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							<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V1.0//EN" "dtd/document-v10.dtd">

<document>
 <header>
  <title>Contribution to POI</title>
  <authors>
   <person name="Robin Green" email="greenrd@hotmail.com"/>
   <person name="Stefano Mazzocchi" email="stefano@apache.org"/> 
   <person name="Nicola Ken Barozzi" email="barozzi@nicolaken.com"/> 
   </authors>
 </header>

 <body>

 <s1 title="Introduction">

  <p>
   The POI Project is an <link href="http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</link>
   volunteer project released under a very open license.
   This means there are many ways to contribute to the project - either
   with direct participation (coding, documenting, answering questions,
   proposing ideas, reporting bugs, suggesting bug-fixes, etc..) or by resource
   donations (money, time, publicity, hardware, software, conference
   presentations, speeches, etc...).
  </p>
  <p>
   To begin with, we suggest you to subscribe to the
   <link href="mail-lists.html">POI mailing lists</link>
   (follow the link for information on how to subscribe and to access the mail
   list archives). Listen-in for a while, to hear how others make contibutions.
  </p>

  <p>You can get your local working copy of the
   <link href="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/POI">latest and
   greatest code</link> (which you find in the POI module in
   the CVS code repository.
   Review the <link href="todo.html">todo</link> list, choose a task
   (or perhaps you have noticed something that needs patching). Make the
   changes, do the testing, generate a patch, and post to the dev
   mailing list. (Do not worry - the process is easy and explained below.)
  </p>

  <p>
   Document writers are usually the most wanted people so if
   you like to help but you're not familiar with the innermost technical details, don't worry:
   we have work for you!
  </p>

 </s1>

 <s1 title="Help Wanted Here">
  <p>
   The rest of this document is mainly about
   contributing new or improved code and/or documentation, but we would also be glad to have
   extra help in any of the following areas:
  </p>
  <ul>
   <li>Answering questions on the <code>users</code> mailing list - there is often a problem of
    having too many questioners and not enough experts to respond to all the questions.</li>
   <li>Testing POI (especially its less-frequently-used features) on various configurations
    and reporting back.</li>
   <li>Debugging - producing reproduceable test cases and/or finding causes of bugs. Some known bugs are informally listed on
    <link href="todo.html">To Do</link>, and some are recorded in Bugzilla
    (see <link href="#procedure">explanation below</link>).</li>
   <li>Specifying/analysing/designing new features - and beyond. (If you wish to get involved
    with this, please join <code>general POI mailing list</code>
    , install and try out POI
    and read some of the <link href="mail-lists.html">mail archives</link>.
    You should have a strong "fluency" in XML technologies, Java and a basic understanding of
    the POI architecture - don't just say "it should have XYZ" without reading anything first -
    because chances are, someone's already thought of that feature!)</li>
   <li>Packaging easy-to-install packages (such as RPMs) for the myriad of possible configurations out
    there. (The project does not maintain anything but the basic <code>.zip</code> and
    <code>.tar.gz</code> packages, but anyone is welcome to build their own specific packages and
    announce them on the <code>general POI list</code>)</li>
   <li>... and there is just one other thing - don't forget to tell everyone who asks, how great POI is! ;-)
    The more people that know about and start to use POI, the larger the pool of
    potential contributors there will be.
    </li>
  </ul>
 
 </s1>

 <anchor id="cvshowto"/>
 <s1 title="CVS Usage Precis">
  <p>An overview of how to use CVS to participate in POI development.
   Do not be afraid - you cannot accidently destroy the actual code repository,
   because you are working with a local copy as an anonymous user. Therefore,
   you do not have the system permissions to change anything. You can only 
   update your local repository and compare your revisions with the real
   repository.
  </p>

  <p>
   (Further general CVS usage information is at
   <link href="http://www.cvshome.org/">www.cvshome.org</link> and your local
   <code>info cvs</code> pages or <code>man cvs</code> pages or user
   documentation.) 
  </p>

  <p>
   Let us lead by example. We will show you how to establish your local
   repository, how to keep it up-to-date, and how to generate the differences
   to create a patch. (The commands are for Linux.)
  </p>
 </s1>
 <anchor id="ssh"/>
 <s1 title="CVS Committer with Secure Shell access">
  <p>After a developer has consistently provided contributions (code,
   documentation and discussion), then the rest of the dev community
   may vote to grant this developer commit access to CVS.
  </p>

  <p>You will need secure access to the repository to be able to commit
   patches. Here are some resources that help to get your machine configured
   to use the repository over SSH.
  </p>

  <ul>
   <li><link href="http://cvsbook.red-bean.com/">The CVS Book</link></li>
   <li><link href="http://www.cvshome.org/">www.cvshome.org</link></li>
   <li><link href="https://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=32701"></link>
    - See the bottom of the page for links to tips for UNIX and Windows.
    Even if you are on UNIX, the Windows page will also help.</li>
  </ul>
 </s1>

 <anchor id="procedure"/>
 <s1 title="Procedure for Raising Development Issues">
  <p>
   There are two methods for discussing development and submitting patches.
   So that everyone can be productive, it is important to know which method
   is appropriate for a certain situation and how to go about it without
   confusion. This section explains when to use the 
   <code>developer</code> <link href="mail-lists.html">mailing list</link>
   the bug database.
  </p>

  <p>
   Research your topic thoroughly before beginning to discuss a new
   development issue. Search and browse through the email archives - your
   issue may have been discussed before. Prepare your post clearly and
   concisely.
  </p>

  <p>
   Most issues will be discovered, resolved, and then patched quickly
   via the <code>developer</code> mailing list. Larger issues, and ones that
   are not yet fully understood or are hard to solve, are destined for
   Bugzilla.
  </p>

  <p>
   Experienced developers use Bugzilla directly, as they are very sure
   when they have found a bug and when not. However, less experienced users
   should first discuss it on the user or developer mailing list (as
   appropriate). Impatient people always enter everything into Bugzilla
   without caring if it is a bug of POI or their own
   installation/configuration mistake - please do not do this.
  </p>

  <p>
   As a rule-of-thumb, discuss an issue on the <code>developers</code>
   mailing list first to work out any details.
   After it is confirmed to be worthwhile, and you are clear about it,
   then submit the bug description or patch via Bug Tracking.
  </p>

  <p>
   Perhaps you do not get any answer on your first reply, so just post
   it again until you get one. (But please not every hour - allow a few
   days for the list to deal with it.) Do not be impatient - remember that
   the whole world is busy, not just you. Bear in mind that other countries
   will have holidays at different times to your country and that they are
   in different time zones. You might also consider re-writing your initial
   posting - perhaps it was not clear enough
   and the readers' eyes glazed over.
  </p>
 </s1>

 <anchor id="tips"/>
 <s1 title="Contribution Notes and Tips">
  <p>
   This is a collection of tips for contributing to the project in a manner
   that is productive for all parties.
  </p>

  <ul>
   <li>
    Every contribution is worthwhile. Even if the ensuing discussion
    proves it to be off-beam, then it may jog ideas for other people.
   </li>
   <li>
    Use sensible and concise email subject headings. Search engines, and
    humans trying to browse a voluminous list, will respond favourably to a
    descriptive title.
   </li>
   <li>Start new threads with new Subject for new topics, rather than
    re-using the previous Subject line.
   </li>
   <li>Keep each topic focussed. If some new topic arises then start a new
    discussion. This leaves the original topic to continue un-cluttered.
   </li>
   <li>Whenever you decide to start a new topic, then start with a fresh
    new email message window. Do not use the &quot;Reply to&quot; button,
    because threaded mail-readers get confused (they utilise the 
    <code>In-reply-to</code> header). If so, then your new topic will get
    lost in the previous thread and go un-answered.
   </li>
   <li>
    Prepend your email subject line with a marker when that is appropriate,
    e.g. <code>[Patch]</code>, <code>[Proposal]</code>, 
    <code>[RT]</code> (Random Thought which quickly blossom into research
    topics :-), <code>[STATUS]</code> (development status of a certain
    facility).
   </li>
   <li>
    When making changes to XML documentation, or any XML document for that
    matter, use a 
    <link href="http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/">validating parser</link>
    (one that is tried and true is
    <link href="http://www.jclark.com/sp/">SP/nsgmls</link>).
    This procedure will detect errors without having to go through the whole
    <code>build docs</code> process to find them. Do not expect POI
    or the build system to detect the validation errors for you - they can
    do it, but that is not their purpose. (Anyway, nsgmls validation error
    messages are more informative.)
   </li>
   <li>
    Remember that most people are participating in development on a
    volunteer basis and in their "spare time". These enthusiasts will attempt
    to respond to issues. It may take a little while to get your answers.
   </li>
   <li>
    Research your topic thoroughly before beginning to discuss a new
    development issue. Search and browse through the email archives - your
    issue may have been discussed before. Do not just perceive a problem and
    then rush out with a question - instead, delve.
   </li>
   <li>
    Try to at least offer a partial solution and not just a problem statement.
   </li>
   <li>
    Take the time to clearly explain your issue and write a concise email
    message. Less confusion facilitates fast and complete resolution.
   </li>
   <li>
    Do not bother to send an email reply that simply says "thanks".
    When the issue is resolved, that is the finish - end of thread.
    Reduce clutter.
   </li>
   <li>
    You would usually do any development work against the HEAD branch of CVS.
   </li>
   <li>
    When sending a patch, you usually do not need to worry about which CVS
    branch it should be applied to. The maintainers of the repository will
    decide.
   </li>
   <li>
    If an issue starts to get bogged down in list discussion, then it may
    be appropriate to go into private off-list discussion with a few interested
    other people. Spare the list from the gory details. Report a summary back
    to the list to finalise the thread.
   </li>
   <li>
    Become familiar with the mailing lists. As you browse and search, you will
    see the way other people do things. Follow the leading examples.
   </li>
  </ul>
 </s1>

</body>
</document>