Repository

https://github.com/KDE/kdenlive

Introduction

In this series, if you have followed, you were introduced to Kdenlive. I have shared my experiences with it, described how do I use, why I use it, what are the use cases for this software, what other programs are competitors, why you should use it and how fast it is.

I am proud that with this series I have managed to onboard some people to the open source project! Either because new users helps making better software and because maybe those new users can save themselves some money from the expensive editors out there!

If Kdenlive sounds like a software that fits your needs, and chances are it does, you can give it a try anytime, as it runs on any desktop operating system and is totally free. So, if you give this open source project a try, and you like it, you might also want to get involved with it.

On this post, you will learn more about how can you contribute to the open source project. You have already learned what does this software can do for you, and all for free, so, what about thinking a little bit about what little things can you do to give back to the open source project?

How Can you see what Kdenlive needs from you

On Kdenlives main website you can find a tab with a few suggestions of how can you contribute to the project.

It is a free and open source project, though they have a core of dedicated and committed developers, they also count on people like you to help them on a few quick and minor tasks.

I will go over what help are they looking for and how can you, effectively, help with little effort.

Do not get overwhelmed if a few categories might sound complicated, just skip to the one you believe you can help with. If you are a program and you have a little spare time to do a bug hunt, that is great! Their team of developers are not perfect and every extra help counts! Else, if you are a developer, but do not have time to do bug hunting, do not worry! You can also help by donating, reporting bugs, sending suggestions, etc... The same is valid for non-programmers and for everyone else!

It is by no means mandatory to do something back, you can just download and use the program, many people do that, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with not "giving back" if they are working hard on this software it is because they want people like you and me to use! If they wanted help or profit this would be a paid software! So, just do what you feel you can do, when and if you can, the community appreciates your support!

What is Kdenlive

Kdenlive is a free and open source video editor, that is available for every major desktop operating system (Windows, Linux, and Mac), they describe themselves as a "libre video editor", being "libre" a Spanish word that translates both into "open" and "free". It is the same word choice used by another open source package of software called "libre office". The project has been running since 2003 and, according to the team, the program is designed to fulfill most needs, from basic video editing to professional work.

Development help

On the welcome page for developers for the Kdenlive project, you can read more about Kdenlive development. There is a link to a wiki page with instructions on how to build it on your system and what are the development tools that you are going to need to help with the Kdenlive development, such as GIT and GCC.

The wiki page Also contains instructions on how to properly use their repository to get the latest version and what patterns to follow when pushing your code into their repository.

There is a mailing list for developers of the Kdenlive project. If this is the way to go you have chosen to help the project, you can, first, subscribe to the mailing list by clicking on this link, it is important to stay up to date with the core team, either if you are a "lone wolf" developer or you work with "your pack".

You can, and probably should use the following tools to catch up with the latest development discussions
https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kdenlive/
https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/

If e-mail sounds like too old tech for you, they also have a Telegram channel with 32 members at the time of the writing of this post, you can join them on Telegram by clicking here, you will be redirected to the Telegram opener tool (which will open the app on desktop or mobile)

Well, but where to start as a developer?
If you are new to the program, you probably won't know what features you would like to see added, and if you are not a very active video editor you probably won't easily find many bugs either. Luckily for us, they have a development board

If you go to the project development board you will find many tasks, from feature implementation to interface updates and even minor or major bugs that you can catch and fix then send to them.

The development board and the groups/e-mail list are great ways to catch up with the development and what people are working on. Maybe your code can make its way to the production version of the project!

Bug reports

Kdenlieve has a page dedicated to bug reporting on their website, with instructions on how to, first, identify the bug details, then search if this bug has happened to someone else before, because if it has, chances are that an update or a patch may fix it, and if there isn't a fix, how to properly report the bug.

There wouldn't be many bugs to fix if it wasn't for people that report bugs. If you are going to use Kdenlive intensively as your main editor and you are a professional, or even if you are an amateur and don't edit videos that much, there are chances you might find a bug or two somewhere on the software. If you do, all the community appreciate if you can send a report of what happened and how, so people on the development board and on the development teams can get to work on fixing it as soon as possible.

NOTE: Kdenlive team asks not to report bugs for version 15.04.0 and lower, as those versions are not supported anymore.

The page of bug reporting also includes a very useful (for them and for you) note on how to get information if about a crash, in case your program closes unexpectedly

After learning how to properly identify and report bugs, you can either report it on the forums or report it on their GitHub page

Bug triaging

It is good to know that Kdenlive has lots of users, hundreds, maybe thousands? But Spiderman's uncle once said "with a great userbase comes lots of bug reports" (or something like that, my memory is not that good, but I think you got it), and, while there are lots of people already getting their hands dirty on code, before a bug must be sent to the devs to take a look at it, it is needed that people check the bug report first, to classify its priority and include more details. Those are the people that make the life of the devs easier and allow more work to be done in less time.

Kdenlive also has a page dedicated to bug triaging, it is worth reading it a bit to see if you can maybe help them with that.

The triaging is not done by just one person, so, do not worry if you are not sure if you might do a good job. It might sound intimidating "being responsible to set the priority of bugs and grabbing more information", it is a great responsibility, but you are not working on that alone. While it is recommended that you read in-depth about the program and study a little bit about bug reporting and what devs really need to know to identify and fix a bug if you commit a few mistakes once in a while it won't be the end of the world! Other people will review it and fix if your report is not as complete as it should be to maximize the efficiency

Donating

If you don't feel like you have time, knowledge, patience, or simply don't actually really want to help in any of the categories above, you can also support the project financially. Kdenlive is free, and by the sum of money, you will save early from a subscription of a paid editor you might be able to donate a little bit.

I understand not everyone has the financial capabilities to support Kdenlive financially, so, if you can't or don't want to, there is absolutely no problem! The program is free because the team believes in providing an accessible and good video editor to everyone.

The Kdenlieve website, on the donations section, redirects you to the KDE donation page. KDE is supported by big companies, like Google!

Every help has value

And don't you think one contribution is worth more than the other, every contribution mentioned above matter, else they wouldn't be asking for help with that! Without bug reports, the program would be stale in time and the devs wouldn't be able to investigate everything, without bug triaging the devs would be overloaded with silly and not important reports, without developers none of the fixes would be implemented, and without donations, there would be no servers!

Everyone is valuable. For a program that is free and offers such a great performance and wide range of tools, there is always some small thing you can help with. Even if it is just making a series of posts on Steem! (wink)

Series Backlinks

• Kdenlive Series - You Won't Believe How Fast It Is(Part 5)
• Kdenlive Series - My Transition, Onboarding Users And How Can You Get Started! (Part 4)
• Kdenlive Series - The Competition And Why Freelances Should Use It(Part 3)
• Kdenlive Series - Use Cases And First Person Workflow(Part 2)
• Kdenlive Series - Introduction, What Is Kdenlive And My Experience (Part 1)

This post has as beneficiaries
@utopian.pay with 5%
using the SteemPeak beneficiary tool