Creating a new data source

Any Debian Developer can create and manage data sources. To do so, login into http://contributors.debian.org using your web password.

Once you are logged in, you can go to Data Sources details and see "Edit" links and a "Create new data source" link. The editing forms are meant to document themselves, please report a bug if they are still not clear.

For each data source you need to configure one of more contribution types, to define the various types of contributors that you have in your team.

Implementation notes

JSON structure of a submission

A submission is an array of Records:

Submission := [ Record ]

A Record is an object with the identity of the contributor and a list of contributions:

Record := { id: [ Identifier ], contributions: [ Contribution ] }

There can be more than one Identifier per Record, but there usually is only one. There can be one or more Contribution per Record.

An Identifier is an object identifying the contributor in one of many possible ways:

Identifier := { type: IdentifierType, id: string, desc: optional_string }

IdentifierType := "login"|"email"|"fpr"

• type is the type of identifier. Currently only debian.org or alioth login names, emails and OpenPGP key fingerprints are supported.

• id is the actual identifier, which could be a username, an email address, or an OpenPGP key fingerprint without any spaces.

• desc is a human-readable version for the identifier, like a person's full name, if available.

A Contribution is an object detailing one kind of contribution over time:

Contribution := { type: string, begin: optional_Date, end: optional_Date, url: optional_string }

Date := "yyyy-mm-dd"

• type is the string configured as a contribution type name in the source configuration on contributors.debian.org

• begin is when one started contributing. If missing, the server will use the previously reported begin date. If no previous contribution has been seem, the server will use today's date.

• end is the time of the last known contribution. If missing, the server will use today's date.

• url is a URL pointing to a page that will list details of this kind of contributions for this person, if available. If missing, the server will just render the contribution details with plain text instead of a hyperlink.

Examples

A minimal submission:

[
  { "id": [ { "type": "login", "id": "enrico" } ],
    "contributions": [
      { "type": "talking" }
    ]
  },
  { "id": [ { "type": "login", "id": "93sam" } ],
    "contributions": [
      { "type": "talking" }
    ]
  }
]

An even more minimal submission: list of only one Identifier}} or {{{Contribution can be replaced by the single object:

[
  { "id": { "type": "login", "id": "enrico" },
    "contributions": { "type": "talking" } },
  { "id": { "type": "login", "id": "93sam" },
    "contributions": { "type": "talking" } }
]

A more detailed submission:

[
  { "id": [ { "type": "login", "id": "enrico" } ],
    "contributions": [
      { "type": "talking", "begin": "2010-01-01", "end": "2013-11-16",
        "url": "http://talks.debian.org/enrico"
      }
    ]
  },
  { "id": [ { "type": "login", "id": "93sam" } ],
    "contributions": [
      { "type": "talking", "begin": "1990-05-01", "end": "2013-11-16",
        "url": "http://talks.debian.org/93sam"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Posting a submission

Submission are sent via a multipart/form-data HTTP POST to https://contributors.debian.org/contributors/post

The JSON data is sent as a file field called 'data', so you will need an HTTP client capable of file uploads.

The other fields uploaded are:

• source is the source name as configured in the site

• auth_token is the authentication token configured in the site

• data_compression (optional) is the data compression used for the JSON data (by default, no compression; gzip and xz are supported.

Examples

Submission, with compression:

curl https://contributors.debian.org/contributors/post \
     -F source="Debian Talkers" -F auth_token="foobarbaz1234" \
     -F data_compression=gzip -F data=@filename.json.gz

Plain submission:

curl https://contributors.debian.org/contributors/post \
     -F source="Debian Talkers" -F auth_token="foobarbaz1234" \
     -F data=@filename.json

Helping the project

If you want to help, see the todo-list page. If you like to work with Python and Django, this can be a very good way to get more involved in Debian.

References

All the related documentation (articles, talks, etc) about Debian Contributors should be in the docs page.

These links are more or less directly related to what could be going on here:

• Making Debian diversity visible

• Amanda Palmer's The Art of Asking TED talk

• Chimamanda Adichie's The Danger of a Single Story TED talk