Hello everyone,
I've published a first draft README for Github here:
https://github.com/apache/fineract/pull/5076
I took much more liberties with the original README than indicated by
the Jira. The closer you look, the more you want to change.
General suggestions:
1. In particular in light of recent discussions on the mailing list, the
current description of the Fineract project at the top is imprecise:
> Apache Fineract: A Platform for Microfinance
> Fineract is a mature platform with open APIs that provides a
reliable, robust, and affordable core banking solution for financial
institutions offering services to the world’s 3 billion underbanked and
unbanked.
I suggest the following instead:
> Apache Fineract: Fintech for everyone
> Apache Fineract is an open-source core banking platform provinding a
flexible, extensible foundation for a wide range of financial services.
By making robust banking technology openly available, it lowers barriers
for smaller institions and innovators to reach underserved and unbanked
populations.
This reflects better the reality. But due to the significance of this
change, I would like to hear your opinion first.
2. I suggest to move some parts of the current README somewhere else.
- First of all, have you had a look at the CONTRIBUTING document?
Contrary to the README, it's too short. Is it okay, if I move what is
now "Guidelines for Contributing Code" over?
- Secondly, could we not move half of what is under "Instructions" now
to the documentation page (https://fineract.apache.org/docs/current/)? I
suggest to remove everything related to WAR file, Kubernetes,
downloading the Gradle wrapper, RAT and External Message Broker from the
README, but of course don't want to lose the text.
3. I would like to add a section "Troubleshooting", but need your input
for it.
4. The current text remains extraordinarily long for a README, even if
we move some sections somewhere else. To mitigate its complexity I have
added a hopefully better structure to it (moved sections etc.) and a
Table of contents. Okay?
5. I've removed and/or merged a few sections. E.g. I removed the
DEVELOPERS section and merged its content with COMMUNITY; removed the
section on Tomcat performance optimization - this information is still
on the Fineract platform documentation page. Etc.
6. I'm not happy with the current DATABASE section and its position,
suggestions welcome.
Felix
On 30/09/2025 09:01, Felix van Hove wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm currently working on a document describing how to set up Fineract
and the Mifos web app for production. In this context I read some of the
README again and found it in need of some brushing up:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FINERACT-2383
Please add suggestions and comments. The result will be much better, if
it is a team effort. Note that this is aiming at newcomers and
developers. Setting Fineract up for production is clearly not in the
scope of the README.
I could profit in particular from some suggestions for a section with
the title "Troubleshooting".
Felix
