GSoC 2024 - Instructions for Packaging your Work and Final Submission Guidelines: Final Evaluation Aug 19 - Aug 26, 18:00 UTC

Dear OSGeo GSoC Contributors,

Giving a heads up for the GSoC Final Week! It’s a long post, so please read it carefully as it contains vital information to help you package your GSoC program work.

The final evaluation and code submission deadline is approaching. The submission dashboard will be active on 2024-08-19T18:00:00Z and will remain accessible until 2024-08-26T18:00:00Z. You’ll receive an email from the GSoC Admins team regarding this important step (if haven’t received yet). As indicated in the official GSoC 2024 timeline [1]:

Final week: GSoC contributors submit their final work product and their final mentor evaluation (standard coding period)

Given that all projects adhered to the standard 12-week length, the mentioned dates are applicable to everyone. We extend our admiration to each contributor for completing their projects within the standard duration.

We hope that you enjoyed coding with OSGeo, and we are sure that you’ve gained valuable insights from your mentors and the vibrant OSGeo community. Your perseverance is truly commendable, a testament to the adage, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. We are sure that you all must have your great stories associated with GSoC 2024. As we approach the finish line, it’s time to focus on wrapping up and packaging your project for the final submission.

According to Google [2], the basic requirements for code submissions are:

  • It must be easy to identify the work you have done. (i.e. the changes you made or new code.)

    • When someone goes to the provided URL it should be clear what work you did without requiring them to do significant additional digging.
  • It should be in a stable location. The URL cannot be changed after submission.

  • Someone else should be able to use the content at (or referenced from) the target of the link to extend your work.

    • If your work is 100% complete, they should be able to use it.
    • If your work is not 100% complete, it should be clear what’s left to do.

Furthermore, your final report must be shared on this Discourse category and/or the project’s mailing list. The report should have the following:

  1. Title and Organization: Specify your project title and the software community it belongs to (for hybrid projects indicate all the software involved).

Note: If the title has changed over the due course of the project, then update it on the Dashboard and use the final updated title in the report.

  1. Abstract: Present an overview of the project, its motivation, challenges, etc.

  2. The state of the art before GSoC: Describe the software’s state before your involvement. For instance, if you introduced a GUI in some tool, explain how manual editing was necessary in the past.

  3. The addition (added value) that your project brought to the software: Elaborate on the enhancement your project made to the software. Using the aforementioned GUI example, you can explain how it simplifies using the tool through the GUI that you made.

  4. Potential Future Work: If your project requires further development, outline the remaining work. You can also share highlights or challenging pieces.

  5. Links: Add all the permanent links to access the code, documentation(s), pull requests, wiki pages, etc., that facilitate others in testing your application - “Please test my code following the instructions here…”. Ensure that the pull request description is detailed. If the pull request is going to have more work done after GSoC is over, make sure the last GSoC commit is noted.

Note: Don’t forget to test that the links are working and do not require special access permissions!

  1. Image: Incorporate atleast a graphical image that can show the main elements of your project. It could be a flow chart, a screenshot, both, or whatever you think could serve the purpose.

Remember that the aim is to showcase your project to people that are not necessarily familiar with the software. The image must be uploaded to a public repository, web page, or wiki page, with its link included in your report.

  1. Media (Optional): You can add links to videos, blog posts, etc. that you have created. We warmly encourage this as it brings immense satisfaction to witness your work come to life and to engage with your insights through blog posts and other content in the future.

The report must be included as text inside your post (not as a separate attached document, not as a link to an external document). Remember to add the link of your project wiki page in the report and also add the final report in your wiki page.

In order to comply with Google’s requirement of a report in a stable location, you can check with your mentors for a suitable URL. For instance, this could be a permanent wiki page that you maintained throughout the program. Alternatively, you can submit your final report’s URL of your Discourse post [3] as the stable link in your final submission in the dashboard.


To summarize, you must submit the following before 2024-08-26T18:00:00Z:

  1. Final report email to the SoC mailing list (based on the above template), and
  2. Final mentor evaluations (with the submission URL) on the GSoC dashboard.

Please avoid last-minute submissions on August 26, as this is a hard deadline , and failure to submit evaluations properly may result in failing the program . Once you make the final work submission on the dashboard, you can edit it any time until the deadline. Hence we recommend doing it as soon as the dashboard is live, because any improvements can be made later on. The URL you submit will be available on the GSoC public archive site [4], so you should want it to represent the work you did this summer.

For sample past submissions, please refer this: Final report mail [5], and GSoC dashboard submission with URL [6].

Feel free to reach out to the mentors or the OSGeo GSoC Admins for any queries. We want to see you as a lifetime contributor and supporter of the project you worked on!

PS: As a reminder, don’t forget to submit your regular Week 12 Coding Report, before getting started with this!

All the best!

Kind regards,
Your OSGeo GSoC Admins.

[1] المخطط الزمني لموسم صيف 2024 من Google  |  Google Summer of Code  |  Google for Developers
[2] Lineamientos de envío de productos de trabajo  |  Google Summer of Code  |  Google for Developers
[3] Google Summer of Code - OSGeo Discourse
[4] Google Summer of Code
[5] [SoC] GSoC 2021 - Final Report - VRP functionality with VROOM on the database for pgRouting
[6] Google Summer of Code

Dear OSGeo GSoC contributors,

This is a gentle reminder to the previous announcement regarding the instructions for packaging your work and final submission. Please note that the deadline to submit your final report on discourse and complete the mentor evaluation on the GSoC dashboard is now less than 24 hours away, and this is a hard deadline.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all contributors, mentors, and community members for the excellent work during GSoC 2024. A special thanks to those who have already submitted their final reports - we eagerly anticipate the remaining reports.

Wishing you all the best! :raised_hands:

Kind regards,
OSGeo GSoC Administration Team