Thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions. As per your advice, I did some small compilation warning fixes, added them as an Improvement issue in JIRA (FINERACT-2663), and opened a pull request for the changes on GitHub (#6047).
This was mainly me getting familiar with how committing and creating issues works within the community so please let me know if I did anything wrong in the steps or in the code changes. I'll probably start slow before changing anything, I want to understand what the area of the code im going to work on does, so I can grasp how the codebase works. But I promise I'll do my best to learn and grow within the community. On Fri, 26 Jun, 2026, 9:39 pm Ádám Sághy, <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > First of all, welcome! :) > > Great questions, and please don’t worry, this is very normal when joining > any community. > > In general, all kinds of contributions are welcome. Code contributions are > only one part of it. Reviewing existing PRs, testing changes locally, > improving documentation, cleaning up warnings, improving code hygiene, > identifying bugs, raising questions, and reviewing open Jira stories are > all useful contributions to the community. > > You don’t need to fully understand the entire codebase before getting > started. Fineract is a large project, so most contributors learn gradually > by picking up smaller areas, reading related code, testing behavior, and > asking questions when something is unclear. > > Starting with documentation or small cleanup tasks can be a very good way > to get familiar with the project. At the same time, it is also perfectly > fine to jump into the deep waters immediately. :) > > If beginner issues already have open PRs, feel free to look at those PRs. > You can review them, test them, check whether the changes work as expected, > suggest additional test cases, or identify areas where the logic or > documentation could be improved. > > If a PR appears stale, or you think the issue could be extended with > further testing or improvements, it is absolutely worth raising that in the > discussion. > > Reviewing open Jira stories is also helpful. Sometimes clarifying the > requirement, reproducing the issue, confirming whether it is still valid, > or adding more context is already a meaningful contribution. > > Usually, I share the following resources with newcomers as a starting > point: > > Dear newcomer, we kindly request that you begin your onboarding by > reviewing our curated, helpful information here: > https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FINERACT-2135 > > Every contribution that enhances the codebase’s safety, effectiveness, or > readability is valuable! :) > > Depending on your availability and willingness to contribute, there are > several areas where improvements are needed: > > Bug tickets: > > https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FINERACT-2492?filter=-1&jql=project%20%3D%20%22Apache%20Fineract%22%20%20AND%20type%20%3D%20Bug%20%20%20AND%20resolution%20%3D%20Unresolved%20order%20by%20created%20DESC > > Code maintainability / readability: > We have a significant number of compilation warnings for various reasons. > I believe at least half of these warnings could be fixed relatively easily. > As we work on resolving these warnings, the codebase becomes safer and > easier to maintain. > > All remaining open stories: > > https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FINERACT-2494?filter=-1&jql=project%20%3D%20%22Apache%20Fineract%22%20%20AND%20resolution%20%3D%20Unresolved%20order%20by%20created%20DESC > > Beginner-friendly stories: > > https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FINERACT-2489?filter=-1&jql=project%20%3D%20%22Apache%20Fineract%22%20and%20labels%20IN%20(beginner-friendly%2C%20beginner%2C%20begineer%2C%20beginners%2C%20Beginner)%20%20AND%20resolution%20%3D%20Unresolved%20order%20by%20created%20DESC > > Hopefully, this gives you some ideas! > > So my advice would be: don’t be afraid to get involved. The community is > welcoming and friendly. Go ahead and get your feet wet freely: whether > through documentation, testing, PR review, smaller fixes, code hygiene > improvements, or identifying new issues as you become more familiar with > the project. > > And of course, if you are unsure whether something is a good first > contribution, feel free to ask in the channel. That is exactly what the > community is there for. > > P.S. Before picking up a story that introduces a new feature, please send > an email to the Fineract DEV mailing list first, so the community can > discuss whether it is something we really want to include in Fineract. > > P.S.2: We have now Matrix room as well: > https://matrix.to/#/%23apache-fineract-dev:matrix.org > > > Regards, > > Adam > > On Jun 26, 2026, at 5:02 PM, Abhishek Chaudhary < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > I've been reading through Slack(mifos fineract and main channel) and > trying to understand how contribution within the community works in > general. From what I understand the contributors generally create their own > stories discuss them with the community and then work on them. > > I had a few questions or doubts for the mentors I wanted to be cleared: > Should new contributors first become familiar with the overall codebase > before picking up issues or stories, so they can identify and report bugs > themselves? > or is it okay for beginners to be assigned existing open issues to get > started? > If getting familiar with the codebase is the preferred approach, would it > be helpful for newcomers to contribute to documentation first (reviewing, > improving, or adding documentation)? I feel that would help both us and > future newcomers while we learn the project. > > I was hoping to start working on some beginner issues, but most of the > ones I found already have open PRs linked to them. In that case would it be > appropriate to contribute by reviewing those PRs, testing them, or > otherwise helping the existing contributors? or can we be assigned issues > also but I fear the lack of identity within the community might come as an > hindrance there. > > I'd really appreciate any advice from the mentors. This is my first time > working with Jira in an open-source project, so it's a bit intimidating 😅. > > >
