Many people want to dive into open source software, but don't 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 a good 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 with a public roadmap. Therefore joining doesn't require high barriers or a high profile. Small things like spreading the word on Twitter, writing a brief tutorial or reporting a bug are all valuable contributions.
Let’s dive into what it needs and means to be a Countly contributor.
We use Git, a distributed version control system and Github, a service that gives open source developers several tools to keep their source code. All public 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-supported open source projects. Even our documentation is on Github.
All open source projects needs a lot of 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 an in-depth installation guide anything would help.
A good example would be wonderful Countly video tutorial series by Andrew of Magrocket.
We are always updating our latest status on Twitter and Facebook, and use these two social environments a lot. A quick and dirty way to ask a question to Countly developers is to contact them via Twitter.
Currently Countly SDKs are available for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and Mac OS X platforms. Contributors have provided many SDKs for different development environments including Titanium, Unity 3D, Phonegap, Icenium and Corona. Basically, if a device is connected to internet, you can get analytics data easily with a simple SDK. Examples include but not limited to Smart TVs, set top boxes, mobile apps using HTML5/Javascript, desktop operating systems, in-car entertainment systems, IP security cameras - anything that is able to send HTTP requests can be a part of your analytics.
Countly always needs more contributors, and you don’t have to be a developer guru to be a part of Countly. Join us in the adventure of building the best analytics platform!