The goal of Django’s contribution guide like every other documentation is to guide user, open-source contributors in this case on how and where they can contribute to making Django better and sustainable.
There’s always a need to make documentations especially one that greatly affects the community and Django itself.
The goal of Django for this 2020 Google Summer of Docs is to make the Contribution guide less overwhelming, accessible, and welcoming to contributors. This is a goal which is essential as it encourages contributors, getting started to contribute to this great framework.
- Restructure the document
- Write a more relatable friendly documentation
- Segmenting the contents into two main parts (Beginners and Advanced Contributors section)
- Construct a guide and style for new technical writers/contributors, to keep the docs up to date and follow standards.
During this stage, my mentor and I decided on the right channels for communication, and feedback. I also interacted with the django-developer community and got information, challenges and ideas they had towards the contribution guide. My mentor and I also had a call with other core Django contributors and came up with ideas for the new contribution gide.
- Reviewed existing contributing guide.
- Identified core contribution areas.
- Mapped existing content on to ideal structure
- Implemented changes on guide:
| Task | Progress | PR Link | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| index page | Done | django/django#13981 | Yes |
| new contributors and contribution page | Done | django/django#13967 | Yes |
Last phase involved:
PR #13967 — Improved the sign posting around the guide to ensure contributors are channeled to the appropriate content for them. PR #13981 — Restructured the guide introductory material to be clearer, advertise the identified contribution pathways, and give equal representation to valued non-code related aspects of contributing. (In so doing we were able to place code-related material where it belongs, in the code-related contribution sections, rather than on the introductory page.) Both of these are published on the latest Django 3.2 docs (or will be as soon as the second PR is merged.)
In addition we made various stylistic changes to make the guide more friendly and engaging as we went.
- Met awesome people in the Django community
- Learnt about working collaboratively on a big project, with many stakeholders, like Django.
- Got mentored by Carlton Gibson and Mikey Ariel
- Got more involved and better understanding with Django codebase
- Contributed to Django!
Predictably, there were lots of ideas for smaller content changes that came up but which we didn't yet have the time to implement fully. These can be fulfilled as incremental changes as we go. The fundamental restructuring is complete.
Changes are published as soon as merged.