Contribute

Introduction

Get smart, get social

Open Source projects are only as good as the community behind them. Participating in the community is a great way to build and share knowledge. Silverstripers share code, discuss ideas and help others improve their skills. No matter what your skill level is, there is a way you can contribute. A little, done by a lot, quickly adds up. Refer to the developer documentation for contribution guidelines.

Get social

Get writing

Get developing

Keep informed

Get social

Chat online – Our Slack channels provide a real-time chat space where community members can ask and answer questions about working with Silverstripe CMS and Silverstripe Framework. It's also a lively place to get to know others.

Answer questions – The forum is a great place for Silverstripers of all skill levels to raise challenging questions. We encourage you to share your expertise with others to grow the community. Answer questions, discuss coding approaches and help others help themselves. Be sure to also checkout Stack Overflow for more focused Q&A.

Attend or host meetups – Get together face-to-face with other developers. The best ideas are created and problems are solved through 'talking shop' in a relaxed social atmosphere. Checkout meetup.com for a Silverstripe CMS meetup group in your region. Or, if there isn’t one, why not start a new group?

Hackfests – Get hands-on with Silverstripe Framework code. Work on new features, fix bugs, or simply get Silverstripe Framework installed as a place to start. Hackfests are a fun way to get to know your fellow Silverstripers while growing your knowledge.

Developer directory – If you are actively developing with Silverstripe Framework, list your services in the developer directory. This service allows those looking to hire Silverstripe CMS developers to get in contact with you or your organisation.

Shout someone a beer or coffee! – It’s a nice thing to do if someone in the community has helped you out.

Spread the word – If you think Silverstripe CMS is great, tell your friends and colleagues, get involved in our social networks or blog about us. Don’t keep it to yourself!

Get writing

Writing documentation – Submit a tutorial or review and submit changes to our online developer documentation. Help to grow the Silverstripe CMS knowledge-base.

Blogging – If you love blogging about Open Source software then get in touch. We are always on the lookout for community article contributions covering anything to do with Silverstripe CMS or related Open Source topics.

Translations – Silverstripe's CMS has been translated into many languages by people in our global community. You can help translate by contributing through the Transifex translation service.

Showcase your site – You can showcase your work and demonstrate your Silverstripe CMS and Silverstripe Framework expertise as a part of your developer directory.

Report a bug – If you find a problem with Silverstripe CMS, you can let the developer community know by logging an issue on GitHub.

Get developing

Contribute to Silverstripe CMS – Make core improvements to the Silverstripe CMS, or other community member modules and themes.

Create a module – Extend your projects and contribute back to Open Source.

Create a theme – Gain greater control over the look and feel of your site. Even better, you'll also gain deeper knowledge about Silverstripe CMS.

Share, review and discuss code – SilverStripe code review and issue related conversations take place on github.com/silverstripe. Add issues, reply to existing issues, and review future changes to SilverStripe software.

Unit and browser testing – Interested in the testing side of development? SilverStripe includes a vast array of test suites which you can add to and help improve the robustness of the SilverStripe project.

Keep Informed

Keep informed

Feature Ideas

Our community forum allows you to make requests for new features for the software, and vote on them.

What gets discussed here?
The "Feature Ideas" forum category is aimed at high level discussion about new features for Silverstripe CMS. Comments here should make a good case for the feature and how it will be useful for Silverstripe CMS. Votes and comments are taken into consideration when the core developers are planning what to include in the next versions of Silverstripe CMS. Note: top rated items might not necessarily get developed next, but with enough votes and discussion they are more likely to be picked up. Alternatively you are welcome to begin work on an item you are interested in. Just be sure to leave a comment and link to your work.

GitHub

GitHub is the social coding platform we use for the development of Silverstripe CMS, and where you raise any bugs you find. Once work gets underway on features for new versions, they are posted here for comment and peer review.

How to subscribe for updates?

Sign up for a GitHub account.
Use the "Watch" feature on our core git repositories. You can configure Github to either notify you of all comments that take place, or alternatively, only notify you when items you have interacted with get updated.
There's a lot repositories to watch on github.com/silverstripe, so we have a combined issue list across them.

What gets discussed here?
Discussion here usually revolves around more technical details about how a feature is being implemented or a bug solved. Once a pull request (a set of code changes representing a new feature) is made, comments usually turn toward peer review and suggestions for improvements before it is accepted.

Developer Google Group

A mailing list for developers interested in deep technical discussions of features and direction of the Silverstripe CMS and modules. You'll get emails of discussion threads as they are updated.

How to subscribe for updates?

Make sure you have a Google Account.
Visit the Google Group and click "Apply to join group".
Once you have access you can change your email frequency preferences.

What gets discussed here?
The Google group conversations centre on the core development of the Silverstripe CMS, Silverstripe Framework and its modules. Developers may discuss new and changed APIs, architecture, and complex issues requiring the attention of core developers. This group is not for project support. If are looking for help, please use our forums.

Overview and contacts

It's all about code and conversation

Refer to the developer documentation on contribution guidelines. We encourage you to work on code and documentation and propose your change in our project repositories.

Your work is reviewed and discussed among others in the community providing a valuable learning experience before finally being published.

Survey

Join the Silverstripe CMS User Research Panel

Here's your chance to help improve Silverstripe CMS tools to ensure they work for you. Share your experience, and try out new features before they are released into the wild. We will notify you when we're doing research so that you have the opportunity to get involved. This research could include online surveys, interviews, in-person or remote user testing, but there are no commitments on your part by joining the panel.

Join the research panel

We intend to use the survey data to help shape the future of what Silverstripe CMS can be, we like to use a Lean UX approach which connects the development process to the users as much as possible.
You can also see and contribute to upcoming UX work (in GitHub) and draft designs with us in the CMS style guides.