2018-01-23 20:41:38 +01:00
|
|
|
|
```eval_rst
|
|
|
|
|
:orphan:
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
# Google Summer of Code
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## About us
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
[Zulip](https://zulipchat.com) is a powerful, open source team chat
|
2019-10-30 00:06:59 +01:00
|
|
|
|
application. Zulip has a web app, a cross-platform mobile app for iOS
|
|
|
|
|
and Android, a cross-platform desktop app, and over 100 native
|
2019-04-26 00:40:09 +02:00
|
|
|
|
integrations, all open source.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Zulip has gained a considerable amount of traction since it was
|
|
|
|
|
[released as open source software][oss-release] in late 2015, with
|
2019-06-03 21:13:38 +02:00
|
|
|
|
code contributions from [over 500 people](https://zulipchat.com/team)
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
from all around the world. Thousands of people use Zulip every single
|
|
|
|
|
day, and your work on Zulip will have impact on the daily experiences
|
2019-10-30 00:06:59 +01:00
|
|
|
|
of a large and rapidly growing number of people.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[oss-release]: https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2015/09/open-sourcing-zulip-a-dropbox-hack-week-project/
|
|
|
|
|
|
2019-10-30 00:06:59 +01:00
|
|
|
|
As an organization, we value high-quality, responsive mentorship and
|
|
|
|
|
making sure our product quality is extremely high -- you can expect to
|
|
|
|
|
experience disciplined code reviews by highly experienced
|
2019-10-30 22:00:14 +01:00
|
|
|
|
engineers. Since Zulip is a team chat product, your GSoC experience
|
2019-10-30 00:06:59 +01:00
|
|
|
|
with the Zulip project will be highly interactive.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As part of that commitment, Zulip has over 150,000 words of
|
|
|
|
|
[documentation for
|
|
|
|
|
developers](../index.html#welcome-to-the-zulip-documentation), much of
|
|
|
|
|
it designed to explain not just how Zulip works, but why Zulip works
|
|
|
|
|
the way that it does.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
2019-10-30 00:06:59 +01:00
|
|
|
|
### Our history with Google Open Source Programs
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip has been a GSoC mentoring organization since 2016, and we aim
|
|
|
|
|
for 10-20 GSoC students each summer. We have some of the highest
|
|
|
|
|
standards of any GSoC organization; successful applications generally
|
|
|
|
|
have dozens of commits integrated into Zulip or other open source
|
|
|
|
|
projects by the time we review their application. See [our
|
|
|
|
|
contributing guide](../overview/contributing.md) for details on
|
|
|
|
|
getting involved with GSoC.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip participated in GSoC 2016 and mentored three successful students
|
|
|
|
|
officially (plus 4 more who did their proposed projects unofficially).
|
2019-10-30 00:06:59 +01:00
|
|
|
|
We had 14 (+3) students in 2017, 10 (+3) students in 2018, and 17 (+1)
|
|
|
|
|
in 2019. We've also mentored five Outreachy interns and hundreds of
|
|
|
|
|
Google Code-In participants (several of who are major contributors to
|
|
|
|
|
the project today).
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
### Expectations for GSoC students
|
|
|
|
|
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[Our guide for having a great summer with Zulip](../contributing/summer-with-zulip.md)
|
2018-03-31 21:10:57 +02:00
|
|
|
|
is focused on what one should know once doing a summer project with
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip. But it has a lot of useful advice on how we expect students to
|
|
|
|
|
interact, above and beyond what is discussed in Google's materials.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
2019-04-06 02:58:44 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[What makes a great Zulip contributor](../overview/contributing.html#what-makes-a-great-zulip-contributor)
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
also has some helpful information on what we look for during the application
|
|
|
|
|
process.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
We also recommend reviewing
|
|
|
|
|
[the official GSoC resources](https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/resources/)
|
|
|
|
|
-- especially
|
|
|
|
|
[the student manual](https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/resources/manual).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Finally, keep your eye on
|
|
|
|
|
[the GSoC timeline](https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline). The
|
2020-02-27 20:46:59 +01:00
|
|
|
|
student application deadline is March 31, 2020.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
## Getting started
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We have an easy-to-setup development environment, and a library of
|
|
|
|
|
tasks that are great for first-time contributors. Use
|
2019-04-06 02:58:44 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[our first-time Zulip developer guide](../overview/contributing.html#your-first-codebase-contribution)
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
to get your Zulip development environment set up and to find your first issue. If you have any
|
|
|
|
|
trouble, please speak up in
|
2018-05-24 22:01:05 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[#GSoC](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/14-GSoC) on
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[the Zulip development community server](../contributing/chat-zulip-org.md)
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
(use your name as the topic).
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
## Application tips, and how to be a strong candidate
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll be following
|
|
|
|
|
[GSoC's application process instructions](https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/). And
|
|
|
|
|
we'll be asking you to make at least one successful pull request
|
|
|
|
|
before the application deadline, to help us assess you as a developer.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Students who we accept generally have 5 or more pull requests merged
|
|
|
|
|
or nearly merged (usually including at least a couple that are
|
|
|
|
|
significant, e.g. having 100+ lines of changes or that shows you have
|
|
|
|
|
done significant debugging).
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Getting started earlier is better, so you have more time to learn,
|
|
|
|
|
make contributions, and make a good proposal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Your application should include the following:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* Details on any experience you have related to the technologies that
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip has, or related to our product approach.
|
|
|
|
|
* Links to materials to help us evaluate your level of experience and
|
|
|
|
|
how you work, such as personal projects of yours, including any
|
|
|
|
|
existing open source or open culture contributions you've made and
|
|
|
|
|
any bug reports you've submitted to open source projects.
|
|
|
|
|
* Some notes on what you are hoping to get out of your twelve-week project.
|
|
|
|
|
* A description of the project you'd like to do, and why you're
|
|
|
|
|
excited about it.
|
|
|
|
|
* Some notes on why you're excited about working on Zulip.
|
|
|
|
|
* A link to the initial contribution(s) you did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We expect applicants to either have experience with the technologies
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
relevant to their project or have strong general programming
|
|
|
|
|
experience. We also expect applicants to be excited about learning
|
|
|
|
|
how to do disciplined, professional software engineering, where they
|
|
|
|
|
can demonstrate through reasoning and automated tests that their code
|
|
|
|
|
is correct.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
While only one contribution is required to be considered for the
|
|
|
|
|
program, we find that the strongest applicants make multiple
|
|
|
|
|
contributions throughout the application process, including after the
|
|
|
|
|
application deadline.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We are more interested in candidates if we see them submitting good
|
|
|
|
|
contributions to Zulip projects, helping other applicants on GitHub
|
|
|
|
|
and on
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[chat.zulip.org](../contributing/chat-zulip-org.md),
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
learning from our suggestions,
|
|
|
|
|
[trying to solve their own obstacles and then asking well-formed
|
|
|
|
|
questions](https://blogs.akamai.com/2013/10/you-must-try-and-then-you-must-ask.html),
|
|
|
|
|
and developing and sharing project ideas and project proposals that
|
|
|
|
|
are plausible and useful.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Also, you're going to find that people give you links to pages that
|
|
|
|
|
answer your questions. Here's how that often works:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. you [try to solve your problem until you get stuck, including
|
|
|
|
|
looking through our code and our documentation, then start formulating
|
|
|
|
|
your request for
|
|
|
|
|
help](https://blogs.akamai.com/2013/10/you-must-try-and-then-you-must-ask.html)
|
|
|
|
|
1. you ask your question
|
|
|
|
|
1. someone directs you to a document
|
|
|
|
|
1. you go read that document, and try to use it to answer your question
|
|
|
|
|
1. you find you are confused about a new thing
|
|
|
|
|
1. you ask another question
|
|
|
|
|
1. now that you have demonstrated that you have the ability to read,
|
|
|
|
|
think, and learn new things, someone has a longer talk with you to
|
|
|
|
|
answer your new specific question
|
|
|
|
|
1. you and the other person collaborate to improve the document that you
|
|
|
|
|
read in step 3 :-)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This helps us make a balance between person-to-person discussion and
|
|
|
|
|
documentation that everyone can read, so we save time answering common
|
|
|
|
|
questions but also get everyone the personal help they need. This will
|
|
|
|
|
help you understand the rhythm of help we provide in the developers'
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip livechat -- including why we prefer to give you help in public
|
|
|
|
|
mailing lists and Zulip streams, instead of in one-on-one private
|
|
|
|
|
messages or email. We prefer to hear from you and respond to you in
|
|
|
|
|
public places so more people have a chance to answer the question, and
|
|
|
|
|
to see and benefit from the answer. [More about that in this blog
|
|
|
|
|
post.](https://www.harihareswara.net/sumana/2016/10/12/0)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Mentors
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We have more than a dozen Zulip contributors who are interested in
|
|
|
|
|
mentoring projects. We usually decide which contributors are
|
|
|
|
|
mentoring which projects based in part on who is a good fit for the
|
|
|
|
|
needs of each student as well as technical expertise. You can reach
|
2018-05-24 22:01:05 +02:00
|
|
|
|
us via [#GSoC](https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/14-GSoC) on
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[the Zulip development community server](../contributing/chat-zulip-org.md),
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
(compose a new stream message with your name as the topic).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip operates under group mentorship. That means you should
|
|
|
|
|
generally post in public streams on chat.zulip.org, not send private
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
messages, for assistance. Our preferred approach is to just post in
|
|
|
|
|
an appropriate public stream on chat.zulip.org and someone will help
|
|
|
|
|
you. We list the Zulip contributors who are experts for various
|
|
|
|
|
projects by name below; they will likely be able to provide you with
|
|
|
|
|
the best feedback on your proposal (feel free to @-mention them in
|
|
|
|
|
your Zulip post).
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
However, the first and most important thing to do for building a
|
|
|
|
|
strong application is to show your skills by contributing to a large
|
|
|
|
|
open source project like Zulip, to show that you can work effectively
|
|
|
|
|
in a large codebase (it doesn't matter what part of Zulip, and we're
|
|
|
|
|
happy to consider work in other open source projects). The quality of
|
|
|
|
|
your best work is more important to us than the quantity; so be sure
|
|
|
|
|
to test your work before submitting it for review and follow our
|
|
|
|
|
coding guidelines (and don't worry if you make mistakes in your first
|
|
|
|
|
few contributions! Everyone makes mistakes getting started. Just
|
|
|
|
|
make sure you don't make the same mistakes next time).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Once you have several PRs merged (or at least one significant PR
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
merged), you can start discussing with the Zulip development community
|
|
|
|
|
the project you'd like to do, and developing a specific project plan.
|
|
|
|
|
We recommend discussing what you're thinking in public streams on
|
|
|
|
|
chat.zulip.org, so it's easy to get quick feedback from whoever is
|
|
|
|
|
online.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Project ideas
|
|
|
|
|
|
2019-10-30 00:06:59 +01:00
|
|
|
|
**Note**: This project ideas list has not been updated for the 2020
|
|
|
|
|
season, so many of the specific projects discussed here may have been
|
|
|
|
|
completed. They still provide a useful sense of the range of areas
|
|
|
|
|
where active work on Zulip is happening.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
These are the seeds of ideas; you will need to do research on the
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip codebase, read issues on GitHub, and talk with developers to put
|
|
|
|
|
together a complete project proposal. It's also fine for you to come
|
|
|
|
|
up with your own project ideas. As you'll see below, you can put
|
|
|
|
|
together a great project around one of the
|
|
|
|
|
[area labels](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels) on GitHub; each
|
|
|
|
|
has a cluster of problems in one part of the Zulip project that we'd
|
|
|
|
|
love to improve.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We don't believe in labeling projects by difficulty (e.g. a project
|
|
|
|
|
that involves writing a lot of documentation will be hard for some
|
|
|
|
|
great programmers, and a UI design project might be hard for a great
|
|
|
|
|
backend programmer, while a great writer might have trouble doing
|
|
|
|
|
performance work). To help you find a great project, we list the
|
|
|
|
|
skills needed, and try to emphasize where strong skills with
|
|
|
|
|
particular tools are likely to be important for a given project.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
For all of our projects, an important skill to develop is a good
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
command of Git; read [our Git Guide](../git/overview.md) in full to
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
learn how to use it well. Of particular importance is mastering using
|
|
|
|
|
Git rebase so that you can construct commits that are clearly correct
|
|
|
|
|
and explain why they are correct.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
### Focus areas
|
|
|
|
|
|
2020-03-05 01:24:31 +01:00
|
|
|
|
For 2020, we are particularly interested in GSoC students who have
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
strong skills at visual design, HTML/CSS, mobile development,
|
|
|
|
|
performance optimization, or Electron. So if you're a student with
|
|
|
|
|
those skills and are looking for an organization to join, we'd love to
|
|
|
|
|
talk to you!
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Zulip project has a huge surface area, so even when we're focused
|
|
|
|
|
on something, a huge amount of essential work goes into other parts of
|
|
|
|
|
the project. Every area of Zulip could benefit from the work of a
|
|
|
|
|
student with strong programming skills; so don't feel discouraged if
|
|
|
|
|
the areas mentioned above are not your main strength.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As a data point, in Summer 2017, we had 4 students working on the
|
|
|
|
|
React Native mobile app (1 focused primarily on visual design), 1 on
|
|
|
|
|
the Electron Desktop app, 2 on bots/integrations, 1 on webapp visual
|
|
|
|
|
design, 2 on our development tooling and automated testing
|
|
|
|
|
infrastructure, and the remaining 4 on various other parts of the
|
|
|
|
|
backend and core webapp.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
### Full stack and web frontend focused projects
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Code: [github.com/zulip/zulip -- Python, Django, JavaScript, and
|
|
|
|
|
CSS](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/).
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
- Fill in gaps in Zulip's library of native integrations. We have
|
|
|
|
|
about 100 integrations, but there are a handful of important
|
|
|
|
|
integrations that are missing. The
|
|
|
|
|
[the integrations label on GitHub](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20integrations)
|
|
|
|
|
lists some of the priorities here (many of which are great
|
|
|
|
|
preparatory projects); once those are cleared, we'll likely have
|
|
|
|
|
many more. **Skills required**: Strong Python experience, will to
|
|
|
|
|
do careful manual testing of third-party products. Fluent English,
|
|
|
|
|
usability sense and/or technical writing skills are all pluses.
|
|
|
|
|
Expert: Eeshan Garg.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2020-03-05 01:24:31 +01:00
|
|
|
|
- Fill in the gaps in Zulip's [REST API
|
|
|
|
|
documentation](https://zulipchat.com/api), which is an important
|
|
|
|
|
resource for any organization integrating with Zulip. Zulip has a
|
|
|
|
|
[nice framework](../documentation/api.md) for writing API
|
|
|
|
|
documentation built by past GSoC students based on the OpenAPI
|
|
|
|
|
standard with built-in automated tests of both the Python and curl
|
|
|
|
|
examples, but there are a few dozen endpoints that are missing,
|
|
|
|
|
several of which are quite important, and lots to do to improve the
|
|
|
|
|
quality of our documentation. See the [API docs area
|
|
|
|
|
label][api-docs-area] for good starter projects and [this
|
|
|
|
|
issue](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/14100) for the current
|
|
|
|
|
master TODO list.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[api-docs-area]: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22area%3A+documentation+%28api+and+integrations%29%22
|
|
|
|
|
|
2020-03-05 01:24:31 +01:00
|
|
|
|
- Add important full-stack features for open source projects using Zulip,
|
|
|
|
|
including [default stream
|
|
|
|
|
groups](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/13670), [Mute
|
|
|
|
|
User](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/168), and [public
|
|
|
|
|
access](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/13172). Expert: Tim
|
|
|
|
|
Abbott.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
- Make Zulip integrations easier for nontechnical users to setup.
|
|
|
|
|
This includes adding a backend permissions system for managing bot
|
|
|
|
|
permissions (and implementing the enforcement logic), adding an
|
2019-11-28 01:17:30 +01:00
|
|
|
|
OAuth system for presenting those controls to users, as well as
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
making the /integrations page UI have buttons to create a bot,
|
|
|
|
|
rather than sending users to the administration page. **Skills
|
|
|
|
|
recommended**: Strong Python/Django; JavaScript, CSS, and design
|
2019-11-28 01:17:30 +01:00
|
|
|
|
sense helpful. Understanding of implementing OAuth providers,
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
e.g. having built a prototype with
|
2019-11-28 01:17:30 +01:00
|
|
|
|
[the Django OAuth toolkit](https://django-oauth-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
would be great to demonstrate as part of an application. The
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[Zulip integration writing guide](../documentation/integrations.md)
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
and
|
|
|
|
|
[integration documentation](https://chat.zulip.org/integrations/)
|
|
|
|
|
are useful materials for learning about how things currently work,
|
|
|
|
|
and
|
|
|
|
|
[the integrations label on GitHub](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20integrations)
|
|
|
|
|
has a bunch of good starter issues to demonstrate your skills if
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
you're interested in this area. Expert: Eeshan Garg.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Build a meta-integration that converts the Slack incoming webhook
|
|
|
|
|
API to post messages into Zulip. Zulip has several dozen native
|
|
|
|
|
integrations (https://chat.zulip.org/integrations/), but Slack has a
|
|
|
|
|
ton more. We should build an interface to make all of Slack’s
|
|
|
|
|
numerous third-party integrations work with Zulip as well, by
|
|
|
|
|
basically building a Zulip incoming webhook interface that accepts
|
|
|
|
|
the Slack API (if you just put in a Zulip server URL as your "Slack
|
|
|
|
|
server"). **Skills required**: Strong Python experience; experience
|
|
|
|
|
with the Slack API a plus. Work should include documenting the
|
2020-03-05 01:24:31 +01:00
|
|
|
|
system and advertising it. Expert: Tim Abbott.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Visual and user experience design work on the core Zulip web UI.
|
|
|
|
|
We're particularly excited about students who are interested in
|
|
|
|
|
making our CSS clean and readable as part of working on the UI.
|
|
|
|
|
**Skills required**: Design, HTML and CSS skills; JavaScript and
|
|
|
|
|
illustration experience are helpful. A great application would
|
|
|
|
|
include PRs making small, clean improvements to the Zulip UI
|
|
|
|
|
(whether logged-in or logged-out pages). Expert: Tim Abbott.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Build support for outgoing webhooks and slash commands into Zulip to
|
|
|
|
|
improve its chat-ops capabilities. There's an existing
|
|
|
|
|
[pull request](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/pull/1393) with a lot
|
|
|
|
|
of work on the outgoing webhooks piece of this feature that would
|
|
|
|
|
need to be cleaned up and finished, and then we need to build support for slash
|
|
|
|
|
commands, some example integrations, and a full set of
|
|
|
|
|
documentation and tests. Recommended reading includes Slack's
|
|
|
|
|
documentation for these features, the Zulip message sending code
|
|
|
|
|
path, and the linked pull request. **Skills required**: Strong
|
|
|
|
|
Python/Django skills. Expert: Steve Howell.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Build a system for managing Zulip bots entirely on the web.
|
|
|
|
|
Right now, there's a somewhat cumbersome process where you download
|
|
|
|
|
the API bindings, create a bot with an API key, put it in
|
|
|
|
|
configuration files, etc. We'd like to move to a model where a bot
|
|
|
|
|
could easily progress from being a quick prototype to being a third-party extension to
|
|
|
|
|
being built into Zulip. And then for built-in bots, one should be able to click a few
|
|
|
|
|
buttons of configuration on the web to set them up and include them in
|
|
|
|
|
your organization. We've developed a number of example bots
|
|
|
|
|
at `contrib_bots/` in the main Zulip repository that can be used for
|
|
|
|
|
testing; the design document for the deployment part of this vision
|
|
|
|
|
(likely part 1) is
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[here](../subsystems/custom-apps.md).
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
**Skills recommended**: Python and JavaScript/CSS, plus devops
|
|
|
|
|
skills (Linux deployment, Docker, puppet etc.) are all useful here.
|
|
|
|
|
Experience writing tools using various popular APIs is helpful for
|
|
|
|
|
being able to make good choices. Experts: Steve Howell.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
- Improve the UI and visual design of the existing Zulip settings and
|
|
|
|
|
administration pages. Last summer, a student built a nice framework
|
|
|
|
|
for many common elements (e.g. checkboxes, dropdowns, etc.) and
|
|
|
|
|
migrated the codebase to use it, but the tables settings screens
|
|
|
|
|
with tables are inconsistent, only one of them has a convenient
|
|
|
|
|
sorting feature, etc. You can get a great sense of what needs to be
|
|
|
|
|
done by playing with the settings/administration/streams overlays in
|
|
|
|
|
a development environment. You can get experience working on the
|
|
|
|
|
subsystem by working on some of
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
[our open settings/admin issues](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20admin).
|
|
|
|
|
**Skills recommended**: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and an eye for visual
|
2019-04-06 22:23:08 +02:00
|
|
|
|
design. Expert: Shubham Dhama.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Optimize web frontend performance and scalability. Zulip is already
|
|
|
|
|
one of the faster webapps out there, but there are a bunch of ideas
|
|
|
|
|
for how to make it substantially faster. This is likely a
|
|
|
|
|
particularly challenging project to do well, since there are a lot
|
|
|
|
|
of subtle interactions to understand. **Skill recommended**: Strong
|
|
|
|
|
debugging, communication, and code reading skills are most important
|
|
|
|
|
here. JavaScript experience; some Python/Django experience, some
|
|
|
|
|
skill with CSS, ideally experience using the Chrome Timeline
|
|
|
|
|
profiling tools (but you can pick this up as you go). Expert: Steve
|
|
|
|
|
Howell.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Build out the administration pages for Zulip to let admins set a
|
|
|
|
|
retention policy for when old messages should be deleted, audit
|
|
|
|
|
data, etc. ... the sorts of things needed for Zulip to be used at
|
2020-03-05 01:24:31 +01:00
|
|
|
|
larger organizations. We get constant requests for these kinds of
|
|
|
|
|
features from Zulip users. The Zulip bug tracker has plentiful open
|
|
|
|
|
issues( [settings
|
|
|
|
|
(admin/org)](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20settings%20%28admin%2Forg%29),
|
|
|
|
|
[settings
|
|
|
|
|
UI](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20settings%20UI),
|
|
|
|
|
[settings
|
|
|
|
|
(user)](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20settings%20%28user%29),
|
|
|
|
|
[stream
|
|
|
|
|
settings](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20stream%20settings)
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
) in the space of improving the Zulip administrative UI. Many are
|
|
|
|
|
little bite-size fixes in those pages, which are great for getting a
|
|
|
|
|
feel for things, but a solid project here would be implementing 5-10
|
2020-03-05 01:24:31 +01:00
|
|
|
|
of the major missing features as full-stack development projects.
|
|
|
|
|
The first part of this project will be refactoring the admin UI
|
|
|
|
|
interfaces to require writing less semi-duplicate code for each
|
|
|
|
|
feature. **Skills recommended**: A good mix of Python/Django and
|
|
|
|
|
HTML/CSS/JavaScript skill is ideal. The system for adding new
|
|
|
|
|
features is [well documented](../tutorials/new-feature-tutorial.md).
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Expert: Shubham Dhama.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Rebuild the Zulip web UI using a modern reactive layer like vue.js.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Strategically, we'd start with self-contained, messy pieces (like the
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
presence layer), then move on to more complex pieces (like the
|
|
|
|
|
subscriptions page), and finally attach the main UI. Definitely worth
|
|
|
|
|
reading the vue.js documentation and reading
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[how Zulip's real-time sync works](../subsystems/events-system.md).
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
**Skills recommended**: Strong JavaScript experience, good
|
|
|
|
|
communication skills and an eye for detail. We think this would be an
|
|
|
|
|
awesome project, but rewrite projects often introduce lots of bugs, so
|
|
|
|
|
we're interested in particularly careful candidates who have the
|
|
|
|
|
discipline to redo a small component at a time and carefully test for
|
|
|
|
|
regressions. Good ways to demonstrate qualification for this are
|
|
|
|
|
finding and reporting bugs using
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[Zulip's manual UI testing guide](../testing/manual-testing.md)
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
and doing
|
|
|
|
|
[refactoring projects](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20refactoring).
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Expert: Tommy Ip, Tim Abbott.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Work on [Zulip Terminal](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-terminal),
|
|
|
|
|
the official terminal client for Zulip. zulip-terminal is already a
|
|
|
|
|
basic usable client, but it needs a lot of work to approach the
|
|
|
|
|
webapp's quality level. We would be happy to accept multiple strong
|
|
|
|
|
students to work on this project. **Skills required**: Python 3
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
development skills, good communication and project management
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
skills, good at reading code. Experts: Aman Agrawal, Neil Pilgrim.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Write cool new features for Zulip. Play around with the software,
|
|
|
|
|
browse Zulip's issues for things that seem important, and suggest
|
|
|
|
|
something you’d like to build! A great project can combine 3-5
|
|
|
|
|
significant features. Experts: Depends on the features!
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Work on Zulip's development and testing infrastructure. Zulip is a
|
|
|
|
|
project that takes great pride in building great tools for
|
|
|
|
|
development, but there's always more to do to make the experience
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
delightful. Significantly, a full 10% of Zulip's open issues are
|
|
|
|
|
ideas for how to improve the project, and are
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
[in](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20tooling)
|
|
|
|
|
[these](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20testing-coverage)
|
|
|
|
|
[four](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20testing-infrastructure)
|
|
|
|
|
[labels](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/labels/area%3A%20provision)
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
for tooling improvements. A good place to start is
|
|
|
|
|
[backend test coverage](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/7089).
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is a somewhat unusual project, in that it would likely consist
|
|
|
|
|
of dozens of small improvements to the overall codebase, but this
|
|
|
|
|
sort of work has a huge impact on the experience of other Zulip
|
|
|
|
|
developers and thus the community as a whole (project leader Tim
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Abbott spends more time on the development experience than any other
|
|
|
|
|
single area).
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A possible specific larger project in this space is working on
|
2019-09-30 19:37:56 +02:00
|
|
|
|
adding [mypy](../testing/mypy.md) stubs
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
for Django in mypy to make our type checking more powerful. Read
|
|
|
|
|
[our mypy blog post](https://blog.zulip.org/2016/10/13/static-types-in-python-oh-mypy/)
|
|
|
|
|
for details on how mypy works and is integrated into zulip. This
|
|
|
|
|
specific project is ideal for a strong contributor interested in
|
|
|
|
|
type systems.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Skills required**: Python, some DevOps, and a passion for checking
|
|
|
|
|
your work carefully. A strong applicant for this will have
|
|
|
|
|
completed several projects in these areas.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Experts: Tim Abbott (provision, testing), Steve Howell (tooling, testing).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Write more API client libraries in more languages, or improve the
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
ones that already exist (in
|
|
|
|
|
[python](https://github.com/zulip/python-zulip-api),
|
|
|
|
|
[JavaScript](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-js),
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
[PHP](https://packagist.org/packages/mrferos/zulip-php), and
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
[Haskell](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/hzulip)). **Skills
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
required**: Experience with the target language and API design.
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Expert: Depends on language.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Develop [**@zulipbot**](https://github.com/zulip/zulipbot), the GitHub
|
|
|
|
|
workflow bot for the Zulip organization and its repositories. By utilizing the
|
|
|
|
|
[GitHub API](https://developer.github.com/v3/),
|
|
|
|
|
[**@zulipbot**](https://github.com/zulipbot) improves the experience of Zulip
|
|
|
|
|
contributors by managing the issues and pull requests in the Zulip repositories,
|
|
|
|
|
such as assigning issues to contributors and appropriately labeling issues with
|
|
|
|
|
their current status to help contributors gain a better understanding of which
|
|
|
|
|
issues are being worked on. Since the project is in its early stages of
|
|
|
|
|
development, there are a variety of possible tasks that can be done, including
|
|
|
|
|
adding new features, writing unit tests and creating a testing framework, and
|
|
|
|
|
writing documentation. **Skills required**: Node.js, ECMAScript 6, and API
|
|
|
|
|
experience. Expert: Cynthia Lin, Joshua Pan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
### React Native mobile app
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Code:
|
|
|
|
|
[React Native mobile app](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-mobile).
|
2020-03-05 01:24:31 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Experts: Greg Price, Chris Bobbe, Ray Kraesig.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The highest priority for the Zulip project overall is improving the
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip React Native mobile app.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Work on issues and polish for the app. You can see the open issues
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
[here](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-mobile/issues). There are a
|
|
|
|
|
few hundred open issues across the project, and likely many more
|
|
|
|
|
problems that nobody has found yet; in the short term, it needs
|
|
|
|
|
polish, bug finding/squashing, and debugging. So browse the open
|
|
|
|
|
issues, play with the app, and get involved! Goals include parity
|
|
|
|
|
with the webapp (in terms of what you can do), parity with Slack (in
|
|
|
|
|
terms of the visuals), world-class scrolling and narrowing
|
|
|
|
|
performance, and a great codebase.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A good project proposal here will bundle together a few focus areas
|
|
|
|
|
that you want to make really great (e.g. the message composing,
|
|
|
|
|
editing, and reacting experience), that you can work on over the
|
|
|
|
|
summer. We'd love to have multiple students working on this area if
|
|
|
|
|
we have enough strong applicants.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Skills required**: Strong programming experience, especially in
|
|
|
|
|
reading the documentation of unfamiliar projects and communicating
|
|
|
|
|
what you learned. JavaScript and React experience are great pluses,
|
|
|
|
|
as are iOS or Android development/design experience is useful as
|
|
|
|
|
well. You'll need to learn React Native as part of getting
|
|
|
|
|
involved. There's tons of good online tutorials, courses, etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
### Electron Desktop app
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Code:
|
2019-05-20 14:01:13 +02:00
|
|
|
|
[Our cross-platform desktop app written in JavaScript on Electron](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-desktop).
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Experts: Akash Nimare, Abhighyan Khaund
|
|
|
|
|
|
2020-03-05 01:24:31 +01:00
|
|
|
|
- Contribute to our [Electron-based desktop client
|
|
|
|
|
application](https://github.com/zulip/zulip-desktop). There's
|
|
|
|
|
plenty of feature/UI work to do, but focus areas for us include
|
|
|
|
|
things to (1) improve the release process for the app, using
|
|
|
|
|
automated testing, typescript, etc. and (2) polish the UI. Browse
|
|
|
|
|
the open issues and get involved!
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Skills required**: JavaScript experience, Electron experience. You
|
|
|
|
|
can learn electron as part of your application!
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
Good preparation for desktop app projects is to (1) try out the app
|
|
|
|
|
and see if you can find bugs or polish problems lacking open issues
|
|
|
|
|
and report them and (2) fix some polish issues in either the Electron
|
|
|
|
|
app or the Zulip web frontend (which is used by the electron app).
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
## Circulating proposals (February-March)
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you're applying to GSoC, we'd like for you to publicly post a few
|
|
|
|
|
sections of your proposal -- the project summary, list of
|
2018-12-08 01:28:07 +01:00
|
|
|
|
deliverables, and timeline -- some place public on the Web, sometime
|
|
|
|
|
in February or March. That way, the whole developer community -- not
|
|
|
|
|
just the mentors and administrators -- have a chance to give you
|
|
|
|
|
feedback and help you improve your proposal.
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Where should you publish your draft? We prefer Dropbox Paper or
|
|
|
|
|
Google Docs (or even just a message in Zulip), since those platforms
|
2019-01-25 20:19:18 +01:00
|
|
|
|
allow people to look at the text without having to log in or download
|
2018-01-23 09:33:37 +01:00
|
|
|
|
a particular app, and you can update the draft as you improve your
|
|
|
|
|
idea. In either case, you should post the draft for feedback in
|
|
|
|
|
chat.zulip.org.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rough is fine! The ideal first draft to get feedback from the
|
|
|
|
|
community on should include primarily (1) links to your contributions
|
|
|
|
|
to Zulip (or other projects) and (2) a paragraph or two explaining
|
|
|
|
|
what you plan to work on. Your friends are likely better able to help
|
|
|
|
|
you improve the sections of your application explaining who you are,
|
|
|
|
|
and this helps the community focus feedback on the areas you can most
|
|
|
|
|
improve (e.g. either doing more contributions or adjusting the project
|
|
|
|
|
plan).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We hope to hear from you! And thanks for being interested in
|
|
|
|
|
Zulip. We're always happy to help volunteers get started contributing
|
|
|
|
|
to our open source project, whether or not they go through GSoC.
|