Contributing¶
There are many ways to contribute to the GeoServer documentation. The following are listed roughly in order of “least involved” to “most involved”.
Post Snark on Twitter¶
Because there is nothing we developers like more than a pointless argument about how bad our documentation is. It’s even better if it is in public so our bosses can see how we are productively using our time.
Hint: don’t do this, if you have a problem with the documentation then at least make a note of the issue so that someone might fix it for you.
File an issue¶
If you don’t want to write the documentation, and/or would like to suggest a page that isn’t included, you can request it. Use Jira to file an issue. Please include the name of the page, content, and the place where this new information should be included. As with all issues, it is not guaranteed that someone will fulfill your request.
File an issue and include a documentation patch¶
GeoServer uses Jira for issue tracking. New documentation is treated like part of the code, so those who want to submit content (patches etc.) can use a pull request or file an issue with Jira and attach the content to the issue. If the content is deemed satisfactory, a contributor with commit rights will add the content to the documentation.
For more information see CONTRIBUTING.md in GitHub.
GitHub supports direct reviewing and editing of documentation pages, any edit you make will be automatically forked and submitted to the project team as a pull request.
Get commit rights¶
The documentation is now under version control, just like the source code. Also, like the source code, one must be granted “commit rights” before being able to make changes. This helps keep the quality of the documentation as high as possible.
To gain documentation commit rights, the process is similar to gaining commit rights for code. One should submit some documentation (see the section on how to File an issue and include a documentation patch above). If one demonstrates quality work, then a contributor can nominate this person for commit rights.
To request commit rights, please send an email to the GeoServer developers list. Please note that this access may only be to the documentation, and not the source code.
Once you have commit rights, please see the section on Workflow for creating and editing the documentation.