Community Documents
Welcome to the NI Developer Zone Community!
This Frequently Asked Questions document will give you a high-level overview the cool features and ways to participate on the site. We are always looking for content from developers, so please add information here. Also, leave a message on the* feedback discussion board *to let us know how we are doing, make feature recommendations, and chat with other community members. Of course, you can also add more FAQs to this document by clicking on Edit Document in the upper right of your screen under Actions.
How do I Get Started?
When you first log into the site, the home page offers links to places where you can explore technical information on NI products and download example programs. You will also find the most recent content, polls, tags, relevant videos, and more.
Check out the menu bar near the top of the page. Use it to:
Create new content
Browse for existing example programs, tutorials and people
Get history for your recently viewed items
Check in on your stuff for items you've created or are working on
How do I Create a Profile?
Your profile is a quick way for other members of the NI Developer Zone Community to find you and is necessary to collaborate on the site.
1. Click Login/Register to create or edit your profile.
2. On your profile page, notice that the Actions box lists a few things you can do like upload an Avatar.
How do I Find Content?
There are four main ways to find content in this community.
Browse by tags. When you browse by tags, you're using a community-made indexing system. You and other participates apply tags like index keywords to new content to make the content more findable. You can look for content you want by clicking tag names to see a
list of related content. We have also created tag groups for key content types like tutorial, example programs and videos.
Search for content. Search for the content you want by using the Seach box and filtering your search to refine the results.
Subscribe to RSS feeds. Ever want a way to see what's new or changed on your favorite Web sites without having to visit them? You
can use Real Simple Syndication(RSS) to get a digest of updates. With RSS, you can subscribe to nearly anything in the Developer Zone Community! Click the RSS icon at the right side of your browser's address bar to subscribe to an RSS feed for the content you're looking at. For example, if you're using a recent version of the Firefox browser, you'll get a list such as the following if there are multiple feeds available.
Get notified by email. In addition to RSS feeds, you can also stay on top of content using email notifications. When you sign up to
receive email notifications, NI will send you email whenever the content you're interested in changes. Navigate to a document you want to be notified about, and then click Receive Email Notifications under Actions. You can always come back here when you want to stop getting the email.
How do I Create Content?
One of the best parts about being a community member is creating content. Here's how to contribute:
1. Click New > Document to start a new document.
2. Give the document a title and type your content in the editing window. Notice that you've got two ways to edit the document,
along with a preview pane to see how your work is coming along. The rich text editor is like a word processing program, with tools for more advanced formatting.
3. Add tags to describe the document to other people. This is one of best things you can do for your team. As you and other people
add tags, you'll develop your own expressions to describe the cont you all use. For those expressions to be most useful, try to use existing tags whenever possible.
4. You can click Save and Continue to save your work and keep writing or click Save Draft to finish later. Click Publish when you're ready for others to see your document.
5. After you've published the document, notice that the Actions box lists tasks related to the document.In particular, notice
the Manage versions and Manage collaboration links. Click Manage Versions to display a page that lists versions of the document. You can select document versions in the list to compare changes to the document over time. The comparison shows additions and deletions.
How do I Collaborate on Content?
Nearly everything you do in the NI community is about collaboration. Content you add is almost always visible and searchable by everyone, unless you've explicitly indicated that its visibility should be limited to certain people. Here’s how:
1. Click New > Document to create a new document.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Collaboration Options.
3. In the Specific Users box, enter the user names of your team members.
4. If you want your boss to approve the document before it’s published, enter their user name in the box under Users who must approve.
5. Under Comment Policy, choose how you want comments to the document handled.
6. When you're done editing the document, be sure to click Save Draft or Publish.
After you've saved the document, you can come back later to edit these options by clicking the Manage Collaboration link in the Actions box. The people you added to edit and approve the document will be able to get to this document from their Your Stuff
menu and from the Overview tab of their own profile. The document itself will also let approvers know that it's time to approve.
