FreePBX is a true Open Source development effort. Providing GNU GPL licensing (or equivalent) is all that is required to make a project Open Source. However, obtaining true community involvement is what makes a good project become great. This means transparent access to the project's activities and a development community with access to the project that is not limited to a sponsoring organization. These values are what fuel a really successful project.

The FreePBX Project uses the trac (SCM Integrated SCM and Project Management) application in order to tightly integrate the SVN Activity, Ticket system and Development Wiki. We have integrated this system with the main site so that you are signed on to both sites when you create an account and login to the system. Without an account, you will not be able to submit tickets but will have access to view everything.

Access to Source

The FreePBX project provides transparent access to its SVN version control repository which means you can view all changes, in real time, that are done to the project before and after they are made available as general releases.

• Browse The Source
• See a Timeline of All recent Project Activity

Bug Tracking and Feature Requests

There are thousands of bugs (mostly closed) and feature requests that are submitted form both users and the development community. Any authenticated user can file bugs and feature requests and any user can review them.

• View Bugs and Feature Requests

Community Design and Development

In addition to taking input and feedback from the community at large, FreePBX tries to keep its design and road map plans transparent and accessible. This means ideas are discussed in the Forum, in the Wiki and in the #freepbx-dev IRC channel. Live interaction can also be extremely beneficial, so many phone conversations do take place (after all we are all about phones...). We try hard to document the content of these conversations into the Wiki to further benefit from community review and input.

• Development Wiki
• Development Forum
• FreePBX IRC (#freepbx-dev on FreeNode)

Getting Involved

The Development Wiki lists many ways to get involved. If you want to develop a good way to start is to contact one of the active developers. You can PM them, or you can get onto the Development IRC channel #freepbx-dev and make contact. SVN access is provided to developers similar to other Open Source projects. When a new member gets involved, they provide patches and work with existing developers. After their work is evaluated over a period of time and is found to be of good quality and judgment they are offered access.

Beyond code development there are many ways that you can help. Translations are important and you do not need to be a developer to help in this area. We are aware that there are parts of the code with some limitations today that you might run into. We will work with you on those. We are looking for a Developer who would like to take the lead on the translation subsystem and help us tie up any loose ends that may be needed.

Bug marshals and testing. As bugs get reported, it can be extremely helpful to have some testers who are able to review the bugs, confirm the issues, request additional information from the reporters and in general help us filter the bug reports and prioritize them. Get in touch with the core team if this is something you can help with.

Documentation, Documentation, Documentation

The more quality documentation that exists in a project, the more useful and valuable it becomes. This includes creating original content whether it be How-To Guides, Module Documentation or other forms. It also includes editing existing documentation for correctness and completeness and helping to get the site into a more standardized and organized form. If you have expertise in this area and would like to help drive it, please contact us.

Development Documentation is critical as well. If you are a developer, you probably know that this can be a weak point for many. There is a lot of information on the Development Wiki but it is also a priority of ours to put some effort into cleaning and updating the documentation, organizing it and augmenting it to make it easier for new developers to get involved.

What We are Currently Looking For

We are always open to involvement of all forms as discussed above. In addtion, we would love to see some individuals step up to the plate and help us with the following areas:

• CSS Styling Experts with Excellent IE and FireFox knowledge

Developers don't always make the greatest Artists which is why there are Developers and there are Designers. For both the Website and the FreePBX Product we constantly struggle to get the Styling correctly for FireFox, Internet Explorer and other browsers. The different levels of compliance and other issues and bugs between browsers make for a bit of a challenge. We think we do a pretty good job but we know we are not Artistic Designers. If this is a strength and you have interest, we would love to hear from you.

• Localization Lead (Language Translations)

Localization ability is critical to the global success of the project. If you have good knowledge and ideas in this are and would like to help take the lead in reviewing the Localization system as well as working with translation contributors we would love to hear from you.

• Developers

This is always an ongoing need. The code base is developed in PHP so knowledge of PHP based web application design is clearly valuable in getting active. Knowledge of Asterisk/Dial Plan generation is not necessarily critical. It is clearly a value add but there is also need for the Web Application development that can be augmented by team members who have a very strong grasp in the Asterisk dial plan generation.

• Web Site Designers / Editors

We have put a lot of efforts into creating the beginnings of what we think will become a great website and great resource for the community. We consider this website an extension to the project and FreePBX application and you will even find context sensitive help links in the product that tie directly into this site. We are not Web Designers and we are not top notch Technical Writers / Editors. We would love to see some people with strengths in these areas step up and help us transform this site and community from good to great. Website design skills, information organization and editing and related skills are what we need to help make this a reality. Please contact us if you would like to get involved.