Open Data Services welcomes contributions to all of its software projects.
- We're interested in user experience and feedback from using the application.
- We'd like people to fix bugs and contribute to features.
- We're interested in people using the code for their own purposes.
- We're interested in suggestions, modifications and improvements.
All our code can be found at https://github.com/opendataservices
Each project should have a specific CONTRIBUTING.md file that gives more specific information about how to contribute to that particular project.
Everything we are working on, or considering, is kept in GitHub issues.
If you are able to work with GitHub then please "Create an issue"
Before creating a new issue check to see if the issue already exists. If not, then please do report it. If you have permissions to assign the issue to people and milestones then try to select suitable options.
If you are not comfortable working with GitHub, but would still like to contribute, then talk to us. Details at: https://github.com/opendataservices
In order to be clear with everyone involved about how code (and documentation) contributions are accepted and used, we use Contributor Licence Agreements (CLA). We only require CLA's to accept 'commits' to the repository. Bug reports, feature requests, etc do not require a CLA.
The agreements we use allow the contributor to retain copyright over their contributions, while also granting us the rights to re-licence the projects in future without having to track down each contributor and ask for their agreement.
We also stipulate that, should we re-licence a project, then we will only do so under an approved Open Source Institute licence.
It also protects us, by requiring contributors to check and confirm that they own the copyright on the contributions they make - this can help keep everything clear when, for example, a contribution is made on employers time.
What this doesn't give us is the right to go out and fight copyright infringements on a contributor's behalf.
Our agreements are built of the templates provided by http://contributoragreements.org/
We have agreements for individuals and institutions.
Before contributions to any of our projects are accepted, we require you to complete the appropriate Contribution Licence Agreement and submit it to us, following the instructions below.
We have a generic agreement that covers all code projects in the Open Data Services GitHub Organisation
If this is amenable to you, feel free to complete it. We will be automatically notified that you have submitted an agreement and will contact you (usually in the same day, but in no more than 3 working days)
However, we're more than happy to talk, so if you want to get in touch before you sign anything, then please do.
You can contact us at code@opendataservices.coop
Once we have reviewed and signed a copy of the agreement we will be able accept your contributions.
masterrepresents our main development branch, which gets deployed frequently to http://dev.cove.opendataservices.coop/livecorresponds to the code currently running in our live deployments at http://cove.opendataservices.coop/ and http://standard.open-contracting.org/review/- Branches of the form
release-...are for a release of Cove. These diverge frommasterso that we can have a testing period with no new features. Once a release is ready it gets merged intolive. We currently have a monthly release cyle: https://github.com/OpenDataServices/cove#release-cycle - Other branches represent development work or bug fixes.
- Fork this repository (if you haven't previously)
- Make sure you're working on top of an up to date copy of the master branch
- Create a branch named after the work you're doing (if you're targeting a specific issue, start the branch name with the issue number e.g.
42-feature-name)
- Create a branch named after the work you're doing (if you're targeting a specific issue, start the branch name with the issue number e.g.
- Do your work
- If your work addresses a specific issue, reference that issue in your commit message by starting the commit message with
[#issue number]e.g.[#64]
- If your work addresses a specific issue, reference that issue in your commit message by starting the commit message with
- Create a pull request
Getting started on someone else's software project can be daunting. So when we have an issue that we think would be a good task for someone new to the project, we mark them as Bitesize.
Look for issues marked with the Bitesize label if you want somewhere to start.
We'd love to hear from you. Details at: https://github.com/opendataservices