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OFBiz is a community driven project, and the point of a community-driven project is to build software that would work in a large variety of situations with a large group of other people. Therefore, Because of this it is really important than the project is written in a way which would benefit many potential users, and that the community works together towards that goal.

This is especially important for the commiters of the project to remember, since they would be making decisions not just for your own organization or your own clients, but for all current and future users of OFBiz as well. Thus, commit privileges carry with them a responsibility for "the greater good" of the project.

Rule #1 for a committer is the same as for a doctor: first do no harm. Nothing should be committed that breaks existing functionality just to make something easier for a particular client or customization effort. This means, in particular, that if some progress is made on a certain effort but you can't finish it in the time you have available, then don't commit it if it breaks anything that was there, just keep it local or attach it to a Jira issue or something if you want others to be able to get involved (or just it to the point where the stuff it broke works again, then commit it).)

To avoid code ownership, anyone can work on anything, but please be sensitive to areas where you are not familiar with the code and check with others who have worked in the area before doing something. A good practice is to ask someone who is more familiar with something to review it before you commit it, and if they have objections respect it and find a compromise that works for everyone.

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Committers should be actively involved in contributing new code or review patches AND in reviewing patches and answering questions from the community. If someone has stopped making new contributions for a while, we should will contact them to find out why.

Committers should be nominated by another committer and should be accepted by all the other committers without serious objection. In other words, not just a majority of other committers but a consensus of all the other committers. I'm not saying that we must always like everything somebody has done, but if there are serious objections, we would need to address those first.are added by invitation only and that starts with a nomination from a OFBiz PMC (Project Management Committee) member. In order to be accepted as a committer the normal ASF voting pattern is followed. This basically means that 3 PMC members must vote in favor, and there should any major objections need to be addressed first.

So, as a prospective committer, how do I get invited, and what can I do in the mean time? Fortunately the answer to both of those questions is the same. Even if you are not a committer you can be actively involved in the development of OFBiz as a contributor. Here are some examples of things you can do to help out that will help the PMC notice you, and that will help you learn about OFBiz and get ready to become a committer:

1. Subscribe to the dev mailing list, try to read the majority of the messages, and participate in discussions there
2. Review and comment on issues in the Jira issue tracker
3. Apply patches from Jira locally and test them and comment on the results
4. Create patches to fix issues reported in Jira
5. Get to know OFBiz and submit patches to fix problems or annoyances you find
6. Follow the advice and do all of this according to the recommendations in the Contributors Best Practices document

Committing Changes

When committing changes, all committers should follow these general guidelines:

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