How Users Can Help a Project? Samisa Abeysinghe

Who Am I? Samisa Abeysinghe –ASF Member WS PMC –Projects Started with Apache Axis/C++ Now with Apache Axis2/C and related projects –Work Director, Engineering, WSO2 Inc.

Why this Title? I've seen many types of users –Helpful, Encouraging, Educating, Inspiring, Demanding –And few Painful And I have noted –Rise in enterprise users In a hurry Little understanding on how OSS work

In a Nutshell How to help? –Use –Document –Test –Patch –Improve

Use it And you will run into problems –Ask questions On user list please And that helps!!! –Someone will answer it –Mail archive becomes a doc –BTW, you too could have used that doc

Use it – Asking Right questions, the right way –Ask : Are there leaks with httpd module? –And not: There are leaks, and you guys are not fixing it? Because, more often than not, developers know their code

Use it - Experiances Share your unpleasant experiences –Tell us, not others How it helps –Improve usability Bridge developer – user mind gap –Because, more often than not we can fix it Your platform, setup, use case could be unique May be no one tried it ever before May be no one thought about it

Use it - Report Report problems –Raise Jiras Provide ample info – tips to reproduce, logs, symptoms Know what to provide – each project is unique –Axis2/C ==> WSDL, messages captured How it helps –Fix bugs –Enhancements

Use it – Help Others Help others –You faced the same –And you know the fix/workaround How it helps –Take off developer burden –Project maturity milestone

Use it – Advocate Advocate the project –Blogs NOTE: solutions to the blog, problems to the list Share the pleasant experiences –Articles, tutorials How it helps –Spread the good word –Developer satisfaction

Document it “It's not documented, and I spent this amount of time to figure that out” –Now you know it, please contribute And it helps!!! –The next user will benefit

Document it - Review You read the current docs –Found errors Point them out –Have suggestions Let us know How it helps –QA the docs

Document it – Fill in Gaps You can help fill –It is in natural language, simpler than code –Help Translate ==> Often only in English How it helps –Fix docs faster –Wider adoption ==> Break the language barrier

Document it - Comments Doc comments and code comments –Review them –Help fix them –Again in natural language How it helps –Improved code quality –Wider code understanding

Document it - 2doc The solutions are in the mail archive –Pick them up –Note them down –Send it in How it helps –Time saved for next users And developers

Test it You try it ==> you test it It helps!!! –Free QA

Test it – Add What you just tested may not have ever been tested before –Contribute your test No not your code –IP concerns But your test How it helps –Wider test coverage –Better problem isolation

Test it – Improve Use existing tests –And fill in the missing ones –Often success cases are tested Could fill in the failure cases How it helps –Improve code coverage

Test it – Heterogeneous You may have access to heterogeneous platforms –Interop testing, platform testing How it helps –Improve interop and portability

Test it – Tools You may have access to tools –We often use open source tools valgrind, gdb, ab –Contribute findings form your tools Performance, load, memory leaks How it helps –Improved quality

Patch it Your chance to give it back –And it is not complex It Helps!!! –Overall feature improvements –Community spirit

Patch it – Fix You found it, you fixed it –Send it to us –Code, docs, build,... How it helps –It is mutually benefiting Others can use it You need not patch next release

Patch it – Issues Browse the bug tracker –Sometimes there are simple, trivial ones –You can contribute How it helps –Faster fix cycle –You can have it in next release

Patch it – Ideas Not sure how to fix, but have an idea –Let us know How it helps –More minds, better solutions

Patch it – Test Test others patches –See if it works for you –Patching often delayed due to need for testing How it helps –Speed up fix cycle

Patch it – Reproduce Some issues are non issues –See if you can re-produce Let us know if you can or cannot –That verifies that it is an issue How it helps –Still more QA –Faster fix cycle

Develop it New features, modules, samples, docs, tests –Look for abstractions, extension points How it helps –Feature enhancements

Develop it – Features You already developed a new feature –Give it back –Customizations ==> competitive advantage Not give back? But you already downloaded it –Downloaded bulk of competitive advantage –Why not upload few? :)‏ How it helps –Comprehensive project

Develop it – Porting Fixed bunch of stuff –Can contribue –And more importantly continued testing Developers may not have access to that platform How it helps –Portability

Develop it – Enhancements You can be an expert –Performance, memory leaks, language features, best practices –Review current code and even docs Help fix How it helps –Superior code, things done right

Develop it – Wish Lists You have new requirements/wish lists –Discuss On dev list –Get to know how to do that –Walk the extra mile Sometimes discussions go dead Help implement it Keep it alive How it helps –Feature nirvana

Summary You can help –Use Ask, share experiences, report, help others, advocate –Document Review, fill, comments, emal2docs –Test Add, improve, heterogeneous, tools –Patch Fixes, trivial issues, ideas, test, reproduce –Improve Features, porting, enhancements, wishlist

Comments & Questions What do you think? Any comments? Any additions?

Links Mailing lists This presentation A summary

Users Can Help Projects Enjoy Using!!!