shopdb-flask/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to ShopDB Flask

Coding Standards

Naming principles

1. Spell it out. If a non-technical user looking at a report would not understand a column at a glance, rename it.
2. No project-specific shorthand. A name either uses a word in full, or uses an acronym from the allowed list below.
3. Consistency beats cleverness. Once a name is committed and used in code, do not rename it for marginal improvement.
4. When unsure, ask: "would a new shop-floor IT person understand this?"

Database

• Table names: lowercase, concatenated, plural. No dashes, no underscores.
  • Good: machines, pctypes, networkdevices, businessunits, auditlogs
  • Bad: machine_types, network-devices, BusinessUnits
• Column names: lowercase, concatenated, singular. No dashes, no underscores.
  • Good: machineid, machinenumber, lastzabbixsync, isactive
  • Bad: machine_id, last_zabbix_sync, IsActive
• Foreign keys: referenced table name (singular) + id.
  • Good: locationid references locations, vendorid references vendors
• Booleans: prefix with is or has.
  • Good: isactive, isshopfloor, hasprinter
• Index names: idx_<table>_<column>. Underscores allowed here only because indexes are infrastructure, not data.
  • Good: idx_machines_locationid

Allowed acronyms (closed list, expand by PR)

• Universal: id, url, api, http, https, json, jwt, sql, os, ip, dns, csv, pdf, cors, ttl, uuid, html, css, orm
• Domain (shop floor / IT infra): cmm, cnc, pc, usb, vnc, winrm, ssh, ssl, tls, tcp, udp, smtp, ldap, vlan, sso, dnc, focas, clm, mtconnect

Any acronym not on these lists must be spelled out. Proposing a new acronym is a separate PR that updates this list.

Third-party imports are exempt. Library and stdlib module paths cannot be renamed. from sqlalchemy.orm import ..., import importlib.util, from werkzeug.utils import ... are all fine even if they contain words that would otherwise be banned.

Banned shorthand

cfg, ctx, mgr, req, res, env, util, helper, and any other domain-specific shortening. Spell it out: config, context, manager, request, response, environment, utilities. Note: db as a standalone variable name is banned, but db as a prefix in database or as part of project name shopdb is fine.

Suffix exception. Banned shorthand applies to standalone identifiers. As a suffix where the prefix establishes meaning, it is acceptable:

• printers_bp, auth_bp, network_bp are fine. The prefix names what blueprint, the _bp suffix is conventional for Flask blueprints.
• request_obj is fine when disambiguating from imported request.
• bp alone as a variable name is not fine. Always pair with a meaningful prefix.

Code

Python

• Variables and functions holding a database value: match the column name exactly. No conversion to snake_case.
  • DB column machineid -> Python variable machineid, attribute Machine.machineid, dict key {"machineid": 1}
  • DB column lastzabbixsync -> Python variable lastzabbixsync
• Pure code variables and functions (loop counters, helpers, anything that does not mirror a DB field): snake_case per PEP 8.
  • Good: loop_count, current_user, validate_input()
• Classes: PascalCase. Spell out fully.
  • Good: PrinterData, AssetType, NetworkDevice
• Modules / file names: lowercase. Underscores allowed where it improves readability (PEP 8 permits this for modules).
  • Good: employee_service.py, asset_routes.py

JavaScript / Vue

• Variables: camelCase per JS convention.
  • Good: currentUser, isLoading
• Variables holding API field values: match the API field name exactly. Do NOT convert to camelCase.
  • API returns {"machineid": 1} -> JS response.machineid, NOT response.machineId
  • API returns {"lastzabbixsync": "..."} -> JS device.lastzabbixsync
• Components: PascalCase. Spell out fully.
  • Good: AssetDetail.vue, MachineForm.vue, PrinterList.vue
• CSS classes: lowercase with dashes.
  • Good: asset-detail, machine-form

API

• Endpoints: lowercase, plural nouns. No underscores or dashes.
  • Good: /api/machines, /api/networkdevices, /api/businessunits
• Query parameters: lowercase, concatenated. Match column names where applicable.
  • Good: ?locationid=5, ?isactive=true
• Response keys: match database column names exactly.
  • Good: {"machineid": 1, "lastzabbixsync": "2026-01-12T10:00:00Z"}

Examples

# Good - DB-mirrored fields keep column names; pure code uses snake_case
class PrinterData(db.Model):
    __tablename__ = 'printerdata'

    machineid = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('machines.machineid'))
    lastzabbixsync = db.Column(db.DateTime)
    isnetworkprinter = db.Column(db.Boolean)


def list_printers_by_location(locationid: int) -> list[dict]:
    printers = PrinterData.query.filter_by(locationid=locationid).all()
    result_count = len(printers)
    return [{"machineid": p.machineid, "isnetworkprinter": p.isnetworkprinter} for p in printers]

# Bad - PEP 8-style underscores on DB fields, banned shorthand, project acronym not on allowed list
class PrinterData(db.Model):
    __tablename__ = 'printer_data'

    machine_id = db.Column(db.Integer)
    last_zabbix_sync = db.Column(db.DateTime)
    is_net_prn = db.Column(db.Boolean)


def list_prns_by_loc(loc_id):
    bp_ctx = get_context()
    cfg = load_cfg()
    return PrinterData.query.filter_by(loc_id=loc_id).all()

Style policy (non-naming)

• No emojis in code, comments, documentation, string literals, or UI.
• No em-dashes (U+2014), en-dashes (U+2013), Unicode arrows, or smart quotes anywhere. Plain ASCII only.
• Comments default to none. Add one only when the WHY is non-obvious. Keep comments terse (lite caveman style is fine for inline # and // comments). Docstrings stay normal English.
• Dark theme is default. Keep UI functional and professional.

File structure

• Core models: shopdb/core/models/
• Core API routes: shopdb/core/api/
• Core services: shopdb/core/services/
• Plugin code: plugins/<plugin>/{models,api,services,schemas}/

Plugin development

When creating a new plugin:

1. Create directory plugins/<name>/. Use the scaffold (flask plugin new <name>) when available.
2. Include manifest.json with metadata. This is the single source of truth for plugin name, version, dependencies, api_prefix.
3. Extend BasePlugin class.
4. Follow naming conventions above.
5. Run flask plugin install <name> to install.

See the PLUGIN-QUICKSTART wiki page (when published) for the 30-minute walkthrough.

Testing

Run tests with:

pytest tests/

Tests are required for:

• New routes (smoke + happy path + 1-2 edge cases)
• New plugin hooks (contract test)
• Schema migrations (before/after data integrity)

Code review checklist

• No underscores in table or column names
• No banned shorthand or unapproved acronyms in any new identifier
• DB-mirrored Python and JS variables match column names exactly
• API response keys match column names exactly
• No em-dashes, en-dashes, smart quotes, Unicode arrows, or emojis (run grep -rP '[^\x00-\x7F]' --include='*.py' --include='*.vue' --include='*.js' .)
• Plugin follows BasePlugin interface and contract version
• Tests included for new functionality