BookLore/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Booklore

🎉 Thanks for your interest in contributing to Booklore, a modern, self-hostable digital library system for books and comics. Whether you're fixing bugs, adding features, improving documentation, or asking questions - your contribution matters!

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📚 Overview

Booklore is a self-hostable platform designed to manage and read books and comics. It includes:

• Frontend: Angular 20, TypeScript, PrimeNG 19, Tailwind CSS
• Backend: Java 21, Spring Boot 3.5
• Authentication: Local JWT + optional OIDC (e.g. Authentik)
• Database: MariaDB
• Deployment: Docker-compatible, reverse proxy-ready

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📦 Project Structure

booklore/
├── booklore-ui/       # Angular frontend
├── booklore-api/      # Spring Boot backend
├── assets/            # Shared assets

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Fork the repository on GitHub
2. Clone your fork locally:

git clone https://github.com/adityachandelgit/BookLore.git
cd booklore

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🧱 Local Development Setup

1. Prerequisites

• Java 21+
• Node.js 18+
• MariaDB
• Docker and Docker Compose

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2. Frontend Setup

To set up the Angular frontend:

cd booklore-ui
npm install
ng serve

The dev server runs at http://localhost:4200/.

⚠️ Use --force with npm install only as a last resort for dependency conflicts.

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3. Backend Setup

a. Configure application-dev.yml

Create or edit booklore-api/src/main/resources/application-dev.yml:

app:
  path-book: '/path/to/booklore/books'      # Directory for book/comic files
  path-config: '/path/to/booklore/config'   # Directory for thumbnails, metadata, etc.

spring:
  datasource:
    driver-class-name: org.mariadb.jdbc.Driver
    url: jdbc:mariadb://localhost:3333/booklore?createDatabaseIfNotExist=true
    username: root
    password: Password123

🔧 Replace /path/to/... with actual local paths

b. Run the Backend

cd booklore-api
./gradlew bootRun

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🧪 Testing

Frontend

Run unit tests using:

cd booklore-ui
ng test

Backend

Run backend tests using:

cd booklore-api
./gradlew test

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🛠️ Contributing Guidelines

💡 Bug Reports

• Check existing issues
• Include reproduction steps, expected vs. actual behavior, and logs if possible

🌟 Feature Requests

• Clearly explain the use case and benefit
• Label the issue with feature

🔃 Code Contributions

• Create a feature branch:

git checkout -b feat/my-feature

• For bug fixes:

git checkout -b fix/my-fix

• Follow code conventions, keep PRs focused and scoped
• Link the relevant issue in your PR
• Test your changes
• Target the master branch when opening PRs

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🧼 Code Style & Conventions

• Angular: Follow the official style guide
• Java: Use modern features (Java 17+), clean structure
• Format: Use linters and Prettier where applicable
• UI: Use Tailwind CSS and PrimeNG components consistently

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📝 Commit Message Format

Follow Conventional Commits:

Examples:

• feat: add column visibility setting to book table
• fix: correct metadata locking behavior
• docs: improve contributing instructions

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🙏 Code of Conduct

Please be respectful, inclusive, and collaborative. Harassment, abuse, or discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated.

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💬 Community & Support

• Use GitHub Discussions
• Discord server: https://discord.gg/Ee5hd458Uz

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📄 License

Booklore is open-source and licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Happy contributing!