Call for Community Code Reviews and Testing for 7.6 and Beyond
DSpace Developers
Do you want to contribute to the DSpace community? DSpace is only made possible by community contributions, and you can make an immediate difference by helping with code reviews and testing.
Testing doesn’t require technical expertise, just some familiarity with a local docker environment. Check out the “1 Approval” labeled pull requests (see below) for testing that doesn’t require complex coding knowledge.
If you are more technical, code reviews are a valuable way to get involved with DSpace development and get more familiar with the code that DSpace runs on.
Why test DSpace Pull Requests?
One of the larger challenges to fixing a bug or improving/adding a new feature is end user testing. This activity is often reliant on other developers, but can be helped along by those in non-technical roles. As a general policy, DSpace Committers require at least two reviewers/testers (from different institutions) for every Pull Request. While this policy helps ensure all new code is stable, it can result in an accidental "bottle-neck" or roadblock if a secondary reviewer/tester cannot be located quickly.
While we do require automated tests for every new Pull Request, automated tests are not always able to accurately replicate normal user behavior.
Therefore, when more people are able to get involved in testing new code, the result is more stable & bug-free code. Additionally, it increases the speed at which new code can be accepted – allowing us to get more features/fixes in each release of the software.
Ready to get started?
For an overview of testing pull requests, please review the Testing DSpace Pull Requests Wiki page. When you’re ready, there are some easy ways to contribute right away:
Work on version 7.6 (due in June):
Don’t have much time? Work on bug fixes that only require one approval using the “1 Approval” label in the 7.6 Github Board: https://github.com/orgs/DSpace/projects/23/views/1?filterQuery=label%3A%221+APPROVAL%22
Or, choose among all the pull requests currently on the 7.6 Github Board (see “Needs Reviewer Assigned” or “Under Review” columns): https://github.com/orgs/DSpace/projects/23/views/1
Don’t see something of interest or want to work on something else? You can find pull requests for future releases as well:
Back-end development: all pull requests https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pulls
Front-end development: all pull requests https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pulls