NAME
Mojolicious::Guides::Contributing - Contributing to Mojolicious
OVERVIEW
There are many ways to contribute to Mojolicious, this guide will show you a few of them.
REPORTING BUGS
We use the GitHub issue tracker, so you'll need to create a (free) GitHub account to be able to submit issues, comments and pull requests.
First of all, make sure you are using the latest version of Mojolicious, it is quite likely that your bug has already been fixed. If that doesn't help, take a look at the list of currently open issues, perhaps it has already been reported by someone else and you can just add a comment confirming it.
If it hasn't been reported yet, try to prepare a test case demonstrating the bug, you are not expected to fix it yourself, but you'll have to make sure the developers can replicate your problem. Sending in your whole application generally does more harm than good, the t directory of this distribution has many good examples for how to do it right. Writing a test is usually the hardest part of fixing a bug, so the better your test case the faster it can be fixed. ;)
And don't forget to add a descriptive title and text when you create a new issue.
Reporting security issues
Please report security issues directly to the CPAN email address of the pumpking, which is currently sri@cpan.org, and give us a few days to develop and release a proper fix.
Feature requests
Please do not open GitHub issues for feature requests, if there's something you would like to see in a future version of Mojolicious, you have to write the code yourself.
If you're looking for feedback on your ideas, you're welcome to discuss them on the mailing-list or the official IRC channel #mojo on irc.perl.org.
RESOLVING ISSUES
There are many ways in which you can help us resolve existing issues on the GitHub issue tracker.
Can you replicate the problem on your computer? Add a comment saying that you're seeing the same. Perhaps you can provide additional information that will make it easier for others to replicate the problem, maybe even contribute a better test case.
And for all code contributions we very much appreciate additional testing and code review, just add a comment to show your approval or to point out flaws that need to be addressed.
CONTRIBUTING DOCUMENTATION
One of the easiest ways to contribute to Mojolicious is through documentation improvements. While the Mojolicious::Guides are carefully curated by the core team, everybody with a (free) GitHub account can make changes and add new information to the Mojolicious wiki.
CONTRIBUTING CODE
All code contributions should be sent as GitHub pull requests.
While the Mojolicious distribution covers a wide range of features, we are rather conservative when it comes to adding new ones. So if your contribution is not a bugfix, you can drastically increase its chances of getting accepted by discussing it in advance on the mailing-list or the official IRC channel #mojo on irc.perl.org.
The following mission statement and rules are the foundation of all Mojo and Mojolicious development. Please make sure that your contribution aligns well with them before sending a pull request.
Mission statement
Mojo is a runtime environment for Perl real-time web frameworks. It provides all the basic tools and helpers needed to write simple web applications and higher level web frameworks, such as Mojolicious.
All components should be reusable in other projects, and in a UNIXish way only loosely coupled.
Especially for people new to Perl it should be as easy as possible to install Mojolicious and get started. Writing web applications can be one of the most fun ways to learn a language!
For developers of other web frameworks, it should be possible to reuse all the infrastructure and just consider the higher levels of the Mojolicious distribution an example application.
Rules
Web development should be easy and fun, this is what we optimize for.
The web is a moving target, to stay relevant we have to stay in motion too.
Keep it simple, no magic unless absolutely necessary.
The installation process should be as fast and painless as possible. (Less than a minute on most common hardware is a good rule of thumb)
The addition and modification of features is decided by majority vote or the pumpking.
Any core developer may nominate a new one, who must then be accepted by a 2/3 majority vote.
The pumpking has veto rights and may select his successor.
It's not a feature without a test and documentation.
A feature is only needed when the majority of the userbase benefits from it.
Features may only be changed in a major release or after being deprecated for at least 3 months.
Refactoring and deprecations should be avoided if no important feature depends on it.
New features can be marked as experimental to be excluded from deprecation policies.
A major release is signaled by a new major version number and a unique code name based on a Unicode character.
Only add dependencies if absolutely necessary and make them optional if possible.
Domain specific languages should be avoided in favor of Perl-ish solutions.
No inline POD.
Documentation belongs to the guides, module POD is just an API reference.
The main focus of the included documentation should be on examples, no walls of text. (An example for every one or two sentences is a good rule of thumb)
Everything should be ordered alphabetically if possible.
The master source code repository should always be kept in a stable state, use feature branches for actual development.
Code has to be run through Perl::Tidy with the included .perltidyrc, and everything should look like it was written by a single person.
Code should be organized in blocks and those blocks should be commented.
No spaghetti code.
Comments should be correctly capitalized, and funny if possible, punctuation is optional if it doesn't increase readability.
No names outside of Mojolicious.pm.
No Elitism.
Peace!
MORE
You can continue with Mojolicious::Guides now or take a look at the Mojolicious wiki, which contains a lot more documentation and examples by many different authors.