Contributing to Orthanc¶

If you find Orthanc useful and wish to contribute to its development, here are some tasks you can take in charge that would greatly help us:

• Non-coding tasks:
  • Use Orthanc in the real life. ;)
  • Advertise about Orthanc, notably on social networks (we are active on Facebook and Twitter).
  • Answer our survey.
  • Improve and translate the Wikipedia pages about Orthanc.
  • Cite the reference paper about Orthanc in your research work.
  • Answer questions posted to the mailing list.
    • Important: A page list the old questions that are not fully answered yet. Consider answering these topics too!
  • Improve the text of the Orthanc Book and REST API documentation (check out the instructions provided in the README file, and send us a simple patch).
  • Provide documentation and use cases (inside the dedicated GitHub repository, via pull requests).
  • Index external contributions inside the Links.md file.
• Maintenance tasks:
  • Report problems together with sample DICOM images and possible workarounds on the dedicated issue tracker.
  • Package Orthanc and its associated plugins for more UNIX or GNU/Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu PPA, RHEL/EPEL, CentOS, openSUSE...).
  • Take ownership of the now-orphaned Fedora package.
  • Take care of Debian/Ubuntu backporting.
  • Share your maintenance scripts or sample code inside the “Orthanc Contributed” public GitHub repository, via pull requests.
  • Help with the integration of Orthanc together with our friend free and open-source projects, notably GNU Health, but also OpenEMR, GNUmed...
• Coding tasks:
  • The Orthanc project will happily accept patches in the core of Orthanc and in its associated official plugins. Please read the dedicated FAQ entry.
  • Interface Orthanc with other software (e.g. 3D Slicer, Matlab/Octave, Python, Horos, dicompyler...). Check the already supported frameworks.
  • Develop C/C++/Python plugins extending the Orthanc core. Here are some ideas of possible plugins:
    • Create a more advanced Web interface than the built-in Orthanc Explorer.
    • Extend the sample modality worklist plugin so that it manages the worklists (i.e. add/remove items) with a REST API or HL7 messages, instead of reading them from some folder on the filesystem.
    • Conversion to/from NIfTI and/or BIDS, notably for neuroimaging.
    • Encapsulate a video into a DICOM file by calling some REST route, similarly to the /tools/create-dicom route to encapsulate PDF.
    • Similarly to video and PDF (cf. item above), wrap/unwrap a STL (3D mesh) to/from a DICOM file by calling some REST route. This is notably useful for dentistry (dental implants) or orthopaedics, yet even cutting-edge research about 3D-printing of organs. In complement, provide a FreeCAD extension to import/export such STL files from/to Orthanc.
    • Create a plugin to edit DICOM files (add, update or remove DICOM tags).
    • Create samples of Python plugins to take care of HL7 messages, especially for merging patients (which is a typical HL7 event to be handled by the PACS, not by the RIS). Reference: Events Axx of Chapter 3 (“Patient Administration”) in the HL7 v2.9 specification.
    • Have a look at the TODO file containing our official roadmap.
  • Always remember that he recommended way of contributing to the source code of Orthanc is by creating C/C++/Python plugins, or by creating external software that use the REST API. If the current plugin SDK is insufficient for you to develop some feature as a plugin, do not hesitate to request an extension to the Orthanc SDK on the mailing list.
• Financial support:
  • Osimis provides support packs and professional development services around the Orthanc ecosystem and, more generally, around medical imaging. Buying such professional services is the best way to make the Orthanc project sustainable in the long term.