We crunched the numbers for 2020 to see what you, our readers, found to be the most interesting content of the year. This blog post highlights a few of the trends we noticed with the content we created — and that you liked! — in 2020.

Our top 6 pieces, by content type

Getting Started content was in high demand

We created a number of new guides around key tech areas that you found useful to help you understand the core concepts and start developing. Our three most popular Getting Started guides were:

• Artificial intelligence: Explore the basics of artificial intelligence, and get started building a solid foundation.
• Java: Get an introduction to the structure, syntax, and programming paradigm of the Java language and platform.
• Blockchain: Explore the basics of blockchain and get started building a solid foundation.

You like building Node-RED apps

Node-RED continues to be a popular low-code programming platform, and our beginner content is exactly what you were looking for to learn how to create your first Node-RED app. Also check out: Create a Node-RED starter application.

Accessibility is so 2020

Creating accessible websites doesn’t have to be an impossible task. A new open source toolkit from IBM offers tools for developers and testers to use to embed accessibility directly into their workflow. Increase the accessibility of your application and website from the start with the open source IBM Equal Access Toolkit.

COVID-19 was on your brain

COVID-19 touched every part of our lives in 2020—and developers rose to the challenge of building solutions that could mitigate its impact on certain areas of life. Here are our top 3 pieces for building COVID-19 solutions:

• Create a crisis communication chatbot, and connect it to news and COVID-19 data sources
• Create a mobile app to facilitate community collaboration
• Integrate a COVID-19 crisis communication chatbot on a website

COBOL made a comeback

As millions of Americans filed for unemployment this year, old systems built on COBOL couldn’t keep up with the influx of demand. Enter our developers, who put together some really great COBOL content to help developers throughout the country rise to yet another COVID-related challenge.

• Intro to COBOL: Write your first program
• Get hands-on: Run a COBOL program
• COBOL Fridays: A beginner’s practical approach to COBOL

Red Hat OpenShift is important to your cloud strategy

We think OpenShift is a pretty great container application platform, too. Our developers are excited to write about it, talk about it, and help you be successful on the hybrid cloud platform. Here are 3 of our most popular OpenShift pieces from 2020:

• Integrating IBM Z and LinuxONE into the Red Hat OpenShift developer ecosystem: Boost innovation with this powerful combination of agility, security, scalability, and containerized software.
• Red Hat OpenShift 4.3 on IBM Cloud introduces improvements for developers: Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud unlocks the power of IBM Cloud for the Red Hat community.
• An introduction to Red Hat OpenShift 4: Learn about new features in OpenShift 4.

Conclusion

We hope you’ll check back in next year for more great content from IBM Developer.