1. I'd like to contribute, where do I begin?
2. How do I set up a local python virtual environment?
3. How do I get an instance of the mwmbl server running via Docker?
4. How do I get an instance of the mwmbl server running locally?

There are many ways to contribute and we appreciate any contribution no matter how small. Check out the issues on the various repos for something you think you could take on comfortably, or get in touch on Matrix.

Setting up a virtual environment is the recommended way to get started with developing a python project. A virtual environment lets you develop and install python dependencies in isolation without having dependency conflicts with other python projects that you might be using or developing simultaneously.

If you are already an experienced python programmer, feel free to create a virtual environment with python>=3.9 using your preferred environment management tool. If you are a beginner, here are some common ways to create a virtual environment quickly.

The following list of creating & activating environments is not exhaustive. We will use the commands python & pip, but in your case they might be referred to as python3 & pip3.

1. Using venv
   • First we assume that you have a working python installation with version >=3.9 and that the python command is available in your PATH. You can check your version of python by running python --version.
   • To create the environment, run the following command:

   # This command creates an environment folder.
   # You can refer to this environment uniquely by the path to the folder.
   # Feel free to change the path of folder.
   $ python -m venv /home/USER/mwmbl-venv
   

   • Next you need to activate this environment, run the following command:

   # After running this command, your shell might show "(mwmbl-venv)" at the beginning indicating the environment is "activated".
   $ source /home/USER/mwmbl-venv/bin/activate
   

   • [Optional] If you need to deactivate your environment after you are finished working with it, you can choose to deactivate the environment by running the following command:

   $ deactivate
   

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