CodeProject Article FAQ - Part 1: How to Write a Good Article for CodeProject

Table of Contents

• Purpose of Sharing Your Code
  • Why share my code?
  • What are the Terms of Use?
• CodeProject Articles
  • What does an article require?
  • What makes a good article for CodeProject?

Purpose of Sharing Your Code

1. Why share my code?

   Sharing code with others is a great way to not only help others, but also to become a better programmer. With many thousands of people downloading your code you will not only get a lot of positive feedback, but also bug fixes, free testing, and more often than not, suggestions on how to make the code even better. It also encourages others to share their code, which in turn gives you access to an even larger base of free source code.

2. What are the Terms of Use?

   If you post to CodeProject then your code is offered under the terms of our Terms of Use and under the specific license agreement attached to the article. You also agree to the Contributors Agreement, which ensures you have the right to post the content, allows us to actually publish your content, and provides further protection for you on top of the License you choose for your content.

CodeProject Articles

1. What does an article require?

   First and foremost, we need some explanation. This doesn't have to be anything fancy, though we don't mind if it is, but if you think about answering the following questions then you should be off to a good start.

   • What does the code do?
   • How do I integrate it with my existing code or how do I use it?
   • If there is a similar article on CodeProject already, then how does this one differ? Why would someone want to use your version?
   • Is there some aspect of the code that is of particular interest that perhaps should be covered in the article?
   • Are there any particular environments the code is restricted to? (Windows 10 or above, ASP.NET 6.0, etc.)
   • Are there articles about this topic already on CodeProject? If so, what about mine offers something different. Please state what that difference is in the article.

   The idea is to give the reader a clear idea of the purpose of your code, instead of forcing them to download a project, build it and then hunt around to find out what the sample does. This means articles that are code snippets, with no explanation of what the snippet does, are insufficient.

2. What makes a good article for CodeProject?

   As a basic overview CodeProject articles have a certain layout to follow, so that users can learn the most from them. Each article attempts to answer the following questions: What problem does this solution solve? How does this help someone else? How does the code actually work? What is going on inside the code snippets? Here is a submission from a first time author who did a terrific job, just to give you a basic overview of what a beginner article might look like: Avoiding InvokeRequired[^]

   And here is a submission from one of our top authors.

   HTML5 WebWorkers Experiment

   Keep in mind that CodeProject readers are primarily looking for meaty, exhaustively explained solutions to their development problems, or articles that can teach them something to make their developing faster, more efficient, or expand their repertoire.

   In the above article, Sacha's primary goal is to demonstrate “Using HTML5 WebWorkers and a custom jQuery plug-in to create a Flickr image wall.” He treats the reader like a beginner. He defines jQuery, explains what WebWorkers are, then gets into why he wanted to create a jQuery plugin. Each progressive section of the article expands on his topic, thoroughly explains the code, explains the limitations he chose in his scope, discusses how each element to his plug-in works, provides numerous code examples, and most importantly, gives a source code download at the top for the reader should they need it.

   Every time the community considers whether or not to approve an article, this is the style of article they have in mind. They love it, they want it, and they praise the authors enormously when they get it (and we want authors to feel like their hard work is appreciated).

   For more tips on writing articles, please see this article: A Guide To Writing Articles For Code Project[^]