Motivation

This blog post discusses how to use the sample repositories available on the GitHub, for the localization extensibility solutions shared via the Localization Toolkit for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.  

GitHub is one of the open source repositories that hosts services based on Git. Sample codes from SAP are available on the GitHub under the organization SAP Samples (https://github.com/SAP-samples). 

Terms used in the blog

Repository

This is the storage space on the GitHub where the Localization Toolkit for SAP S/4HANA Cloud projects are available for you to view and to utilize. It has relevant files, code snippets, images and other documents.

Contributor

A contributor is one who recommends changes to a project and communicates the same to the project team. This can be done in two distinct ways: by creating new issues reporting problems or suggestions, or by creating pull request with actual changes in the code. 

Project Team (Owner)

The team that owns the repository and shares project relevant data. They are constantly monitoring new issues or pull requests sent by the contributors. 

How to consume (download)

To hold a copy of the code snippets and documents, you can download a repository from GitHub without signing in.  A repository can be downloaded in a zip format to a local storage. For example, you can download the code snippets for validating a tax ID from the following link: https://github.com/SAP-samples/localization-toolkit-s4hana-cloud-tax-id-validation 

Download repository .ZIP file from GitHub

How to contribute 

Note: To be a contributor, a GitHub registration is mandatory. For more information refer to the following link: https://github.com/join?ref_cta=Sign+up&ref_loc=header+logged+out&ref_page=%2F&source=header-home 

After sign-in you can search for the required repository, in our example the repository for validating a tax ID, and fork it. Forking creates a kind of a “connected” copy of the repository to your user workspace on the GitHub. All project code is copied and a simpler repository, intended for contribution (assuming it will have no issues to be discussed in the forked since it is one-person repository) is created. 

In the forked area, a copy of the project code is available for you to work with, since direct changes are not permitted in on the SAP-Samples. Instead all changes are made on this forked copy of the repository. When you first you start making changes, a new branch is automatically created in the forked repository where you can make for the changes.  

New forked repository

The changes made in the forked area can later be submitted to the source repository (SAP Sample repository) by creating a pull request of the changes. Creating a pull request notifies the owner of the repository about the changes from the new branch (fork) to main branch. The owner of the repository can identify the change request done by you via this notification. The owner of the repository would be responsible for responding to the pull request notification. 

Commit changes

Comparing changes

Open a pull request

The owner of the repository has the rights to confirm the changes and merges to main branch or to another branch, as suggested by a contributor branch. The Git user interface gives the flexibility of communication and allows the contributors to contribute with SAP team.

Also, as mentioned earlier, contributors can also quickly and easily open issues to report bugs or ideas. This only requires the contributor to be a registered GitHub user. After clicking on the New Issue button, under the “Issues” tab, a simple form with Title and a description area allows the user to interact with the owners.

Open a new issue

Issue description

Conclusion

The extensibility solutions within the Localization Toolkit for SAP S/4HANA Cloud GitHub repository provide different ways to tackle localization projects and allow and encourage end users to contribute to the already existing localization solutions.