Get Involved
Be part of the community and help make Softorage better
Overview
Thank you for giving time for the project. We wish to create a welcoming environment for everyone who is interested in contributing. Going through these guidelines ensures that both of us are on the same page and that everyone’s time and efforts are saved.
No matter how you want to contribute, we welcome new drive, ideas and any contributions to improve Softorage.
To help us, you can:
Be part of community
Like us on Facebook , and follow on Twitter and Instagram for awesome facts! It inspires us! Looking forward to see you there!Spread the word
This is one of the most appreciated way in which you can help us. Tell your relatives, family, friends and enemies about Softorage. Blog about Softorage and ask your blogger friends to blog about Softorage. Also, everysoftpage
has share buttons which allow to share that page’s URL in various ways.Add software to Softorage
There is a GUI available for adding software (called SAW) and requires next to no technical skills. All documentation is provided asi-buttons
in SAW. Check it out!Help us maintain documentaion
SAW’s documentation is primarily maintained at the SAW’s repo, and at reasonable intervals it is consolidated and used to update the documentation on Softorage(that relates to SAW). So, in case you want to help with SAW’s documentation, please see SAW’s docs and send pull requests there. Docs at Softorage relating to SAW will be updated based on SAW’s docs only.Help with development & feedback
Help with development need not always relate to a high level template code. Fixing typos is also a type of help we really appreciate ( file an issue if you found one). To help with deeper development, you need to have some knowledge about Hugo, Hugo’s Go Templating Language, YAML and HTML, CSS and JavaScript+jQuery. In case you want to give feedback, submit bug reports or feature requests, please feel free to file an issue on GitLab . Helping us with development might mean that you would need to spend slightly more amount of time with us than other methods above, but your help means a lot to us. If you are ready to dive into development, read below :)
Softorage primarily runs on Hugo . You may need basic knowledge of Hugo and its directory structure to dive into development.
Terminologies
When a word is presented like this
it means the word is in context of following terminologies. In case a word is presented normally like ’this’, that means the meaning of the word in common parlance is expected to be conveyed.
Let’s take a look at some terminologies.
Softpage
Each software’s markdown file is rendered as a separate page. Such a page forms a dedicated page for that software where software’s information is presented. Such a page is called Softpage
.
Characteristics
A software’s markdown file stores information about the software in the form of
front-matter variables. In a software’s markdown file, these variables have been arranged in a systematic way forming levels of hierarchy, so that expected output is rendered on the softpage. The primary level of variables constitutes charachteristics
of that software. From secondary level onward, the pattern of arrangement for variables and their values may differ from characteristics
to characteristics
.
Following are primary characteristics
, along with brief intro:
title
: Title of the softwareinfo
: Information about software, in short. It is shown onsoftpage
just belowtitle
and forms part of the table on Search pageimage
: Logo image of softwarestatus
: Whether the software or its development is active, discontinued or unknownwebsite
: Website URL of softwareget_it
: Link to official Download page, or page from where software can be obtaineddescription
: Description of software, in brief but not in shortsysreq
: System requirementsdeveloper
: Developer(s) of softwareinitial_release
: When was the software initially releasedrepository
: Where code is hosted, applies only for open-source softwarewritten_in
: Computer languages the software is written inplatform
: Platform on which the software runs, usually Operating System for application software or computer language environment for software framework/librarycategories
: What type of software it is. Helps with classificationlicense
: License under which the software’s code is releasedsocial
: Social presence of software, its developers or community behind itsource
: The source from where the information in aninfocard
or acharacteristic
is obtained. Discussed belowrating
: Ratings and Reviews
Currently, new entries for characteristics
are not on the table, but if you have a related idea, feel free to
open an issue .
Infocard
On a softpage
, some of software’s characteristics
are presented as cards. Each such card is called an infocard
.
i-button, i-pop & i-content
There is an i
button on almost every infocard
, called as i-button
. Clicking i-button
of an infocard
presents information as modal or popover or such. Such element which appears on clicking i-button
is called i-pop
, that is modal or popover is i-pop
. And, content in i-pop
is i-content
.
SAW specific
By SAW specific, it is intended to mean that such terminologies primarily relate to SAW. In any case, they convey same meaning even when used in context other then SAW.
input-field, input-type, input-value & input-option
input-field
is the form field given, for any characteristic
in SAW to input value. The value to be filled in input-field
is the input-value
. An input-field
takes input of a certain type, which is that input-field's
input-type
. To avoid distorted output, input-value
must in all cases correspond to input-type
specified. In SAW, options to choose input-value
from, are usually provided in input-field
with the help of <datalist>
tag. Such options are termed input-options
. For example, see license characteristic
in SAW.
input-name-*
*
in input-name-*
is either one of field
, type
, value
& option
. Let’s take input-name-option
as an example, which makes value of *
equals option
in our example.
Now, in many cases, there are more than one input-fields
, usually arranged in columns-rows or such systematic form. In such cases, it becomes essential to also identify which input-field's
options are we referring to. name
in input-name-option
is that word which identifies the specific input-field(s)
we are referring to. For example, see get_it characteristic
in SAW. There are 2 input-fields
per record, viz. Name & URL. And, input-field
in Name column also have input-options
. So, when there is a need to mention input-option
for input-fields
in Name column, they are mentioned as input-Name-option
to avoid unnecessary confusion.
Source
source
is the source from where the information in an infocard
or a characteristic
is obtained. An accepted source
is a source which is as specific as possible and which is likely to be available or retrievable in future, and possibility of which to be unreachable in future is neglible at present. It may be a page of a website, or a page number of a book, or any globally traceable piece of information which can be retrieved later. In case source is a website page, just its URL can form part of source
(see example 1).
Note: If using Wikipedia as source, it should be ensured that permanent link (which can be found under ‘Tools’ on the Wikipedia page’s sidebar) is used.
However, in case a source is in a book, the format changes (see example 2).
For example,
- URL1, URL2
- URL1, [“URL-B”, Specifications of source], URL2
2nd case is when a source is not a website. Say the information we are referring to can be found at line no. 12, page no.34, of The Example Book edition 5 by Author Example. Then ‘Specification of source’ is: “line no. 12, page no.34, of The Example Book edition 5 by Author Example”. It should be noted that ‘Specification of source’ shall be as detailed as possible and needed. This includes specifying line number, page number, book name along with its edition details, author name, ISBN of the book, etc. URL-B is the URL on the web from where that book can be bought or downloaded or acquired for possession whether in electronic, physical or any such form. This include link to Amazon page of the book or official website for the book or else. In case there is no URL to be specified as URL-B, #
shall be the URL-B.
It may be noted here that in case more than one URLs need to be specified as URL-B, an appropriate one shall be chosen among them and that chosen one shall be URL-B.
Please note that form as follows must not be used in any case as it will render the output distorted.
- URL1, [[“URL-B1”, “URL-B2”], Specification of source], URL2
Dive in
Thanks for going through above info. You are all set to help us in development. Take a look at the following:
- Layout file of <code>softpage</code>
- Format of markdown file for software (coming soon)
- SAW’s code
First two of these relate to Softorage and third one to SAW, of course.
Feel free to ( click here and) open new issue or work on exisitng one!
See also: