Add CONTRIBUTING.rst with contributing guidelines

CONTRIBUTING.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,336 @@
+**Contribution Guidelines**
+=============================== 
+
+Our Philosophy
+-----------------
+
+AppiumLibrary is a community-driven project. We believe in open collaboration, 
+quality over quantity, and maintaining a library that is easy to use for both 
+beginners and experts. Our goal is to provide reliable, well-documented keywords 
+that work seamlessly across iOS and Android platforms. 
+
+
+.. contents::
+
+
+**Ways to Contribute** 
+-----------------------
+
+
+1. Help Answer Questions
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Participate in discussions and help users with any issues they are encountering: 
+
+- Join the `Robot Framework Slack`_ and help out in the ``#appiumlibrary`` channel 
+
+- Answer questions in the `Robot Framework Forum`_ 
+
+- Share your knowledge and experience with the community 
+
+
+2. Report Issues
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+
+**Submitting Bug Reports:** 
+
+If you find any bugs or unexpected behavior, we encourage you to submit an issue. 
+Please follow the `Bug Report Guideline`_ below. 
+
+
+**Feature Requests:** 
+
+If you have an idea for a feature you'd like to see, feel free to submit a 
+feature request as a GitHub issue. Please describe your use case and how the 
+feature would benefit the community. We'll discuss it with you before any 
+work begins. 
+
+
+**Reproducing Existing Issues:** 
+
+If an issue has already been reported, try to reproduce it and provide 
+additional information if possible. Your help in confirming issues is valuable! 
+
+
+
+3. Contribute Code
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Fork the project, make a change, and send a pull request! See the
+`Development Setup`_ and `Submitting Issues`_ sections below. 
+
+
+4. Improve Documentation
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Help us improve the documentation by fixing typos, adding examples, or 
+clarifying existing content. Documentation contributions are just as
+valuable as code contributions! 
+
+
+Submitting Issues 
+-----------------------
+
+**How to Create Issues**
+
+**Is it a bug?** 
+
+- If you think you've encountered a bug, check the `existing issues`_ to see 
+  if it's already reported. If you can't find it, feel free to create a new issue. 
+
+- If you're unsure whether it is a bug, you can ask in Slack or Forum first 
+  to see if others are encountering the same issue or if it's something we 
+  are already working on. 
+
+
+**Feature requests:** 
+
+
+If you have an idea for a new feature or enhancement: 
+
+
+1. Check the `existing issues`_ to see if someone has already suggested it.
+2. If not, create a new issue with the label "enhancement".
+3. Describe the feature, your use case, and how it would benefit users.
+4. Be prepared to discuss the implementation approach with maintainers.
+
+We appreciate well-thought-out feature requests that include example usage
+and consider both iOS and Android platforms where applicable. 
+
+
+Bug Report Guideline 
+-----------------------
+
+
+When submitting a bug report, please include as much information as possible 
+to help us reproduce and fix the issue. This includes: 
+
+- **Python version** (e.g., 3.11.4) 
+
+- **Appium version** (e.g., 2.5.1) 
+
+- **Appium Python Client version** (e.g., 5.1.1) 
+
+- **AppiumLibrary version** (e.g., 3.1) 
+
+- **Platform** (iOS or Android) and version (e.g., Android 14, iOS 17.2) 
+
+- **Driver and its version** (e.g., UIAutomator2 2.34.1, XCUITest 5.12.0) 
+
+- **Simulator or real device** 
+
+- **Device information** (model of the device you're testing on) 
+
+- **Steps to reproduce** (minimal test case if possible) 
+
+- **Error messages** (full stack trace) 
+
+- **Expected vs. actual behavior** 
+
+
+Example bug report:: 
+
+
+    **Environment:** 
+
+    - Python: 3.11.4 
+
+    - Appium Server: 2.5.1 
+
+    - Appium Python Client: 5.1.1 
+
+    - AppiumLibrary: 3.1 
+
+    - Platform: Android 14 
+
+    - Driver: UIAutomator2 2.34.1 
+
+    - Device: Pixel 7 (emulator) 
+
+
+    **Keyword:** 
+
+    `Open Application` 
+
+
+    **Description:** 
+
+    The keyword does not correctly process capabilities with the `appium:` 
+    prefix. When passing capabilities like `appium:automationName`, they 
+    are not properly forwarded to the Appium server. 
+
+
+    **Steps to Reproduce:** 
+
+    1. Call `Open Application` with W3C-style capabilities using the 
+       `appium:` prefix 
+
+    2. Observe that the capability is either ignored or causes an error
+
+    **Expected Result:** 
+
+    Capabilities with `appium:` prefix should be correctly passed to the 
+    Appium server and the session should start successfully. 
+
+
+
+    **Actual Result:** 
+
+    The capability is not recognized, resulting in a session creation failure.
+
+    **Error Message:** 
+
+    ``` 
+
+    WebDriverException: Could not create session.  
+
+    Required capability 'automationName' not found. 
+
+    ``` 
+
+
+    **Minimal Example:** 
+
+    ```robotframework 
+
+    *** Test Cases *** 
+
+    Example 
+
+        Open Application    http://127.0.0.1:4723 
+
+        ...    platformName=Android 
+
+        ...    appium:automationName=UIAutomator2 
+
+        ...    appium:app=/path/to/app.apk 
+
+    ``` 
+
+
+.. warning::
+
+  **Before you submit:**
+
+  Please remember that all information you submit will be **public**. 
+  Do **NOT** include any private or confidential information as this is a public repository. 
+
+
+Contributing Code
+-----------------------
+
+Keyword Documentation 
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+All public keywords must have docstrings. When adding new keywords: 
+
+- First paragraph is a brief description 
+- Document all arguments with their types and default values 
+- Add examples showing common usage 
+- Note any platform-specific behavior (iOS vs Android) 
+
+
+
+Example:: 
+
+
+
+    def click_element(self, locator, modifier=False): 
+
+        """Click element identified by ``locator``. 
+
+
+
+        Key attributes for arbitrary elements are ``id`` and ``name``. 
+
+
+
+        If ``modifier`` is set to ``True``, the element will be 
+
+        clicked with a long press gesture. 
+
+
+
+        Examples: 
+
+        | Click Element | id=button_submit | 
+
+        | Click Element | xpath=//android.widget.Button[@text='OK'] | 
+
+
+
+        See also `Click Button`, `Click Text`, and `Long Press`. 
+
+        """ 
+
+        pass 
+
+
+
+Generating Documentation 
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+To regenerate the keyword documentation:: 
+
+
+    python -m robot.libdoc ./AppiumLibrary/ ./docs/AppiumLibrary.html 
+
+
+Submitting Changes 
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+
+1. **Create a new branch** for your feature or bugfix:: 
+
+
+
+       git checkout -b my-feature-branch 
+
+
+
+2. **Make your changes** and commit them with clear messages 
+
+
+
+3. **Push your branch** to your fork:: 
+
+
+
+       git push origin my-feature-branch 
+
+
+
+4. **Open a pull request** against the main repository 
+
+
+
+5. **Ensure CI checks pass** and address any review feedback 
+
+
+
+For questions or discussions, feel free to open an issue on GitHub or 
+
+reach out on Slack. 
+
+
+
+Project Contributors
+-----------------------
+
+
+
+See the `README`_ for the full list of project contributors. 
+
+We appreciate all contributions, big and small! Contributors will be
+acknowledged in the release notes. 
+
+
+
+Thank you for helping make AppiumLibrary better! 
+
+.. _Robot Framework Slack: https://robotframework.slack.com/
+.. _Robot Framework Forum: https://forum.robotframework.org/c/libraries/appium/37
+.. _Development Setup: https://github.com/serhatbolsu/robotframework-appiumlibrary?tab=readme-ov-file#contributing
+.. _existing issues: https://github.com/serhatbolsu/robotframework-appiumlibrary/issues
+.. _README: https://github.com/serhatbolsu/robotframework-appiumlibrary/blob/master/README.rst

README.rst

@@ -137,7 +137,11 @@ Robot Framework and AppiumLibrary. Check the sample project that you can find ex
 
 Contributing
 -------------
-Fork the project, make a change, and send a pull request!
+Thank you for your interest in contributing to AppiumLibrary!
+We welcome contributions of all kinds - whether you're submitting bug reports, suggesting new features, 
+improving the documentation, or helping others by answering questions in our `Slack`_ channel #appiumlibrary,
+or the `Robot Framework Forum`_. For more details, please see our `contributing guidelines`_.
+
 
 **Development Setup**
 
@@ -223,3 +227,6 @@ AppiumLibrary is modeled after (and forked from)  `appiumandroidlibrary <https:/
 .. _Appium Quickstart Intro: https://appium.io/docs/en/latest/quickstart/
 .. _sample project: https://github.com/serhatbolsu/robotframework-appium-sample
 .. _RoboCon 2024 workshop notes: https://github.com/eficode-academy/rf-mobile-testing-appium?tab=readme-ov-file#robocon-2024
+.. _contributing guidelines: https://github.com/serhatbolsu/robotframework-appiumlibrary/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.rst
+.. _Slack: https://robotframework.slack.com/
+.. _Robot Framework Forum: https://forum.robotframework.org/c/libraries/appium/37