If you want to contribute to PixelDroid, you can do so in several ways:
You can help to translate PixelDroid to your favourite language. Please do not submit Merge Requests directly, but use our weblate at https://weblate.pixeldroid.org/projects/pixeldroid/pixeldroid/ .
You can add a new language by using the "Start new translation" button on the bottom left of the page.
Before translating, please take a look at the TRANSLATION.md file for details and some guidance.
If you encounter a problem or have an idea about how to make PixelDroid better, you should make an issue about it on our GitLab project. If you encountered a problem, please make sure to document how to reproduce it, and include screenshots if possible. If you are making a suggestion, please try to be detailed in your description.
You can also help us solve one of the existing issues, or improve the application in some other way, by contributing changes yourself. To do this you can fork the project and submit a Merge Request.
Before starting to work on an issue or an improvement, you can ask us on our Matrix channel (#pixeldroid:gnugen.ch) what we think, or make a comment on the relevant issue, so that we might point you in the right direction, and to make sure someone else is not already working on it.
Download the latest version of Android Studio
Then clone the project: you need to clone it with submodules: git clone --recurse-submodules.
You can find more information about submodules here
When first opening the project, you might encounter this issue:
F-Droid requires distributionSha256Sum. You are given three links to solve this issue, choose the first one:
Every time you change any dependency in build.gradle, you will encounter the following error:
This is because PixelDroid has dependency verification enabled.
Dependency verification is useful to protect against supply chain attacks.
Only dependencies which are in the verification-metadata.xml file are allowed to be used.
However, this means that whenever the dependencies change (for example updates or new dependencies),
we have to update the verification-metadata.xml file. To avoid doing this manually, you can follow
the following steps:
In the top toolbar, go to Edit Configurations... > Gradle and click on + in the top left corner to add a new run configuration.
In the field Run, write the command that triggered the dependency error,
which in your case is probably assembleDebug (command executed when pressing the play button) and give it the arguments --write-verification-metadata sha256.
You can now build PixelDroid this new configuration: select it and then press the play button.
This has to be done only once when you encounter this error, then you can run the app as usual again, by selecting the "app" Run Configuration.
--write-verification-metadata has now added the new dependencies to the verification-metadata.xml file.
When you do a Merge Request, we will check that the added values make sense.
Once you are done with your changes, you should create a Merge Request. Depending on if you were given write access to the repository, you may have to create a fork and submit a merge request from there. Consult the GitLab documentation for more details, and don't hesitate to ask on our Matrix channel (#pixeldroid:gnugen.ch) if you get stuck :)