Hi Marcus,

great to hear from you.

Marcus Drobisch wrote:

Hello OpenProject Team,
we are looking for a collaboration plattform for our FabLab in Dresden, Germany.
After several discussion, which tool to use, i’m now going to setup OpenProject as a demo.
To adapt the platform to our needs, we would like to have some document editing capabilities next to the wiki
(now we are using Google Docs).

My idea is to write a little plugin for this.
Here some ideas to this.

First stage (display files in repo):

• Extend the Repository-Module by a “WebOdf” option (next to GitHub, Subversion and Filsystem)
• Using WebOdf to display the selected file (for odf-files)

Second stage (enable creation and editing of files):

• add a possibility to create new files
• add a option create new folders and upload a file to a folder (optional)
• save changes in odf files back to server

Now my question.

1. Is contribution in this form wanted?

Personally, I think this is great a idea. Before you start programming we might spend some time on the architecture. Generally speaking we should try to decompose the different modules of the changes like (API, UI elements, repository adapter, carrierwave integration etc.) We should then specify and document the interfaces towards the OpenProject core. This is definitely a lot of upfront work but it will save you a lot of maintenance effort in the future. We are happy to support you with this. Esspecially to discuss different options if you want to change the OpenProject core. Ideally we do the alignment before you send us a pull request. This reduces your risk to build something we can’t integrate into the core for some reasons.

1. Do you think a newbie, like me can handle this? (i’m firm in js-development, but have only a little knwoledge about ruby)

Hard to say. You will have to spend some time to get familiar different concepts like test automation or coding standards. But at the same time: it is a great starting point to get to know RoR and AngularJS.

1. Where to start? (should i download the plugin template and just start to play arround)

To get familiar the existing Documents Plugins might be a good starting point. Later I recommend to build the implementation strategy based on your architectural design and the scope of the project.

Thank you very much
Marcus

Regards
Niels

Hi Niels,
thanks for your fast reply and support.
I totaly agree, starting with some general thought about design, interfaces and architecture should be a good way.
I had some further thoughts about the plugin and a first look in the Document Plugins you suggested.
For the next step i will put together a short document with ideas to discuss.
Thank you for your support here.

Should we create a project on you community-site or switch to eMail for further collaboration?

Best regards
Marcus