Wiki (eBook)

Anja Ebersbach is an information scientist. She is a university and technical college instructor, and is also active as a freelance IT trainer. She is working on her dissertation on the topic of "Wikis as Tools of Scientific Work." Markus Glaser, also an information scientist, primarily works as a web and application programmer, where he specializes in MediaWiki and TWiki systems. Dr. Richard Heigl, a historian, works as a freelance instructor, IT trainer and moderator of large group seminars. He is primarily occupied with the planning and moderation of wiki projects. Alexander Warta, information scientist, is a doctoral candidate employed at Robert Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart. He is a specialist for the wiki software Confluence.

Foreword 5
Foreword, Take Two – Into the Blue … almost 9
The Authors 13
Content 14
Preface 23
Who Needs this Book? 23
The Content Concept 24
How to Use this Book 24
We Wish to Thank … 26
Thanks … 28
Typography 29
I. Wiki!? 31
1 The Wiki Concept 32
1.1 What is a Wiki? 32
1.2 The Technology of Wikis 37
1.3 Characteristic Wiki Functions 40
1.4 Wiki Clones 42
1.5 The Wiki Phenomenon 43
1.6 Wiki Pages 54
1.7 Important Resources on the WWW 55
II. Our First Wiki: MediaWiki 56
2 The Installation 57
2.1 A Test Environment with XAMPP 58
2.2 Installing MediaWiki 62
3 First Steps 69
3.1 The Wiki at First Glance 69
3.2 Hello World 70
3.3 Initial Formatting 72
3.4 Vive la Difference: Versions 74
3.5 Registering as a User 75
4 The Core Functions of MediaWiki 77
4.1 Editing 77
4.2 Discussions 81
4.3 Comparisons 81
4.4 Moving and Renaming 83
4.5 Watching 84
4.6 Protect 86
4.7 Deleting 87
5 Formatting 88
5.1 Formatting Characters 88
5.2 Special Characters & Co.
5.3 Headings and Paragraphs 91
5.4 Lists and Lines 92
5.5 Tables 94
5.6 Table of Contents 99
6 Multi-Page Structures 100
6.1 Linking Methods 100
6.2 Organizing Content 104
6.3 Multi-Page Design I – Images 109
6.4 Multi-Page Design II – Templates 117
6.5 Forwarding with Redirects 124
7 Components: the Function Pages 125
7.1 Navigation 127
7.2 Search Function 131
7.3 User Administration 132
7.4 Information about the Wiki 137
7.5 Maintenance 138
8 Administration 141
8.1 File Structure and LocalSettings.php 141
8.2 Database Structure 147
8.3 Design: your own Skins 149
8.4 Design of the Homepage with < div>
8.5 Spam 154
8.6 Security 156
8.7 Update and Uninstall 157
9 Extensions 159
9.1 Integrating Existing Extensions 159
9.2 Employing Bots 160
9.3 Excursion: Making your own Extension 161
9.4 The HalloWiki 167
10 Life in MediaWiki 168
10.1 More than just Text 168
10.2 Make Access Easier 170
10.3 You’re not Writing Alone 171
10.4 Usage Examples 173
III. TWiki, the Jack of all Trades 179
11 Installing TWiki 180
11.1 Installation under Linux 181
11.2 TWiki without an Admin-Account 184
11.3 Installation under Windows 185
11.4 Completing TWiki Installation 191
11.5 Viewing TWiki Pages 192
12 Working with TWiki 194
12.1 What Are Webs? 194
12.2 A Website 195
12.3 The Edit Window 205
13 Formatting in TWiki 208
13.1 Formatting Text 208
13.2 Tables 211
13.3 Links 213
13.4 Integrating Images 214
13.5 HTML in TWiki 215
13.6 TWiki and JavaScript 215
13.7 TWiki Variables 216
13.8 The WYSIWYG Editor: Kupu 219
14 Searching in TWiki 223
14.1 The Search Function 223
14.2 Effective Searching 225
14.3 Searching with Regular Expressions 226
14.4 Embedded Searches 228
15 Structured Data with Forms 235
15.1 TWiki Forms 236
15.2 Generating a Form 236
15.3 Topics with Forms 239
15.4 Working with Structured Data 241
16 Installing TWiki 244
16.1 Authentication vs. Access Control 244
16.2 Activating User Registration 245
16.3 Setting up Password Protection 246
16.4 Access Control 247
16.5 Strategies for User Rights 251
17 Administering TWiki 252
17.1 Administering Webs 252
17.2 Topic Templates 255
17.3 Interwiki Links 257
17.4 User Administration 258
17.5 Email 259
17.6 Security Aspects 260
17.7 Backing up Data 261
17.8 Upgrading and Uninstalling 262
18 Designing a TWiki 264
18.1 Designing the Look 264
18.2 Plugins and Add-ons 275
IV. TWiki as a Project Kit 278
19 Preliminary Thoughts: What is a Project? 279
20 Conceptual Phase: Collecting Ideas and Outlining the Project 283
20.1 Establishing a Base 283
20.2 Collecting Cooperative Ideas and Generating Project Outlines 285
20.3 Keeping a Log with Wikis 288
21 Composing the Project Plan 290
21.1 Preparing Work Packages 290
21.2 The Project Schedule 293
21.3 Distributing Tasks and Forming Groups 295
21.4 Outlining Structures and Procedures with the TWikiDraw Plugin 297
21.5 The Tools 299
21.6 To- do List with EditTable Plugin 302
21.7 Planning Costs and Financing with Tables ( Spreadsheet Plugin) 308
22 Preparing for your Event 316
22.1 Planning Your Event 316
22.2 Conference Registration 316
23 Executing and Documenting an Event 324
23.1 In the Event Office 324
23.2 Participant Administration/Registration Status 325
23.3 Lectures with the Presentation Plugin ( SlideShow) 331
23.4 Generating Visuals for Statistics using Diagrams ( Chart Plugin) 338
23.5 Final Steps: Feedback and Documentation 344
V. Go with the Flow: Confluence 345
24 Installing Confluence 346
24.1 Atlassian Software Systems 346
24.2 Licenses 347
24.3 Architecture 347
24.4 System Requirements 348
24.5 Installation Options 349
24.6 Standalone Installation 351
25 Overview 359
25.1 What are Spaces? 359
25.2 Dashboard 359
25.3 Page Overview 361
26 Formatting 370
26.1 The Difference between Wiki Markup and Rich Text 370
26.2 Headings 372
26.3 Text Format and Layout 373
26.4 Links 374
26.5 Lists 377
26.6 Inserting Images 377
26.7 Inserting Tables 378
26.8 Miscellaneous 380
26.9 HTML Input 381
27 Organization 382
27.1 Browse Space – Navigation 382
27.2 Full-text Search 393
27.3 Permissions Concept 395
27.4 Notifications 400
27.5 Drafts 401
27.6 Tiny Links 402
28 Settings 403
28.1 Space Admin 403
28.2 Confluence Admin 407
VI. Tools with a Future 420
29 Technical Challenges 421
29.1 Integration, Hybrids and Mashups 421
29.2 Editors 422
29.3 In Search of Standards 424
30 A few Wiki Projects 428
30.1 Projects of the Wikimedia Group 428
30.2 Other Wiki Worlds 432
30.3 Wikis in Companies and Organizations 437
31 The Art of “Sowing” Wikis 439
31.1 Collaborative Writing 439
31.2 Collaboration: Wikis as a Project Tool 440
32 Social Perspectives 448
32.1 Clash of the Wikis 448
32.2 Ownership 454
32.3 Forms of Work 457
32.4 Objectivity 458
Appendix 463
A Installations in TWiki 464
Perl 464
Shebang 465
Changing RCS Owners 466
B Comparison Chart 467
Glossary 469
Bibliography 475
Index 478

"2 The Installation (S. 37-39)

In order to become familiar with and test a wiki, it is a good idea to install a system on your own computer, instead of delving straight into the depths of the Internet. Firstly, you have complete control over the software used and its settings. On the Net, this is only the case if you are an administrator on a server on which the wiki is running. Secondly, almost all entries made to an online version can potentially be read by the entire world.

You need to ask yourself whether the world would really be interested in every little test, in addition, copyright issues could quickly crop up. In a local testing environment, on the other hand, you can control who has access to your computer, and you can experiment without needing to constantly worry about relevance or legal questions. Basically, installing wikis is always done according to a similar pattern. First you need to create and adapt the environment in which the wiki will run, which primarily means setting up the web server and, if necessary, the database.

Then you copy the wiki software files to the proper location and adjust one or more configuration files to the system environment, either manually or automatically. Such adjustments mainly include the indication of paths, language and connection to the database. In addition, some wikis offer the possibility of performing some settings directly over the browser. The individual steps for installing and setting up MediaWiki will be detailed below. Note: The installation described refers to the software version 1.10.1, which you can find on the supplementary CD. If you prefer to download the current packages from the Internet, there may be some deviations.

2.1 A Test Environment with XAMPP

Since it is the nature of wikis to be a component of the WWW, you need to create a test environment for the actual software for local operation on your computer. In the case of MediaWiki, such an environment consists of a web server, the script language PHP (Version 5.0 or higher) and the database MySQL (4.0 or higher). The installation and interaction of these components is complex, and descriptions of them fill bookshelves. However, that is not within the scope of our book. Luckily, there is a package that allows us to install all required components with a minimum of configuration effort: XAMPP.

This is the abbreviation for ""Apache MySQL PHP Perl"" (the X is a placeholder for the operating system) and thus for components that together result in possible standard equipment for a web server. If you should already have this software on your computer, you can skip this chapter and go straight to installing the MediaWiki. Tip: If you already have a web server installed on your computer, it is possible that XAMPP may not work. For instance, this is the case with IIS. At the time of this printing, XAMPP is available in Version 1.6.3. It can be found on the supplementary CD in the directory /xampp/ [operating system]. The newest version can be downloaded at the URL http://www.apachefriends.org /de/xampp.html. "