Enhance for development processes

Makefile

@@ -59,6 +59,19 @@ test:
 	rm -rf var
 	
 
+
+#: format - Run the PEP8 formatter.
+.PHONY: format
+format:
+	autopep8 --exit-code --global-config .flake8 helpdesk
+
+
+#: checkformat - checks formatting against configured format specifications for the project.
+.PHONY: checkformat
+checkformat:
+	flake8 helpdesk --count --show-source --statistics --exit-zero --max-complexity=20
+
+
 #: documentation - Build documentation (Sphinx, README, ...).
 .PHONY: documentation
 documentation: sphinx readme

README.rst

@@ -69,9 +69,30 @@ Django project.
 For further installation information see `docs/install.html`
 and `docs/configuration.html`
 
+Developer Environment
+---------------------
+
+Follow these steps to set up your development environment to contribute to helpdesk:
+ - install a virtual environment
+     - using virtualenv from the helpdesk base folder do::
+          virtualenv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
+
+ - install the requirements for development::
+    pip install -r requirements.txt -r requirements-dev.txt
+
+To see option for the Makefile run: `make`
+
+The project enforces a standardized formatting in the CI/CD pipeline. To ensure you have the correct formatting run::
+    make checkformat
+    
+To auto format any code use this::
+    make format
+
 Testing
 -------
 
+From the command line you can run the tests using: `make test`
+
 See `quicktest.py` for usage details.
 
 Upgrading from previous versions