add CONTRIBUTING.md

.npmignore

@@ -28,4 +28,7 @@ npm-debug.log
 
 # Don't publish example apps
 Examples/
-Recipes/
+Recipes/
+
+# Don't publish compiled testing code
+bin/

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+# Contributing
+
+## Building the plugin
+
+### Environment setup
+
+`node.js` and `npm` are needed for building this project. `npm` comes bundled with the `node.js` installer. You can download the `node.js` installer here: https://nodejs.org/download/.
+
+Once you have installed `node.js` and `npm`, install the dev dependencies for the project.
+
+```
+npm install
+```
+
+### Compile
+
+Follow these steps to build a new version of the plugin:
+- clone this repository
+- install the dependencies
+
+	Navigate to the root folder from your command line console and run:
+	```
+	npm install
+	```
+- compile
+
+	From the same root folder location, run:
+	```
+	gulp
+	```
+	This will compile the sources and place them in the `bin` folder. Any compilation errors will be displayed in the console.
+
+## Test
+
+### Environment setup
+
+First, make sure you can build the plugin by following the steps above.
+
+Then, make sure you have installed `gulp`.
+
+```
+npm install -g gulp
+```
+
+To run Android tests, make sure you have `sdk\tools` and  `sdk\platform-tools` in your PATH.
+
+To run iOS tests, make sure you've installed CocoaPods and have `.gem/bin` in your PATH.
+
+### Supported platforms
+
+The plugin has end to end tests for Android and iOS. Depending on your development machine OS, you can run some or all the tests.
+
+OS            | Supported tests
+------------- | -------------
+OS X          | Android, iOS
+Windows       | Android
+
+### Test descriptions
+
+The tests first build the app.
+
+They then check if the required emulators are currently running.
+
+If an Android emulator is not running, it attempts to boot an Android emulator named `emulator`. You can specify an emulator by adding `--androidemu yourEmulatorNameHere` as a command line option to the gulp task.
+
+If an iOS simulator is not running, it attempts to boot the latest iOS iPhone simulator. You can specify a simulator by adding `--iosemu yourSimulatorNameHere` as a command line option to the gulp task.
+
+If all the required emulators are not running and the tests fail to boot them, the tests will fail.
+
+If you would like the tests to always restart the necessary emulators (killing them if they are currently running), add a `--clean` flag to the command.
+
+The desired unit tests are then run.
+
+If you would like to skip building, add a `-fast` to the end of the command you'd like to run. For example, `gulp test-ios` becomes `gulp test-ios-fast`.
+
+There is a both a full unit test suite and a "core" set of unit tests that you may run. If you would like to run only the core tests, add a `--core` flag to the command.
+
+If you would like to pull the plugin from NPM rather than running the tests on the local version, add a `--npm` flag to the command.
+
+If you add a `--report` flag to the command, the mocha reporter outputs individual results files for each platform. These are `./test_android.xml`, `./test-ios-ui.xml`, and `./test-ios-wk.xml`.
+
+#### Default
+
+To run all of the unit tests on Android and iOS:
+```
+gulp test
+```
+
+#### iOS
+
+To run all of the unit tests on iOS:
+```
+gulp test-ios
+```
+
+#### Android
+
+To run all of the unit tests on Android:
+```
+gulp test-android
+```
+
+#### More examples
+
+All possible testing configurations have tasks!
+
+The platforms are ordered as follows, and ran in that order:
+android, ios
+
+To run the core unit tests on Android:
+```
+gulp test-android --core
+```
+
+To run all of the unit tests on iOS and pull the plugin from NPM:
+```
+gulp test-ios --npm
+```
+
+To run all of the unit tests on Android and iOS without building first:
+```
+gulp test-fast
+```
+
+To run all of the unit tests on iOS and restart the emulators:
+```
+gulp test-ios --clean
+```
+
+To run the core unit tests on Android and pull the plugin from NPM:
+```
+gulp test-android --core --npm
+```
+
+...and so on!