Write a patch

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    Write a patch
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    Learn Drupal Ladder
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    with Addison Berry
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    In this lesson, we're going to be looking
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    at how to write our own patches.
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    A patch is the way that the community gives something back.
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    So if you have fixed a problem, or if you're trying to provide
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    a new feature, and you've fixed that yourself-- written all of the code
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    up, or improved that documentation that's in the code-- the way
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    that you contribute that back to the communities is through a patch.
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    So what we'll be doing is looking at how to use Git in order
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    to create that patch, and then upload that to a Drupal.org issue,
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    so that the community can help us with it.
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    So starting on the DrupalLadder.org website,
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    going to the Drupal ladder tab, to the main Drupal ladder,
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    we are going to be doing the lesson that's called, write a patch.
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    And once we get in here, the first thing that we want to do,
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    as usual, is look at our prerequisites that we have.
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    This lesson also uses the same sandbox version of Drupal 8
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    that we've used in previous lessons.
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    So you should have that set up.
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    You'll need to have Git.
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    We'll also be working with the issue we created in the, getting
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    started in the issue queue lesson.
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    And then you'll also want a way to be able to capture a screen shot,
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    because we want to take a picture of the work
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    that we've done when we upload it to our issue.
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    And so when we get into the steps themselves,
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    we're going to start off by creating a branch for us to work in,
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    then making our edits, and then creating the patch.
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    So first, let's go ahead and actually go to the Drupal sandbox.
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    So that's my main code base that I'm going to work from.
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    And I'll do a quick git branch, just to make
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    sure that I know which branch I'm on, which is 8.x, which is correct.
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    So now we want to create our own working branch.
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    And the best practices would say that I
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    name that in a meaningful way.
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    So I'm going to my issue that I created in the sandbox.
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    So this is my issue from earlier, and I'm
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    going to grab the node ID, or the issue ID number out of the URL.
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    And I'm going to use that for my branch name.
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    So Git branch, and then if you type in a name of something,
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    it's going to create a branch.
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    So I'm going to put in the issue ID number, and then a description
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    of it, so that when I'm looking at it, if I have multiple branches,
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    I know which branch has which work in it.
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    And now that I've created the branch,
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    I need to actually be in that branch.
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    I'm still in my 8.x branch code base.
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    So I'm going to check out-- I have a shortcut for co.
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    You should type the full word check out there,
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    and then the branch name.
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    And then when I do a git branch, we'll see that the asterisk
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    is next to that one.
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    So I'm currently in my working branch,
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    and not in the main 8.x branch.
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    So I can go nuts, and I'm not actually changing the core stuff.
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    So we've done that first set.
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    The next thing is to actually make our changes.
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    So we need to go in and do the changes
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    we want to create the patch, and then
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    get the patch code into our branch.
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    So within this branch, you can open up any text
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    editor you want, any way you want.
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    You can do it from the command line.
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    I use Text Mate.
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    I could do this from the command line, like that.
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    Or, I can just use Explorer or Finder, and go and just open up.
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    But basically, this is where you just work on files the way
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    that you're used to working on files in whatever editor you want.
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    So the path.module is the file that we need to make this change in.
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    So I'm going to go ahead and open that up in my editor.
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    And I need to go to line 139, I believe.
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    Or you could search through here for the text.
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    So this is the description text on that form field,
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    and that's what we want to change.
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    Let me come back here, and I'm just going
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    to copy and paste this text, the correct text
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    that we want to use here.
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    I'll go ahead and paste that in.
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    Voila, save it, double check, make sure that I'm not doing any work
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    parse errors by doing that.
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    OK, now that I have the actual change
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    in the code, what I need to do is go back and check it, and see.
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    So I'm going to go into my sandbox site, and go add some content.
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    And just add an article, doesn't matter
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    what content we're adding here.
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    I just want to go to where the bug was, and where the fix is.
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    So this is the fix.
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    This is the correct text that I've just added.
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    So that looks fine, and it doesn't look
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    like it's messing anything else up.
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    And I'm not getting any parse errors, or anything like that.
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    So I think everything's good.
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    I'm going to go ahead and take a screenshot to show everybody what
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    the patch I created, what it does, so people can see the end result,
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    without having to necessarily apply it.
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    So I'll do that, and then I'm just going to put a little red box
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    around it, the actual text change, just to highlight
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    what changed on this page.
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    And I'll give it a name.
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    And I'm just going to save this to my desktop,
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    because I'll need it later to upload to the actual issue.
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    But at least I've captured what I've done in a screen shot,
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    and now what I need to do is go back and commit this code.
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    It's good, I like what happened, everything's
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    fixed just the way I want to be.
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    So now let's go ahead and go through the process of doing a commit.
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    So before I actually pull the trigger and do a commit,
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    let's do a quick Git status.
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    Always a good idea before committing.
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    Make sure you know what you're committing.
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    So let's see what's changed.
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    We can see that the path module changed.
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    I can see which files modified.
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    But if I actually want to see exactly what changed,
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    let's do a git diff, and then that basically gives
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    me what a patch file looks like.
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    And it shows me which lines have been changed.
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    So I can see I'm removing the optionally specify
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    to the alternative URL text.
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    So that looks correct.
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    That's the only change that I want to have in this commit.
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    So that's fine, so I can hit q to quit out of there.
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    And go ahead and do my commit.
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    I'm going to do am, so that I am adding the modified stuff
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    and leaving a message.
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    We want to put that issue number directly in there,
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    so it's handy to have it in my branch name.
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    So that's the issue number, and then I
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    need to put a description of what it is, just sort of describing what
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    this commit is, and then hit Enter.
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    And that commits it to my local repository.
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    So it now committed that change, and it's in there.
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    If I do a git log, I can see that's the last commit.
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    So there was code before, and now I've
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    made a change subsequent to that.
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    You can also use git show to actually show you the last commit.
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    So this shows everything that I did.
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    So everything looks good.
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    That is correct, those the changes that I wanted to do.
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    So again, I'll hit q, and get out of there.
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    Clear my screen.
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    Now that we've done the commit, we're
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    going to move down to the last part, which
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    is to actually submit a patch.
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    So we need to create an actual patch file,
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    and then add that to our issue on Drupal.org.
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    And you can see it's pretty simple.
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    We're basically just going to do a git diff an output that to a file
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    with a .patch ending on it.
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    You can see that the convention for naming the patch file
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    has a description, the issue number, and also the comment number.
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    So I'm going to go back to my issue here, and find the last comment
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    number, which is number three.
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    That means when I leave my comment with my patch,
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    that'll be comment number four.
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    So I want to know that before I name my patch.
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    So let's go back in here to command line.
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    Now git diff-- I want to get a diff of my branch to the 8.x branch,
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    so we can find what those differences are,
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    and then output that.
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    So that's what the angle bracket is for.
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    Output that to-- and I'll just give it a description.
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    I'm going to paste the issue number, and then
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    my comment numbers is four, .patch.
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    So that's how we name our patch files
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    so everybody's clear where that patch
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    actually came from on Drupal.org.
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    And do an ls, you can see that my patch
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    file is now in my Drupal site.
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    So it's been created successfully.
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    And now we can go back to the actual issue,
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    and I can scroll down here to the post
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    and comment, and add my patch and my screenshot, along with a comment
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    about what's going on.
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    The first thing I always do when I'm submitting a patch
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    is change the status, because it's a patch that's attached,
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    and it needs review now.
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    And if you don't change it, it's easy to forget.
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    And then that's annoying, so I always try and do it first.
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    So I'm leaving a comment, just sort of explaining what I've done.
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    And now I'm going to upload-- first, this is my screenshot.
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    It doesn't matter what order you do it in, obviously.
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    But I uploaded the screenshot, and now I'm going to go into my sandbox
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    site, and grab my patch file.
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    And go ahead and attach that one.
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    And that's it.
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    Now I can go ahead and save it.
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    And once it saves and the page reloads, you'll see,
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    we drop down here to my new comment.
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    It has needs review status, and it has my two files there, attached.
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    I can click on the patch file, and read
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    the patch file, just like anybody else's patch on Drupal.org.
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    Once you've uploaded to patch, we have
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    a test bot that will do automated tests on the patches that
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    are in the queue.
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    You can read about that in the instructions.
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    And I just want to show you, in our sandbox patch, it doesn't do it.
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    But here in the real issue, you can see when your patched
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    passes the tests, it shows green.
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    If it didn't, it would show red.
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    So we just need to wait for the test bot to get around to it
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    and test it.
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    Doesn't happen in our sandbox issue queue,
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    so I wanted to just show you what that look like.
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    And then the last thing we have here is you could, for bonus steps,
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    you can re-roll the patch.
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    It's essentially the same steps as we've done before.
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    You just would upload it again, changing the comment
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    number in your patch file name.
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    So creating patches is pretty simple.
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    Once you can identify the problem, and you know how to fix it,
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    it's a matter of making sure that you have the right code,
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    that you create your own branch, make your changes,
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    and then submitting your patch to the site.

The Learn Drupal Ladder

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Write a Patch

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11 minutes 9 seconds // Drupal 8, Drupal 7, Drupal 6 // HDCC //

In this video we will write our own patch to resolve an issue. We will take a screenshot of the issue before and after our patch, and upload the images and patch to the Drupal.org issue queue. This video follows the instructions in the Write a patch lesson on drupalladder.org.

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