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Getting Involved

Introduction

Getting involved with the Apache OFBiz Community is easy!

Apache OFBiz is an open source community project governed by rules and Code of Conduct of the Apache Software Foundation. All Apache projects value key concepts such as community, consensus, openness and transparency.

A popular Apache mantra is "Community over Code" meaning that being able to work and collaborate as a community is more important than producing code

The Apache OFBiz source code is free, open source and provided under the Apache Licence. It is also easily accessible from the Apache source code repository. The project mailing lists contain all project releated discussions and decisions.

Who Are We Looking For?

We are looking for you!

We welcome participation from anyone willing to work with us the Apache Way and make a contribution to the project.

We welcome non-developers!

Don't worry if you are not a developer. You don't have to be a developer to contribute to the project.In fact we are always looking for a range of contributors including anyone that wants to help out with documentation, translations, testing tasks and UX experience design.

Perhaps you are one of our OFBiz users? That's good too. You can help us by telling us about features you like (or don't like!) plus any new improvements that you'd like to see. So you see there are quite a few ways that non developers can help and contribute to improving OFBiz.

Developers welcome too!

Apache OFBiz is built on Java. If you are a developer or want to become one then you can help by getting familiar with the OFBiz framework and;

  • providing patches for any bugs you find
  • pick up and work on any of our open issues

If your company uses Apache OFBiz then please consider contributing back any functionality you think could help benefit our community.

Find Out What's Happening

To find out what is happening on the project, please subscribe to our mailing lists.

Our dev@ofbiz.apache.org mailing list is where additions or changes to OFBiz are discussed. The list is open to everyone and all are encouraged to give their feedback and opinions of anything discussed.

Our user@ofbiz.apache.org mailing list is for our users. Use this list to ask questions and get advice on setting up OFBiz and also if you are an end-user interested in helping other OFBiz users.

Our mailing lists are also a great place for you to introduce yourself and join our community.

Reporting Bugs

All the bugs that we know about are recorded in our JIRA issue tracking system. Before creating a new issue, please check that the same bug hasn't already been reported. If it hasn't been reported then please create a new Jira issue. It is very important that you include as much detail as possible so that someone else can reproduce the bug easily. Our Jira system will automatically email our notifications list where someone can take a look at it and investigate.

Contributing Code and Bug Fixes

As an Apache open source project, we take the legality of code seriously and we don't want people contributing code that they don't own or a 3rd party having a legal claim on our project. This is why we ask all OFBiz contributors to complete an Individual Contributor Licence Agreement (ICLA)

Code Changes

If you are interested in contributing new code then you can submit patches to the project via our JIRA Issue Tracker

  • Create a new issue that describes what the code you are contributing does and;
  • Upload a .patch file with your code changes

Fixing Bugs

Bugs happen and you might see one and know how to fix it.

All submitted patches will be reviewed by our volunteers and if it meets the project standard, will be integrated into our codebase.

Contributing Documentation

If you are ready to help us document code, provide tips and trick or anything else that is not coding, then we have a WIKI that allows community contributions. Simply let us know on the user@ofbiz.apache.org mailing list that you want to become a contributor.

PLEASE NOTE: You will need to complete an Individual Contributor Licence Agreement (ICLA).