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Contributing to Element Android

Contributing code to Matrix

Please read https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Element Android support can be found in this room: Element Android Matrix room #element-android:matrix.org.

The rest of the document contains specific rules for Matrix Android projects

Android Studio settings

Please set the "hard wrap" setting of Android Studio to 160 chars, this is the setting we use internally to format the source code (Menu Settings/Editor/Code Style then Hard wrap at). Please ensure that you're using the project formatting rules (which are in the project at .idea/codeStyles/), and format the file before committing them.

Template

An Android Studio template has been added to the project to help creating all files needed when adding a new screen to the application. Fragment, ViewModel, Activity, etc.

To install the template (to be done only once):

  • Go to folder ./tools/template.

  • Mac OSX: Run the script ./configure.sh.

    Linux: Run ANDROID_STUDIO=/path/to/android-studio ./configure

    • e.g. ANDROID_STUDIO=/usr/local/android-studio ./configure

  • Restart Android Studio.

To create a new screen:

  • First create a new package in your code.
  • Then right click on the package, and select New/New Vector/Element Feature.
  • Follow the Wizard, especially replace Main by something more relevant to your feature.
  • Click on Finish.
  • Remaining steps are described as TODO in the generated files, or will be pointed out by the compiler, or at runtime :)

Note that if the templates are modified, the only things to do is to restart Android Studio for the change to take effect.

Compilation

For now, the Matrix SDK and the Element application are in the same project. So there is no specific thing to do, this project should compile without any special action.

I want to help translating Element

If you want to fix an issue with an English string, please submit a PR. If you want to fix an issue in other languages, or add a missing translation, or even add a new language, please use Weblate.

I want to submit a PR to fix an issue

Please have a look in the dedicated documentation about pull request.

Please check if a corresponding issue exists. If yes, please let us know in a comment that you're working on it. If an issue does not exist yet, it may be relevant to open a new issue and let us know that you're implementing it.

Kotlin

This project is full Kotlin. Please do not write Java classes.

Changelog

Please create at least one file under ./changelog.d containing details about your change. Towncrier will be used when preparing the release.

Towncrier says to use the PR number for the filename, but the issue number is also fine.

Supported filename extensions are:

  • .feature: Signifying a new feature in Element Android or in the Matrix SDK.
  • .bugfix: Signifying a bug fix.
  • .wip: Signifying a work in progress change, typically a component of a larger feature which will be enabled once all tasks are complete.
  • .doc: Signifying a documentation improvement.
  • .sdk: Signifying a change to the Matrix SDK, this could be an addition, deprecation or removal of a public API.
  • .misc: Any other changes.

See https://github.com/twisted/towncrier#news-fragments if you need more details.

Code quality

Make sure the following commands execute without any error:

Internal tool

./tools/check/check_code_quality.sh

ktlint

./gradlew ktlintCheck --continue

Note that you can run

./gradlew ktlintFormat

For ktlint to fix some detected errors for you (you still have to check and commit the fix of course)

lint

./gradlew lintGplayRelease
./gradlew lintFdroidRelease

Unit tests

Make sure the following commands execute without any error:

./gradlew testGplayReleaseUnitTest

Tests

Element is currently supported on Android Lollipop (API 21+): please test your change on an Android device (or Android emulator) running with API 21. Many issues can happen (including crashes) on older devices. Also, if possible, please test your change on a real device. Testing on Android emulator may not be sufficient.

You should consider adding Unit tests with your PR, and also integration tests (AndroidTest). Please refer to this document to install and run the integration test environment.

Internationalisation

Translations are handled using an external tool: Weblate

As a general rule, please never edit or add or remove translations to the project in a Pull Request. It can lead to merge conflict if the translations are also modified in Weblate side. Pull Request containing change(s) on the translation files cannot be merged.

Adding new string

When adding new string resources, please only add new entries in the file values/strings.xml (this file). Translations will be added later by the community of translators using Weblate.

The file values/strings.xml must only contain American English (U. S. English) values, as this is the default language of the Android operating system. So for instance, please use "color" instead of "colour". Element Android will still use the language set on the system by the user, like any other Android applications which provide translations. The system language can be any other English language variants, or any other languages. Note that this is also possible to override the system language using the Element Android in-app language settings.

New strings can be added anywhere in the file values/strings.xml, not necessarily at the end of the file. Generally, it's even better to add the new strings in some dedicated section per feature, and not at the end of the file, to avoid merge conflict between 2 PR adding strings at the end of the same file.

Plurals

Please use plurals resources when appropriate, and note that some languages have specific rules for plurals, so even if the string will always be at the plural form for English, please always create a plurals resource.

Specific plural forms can be found here.

Editing existing strings

Two cases:

  • If the meaning stays the same, it's OK to edit the original string (i.e. the English version).
  • If the meaning is not the same, please create a new string and do not remove the existing string. See below for instructions to remove existing string.

Removing existing strings

If a string is not used anymore, it should be removed from the resource, but please do not remove the strings or its translations in the PR. It can lead to merge conflict with Weblate, and to lint error if new translations from deleted strings are added with Weblate.

Instead, please comment the original string with:

<!-- TODO TO BE REMOVED -->

And add tools:ignore="UnusedResources" to the string, to let lint ignore that the string is not used.

The string will be removed during the next sync with Weblate.

Renaming string ids

This is possible to rename ids of the String resources, but since translation files cannot be edited, add TODO in the main strings.xml file above the strings you want to rename.

<!-- TODO Rename id to put_new_id_here -->
<string name="current_id">Hello Matrix world!</string>

The string id(s) will be renamed during the next Weblate sync.

Reordering strings

To group strings per feature, or for any other reasons, it is possible to reorder string resources, but only in the main strings.xml file. ). We do not mind about ordering in the translation files, and anyway this is forbidden to edit manually the translation files.

It is also possible to add empty lines between string resources, and to add XML comments. Please note that the XML comment just above a String resource will also appear on Weblate and be visible to the translators.

Accessibility

Please consider accessibility as an important point. As a minimum requirement, in layout XML files please use attributes such as android:contentDescription and android:importantForAccessibility, and test with a screen reader if it's working well. You can add new string resources, dedicated to accessibility, in this case, please prefix theirs id with a11y_.

For instance, when updating the image src of an ImageView, please also consider updating its contentDescription. A good example is a play pause button.

Layout

When adding or editing layouts, make sure the layout will render correctly if device uses a RTL (Right To Left) language. You can check this in the layout editor preview by selecting any RTL language (ex: Arabic).

Also please check that the colors are ok for all the current themes of Element. Please use ?attr instead of @color to reference colors in the layout. You can check this in the layout editor preview by selecting all the main themes (AppTheme.Status, AppTheme.Dark, etc.).

Authors

Feel free to add an entry in file AUTHORS.md

Thanks

Thanks for contributing to Matrix projects!