Revision as of 12:19, 20 July 2009

Users: Contributing To A 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 either CVS or SVN (each project makes their own choice).
• Large Contributions. Small contributions to Eclipse projects should be made through Bugzilla, but larger contributions require a separate process. Or, if the contribution is larger still, you could start a new project.

Committers: Being A Committer

• 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.
• Portal. The portal is designed to be your single point of contact with the Foundation and to guide you through the various Foundation processes.
• Map. Map of Committers and Contributors. Put yourself on the map!
• 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.
• Words of Advice. Words of Wisdom and Bits of Advice
• Cartoons. Quick reference guides in a fun and easy format: The IP Process in Eight Cartoons and The Three Laws of Eclipse.
• Coding Guidelines. Coding standards, naming conventions, version numbering, etc.
• Difficult People. Some advice on interacting with sometimes frustrating users Mylyn Contributor Reference#Communication.

Committers and The Eclipse.Org Website

• /projects - List of Projects. Your project is listed on the projects page automatically based on your project's meta-data (see below).
• Standard Project Summary. Your project has a standard format project summary page (e.g., [1] for Project Dash). The summary page is driven by your project's meta-data (see below).
• Standard Project Plan. Your project has a standard format project plan page (e.g., [2] for Project Dash). The project plan page is driven by your project's meta-data (see below) and has an entire page of documentation Development Resources/Project Plan.
• IP Log. Your project has a standard format IP log (e.g., [3] for Project Dash). The IP log is driven by your project's meta-data (see below) and also has an entire page of documentation of its own Development Resources/Automatic IP Log.
• Project Meta-Data. Many pieces of the eclipse.org infrastructure are driven by the project meta-data, thus it is important to keep the meta-data current and correct. Use the instructions and the portal to update the meta-data.
• IT Infrastructure. Here is a general howto on using our IT infrastructure. More information is also available on the Webmaster FAQ.
• Building and Maintaining a Project Website. The Phoenix project has documentation on building sites with the Phoenix API.
• IT Infrastructure. IT Service Level Agreement
• 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 [4]
• 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 [5]. There's also a more humorous summary version [6].
• 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 [7].

Leads: Managing A Project

• IP Log. The IP log is a big part of the official release process, so we encourage you to keep your IP log current rather than rushing at the end. The automatic IP log extracts most information from bugzilla and IPzilla, but it requires you to use the 'iplog+' flag.
• Project Plan. The project plan is how projects communicate their future intent to the rest of the Eclipse community.
• Development Process. Official description of the meta-process for Eclipse projects. [8]
• Manage Project Metadata, Bugzilla Components, etc. Project metadata feeds the project summary pages and other Eclipse tools. In the metadata, you specify important information like release dates, project plans, and description. Use the "Eclipse Projects" section on the portal to specify project metadata. The "tools for all committers" link provides access to Bugzilla components.
• 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.
• 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.
• Nominating and Electing New Committers. Use the portal to nominate and elect new committers. Please follow the nomination guidelines so that the elections are relevant for the whole community.
• Removing Inactive Committers. The portal provides a simple tool for project leads to remove inactive committers (and to correct errors in the automatic inactive committer detection algorithm).
• Naming a Project. Help with choosing an appropriate name for your project [9].
• 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 [10].
• 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.

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. [11] issues to be aware of, and the processes one should follow, when working as a committer on Eclipse.org projects.
• The Poster. The famous IP process poster [12].
• The Policy. The official written word version of the due diligence process for contributing code [13].
• The Cartoons. The IP Process in Eight Cartoons
• The Legal Department. Licenses, IP policies, agreements, etc. [14]
• Logos & Trademarks. Documents about the Eclipse logos and trademarks [15] [16]. 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

• bugzilla use
• IP log
• project plan
• project meta-data
• "about this project" left menu
• incubation branding

Information and Miscellany

• Lists of committers

This page is moderated by Anne Jacko and Bjorn Freeman-Benson (Eclipse Foundation)