Report From a Three-Day Code Sprint By an Application Development Apprentice

The author with TYPO3 superheroes Ty Power and Sudden Dev. Photo: Florian Thiele (CC-BY)
I joined the TYPO3 Community Sprint held in Düsseldorf 20–22 November 2023. This was my first time attending one of these events in person. Until now, my only experience was an online Community Sprint back in July. It was cool and kinda exciting to meet all these TYPO3 folks face-to-face.

Arrival at the TYPO3 Office

When I got to the TYPO3 GmbH office in the morning, loads of TYPO3 developers welcomed me. People like Lina Wolf, Chris Müller, and Garvin Hicking were there, part of the Documentation Team, that I’m a member of. It felt kinda strange, but cool to chat with my team face-to-face instead of just on Slack. I felt comfortable with the Documentation Team right away and was amped up to pitch in.

Day 1: Figuring Out PHP-Based Rendering for Docs

Lina Wolf gave me the details on the project. We were fixing elements on the PHP rendered Documentation Method using integration tests. We made specific tests for elements that were not showing up in the correct way. The plan was to fix issues like missing pictures or headings slowly, so the PHP-based docs become as good as (and even better than) the docs using Sphinx. I raised a bunch of issues on GitHub for missing things and made a test myself.

Day 2: More PHP Work and Learning New Stuff

I stayed involved and found more mistakes. I made new test cases to stop the mistakes from happening. Thanks to Chris Müller, who helped me a lot with unit tests. Working with him, I learned how to do unit testing in real situations. This is an important skill for things I'll do in the future.

Day 3: Wrapping Up and Saying Goodbye

On the last day, I fixed another issue and learned a lot about how the other TYPO3 teams work. Regrettably, my time drew to a close, and I bid farewell to the fantastic developers whoI had the pleasure of meeting.

Reflection

Those three days at the Community Sprint were a big learning experience. Meeting TYPO3 devs in person was awesome. It was a super-chill atmosphere, and I always got help when I needed it. I picked up new stuff that'll help me down the line. I think it's beneficial for apprentices like me to secure part-time sponsorships from companies already using TYPO3. This type of support allows us to hang out with different TYPO3 teams and learn new techniques and trends. It's a win-win — I get new skills and TYPO3 gets better. I had a blast at the Community Sprint!