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Overview of Code Approval Process – How to get your Code into DSpace!

0. Share Early, Share Often!

The overriding mantra is share early, share often. Here are a few things to consider before you begin working on your code:

• Please be sure to share your plans with the DSpace community on the 'dspace-devel' list (or via one of the weekly Developer Meetings) before embarking on any sizable development effort. This will ensure you achieve your goals in a way that is consistent with the DSpace architecture and plans of the rest of the community. This will minimize the chances of a scenario where you have invested a large amount of time and effort into a body of code that does not fit in with the DSpace architecture or the consensus of the community, meaning that you need to spend further time refactoring your code or worse, 'forking' the code.
• Develop incrementally; try and implement and contribute a basic form of your feature as soon as possible, rather than aiming to implement a complete and 'polished' solution. This will help ensure you're on the right track with regards to the rest of the DSpace community and platform. The sooner your code is part of the core code base, the less time you will have to spend 'chasing' the main code base, i.e. keeping your changes up-to-date with that core code base.
• Obtain the DSpace code using Subversion. This will make code management much easier. It's very simple to do; see Guide to Developing with DSpace.
• Read ContributionGuidelines (this page) to ensure you are following DSpace conventions. This page also gives you a sense of the DSpace Code Approval processes.

1. Make your code available

FirstOnce your code is ready, you must make your code available to the DSpace Committers Group for review. This can be in the form of a patch (posted to our DSpace Issue Tracker). Alternatively, you may provide us with downloadable version or read-only access to your SVN or CVS code repository. In either case, you should create a new Issue in our DSpace Issue Tracker. This ensures that the DSpace Developers are notified of your contribution, and acts as a place for us to comment on the work or make suggestions for improvements.

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