Contributing to ESAPI

Getting Started:

If you have not already done so, go back and read the section

"Contributing to ESAPI legacy" in ESAPI's README.md file. It

may contain updates and advice not contained herein.

A Special Note on GitHub Authentication:

GitHub has announced that they are deprecating password based authentication

using username / password and beginning 2021-08-13, you will no longer be

able to your password to authenticate to 'git' operations on GitHub.com.

Please see https://github.blog/2020-12-15-token-authentication-requirements-for-git-operations/

for details and plan accordingly.

A Special Note Regarding Making Commits for PRs

Shortly after the 2.5.1.0 ESAPI release in late November 2022, the ESAPI

team decided to lock down the 'develop' amd 'main' branches. Merges from

PRs are done to the 'develop' branch. That means that if you intend to

contribute to ESAPI, you must be signing your commits. Please see the

GitHub instructions at

https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/managing-commit-signature-verification/signing-commits

for details.

Finding Something Interesting to Work on:

See the section "Contributing to ESAPI legacy in

https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/README.md

While you don't *have* to work on something labeled "good first issue"

or "help wanted", those are good places to start for someone not yet

familiar with the ESAPI code base.

You will need a account on GitHub though. Once you create one, let us know

what it is. Then if you want to work on a particular issue, we can assign

it to you so someone else won't take it.

If you have questions, email Kevin Wall (Kevin.W.Wall@gmail.com) or Matt

Seil (xeno6696@gmail.com).

Overview:

We are following the branching model described in

https://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model

If you are unfamiliar with it, you would be advised to give it a quick

perusal. The major point is that the 'main' (formerly 'master') branch is

reserved for official releases (which will be tagged), the 'develop' branch

is used for ongoing development work and is the default branch, and we

generally work off 'issue' branches named 'issue-#' where # is the GitHub

issue number. (The last is not an absolute requirement, but rather a

suggested approach.)

Finally, we recommend setting the git property 'core.autocrlf' to 'input'

in your $HOME/.gitconfig file; e.g., that file should contain something

like this:

[core]

autocrlf = input

Required Software:

We use Maven for building. Maven 3.3.9 or later is required. You also need

JDK 8 or later. [Note: If you use JDK 9 or later, there will be multiple

failures when you try to run 'mvn test' as well as some general warnings.

See ESAPI GitHub issue #496 for details. We welcome volunteers to address

this.]

Building ESAPI:

https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/wiki/Building-ESAPI briefly discusses how to

build ESAPI via Maven.

Also https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/wiki/Using-ESAPI-for-Java-with-Eclipse

describes how to use ESAPI with Eclipse and

https://www.owasp.org/index.php/ESAPI-BuildingWithEclipse is a very old

overview of how to build ESAPI in Eclipse.

As always, any contributions to ESAPI's admittedly skimpy documentation

in this area is welcome.

Steps to work with ESAPI:

I usually do everything from the bash command prompt in Linux Mint,

but other people use Windows. If you prefer an IDE, I can't help you

much, but I can help with at least modest problems. If you have more

difficult problems, I will probably refer you to my project co-leader,

Matt who groks git a lot better than I.

But the basic high level steps are:

1. Fork https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy to your own GitHub

repository using the GitHub web site.

2. On your local laptop, clone your own GitHub ESAPI repo (i.e, the

forked repo created in previous step)

3. Create a new branch to work on an issue. I usually name the branch

'issue-#' where '#' is the GitHub issue # is will be working on, but

you can call it whatever. E.g.,

git checkout -b issue-#

4. Work on the GitHub issue on this newly created issue-# branch. Be sure

that you also create new JUnit tests as required that confirm that the

issue is corrected, or if you are introducing new functionality, ensure

that functionality is sufficiently covered.

5. Make sure everything builds correctly and all the JUnit tests pass

('mvn test'). [Note: There are some known issues with test failures if

your are running under Windows and your local ESAPI Git repo located

anywhere other than the C: drive, where the test

ValidatorTest.testIsValidDirectoryPath() fails. Also, if you are using

JDK 7 on Mac-OS, there is one know test failure in

SecurityProviderLoaderTest.testWithBouncyCastle(). That same test works

with JDK 8.]

6. If you have added any dependencies, please also run

mvn org.owasp:dependency-check-maven:check

to run OWASP Dependency-Check and look at the generated report

left in 'target/dependency-check-report.html' to make sure there

were not any CVEs introduced. (Alternately you can run 'mvn verify'

which will first run the tests and then run Dependency-Check.) Note

if this is the first time you have run Dependency-Check for ESAPI,

expect it to take a while (often 30 minutes or so!).

7. Commit your changes locally.

8. Push your 'issue-#' branch to your personal, forked ESAPI GitHub repo. E.g.,

$ git checkout issue-444

$ git remote -v | grep origin # Confirm 'origin' refers to YOUR PERSONAL GitHub repo

$ git push origin issue-444 # Push the committed changes on the 'issue-444' branch

9. Go to your personal, forked ESAPI GitHub repo (web interface) and create a

'Pull Request' (PR) from your 'issue-#' branch.

10. Back on your local personal laptop / desktop, merge your issue branch with

your local 'develop' branch. I.e.,

$ git checkout develop

$ git merge issue-444

11. Do not remove your branch on your forked repository until your PR from your

branch has been merged into the ESAPI/esapi-java/legacy 'develop' branch.

Note at least one the 3 main contributors on will review your commits before

merging them and they may do a formal code review and request further changes.

Once they are satisfied, they will merge your PR.

In theory, you can do all this 'git' magic from Eclipse and presumably other

IDEs like Oracle NetBeans or IntelliJ IDEA). From Eclipse, it is right-click

on the project and then select 'Team' to do the commits, etc. If you choose that

route, you're pretty much on your own because none of us use that for Git

interactions.