Getting Started

No matter how experienced you are, it is a good idea to read this section before diving into Open States’ code.

This guide assumes a basic familiarity with using the command line, git, and Python.

No worries if you aren’t an expert though, we’ll walk you through the steps. And as for Python, if you’ve written other languages like Javascript or Ruby you’ll probably be just fine. Don’t be afraid to ask for help either!

Installing docker

The first thing you will need to do is get a working docker environment on your local machine. We’ll do this using Docker. No worries if you aren’t familiar with Docker, you’ll barely have to touch it beyond what this guide explains.

Install Docker and docker-compose (if not already installed on your local system):

(a) Installing Docker:

(Docker Compose is probably already installed by step 1(a) if not, proceed to step 1(b))

(b) Installing docker-compose:

Ensure that Docker and docker-compose are installed locally:

$ docker --version
Docker version 19.03.4, build 9013bf5
$ docker-compose --version
docker-compose version 1.24.1, build 4667896b

Of course, your versions will differ, but ensure they are relatively recent to avoid strange issues.

Installing pre-commit

To help keep the code as managable as possible we strongly recommend you use pre-commit to make sure all commits adhere to our preferred style.

  • See pre-commit’s installation instructions

  • Within each repo you check out, run pre-commit install after checking out. It should look something like:

    $ pre-commit install
pre-commit installed at .git/hooks/pre-commit

Note

If you’re running flake8 and black yourself via your editor or similar this isn’t strictly necessary, but we find it helps ensure commits don’t fail linting. We require all PRs to pass linting!

Get Familiar With Our Processes

We’re glad to have you joining us, taking a few minutes to read the following pages will help you be a better member of our community: