Becoming a JavaScript Master (Part 1)

Contents

The Path to the JavaScript Class Author Mastery

Getting Started and the Demonstration Video

The JavaScript Programming Innovation Award

The Future

The Path to the JavaScript Class Author Mastery

The new system of levels and missions works pretty much like in the PHP Classes site. You may want to read the announcement article there to learn how it works in detail.

To put it briefly here, the system of levels and missions guides authors that submit their classes to the site through a series of missions that each author must complete to reach the end of a level.

Completing a level unlocks the missions of the next level. You also unlock a badge that is a symbol of the level you completed. Badges have very beautiful graphics. They have your name written in them to highlight that you are the person that has received it.

The graphics of each badge use materials that reflect the importance of the level that you completed. The first level is very basic. So its badge made of wood. The higher level badges are made of more prestigious materials.

Getting Started and the Demonstration Video

You get started by going to the status page. There you see your current level, how many level missions you completed so far, and how many missions you need to to complete to level-up.

You are also guided through the missions that you need to complete on each level. There is a briefing page with a summary of each mission.

You may want to watch the demonstration video to learn more about these and other details of how it all works.

The JavaScript Programming Innovation Award

In parallel to this initiative, the JS Classes site is going to start another initiative that aims to recognize developers that submit innovative classes: the JavaScript Programming Innovation Award.

It is an initiative identical to the PHP Programming Innovation Award started in the PHP Classes site in 2004. Since then it contributed to encourage more than 500 developers to submit many innovative classes.

Every month the site will nominate all the innovative classes published in the site in that month. The nominees may earn prizes provided by sponsors.

This award will only start when the site reaches a minimum of 200 classes published in the site. The sooner the site reaches that goal, the sooner the award will get started.

Some missions in advanced levels require the authors to be nominated or even win the innovation award. Therefore it is important to start the award as soon as possible, so authors do not get stuck in their progression of becoming a JavaScript Master.

This is one more reason for the site to give away a symbolic prize to the top 5 authors that submit more notable classes before the site reaches the goal. The prize is a nice elephant plush toy that is the symbol of the PHP Classes site.

You may read more about this initiative in the announcement article.

The Future

In the future the sites will provide other means to distinguish users that demonstrate other types of JavaScript Mastery, regardless if they have submitted JavaScript classes or not. Stay tuned to the announcements in this blog to learn more about what is coming.

Meanwhile, if you want to become a beta tester of the upcoming features that will be implemented, you may get an early invitation if you engage on the current system of levels and missions.

If you have questions, comments or suggestions for the current system or the future developments, feel free to post a comment to this article.