CodeProject Article FAQ - Part 2: How to Post an Article on CodeProject

Table of Contents

• CodeProject Articles
  • How do I submit an article?
  • Why submit to through the CodeProject Editors?
  • Why submit through the submission wizard?
  • Where do I submit an article?
  • How do I choose my article's section?
  • How is my article's URL decided?
  • What should I put in the description?
  • How do I use tags and location?
  • What tags should I use?
  • What license should I use?
• Tips
  • What is a tip?
  • How do I post a tip?
• References
  • What is a reference?
  • How do I post a reference?
• Projects
  • What is a Project?
  • How do I share my GitHub project?

CodeProject Articles

1. How do I submit an article?

   You can submit the article and code to in one of three ways:

   1. You can submit the article yourself using our submission wizard.
   2. Through our submit@codeproject.com address. Just download the submission template file, write your article, gather your images and download files, and zip them all together in one file and email them to us and we'll take care of the rest.
2. Why submit an article via the CodeProject Editors?

   Pros

   • Article checked for grammar, spelling, and punctuation
   • Article formatted correctly to CodeProject Guidelines
   • Improved readability
   • Easier for author, no processing or using a submission tool, or messing with HTML

   Cons

   • Article process time is typically 1-2 business days


3. Why submit through the submission wizard?

   Pros

   • Submitted immediately

   Cons

   • May not follow CodeProject format and submission guidelines - please format carefully!
   • Might be less readable, and less accessible
   • Have to fuss with HTML and wizard yourself


4. Where do I submit an article?

   From the home page, here:

   



5. How do I choose my article's section?

   As you may have noticed, we have changed the Taxonomy. It is no longer Chapter > Section > Subsection which will determine where articles live, but it will be done by tag.

   You can add tags while posting or updating your article:

   

   Currently we have series of taxonomy topics: Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, DevOps, Containers, High Performance Computing, etc, many of which have a corresponding taxonomy parent tag, like artificial-intelligence, IoT, DevOps, containers, etc. Then, within these we have taxonomy children. So, for example, artificial-intelligence has the following taxonomy children: big-data, data-science, deep-learning, machine-learning, etc.

   When an article is created and give tags, where it sits in the taxonomy will depend on the tags chosen. There are several considerations that go into this decision and it is decided based on a hierarchy. What matters first and foremost is the taxonomy tag, the second thing that matters is the sort order, and then lastly then the length of the trail of the tags.

   Taxonomy Tag

   If you put in a tag that is a taxonomy tag, or associates with a taxonomy parent (like artificial-intelligence, IoT, DevOps, containers, etc.) this will be favoured greatly, and the article will likely be sorted into the corresponding Topic. For example, Articles / Artificial Intelligence

   Sort Order

   

   This is the order of how our taxonomy tags are listed. So, for example, you can go on the articles dropdown at the top of the page, hover over articles, then Browse Topics, this is the order in which taxonomy tags are valued. So if you have a taxonomy tag of artificial-intelligence, and another taxonomy tag, IoT, because Artificial Intelligence is higher in the sort order than Internet of Things, the article will be sorted into Articles / Artificial Intelligence

   Length of Trail

   One thing we want to do is consider is the length of a tag trail. The longer the tag trail the better. So, for example, if you put a C#4 tag, and this is a child of C#, which is a member of the Programing Languages topic, this is a longer trail than say, an algorithm tag, which simply has JUST the General Programming layer above it. So a C#4 tag would be of a higher value.

   Bear in mind that this is an evolving this system. There are other factors that go into article placement considerations like Topic parents, where if a tag can’t be traced back through a taxonomy parent, it will walk through a topic parent.

   Let’s look at an example. Here is:

   Building a Database Application in Blazor - Part 1 - Project Structure and Framework.

   It has the following tags:
   C#, ASP.NET, HTML, Markdown, .NET-Core, Blazor

   C# is a language tag, and is in the Programming Languages topic, while ASP.NET, HTML, and Blazor are Web Development tags. Because Web Development is higher in the Topic Hierarchy than Programming Languages, it gets preference and the article is placed into Articles / Web Development / Blazor. If you look at the list of tags within the Web Development Topic, you see:

   • Blazor
   • CSS3
   • flask
   • HTML5
   • Kestrel
   • LESS
   • nginx
   • Node.js
   • React
   • SCSS
   • Spring
   • Vue.js
   • ASP.NET
   • CSS
   • Apache
   • HTML
   • IIS
   • XHTML

   Note that Blazor is at the top of this list. This is why the article is placed in Blazor, rather than Articles / Web Development / ASP.NET. .NET-Core and Markdown are not child tags that are associated with any particular topic, so in terms of placing the article, they are discounted.

   For a full list of Topics and corresponding child tags, please look at our Site Map. If you have any questions, problems, or Topic suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us on the Bugs and Suggestions forum, or send us an email at submit@codeproject.com.

6. How is my article's URL decided?

   The URL of your article will depend on the title you give it. For example, if your title is 'coolcode' then your article's URL will be 'http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/ArticleID/coolcode'

   This name is important, as it helps search engines find your article. Make sure you name it something appropriate.

7. What should I put in the description?

   300 characters or less (spaces included), on what your article's purpose. Be clear, and concise; it will decide whether or not someone reads your article.

8. How do I use tags and location?

   Simply begin typing into the Tags field. As you type, a dropdown of current tags will be displayed. Select accordingly.

   

   Also note the secondary dropdown where you can scroll through lists of languages, platforms, technologies, and audiences that apply.

   Note: Some attributes are parent attributes. If you selecting C++ as shown, you are actually selecting all children: VC6, VC7, VC7.1, VC8.0,and VC9.0

   If you use the dropdown to select attributes, DO NOT check the parent attribute if all the children attributes do not apply

9. What tags should I choose?

   When picking tags for your article, it is important not only to pick tags that are applicable to your article, but also tags that consider CodeProject's taxonomy. If your article is easier to find on CodeProject, it is more likely to be seen. The CodeProject editor only allows you to pick eight tags, so please choose wisely.

   The first thing to consider is the taxonomy tag. These are tags that are related to our taxonomy sections like, Artificial Intelligence (artificial-intelligence), Internet of Things (IoT), DevOps, Security (security), Web Development (web), Mobile Apps (mobile), Desktop Programming (desktop), Database Development (database), Productivity Apps and Services (productivity), Game Development (game), Multimedia (multimedia). Picking one of these tags will greatly improve how things are categorized on CodeProject, as well as make your article easier to find.

   The next tags to consider are your topic parent tags. These are tags that are nested within the taxonomy tag. Picking one of these lengthens the trail of your tags and better sorts your article into the correct place. For example, if you're writing an article about artificial intelligence, don't just pick the artificial-intelligence tag, dig a little deeper. Does your article contain or relate to deep learning (deep-learning)? Big data (big-data)? Machine learning (machine-learning)? Select those tags as well to better place the article.

   Also, remember to consider a language tag. Sometimes you might be writing an article on a topic that won't necessarily have tags that are in our primary taxonomy hierarchy. Picking a language tag will ensure your article has a home.

   Next to consider is search term related tags. We include the tags in the search data. In addition, Google sees some of the tags when crawling the page, but the same data is probably already in the article text, or should be. If you want to show a particular tag higher in our searches, consider adding it to the article. For Google searches, using the tag within the body of the article will also be important.

   Finally, you want to consider how many of the tags you want to choose actually exist on CodeProject. You can check our tag list here to check which tags you want to include. Picking a tag that is hardly used means your tag is less likely to get searched, or help feature your article anywhere. For example, if you are down to choosing your last tag, and are deciding between a game tag, and a doom tag, there are no articles or questions with a doom tag, so it is far better to select the game tag.

10. What license should I use?

    We have a list of licenses here to help you choose the license appropriate for you and your code.

Tips

1. What is a tip?

   A Tips and Tricks post is a single problem, with a single solution, and a super-short write-up. Ideally you could consume it in under 30 seconds. Here is an example of a tip:

   Kendo UI NumericTextBox Enable/Disable Issue



2. How do I post a tip?

   From the home page, here:

   

   Then change the dropdown on "Post your" to "Tip/Trick" and hit the "Start Writing" button. From here on out, everything is identical to submitting an article.

References

1. What is a reference?

   A Reference article is a short (typically 1 page) article used to lookup common information such as tables (eg. ASCII tables, HTTP codes etc) or function or class explanations. Typically there will be few if any images, and no downloadable code (though both are possible if the author wishes)



2. How do I post a reference?

   From the home page, here:

   

   Then change the dropdown on "Post your" to "Reference" and hit the "Start Writing" button. From here on out, everything is identical to submitting an article.

Projects

1. What is a project?

   Do you have a well-documented repository on GitHub you'd like to import as an article to CodeProject? All you need to do is ensure you have a Readme.md file in the root directory of your master branch and we'll do the rest.

   All GitHub projects imported are subject to the same standards and community moderation system as other articles. They must be complete articles that teach a concept or provide a usable code snippet. A snapshot of the repository will be stored locally on CodeProject, and each time you push a change to GitHub the CodeProject version will be updated with your latest changes automatically. Edits you make to the imported CodeProject version of the article will not be pushed back to GitHub, so please take care.



2. How do I share my GitHub project?

   From the home page, here:

   

   Then click the GitHub icon to Connect to GitHub. From here on out, everything is identical to submitting an article.