Talk given on 2011-11-24 at a Stockholm Ruby User Group meetup.

1. I To
contribute
WANT to
Ruby
YOU on
Rails

2. Sure you can!
I felt like that too!
It's not that hard…

3. Go to an Open
Source Hacknight!
Thanks, Johannes Edelstam :)
We should have more of those.

4. Find something
you want to fix,
then…
open http://github.com/rails/rails
Search issues and pull requests – don't duplicate work

5. Set up a local copy
First, fork Rails
Clone your repo
Add github.com/rails/rails as upstream git remote

6. Get the tests running
Use rvm or rbenv – tests give some warnings in 1.9.
Bundle install – I got warnings about journey, but it works.
Bundle exec rake test – takes about 30 mins on my laptop.

7. Create a branch and go to work
Pick a good branch name. Others will see it.
Clear, concise code as always! Follow the Rails coding style.
Write tests, and make sure all tests pass.
Have someone else look at the code. (Thanks, David Billskog)

8. Push to github & do a Pull Request
First, fetch from upstream and rebase your work.
Push your branch to origin – your github repo.
Go to your new branch on github.
Push the magic Pull Request button.

10. Pull Request primer
Explain your code and why it should be merged into Rails.
Your message starts a discussion thread.
If you need to make changes, do them and push them. The
pull request will be automatically updated.
Help the Rails team. Be kind. In return, they'll help you.

11. Boom!
That was easy

12. But there's a quicker way…
Add a new remote docrails: git@github.com:lifo/docrails.git
Create a new docrails branch, set to track docrails remote.
Make documentation fixes and push them straight up.
Boom! You're a contributor!

13. Now you're one of THEM
http://contributors.rubyonrails.org/

14. Happy camper ->

15. Resources
RailsGuides: Contributing to Ruby on Rails
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/contributing_to_ruby_on_rails.html
Rails BugMash Guide
http://bugmash.com/BugMashManual.pdf
Railscasts #300 Contributing to Open Source
http://railscasts.com/episodes/300