3 minutes reading time (690 words)

GSoC Student: Ruchiranga Wickramasinghe

GSoC Student: Ruchiranga Wickramasinghe

More than an opportunity to find new talents for Joomla! and improve the software, Google Summe of Code, or simply put GSoC, is a big reunion of open source lovers to share, learn, teach and have fun. In 2016,year we had siz excellent student projects that were accepted by Google to be part of this program designed to encourage university student participation in open source software development. Joomla Community Magazine invited Ruchiranga Wickramasinghe to talk about his experience.

How long do you use Joomla?

I've been using Joomla for about 6 months now.

What did you feel when you learned you were chosen to be part of GSoC?

Being chosen to be part of GSoC was not a new experience for me since I was a GSoC student in the year 2015 as well. What excited me the most was the fact that I was chosen to be a part of the Joomla! GSoC team. I really valued the people I got to interact with, during the competition application period and it felt really nice to know that I was selected to the program so that I could do some serious work with them.

Did you contribute to the Joomla Project before being selected to take part of the GSoC?

In terms of code, No. But I did help the community by testing PRs.

In a few words, explain the project you worked on during GSoC 2016.

The project I worked on introduced a JavaScript testing environment to Joomla! along with a comprehensive test suite covering the custom JavaScript libraries in Joomla!

Do you intend to continue contributing to the Joomla Project? If yes, what does it mean for your to contribute to a project like Joomla?

Yes, I do. It means a lot to me when I feel that a lot of other people will be and are already writing JavaScript tests on top of the setup I introduced to Joomla! And I consider helping out others trying to use that testing environment is a duty of mine.

Now that GSoC is over, what did you get out of this experience?

For me, the program was always more than just coding right from the beginning. Of course, I learnt a lot of new things and technologies working on the project with my mentors. But most importantly, I could make a lot of new connections with a bunch of nice people from all around the globe.

What do you expect from attending the Joomla World Conference?

The Joomla World Conference is going to be a brand new experience for me since it is my first time visiting a world conference. I look forward to meeting and connecting with all the people who I have only been talking to over chats all this long. I will also be conducting a session there on how to write Joomla! JavaScript tests on your own and I intend to share all that I have learnt during GSoC 2016 with the audience.

How do you see your life now after taking part of the GSoC? What has changed?

It had been a rough ride balancing the GSoC project work alongside my university classes and other academic work. Still, I feel I have accomplished something great and I feel happy about the commitment I made in doing my job at my best effort. I gained a lot of things for my career as well as for my life being a part of Joomla! GSoC team and I am grateful for the Joomla! GSoC team for all that.

Ruchiranga Wickramasinghe started contributing to Joomla! as a Google Summer of Code 2016 student. His GSoC project was to introduce JavaScript testing to Joomla! and to write JavaScript tests covering the existing JavaScript libraries. He is currently a final year undergraduate at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

Come meet Ruchiranga and other Joomla/GSoC students at Joomla World Conference 2016!

We are looking forward to sharing with you a great time of learning and teaching at Vancouver.

Come meet Ruchiranga Wickramasinghe and other great Joomlers and GSoC students in Vancouver. Buy your ticket now!

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