VMware {code} : Sample Exchange FAQ

Why are you we doing this, why don't we just put content on Github?

It is important to understand that Sample Exchange is not a repository of samples, rather it is an extension of the existing VMware Code site that provides a set of services around a repository of sample meta-data. The samples themselves in fact live elsewhere (currently only on Github). The value add that Sample Exchange is providing is that it is a single pane of glass providing access to sample content irrespective of where it is stored. So, a single place for people to find and contribute samples. Also, content on Github is rather poorly indexed by Google at the moment, and as a result is somewhat difficult to discover. Coupling together requests for samples, questions/answers related to samples, tags and other sample meta-data, API documentation, tools and more in the sample portal is going to result in more traffic and greater discoverability for the samples.

I see that you have requests and "solutions", which is one or more samples, why don't we just use stackoverflow.com ?

It is a valid question. There are certainly use cases where the model of stackoverflow with its question, multiple answer and voting model is very compelling. However, because of how free form the responses on stackoverflow tend to be, it is difficult to capture a "sample" from the answers in a way that could be usable in a repeatable, consistent fashion. Imagine trying to create a Java or Python sample that actually ran from a stackoverflow answer. You need human intelligence to sort out what is the valid code and what is not as well as to create all the portions of the sample that are missing (e.g. library dependencies, correct "main" method, ...). We want to build a catalog of samples that can actually be built and used reliably from many contexts such as within an IDE, so we decided to build this ourselves. The architecture of sample exchange does allow samples to live anywhere (not even just github though that is what is initially implemented) and be consumed from anywhere.

I see a contribution from me, but I didn't actually contribute it, how did that happen?

We took some liberties and wrote a tool that iterated through samples that were already on github and contributed them. The tool actually tries to use git blame to figure out who the primary author of a given sample and contributed it as them if we could figure out their account info automatically. If we messed this up, please send us an email [email protected] and we will fix it.

I see a sample that in fact I wrote but it is contributed by someone else.

In the initial contribution of content we used a tool that we wrote that tries to use git blame to figure out who the primary author of a given sample and contributed it as them if we could figure out their account info automatically. It is entirely possible that the content may in fact have been copied from your repository and we could not detect this, or perhaps our algorithm isn't perfect. In any case we want to give credit where it is due. If this is the case, please tell us your MyVMware account info, communities account name, and github account and we will fix it. Send an email to [email protected]

How do I contribute samples that are in the vmware org account on Github?

In order to do this you must either be a member of the vmware Github organization (which only applies to VMware employees), or be a collaborator on a particular repository (which can be anyone).

If you have a github account and your account is a member of the vmware org, you may already be able to contribute the content already. Select "Import from Github - Repository" and you should see the vmware org repository. Select that and then select the folder or file you want to contribute.

If you are a VMware employee who is not yet a member of the vmware org on Github, you can sign up yourself up here on the VMware intranet: https://github.vmware.com/home

I want to contribute an "official" VMware sample as the "VMware" user, how do I do that?

Right now you should contribute the sample as yourself, and then send an email to [email protected] and ask that the contributor would be switched to VMware and we can do it manually. In the future there will be a workflow for this.

My Sample already has metadata/docs embedded in the sources, do I really have to type all that in again?

Hopefully not. We do have a component in place in the back end that attempts to figure all of this out for you using code conventions, file names, etc. You can find details on the supported metadata conventions on this page.

It isn't perfect and I am sure there are other conventions that we don't support yet that we should. Please let us know.

I click to select a repository to contribute from and it takes forever, whats up?

If you are a member of the VMware org (or another org), we also display public organization repositories and this takes a long time to query. Note that it should not take longer than 30 seconds or so...

This looks awesome, do you have an API and how can I bolt this into my product?

Yes we do! Check out Sample Exchange API

Can I use a Github README file as the description?

Yes, and this is the prefeffed way to set it up. Check out How to use a README.md for your Sample Description

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