How to contribute to Roller

The Apache Roller project is being built by the open source community for the open source community - we welcome your input and contributions!

What we are looking for:

• Source code and fixes contributions
• New and better Documentation
• New blog theme and Admin UI designs
• Product and feature suggestions
• Constructive feedback

Contributing to Roller should be easy and if it's not, please stop by the Roller mailing lists and tell us how we can make it easier. This document is a short guide to help contributors get started.

Anybody can contribute to Roller and anybody can join the project, it's an all-volunteer effort. The way to join the project is to subscribe to the development mailing list and start acting like a member of the project: asking questions, making suggestions, responding to question, proposing changes and submitting fixes and patches. If you get along well with others, do quality work and show some commitment to the project somebody will most likely nominate you to be a committer.

What is a Contributor?

A contributor is someone who contributes ideas, code or documentation (including updating our wiki) to the project

We would like all contributors of ideas, code and documentation to have a signed an Apache Individual Contributor License Agreement (ICLA).

What does it signing ICLA mean?

Signing an ICLA means that you understand that what you have contributed (or want to contribute) is subject to the Apache License and that you are happy to do this.  The ICLA is not tied to any employer you many have. Details of the Apache Licenses and Contributor License Agreements can be found at the link:  http://www.apache.org/licenses/#clas

How to file an ICLA?

• Simply read, complete and sign this form http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.pdf

• Email a scan of the signed copy to secretary@apache.org.

How to Become a Contributor?

If you are willing to contribute to the project and want to join this group then please:

1. Read the notes carefully and file an Individual  Contributor License Agreement (ICLA)
2. Create Confluence user id (and/or Jira user Id)
   Confluence Id is required to update the Roller Wiki on Confluence.
   The Jira user Id is required to assign an issues to yourself in Roller's Jira.
3. Send a message to the user mailing list (user@roller.apache.org) with details of your Confluence/Jira user id for requesting to became Roller contributor.

And you will be added to the list.

How do you verify that my ICLA has been filed with the ASF?

This is how we check that your ICLA has been officially filed.

1. The ASF publishes a list of all the ICLAs it has on file at the following link:  Persons with signed CLAs but who are not (yet) committers.
2. When you file your ICLA, we verify that your name appears on this list.

Join the developer mailing list

Join the developer mailing list, ask questions and help with those asked by others. Tell us how you use Roller, what you like and dislike. Discuss ideas you have for improving any aspect of the Roller project from the website to the documentation and code.

Fork our GitHub repo

If you are a GitHub user, get started by forking our GitHub repo: https://github.com/apache/roller.

Get your fixes and improvements in

If you've used Roller, you probably made small fixes and perhaps even add some new features. Getting these fixes and improvements helps Roller and it helps you because, once you get your fixes in you don't have to worry about adding them again when new versions of Roller come out.

• Download and build from the Roller source code. There are instructions for this in How to build Roller.

• Learn the code-base. Check out the Developer Resources page for more information.

• Before you make any big contributions you:
  
  • MAY want to discuss your changes on the Roller developer mailing list
  • MAY want to create a JIRA issue for your changes. Our JIRA is here: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ROL

• Implement your changes and once you've got them working you can:

• • Submit a GitHub Pull Request (PR) here: https://github.com/apache/roller.
  • Or...
    • Create a new issue in our JIRA https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ROL and attach your patch to that. 
    • Please prepare patches as described here: http://www.apache.org/dev/contributors.html#patches

Propose and develop cool new features

If you're a Roller user already, you probably have ideas for some cool new features. If you're new to Roller, a student or teacher looking for project ideas then ask on the mailing list for ideas. Another way to find project ideas is to help triage Roller bug reports and RFEs in our issue tracking system (https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ROL). You'll definitely find ideas for fixes, improvements and new features that way.

Apache Roller Contributors