A space is a Web micro-site with one or more owners who can manage the content,
presentation, and distribution with an easy-to-use interface. The key value of spaces is its aggregation capability, particularly for IBM teams. If you have a variety of Web resources you want to pull together on a single, visually appealing page, a space is the right tool for you. While only IBM teams can own spaces, anyone can participate in a space as a member, editor, or administrator (see "How can I be involved in My developerWorks spaces?").
A space can be owned by one or more IBM employees, who maintain the content and layout
of the space. They decide on the content they would like to
include, and, using a variety of portlets, present this
information in a layout of their choosing. They can aggregate content from any combination of sources: developerWorks, IBM, or the external Web. Additionally, they can create content in blogs, forums, wikis, and more. Each social networking tool is presented inside a portlet that can be placed or moved around the layout of a space. To start, owners drag and drop portlets from a palette onto the page itself. They can then edit the contents of each portlet. Other features of spaces include:
A message board per space
A message board is a private forum only accessible to a space's members. Members can view, post, reply to, and watch the threads on the message board. To add a message board to your space, drag the Message board portlet from the left nav Edit menu and drop it onto your page.
Mechanism for sending and receiving e-mail updates to a space
Administrators of a space can send e-mail updates to subscribed users, all space members, or their own list of recipients. To send an e-mail update, go to Manage space --> Send E-mail updates in the top menu bar. Visitors to a space can subscribe to receive e-mail updates by clicking E-mail me updates at the bottom of the space.
"Add feed" icons for adding spaces content to personalized home pages
Users can add the contents of a portlet to their own personalized MY YAHOO!, netvibes, or Facebook page. Click the orange plus sign in the bottom corner of portlets to access this feature. Administrators and editors can "Show" or "Hide" the 'Add feed' icon per portlet. In Edit mode, click the down arrow in the upper left corner of the portlet to see the Portlet menu. Click Show/Hide 'Add feed' icon. The Image, About this space, and Message board portlets do not include the 'Add feed' option.
Broad support for graphics
The following portlets support graphics: Blogs, Image, Featured content, and List. You may enter your own width and height attributes for each graphic. Choose graphics from our graphics library (Dimensions: 110x73 pixels).
Tagging for improved usability and navigation
You and your users can tag your space to make it easier to find later. To add tags to a space, click Tag this! near the top of the space, under the space title.
End users have view-only capabilities. End users can sign up to receive e-mail updates to a space by clicking E-mail me updates at the bottom of the space.
Regular members have their screen names listed in the members list, have access to the space's message board (if applicable), and may receive e-mails pertinent to the space. They have no editing privileges.
Editors can edit and publish the space. Their screen name appears in the members list, they have access to the space's message board (if applicable), and they may receive e-mails pertinent to the space.
Administrators have the same privileges as editors but can also approve and reject members to the space, grant editor privileges to members, change the space's meta information, and send e-mails pertinent to the space.
Note: All users (including end users) can add tags to spaces. Click Tag this! near the top of the space, under the space title.
Public group spaces are visible to all users and will appear in the directory list on the spaces landing page. Visitors can request membership to any public group space, and accepting or rejecting these requests is at the discretion of the space administrator. Private group spaces will only be visible to the members of that space. Nonmembers will not see it in the directory list on the spaces landing page, and if they otherwise attempt to access the URL, they will get a message that the space is private with a link to apply to join.
The administrator of a private group space can add members to the space at his or her discretion. A special note for private space administrators and editors: Tags and space titles are not private. Tags you apply to your space will be visible in the tagging widget on all spaces, and bookmarks created for private spaces will be visible in the Bookmarks collection on developerWorks. Nonmembers will still be unable to access your space, but will be given the option to apply to join if they try to access your space via a tag or bookmark. See "How do I use the tagging features on spaces?".
At this time, we are not accepting new spaces requests, but we encourage you to explore our My developerWorks offerings, where you can use Profiles, Blogs, Groups, Activities, and more to create your own Web presence leveraging developerWorks' worldwide audience.
A portlet is a container of information that can be presented on a Web page as a single unit. It is typically seen as a box of information. Portlets are typically preprogrammed to a particular function or contain a specific set of information. In developerWorks spaces, we have many different types of portlets each designed to present a specific type of content, or present it in a specific format.
A Web feed allows you to package content from a Web site and distribute it over the Internet, such that it can be embedded or incorporated into other sites. The feed may be static or, more typically, dynamically updated from its source. This allows each person to syndicate his or her content. For example, you can add the feed from a news site to your space so that you can have a constantly updated list of news stories. Many of the spaces portlets support feeds.
Each space has at least one administrator, who is the owner of the space, or the key point of
contact for the developerWorks team. The space owner must be an IBM employee. In addition, each space
can have multiple editors who can define, change, and manage the content in the space. The administrator can add or remove editors from the space. Essentially, the administrator(s) and editor(s) work as a group to manage and keep the content in their space relevant.
We ask that administrators/editors check their space at
least weekly (to make sure that content is relevant and
getting updated), that they sign up for a minimum six-month
time period, and that they select a topic that will be of
interest to the development community. See
the spaces editor tips for more information.
We ask that you refresh your space weekly. Many of the portlets update themselves through RSS/Atom feeds,
so no manual updates are required for those (although we do
request that you check these feeds weekly to make sure the content
is getting updated and is appropriate). The Featured content portlet, Image portlet, and List portlet do not support dynamic feeds, and therefore we ask that you manually update these portlets each week. In addition, several portlets support graphics -- Featured content, Blogs, Image, and List. If you use graphics in these portlets, we request that you update them weekly to keep the space fresh and enticing to visitors.
This varies greatly depending on the ratio of dynamic content to static content on your page and how much the dynamic content is getting updated. It will also vary depending on how much original content you want to create. At the very minimum, plan on devoting an hour a week to your space.
Yes. The blog, wiki, and forum portlets allow you to feed in content from anywhere on the Internet. These external sites need to provide their content through an RSS or Atom feed to integrate into the respective spaces portlet. Thus, you can have a space with blogs from multiple sites all talking about the main topic of the space, or even a combination of blogs, forums, and wikis.
You can create content of your own in a wiki or a blog. However, developerWorks articles and tutorials are in a specific format reserved for content created through our own editorial process, and are tied to a number of internal tools and processes. Your content can still be available on the Web, just not in the particular format of a developerWorks article or tutorial, as you are used to seeing on our zones.
You can link to a podcast in your space that can be played through the podcast portlet. However, developerWorks currently does not provide a means to upload and store podcasts on our site.
Yes, the space itself can be accessed through accessibility-assisted browsers for the visually impaired. Alternative, accessible options are available in the spaces application for adding, moving, and deleting portlets on the page. To add a portlet, go to the Edit mode of your space and click once on the portlet title you wish to add from the left navigation menu. Editing panels will automatically appear for you to customize the portlet. After you make your changes and save the portlet, it will appear in the top left position of the space page. To move a portlet, click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of the portlet and select Move portlet. You will be asked to choose which column and which position within the column you would like to move the portlet to. Please note, each column can contain a maximum of 20 portlets. If you exceed this limit, you will be prompted to manually remove a portlet from the column, or one will be automatically deleted. To delete a portlet, click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of the portlet and select Delete portlet.
Click E-mail me updates at the bottom of the space page. You will receive a confirmation e-mail in which we will ask you to confirm that you want to receive the updates. After we receive your confirmation, we will subscribe your e-mail address to the list you requested. You can request to stop receiving updates at any time.
The orange plus signs are "Add feed" icons for adding spaces content to your personalized pages. Click on the icon to add the contents of a portlet to your MY YAHOO!, netvibes, or Facebook page.
Yes. A space's message board is only accessible to the space's members. If you are not a member, click Join space on the space page to apply. Members can post threads, reply to threads, view all threads, and watch the message board.
developerWorks does not have a unique ID system; instead, developerWorks uses the IBM ID system. You were required to obtain an IBM ID to apply for a space. If you do not have an ID, first go to https://www.ibm.com/account/profile/us?page=reg and register an IBM ID. After you have an IBM ID, you can create a "My developerWorks profile."
For further information on IBM IDs, please visit the Help and FAQ page: https://www.ibm.com/account/profile/us?page=regfaqhelp.
When you are logged in to developerWorks, your screen name will show up in the My developerWorks box in the upper right-hand corner of our home page: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/.
Go to the developerWorks home page and locate the log-in box in the upper right corner of the page. Enter your log-in credentials. If you have correctly logged in, you will see your screen name display in the log-in box. In that same browser, enter your space URL. You should now be able to edit your space.
Make sure you are logged in to developerWorks. If you are successfully logged in, you will see "Welcome [your user name]" in the top right corner of your space. If you are not logged in, you will see "Welcome guest." Click Sign in and enter your IBM ID and password. Note: IBM employees, this is different from your intranet ID and password. If you have forgotten your ID or password, click Forgot your IBM ID? or Forgot your password? on the right side of the sign in page. After you are successfully logged in, you will see a link to the Edit mode of your space at the top left of the space page.
When you first request a space, you should also suggest a
URL that you would like to use. We will check to determine
if the URL is available, and we'll send you an e-mail with your approved URL in it. Please note that until you add content to your space and publish it, users will not see
anything at this URL.
In July 2009, we renamed the "Group space" portlet to "About this space" and anchored it in the right navigation under the also static Tags widget. Administrators and editors can edit this portlet by going to Manage space --> Edit properties in the top navigation menu in Edit mode.
All English spaces include a static "Tags" widget in the right navigation. For general questions about tagging, hover over the "?" in the Tags widget, or click on a tag and then click Help in upper right, or How to bookmark at the bottom of the page.
Tags function as a user-generated navigation scheme and therefore make your space easier for users to find. When you tag a space, you create a bookmark for it at the same time. You can access your (and others') bookmarks and associated tags by going to http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/bookmarks/. Keep these general things in mind when tagging spaces:
Your space's keywords are a good place to start. Add these keywords as tags. To find your keywords, go to Manage space --> Edit properties in Edit mode. To add them as tags, go to View mode (exit Edit mode) and click Tag this! near the top of the space page, under the title.
When you click Tag this!, a pop-up window appears. The "Tag(s)" field on this window is prepopulated with a list of all the tags you have applied to that space so far. To add more tags, add them to the end of this prepopulated list. To delete tags, delete them from this list and click Submit.
A special note for private space administrators and editors: Tags and space titles are not private. Tags you apply to your space will be visible in the tagging widget on all spaces, and bookmarks created for private spaces will be visible in the Bookmarks collection on developerWorks. Nonmembers will still be unable to access your space, but will be given the option to apply to join if they try to access your space via a tag or bookmark.
Any signed in developerWorks user can tag your space. This includes nonmembers of your space, as well as regular members, editors, and administrators.
Tagging is only enabled for English spaces at this time.
The "Tags" widget in the right navigation of each space is limited to 80 tags. If there are more than 80 tags, then only the most popular tags will be displayed.
To provide room for the static Tags widget in the right navigation, the first tab of all spaces must be two-columns instead of three. If you move a three-column tab to the first position, the layout will be converted to two columns. The maximum number of portlets on a two-column page is 40; on a three-column page, the maximum is 60.
Tags are not available in the Preview mode of your space. You must add and delete tags directly from your published space page.
The first tab can have a maximum of 40 portlets. (If you are not using tabs, then your single space page can have a maximum of 40 portlets.) Subsequent tabs can have a three-column layout, with a maximum of 60 portlets. Please note, each column can contain a maximum of 20 portlets. If you exceed this limit, you will be prompted to manually remove a portlet from the column, or one will be automatically deleted.
You can have multiple portlets of the same type on any of the tabs. However, as a suggestion, more is not always better.
Yes, you can have as many different instances of each
portlet on the page as you'd like. For example, you can have three different blog portlets, each showing entries from a different blog. The Message board portlet is a special case. You may display multiple instances of the message board on your space (please limit to one instance per tabbed page), but the content of each will be identical. Note that the display settings you select for each instance will be specific to that instance. For example, you can display five messages in one instance and ten in another.
The first (main) tab of your space can only have a two-column layout due to the static widget(s) in the right navigation of that page ("About this space" and "Tags" - English only). You may choose between a two- and three-column layout for subsequent tabs. Two-column layouts can include a maximum of 40 portlets; three-column layouts can have a maximum of 60 portlets. Click
Choose layout on the tab's down-down menu while in Edit
mode.
The portlets will resize automatically to fill the page width.
The portlets dynamically adjust their height to fit their displayed content. Some
portlets have expand- & collapse-controls which can increase or reduce their size, respectively. However, you cannot adjust the width of the portlets.
No, the portlets are currently limited to the defined width of the columns. They cannot span two or more columns, nor can they be sized somewhere in between.
Click and drag the portlet by its title to another position within the column or to a different column. A red box should appear as a suggested drop-in position for the portlet. Simply let go of the portlet over the box and it should drop in place.
You may also use our alternative, accessible option for moving a portlet. Click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of the portlet and select Move portlet. You will be asked to choose which column and which position within the column you would like to move the portlet to. Please note, each column can contain a maximum of 20 portlets. If you exceed this limit, you will be prompted to manually remove a portlet from the column, or one will be automatically deleted.
Changes to your space take effect and can be seen by others only when you click on the Publish button. If you do not click Publish, your changes will not take effect for others, but they will be saved in the Edit mode for the next time you edit your space.
You can Publish your page as many times as you'd like.
You do not have to Publish your space to save your changes. Just make sure you Save/Submit your changes in each portlet before closing the portlet window and all of your changes will be saved in Edit mode for when you return.
Yes. The Themes provide a predefined collection of color
choices you can pick from. To choose a theme for your page,
click Manage space --> Choose theme in Edit mode.
The portlets follow the colors of the chosen theme (please see the related question, "Can I change the colors of my space?" above). However, you cannot change the color of the individual portlets themselves.
In Edit mode, go to Manage space --> Unpublish space. Unpublishing your space removes it from the live site and from the spaces directory so new visitors cannot access it. Users who have bookmarked your space and Web sites that have linked to it will get an error message when they access the URL.
Administrators of the space will still have editing access and can republish it at any time at the same URL.
The 'Add feed' icon is the orange plus sign in the bottom right corner of portlets. Users can click it to add the contents of a portlet to their own personalized MY YAHOO!, netvibes, or Facebook page. Administrators and editors can "Show" or "Hide" the 'Add feed' icon per portlet. In Edit mode, click the down arrow in the upper left corner of the portlet to see the Portlet menu. Click Show/Hide 'Add feed' icon. The Image, About this space, and Message board portlets do not include the 'Add feed' option.
Administrators can send e-mail updates to subscribed users, all space members, or their own list of recipients. To send an e-mail update, go to Manage space --> Send E-mail updates in the top menu bar. Users can subscribe to these updates by clicking E-mail me updates at the bottom of the space.
Space owners can also communicate with space members by adding a message board to their space. The message board acts as a private forum for the space, accessible only to the space's members. Members can view, post, reply to, and watch the threads on the message board. To add a message board to your space, drag and drop the Message board portlet onto your page.
Subscription list: Visitors to your space can sign up to receive e-mail notifications when your space is updated. On the form, to send an e-mail to only these recipients, select "Subscription list" in the "To" field. Member list: To send an e-mail to all the members of your space, select "Member list" in the "To" field of the form. Please remember that some of these users may not have signed up to receive updates, so you should limit your use of this option.
The message board was unsuccessfully added to the space. This happens when you drag the Message board portlet onto the page from the left Edit menu and Close the window instead of saving it. The creation of the message board forum does not complete, and therefore you get an error when you try to post a message. To fix: Delete the message board from the space and add a new one. Save the portlet when you have finished editing the settings.
Visitors may request to join your space as Regular members, Editors, or Administrators. You may choose how you want to process these membership requests: Manually review each one, or automatically approve all. The default selection is to manually review each request. To update this setting, go to Manage members --> Manage requests.
If you manually review each request, you'll receive e-mail notifications when users request to join your space, and the user's screen name will appear in your Review requests queue (Manage members --> Manage requests). Click on each request to review it and approve or reject it.
If you choose to automatically approve all membership requests, each user will be added to your space as a Regular member. Requests for Administrator and Editor member types will remain in your queue until you manually process them.
You may also add members to your space without receiving a Join request from them. Go to Manage members --> Add members. Enter the user's screen name and assign a member type: Administrators can edit and publish the space and manage its members. Editors can edit and publish the space, but cannot manage members. Regular members have no edit capabilities, but will have their name listed in the members list and have access to the space's message board (if applicable).
E-mail notifications will automatically be sent informing users they have been added to your space. This e-mail will include the member type and associated privileges assigned to each user. Your space can have as many members as you'd like.
To update the meta information for your space (HTML title tag, keywords,
and abstract), go to Manage space --> Edit properties in the top menu bar of
your space when in Edit mode. Only administrators can update the meta
information.
Follow these general guidelines when creating the HTML
title for your space:
Ensure each title contains keywords and is a meaningful, concise description of the content.
Remember to use sentence-style capitalization in titles. The first word will be capitalized and all words following will be lower-cased.
Make sure that the most important information and keywords are at the beginning of the title. Some search engines truncate titles.
Our guidelines suggest that titles should be shorter than 75 characters. In most cases, Google limits title tags to 63 characters or less (Yahoo will display up to 112 characters and MSN up to 70).
Limit titles to only your most important keywords while remembering that, typically,
pages rank better when there is more than one keyword within the <title> tag.
Your title should specifically indicate what is on the page. For example, rather than
giving the title, "WebSphere Portal Server" for a page focused on support, say "WebSphere Portal Server support."
For all spaces particular to a product with a version number, include the version number in the title with a "V" preceding the version number. There should be a space between V and the version number.
For keywords, follow these guidelines:
In general, keywords listed for any page must actually occur in the content of that page.
Include acronyms, synonyms, and variations in spelling. Also, include singular and plural variations of terms.
Avoid overusing keywords in the meta data; this may be considered spam. Our standards recommend no more than 10 mentions.
Separate keywords, or keyword phrases, by commas.
Meta keywords should be a focused list of specific terms included in the document. Avoid listing general keywords such as 'java' for specific Java content.
Avoid listing specific keywords for general content.
The keywords should also identify whether the content on the space includes a demo, tool, tutorial, webcast, offer, specification, and so on. Spaces containing code samples should have the following keywords: sample, samples, example, examples.
Use IBM brand names if they are featured on the page, but not the brand names or trademarks of other companies. (Using keywords that violate third party intellectual property rights, such as trademarks and service marks, is strictly prohibited.)
Include operating systems.
Include author or blogger names listed by last name and first name plus last name; for example, ruby, sam ruby
Include variations of task keywords such as: migrate, migration, migrating.
Include product names.
Include version numbers in the following format: V6.0 and 6.0.
Spaces offers portlets to connect to developerWorks' blogs, wikis, forums, and podcasts. Each of these content service applications are already available separately through developerWorks, and even when integrated into a space, they will continue to exist separately. The value of spaces is the ability to aggregate the content from each of these different applications onto a single page. See the developerWorks "New to community" page for more information on our community offerings.
You can link to confidential material from a private space, as long as that content is secure in the area where it is hosted. The space admin/owner can control who sees a private space, but all of our spaces (public and private) are outside the firewall, so a private space does not assure 100% confidentiality. In addition, please note that the title and tags associated with a private space are not private and will be visible from our Bookmarks application in My developerWorks (see "How do I use the tagging features on spaces?"). For these reasons, it is not recommended that you put IBM confidential material on the space itself, in the title, or in the tags. Again, linking to it at its own secure location should be okay.
No, on the user end, there is no roll-back mechanism, audit trail of changes, or undo. If for some reason your entire space is lost, the spaces support team may be able to help. Contact us in that event. To keep you and the other admins and editors of your space from overwriting each other's work, we have a lock mechanism we can enable that will prevent more than one admin/editor from being in the edit mode of the space at one time. Contact the spaces support team to enable the lock function for your space.
In the event that you want to use a vanity URL for your space, setting up the redirect is up to you as the space owner. The spaces team does not offer support in this area.
developerWorks markets spaces in a couple automatic ways: Whenever you publish your space, it automatically shows up on the spaces home page under the "Most recently updated" section. (When you publish your space for the first time, it automatically appears on this page with a "New!" icon next to it.) Also, all spaces updated weekly may be chosen as Spotlights or Highlights on top developerWorks zone pages. If more targeted marketing is necessary/applicable, the developerWorks marketing team may be involved. All other marketing is up to you as the space owner.
No, but we do have a lock function we can enable so that only one admin/editor can be in the space at one time. Contact us to enable this function for your space.
This error usually means a "bad" link, bit of text, or special character is being fed into a portlet via an RSS or Atom feed and is causing IE to choke. Scan your content for the potential problem and either remove it, or set the truncation of the feed differently so the error-inducing link/character is not pulled into the space.
