Contributing to the Digital Skills GitBook
The Digital Skills GitBook is an open source project and like many projects on GitHub we welcome your contributions.
If you have knowledge or expertise on one of our requested topics, we would love you to write an article for the book. Please let us know what you'd like to write about via our contributor form or by sending us an e-mail digidexlibrarians+gitbook@gmail.com.
There are other ways to contribute too. For example, you might:
have a great idea for a new topic to be included in one of our chapters (make a new page)
notice some information that’s out-of-date or that could be explained better (edit a page)
come across something in the GitBook that’s not working as it should be (submit an issue)
By working through this topic, you’ll learn how to:
set up your own GitHub repository
contribute to an open source project on GitHub, and
submit a bug
Setting up and becoming familiar with your GitHub repository
Go to https://github.com/ and follow the prompts to Sign up. You will need e-mail address, and you will be asked to create a username and password. You will have to solve a ‘puzzle’ before a Launch code will be sent to your e-mail address.
Click on the button to Start a project.
Give your new repository a name. Your repository’s URL will take the form:
https://github.com/your user name/your repository name
Spaces in repository names will be replaced with hyphens, ie, your-repository-name.
Getting started with contribution
Before you can get to contributing to the book you will need to set up your contribution area.
First, please fill out our contributor form (make sure you’re still signed in to GitHub) so that we can credit you for your work!
If you’d like to leave it there, you can submit your content via the form and we’ll add it to the GitBook on your behalf. But we really hope you try submitting via a GitHub pull request as this project is all about learning new things!
Setting up your Digital Skills GitBook fork
Navigate to the GitHub repository https://github.com/AARNet/Digital-Skills-GitBook
In the top right-hand corner of the page, select Fork. By ‘forking’ the repository, you’re creating a copy of our code and editing it in your own account. You can’t break the Digital Skills GitBook or make any unintended changes by doing this.
You are now working in the cloned version of the repository you have just created. The folders match the chapter headings in the GitBook.
Selecting your topic
Before you begin let us know what you're working on!
From your copy of the GitBook find the requested-articles.md file.
On this page you'll see a pencil icon. Click this to start editing the document.
Find the article that you want to write and edit the All proficiency levels next to your topic to In Progress. You can use the Preview tab to see your changes before you save them.
Once done click the green Commit Changes box at the bottom of the screen to save your changes. This will save the changes to your copy of the book.
Now you will need to submit a pull request to notify the project team. Click on the Pull requests heading and start a New pull request.
Ensure the base repository is AARNET/Digital-Skills-GitBook and head repository is your forked repository. Then click on Create pull request. This will let us know what subject you have chosen and it will update the GitBook page so everyone else knows you are working on it.
Editing a page
To edit any page on the GitBook it's the exact same process as the steps you took under Selecting your topic.
Find the page you want to edit and once you're done editing it on your master copy you can send a Pull Request to the AARNET/Digital-Skills-Gitbook to merge the changes.
Adding a new topic to the Digital Skills GitBook via GitHub
Before you start, please familiarise yourself with our Code of Conduct, Instructions for Contributors and Style Guide.
If your topic of choice is not available in the GitBook you can create your own topic file.
Navigate to your repository in GitHub to find your Fork of the GitBook. If you haven't forked the GitBook please see Setting up your GitBook Fork above.
Select Add File > Create new file. Use the format xxxx.md to create a Markdown file.
This file will be a new page in the GitBook. Now, add your content using Markdown to format your headings and links. You don’t need to spend hours learning code to be able to contribute! Most pages in the GitBook will only use some basics:
Headings – use # to indicate your main heading
Bold – add two asterisks before and after your word or phrase
Hyperlinking - [Text to be linked](URL)
Commit your changes directly to the master branch.
Then open SUMMARY.md and select Edit this file. This file is the GitBook’s Table of Contents. Add your page by copying the existing format and structure.
Commit your changes directly to the master branch.
Now you will need to submit a pull request to notify the project team. Click on the Pull requests heading and start a New pull request.
Ensure the base repository is AARNET/Digital-Skills-GitBook and head repository is your forked repository. Then click on Create pull request.
You will need to add a Title for your pull request. You will also need to leave a comment. This can be a short description of the changes you have made. Then click on Create pull request to finalise the request.
Editing topics and raising issues
If you see anything that you think needs to be fixed or changed in the book and it is not your own article you can:
If you want to consult the original author of the page you can raise an issue and we will alert all the relevant authors for discussion.
If you are comfortable with editing and adding content then edit the page in your own repository and submit a pull request with the new edits. We'll review and consult the original author of the page if needed to put forward the edits.
When submitting a content update issue please put "Content Update" and the title of the page in question in the issue title so we are aware of what is being discussed and address it accordingly.
Please remember the Code of Conduct while raising issues or contributing to any discussions. Anyone is welcome to join in on discussions and issues raised.
Other useful resources
Markdown guide https://www.markdownguide.org/
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