Contributing to Countly

Many people want to dive into open source software, but do not know where to start. Most of the time they have the energy and enthusiasm, but do not have a clue about how to behave, whom to talk, what to read in order to begin with their contribution.

Countly is in fact a perfect open source example of an open source project - it has a ticketing system, a searchable knowledgebase, nice developers to connect to, and most importantly, a global vision and aim. Therefore joining requires low-profile and low-barriers. Even if you are Twitter user, documentation writer or just spotted an issue, Countly is one of the best projects to contribute to.

Let’s dive into what it needs and means to be a Countly contributor.

1. Learn Git and Github

We are using Git, a distributed version controlling system (less info) and Github, a service that gives open source developers several tools to keep their source code. All our code resides in GitHub servers, and Github provides wonderful ways to read, fork, examine and contribute code back to the project. One of the first things you should be doing is learning Git commands - this is really a good start towards being a part of Countly and other Git-supporting open source projects.

2. Write reviews and documentation

All open source projects need more documentation and Countly is not an exception. You can either contact us directly for a review/doc, or start writing your own. You don’t have to be a linguistic expert - anything, from reviews to in-depth installation would do. Just throw a stone to water :)

3. Follow Countly on Twitter & Facebook

We are always updating our latest status on Twitter & Facebook, and use these two social environment a lot. A quick and dirty way to ask a question to Countly developers is to contact them via Twitter. You ask, we answer! :)

4. Deal with forgotten TODOs 

From time to time, you may see #todo, #fixme, #tbd and such tags in the source code. If they are not meant to fix by an outsider contributor, you can just dive into the code and try to come up with an idea to the original author. 

5. Write an SDK for _______ platform

Currently Countly is written for iOS and Android platforms. A generous contributor has written Appcelerator Titanium SDK, but others are waiting for some love. I can quickly think of Gideros Studio, Moai SDK, Unity3D, Windows Phone 7/8, Blackberry 7 and up (including 10), HTML5, Tizen, … (you name it!). Therefore if you think you can write an SDK, just go ahead.

Countly always needs more contributors, and you don’t have to be a developer guru to be a part of Countly. 

— Team Countly