Find your way to Apache

Contribution

Sagara Gunathunga ASF Commiter/PMC member | Tech Lead at WSO2

Can I contribute

to Apache ?

Software

Engineers

Tech Writers

System Admins

Q/A Engineers Business Analyst

IT Students

Researchers

Web Developers

How can I find right

project for me ?

http://projects.apache.org/indexes/quick.html

You can find lot of contribution opportunities

on Apache Incubator projects.

Visit the project web site and go

through the documentation.

Subscribe to user and dev mailing lists.

Download the binary distribution and

spend some time with samples, tutorials

and user guide.

• Documentation may be out dated.

• No proper guide exists.

• Mentioned steps are not clear.

• An issue with sample or project code.

Found issue while running

samples ?

Get some helps from blogs, mailing list

archive, forums or write to mailing list.

http://markmail.org/

http://mail-archives.apache.org/

http://www.nabble.com/

• Try to fix broken samples, improve

existing samples or provide new samples.

• Update or correct documentation, write a

blog to share your experience.

Attach your works as a SVN patch in the

JIRA project.

Most of the Apache project use SVN to

manage source codes and JIRA to manage

issues. You can find those locations from

project web site

SVN : http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/hadoop/common/trunk/

JIRA : https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP

SVN : http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/axis/axis2/java/core/trunk

JIRA : https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AXIS2

Check out source codes and build the

project locally. Maven and Ant are some of

the most popular build systems used by

Apache projects.

Use SVN command line tool , graphical tool

or IDE plug-in to generate patches.

Attach your patch to appropriate JIRA

issue. It can be source code patch or

documentation patch.

Few references for patching process.

• http://www.apache.org/dev/contributors.html

• http://httpd.apache.org/dev/patches.html

• http://jakarta.apache.org/site/contributing.html

• http://pushpalankajaya.blogspot.com/2011/09/docum

entation-patch-submission-for.html

Keep your eye on project user mailing list

and help others to solve their issue.

• One of the best approach to learn project

internals and start your contribution.

• If you know the answers don't hesitate to

reply.

• May be you can find a new issue, you can

fill a new JIRA issue and fix it.

• Others will recognize your effort !!

Participate to discussions on project dev

list regularly.

• Participate to discussion on dev list with

your opinions/arguments.

• If something difficult

to understand don't hesitate to ask

questions.

• Suggest your new ideas don't spend

time for self judgment.

Go through the JIRA project and find a

simple issue to work on.

• Try to reproduce the issue using provided

samples and configuration.

• Read previous comments and spend some

time for background reading.

• If you need more inputs or clarifications ask

them by commenting on JIRA or dev list.

• Attach your current works as a patch and

ask community to review your works.

Study some of the important programming

techniques.

• Debugging

• Unite testing

• Remote debugging

• Profiling

• Memory analysis

Expose your experience and ideas to others.

• Do you have a blog ? Maintain a blog

regularly.

• Usually we have seen lot of revolutionary

ides from users and new contributors.

• If you are a student, GSoC is the best way to

start your contribution ( with some privileges).

• Write to dev list asking possible GSoC

project ideas or come up with your own

ideas.

Project specific contribution

• Most of the Apache projects maintains their

own new contribution guides.

• Look for "New contributor guide", " How to

contribute guide", "developer guide" etc.

• Don't hesitate to ask on the community

development mailing list

visit http://community.apache.org/.

Apache communities

• Try to organize small events like MeetUps and

BarCamp in your town , office or university.

• We have volunteers and resources to help

you.

• What do you need to care ?

• Venue - better to find a free venue.

• Refreshments

• Ask to bring laptops.

• Notify among your local communities.

• Contact ASF.

Small event list :

small-events-discuss-subscribe@apache.org

Apache event LK list :

http://groups.google.com/group/apache-event-lk

Thank You !

sagara@apache.org

http://ssagara.blogspot.com