# Contributing

Welcome to the HiveMQ Community!
Glad to see your interest in contributing to HiveMQ Community Edition.
Please checkout our [Contribution Guide](https://github.com/hivemq/hivemq-community/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.adoc) to make sure your contribution will be accepted by the HiveMQ team.

For information on how the HiveMQ Community is organized and how contributions will be accepted please have a look at our [HiveMQ Community Repo](https://github.com/hivemq/hivemq-community).

## Checking out the Project

We recommend that you use the [IntelliJ](https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/) IDE for all development on HiveMQ CE.
It will automate your process as much as possible.
Java version 11 is required to build and run HiveMQ CE (for example [Azul Zulu JDK](https://www.azul.com/downloads/)).
You can check your installed Java version by entering `java -version` on the command line.

First you need to [fork](https://help.github.com/en/articles/fork-a-repo) the HiveMQ Community Edition [repository](https://github.com/hivemq/hivemq-community-edition).

Then you can clone the repository:

```shell
git clone https://github.com/<your user name>/hivemq-community-edition.git
```

*Open* the HiveMQ CE project folder in IntelliJ.
Choose to sync the gradle project, if so prompted by the IDE.
After setting the gradle and project SDK (Java 11), you are good to go.

### Checking out the HiveMQ Extension SDK

HiveMQ CE uses the HiveMQ Extension SDK which resides in [its own repository](https://github.com/hivemq/hivemq-extension-sdk).
By default, you can not use the latest changes of or modify the Extension SDK.
Please checkout the `hivemq-extension-sdk` repository next to the `hivemq-community-edition` repository.
Gradle and IntelliJ will then automatically wire the two projects.

If you only want to use the Extension SDK, execute the following command from the `hivemq-community-edition` project directory:

```shell
git clone https://github.com/hivemq/hivemq-extension-sdk.git ../hivemq-extension-sdk
```

If you also want to make changes to the Extension SDK, please fork the `hivemq-extension-sdk` repository and clone your fork:

```shell
git clone https://github.com/<your user name>/hivemq-extension-sdk.git ../hivemq-extension-sdk
```

## 🚀 Thank you for taking the time to contribute to HiveMQ Community Edition! 🚀

We truly appreciate and value your time and work. ❤️