Contributing to the development of PDF::Builder

Working on your first Pull Request? You can learn how from this free series How to Contribute to an Open Source Project on GitHub

We would appreciate the community around us chipping in with code, tests, documentation, and even just bug reports and feature requests. It's better knowing what users of PDF::Builder want and need, than for us to guess. It's not good to spend a lot of time working on something that no one is interested in!

You can contribute to the discussion by posting bug reports, feature requests, observations, etc. to the GitHub issues area (please tag new threads accordingly, using ["Labels"], if possible).

Please also read INFO/RoadMap to get an idea of where we would like for PDF::Builder to be heading, and may give you an idea of where you could usefully contribute. Don't be afraid to discuss or propose taking PDF::Builder off in a direction not in the RoadMap -- the worst that could happen is that we say, "thanks, but no thanks."

First of all, please read the section "Sofware Development Kit" under PDF::Builder::Docs. This will be of interest if you want to do anything beyond simply installing PDF::Builder as a prerequisite for some other package. You can also get to this via "SOME SPECIAL NOTES" section of the root documentation (PDF::Builder). You should create all the HTML documentation by running "docs/buildDoc.pl --all" and read it before starting any serious work.

For code changes, a GitHub pull request, a formal patch file (e.g., "diff"), or even a replacement file or manual patch will do, so long as it's clear where it goes and what it does. If the volume of such work becomes excessive (i.e., a burden to us), we reserve the right to limit the ways that code changes can be submitted. At this point, the volume is low enough that almost anything can be handled. Please DO NOT send us code changes "out of the blue" (without prior discussion), unless they are very small, so that you're not out a lot of effort if we decline the offer.

Do NOT...

Do NOT under ANY circumstances open a PR (Pull Request) to report a bug. It is a waste of both your and our time and effort. Instead, simply open a regular ticket (issue) in GitHub, and attach a Perl (.pl) program that illustrates the problem, if possible. If you believe that you have a program patch (i.e., a permanent change to the code), and offer to share it as a PR, we may give the go-ahead. Unsolicited PRs may be closed without further action.

Please do not start on a massive project (especially, new function), without discussing it with us first (via email or one of the discussion areas). This will save you the disappointment of seeing your hard work rejected because it doesn't fit in with what's going on with the rest of the PDF::Builder project. You are free to try contributing anything you want, or even to fork the project if you don't like the direction it's taking (that's how PDF::Builder split off from PDF::API2). Keeping in touch and coordinating with us ensures that your work won't be wasted. If you have something dependent on PDF::Builder functionality, but it doesn't fit our roadmap for core functionality, we may suggest that you release it as a separate package on CPAN (dependent on PDF::Builder), or as a new sub-package under PDF::Builder (e.g., like PDF::API2::Ladder), under either our ownership or yours.

Good luck, and best wishes using and helping with PDF::Builder!

May, 2023