Editing Microsoft Developer Network (section)

== Websites ==
MSDN's primary web presence at ''msdn.microsoft.com'' was a collection of sites for the developer community that provided information, documentation, and discussion that was authored both by Microsoft and by the community at large. Microsoft later began placing emphasis on incorporation of forums, blogs, library annotations and social bookmarking to make MSDN an open dialog  with the developer community rather than a one-way service.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.technet.com/johmar/archive/2008/08/27/microsoft-is-planning-much-more-than-just-social-bookmarking.aspx|title=Microsoft is Planning Much More Than Just Social Bookmarking|last=Martin|first=John|date=2008-08-27|publisher=Microsoft TechNet|access-date=2009-05-28|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090801125551/http://blogs.technet.com/johmar/archive/2008/08/27/microsoft-is-planning-much-more-than-just-social-bookmarking.aspx|archive-date=2009-08-01}}</ref> The main website, and most of its constituent applications below were available in 56<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/worldwide/|title=MSDN Worldwide|publisher=Microsoft|access-date=2009-05-28}}</ref> or more languages.

=== Library ===
'''MSDN Library''' was a library of official technical documentation intended for independent [[Software developer|developers]] of software for [[Microsoft Windows]]. MSDN Library documented the [[Application Programming Interface|APIs]] that ship with Microsoft products and also included sample code, technical articles, and other programming information. The library was freely available on the web, with [[Compact disc|CDs]] and [[DVD]]s of the most recent materials initially issued quarterly as part of an MSDN subscription. However, beginning in 2006, they were available to be freely downloaded from Microsoft Download Center in the form of [[ISO image]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nandal/archive/2006/07/27/free-download-of-msdn-library.aspx|title=MSDN Blogs|publisher=Microsoft}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=B8704100-0127-4D88-9B5D-896B9B388313&displaylang=en|title=Microsoft Download Center: Windows, Office, Xbox & More|publisher=Microsoft}}</ref><ref name="MSDN2008SP1">{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7BBE5EDA-5062-4EBB-83C7-D3C5FF92A373|title=Download MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 from Official Microsoft Download Center|publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> 

[[Visual Studio Express]] edition integrated only with MSDN Express Library, which was a subset of the full MSDN Library, although either edition of the MSDN Library could be freely downloaded and installed standalone.

In [[Visual Studio 2010]] MSDN Library was replaced with the new Help System, which was installed as a part of Visual Studio 2010 installation. Help Library Manager was used to install Help Content books covering selected topics.

In 2016, Microsoft introduced the new technical documentation platform, Microsoft Docs, intended as a replacement of the TechNet and MSDN libraries.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=orkrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 Mark J. Price: C# 7 and .NET Core: Modern Cross-Platform Development] Packt Publishing Ltd, 2017, p. 126</ref><ref>[https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/05/docs-ms-com Jonathan Allen. MSDN/TechNet Being Replaced by Open Source Project docs.microsoft.com] InfoQ News</ref> Over the next two years, the content of the MSDN Library was gradually migrated into Microsoft Docs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/teamblog/dotnet-api-docs-migration|title=.NET API documentation moved from MSDN to docs.microsoft.com|publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> In 2022, Microsoft Docs was itself incorporated into [[Microsoft Learn]]. MSDN Library pages now redirect to the corresponding Microsoft Learn pages.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

==== Integration with Visual Studio ====
Each edition of MSDN Library could only be accessed with one help viewer (Microsoft Document Explorer or other help viewer), which was integrated with the ''then current'' single version or sometimes two versions of Visual Studio. In addition, each new version of Visual Studio did not integrate with an earlier version of MSDN. A compatible MSDN Library was released with each new version of Visual Studio and included on the Visual Studio DVD. As newer versions of Visual Studio were released, newer editions of MSDN Library did not integrate with older Visual Studio versions and did not even include old/obsolete documentation for deprecated or discontinued products. MSDN Library versions could be installed side-by-side, that is, both the older as well as the newer versions of MSDN Library could co-exist.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

=== Forums ===
MSDN Forums were the [[Internet forum|web-based forums]] used by the community to discuss a wide variety of software development topics. MSDN Forums were migrated to an all-new platform during 2008 that provided new features designed to improve efficiency such as inline preview of threads, [[AJAX]] filtering, and a slide-up post editor.

=== Blogs ===
MSDN blogs was a series of [[blog]]s that were hosted under Microsoft's [[domain name|domain]] <code>blogs.msdn.com</code>. Some blogs were dedicated to a product – e.g. [[Visual Studio]],<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/|title=The Visual Studio Blog|publisher=blogs.msdn.com|access-date=19 December 2020|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20200529000000/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/|archive-date=29 May 2020}} [https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/ Alt URL]</ref> [[Internet Explorer]],<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/|title=IEBlog|publisher=blogs.msdn.com|access-date=19 December 2020|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20200529000000/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/|archive-date=29 May 2020}} [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/ie/ Alt URL]</ref> [[PowerShell]]<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/|title=Windows PowerShell Blog|publisher=blogs.msdn.com|access-date=19 December 2020|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20200529000000/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/|archive-date=29 May 2020}} [https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell/ Alt URL]</ref> – or a version of a product – e.g. [[Windows 7]],<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/|title=Engineering Windows 7|publisher=blogs.msdn.com|access-date=19 December 2020|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20200529000000/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/|archive-date=29 May 2020}} [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/e7/ Alt URL]</ref> [[Windows 8]]<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/|title=Building Windows 8|publisher=blogs.msdn.com|access-date=19 December 2020|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20200529000000/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/|archive-date=29 May 2020}} [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/b8/ Alt URL]</ref> – while others belonged to a Microsoft employee, e.g. [[Michael Howard (Microsoft)|Michael Howard]]<ref>{{cite journal|title=Michael Howard's Web Log|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michael_howard/|access-date=19 December 2020|publisher=blogs.msdn.com|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20200529000000/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michael_howard/|archive-date=29 May 2020}} [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/michael_howard/ Alt URL]</ref> or Raymond Chen.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Old New Thing|url=https://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/|access-date=19 December 2020|publisher=blogs.msdn.com|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20200529000000/https://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/|archive-date=29 May 2020}} [https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/ Alt URL]</ref> In May 2020, the MSDN and TechNet blogs were closed and the content was archived at Microsoft Docs.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/ |title=Archived MSDN and TechNet Blogs |website=[[Microsoft Docs|docs.microsoft.com]] |date=29 May 2020 |access-date=19 December 2020}}</ref>

=== Social bookmarking ===
[[Social bookmarking]] on MSDN Social was first launched in 2008, built on a new web platform that had [[Tag (metadata)|user-tagging]] and [[web feeds|feeds]] at its core. The goal of the social bookmarking application was to provide a method whereby members of the developer community could:
* Contribute to a database of quality links on any topic from across the web. By filtering on one or more tags, (e.g. ".net" and "database") users could discover popular or recent links and subscribe to a feed of those links.
* Find and follow experts' recommended sites. Each profile page included a feed of the user's contributions. Users could be discovered through a drop-down menu on each bookmark.
* Demonstrate their expertise through the links displayed in their profile.
* Store their favorite links online.
The initial release of the application provided standard features for the genre, including a [[bookmarklet]] and import capabilities. The MSDN web site was also starting to incorporate feeds of social bookmarks from experts and the community, displayed alongside feeds from relevant bloggers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.technet.com/johmar/archive/2008/05/30/new-social-bookmarking-feeds-in-msdn-dev-centers.aspx|title=New Social Bookmarking Feeds in MSDN Dev Centers|last=Martin|first=John|date=2008-05-30|publisher=Microsoft TechNet|access-date=2009-05-28|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314061249/http://blogs.technet.com/johmar/archive/2008/05/30/new-social-bookmarking-feeds-in-msdn-dev-centers.aspx|archive-date=2009-03-14}}</ref>

The social bookmarking feature was discontinued on October 1, 2009.

=== Gallery ===
MSDN Gallery was a repository of community-authored code samples and projects. Launched in 2008, the purpose of the site evolved to complement [[Codeplex]], the [[Open-source software|open-source]] project hosting site from [[Microsoft]]. MSDN Gallery was retired in 2002 and all MSDN pages now redirect to the new code samples experience on Microsoft Learn.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/teamblog/msdn-code-gallery-retired|title=MSDN Code Gallery Has Retired|last=Speight|first=April|date=2022-06-07|publisher=Microsoft Learn|access-date=2023-11-20}}</ref>