Revision as of 16:00, 18 May 2023

Users: Contributing To A Project

• Quick Start -- Contributing Project Code Interested in contributing code. Awesome! This is how to get started.
• How To Behave Practical advice on how to ask questions, report bugs, and be generally successful in your interactions with an Open Source Project.
• Reporting Bugs. All Eclipse projects use Bugzilla to track bugs and features. Please read the Bug Reporting FAQ and then sign up for a bugzilla account to join in the fun.
• Getting Answers. Mailing lists are for development team conversations; newsgroups and IRC are for the larger user and adopter community and thus are the correct place to ask for help.
• Downloads. Get binaries from the main downloads page. Click through to the project pages for integration, milestone, and nightly builds.
• Source Code. Get the source code from Git.
• Contribute! The best way to contribute to a project is to contribute (sorry for the recursion). Pick a bug from a project that interests you, build a fix, and contribute it to the bug as a patch. If you're not sure how to start, ask questions on the bug, or communicate with the project via their communication channel (normally a forum).
• IP Due Diligence for Contributions. Certain processes must be followed. Dotting the i's and crossing the t's. It all starts with the Intellectual Property content in the handbook, but there's a little something more (or less) for projects that use Git or Gerrit.
  • Project Leads should be familiar with the list of approved (and unapproved) Third Party Content Licenses
• Contributing via Git. Contributing to an Eclipse project using Git or Gerrit.

  See also Handling Git Contributions from a committer's perspective.

Projects: Getting Started

• Eclipse Project Handbook An overview of (almost) everything you need to know about starting, running, and participating in an Eclipse project.
• Starting a New Open Source Eclipse Project Words of advice, what to expect, that sort of thing, ...
  • Should you create a Subproject or Component?
  • Naming a Project. Help with choosing an appropriate name for your project.
  • Initial Contribution All Eclipse projects start with an initial contribution of code. Some contributions are big, other are small. Whatever the case, the IP Team needs to review your first drop of code before anything gets added to the repository.
• List of Projects All projects at Eclipse, including valuable links.
• Eclipse Project Handbook The First 90 Days What to expect, and what you need to do during the first 90 days with your brand spanking new Eclipse Project.
• Contribution Guide Consider including a contribution guide in the root of your Git repositories.

Projects: Ongoing

• Project Management Infrastructure (PMI) Manage information about your project
• Release Cycle Release cycle, and reviews.
• Contribution Guide Recommendations from the Architecture Council
  • All Git repositories must have a CONTRIBUTING file or an equivalent

Policies and Guidelines

Here's a list of various policies and guidelines for Eclipse projects.

• The Eclipse Security Policy
• The Eclipse Privacy Policy
• The Eclipse Intellectual Property Policy
• Guidelines for the Review of Third Party Dependencies
• Guidelines for Eclipse Logos & Trademarks
• Guidelines for Links to non-eclipse.org content on your project website
• User Interface Guidelines
• Guidelines for the Use of Proprietary Tools
• Eclipse Foundation Policy on Interacting with Standards and Specification Organizations
• Licensing of Examples
• Policy to Consider the Limited Usage of LGPL APIs in Eclipse Projects
• Eclipse Foundation Antitrust Compliance Policy
• Uploading and Downloading from Eclipse Software Policy Work in progress. A policy concerning project software that uploads or downloads.
• Policy on Recognizing Contributions on Project Web Sites

• Incubation FAQ
• Bug Reporting FAQ
• Webmaster FAQ

Committers: Being A Committer

• Committer Cheat Sheet The concise list of things that you need to know when you're a committer.
• Becoming a Committer What do you need to do to become a committer on an Eclipse Project?
• Committer Orientation A short presentation that introduces the basics of open source project participation.
• Committer Bootcamp Presentation, links, and help for new committers.
• Eclipse Project Handbook Helpful information and bits of advice for new committers.
• Eclipse Development Process. The Eclipse Development Process (EDP) describes the high-level development process for Eclipse projects. Individual projects set their own day-to-day development process.
• Becoming a Committer. The Standard Project Charter's Committers section has some information. The Eclipse Development Process document's section on Committers and Contributors has more.
• Project Management Infrastructure Use the project management infrastructure to manage information about your project, including project descriptions, releases, reviews, and more.
• Reaching out. Talking to other committers, requesting assistance, channels for communication.
• Community Development Developing a community and Eco-system around your project is every committer's job.
• APIs See Eclipse/API_Central. The Eclipse Project also provides some API Resources.
• Words of Wisdom and Bits of Advice. Things that Eclipse Project leads and committers need, and should, be doing on a regular basis (daily/weekly/weekly/quarterly/etc).
• Coding Guidelines. Coding standards, naming conventions, version numbering, etc.
• Difficult People. Some advice on interacting with sometimes frustrating users Mylyn Contributor Reference#Communication.
• Friends of Eclipse Funding. Some money is available from the Eclipse Foundation to help your project pay for meeting space, hardware, and other expenses (sorry, we can't pay committers).
• How to Use the Eclipse Copyright Tool. The Eclipse Project's Releng Tools plug-in provides--among other things--a handy tool that can help you get your copyright headers right.
• Intellectual Property Management
  • Cartoons. Quick reference guides in a fun and easy format: The IP Process in Eight Cartoons and The Three Laws of Eclipse.
  • Handling Git Contributions. Contributions from Git outside Git repositories are subject to our IP Policy and Due Diligence Process.
  • Contribution Questionnaire (CQ). Managing intellectual property contributions, including discussion of when you need a CQ for a third party library.
  • Test and Build Dependencies. Special considerations for libraries that are not strictly distributed by the project, but rather are as build and test time.

Committers and The Eclipse.Org Website

• /projects - List of Projects. Your project is listed on the projects page automatically based on your project's metadata (see below).
• Standard Project Summary. Your project has a standard format project summary page (e.g., Project Dash). The summary page is driven by your project's metadata.
• Standard Project Plan. Your project has a standard format project plan page (e.g., [1] for Project Dash). The project plan page is driven by your project's metadata (see below) and has an entire page of documentation Development Resources/Project Plan.
• Project Metadata. Many pieces of the eclipse.org infrastructure are driven by the project metadata, thus it is important to keep the metadata current and correct. This includes basic information about projects including description, scope, and repositories; releases; reviews; and more.
• IT Infrastructure. Here is a general howto on using our IT infrastructure. More information is also available on the Webmaster FAQ.
  • Bugzilla
  • Builds
  • Downloads
  • IT Service Level Agreement
• Building and Maintaining a Project Website. All Eclipse Projects have an automatically-generated Data-Driven Project Website. Project teams can opt to create and maintain a custom website.
• External Links. Links to non-eclipse.org content

New Committers

• Legal Paperwork. Becoming a new committer involves some legal paperwork. Here's what and why [2]
• Development Process. For the overall smooth flow of the Eclipse eco-system, committers agree to follow a few process rules. Here's what they are [3]. There's also a more humorous summary version [4].
• Parallel IP Process. Many new committers join with a block of code that they'd like to include right away. The Parallel IP process is designed to speed that inclusion. Here's the what, why, and how of that process [5].

Leads: Managing A Project

• Eclipse Development Process (EDP) Official description of the meta-process for Eclipse projects.
• Project Plan The project plan is how projects communicate their future intent to the rest of the Eclipse community.
• Builds You have some options with regard to how you build your Eclipse project for distribution.
• Code quality analysis
  • Sonar is available for Eclipse projects to track and improve the quality of their code.
• Reviews Reviews are undertaken a key points in the life of a project. Project leads should coordinate reviews with their PMC and the EMO.
  • Creation Review
  • Release Cycle and Release Review
  • Graduation Review
  • Restructuring Review
  • Termination Review
• Manage Project Metadata, Bugzilla Components, etc. Project metadata is captured in the Project Management Interface (PMI), which feeds the project information pages and other tools. In the metadata, you specify important information like release dates, project plans, and description. Many project-related tools are accessible from here; additional tools (e.g. Bugzilla configuration) are available to committers via their Eclipse Foundation Account page.
• About Files and Copyright Notices. There's the official guide to legal documentation and then there's a slightly different, but perhaps more readable, guide to legal documentation from the developers point of view. More directly, there's the Default Eclipse Foundation Copyright and License Notice page.
• Releases. Of course the whole point of an Eclipse project is to release code to the community. At the same time, the Eclipse community relies on a well-defined release review process. It's relatively simple, but it does require planning ahead to schedule the necessary legal and community reviews.
• TCK Access Information regarding Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) use by Eclipse Projects.
  • Handling Git Contributions. Contributions from Git outside Git repositories are subject to our IP Policy and Due Diligence Process.
• Changing Leadership Electing new Project Leads and retiring the used up ones.
• Nominating and Electing New Committers. Use the PMI to nominate and elect new committers. Please follow the nomination guidelines so that the elections are relevant for the whole community.
• Removing Inactive Committers. Project leads can visit the "Who's Involved" tab of the Project Page, click on a committer, and use the "Retire Committer Status" box to retire a committer.
• Press Releases. The Eclipse Foundation's marketing department would like to help you put out your project-related press releases; the guidelines are simple enough [6].
• Creating and Managing Mailing Lists and Newsgroups Newsgroups are used by most projects to communicate with their community. Mailing lists tend to be used for communication amongst project developers (committers and contributors). Contact Webmaster to create and manage newsgroups and mailing lists.
• Team calls You can request a dedicated Asterisk conference call line for your project.

New Project Leads

• Sufficient Community. What does it mean to have a project mature enough to graduate? See Community Development for Eclipse Projects for the Technology PMC's current thoughts on the issue.

Everyone: IP Cleanliness

Maintaining intellectual property (IP) cleanliness is a critical part of being an Eclipse project, committer, and community member.

• The Official Story. The guide to legal documents describes what legal documents to include with code and deliverable software.
• Committer Guidelines. [7] issues to be aware of, and the processes one should follow, when working as a committer on Eclipse.org projects.
• Third Party Dependencies. This document contains the guidelines for the review of third-party dependencies.
• The IP Due Diligence/Legal Process Poster. The famous IP process poster.
• The Policy. The official written word version of the due diligence process for contributing code [8].
• The Cartoons. The IP Process in Eight Cartoons
• The Legal Department. Licenses, IP policies, agreements, etc. [9]
• Logos & Trademarks. Documents about the Eclipse logos and trademarks [10] [11]. The Eclipse Foundation owns the trademarks on all the Eclipse Project names. The Foundation holds these trademarks on behalf of, and for the benefit of, the projects.
• More IP Stuff. See IP Stuff

FAQs and Guidelines

• Guidelines for the Pre-Proposal Phase
• Guidelines for the Proposal Phase
• Guidelines for the Incubation Phase
• Guidelines for Using the Parallel IP Process
• Guidelines for the Mature Phase
• Guidelines for the Archived Phase
• Guidelines for Creation Reviews
• Guidelines for Graduation Reviews
• Guidelines for Release Reviews
• User Interface Guidelines
• Eclipse Quality
• Project Naming Policy

HOWTOs and Help

• How to Create an EPP Package. Creating and maintaining a package for distribution from the Eclipse Downloads page.
• Bugzilla Use
• Maintaining a Project Plan
• Maintaining Project Metadata
• "About this project" on the Project website
• Incubation Branding and the Parallel IP Process

Information and Miscellany

• [Lists of committers]

Website

This section details website specific information, both for the Eclipse.org and project specific pages.

• Web Site Refresh

Marketplace

• Quick Start

EMO Processes

• Processes

This page is moderated by the EMO