Types of contribution
From MapbenderWiki
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Documentation
All documentation of the Mapbender Project is managed in a Wiki with named accounts. This wiki contains all the documentation and is one of the reasons that a lot might look a little confusing in the beginning. Request for an account at mailto:info@mapbender.org, then go hack the Wiki and make it more comprehensible. Accounts are granted and revoked by the Mapbender PSC. Once you have a Wiki edit account your are a member of the Mapbender Contributor Group.
Testing
Whenever a new version is about to be released it is first published as numbered release candidates (RC1, RC2, RCn). These can be accessed online at the same time through a server. Currently the Test Server is operated at http://wms1.ccgis.de/mapbender_dev/. In the near future this server will hopefully move to the OSGeo domain. An email is sent to the User List (mailto:users@mapbender.osgeo.org) announcing the test phase.
Additionally to the dedicated Test Server the OSGeo will operate a Development Server which will be deployed directly from the SVN every night so that current development is immediately reflected to a large user group. Finally the Reference Server will host the current stable version including user accounts that will be backed up to ensure contiuous operation. (These requests for change are currently being processed by SAC.)
Besides these public servers you can obviosuly test any Mapbender version on your own servers any time you want. Send all bugs and issues to the mailto:dev@mapbender.osgeo.org list.
Packaging
Packaging is a more intricate process and involves the preparation of SQL dumps with correct encoding and so on. To contribute to packaging you need to be in the Mapbender Contributor team, need to have write access to the Wiki and commit access to the code repository.
Development
If you want to contribute code there are several ways to do this:
- Send an email with your code to mailto:dev@mapbender.osgeo.org. Ask if it's worth adding to the generic code base. A Mapbender developer will look into it and decide whether it should be committed to the repository. Please do not be disappointed if the developers do not react at once, they usually have work on their hands. Please also don't be disappointed if the developers don't like your code (they usually will like it). If there are provenance issues with respect to IP, copyright or licenses the PSC is called in to resolve the problem. Your name will of course always appear as contributor.
- If the developers like your code they might want you to become a Mapbender developer. They will contact you and ask whether you would like to join the team. Only a Mapbender developer is allowed to write to the Mapbender SVN (Additionally read Mapbender Code Repository).
Education
If you are into education you contribute to the project simply by using Mapbender in your courses. For a first introduction you should go to the Reference Server and create an account to use in your classes. You can decide whether you want to have a moderated environment or leave it up to your class to create their own individual environments. In the moderated environment you have to create users manually and then grant access privileges to your users. This way you can easily share services, maps, context documents and user interfaces by grouping users and granting permissions to groups. If you are interested in setting up a course or tutorial, feel free to mailto:dev@mapbender.osgeo.org we are happy to help.
Some presentations are already available online. This repository will move to the Documents & files pages of the Mapbender Domain at OSGeo].
Support
Probably the most important communication medium for support are the Mapbender Mailing Lists. Thats the place where people communicate. Simply subscribe to become a participator of the support team (ask and get answers). By subscribing you become a member of the Mapbender User Group and stay up to date regarding the development.
Please observe that all support given here is voluntary, be nice to people. Don't demand for help but humbly ask for it and the more willingly you will receive an answer. This is a very simple thing to learn, does not hurt at all and helps build momentum.
Promotion
The Mapbender and OSGeo teams are happy to help you when you promote the Mapbender project and the Foundation. You are invited to operate booths at events, write articles, give talks and spread the word. Discuss strategic ideas and how to manage larger projects in the mailto:users@mapbender.osgeo.org List.
