Introduction #

There are several ways in which you can contribute to the Liferay open-source project. Some examples include:

• Write documentation in the wiki for a particular feature you know
• Report bugs you find while testing and using Liferay
• Implement a new feature or extend the existing ones
• Fix a bug
• Suggest a new feature

Write documentation #

Liferay has both an official documentation and a community based documentation created through a wiki (right where this page is).

To contribute to the wiki, please register for an account and then create articles using the following guidelines.

• Wiki Guidelines
• Liferay Editorial Guidelines

Report bugs #

Liferay uses Atlassian JIRA issue tracking system - http://issues.liferay.com. Anyone can register for an account and easily report bugs to help improve the overall stability of the product. Please follow these JIRA guidelines when reporting a bug: JIRA Wiki. Following these standards will help JIRA stay clutter-free and up-to-date so legitimate bugs can be quickly addressed. The JIRA wiki also explains how to register for a JIRA account and describes each data field in detail.

Some important take-aways from the JIRA wiki:

1. Make sure it really is a bug - Questions are best handled in the community forums. If you are unsure if it's a bug, post in the forums and see if anyone else is having the same problem
2. Provide as much detail as possible, including detailed steps on how to reproduce the bug. Also include a note outlining the intended results from performing the steps - How would it work if the bug did not exist?
3. Search existing issues before posting a new one. The bug you encountered may have already been reported.

Implement a new feature #

1. Make sure the feature does not exist
2. Consider discussing the proposed new feature in the forums to allow others to give their opinion and give suggestions
3. Create a "New Feature" or "Improvement" issue in JIRA issue tracking system. This will be the primary location to interact with Liferay developers and finally submit your new feature for review.
4. Download Liferay's latest sources from the GitHub repositories
5. Submit a Git pull request to the Liferay module owner (preferred) or attach a patch file to the JIRA issue you created earlier.
1. Make sure your contribution satisfies Liferay's development guidelines: Liferay Core Development Guidelines.
6. Finally, click the "Contribute Solution" workflow step in the left-hand navigation of the ticket and accept the Contributor's Agreement. There will be a place to paste a link to the Git pull request if you used Git to submit your code.

Now, wait to hear from Liferay regarding your contribution. It is not uncommon for a Liferay developer to ask questions, suggest additional improvements or attempt to fix a possible problem with portion of the contribution. This is completely normal. Interact with the developer and work to find a suitable solution. Undoubtedly, Liferay is thrilled with community contributions and wants to see them integrated into the product.

Some tips:

• It's much easier for Liferay's developers to receive several small patches than a huge one, because the latter takes more time to review.
• Follow the conventions of the existing code as strictly as you can: pay attention to class names, variable names and all the coding style.
• If you are planning to develop a large feature or send a set of related patches it's a good idea to write down the whole proposal as a wiki article within the Proposed Projects section

Fix a bug #

Similar to implementing a new feature, community members may contribute fixes for bugs. Follow the steps in the previous section with a few exceptions. Instead of creating a "New Feature" or "Improvement" request, you may file a "Bug" issue. Alternatively, if an issue covering this bug has already been created, add a comment explaining that you are attempting to contribute a solution for this bug. This way Liferay developers and other community members will know you are working on this particular issue. After that, continue to follow the steps to submit a pull request or attach a patch file to the ticket.

Suggest a new feature #

1. Go to the message boards and suggest the feature in the Suggestions and Feature Requests Category.
2. If the community likes it, once it's defined it will be added to this wiki under the Proposed Projects page.