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This page is designed to help you find answers for questions related to the IBM Developer website and related initiatives. For product support, check the product page for appropriate channels. For questions about technology, programming methods, and other topics relevant to the wider developer community, see IBM Support.


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For site-related feedback not addressed in the FAQ, click the Site Feedback tab at the upper right of any IBM Developer page. A member of the team will investigate the issue.

Note to IBM employees: If you have an administrative or otherwise internal-facing question, post to the internal #IBMDeveloper Slack channel.


Frequently asked questions

Are you wondering about the evolution of IBM’s developer-related code, content, and community? Check out this FAQ list to learn more

  • IBM Developer is a global community of coders and developer advocates and digital resources focused on helping developers learn, build, and connect. We provide the resources, tools, and community that inspire you to further your tech skills. With technical articles and tutorials, step-by-step learning paths, instructional videos, open source code samples, and online conferences, we help developers tap into the collective, innovative power of open collaboration and stay up to date with ever evolving skills.

  • IBM Developer provides rich, technical content on technologies, programming languages, development practices, and architecture & deployment models. Our most popular technologies include artificial intelligence and containers. Our most popular programming language is Java. Our most popular development practice is DevOps. And, our most popular architecture and deployment model is microservices.

    Our site map gives a high level overview of IBM Developer content and topics.

  • IBM Developer has two native language sites: Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. These sites contain translations of our most popular English content, as well as content developed by local SMEs.

  • Our focus is on digital assets that are based on open source code and deployable to the cloud. The most popular asset types are:

    • Learning paths

      Learning paths are curated lists of content in a recommended progression to help developers learn about a technology topic or process. Learning paths contain short descriptions with links to a mix of IBM Developer assets (such as videos, blogs, tutorials, patterns and labs) as well as other IBM or non-IBM resources (such as open source assets).

    • Tutorials

      Complete step-by-step goal-focused learning that shows you how to complete one or more tasks or use cases. Our tutorials differ from code patterns in that they are usually for introductory education and granular technical tasks, while patterns are for more advanced, multi-branched coding tasks.

    • Articles

      Articles facilitate and reinforce new skills by explaining a concept in detail and showing examples. Articles are similar to tutorials, but they usually explain more conceptual information rather than provide procedural or task-focused content.

    • Code patterns

      Code patterns provide a 360-degree view of code that solves a specific problem. In addition to providing direct access to the code, patterns include contextual overviews, architecture diagrams, process flows, demos, technology components, and related blog posts.

    • Videos

      From expert tech talks to live streams to replays of live tech talks or events, videos let you watch developers demonstrate or talk about technologies, products, or services.

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    Our team continually reviews the content on IBM Developer to ensure that it is still relevant, accurate, and refers to a product or technology that is still available in some form.  If any of these criteria are not met, we may decide to archive the asset.

    Archived assets remain available on the site, but are no longer being updated or maintained. The content is provided “as is.” Please be aware that given the rapid evolution of technology, some content, steps, or illustrations may have changed in archived content.

    At some point, archived content might be retired and removed from IBM Developer.  When we retire content, we add a redirect to a suitable replacement asset or to a list of related assets.

     
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    You can follow IBM Developer on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, or you can subscribe to our YouTube channel.

  • Subscribe to any or all of our newsletters and get the latest content, events, and offers delivered right to your inbox.

  • You can submit feedback through the site feedback link found in the right hand area of each page.

  • We welcome individuals referencing or linking back to IBM Developer content from their personal blog or other web site.  Please follow these best practices:

    • Summarize the content (do not replicate).  This is an SEO best practice.  Google devalues sites that simply copy content verbatim from the original source.
    • Add an attribution link back to IBM Developer source.  This ensures that your users find the latest version of the content, and you will be alerted via 404s if the content has been removed for any reason.. We suggest the following:

      “You can view the original (blog/article/tutorial/etc) as published on IBM Developer for the latest and most up to date version of the content.”

  • Setting up a profile with IBM Developer allows you to:

    • Track your progress through learning paths
    • Follow topics that interest you and browse your personalized feed
    • Keep track of your upcoming events and conferences
    • Save your favorite tutorials, videos, APIs, and more to access any time
    • Manage your newsletter subscriptions and notification preferences

  • From any IBM Developer page, click on the profile icon found in the upper right hand corner.  Select “sign in” and from the overlay, select “Create an IBMid.”  After setting up your IBMid, and validating your email, you are prompted to enter an IBM Developer profile display name.

    You can access and customize your profile by clicking on the profile icon and selecting “My dashboard.”

  • From any IBM Developer page, click on the profile icon found in the upper right hand corner. “Sign in” is one of the action options in the dropdown.  Enter your IBM ID email and password.

  • The sign in overlay includes a link for help if you have forgotten or want to reset your password

  • For all other problems, contact the IBMid worldwide help desk.

  • IBM Developer was built from two legacy sites: IBM developerWorks and IBM Code.  IBM developerWorks’ mission covered both open source technologies and IBM products.  IBM Code provided code patterns that helped developers solve specific problems or get started with new technologies and cloud services.

    In 2018, IBM Developer was launched as IBM’s developer resource site focusing on open source, cloud-based technologies and services.  Relevant content from IBM developerWorks was merged with IBM Code and the resulting content collection was rebranded as IBM Developer.

    In 2021, we sunset the IBM developerWorks site to focus completely on the IBM Developer mission.

  • Use these resources to find information related to products like Lotus, Rational, Tivoli, or other older brands or to find similar information that was previously published on developerWorks: