So I found out about NodeBB today

[cdnsteve]

And I'm pretty pumped guys. It looks great so far! Kudos.
Looking to help contrib where I can.

Few questions:

• What frontend JS libraries are you using, any MVC like Backbone or Angular?
• Does the backend work based on a REST API at all?
• How can I help (code wise)?

Thanks
Steve

[julian]

Hey @cdnsteve! Thanks for stopping by (and for the comments you left on the GitHub project! )

NodeBB is not actually using any front-end frameworks, as we felt that we'd be able to do much more without the constraints of a framework. (Whether or not this is actually true is up for debate, of course, but nevertheless, this is how it is )

The backend is built on an API. Our templating system calls the API to retrieve information for each topic/category/page/etc. However, the majority of the calls that NodeBB makes are actually Web Socket calls, handled by our socket.IO library. This is what powers the real-time aspect of posts/topics, as well as the chat functionality.

As for contributing, any and all help is appreciated!

• The easiest way is to let everybody know about NodeBB.
• If you speak a language other than English, we'd love to get help translating NodeBB into other languages
• If you're a designer, speak to @psychobunny about making some themes!
• An increasingly large part of NodeBB is opening up for third-party plugins. We already have over twenty plugins, including a plugin to use BBCode (instead of Markdown), emailers, and even one utilising the HTML5 notifications API! Writing plugins and helping find bugs is the best way to help us out. If you run into trouble writing plugins, give us a shout! We're here every day

[cdnsteve]

@julian sounds great thanks. I'd be interested in tinkering with some Plugins.
Have you guys considered setting up a UserVoice page or Trello board to let users upvote features/plugins? Might be helpful!

[julian]

(Heh heh - I knew the desktop notifications would bring you back immediately)

We did initially have our roadmap on Trello, but I personally didn't find the time to keep it up to date, so I use the GitHub wiki to act as a version history and use the issue tracker for feature requests and bug tracking.

The issue tracker is where we spend most of the time dealing with brainstorming, so that's actually been working out really well for us so far.

[cdnsteve]

@julian the desktop notify is brilliant

[julian]

You can thank @psychobunny for that plugin -- credit where credit is due!

[psychobunny]

@cdnsteve if you're interested in building plugins have a look at this for a start.

Writing Your First NodeBB Plugin | Burn after compiling

(burnaftercompiling.com)

always here and around if you need a hand.

also - cdn = canadian? welcome, we're from Toronto

[baris]

NodeBB is not actually using any front-end libraries

@julian jquery

[psychobunny]

andrewbars

[julian]

Sorry, did I say libraries? I meant "frameworks" I'll edit the post above.

[psychobunny]

Vanilla JS

(vanilla-js.com)

[julian]

@psychobunny said:

Vanilla JS

(vanilla-js.com)

The best framework (nod)

[cdnsteve]

@psychobunny I'm 2 hours away in Kingston! Thanks for sharing.

[julian]

... And here I thought cdn meant content delivery network...

[psychobunny]

ah nice, I've been to Kingston a few times... mostly a lunch pitstop on the way down the 401 to Ottawa or Montreal

[julian]

They say it is a university town. I've never been to Kingston myself... I think the VIA stops there on the way to Montréal...