Getting Started with Open Source Contribution

/narainsagar

/narainsagar

/NarainSagarPage

/narainsagar

 narainsagar.com

• What

• Why

• How

• When

• Where

Things to be discussed..

Let's get started.....

• How do I find the right issue/repository to work on?

• How do I find the right issue/repository to work on?

• What are some easy contributions for juniors and first timers?

• How to build your reputation in the open source community?

• Process to get your PR’s merged in larger projects like Angular, etc?

What it means to contribute?

• Do you like planning events?

• Do you like to design?

• Do you like to write?

• Do you like organizing?

• Do you like to code?

• Do you like helping people?

• Do you like helping others code?

• ...?

Open Source Contribution

* For newbies:

https://egghead.io/courses/how-to-contribute-to-an-open-source-project-on-github

Why contribute to open source?

• Improve existing skills

• Meet people who are interested in similar things

• Find mentors and teach others

• Build public artifacts that help you grow a reputation (and a career)

• Learn people skills

• It empowers you to make changes (i.e., even small ones)

• ...? (Plenty of reasons!)

How to contribute..?

• Start listening

• Work with Tickets

• Working with Code

• Work with Documentation

• Work with Community

Orienting yourself to a new project

Anatomy of an open source project

Every open source community is different.

 

A typical open source project has the following types of people:

• Author: who created the project.
• Owner: who has administrative ownership over the organization or repository ?
• Maintainers: Contributors who are responsible for driving the vision and managing the organizational aspects of the project.
• Contributors: who has contributed something back to the project.
• Community Members: who uses the project.

Open Source repository

Files are usually listed in the top level of a repository.​

• Issue tracker
• Pull requests
• Discussion forums or mailing lists (e.g, StackOverflow)
• Synchronous chat channel (e.g, Slack)

• LICENSE - every open source project must have an open source license
• README
• CONTRIBUTING
• CODE_OF_CONDUCT
• Other documentation, etc.

Project tools to organize discussions.​

Finding a project to contribute to..

- https://egghead.io/courses/how-to-contribute-to-an-open-source-project-on-github​

- https://twitter.com/yourfirstpr
- https://github.com/explore/
- http://www.firsttimersonly.com/
- https://24pullrequests.com/contributing
- https://www.codetriage.com/
- https://www.codemontage.com/projects
- http://issuehub.io/
- http://up-for-grabs.net/
- https://openhatch.org/
- https://contributor.ninja/
- https://opensourcefriday.com/
- https://github.com/MunGell/awesome-for-beginners
- https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/how-to-contribute-to-open-source

Resources:

Checklist before you contribute.

• Meets the definition of an open source (i.e., LICENSE file)

• Project actively accepts contributions

• ​look at the project’s issues

• look at the project’s pull requests.

• Project is welcoming

Submit your contribution

*before submitting a PR

• Give context

• Do your homework beforehand.

• Keep requests short and direct.

• Keep all communication public.

• It’s okay to ask questions (but be patient!)

• Respect community decisions.

• Above all, keep it classy.

What happens after you submit a PR?

• 😭 You don’t get a response.

• 🚧 Someone requests changes to your contribution.

• 👎 Your contribution doesn’t get accepted.

• 🎉 Your contribution gets accepted.

Some of my contributions

stackoverflow.com/users/5228251/narainsagar

github.com/narainsagar

blog.narainsagar.com

• gist.github.com/narainsagar/ee70af2b015f18b7f7fe37497e5e7aea
• gist.github.com/narainsagar/public

github.com/narainsagar/angular2-ie9-shims

github.com/narainsagar/angular2-ie9-shims

github.com/angular/angular-cli/pull/6802

Thank you!

- https://opensource.guide/how-to-contribute/
- http://www.wikihow.com/Contribute-to-Open-Source

- https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-source

- https://www.hackerearth.com/getstarted-opensource
- http://www.developer.com/open/how-to-start-contributing-to-open-source.html

- https://blog.smartbear.com/programming/14-ways-to-contribute-to-open-source-without-being-a-programming-genius-or-a-rock-star/

- https://blog.smartbear.com/programming/14-ways-to-contribute-to-open-source-without-being-a-programming-genius-or-a-rock-star/

References