Taking the leap: becoming an Umbraco contributor

When I first thought about offering advice on the Umbraco forums, I’ll admit, it was intimidating. The idea of putting my thoughts out there, where seasoned developers and community experts could see them, felt daunting. What if I was wrong? What if my contribution wasn’t helpful enough?

It started with me floating the idea of getting more involved to Emma, who immediately encouraged me to go for it. Reinforcing my perspective had value and that even small contributions could make a difference. That bit of reassurance was exactly what I needed to take the next step and put my idea into action.

What I quickly discovered is that the Umbraco community thrives on encouragement. Every time I shared a small tip or answered a question, someone would thank me, or another contributor would build on my idea. That sense of support gave me the confidence to keep going.

Over time, those small steps added up. I wasn’t just answering questions anymore. I was helping shape solutions, sharing best practices and even contributing code and documentation. And that’s the heart of becoming an Umbraco Contributor Partner. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about consistently showing up, sharing knowledge, and helping the community grow.

To reach Contributor Partner status, it takes:

• Courage to start: overcoming the fear of posting your first answer or submitting your first pull request
• Consistency: continuing to contribute, whether through code, documentation, or forum support
• Collaboration: working with others, learning from feedback, and improving together
• Community spirit: remembering that every contribution, big or small, helps someone else succeed

What began as a scary step into the unknown became one of the most rewarding parts of my professional journey. Encouragement from the community turned hesitation into confidence, and confidence into contribution. That’s what it takes, not perfection, but persistence and a willingness to share.

Discussions

Some of the discussions I felt are worthy of mentioning are found below.

Encountering an error when trying to use a SurfaceController in Umbraco 

The system reports it cannot find a route for the controller name.

Cause:

• The controller may not be inheriting from Umbraco.Web.Mvc.SurfaceController
• The controller must be in a namespace accessible to Umbraco’s routing system
• Routes are only registered for controllers located in the correct folder/namespace

Solution:

• Correct inheritance: Make sure the class inherits from SurfaceController
• Namespace placement: Place the controller in a namespace Umbraco scans (commonly Controllers folder in the web project)
• Rebuild and refresh: After changes, rebuild the project so Umbraco can register the routes again

More information: Could not find a Surface controller route in the RouteTable for controller name 

Creating document types programmatically

Requested a scripted method to generate Umbraco content types for consistent CI/CD deployments.

Solution:

• Use IContentTypeService and IShortStringHelper to instantiate and save ContentType objects.
• Register a composer to run this code at startup or through a custom trigger.
• Programmatically define tabs, groups, property types, compositions, and allowed child types.

More information: Create Document Type programmatically

Removing default style menu options in TipTap

Editors wanted to hide default TipTap style groups, such as “Containers,” while retaining custom formatting options.

Solution

• Build a custom style menu extension via an umbraco-package.json manifest.
• Register only the styles desired (e.g. H2, H3).
• Select this custom style menu within the Rich Text Editor data type.

More information: Remove default style dropdown options from TipTap

How AI helped me shape my contributions

My journey with AI has been one of discovery, experimentation, and reflection. Streamlining repetitive work to enhancing creativity, I’ve seen first-hand how this technology can act as both a tool and a partner. In this article, I’ll share my personal experiences using AI, the lessons I’ve learned along the way, and the surprising ways it has influenced my perspective on technology and human potential.

Risks and challenges

• Despite its benefits, AI is not infallible. Misuse or overreliance can lead to serious problems
• Bias and discrimination: AI systems learn from data and if that data reflects human biases, then AI can reinforce or amplify them.
• Overreliance: People may trust AI outputs too much, even when wrong
• Security risks: AI can be exploited for malicious purposes. Top ten risks for 2025

Why AI can be wrong

AI doesn’t “think” like humans, it predicts outcomes based on patterns in data. This leads to errors in several ways:

• Data quality issues: Wrong in, wrong out. If the training data is flawed, the AI’s output will be flawed
• Context misunderstanding: AI struggles with nuance, sarcasm, or cultural context, leading to misinterpretations
• Lack of common sense: AI doesn’t truly understand the world, it only models probabilities. This can cause mistakes
• Model drift: Over time, as real-world conditions change, AI models can become outdated and inaccurate unless retrained

The balance

AI is neither inherently good nor bad, it’s a tool. Its impact depends on how humans design, regulate, and use it.  

AI gave me a starting point to research against, however it did lead me down directions which weren’t entirely correct. At least I knew where to stop and trust my own judgement and investigate documentation or research to get the task complete. 

Here are the strengths and limitations when I used AI to help me contribute to Umbraco:

• AI provided a starting point or draft that helped me shape my response
• It quickly produced examples or explanations that I could refine instead of starting from scratch
• AI raised angles I hadn’t considered, encouraging me to explore new perspectives
• AI suggested code that turned out to be wrong or outdated
• It presented answers with authority, making it easy to trust without double-checking
• Some suggestions were too vague or surface-level, requiring me to dig deeper myself
• AI made the task feel “done” too quickly, but I later realised I needed to verify sources and adjust

Closing thoughts

Contributing to Umbraco is a journey shaped by both personal dedication and the strength of collective support. Empowered by AI, we now have fresh opportunities to spark ideas, speed up problem-solving, and expand our horizons. At the heart of progress lies the Umbraco community offering wisdom, collaboration and trust.

AI and the community work together and create a powerful harmony, one sparking new discoveries, the other nurtures lasting growth. As you move forward on your Umbraco journey, draw strength from both the insight of AI and the unwavering support of the community.