How do I setup/edit Alfresco Source Code from the Github Repo

Question

im completely new to working with open-source software and at the moment I am very lost. I understand that the source code is located in the Alfresco repo on Github(https://github.com/Alfresco). What I'm trying to do is aquring Alfresco Community source code and modify it for a project im working on. Do i download each repo from the links below, import it into an ide like eclipse and connect eclipse to the tomcat server? Also is this the correct repo(https://github.com/Alfresco/share)for Alfresco Share that will open in the browser when i connect it to the Tomcat server?

alfresco-remote-api https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-remote-api  
alfresco-greenmail https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-greenmail  
alfresco-file-transfer-receiver https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-file-transfer-receiver  
alfresco-mbeans https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-mbeans  
alfresco-mmt https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-mmt  
alfresco-server-root https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-server-root  
alfresco-data-model https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-data-model  
alfresco-core https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-core  
alfresco-xml-factory https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-xml-factory
alfresco-legacy-lucene https://github.com/Alfresco/alfresco-legacy-lucene

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Jimmy, welcome to the world of open source software, we're glad you're here.

These days, it is exceedingly rare to need to compile Alfresco or Alfresco Share from source.

Instead, the right thing to do is use a public extension point and simply extend the platform to meet your requirements. This will greatly simplify things when it comes time to upgrade, and you won't be forking a massive codebase (and maintaining that fork going forward).

You didn't mention what you are trying to change, but most common scenarios are covered by one or more of my tutorials so hopefully those will help.

If you look at those tutorials, you ask around the community a bit, and you still think you need to change a file that is distributed with the Alfresco source, please file an issue at https://issues.alfresco.com/ so that Alfresco knows about the needed improvement.