I get asked this question enough that I have the answer saved to a file so I can copy/paste it. I think I’ll post it here, that way anyone can benefit from it.

The Standard List of Resources

  • The official guides are really the best way to learn. If you go page-by-page through the guides, you’ll learn a lot of super useful things that are also current.
  • Super Rentals (official tutorial) is well-written and easy to follow.
  • Rock&Roll with Ember.js by Balint Erdi is a great next step once you’ve gone through the guides and Super Rentals.
  • Looking through Ember Observer to get a feel for the ecosystem (most popular addons (libraries) and using the code search functionality is super useful when you want to see how other people do a thing (Ember is very much into common patterns/safety of the herd kind of thing; if we all do things in a similar way it’s easier to get help and also keep everyone updated)
  • Ember Sample Apps is a fairly new GitHub org that demonstrates how to do a single thing in a default app setup so you can really grok the differences.
  • Have a question you can’t find the answer to? Asking questions in Ember Discord or searching through Discord is the best way to find help! The community is pretty tight-knit so you are unlikely to find answers on Stack Overflow. Asking questions on Discord is the way to go!

These will give you a solid start! If you get a chance to take an Ember training course by Mike North, he’s well worth it. He has a way of explaining Ember concepts within the context of things you might already know, and that kind of translation, so to speak, is super useful.

Mindset

Ember is like other frameworks, Ember is not like other frameworks. Really it doesn’t matter what framework you’re using, it’s about using best practices and having a solid base in HTML, CSS, ARIA, and JS. Don’t have those yet? Don’t worry, you can learn.

Here are my top tips for adapting a productive mindset while learning Ember:

  • Keep curiousity at the forefront of your mind. Ember will be different from other frameworks. If you allow yourself to think “this is dumb why don’t they do this like React” or something like that, you won’t have a good time. If instead you try to think “I’m curious why they did it this way” then it will be more like a fun mystery game and you’ll eventually solve the case.
  • Write down the things that you find strange, or different. Write down the questions you have. As you go through the process of learning, periodically review your list of questions to see if you have learned any answers. I bet you will have!
  • Forget everything you’ve heard about Ember and just try it out. Don’t fight the framework– the number 1 struggle I see with new learners is that they are trying to shove too much code into their apps, trying to shove their past mindset and experiences into Ember code. Try to let that go, and you might just be surprised at how much less code you have to write.
  • Remember that the goal of Ember is to do the tedious stuff for you, so you can be productive and focus on the value your app delivers. You might have to let go of the desire to control every single facet and just go with the flow. If a file is generated with the new app, it’s there for a reason. Just leave it until you understand exactly what it’s doing and the ramifications of removing it. It might not break now if you remove the file, but it definitely will break something later.
  • Take a deep breath and know that you can do this! Ember will delight you if you give it a chance to be what it is and not compare it to everyone else.

I hope this advice helps! Enjoy learning Ember!

Until next time. -M