Skip to main content

For contributors

Contributors should install the beta so that they can test their changes before submitting pull requests. It's very helpful for debugging. Here's how to install the beta for contributors.

Fork the repository

To start, fork the ScratchTools repository. This will create your own version of ScratchTools that you can make changes to, and then submit them to ScratchTools.

It's good practice to create different branches for each new feature you make, and to make sure that your fork and its branches are up to date with the base repository (STForScratch/ScratchTools).

Install GitHub Desktop and VSCode

To be able to make changes, you should install Github Desktop and Visual Studio Code. GitHub Desktop manages changes to the code, and Visual Studio Code allows you to edit the code.

You can install GitHub Desktop here and Visual Studio Code here. You will need to set up GitHub Desktop by logging in. Then, in the repository selector, click the "Add" button, and then click the "Clone Repository" button.

Find the fork of ScratchTools and add it. Take note of the file path to where you are saving the repository. Once you add the repository to GitHub Desktop, open up chrome://extensions in your browser (the URL is different for browsers other than Chrome).

Add to your browser

Once you've opened up the extensions page, make sure that "Developer mode" is enabled (on Chrome, the switch is in the top-right corner). To make sure you don't have multiple ScratchTools versions running, disable all other versions of ScratchTools that are currently enabled.

Find the folder for the repository that you downloaded via GitHub Desktop. Then, drag it onto the page to add it. Awesome! You can now test your changes.

Open in Visual Studio Code

Go back to GitHub Desktop, and right click the repository in the top-left corner. Select "Open in Visual Studio Code" and wait for the app to open. You can now edit ScratchTools.

Recommendations

We highly recommend enabling Auto Save on Visual Studio Code. This will allow your changes to automatically update on the extension.