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In order to get the most value out of the DevNet Forums, please try to follow these guidelines:
- When Creating A New Thread:
- Try to choose the most appropriate forum
- Do not post the same question(s) in multiple forums.
- Use a descriptive subject heading
- Do not use the word "Urgent" in the subject heading - if the issue is truly "urgent" - you should be contacting Support.
- Always provide environment information, e.g.:
- Product versions (including service pack and/or patch information)
- Platform / OS information
- Any other pertinent information (e.g.: upgrade, fresh install, etc.)
- Provide details of what you are trying to do
- Provide details of how you are trying to do it
- Provide details of what is / is not happening
- Provide details of what you have already done to try to debug the issue yourself (including, but not limited to the manuals you have looked through, the log files you have looked through, the forum posts you have read, etc.)
- Yes - DevNet Search is far from perfect, but try it - you might be able to find the answer to your issue without having to post anything.
- Debugging tips: Try to reduce the problem to the smallest possible piece of code. If you can reproduce the problem of a 100-line piece of code in 10-lines, that is the code you should consider posting.
- Similarly, if the problem seems to be caused by data, try to find the smallest set of data to reproduce the problem. If you can reproduce a problem that happens when you process 100 files, with only 10 files - or even better - 1 file, it's a lot easier to debug and present to others for assistance.
- Learn how to format your posts for readability
- For XML code you can use either "html" or "php" tags to surround the code, "php" may offer better results (try them both with Preview)
- If you need to highlight portions of html or xml code, you can use the "code" tag, but you have to make sure that all '
<
' are manually written as '<<x>
', then you can utilize other '[****]' tags to highlight the line(s) of code on which you wish to place focus.
- Alternatively, add your code as attachments (usually you need to add ".txt" to the filename extension in order for it to be posted)
- Similarly, large log file output should be placed into a file and added as an attachment - posting 100+ lines of log file output in the actual post itself is likely to turn off readers who might otherwise assist you. Posting snippets of the log file (with the full log attached) is a much better approach.
- Attachments are also good for images, though the limitation on the size of the image is often problematic, so if you have some other location where you can put the image (e.g.: dropbox) and provide the URI in the text, that often helps.
- See "When Your Issue Is Resolved" below
When Responding To An Existing Thread:- Make sure that the response is relevant to the existing thread, if not - consider starting a New Thread (see above)
- Make sure that the thread is recent. If the last posting on the thread is over six months old, consider starting a New Thread (see above) and include a reference to the old thread.
- Learn how to format your posts for readability
- Try to provide some details of how the issue was resolved
- Mark the thread as Closed[indent]
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[indent]Note: You can always re-open a thread you closed if you have additional information to include, or if the resolution turned out not to work as well as you originally thought. See the Thread Tools menu in upper-right corner when viewing your closed thread.[/indent]
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Note: this thread is being left open for 'voting' purposes - responses to this post will be read, and then deleted)
