Contributing

First off, thanks for considering contributing to FlorisBoard!

There are several ways to contribute to FlorisBoard. This document provides some general guidelines for each type of contribution.

Giving general feedback

You can give general feedback directly here on GitHub. This is the preferred way to give feedback, as it allows not only for me to read and respond to feedback, but for everyone in this community.

Optionally you can also use the review function within Google Play or email me at florisboard@patrickgold.dev. I love to hear from you! Note, that the amount of feedback emails I get is overwhelmingly high - so if I don't answer or answer really late, I apologize - I guarantee though that I read through every email and that I will use every feedback to improve FlorisBoard :)

Translations

To make FlorisBoard accessible in as many languages as possible, the platform Crowdin is used to crowdsource and manage translations. This is the only source of translations from now on - PRs that add/update translations are no longer accepted. The list of languages in Crowdin covers the top 20 languages, but feel free to email me at florisboard@patrickgold.dev to request a language and I'll add it.

Joining the team

If you want to join the FlorisBoard maintainer/moderator team and be part of this project's journey that's great to hear! For more info see this announcement!

Adding a new feature or making large changes

If you intend to add a new feature or to make large changes, please discuss this first through a proposal on GitHub. Discussing your idea enables both you and the dev team that we are on the same page before you start on working on your change. If you have any questions, feel free to ask for help at any time!

Adding a new keyboard layout

Adding a layout to FlorisBoard is very simple and does not require any coding skills, although you should understand the basics of the JSON syntax (it is very easy though by just looking at some other layout files). Most of the time is enough to look at the existing layout files, but the following attempts to help you in creating layouts from scratch.

Adding the layout

Since v0.3.14-beta06 it is possible to add custom layouts for all types using the new extension format, Flex.

Keyboard layout assets are grouped in app/src/main/assets/ime/keyboard and are further sub-grouped into the following:

org.florisboard.composers: Defines standard composers for interpreting input, currently supports basic typing and Korean input. Most of the time you won't need to add new composers, so if you don't know what they are always assume appender (the default composer which does not alter input in any way) is in use.
org.florisboard.currencysets: Lists all currency sets, which can be chosen for each subtype. If you consider adding a new one, make sure that the first currency symbol matches the name of the currency set and also ensure that you have exactly 6 currency symbols. This is important as the symbol layouts have exactly 6 slots available to fill these defined currency symbols in.
org.florisboard.layouts: Contains the actual layout files for all layout types.
org.florisboard.localization: Contains all popup mappings and subtype presets (formally the config.json file). The subtype presets are a list of all pre-made subtypes. Each time the user selects a language in the Subtype Add -dialog, all options configured here will get selected if found in the presets. The language tag must adhere to the IETF BCP 47 code (ISO 639-1 language code and ISO 3166-1 region code). For example, Dutch as spoken in Belgium is nl-be.

To add a new layout, head to above directory and add the necessary files to each extension group.

For the code field of each key, make sure to use the UTF-8 code. An useful tool for finding the correct code is unicode-table.com. From there, you search for your letter and then use the HTML code, but without the &#; For internal codes of functional or UI keys, see app/src/main/kotlin/dev/patrickgold/florisboard/ime/text/key/KeyCode.kt .

The label is equally important and should always match up with the defined code. If code and label don't match up, FlorisBoard won't crash but it will most likely lead to confusion in the key processing logic.

Any accents or diacritics that should be exposed via long press can be added at app/src/main/assets/ime/keyboard/org.florisboard.localization/popupMappings/<languageTag>.json . For each key, you can add 1 main and several relevant accents. The main accent should be used for accents which are important for the language you add. The main field is used for determining if a hint or an accent should take priority, so please make sure to leave main empty and just use relevant for accents which are not-so important.

For popups of non-characters layout, simply add the popup directly to each key via the popup field.

Adding a new dictionary for a language

Currently any kind of dictionaries are not accepted until the suggestion implementation has been sorted out.

Bug reporting

This kind of contribution is the most important, as it tells where FlorisBoard has flaws and thus should be improved to maximize stability and user experience. To make this process as smooth as possible, please use the pre-made issue template for bug reporting. This makes it easy for us to understand what the bug is and how to solve it.

Capturing error logs

Logs are captured by FlorisBoard's crash handler, which gives you the ability to copy it to the clipboard and paste it in GitHub. This is the preferred way to capture logs.

Alternatively, you can also use ADB (Android Debug Bridge) to capture the error log. This is recommended for experienced users only.

Donating

If none of the above options are feasible for you but you still want to show your support, you can also buy me a coffee, so I can stay up all night and chase away bugs or add new cool stuff :) See the Sponsors button for available options!

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