The following tips might improve the chances of your contributions being accepted. Supplying patches is how to make changes to core or contributed code.
- Start small. Review other patches and offer constructive suggestions and improvements. Tackle a few small bugs from the issue queue. Prove yourself. Before you wade in with a substantial change, develop a profile as a dependable, collaborative contributor.
- Take a step back and objectively evaluate whether the changes are appropriate for the ProjectPier core. Ask yourself:
- Is the feature already implemented? Search the forums and issue tracker.
- Could the feature be implemented as a contributed module rather than a patch to the core?
- Will the change benefit a substantial portion of the ProjectPier install base?
- Is the change sufficiently general for others to build upon cleanly?
- Be explanatory, provide descriptions and illustrations, make a good case. Don't count on others downloading, installing, and testing your changes. Rather, show them in a nutshell what your changes would mean. Anticipate and address questions or concerns. If appropriate, provide screenshots.
- Be collaborative. Be friendly and respectful. Acknowledge the effort others put in.
- Be open to suggestions and to other ways of accomplishing what you're aiming for.
- Be persistent. If you don't get any response right away, don't necessarily give up. If you're still convinced your idea has merit, find another way to present it. Request another developer - ideally, one familiar with your work - to take the time to review your issue.
- Respond, in a timely way, to suggestions, requests, or issues raised. Revise your work accordingly.
- If some time has gone by, update your changes to work with the current SVN version.