Open source code is the norm for so many developers these days, and unsurprisingly, so is open documentation. From Azure to TypeScript, public repositories have become a go-to place for sharing samples, tutorials, and “tips and tricks” so that everyone can learn and contribute together as a community. So beginning today, we’re joining the party, starting with our Cordova docs. You can find Cordova samples and tutorials and “tips and tricks” in our GitHub repo.

These assets won’t replace the Cordova documentation already found on MSDN. Instead, they’ll complement our existing docs by providing a venue where everyone can contribute, comment and learn. In this post, I’ll talk a bit about what you can expect and how you can contribute.

Cordova Samples

At the root of our Cordova samples repository, you will find things that are common to all samples (such as license, readme, and contribution information). Each of the sample apps are isolated in a sub-directory from the repository root. Once you open a sample app folder, you see similar directory structure as follows:

The readme file contains important information on what the app implements, how it goes about doing that, and the dependencies -- in a nutshell, everything you need to understand and run the sample app. Also, at the sample folder-root, you will find an *.sln file which you can double click to open the project in Visual Studio 2015. Although the sample apps contain Visual Studio project files, the project is fully compatible with Cordova CLI project structure and can be used outside Visual Studio.

If you run into any issues with the samples or have suggestions for new ones, please open an issue or better yet, send us a pull request. Learn more on how to create a pull request on GitHub. For a complete list of how you can contribute, please check out the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

Cordova Docs, Tutorials, Tips & Workarounds

In addition to MSDN, you can find supplemental Cordova documentation on GitHub. Similar to the Cordova samples page, you will find a readme file with the list of tutorials and tips/workarounds at the root of the docs repository. Each of our tutorials are also in their own subdirectories (just like our sample apps). All of our docs are written as regular Markdown files, so it’s easy for anyone to contribute new content quickly.

If you find any issues with the docs or have suggestions for new ones, please open an issue or better yet: send us a pull request. (Learn more on how to create a pull request on GitHub.) For a complete list of ways you can contribute, please check out the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

Share, Contribute and Learn Together

We are at the beginning of the journey to open source our samples and docs and we still have a long way to go. We would like to invite you all to join in our journey to grow an active community of Cordova developers to build samples and documentation for everyone to benefit from.

We are excited for you to tryout our samples and docs and we look forward to seeing your feedback. You can share your feedback directly with the product team via UserVoice, Send-a-smile, Twitter, StackOverflow, or email.

If you have not already done so, go ahead Download VS Enterprise 2015 RC in Englishto get started right away (or go here for other languages and editions) and don’t forget to check “Tools for Apache Cordova” during setup.

Happy Coding!

Ali Satter, Program Manager, Visual Studio Client Tools Team @cpsloal Ali works on the Visual Studio Client Tools team where he spends his time thinking about how to improve Cordova developer experience inside Visual Studio.