Contribute
Synapse is open source, and everyone is invited to get involved.
Introducing Yourself
Thinking about getting involved? Great! Stop by our conference room and/or development discussion forum and say hello. We’ll be happy to help you get started.
Getting the code
Before you begin, you’ll need to make sure the following software is installed first:
Build dependencies for Ubuntu can be found in the following source repository:
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/firerabbit/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
After adding the repository, you can use sudo apt-get build-dep synapse to automatically install all the build dependencies.
The Synapse source code is maintained with the Git source control system, and is hosted at github. If you’re not familiar with git, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with it. You’ll wonder how you lived without it.
To get the latest code, run:
git clone git://github.com/FireRabbit/synapse.git
You can also browse the source online.
Building
Synapse uses a standard automake build system. To compile the source, you’ll run the following commands:
./autogen.sh make
You can then run make install as root to install Synapse, or alternatively use make run to run Synapse without installing.
Synapse also includes MonoDevelop project files. If you’d rather use MonoDevelop, you’ll need the latest version, which is currently 1.9.2. If you’re using Ubuntu you can add the apt repository mentioned on the Download page which includes an updated MonoDevelop package. Note however you’ll need to run ./autogen.sh once before you can build using MonoDevelop.
Contributing
If you’re interested in contributing to the project (and I hope you are!), you’ll want to set up your own public copy of the repository so you can share your changes.
While you can host your repository anywhere, the easiest way to get going is to sign up for a github account and click “Fork” on FireRabbit’s Synapse repository page.
Once your changes are ready for review, you can issue a pull request (github only), file a bug, or just let us know to take a look at what you’ve done by dropping by the conference room.
Note about UI development
Synapse uses a MonoDevelop addin called QyotoDevelop to generate C# code from Qt designer ui files. Currently, there’s no way to do this from the commandline, so if you’re planning to make changes to the user interface, you’ll probably need to use MonoDevelop rather than the Makefiles.
Prebuilt QyotoDevelop packages are available for Ubuntu in the PPA mentioned on the Download page. If you’re using another distribution, you can find the source code here.
sudo apt-get install qyotodevelop
Getting Help
If you’re having any problems building Synapse, head over to the Support page for information on how to get in touch with the team. We’re here to help!
Happy hacking!