This is a guest post by Mark Waite, who maintains the git plugin, the git client plugin, and is a technical evangelist for CloudBees, Inc. |
The Jenkins project booth at Jenkins World 2017 will include the "Pull Requests Corner", recruiting new Jenkins contributors. We think there are many people who will attend the conference without realizing how easy it is to help the Jenkins project, and how much the help is appreciated.
Meet us in the "Pull Requests Corner" and we’ll help you find a way to help Jenkins. Here are some areas where we can use your help. Most of them do not require coding, and do not require a large time commitment.
One Minute Feedback on Your Version
The Jenkins changelog pages (LTS and weekly) gather user experiences with specific Jenkins versions. You can help other Jenkins users by clicking one of the weather icons in the LTS changelog (or the weekly changelog) for the release you’re using. Changelog feedback from weekly releases helps the release team select the long term support version. Changelog feedback from LTS releases helps other users prepare to upgrade.
It takes less than a minute, and helps the community (which will ultimately help you).
Five Minutes to Answer a Question
In five minutes or less, you can help other Jenkins users.
For example:
Answer a question on the #jenkins channel of internet relay chat (IRC)
Answer a question on the Jenkins users mailing list
Answer a question on stackoverflow jenkins, jenkins plugins, or jenkins pipeline
Answer a question on reddit
Ten Minutes to Learn and Share
If you have ten minutes, you can learn something new and share what you learned.
Read a Jenkins community blog post and tweet it with the hashtag #jenkinsci
Read a devops.com blog post and share it on LinkedIn
Read a CloudBees blog post and test drive an idea from it
Find another Jenkins blog and share it (I recently discovered Matt Bajor’s ci/cd life blog)
Fifteen Minutes for Pipeline
Liam Newman has created the "Jenkins Minute" video series. They are brief video segments focusing on specific Jenkins functionality. Choose a video, watch it, and share what you learned on social media.
Twenty Minutes for a Bug
The Jenkins bug tracker contains thousands of bugs. Reviewing, duplicating, and clarifying bug reports takes time. When maintainers are reviewing, duplicating, and clarifying bug reports, they are not fixing bugs, and they are not adding new capabilities.
You can help maintainers by reviewing and duplicating a bug report that matters to you. A comment on a bug report is especially helpful when it confirms you’ve been able to duplicate the bug. It is even more helpful if your verification includes the steps you took and how they differ from the original report.
A bug report which has been duplicated, and includes clear instructions, is much more likely to receive maintainer attention. Help yourself and others by duplicating bugs that matter to you.
Thirty Minutes for Documentation
The Jenkins documentation includes user documentation (guided tour and handbook) and developer documentation (tutorial, how-to guides, and reference). You can help the documentation by describing something important to you clearly and completely.
Refer to the instructions for documentation contributors to see how easy it is to help.
Forty Five Minutes for Translation
If English is not your native language, you can help with Jenkins localization. Jenkins is used worldwide, and many users will benefit from translations. Considering the rapid and continuing evolution of Jenkins, it is no surprise that there is plenty to translate. Refer to the internationalization guide for instructions to help you contribute translations.
Sixty Minutes for a Meetup
Local groups around the world meet often for Jenkins presentations, discussions, and demonstrations. Organizing a Jenkins Area Meetup will introduce you to other users, and will let you explore new ways to benefit from Jenkins. The team at jenkinsci-jam@googlegroups.com is ready to support your JAM with stickers, t-shirts, and more.
Week or More - Adopt a Plugin
The Jenkins plugin ecosystem covers a wide range of areas. Jenkins plugin maintainers come from many different backgrounds, with many different interests. Often, a plugin maintainer may find that they want to do something different on the project, or they may leave the project. When a plugin maintainer is no longer able to maintain a plugin, they can place it for adoption.
Plugins placed for adoption range from very specific use cases (node stalker plugin) to very general use cases (Subversion plugin).
Maintaining an orphan plugin is a great way to contribute to the project. Follow the instructions to "Adopt a Plugin".
See You There!
All those techniques (and more) are available on the Jenkins participate page.
Look for the "Jenkins Needs You" poster at Jenkins World, and come talk to us about the ways you can learn new things, address your concerns, and help Jenkins.
Join the Jenkins project atJenkins World on August 30-31,
register with the code |