We welcome all community contributions across all OpenFlexure projects. Full source code is available for all hardware and software available on our GitLab project pages.

It may be worth starting a conversation with the developers before getting stuck into big code changes. You can either do this through an issue on the repository, or on our community forum.

Submitting code

To submit code to an open flexure repository you can follow these steps:

  1. Fork the repository.
  2. If you are unsure which branch to use start by working on master on your fork. You can also make your own feature branch if you prefer.
  3. When you are ready open a merge request to merge into the OpenFlexure master branch.

Our internal Development

For our internal development we have a similar workflow:

  • master is always the latest working version.
  • New features and bug fixes are developed on branches.
  • Merge request are opened to merge into master.

OpenFlexure flow

Releases

  • Once we’ve merged a few things in and want to make a release, we tag it on master.
  • Not every commit on master will get a tag, we’ll accumulate a few changes before making a release, unless there’s a reason to release straight away.
  • After a release tag, master becomes the development branch of the next significant release.
  • Hotfixes for releases may be developed on specific hotfix branches.

Handbook

More in-depth information about the microscope, its development, and the overall project goals can be found in the handbook.