An Open Source community is more than just PR made by faceless strangers. In order to better understand the people who contribute time and skills to the PrestaShop project, we’re launching a series of interviews with contributors of all ranges. This week, meet Martin Fojtik!
Hi Martin! How did you get involved in PrestaShop development?
I’ve been working as a freelancer for the past 6 years.
My first paid project was an e-shop for a friend, which I created using PrestaShop. I knew very little about CSS and HTML at that time. I still remember that feeling I had when I first saw the product.tpl file in PrestaShop 1.4! It was difficult to work with the default template at the time, but I managed to create a very good e-shop.
What motivates you to contribute to the PrestaShop project?
I have two main reasons why I sometimes contribute to the Open Source project.
After six years working as a programmer, I used a huge amount of free and useful materials (modules, tutorials, etc.), so I would like to create something useful for others.
The other reason is that I like programming. I think creating a pull request or fixing the bug is a great way to better understand PrestaShop and learn new things as well.
What contribution are the most proud of so far?
I would not say that I am somehow proud of my contributions. But for example, the PR which improves the accessibility of frontend can be helpful to people with disabilities, and I like that.
Note from PS: we’re planning on improving default a11y this year, and this PR will be part of it!
Do you have any advice for first-time PrestaShop contributors?
I don’t know what I would advise. I just think that even a small pull request or reporting a bug on the Forge can help other users and the community.
Could you tell us a bit about e-commerce in your country, and how PrestaShop is used there?
I didn’t check statistics, but from my personal experience, PrestaShop is the most used open source e-commerce system in the Czech Republic. I saw many e-shops selling a wide range of goods from healthy nutrition to electronics devices. As for details, the majority of e-shops prefer one-page checkout more than five-step ordering; and the “quick view” feature is almost never used.
Thanks you Martin, we hope to see you soon in our Core Weekly reports! :)