Contributing to ORX

Thank you for your interest in contributing to ORX :-)

This repository contains the OPENRNDR extras: a growing library of assorted data structures, algorithms and utilities to complement OPENRNDR. Other repositories you can contribute to are the core OPENRNDR, the guide and the template.

Please read the general information about contributing to OPENRNDR. This document focuses on specific details about the ORX repository.

Overview

There are two types of ORX extras:

JVM only. Subfolders of /orx-jvm/. These run only on Desktop (not in web browsers).
Multiplatform. Other /orx-.../ folders. These run both on Desktop and web browsers.

Each orx folder contains a README.md, a build.gradle.kts file and a src folder. Please explore several orx directories to get a feel for how they look like.

Gradle tasks are used to update the list of ORX'es in the root README.md, and to update the list of demos in each ORX'es README.md.

Folder structure (JVM)

orx-magic/
├── README.md
├── build.gradle.kts
└── src/
    ├── main/
    │   └── kotlin/
    │       └── Magic.kt
    └── demo/
        └── kotlin/
            ├── DemoFoo01.kt
            └── DemoBar01.kt

Folder structure (multiplatform)

orx-magic/
├── README.md
├── build.gradle.kts
└── src/
    ├── commonMain/kotlin/
    │   └── Magic.kt
    ├── commonTest/kotlin/
    ├── jsMain/kotlin/
    ├── jsTest/kotlin/
    ├── jvmDemo/kotlin/
    │   ├── DemoFoo01.kt
    │   └── DemoBar01.kt
    ├── jvmMain/kotlin/
    └── jvmTest/kotlin/

Note that inside src only commonMain is required.

ORX README.md

Assuming you are creating an orx called magic, the readme should be formatted as follows:

# orx-magic

One or more lines including a short description to display on the root README.md.
One or more lines including a short description to display on the root README.md.
One or more lines including a short description to display on the root README.md.

Main content describing the usage of orx-magic goes here
...

<!-- __demos__ -->

Start with a markdown header with the name of the orx followed by an empty line.
One or more lines with a brief description to show on the root README.md, followed by an empty line. (The buildMainReadme Gradle task will extract this description and update the root README.md).
A detailed description (a guide) of how to use the orx, possibly with code examples in code fences like
```
```kotlin
  //code example
```
```
If the orx includes demos (more below), running the CollectScreenShots Gradle task will append  to the readme followed by a list of automatically generated screenshots of the demos and links to their source code. This is specially useful for orx'es that produce graphical output, but less so for orx'es that interface with hardware (like orx-midi).

ORX build.gradle.kts

ORX build.gradle.kts files declare their dependencies and most follow the same structure. Please explore various build files and find the simplest one that matches your use case. Note that the JVM ones are somewhat simpler than the multiplatform ones.

The plugins section includes either org.openrndr.extra.convention.`kotlin-multiplatform` or org.openrndr.extra.convention.`kotlin-jvm` depending on the orx type.

JVM

The JVM build files declare separate dependencies for the orx itself (implementation) and for usage demos (demoImplementation). See an example.

Multiplatform

The multiplatform build files may have blocks like commonMain, commonTest, jvmTest, jvmDemo, etc. to specify the dependencies for each case. See an example.

I want to contribute to the documentation

There are various places where you can contribute without writing code. It will be greatly appreciated by others trying to learn about OPENRNDR.

Guide

The guide is the first contact with OPENRNDR for most users. Learn how to work on the guide.

ORX API page

The ORX API page needs some love too. The content is automatically extracted from comments written in ORX's source code. It goes like this:

Fork the ORX repo, then clone your fork (so you have a copy on your computer) and get familiar with OPENRNDR and ORX.
Find an undocumented section at https://orx.openrndr.org you want to explain.
Find the corresponding Kotlin file in your cloned repo and add missing comments. Read about the suggested style.
Generate the API website locally to verify your changes look correct by running the following command: ./gradlew dokkaGenerate -Dorg.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1536M. This will create the html documentation under build/dokka/html/.
Open the build/dokka/html/index.html in your web browser. If something looks off tweak your comments. Note: the sidebar will be empty unless viewed through a web server. You can launch one by running python3 -m http.server --bind 127.0.0.1 in the html folder.
To continue improving the API go back to step 3, otherwise send a Pull Requests from your fork.

Demos

ORX'es often include a jvmDemo folder. This folder should contain small programs demonstrating how the ORX can be used. When the build system runs the CollectScreenShots task, the SingleScreenshot() extension will be injected into each program found inside the jvmDemo folder, then executed. A PNG screenshot is saved and pushed into the media brach. Finally, links to those PNG images are inserted into the README.md file of each ORX, together with a link to the source code that produced the screenshot.

This serves two purposes: it can be useful for the user to see images of what the ORX can produce, while it can also be usefu to detect breaking changes (in case the demo fails to run, or produces a blank image).

Gradle tasks

CollectScreenShots
buildMainReadme

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