Question about the Wiki software

[SpikeX]

I'm really not one to criticize, and I realize you put a LOT (read: many) of hours into getting this online (I'm a web developer, I know.), but I was just wondering what your reasoning was for using this particular wiki software. I personally would have gone with MediaWiki (the stuff that powers Wikipedia), but you obviously didn't. So what made you pick this instead? Are there benefits or features you liked?

Again, not criticizing you, just wondering why you picked this instead of other software.
_________________

See my SHWiki User Page for more info, links, etc.

Read my Ion Drum Rocker Review


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[SpikeX]

I'm really not one to criticize, and I realize you put a LOT (read: many) of hours into getting this online (I'm a web developer, I know.), but I was just wondering what your reasoning was for using this particular wiki software. I personally would have gone with MediaWiki (the stuff that powers Wikipedia), but you obviously didn't. So what made you pick this instead? Are there benefits or features you liked?

Again, not criticizing you, just wondering why you picked this instead of other software.
_________________

See my SHWiki User Page for more info, links, etc.

Read my Ion Drum Rocker Review


Get your own drum note signature

[JCirri]

Yeah, I know that MediaWiki is much more well-known, primarilly because of Wikipedia and due to that it would seem like a more logical choice. However, WikkaWiki allows a ton of flexibility with dynamic content and page permissions that were very valuable towards my plans and I have greatly utilized.

Every page has an owner that can define ACLs (access control lists) specific to the page for fine-grained control over read, write, and comment permissions. Permissions can span multiple lines whitelisting or blacking all-users, registered users, specific username, and/or specific usergroups. Usergroups can be defined by anyone by simply making a new page and listing usernames (between '+' signs) in its body, and write-access to that page naturally defines who can moderate the group, so the creator could assign multiple group-leaders. Then that pagename can very simply be used in ACLs anywhere else to automatically apply to all listed group members. This will make it much easier for collaboration on various projects to take place without an all-or-nothing (lock/unlock) framework for page permissions.

The other main benefit is the ability to create dynamic actions for virtually any content that I want to pull from the database into wiki articles. I've extended that functionality a step further to allow for on-demand page generation. So actually, while it appears that every single game, song, and song combination has its own wiki page, technically that's not the case. A page does not exist until the first time it's requested, upon which it generates with a generic template consisting of nothing but dynamic actions, and then proceeds to load the page without any difference to the browsing user.

By auto-generating the content on-demand, consisting purely of dynamic actions, I can fully control the formatting and layout of content across every single system page from a single place that takes effect everywhere. So when I decide to add a new stat, or change the look, all existing pages don't need to be re-edited again.

For those reasons, I felt the value in utilizing those features for extra organizational control outweighed the familiarity that most have with MediaWiki. Besides the familiarity I really didn't see any other benefits that couldn't be easily added to WikkaWiki through modification. The basic formatting syntax is also pretty similar, so with a small learning curve I think it won't be hard to adapt to the feel of WikkaWiki.

As feature requests come up, I intend to grow the capabilities much further and fill in any holes that may be lacking.
_________________

[JCirri]

Yeah, I know that MediaWiki is much more well-known, primarilly because of Wikipedia and due to that it would seem like a more logical choice. However, WikkaWiki allows a ton of flexibility with dynamic content and page permissions that were very valuable towards my plans and I have greatly utilized.

Every page has an owner that can define ACLs (access control lists) specific to the page for fine-grained control over read, write, and comment permissions. Permissions can span multiple lines whitelisting or blacking all-users, registered users, specific username, and/or specific usergroups. Usergroups can be defined by anyone by simply making a new page and listing usernames (between '+' signs) in its body, and write-access to that page naturally defines who can moderate the group, so the creator could assign multiple group-leaders. Then that pagename can very simply be used in ACLs anywhere else to automatically apply to all listed group members. This will make it much easier for collaboration on various projects to take place without an all-or-nothing (lock/unlock) framework for page permissions.

The other main benefit is the ability to create dynamic actions for virtually any content that I want to pull from the database into wiki articles. I've extended that functionality a step further to allow for on-demand page generation. So actually, while it appears that every single game, song, and song combination has its own wiki page, technically that's not the case. A page does not exist until the first time it's requested, upon which it generates with a generic template consisting of nothing but dynamic actions, and then proceeds to load the page without any difference to the browsing user.

By auto-generating the content on-demand, consisting purely of dynamic actions, I can fully control the formatting and layout of content across every single system page from a single place that takes effect everywhere. So when I decide to add a new stat, or change the look, all existing pages don't need to be re-edited again.

For those reasons, I felt the value in utilizing those features for extra organizational control outweighed the familiarity that most have with MediaWiki. Besides the familiarity I really didn't see any other benefits that couldn't be easily added to WikkaWiki through modification. The basic formatting syntax is also pretty similar, so with a small learning curve I think it won't be hard to adapt to the feel of WikkaWiki.

As feature requests come up, I intend to grow the capabilities much further and fill in any holes that may be lacking.
_________________

[SpikeX]

I agree with just about everything you said. I like the ACLs on a per-page basis, and the fact that you can dynamically create pages is awesome. I don't think MediaWiki can do either of those (at least not very well).

Thanks!
_________________

See my SHWiki User Page for more info, links, etc.

Read my Ion Drum Rocker Review


Get your own drum note signature

[SpikeX]

I agree with just about everything you said. I like the ACLs on a per-page basis, and the fact that you can dynamically create pages is awesome. I don't think MediaWiki can do either of those (at least not very well).

Thanks!
_________________

See my SHWiki User Page for more info, links, etc.

Read my Ion Drum Rocker Review


Get your own drum note signature