Last week I began asking myself the question "How would I go about introducing someone to the Umbraco CMS, that's has no experience with Content Management Systems?", which that let me to an interesting search throughout the community! From those who have only just started their Umbraco journeys, to Umbraco MVP's and the Umbraco HQ, here's a list of ways to introduce someone to the Umbraco CMS, in no particular order!
1. "Hello, Umbraco!" On .NET Live, by Poornima Nayar
The most recent entry on today's list, we're starting off with one of my favorite members of the Umbraco Community, Poornima Nayar, who has made a guest appearance on the "On .NET Live" live stream last week talking about Umbraco! Getting started with Umbraco, the various different sections, querying content, surface controllers, API controllers, logging, management services and more, all within a live stream of just over an hour! A must-watch for those who would like to get an introduction to Umbraco!
2. "How to build a website with Umbraco v8", by Paul Seal
If there is one person in particular that's famous in the Umbraco Community for teaching others how to build a website with Umbraco, it's Paul Seal! With his YouTube channel containing various subject matters, his "Building a website with Umbraco v8" series is by far the most popular for newcomers to get introduced to various concepts to meet along the way on their Umbraco journey! Start with a basic introduction, learn about document types & compositions, what the models builder is all about, creating headers & footers, all the way up to dynamically generating a navigation menu!
3. "Umbraco Learning Base", by the Umbraco HQ
Previously known as Umbraco.tv by those who've been a part of the Umbraco Community for a while now, the Umbraco HQ has moved their official learning base over to YouTube, containing a wide range of helpful and free tutorials! From in-depth guides, to individual topics, and interesting "Did you know?"'s, you cannot go wrong with the official Umbraco Learning Base to start your journey into using the Umbraco CMS!
4. Umbraco Training - Fundamentals
Whether you are a frontend developer, a backend developer, a designer, or a technical user, you can't go wrong with the official Umbraco Fundamentals training course! Learn how to build a website from scratch in Umbraco, learning the best practices for Umbraco website architecture, and learn how to take advantage of Umbraco's latest features in your day-to-day work, all within a days course!
Not only will you be learning directly from the official Umbraco HQ Training Team, you will also get the opportunity to take the official test to get the Umbraco Certified Professional title as part of the training course! Whether you are a freelancer or work for an agency, this will surely be a nice addition to your resume!
More information can be found over at the Fundamentals Training Course Detail Page.
5. Getting Started, Our.Umbraco.com
What better place to learn about the CMS with the most friendly community on the planet, than from the community driven forum & documentation platform called our.umbraco.com! Not only is this an excellent place to ask all your Umbraco related questions on the forums, you can also find the detailed documentation of Umbraco over here! From Getting Started with the Umbraco CMS, the Umbraco Fundamentals, various options for Implementations and Extending the CMS, to the various other products Umbraco offers like Umbraco Cloud & Umbraco Heartcore!
Whether you are a content editor looking to learn how to start working with content in Umbraco, an experienced .NET developer looking to take your first shot at building a custom Umbraco solution, or perhaps you're a project manager looking to find out whether Umbraco would be a good fit for your next project, the Documentation has you covered! Found out all about over at https://our.umbraco.com/documentation/Getting-Started/!
P.S. Did I mention that the entire our.umbraco.com website is open-source? You can even contribute to it yourself! https://github.com/umbraco/OurUmbraco & https://github.com/umbraco/UmbracoDocs
6. Working with Colleagues & Community Members
The last but certainly not least entry to this list, would be to work together with a colleague and/or community member as your introduction to Umbraco! Whether you work in a team of Umbraco developers, or work for yourself and would like to start working with Umbraco, there are so many amazing people out there that are willing to help you out! 🤗
Working hands-on on a project is an excellent way to learn new things, so if you are in a position to maintain or develop on an existing Umbraco project alongside one or more of your colleagues, or if you are looking for a way to introduce a new colleague on your team to Umbraco, be sure to get hands-on, and don't be afraid to ask & answer questions! Using the sources mentioned above, combined with the knowledge of knowing where to find information & ask questions related to Umbraco, can get you very far!
At the end of the day, theoretical knowledge can only get you so far, so be sure to roll up your sleeves and give it a go yourself, for help is never far away, and nothing is as satisfying as creating cool solutions both yourself and/or with the help of others! 💪
Looking for ways to get to know the Umbraco community? You're very much welcome! For more information and ways to connect to various Umbraco communities like Discord, Twitter, Slack and Facebook, check out https://community.umbraco.com/
If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me over at my socials available at the Contact page, and welcome to the world of Umbraco! 😄
Many thanks to the Umbraco Community over on Twitter, Slack & Discord for helping me put together this list!
