Skip to main content

Introduction

The Palisadoes Foundation’s open-source software projects started in 2016 when a group of expatriate Jamaicans wanted to assist development of new and existing information technologies for the island’s social good.

Over the years the scope of our work has expanded. Our volunteers now live in all timezones of the globe and work on projects with a truly international scope.

A significant proportion of our original open source contributions came from university students studying software engineering. Participants often came from under-served communities or geographic areas and were sponsored through the various programs in which we participated.

Getting Started​

Here is a quick guide on getting started with our projects.

  1. Watch our YouTube Channel playlist: Getting Started - Developers. It covers important topics such as:
    1. Our community culture
    2. How to create issues
    3. How to get issues assigned to you
    4. Our pull request process
    5. The importance of testing
  2. Get familiar with the important files in each repository. They cover details that are excluded in our summary YouTube videos.
  3. If you are new to GitHub and collaborative coding then read our GitHub Quick-Start Guide.
  4. Research the GitHub unassigned issue trackers for all the projects
  5. Introduce yourself on our #general slack channel. You can join our Slack Channel using the link on the Palisadoes Foundation GitHub Home Page.
  6. If you do not see any interesting projects from the proposed ideas or issues, we encourage you to contact the Palisadoes Foundation’s mailing list and propose a new idea. The Palisadoes Foundation does not encourage and will not respond to your personal new open source project ideas which are unrelated to any Palisadoes projects.
  7. You can subscribe to our list at https://www.freelists.org/list/palisadoes.

Important Files​

Each of our GitHub repositories contain important files in their topmost, or root, directories that you should know about. These include:

FilePurpose
README.mdThe README.md file contains a summary of project's purpose. It includes links to other important files in the repository that you should read before starting
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.mdThis file contains guidelines of how each contributor in the community should behave and communicate with each other. It also states the consequences of going against these rules. By doing this we aim to provide a harassment-free environment and also an inclusive, healthy and diverse community.
CONTRIBUTING.mdEverything you need to know to start contributing to our projects can be found here. It also includes ways to communicate with the community.
DOCUMENTATION.mdThis file points out some useful tips on where to find our documentation and how to use Docusaurus.
INSTALLATION.mdThe installation guide for the project. It will tell you step by step what you need to do to get the software running. This includes the dependencies to install, the required versions of supporting software and the necessary tips to get things working on your operating system.
CONFIGURATION.mdSome repositories have this file to specify the configurations necessary to enable various features to make Talawa run smoothly.
ISSUE_GUIDELINES.mdIf you find a bug or feel a new feature is necessary, then open an issue. Don't ask for permission to create one, we need your contributions! However, if you want to do the work yourself, don't start before being assigned the task as we only accept Pull Requests (PRs) from people who have been assigned the corresponding issue.
PR_GUIDELINES.mdWhen you are ready submit new code this document will explain what we need in your Pull Request (PR). We take this guide seriously as it tells you how to make sure your code will meet our standards and be accepted.