Skip to main content

Community resources

Use these resources to find answers to your questions, solve problems you run into, and get help.

Community hub​

Microsoft Teams is our community hub. You can find channels for general communication, coding help, governance, off-topic chat, and more. To join the Document Assembly Line in Teams, just email us!

If you've already joined us in Teams:

Go to Teams

Interview building resources​

info

In order to build Docassemble interviews you will need access to a Docassemble development server. The LIT Lab has a shared dev server for our students, our court and legal aid partners (current and prospective), and Document Assembly Line volunteers. If you are a partner or volunteer, use this workflow to get access to the LIT Lab dev server.

Otherwise, you'll need to set up your own Docassemble server. It looks intimidating, but it's not too hard! If you run into problems, you can ask for help in the Server admin channel in Teams.

Training​

Once you have access to a dev server, you can follow along with our free interview builder training videos. You will also need the training materials, which include question files for the sessions (for reference and diff checking, because cheating is self-defeating).

Individual training sessions:

tip

📺 The LIT Lab hosts monthly workshops based on community questions and requests.

Using AssemblyLine tools​

ALWeaver (generating draft interviews from existing PDF/DOCX forms)​

ALKiln (testing suite for Docassemble interviews)​

Coding help​

If you are stuck on something for longer than 20 minutes, it's probably time to ask for help!

tip

For best results when asking for help:

  • Give details like what you did, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened
  • Share relevant code and error messages

Code checkers​

We have not found a Mako validator (Markdown with variables and python).

Code documentation​

While building interviews you will most likely have one or more documentation websites ("docs") open at all times. And when you ask for help in one of the community resources, above, you will often receive a link to documentation as part of a response. This is generally meant to be helpful, not as a way to say "RTFM."

These are the essential documentation websites to have on hand:

Docassemble interview files use several kinds of markup. Most of what you will need to know is included on the Docassemble markup page, but sometimes you may need to go to the source for more detailed documentation.

You can also use HTML, CSS, and Javascript in Docassemble interviews.

JavaScript Workshop Resource

📺 First Wednesday Workshop: For practical guidance on integrating JavaScript into your Docassemble interviews, watch our workshop Using JavaScript in Docassemble. This session covers common JavaScript patterns, jQuery integration, and best practices for enhancing interview functionality.

Volunteer resources​

If you are a Document Assembly Line volunteer, these resources may be helpful. If you want to volunteer with the Document Assembly Line, sign up here:

Sign up to volunteer

People​

Michelle B. and Sam Glover are the lead volunteer coordinators. Michelle is a software engineer and the developer of ALKiln. She hosts coding help office hours twice a week and has been an active volunteer with the DAL since early days. Sam coordinates the Document Assembly Line in general. Both can be found in Teams.

Communication​

Teams—especially the Volunteers channel—is our primary communication channel. We also prefer Teams chat over email.

tip

If you can’t or don’t want to have Teams open all the time, turn on the Missed activity emails in the Teams settings under Notifications and activity.

Common issues/FAQ​

I can’t access the Document Assembly Line team in Teams

Some workplaces block access to other Teams domains. You should be able to access the Document Assembly Line team in the web app, instead. It works exactly like the desktop app!

You can also try using a different Microsoft account to log in. Let us know so we can send a Teams invite to your other email address.

When committing to GitHub from the Playground, why aren’t I seeing the option to create a new branch?

The short answer is that we forgot to add you to the DAL volunteers team in GitHub. Please nudge us by posting a request in the Volunteers channel in Teams. Here is the longer answer.