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5 Ways to Contribute to Your Favorite JavaScript Framework

By David Walsh on October 23, 2008

While you may not be a core member of any of the JavaScript frameworks, there are many ways that you can help contribute to the framework and team. Here are just a few.

Submit a Ticket / Patch

If you run into a framework defect, please submit a ticket. A problem cannot get fixed if the framework creators are not aware of the problem. Test hard before you submit your ticket and if the problem sticks, submit it.

Help Out in the Framework Forums

The framework creators help users as best they can, but they can't help everyone with everything. If you have some expertise and run past a question you can answer in the forums, take the time to help them. Not only will you help the person that asks the question, but hundreds of others who eventually run into the same problem.

Interact on IRC

The IRC chat room for the framework is always live with questions -- probably a few questions you can answer. You can also pitch suggestions and patches to the framework creators in the chat room, as well as garner the opinions of others.

Share Your Scripts

Whether you create a blog or post your code in the community forums, sharing your code is a great way improve your code (by suggestions from others) and save others time and the peril of trying to reinvent the wheel.

Don't Discredit Other Frameworks

Insulting other framework creators and their users does not do your framework of choice any good. It makes you sound ignorant and gives your favorite framework's community a bad name.

Did I miss something? Tell me what I missed!

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Discussion

Jeremy
6 – Contribute modules/plugins/extensions! Today’s popular JS frameworks are becoming increasingly modular and extensible – building extensions help you hone your ability as a developer to create reusable solutions, and is a practical way to give back to the community at large. Great topic David – community involvement is the beating heart of open source projects.
MikeNereson
Thanks. I got a couple ides from this post that I included in my project’s contributing page

http://wiki.architecturerules.org/index.php?title=Contributing

I added the Community header and content after reading your Interact on IRC and Help Out in the Framework Forums. Thanks.
keif
I’ve noticed the biggest abusers of #5 are the people that know the least about their own framework in general.

And my biggest beef with fellow developers are some feel like they can’t publish their code until it’s finalized, and then sit on a wealth of plugins and wonderful code that never sees light because “they’re alpha.”
webdesign
Good post
Daniel Del Rio
These are all wonderful ideas! Thanks for the article.