gvSIG is a wide project where participation can come from several kind of actors with different levels of involvement. On this page the main ways to participate will be shown.

On the mailing lists
============================ 

The mailing lists are the central point of the gvSIG community, and one of the most important keys where most of the communications are taken between users, developers and project managers. Sharing and discussing at mailing lists the community is encouraged, technical questions are resolved, new features are discussed, etc. Access to the `mailing lists`_ page of this website or even see the mailing lists activity through the `nabble interface`_. 


.. _mailing lists: ../mailing-lists
.. _nabble interface: ../mailing-lists/gvsig-nabble


Testing 
=========== 

It's impossible to test all the different situations and user work-flows combinations i a software like gvSIG. This is precisely one of the strengths of free software, the community driven testing. Without the user bug reports the stabilization of gvSIG would be slower by far. That's why testing gvSIG and reporting bugs is one of the most appreciated ways of participation.

If you're user or developer, on any unexpected behavior or just a question, go to the mailing list to expose it because maybe you've found a software bug and your contribution will help to resolve it for the next gvSIG version. There are some basic mailing list `usage recommendations`_ to help you on that process.

.. _usage recommendations: ../mailing-lists/netrules

Translations
==============

Having not only the software but also the user and developer documentation in several languages is one of the objectives of this portal. gvSIG project is supporting with the necessary infrastructure to produce and maintain the published documentation of this portal in different languages. If you want to collaborate with the translation of gvSIG and its documentation write a message at mailing lists and portal administrators will contact you, maybe there are other people interested about translating the same language or maybe you are the first! 


Writing articles and use cases
==========================================

You can write articles in blogs, journals or whatever about gvSIG software or about successful (or not!) use cases where gvSIG has been used as underlying technology. Soon these stories will be shown on this portal to give gvSIG community easy access to them.


Developing new extensions
=======================================

.. warning::

   This section is yet to be updated.

   From version 2.0 of gvSIG for the distribution of plugins
   the `catalog`_ is outdated. Instead is used the plugins repository
   through the Addons Manager.

   This mechanism is ported to version 1.11 and 1.12 but with constraints.

   You can find information about the plugin repository in:

   - `Add a package to the package repository of gvSIG `_

   - `Distributing our project `_

   - `The Wizard plugins package `_

   - `Adding our package repository gvSIG `_

gvSIG is a really modular and extensible software. If your are a developer or you are working on a company or entity that has developed a gvSIG customization, maybe you find interesting to offer it to the community in the same way you've received gvSIG. This portal has a `catalog`_ for the contributions that developers and companies of everywhere want to offer to the community.

.. _catalog: /downloads

These extensions at first will not be *supported* by the project, that is to say, we cannot assure their stability and compatibility between them, and this way, offer direct support for them on the mailing lists. This doesn't mean that those extensions that could be interesting and successful can not be part of the official distribution of gvSIG.

If you want to know more about how the catalog works and how to sign in your extension or contribution at the catalog, pleas check out the `contributions catalog manual`_.

.. _contributions catalog manual: ./repository