Collaboration

Discuss Apps and APIs, write reviews, and manage app development cycle issues.

Table of Contents

How do I collaborate in the platform?

The platform includes the following forums that can be used to share information about apps and APIs and manage issues associated with the development cycle:

  • App forum
  • API forum
  • Group forum
  • User forum

App, API, and Group Forum

Each resource has its own Forum. The app and API forums include topics and a ticket management system (App > Forum or API > Forum).

For information on which forums include which types of forum entries, see What types of Forum items show up on which Forums?

You can filter Forum activity for a specific resource to help find what you want. For example, you can filter so that only a specific Forum item is displayed (for example, tickets) or you can specify search criteria such as keywords.

Forum entries associated with discussions and tickets are posted as notifications to the Action Dashboard of participating users. You are also sent email notifications for certain events, and you can turn email notifications on or off (see How do I enable or disable email notifications), but you always get the Forum notifications.

Forums for all types of resources have similar functionality; a set of sort controls that are common to all resources, and custom sort controls that are unique to the ticketing and post functions.

For general information about working with forums, see Forums.

User Forum

Each user has a link, in the top navigation bar, to his/her personal forum. Each user's forum includes:

  • forum entries for all apps the user has created or subscribed to.
  • forum entries for all APIs the user has created or subscribed to.

What are the differences between the App and API Forums?

At the app level ( Apps > My Apps > choose app > Forum), collaboration is made possible by inviting individuals to join your application development team. Team members can then create private discussions with other team members about an app and the APIs it is consuming, and can create tickets about issues associated with app development.

At the API level (My APIs > App > Forum), API developers and app team members can post discussions about a specific API, or create tickets about issues associated with API operation.

For more information forums, see:

What information is displayed on each Forum?

The following table illustrates the relationship of each forum entry type to each Forum.

Discussion Ticket Alert API Access Request App Team Membership Requests
API Forum X X X X --
App Forum X X X X X
Group Forum X X X -- X
Action Dashboard -- X X X X

Where can I find rating and review information for each API?

Each API can include rating and review information from platform community members. The information is available on the API Details page as follows:

  • Peer Rating—This section uses a star rating system to record positive feedback. A rating counter displays feedback for each rating number (1-5 stars, with 5 being the highest rating), and displays an average rating.
  • Peer Review—This section provides a list of written reviews submitted by the platform community for the current API. You can browse the reviews and filter information by Most Recent, Most Popular, Current or All versions, or enter a Search tag. You can also give the review a thumbs up in the "Was this review helpful?" section.

How do I rate an API?

You can rate an API on the API Details page as follows:

To rate an API

  1. Go to the API Details page for the API you would like to rate.
  2. In the Peer Rating section, go to Rate this API and click the star that represents the level of positive feedback you would like to submit for the current API. The rating counter increments by one next to the star rating you selected and the star rating turns red.

You can change your rating at any time by selecting another star.

How do I review an API?

You can write a review for an API on the API Details page as follows:

To write a review for an API

  1. Go to the API Details page for the API you would like to review.
  2. Go to the Write a Review section.
  3. Enter a title for the review.
  4. Enter the review contents.
  5. Click Save. Your review is posted.
  6. Community members can now read your review and rate it to indicate whether it was helpful.

Note: If someone comments on your review, you receive a notification email.