Infragistics Team,

I have been using Infragistics tools for most of a decade, and have been supporting my developer peers in the Infragistics forums for nearly that long. I would really appreciate you giving this proposal some serious thought. I have taken a lot of time to think this through and document it for you, and I hope you will afford this suggestion appropriate consideration.

I have been chewing on an idea for a long time that would be an enhancement to the Infragistics documentation and support website. 

You really need a community-driven code samples area, preferably cross-linked into the documentation.

You have made some efforts at code samples in the past... And they have been pretty good. Your staff content authors are brilliant.  Tony, Craig, and Murtaza are amazing, and I love reading their stuff. The problem with each effort has had to do with goal and structure, not content. Here is a summary.

• The Code Samples on the support website are great... and the content is superb...
  • but do you realize the last code sample posted to your Code Samples area of the ASP.Net support site was nearly two-and-a-half years ago? Yup, February 2009. http://community.infragistics.com/aspnet/codesamples/default.aspx.
  • Plus, the samples are not categorized in any way to make it easy to find something specific.
  • Lastly, all of the effort for maintaining this site falls on your internal staff. You have a broad user community that has some pretty good talent that can contribute to something like this.
• The Samples Browser is also great, and *sometimes* helps, but...
  • it doesn't go very deep.
  • It is designed as a sales tool for people unfamiliar with the tools to get a broad overview of the capabilities.  As such, it often is not helpful for people really trying to get into the nitty gritty.
• The Documentation is tremendous as a reference tool... if what you need is a reference tool.
  • However, there is a real deficit in the "how to" aspect of the documentation. For an example, have a look at the CSOM section of the ASP.Net documentation.
    • If you are trying to learn Russian, you don't start off reading the Russian dictionary.
  • Having community-driven code samples linked into the documentation would help tremendously.
• You do have control-specific forums... and they are great for support.
  • But to actually use them to try to find out how to do something useful is hard.
  • You have to wade through a ton of bug reports and posts that have no real permanent contribution.
  • Instead of finding the solution you are looking for, you often find yourself in the middle of a conversation you have to decipher.
  • You often have to read through numerous such conversations before you find something resembling an answer... or worse yet, discover that there is no answer in the forums, and the time was wasted.
  • Some of your best staff are writing code samples and placing them in the forums.  Hat tip to Duane Hoyte, who has written some really terrific stuff.  I hate to see those really great articles get lost in the forums, and his articles deserve more recognition and prominence than that.
• You have some Sample Applications....
  • To be honest, I have never once looked at them to try to figure out how to do something.
  • There is no way to tell what techniques are used in each Sample Application without actually studying the application.  I assume they are just a sales tool or a "user interface idea" tool.
  • If you want developers to use the Sample Applications for code samples, you really need to include links to the specific sections of the sample applications within the core documentation.  For example, if you bring up the documentation for the WebDataGrid, it should say something like "for an example of how to xxxxxx, have a look at the sample application xxxxxx, where we use this technique on the page xxxxxx"

I know documentation is tedious, and is not really core to what you do (which is developing outstanding tools). Having a community code sample site would actually take some pressure off of your documentation team, because people could go to the community site to fill in the gaps. I am sure it would also take some pressure off of your support staff.

So here is what I am thinking would be features of a Community Code Samples website...

• We need the code sample categories to be very specific. So if someone wants to post a new sample (or find a new sample), they can go right to their control/feature. The category definitions that you have in your Samples Browser are actually a pretty good start.
• Within each category, we should have a mechanism where people can request a code sample on a topic, and once the code sample is provided, the request can either be marked as answered or removed.
• Use a reputation system to recognize your most prolific contributors. Maybe reward them by offering free upgrades, subscriptions, or training, or by including them in MVP forums. These people are making a tangible contribution to your company by reducing your support costs.
• Each contributed code sample should have an area where people can discuss it (and offer better methods). Moderators and/or the original author should be able to edit and update the original sample.  If someone suggests a better method, their reputation should reflect that, and the better method should either be listed as an alternative, or should replace the original code sample.
• If possible, community code samples should be cross-linked to the documentation. So if I am looking at the CSOM WebDataTab page in the documentation, I should have the ability to see community-authored code samples listed right in the documentation.
  
  • Right now, the documentation is often a last resort when trying to find out how to do something.  This will encourage users to go to the documentation when they have a question, making it a "first resort".  This should reduce your support costs.
• Code samples should appear in the search results of the support site.
• Only code samples and "how to" documents are allowed. No support requests or bug reports. No whining in the discussion. Moderators should remove non-constructive posts and direct them to use the forums instead. The idea is that the site is intended to supplement the documentation, and so the content should be professional and specific.
• Of course, they need to be RSS subscribable.

Like I said, I have put a lot of time in using your products, and fleshing out this proposal.  I believe that this suggestion offers some real gains to your company in reduced documentation and support pressure.  That translates to real dollars and cents in reduced support costs.

Even more than that, it will help galvanize the loyalty of your user community.  Your talented users will feel appreciated, and your new users will more quickly tie in to the sense of community.  That translates into real dollars and cents in increased sales and retention.

I hope you will consider it.

Thanks,

Rob Hudson