In addition SitePen’s various commercial Dojo support and Dojo workshop options, there are a number of ways to find helpful information on your own. Dojo has a large community of developers and hobbyists all across the globe that are willing to assist with problems and offer guidance. Many tutorials and examples exist and are ready to be found, you just have to look.
Here are some vital community resources available to assist you in your Dojo learning, and some hints to ensure success:
Dojo Search
Search first, ask later. A quick stop at the dojotoolkit.org search page usually turns up lots of commonly encountered problems. The search engine has options to help you target specific resources in the Dojo community, like blogs, forums, or archived mailing lists.
Dojo Forums/Mailing List
If you are unable to find any discussion or book entry already, start a new topic in the integrated Dojo forums/mailing list.
It helps to provide examples contained within code tags, and to politely state your question. If you have tried other methods and failed, mention them as well. The more information you provide in your thoughtful, research questions, the more likely someone is going to quickly be able to assist you with a meaningful response.
You may also sign-up to the Dojo mailing list to subscribe to all posts.
There are several thousand subscribers to dojo-interest, so civility is expected of everyone.
#dojo
Join the #dojo chat room on the irc server irc.freenode.net. This room acts as a real-time development center for numbers of people ranging from beginner to expert. Often, many core Dojo developers are available for any level of discussion, at seemingly odd hours of the day. There is no experience requirement, just a desire to learn.
The conversations range from deeply technical to outlandishly silly. It is a very friendly room, and a great way to be in immediate contact with like minded people while developing or learning Dojo. The first rule in the channel topic “Don’t Ask to Ask, just Ask” means just that: Jump right in, and start talking. If help is available, you will likely get a response.
Volunteers
It is important to remember the Dojo community is entirely voluntary. People helping other people for the good of the Open Web, typically in their spare time. Civility is expected of everyone, and you are not guaranteed any speedy response, if at all. If you find things within the community to be lacking, you are always welcome to contribute. See the Getting Involved guide for more information about what you can do. The community grows daily, and your contributions are welcome and very much appreciated.
