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marilyn_pratt
Active Contributor
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Steps to Content Submission on SDN

Are some of you baffled by the acceptance criteria when you submit a Code Sample or an article to SDN as an external Contribution? Here are the steps you followed: 1) You went to submit content. 2) You downloaded the document template and dutifully filled in: Document Title, Applies To, Summary, and Table of Contents. You even added a picture and a brief author Bio. 3) You cut and paste your code sample and offset it in the template. 4) You went to submit content and “agreed” to the Terms and Conditions. You attached your file and pressed Next….. And.....you waited for response about your submission, perhaps even a number of weeks.

What is being evaluated

For those of you submitting code samples, it is the origniality, coding style, and preceived value of the code that is being looked at. Think of your code as a "mini utility" for a user to plug and try. Will someone be able to use this? Are there like samples out there already? Is my coding style compliant with SAP recommendations? Huh? What SAP recommendations, you may ask?

ABAP Syntax Contructs- a Small Guide

A number of years ago, some of my ABAP students asked me to explain why certain language contructs became obsolete with the advent of ABAP Objects. In looking for a coding "style guide", I came across some excellent documentation in the ABAP "help" that explained why certain keywords such as TABLES, LIKE (in the context of referring to Dictionary objects), and OCCURS were to be avoided. Many of your ABAP coding samples are being rejected because they fail to adhere to some simple rules that have evolved over the past few years. Use of certain statements is to be avoided. ABAP programs submitted with key words such as TABLES, OCCURS, and LIKE (in the context of a reference to a dictionary object) will fail to be published, just as they would fail to pass the syntax check in the stricter context of ABAP Objects. Hopefully, the following Guide to Obsolete Abap Constructs will help you from inadvertantly using inappropriate ABAP coding style in your submissions and better your chances of having your code samples published.

Some further criteria

Code samples that represent already published content and examples also risk rejection. We are also looking for elements that go beyond freely available documentation. Use graphics judicially, but do illustrate when logical. When using graphics, do supplement them with coherent and instructional text. The goal of all these warnings and instructions is to ensure that our repository is rich with valuable, useful and coherent examples, representing those utilities and concepts that you find indispensable. It isn’t out of meanness and ingratitude that we reject your offerings. We are really hoping to maintain quality and provide value to as many of our readers as possible and that means adhering to some criteria and acceptance standards. In general, we are very pleased with the quality and quantity of participation in the contribution programs. After making my own feeble attempts to provide blog content or a Syntax guide, I must admit, I am truly filled with admiration for our users who take pains and expend so much energy enriching our community. Happy Content Creating!
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