📝 Add contributing/development docs (#42)

docs/contributing.md

@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+First, you might want to see the basic ways to <a href="https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/help-fastapi/" target="_blank">help FastAPI and get help</a>.
+
+## Developing
+
+If you already cloned the repository and you know that you need to deep dive in the code, here are some guidelines to set up your environment.
+
+
+### Pipenv
+
+If you are using <a href="https://pipenv.readthedocs.io/en/latest/" target="_blank">Pipenv</a>, you can create a virtual environment and install the packages with:
+
+```bash
+pipenv install --dev
+```
+
+Then you can activate that virtual environment with:
+
+```bash
+pipenv shell
+```
+
+
+### No Pipenv
+
+If you are not using Pipenv, you can create a virtual environment with your preferred tool, and install the packages listed in the file `Pipfile`.
+
+
+### Flit
+
+**FastAPI** uses <a href="https://flit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html" target="_blank">Flit</a> to build, package and publish the project.
+
+If you installed the development dependencies with one of the methods above, you already have the `flit` command.
+
+To install your local version of FastAPI as a package in your local environment, run:
+
+```bash
+flit install --symlink
+```
+
+It will install your local FastAPI in your local environment.
+
+
+#### Using your local FastAPI
+
+If you create a Python file that imports and uses FastAPI, and run it with the Python from your local environment, it will use your local FastAPI source code.
+
+And if you update that local FastAPI source code, as it is installed with `--symlink`, when you run that Python file again, it will use the fresh version of FastAPI you just edited.
+
+That way, you don't have to "install" your local version to be able to test every change.
+
+
+### Format
+
+There is a script that you can run that will format and clean all your code:
+
+```bash
+bash scripts/lint.sh
+```
+
+It will also auto-sort all your imports.
+
+For it to sort them correctly, you need to have FastAPI installed locally in your environment, with the command in the section above:
+
+```bash
+flit install --symlink
+```
+
+
+### Docs
+
+The documentation uses <a href="https://www.mkdocs.org/" target="_blank">MkDocs</a>.
+
+All the documentation is in Markdown format in the directory `./docs`.
+
+Many of the tutorials have blocks of code.
+
+In most of the cases, these blocks of code are actual complete applicactions that can be run as is.
+
+In fact, those blocks of code are not written inside the Markdown, they are Python files in the `./docs/src/` directory.
+
+And those Python files are included/injected in the documentation when generating the site.
+
+
+#### Docs for tests
+
+Most of the tests actually run against the example source files in the documentation.
+
+This helps making sure that:
+
+* The documentation is up to date.
+* The documentation examples can be run as is.
+* Most of the features are covered by the documentation, ensured by the coverage tests.
+
+During local development, there is a script that builds the site and checks for any changes, live-reloading:
+
+```bash
+bash scripts/docs-live.sh
+```
+
+It will serve the documentation on `http://0.0.0.0:8008`.
+
+That way, you can edit the documentation/source files and see the changes live.
+
+#### Apps and docs at the same time
+
+And if you run the examples with, e.g.:
+
+```bash
+uvicorn tutorial001:app --debug
+```
+
+as Uvicorn by default will use the port `8000`, the documentation on port `8008` won't clash.
+
+
+### Tests
+
+There is a script that you can run locally to test all the code and generate coverage reports in HTML:
+
+```bash
+bash scripts/test-cov-html.sh
+```
+
+This command generates a directory `./htmlcov/`, if you open the file `./htmlcov/index.html` in your browser, you can explore interactively the regions of code that are covered by the tests, and notice if there is any region missing.

mkdocs.yml

@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ nav:
     - Alternatives, Inspiration and Comparisons: 'alternatives.md'
     - Benchmarks: 'benchmarks.md'
     - Help FastAPI - Get Help: 'help-fastapi.md'
+    - Development - Contributing: 'contributing.md'
     - Release Notes: release-notes.md
 
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