On Friday, we deployed an update to Sample Exchange on VMware {code} that allows you to select any VMware product or SDK when contributing a sample. As a result, developers looking for samples for VMware products and services will have an easier time finding relevant content.
Sample Categorization on Sample Exchange
Sample Exchange intentionally doesn’t define what a “sample” has to be. It can be a script, a code snippet in whatever language you want, a complete sample that uses an official SDK, whatever makes sense. When you contribute a sample, you can select any number of “SDK/Platform/Tool” values to associate with your sample. In the past, the options in the list were primarily SDKs, not products. Of course, not all samples are using the language bindings provided by an official SDK, and as a result there are a number of samples on the site that are miscategorized (maybe your samples…).
In the sample contribution screenshot below, I start typing “service”, and all products and SDKs that have “service” in them are shown. I then select “Pivotal Container Service (PKS)” for my new sample.
It is a small change that we hope will improve the ability to find samples from Google, as well as from the new in-product “Developer Centers” we are rolling out with many VMware products (check out the Developer Center included with VMware Cloud on AWS for example).
Categorizing Your Samples
If you have samples you have contributed to Sample Exchange, I would encourage you to take a couple minutes and edit the SDK/Platform/Tool values that you have selected. To do this, go to https://code.vmware.com/samples, log in using your MyVMware credentials, and then click the “My Samples” tab. Click the “Edit” link and then select however many entries make sense to associate with your sample. You may find that the existing entries for your sample are for an SDK (e.g. “vSphere Management SDK”) when in reality it is better associated with a product (“vSphere”).
The list of products available is not every product VMware offers, but rather a subset that we knew were likely to have samples of various flavors. If you find that there is a product that you would like to add a sample for that is missing, drop us a line at [email protected] and let us know.
