Table of Contents

• What’s a Feature?
• Accessing Feature Requests
• Writing a Feature Request
  • Request Title
  • Describe the feature
  • How will this feature enhance your project and further the project’s overall goals? Who will benefit from this feature (i.e. all users; th e project team)?
  • Are there any alternatives for this feature? Are there any consequences for your project if this feature is not implemented?
  • Please share any examples of this feature, or one similar to it, tha t you have encountered in other contexts.
• Support

Feature Request Guidelines

This document explains the process for requesting a feature in GitHub.

What’s a Feature?

A feature is a specific functionality that you would like your projec t to have. A Feature Request is how you ask for a completely new feature (fixes to existing functionality should be filed as a Bug. Features are usually described in the project proposal, but may also arise organically as the project progresses. Our feature request template contains several questions that will help us understand your request and get it right. Please try to be as specific as possible.

Accessing Feature Requests

Here are the steps to access the bug report template in your GitHub Repository.

1. Ensure that you are in your repository on GitHub by looking for the acronym for your project in the top left-hand corner. In the example below, we know we’re in the repository for the Social and Economic Networks Project (SEN) since the link in the corner says sfu-dhil/sen. You can also confirm you’re in your repository by looking at the About block on the right hand side.
   
   If you’re unsure about how to locate your repository, you can email dhil-projects@sfu.ca and we can provide you with the link.
2. Click on Issues:
   
   
3. Click on New Issue:
   
   
4. Click on Feature Request: Get Started:
   
   
5. You will arrive at this page:
   
   [[ NEED SCREENSHOT]]

Writing a Feature Request

Request Title

Create a short but descriptive title for the feature request.

Example:

Allow PDF upload for transcription of podcast episodes

Describe the feature

A clear and concise description of this feature. Please describe what the feature does. You’ll be asked why it is important later.*

Example:

New podcast episodes should include an option for uploading a PDF version of the transcription.

How will this feature enhance your project and further the project’s overall goals? Who will benefit from this feature (i.e. all users; th e project team)?

A concise statement about the importance of the feature and the impact it should have on your project.

Example:

Transcripts of the episodes are important to accessibility and search functionality. Anyone unable to listen to the podcast audio will still be able to access the content, and search engines will be able to index the content of the episodes for better searching.

Are there any alternatives for this feature? Are there any consequences for your project if this feature is not implemented?

A brief description of alternatives that might exist, if you can think of any. A brief description how your project will be affected if the feature cannot be implemented.

Example:

Not providing transcripts decreases the accessibility of our site and unnecessarily limits our audience to people who can access audio files.

Please share any examples of this feature, or one similar to it, tha t you have encountered in other contexts.

URLs and/or screenshots for the examples, with a brief description of what we will see.

Example:

[[ NEED EXAMPLE ANSWER ]]

Support

If you have questions after reading these guidelines, please send us an email at dhil-projects@sfu.ca and we’ll be in touch soon.