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Who has experience with MediaWiki? (RE: Documentation)

MarkMark
in Questions
I've just set it up on my server, and I want to copy over the documentation I've currently got at lussumo.com/docs, but I haven't got the faintest idea how to use this thing. Talk about a confusing app. I'm sure once I've been using it a while I'll love all of the features, but right now I just want to delete it.
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Comments

  • stuhartleystuhartley
    Posts: 39
    I've editted a page before, and thats about it. I'm definately willing to help if I can, I did suggest having a wiki after all
  • bradybrady
    Posts: 120

    I've edited pages on WIkipedia. Tried to install it once and found it maddening to get running on WinXP.

  • subterranesubterrane
    Posts: 79
    You could just go with Vanilla: http://www.vanillasite.at/space/start
  • unipusunipus
    Posts: 107
    the most basic interfacing problem I had with it is that there is no "new page" button anywhere to be found. You actually create a new page simply by creating a link to something that doesn't exist yet. Then when you follow that link it will say "There is no text on this page yet" and you can edit. It took me a while to figure that out, though.
  • bradybrady
    Posts: 120

    Mark,

    I guessed the wiki URL and tried to get you started a bit (hope you don't mind). I was mainly just copying and pasting stuff to let you see how to put things in the wiki. I'm not all that experienced, but this should get things stumbling out of the gates.

    Search for "vanilla documentation" on the wiki and you'll see what I did. I would link to it, but not sure if you want everyone going there yet.

  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    brady - just go ahead and link it all up however you want - and thanks :) I'm aware of how wikis work in general (ie what unipus said about how to create a new page). What I'm not sure about is how to lock down individual pages from editing, how to set it up so that users must have an account before they can edit. How to prevent idiots from screwing up the site (ie. banning accounts or ips), and most other administrative type tasks.
  • bradybrady
    Posts: 120

    Yeah, that's why I didn't link to it. Wiki's can be great if you have good maintainers or they can be a spam and maintenance nighmare. Unfortunately, I can't help w/ administrative how-tos on mediawiki. I guess you can either open it up to the world and see how clean it stays or wait until you can lock it down. I'll let you make the call (don't want to start a mess and leave it for ya).

  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    I'd like to get a basic structure for the wiki down, and then leave it open. Everyone here seems very supportive, and I'm sure all of us together can keep it in line :) I've got to learn to let go of the reigns a little bit, and this will be a perfect exercise for that.
  • unipusunipus
    Posts: 107
    how to set it up so that users must have an account before they can edit.

    Okay, I went through that. You need to actually edit a few lines in the PHP:

    docs here

    edit: found a neat and obscure new bug!
  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    Oh wierd. I don't like that at all. Oh well.
  • unipusunipus
    Posts: 107
    yeah, it's definitely not software the general public can use... too much hacking involved. once you get it set up, though, I think you can pretty much just let it be
  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    that's the dream :)
  • omfgomfg
    Posts: 133
    Mark I have a feeling you might have a better time using DocuWiki, specificially made for....documentation!

    http://wiki.splitbrain.org/wiki:dokuwiki
  • quasquas
    Posts: 12
    I still think you should be using Wikka. None of that yukky MediaWiki bloat. ;)

    [Edit: Yeah, and Doku is pretty nice too. I'd choose either of those over MediaWiki.]
  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    Oh, I like the looks of that dokuwiki..... I downloaded some flavour of the wikka one before, but I found it a pain to template... this dokuwiki looks like it might have better templating support.
  • moemoe
    Posts: 56
    take a look at twiki, too.
    it's very old (read: mature) and doesn't need a sql db.

    or: write your own. it's pretty easy (you can prolly re-use a lot of your forum code) and the big advantage is that you don't get all the bloats of the established wikis.

    most of them are really, really, really, really bloated.
  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    re: wikka - ewww. I don't like the way they handle reversion
  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    I want to write my own, but I don't have time. Trying to learn my limits.
  • nifkinnifkin
    Posts: 118
    if you have PHP5 you could use TiddlyWikiRemote, or you could look up one of the other server-side TiddlyWiki derivatives.
  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    Ugghh. I dunno. I think I might just stick with mediawiki until I have time to write my own or customize someone elses. I just want to get the job done and stop wasting time.
  • omfgomfg
    Posts: 133
    dokuwiki is totally the way to go.
  • omfgomfg
    Posts: 133
    oops
  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    hahaha
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper
    Posts: 5,574
    Well whatever you decide, i'm willing to help with any docs or whatever in any ways i can (which probably arent many..but the thoughts there!) Just let me know.
  • subterranesubterrane
    Posts: 79
    Dammit! Use Vanilla! It's got the same freakin' name, it looks nice, you can set it to require accounts, and it probably cooks you dinner and cleans up after the dog, too. http://www.vanillasite.at/space/start intro in two minutes: http://www.vanillasite.at/space/Vanilla+in+2+Minutes install information: http://www.vanillasite.at/space/documentation A site that runs it: http://www.langreiter.com/space/vanillasite.at (O.K. technically it looks like it's called Vanillasite, but hey, close enough)
  • omfgomfg
    Posts: 133
    omg copyright the name vanilla and sue everyone who tries to use it!
  • quasquas
    Posts: 12
    Heh, imagine the confusion: "Wow, look, they use Vanilla for the Vanilla documentation!" "Uh, that's a different Vanilla." "Wha...?"
  • lechlech
    Posts: 3,235
    ok this isn't the same vanilla. nm
  • vinayvinay
    Posts: 126
    Actually it's not hard to write one at all. In fact it's quite easy. let me clean up some code, and I'll toss it up. it's a single file (well and a css file). This is based off of some code I found elsewhere on the web, but the one I've been rewriting is a lot more complicated. I'm thinking to start over actually. But this one is really really simple. It doesn't have user authentication, but does keep history (as any good Wiki should) and also logs ip's.

    It's not really well documented, but should be _easy_ to set up. basically, a number of things are hard coded.

    But, reading it should give you an idea of how easy it is to write one.

    Wiki.tar
  • MarkMark
    Posts: 4,883
    I appreciate the enthusiasm. Seriously. But I just don't have time to write a new one. 0 seconds available. I downloaded dokuwiki and started configuring it. Looks like it will do the job just fine.
This discussion has been closed.