Help:WikiTree Hacktoberfest

Categories: WikiTree Apps Project

Click here to register.

DigitalOcean's Hacktoberfest

Hacktoberfest is an annual event hosted by DigitalOcean to encourage open-source projects on GitHub. You don't need to register or officially participate in that event to join the WikiTree Hacktoberfest, but your contributions here can count there.

Registration

If you plan to participate in any open source projects for WikiTree during October 2024, please reply to this G2G post. Although you don't need to register, this will help us coordinate and you will get the Hacktoberfest badge on your profile. It also gives you access to our #hacktoberfest chat on Discord.

Projects

Participants are contributing to two main open-source projects on GitHub that have become central to the future of WikiTree: dynamic tree views and the collaborative browser extension.

For the background story on how these projects fit into WikiTree development, see Help:Developers.

Tree Apps

In 2022, the "Family Tree and Tools" tab on profiles was replaced by the Tree Apps tab, the central way for members to view trees, charts, ancestor lists, family group sheets, etc.

Each view is created and maintained by one or a few individual volunteers, but they are connected through the dynamic tree for easy switching between views, and they are open source on GitHub so that they can live on past the original creator, and in case anyone else can help improve on them.

See the repository on GitHub.

WikiTree Browser Extension

WikiTree's database and core tools are relatively simple. We need to do this to stay small and free — we have millions of visitors, but no full-time employees. However, we have a mature community and advanced members who want a wide variety of tools and features.

For a few years now, members' needs for advanced and customized tools have been increasingly met by independent developers through apps and browser extensions. We are now collaborating on a single browser extension. Like with tree views on the dynamic tree, modules on the extension are created and maintained mostly by individuals, but accessible to members in an integrated way, and open source.

See the repository on GitHub.

Which one?

If you have an idea for a new app, feature, function or tool, should you contribute to the dynamic tree or the browser extension?

• If it's about viewing and accessing genealogy on WikiTree, it's probably a dynamic tree view.
• If it involves editing WikiTree or researching with external websites, it's probably for the extension.

If you're still not sure, ask in our Discord chat, or in G2G using Hacktoberfest tag.

WikiTree Hacktoberfest Events

Discord chat

All this month, around the clock, participants will be chatting in Discord (The #hacktoberfest channel is open to everyone this year).

Weekly summary

Every week we will post a summary of what Hacktoberfest participants have been working on. We will invite our community to test things and give you feedback.

Weekly live video chat

Every Thursday, Greg Clarke is leading a YouTube chat. You don't have to participate on-camera. Most participants will just be viewing and text chatting.

We demonstrate apps, talk about them, and answer technical and non-technical questions.

Month-end wrap-up

To celebrate WikiTree's anniversary, we are hosting a large WikiTree Day event and virtual conference in November.

There will be an event to show off all the views and features that were developed. Then on Saturday, November 9th, there will be a live Q&A where we will invite members to vote for their favorites, ask questions, and give feedback. Hacktoberfest isn't a competition; we're inviting the vote to actively engage members, get them thinking about what they will use, and celebrate what you create.

This page was last modified 00:58, 1 October 2024. This page has been accessed 3,538 times.