OpenVeda Playbook: Joplin

Your guide to contributing to a popular, open-source, privacy-first note-taking application.

1. The "Why": Mission & Impact

• The Mission: Joplin is a free, open-source note-taking and to-do application, designed as a privacy-focused alternative to services like Evernote. It puts users in control of their data.
• Your Impact: You'll be working on a beloved application used by hundreds of thousands of people to organize their lives, thoughts, and work. Your contribution can directly improve the daily workflow of a massive user base.
• Why it's a Career Supercharger: This is an incredible project for learning how to build and maintain cross-platform applications. You'll get experience with a single, powerful codebase that runs on desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux via Electron), mobile (iOS, Android via React Native), and even the terminal. This is a highly valuable and rare skill set.

2. The "What": Tech Stack

• Core Stack: JavaScript and TypeScript.
• Frameworks:
  • React: For the user interface of the desktop and web app.
  • React Native: For the iOS and Android mobile apps.
  • Electron: To package the web application for desktop.
• Database: SQLite for local storage.
• Key Tools: GitHub for everything, Discourse for the community forum.

3. The "How": Your Onboarding Journey

3.1: Join the Community

• Primary Channel (Forum): The main hub for all developer discussion is their Discourse forum. It's well-organized and searchable.
  • Link: Joplin Forum - Development Section
• Your First Action: Before asking a question, search the forum. It's very likely your issue has been discussed before.

3.2: The Setup Guide

• Official Guide: The build instructions are located in a single BUILD.md file in their main repository.
  • Link: Joplin's Build Instructions on GitHub
• OpenVeda Pro-Tip: Follow the instructions for building the desktop app first. It is generally the easiest and most stable environment to get up and running for development.

3.3: The Contribution Workflow

• Official Guide: Their contribution process is well-documented and friendly to newcomers. Read this carefully.
  • Link: How to Contribute to Joplin
• Key Point: They have strict linting and code style rules. Make sure to run npm run lint before you commit your code to avoid having your PR fail on automated checks.

4. GSoC History & Focus Areas

• Historical Focus: Joplin is a frequent GSoC participant. Projects often focus on major new features like a plugin system, improving the sync engine, enhancing the rich text editor, or developing new mobile features.
• What Mentors Look For: Self-sufficiency and clear proposals. They value contributors who can read the documentation and solve problems independently. For GSoC, a well-researched and detailed project proposal is more important than many small previous contributions.

5. Key Repositories to Know

• Main Monorepo: github.com/laurent22/joplin - Everything (desktop, mobile, terminal apps) is in this one repository.

6. Find Your First Task Right Now

• The Golden Link: They maintain a clear "good first issue" label.
  • Link: "good first issue" tag on GitHub
• Hacktoberfest: They actively participate in Hacktoberfest and have a dedicated label for it.

7. The Unwritten Rules (Mentor Insights)

• The Forum is Your Friend: Use the forum for all questions. The maintainers prefer to keep discussions public so everyone can benefit.
• UI Consistency is Key: If you are making a visual change, make sure it matches the look and feel of the rest of the Joplin application. Include screenshots in your PR.
• Be Patient: The lead maintainer, Laurent, is incredibly busy. Reviews can sometimes take a while, but they are always thorough and fair.