Hi All I want to second what Jonathan has written, we really do appreciate the people who take the time to test, file bugs, document, translate etc. Who knows, you might even become an Unsung hero, https://blog.bigballofwax.co.nz/2017/04/05/unsung-heroes-of-koha-32-josef-mo... Chris * Jonathan Druart (jonathan.druart@bugs.koha-community.org) wrote:
Hello librarians and developers, Not much has happened this month in terms of development. Things are going very slowly at the moment, despite the hackfest in Marseille. We see a lot of new people on the mailing list and the IRC channel asking for questions, but we need more people to be involved in the discussions and the signoff process. There are hundreds of people on this list, you need to know that the Koha community needs you to make the project moving forward. I know that nobody has enough time, but you know one hour per week of even per month can help a lot. It is very easy, fun and interesting :) = How to get involved? = The first action would be to join us on the #koha IRC channel and the koha-devel mailing list. Start by presenting yourself, where do you come from, what do you do? For how long have you been using Koha? How do you think you can help? Attend meetings! We have two kinds of monthly meeting. There is a general one to talk about koha-related stuffs, and the development meeting to talk about technical stuffs. It is important for the community to have a place to be all together and try to make things move. If you are a librarian, we need you to tell developers the directions they need to go. Open bug reports It is important to know that everybody can open new bug reports on our bug tracker (https://bugs.koha-community.org). It is useful for the development team to know the new bugs. And it is also important for you to search for known bugs. A lot of bugs are known from developers but we do not know how to fix them because we are waiting for feedbacks from users. The dashboard (http://dashboard.koha-community.org) is very helpful to know the "hot" bugs that need to be fixed/tested/QAed. The "Overall bug traker health status" section displays the number of new bugs that are important to follow, make moving. If a developer submits a patch for the bug you opened, try and test it! Test bugs Here is how you can really makes things move for the community. You become involved in the development process and make the Koha project better. Sandboxes (https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Sandboxes) are available to test patch easily. You do not need to install anything on your computer and do not need any technical skills. If you are a Koha user, you can test patches! Write patches If you are a developer or have a minimum of technical skills you can write your own patches and fixes bugs or develop new feature. Our dedicated wiki page (wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Submitting_A_Patch) will guide you over the different steps. It is very easy to get a development environment using KohaDevBox (https://github.com/digibib/kohadevbox) Start with small patches :) = Refactoring = If you have read my previous "what's on in koha-devel" emails, you may have noticed I talked a lot of "refactoring" bugs. And maybe you do not know what it is and what it brings. The Koha codebase is aged/old, and has grown very quickly since 2006. Since the last few years the development team decided to make the code more robust and slow the integration of patches, getting a stronger integration process. That's why we need to have at least one tester validating the patches, then one QAer to review the patch technically and finally the Release Manager to push it. That's mean 4 independent persons for a single patch. That made our codebase stronger and less regression prone. Some part of the code now needs to be rewritten, and it is why I have focussed on the "refactoring" work over the last year. The goal is to rewrite modules of Koha, step by step. It cleans the code, makes it more readable, reduces the number of lines, centralise the responsibilities, homogenise the code, fixes bugs, adds test coverage, etc. On the mid-long term it means a modern application, easy to maintain, robust, flexible. The bugs will be easier to fix, the enhancements will be quicker to develop and so less expensive. Do you start to understand how it is useful? So yes, it's boring to test because it does not bring anything new to the interface, but the project needs it. If you have been using Koha for months or years, it made you save money, it makes you happy to use it and you love it. If you already got answer from people on the mailing lists or the IRC channel, it's time to say thank you, by getting involved! If you have any specific questions on how to get involved, you can join me on the IRC channel or by email. I can help and guide you if necessary. A developer that loves Koha but needs help, Jonathan
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