Introduction

So, DevX is a tech site. For developers, by developers. What does this mean? Let's start by taking a look around...

The Competition

What is DevX up against? It's well worth taking a few minutes to browse the following sites and get a feel for what's out there, what we're hoping to achieve, and what we want to avoid.

• java.net: Sun's Java-focused site. Blogs, articles, forums etc. Has a good community-based feel. A significant source of inspiration for DevX.
• MSDN: Microsoft's developer site. Doesn't do so well on the community-feel, but a pretty darn comprehensive resource nonetheless.
• Apple Developer Connection: Essentially no community aspect to the site, this is basically Apple pushing tools to developers and sending them on their merry way. You wouldn't really expect Apple engineers to be blogging about forthcoming products, would you?
• IBM alphaWorks: IBM's site, which is interesting more for the excellent (generally free) technology they host here, rather than the site itself which is rather poor, and has little community involvement.
• Adobe Developer Connection: This is also quite close to what we're trying to achieve. Has blogs, forums, articles, reference material, downloads, all that good stuff.
• Oracle Technology Network: a significant amount of content, but the site hides its community aspects down in the dungeons.
• Netezza Developer Network: we hear it's great, but it's not open-access. You probably have to sign an NDA to view their content. This is not what we're aiming for.

So, of the sites listed above, Sun's java.net and the Adobe Developer Connection are the closest templates. They are community sites. MSDN is too cold and basically one-way communication. IBM alphaWorks and Apple Developer Connection really have no community involvement to speak of.

A sense of community is key to our success. A sense of activity. We want developers to continue to return to the site. We want non-Teradata customers to come across the site doing a Google search on SQL syntax, and learn that there exists this company called Teradata, and that it has rock-star engineers producing its software. We want developers to sound off on the forums. We want them to comment on a blog post and point out a flaw in some SQL optimization theorizing. We want our best people to reach the community. We want the community to generate content for itself. We want DevX to be a self-perpetuating entity.

And to those ends, the design of DevX has been guided by the following notions:

• Open Access: DevX content is not hidden behind registration screens accessible only to customers. There is no reason why a Google search for "GROUP BY" should not bring the user to a Teradata website.
• Individuality: Your name and avatar (profile picture) is attached to the content you create. You become a success or failure on your own merits. Developers can comment on your content, and give it the thumbs up / thumbs down (literally). We want a community of individuals, not The Borg.

DevX Concepts, Content and Features

Let's talk about the different stuff available on DevX. First, here's an annotated screenshot of the site (this is the Viewpoint "Channel"). We'll touch on each of the annotated parts later.

DevX is a community-focused site, so there is a big focus on the user, and we'll shortly touch on the different DevX actors / roles. After that we'll talk about the different content types on the site. But first, we need to explain a key concept, and that's the "Channel".

The channel is a way of breaking up the site into somewhat coherent sections. Examples of channels are: Viewpoint, Database, Applications, General. The channels are accessible from the site's top-level navigation, and when the user drills down into a channel, s/he sees content only from that area. This is in contrast to the top-level of the site, where content from all channels is aggregated.

If an item is marked as featured, it will appear in the carousel at the top of the page: the carousel is basically a promotional device. Each featured item must have a "Cover Image" associated with it (so it can look pretty).

Ratings and Comments are two other key elements. Registered users can give the thumbs up / thumbs down to certain content types, and this rating is displayed alongside the content.

And registered users can comment on almost every content type; we expect that this will be a key function of DevX.

Content can also be "tagged". This associates one or more keywords with the content, (e.g. "viewpoint", "udf", "performance tuning" etc), and provides another mechanism for relating, searching, and navigating content.

DevX Roles

We define the following key user roles:

anonymous user: (or guest): a guest is anybody who comes across the site. The Guest can view all content, but cannot interact with the site. To do that, the Guest must register.

authenticated user: Anybody can register. Pick a username, enter your email address, choose an avatar. Your avatar will appear alongside your activity. Note that there is an email verification process before an account is activated.

approved poster: The approved poster role is granted manually by an administrator after a registered user attempts to post to the forums or comments for the first time. Until a user has this role, his posted content is not visible to other users.

blogger: The vast majority of bloggers will be Teradata employees, but we expect that select customers / partners will also blog.

contributor: Can create an Article, Reference, FAQ, Blog. Teradata employees and very select non-Teradata individuals.

channel owner: A Teradata employee who has agreed to manage a particular channel. Needs to promote the creation of content for that area, sign up people to generate content, and generally keep a beady eye on all that goes on.

forum moderator: May be the same person as a Channel Owner; responsible for moderating one or more discussion forums.

download manager: Can add/edit downloads, and view download statistics.

training admin: Can add/edit Training content.

teradata master: Users in this role can access the Teradata Masters forum, which is otherwise private.

teradata master admin: Users in this role can manage membership of the "teradata master" role.

devx owner: the ultimate site administrators.

Content

DevX is built on a platform called Drupal, which is fundamentally a content-management system. The content types we've defined are:

• Blog
• Article
• Reference
• Forum post
• Training
• Download
• Comment (on other content types)

Blog

Write a regular column on an area that's of interest to you. It could be on performance tuning. It could be about Java design patterns. It could be about a new UDF that's become available. Blog entries are typically short (usually no more than one page, and perhaps only a few lines), should have a casual tone, and might take anything from a few minutes to an hour or two to create. A few examples:

• http://graphics-geek.blogspot.com/
• http://weblogs.java.net/blog/marinasum/archive/2009/03/suns_simon_phip.html
• http://weblogs.java.net/blog/survivant/archive/2009/03/jaxb_webxml_dtd.html
• http://weblogs.java.net/blog/brucechapman/archive/2009/03/meta_coinage_ro_1.html

Article

An article is a longer, more in-depth piece. The tone should be a little drier than a blog, and the content more authoritative. An article can be exploratory, but should be trying to demonstrate or explain some topic, have some significant analysis, and not be an opinion piece.

• http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2009/02/17/javafx-http-networking-and-xml-parsing.html
• http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2009/01/20/jsr-286-portlet-irrelevance.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/seo/articles/techniques_ria.html?devcon=f2
• http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2008/11/20/animation-and-transition-with-lwuit.html

Reference

Basically documentation, examples, best pratices, cookbooks, etc. We hope that ultimately much of Teradata's documentation will be available in the DevX reference section. This material should be more formal, and have clear technical objectives.

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173178.aspx
• http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/MemoryMgmt/MemoryMgmt.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/flex/quickstart/creating_transparent_window.html

Training

A training items is an offering of the Teradata Education Network, e.g. a class, or webinar, etc. There is often a price associated with a Training item.

Forum

This is your standard set of discussion forums. 

Download

Downloads consist of a Download page, with one or more associated Download package, that presents a Download License when the user attempts to download a file. For more, see the DevX Admin Guide - Downloads

Comments

A Comment is not a content type in and of itself, but rather is associated with some piece of content. Almost all content types can be commented upon by registered users; guest users cannot comment.

So, if you still want to be a contributor, find out how in the next section.