Lately I got a lot of questions (comments/emails) from people who have problems with getting their javascripts working. I really enjoy it when I can help other people with such things, but I’m a very busy man. So this article’ll be about getting help from javascript specialists. As you’ll see there are many places you can go when you’re stuck. Though, before asking questions, make sure you read every piece of documentation about your problem, google on it, maybe there’s someone with the same problem.

Some things you should know

Before telling you under which rocks you should look for javascript guru’s, I’ll give an example of how you should not ask for help. Panky wrote the following comment on an article I wrote:

Hy! I used the full-full packed mootools (v1.0) and dosen’t work the code! What can I do? I don’t understand what’s the problem. :’(

Panky

When I read this I needed about ten minutes to get back on my seat again because I was rolling on the floor laughing (read: rofl). If you’ve got a question/problem, you really have to be more specific. Always include the code that’s not working. Otherwise the javascript wizards can’t help! If it’s a lot of code and you don’t have your own website/ftp server, just drop the code at Pastebin. Another important thing is to tell others which browser you’re testing with. Summarized:

• Include the code that’s not working.
• Post the name and version of the browser you’re testing with.

Google Groups

Don’t like newsgroups? Try Google Groups! There are a lot of javascript related groups. Also you can find an awful lot of threads with questions, examples and solutions. There are even javascript groups in other languages than English. A good place to start is comp.lang.javascript. All you have to do is subscribe to the group and you can start asking questions. Do you have a question about using a javascript framework? Just look around for framework specific groups like the ones for jQuery, Prototype or the Dojo toolkit.

Forums

Almost every framework has it’s own forum, so when you’re stuck with some framework specific code then you should definitely look around for the developers forums. Just like Google Groups there are lots of solved problems, maybe even that are the same like yours. To get you started, here’s the forum for Mootools.

IRC and mailinglists

Well, I’m not using IRC or mailing lists, but I heard there are lots of javascript masterminds hiding from the crowd.

So, now you know where to look for javascript Buddha’s, also don’t hesitate to ask me!