contributing file

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+# How to contribute
+
+## Branching strategy
+The master branch is the currently active and maintained one and works with the current 2.x stable version.
+Older versions might be found in their respective branches (1.3, 2.0, 2.3, ...).
+Please provide PRs mainly against master branch then.
+
+## Getting Started
+
+* Make sure you have a [GitHub account](https://github.com/signup/free)
+* Fork the repository on GitHub.
+
+## Making Changes
+
+I am looking forward to your contributions. There are several ways to help out:
+* Write missing testcases
+* Write patches for bugs/features, preferably with testcases included
+
+There are a few guidelines that I need contributors to follow:
+* Coding standards (see link below)
+* Passing tests (you can enable travis to assert your changes pass) for windows and unix
+
+
+# Additional Resources
+
+* [CakePHP coding standards](http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/contributing/cakephp-coding-conventions.html)
+* [My coding standards](http://www.dereuromark.de/coding-standards/)
+* [General GitHub documentation](http://help.github.com/)
+* [GitHub pull request documentation](http://help.github.com/send-pull-requests/)

README.md

@@ -7,9 +7,6 @@ Please fork and help to improve (bugfixing, test cases, ...)
 
 Please note: New functionality has been tested against cake2.3 only. Please upgrade if possible.
 
-CODING STANDARDS
-- http://www.dereuromark.de/coding-standards/
-
 ## How to include
 Installing the Plugin is pretty much as with every other CakePHP Plugin.
 
@@ -85,6 +82,8 @@ The master branch is the currently active and maintained one and works with the
 Older versions might be found in their respective branches (1.3, 2.0, 2.3, ...).
 Please provide PRs mainly against master branch then.
 
+For details on how to contribute please read the [CONTRIBUTING page](CONTRIBUTING.md).
+
 ### Recent changes (possibly BC breaking)
 
 * 2013-02 Removed PasswordChangeBehavior in favor of its new name Passwordable.