-run GCS (there are some special cases, such as installing new package dependencies).

Building GCS#

To make an executable version of GCS (an actual application), then you run the following command:

npm run build

This will create an executable application/installer on the GCS/dist folder. This application depends on the operating system you are running.

Testing GCS#

To see if the code you have written for GCS works, you can perform the following actions:

  1. See if all the tests pass by running npm run test.
  2. Running GCS and seeing if the app runs properly.
  3. Building GCS and seeing if the executable runs properly.

Managing GCS's version#

The root of GCS's repository contains a file called package.json. That file has a version field, which indicates GCS's version.

{
  "name": "GCS",
  "version": "0.9.3",
  "license": "MIT",
  "author": "Northrop Grumman Collaboration Project",
  "description": "Ground Control Station for autonomous vehicle platforms in NGCP",
  "repository": "https://github.com/NGCP/GCS",

The version field is a string with the format "X.Y.Z". Here are the guidelines on how to update them:

  • Update X if a major update happens. This happens when a really big update in GCS happens.

  • Update Y if a minor update happens. This happens when a change in GCS happens. This is usually the number to update if a minor feature is added.

  • Update Z if a patch update happens. This includes bug patches, small changes, and dependency package version bumps (usually from Dependabot)

When to update version

Always update the package version for every pull request that is made. If package version is not updated, either update it or ask the person creating the pull request to update it.

Updating GCS documentation#

To run documentation locally on your computer, run the following command:

npm run docs

The documentation is hosted on your localhost.

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