Found TODO comments in PatientServiceImpl - need guidance as new contributor

Development
1

Hi! I’m a new contributor exploring openmrs-core codebase.

I was reading PatientServiceImpl.java and found several TODO comments:

  1. mergeVisits(), mergeEncounters(), mergeObservations() - says “should be copy not move”
  2. exitFromCare() - says “patients should be allowed to exit multiple times”

I searched JIRA but couldn’t find existing tickets for these.

Could someone guide me on next steps?

Thanks!

2

Hello @nishika , welcome to OpenMRS and great first exploration of the codebase! :tada:

Those are excellent finds. Here’s how you may move forward:

  1. Verify the TODOs are still relevant

Before creating tickets, do a quick sanity check by pulling the latest main branch and confirming that those TODO comments still exist. Sometimes they get resolved without the comment being removed.

  1. Search JIRA more broadly

Try searching with different keywords like mergeVisits, exitFromCare or PatientService since tickets may exist under slightly different titles. Also check closed/resolved issues, as someone may have attempted this before and abandoned it. Create JIRA tickets if none exist

  1. If the TODOs are genuinely untracked, go ahead and create tickets on issues.openmrs.org. For each one, include:

The file + line number where the TODO appears

What the comment says and what behavior it implies

Your initial understanding of the expected fix

4

Thank you so much for the warm welcome

and detailed guidance!

I’ll pull the latest branch and verify

the TODOs still exist before creating

tickets.

Quick question - for TRUNK-6641 which I

created yesterday, someone else got

assigned to it before I could claim it.

For future tickets I create, can I assign

them to myself immediately? And is it okay

to self-assign issues I want to work on?

Thanks!

5

it is really okay to do so