Bug Fixes & Patches

The HUBzero Foundation accepts bug fixes and core patches. Submissions are reviewed by Foundation technical staff and, if accepted, they will become part of the HUBzero core distribution. When contributions are offered to the HUBzero Foundation, the copyright for the software must be reassigned to the HUBzero Foundation so that the changes can be managed as an indistinguishable part of the core distribution. The HUBzero Foundation reserves the right to reject submissions for any reason.

Adherence to Standards

The HUBzero Foundation has established coding conventions and guidelines for developing HUBzero components. All submissions to the core must adhere to the guidelines, coding patterns, and styles laid forth in the documentation. Contributions are reviewed by the Foundation team before being incorporated into the core distribution and those that do not meet the standards may be tweaked or rewritten as needed, or may be accepted pending required changes. Any contribution known to contain security vulnerabilities may be rejected entirely.

Hosted Hubs

All code extensions and alterations must adhere to the aforementioned coding conventions and guidelines for hubs hosted and maintained by HUBzero. Third-party extensions are allowable but must first be reviewed and accepted to ensure compatibility, functionality, and security concerns are addressed.

Guidelines

• Be sure that the code follows the development styles and conventions
• Make sure it works.
• If it requires internationalization, documentation, or help to be written, be sure you've done that before submission.
• Variables, subroutines, and comments in the code should be made in English. While the talents of the worldwide community is greatly appreciated, we cannot support code that we cannot read.

Subjective Requirements

Below are some subjective requirements that should be taken into consideration.

1. Is this feature useful?
   Consider whether this feature is useful to the current or future users. If there are relatively few people for who this is useful: what other reasons are there to include this? If this feature is useful only to some, can it be made in a way that it can be switched off or easily removed, so that it's out of the way of the average user.
2. Is this feature usable by the target audience?
   Consider who is the target audience? Is it user-friendly for regular users, does a content manager in an avarage business environment have the skills to use it? Or is this directed to system administrators?
3. What are the maintenance costs of it?
   Strongly consider the time and effort spent in maintaining it.
4. Does this fit in the direction HUBzero is going?
   This may be something you want to discuss with other hub owners and users, but you can also submit inquiries to the HUBzero team.
5. Is there already a similar feature?
   If so: could this similar feature be adapted to suit you needs? Or does your contribution have all the features of the existing feature? And if so, is there a way to upgrade?