Finding the source

While working on a recent project that required me to build a website after learning PyroCMS from scratch, I ran into an issue in the final stage of development. I scoured page after page on Google and went to a variety of PyroCMS blogs and forums – but no luck. StackOverflow and Google are my usual go-to sources for solving problems. 

I was waiting for that blissful, shout-for-joy feeling that comes with finding other people who’ve had my exact problem, scrolling through looking for a large number of upvotes beside the correct answer. 

Not this time though. This framework is so new that I couldn’t find someone who’d had the problem I was struggling with. 

You can ask anyone anything on a community channel, so I went right to the source with my question

Thankfully, after finding exactly 0 mentions on the page after page Google and nothing on the 100 page forum in PyroCMS, I found the PyroCMS Discord channel. After carefully describing my problem there I took a chance and tagged the person who created the framework. 

Within just 2 hours he responded with a one-sentence solution that explained the crucial step I’d missed. I was incredibly grateful and impressed – I mean, he’s running a company and this was a very generous thing to do with his time. 

But then again, it’s not a complete surprise: that’s why developers participate in open source communities, after all. They’re interested. They like problem solving and helping. 

Open-source frameworks thrive when developers share their knowledge

As a developer whose work relies heavily on open-source frameworks, my job is made so much easier by the information other people share. Popular public community channels like Slack and Discord enable developers to share ideas, solve problems as a team and let others know about changes and updates. To me, that positivity and generosity are at the root of the open source way of working – sharing and learning, asking and answering, making things better collectively.

And while it was a strange feeling to be the first one to ask a question about this specific PyroCMS problem – and to get the answer straight from the source – I’m looking forward to watching all the channels kick into gear as more and more people start using the PyroCMS framework. I’ll certainly be there, sharing what I’m learning. 

Discover more

View the PYRO website in action via circular-open.design

Deep dive into Jem's documentation via GitHub/symbiote