Public Lab welcomes and encourages community contributions to our open source software.  This page is intended to

1. List software projects that Public Lab has incubated and provide links to source code.
2. Collect software development guidelines and best practices for Public Lab projects.
3. Help newcomers figure out how and where to start contributing!

## Getting started

Quick tips for getting involved with the Public Lab codebases:

1. Set up a GitHub account and install git.
At the moment, the source code for Public Lab's free software is hosted on GitHub, a website which hosts repositories maintained using the `git` version control software.  If you're new to GitHub, you can read more about it at [readwrite](http://readwrite.com/2013/09/30/understanding-github-a-journey-for-beginners-part-1) and get started with `git` and GitHub yourself [here on GitHub](https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git/).

2. [Join](http://publiclab.org/wiki/mailing-lists) the [Public Lab developers mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/plots-dev)

## Contribution Guidelines

Public Lab software is written in many languages, and each project may have its own guidelines for contributors.  These broad guidelines should serve as general principles to guide your approach to a new Public Lab codebase.

### Contributing using git

### Contributing to Ruby projects

### Contributing to JavaScript projects


## Public Lab Software

<table>
<tr>
    <th>Project</th>
    <th>Description</th>
    <th>Source Code</th>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td><a href="https://mapknitter.org/">MapKnitter</a></td>
    <td>Assemble aerial images into maps.</td>
    <td><a href="https://github.com/publiclab/mapknitter">github:publiclab/mapknitter</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td><a href="https://spectralworkbench.org/">Spectral Workbench</a></td>
    <td>Material analysis using DIY spectrometry.</td>
    <td><a href="https://github.com/publiclab/spectral-workbench">github:spectral-workbench</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Leaflet.Illustrate</td>
    <td>Leaflet plugin built for MapKnitter. Enables text annotations on Leaflet maps.</td>
    <td><a href="https://github.com/manleyjster/Leaflet.Illustrate">github:manleyjster/Leaflet.Illustrate</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Leaflet.DistortableImage</td>
    <td>Leaflet plugin built for MapKnitter. Enables images to be distorted.</td>
    <td><a href="https://github.com/publiclab/Leaflet.DistortableImage">github:publiclab/Leaflet.DistortableImage</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>publiclab.org</td>
    <td>This very website!</td>
    <td><a href="https://github.com/jywarren/plots2">github:jywarren/plots2</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Infragram</td>
    <td>Analyze plant health with infrared imagery.</td>
    <td><a href="https://github.com/p-v-o-s/infragram-js">github:p-v-o-s/infragram-js</a></td>
</tr>
</table>