Contributing

IDE

We recommend using IntelliJ as IDE for contributing.

We also recommend installing the Gradle Plugin and the Save Actions Plugin (Note that you need to make sure your keymap is up to date for the plugin to work properly).

For IntelliJ 203.* or older, you also need to manually install the Lombok Plugin. This step is not needed for later versions as they already ship with the plugin.

After installing IntelliJ you can import the root folder of this repository as a Gradle project. When using the Save Actions Plugin, you have to copy the saveactions_settings.xml from the /codequality/idea to the .idea directory which is generated on project import.

Furthermore, please import the /codequality/idea/code_style.xml file into the project's settings of IntelliJ in order to match the code style we're using.

Frontend Developing

If developing JavaScript in IntelliJ Ultimate, check that Settings.Languages & Frameworks.JavaScript.Code Quality Tools.ESLint is activated for correct linting.

In the same location, check the checkbox for running eslint --fix on save.

Process

The first step in order to contribute is to fork this repository into your account. You can develop your changes on a separate branch there and open a pull request in the main repository as soon as you are done.

If your pull request has changed any dependencies, the THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt file must be updated. Normally, an automatic workflow will run when opening a new pull request. Otherwise, please run gradlew generateLicenseReport to update the file.

Usually, a pull request should correspond to an open issue in this repository. Therefore, make sure that an issue exists which your pull request attempts to resolve. If none exists, you should create one. There is an exemption to this rule: For very small fixes (e.g. Typo-Fixes), your pull request does not need to have a corresponding issue. If your PR corresponds to an issue, the issue should be correctly labeled (e.g. enhancement, bug, etc.) because the release notes will be generated based on these labels.

When you open your pull request, you should use the following format for the title:

Closes #{Issue ID} - {Description} (#{Pull Request ID})

Members from the inspectIT team will then review your changes and either request changes or approve your PR. In case changed were requested, please fix them (or discuss the changes) and then your PR will be reviewed again.

As soon as everything is approved, the inspectIT admins will merge your pull request. Your change will become a single commit with the title of the PR as commit message.

Testing

When creating a PR or pushing to main, a lot of tests will be executed, especially when editing the agent. Running agent unit and integration tests can take up to 10 min. Running agent system tests can take up to 5 min.

There are some known flaky tests (test which fail randomly). Therefore, it may be necessary to re-run those tests for a successful build. We are always looking for someone to improve our testing pipeline!

The following tests are known to be flaky:

• Unit test: CustomSpanBuilderTest > Timestamps > verifyTimingsChanged()
• System test: Multiple tests > java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class io.opentelemetry.context.LazyStorage
• System test: Unknown (only on imbjava8-sdk) > Processing dump event "systhrow", detail "java/lang/OutOfMemoryError"