My First Week Contributing to Debian: Outreachy Contribution Phase Experience

Description and use

During the first week, the contributor set up a local development environment for the Debian DebConf/MiniDebConf project, added Yoruba translations, and replaced a JavaScript‑dependent certificate validation page with a server‑side Django view, adding tests.

Problem

Setting up a Django-based Debian project locally and contributing translations and a server‑side certificate validation feature during the Outreachy contribution phase.

Outcome

The contributor successfully set up the local environment, added Yoruba translations, and replaced a JavaScript‑only certificate validation page with a robust Django view, adding tests and removing the static view.

Workflow

• Clone the dc27 repository
• Create a Python virtual environment
• Install dependencies from dependencies*.txt
• Run database migrations
• Start the local development server
• Translate .po files for certificates and minidebconf apps
• Compile messages with python manage.py compilemessages
• Submit merge requests on Salsa
• Replace JavaScript certificate validation with a Django view
• Update validate.html with template tags
• Remove static view from BAKERY_VIEWS
• Add comprehensive tests for certificate validation

Evidence

Setting up involved: Cloning the dc27 repository, Creating a Python virtual environment, Installing dependencies from the dependencies*.txt files, Running database migrations, Starting the local development server

Source

The first issues I worked on were translation tasks. The mentor, Antonio Terceiro, opened a meta‑issue inviting contributors to translate system messages into their native languages.

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The third contribution for the first week was more technical. The certificate validation page on the DebConf website previously relied entirely on JavaScript to work.

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I replaced BuildableTemplateView with a standard Django View class. The new view accepts a vk (validation key) parameter from the URL query string, queries the Certificate model directly, and passes the result to the template via context.

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Added a full test suite covering valid attendee certificates, valid speaker certificates, valid volunteer certificates, invalid keys, and missing parameters.

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