Learning, Connecting, and Extending Zowe

Whether you are a mainframe veteran or an open-source newcomer, the Zowe Open Mainframe Project is designed to instruct users, grow the Zowe community, and offer a range of ways to contribute to this continuously evolving open-source project. This resource hub is designed to support learning about Zowe, connecting to the Zowe community, and further extending the Zowe project. Through Zowe learning resources, bring yourself up to speed with the latest Zowe updates discussed in detail in various blog posts. Gain a technical understanding of the platform's architecture and core Zowe components through structured courses. Engage with the squads driving Zowe innovations on Slack, and Zowe Technical Steering Committee (TSC) calls, and ultimately, help shape the future of the Zowe platform with your own contributions.

Learning about the latest Zowe updates

Stay current with the latest features introduced to the Zowe platform, and build your technical expertise through curated content and structured training.

Zowe Webinars

Stay current with the latest Zowe developments through the Open Mainframe Project’s webinar series, where squads present big-picture overviews, technical updates, and new features tailored for users and developers alike. These webinars are designed to bridge the gap between the Zowe development squads and the community, providing a deep dive into the evolution of the platform. Topic areas covered in the webinars include the following presentations:

• Quarterly roadmap and release updates
• Squad-specific deep dives
• Platform development and extension news
• Training and community engagement
• Demos and use cases

For more information about Zowe webinars, see the Zowe Webinars on the Open Mainframe Project's YouTube channel.

Additional webinars about Zowe can be found at the OMP YouTube channel.

Zowe Blogs

For a deeper contextual dive into a wide range of Zowe topics, including detailed component functionalities, we recommend checking out the following blog landing pages:

• Zowe blogs on Medium
• Zowe blogs on Open Mainframe Project website

Would you like to contribute a blog? Find details about how to contribute to the Zowe blogs on Medium at Zowe Blog Guidelines.

Zowe Training and Badges

Interskill Learning offers a free training course that introduces the components that comprise Zowe, the benefits of using Zowe in your mainframe environment, and how Zowe capabilities can be extended.

The Zowe Fundamentals course covers Zowe architecture, core components (API Mediation Layer, ZLUX, CLI), how the Zowe server and client components can be installed, and basic usage patterns after Zowe startup. The course is ideal for developers and system programmers new to Zowe.

For more information about this training and earning Interskill badges, see Zowe Fundamentals on the Interskill Learning website.

Connecting to the Zowe community

Zowe is a community-led project that is driven by diverse perspectives and collaboration. No matter your skill level, there are multiple ways you can contribute to the future of the platform. Use these channels to get involved with the Zowe community:

• To join the Zowe community via Slack, go to the Open Mainframe Project Slack invitation.
• For information about joining the various Zowe Slack channels, see the Introduction to Zowe Slack channels in the Zowe Community repository.

Joining Zowe meetings

Join the weekly meeting of the Zowe Technical Steering Committee (TSC) to get the latest updates from each Zowe squad and get involved with these squads and their initiatives.

For information about how to join the Zowe TSC call, see the Zowe meeting calendar.

Learning more about the Zowe community

To find out more about how Zowe is organized, governed, and how collaboration works within Zowe, explore the Zowe community repository. This repository is the best place to understand the "who, what, and why" behind the Zowe Open Mainframe Project.

For more information about Zowe sub-projects, GitHub repos, mailing lists, community meeting minutes, contribution guidelines, and other Zowe initiatives, see the Zowe community GitHub repo.

Reporting an Issue

Ensuring quality in Zowe is a collective effort. By reporting bugs or suggesting improvements, you can help ensure Zowe remains a robust, enterprise-grade solution for a spectrum of business needs.

• Open a documentation-related issue

  To open an issue that applies to Zowe documentation including updates to settings and configurations, see Create new issue in the Zowe docs-site repository.

• Open a Zowe component-related issue

  If you would like to raise an issue that applies to a specific Zowe component, you can open an issue in the repository of that particular component. Use the link to open an issue that applies to the specific Zowe component:

  • Zowe API Mediation Layer (API ML)
  • Zowe App Server (zLUX)
  • Zowe System Services (ZSS)
  • Zowe Command Line Interface (CLI)
  • Zowe Explorer for Visual Studio Code
  • Zowe Explorer for IntelliJ
  • Zowe Client Java SDK
  • Zowe Client Python SDK
  • CICS for Zowe Client
  • Zowe CLI DB2 Plug-in

• Open a community related issue

  For all other issues, see the following options available through the Zowe Community:

  Issue	Details
  Report Bugs	Create an issue with details about how to reproduce the issue, and what area of Zowe the bug appears in.
  Post an Enhancement Request	Share your ideas for a new feature, or thoughts about how a feature you are already using could be improved.
  Report Security Issues	Please direct all security issues to zowe-security@lists.openmainframeproject.org. A member of the security team will reply to acknowledge receipt of the vulnerability and coordinate remediation with the affected project.

Extending Zowe

The Zowe Conformance Program ensures that products and extensions built for the Zowe platform provide a consistent, interoperable, and high-quality user experience across different vendors. By earning a conformance badge, software providers demonstrate that their solutions meet rigorous community-defined technical criteria, giving users the confidence that these tools will integrate seamlessly within their modern mainframe environments.

For more information, see the Zowe Conformance Program in openmainframeproject.org from the Linux Foundation.