How to Contribute to WordPress Core (Video)

Building a bridge

If you've been a part of the WordPress community at all you'll know just how awesome it is: there's developers that spend hundreds or even thousands of hours writing free themes and plugins, there's a free support forum, and awesome Stack Exchange community for customizations, and plenty of advice at affordable WordCamps.

I know that I've been given so many awesome free things in this community that I want to give back. I've built a few plugins, and created a few tutorials, but I really want to give back in a bigger way. I want to give back to every WordPress user. I want to contribute to WordPress core.

A few months ago I made my first contribution and I got my very first credit for WordPress in the recent 3.7 update. I created several videos (all linked below) so you can follow the steps, create your own patch, and become a core contributor yourself. 🙂

Overview of Contributing

The first thing you'll have to do is know where to find information (video 1). You'll want to follow the http://make.wordpress.org/core/ blog as well as look through Trac for a ticket.

Finding a Ticket

Once you've discovered Trac you'll want to know which tickets you can work on (video 2). You'll want to create your own view showing the blessed tasks.

Creating a Ticket

You may have found a bug or have an idea for a suggestion in which case you should know exactly how to create a ticket in WordPress Trac (video 3).

Writing a Patch

Once you've found a ticket you want to work on you just have to write a patch. Follow along here as I show you how to use terminal & SVN to create a diff to attach to a ticket.

Patch Submitted!

I hope these videos are easy enough to follow so that you can find something to work on and become a core contributor!

Photo Credit: hugojcardoso via Compfight cc

6 thoughts on “How to Contribute to WordPress Core (Video)

  1. Awesome tutorial Patrick! Thanks for sharing!

  2. Really great tutorial. Thanks man

  3. Thanks Patrick, I’m excited to start contributing now that I know what a .diff file is and how to create it 🙂

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