Revision [11628]

This is an old revision of SuggestionBox made by c220-237-177-122.lowrp1.vic.optusnet.com.au on 2005-10-27 15:17:47.

 

Suggestion Box

Last edited by c220-237-177-122.lowrp1.vic.optusnet.com.au
Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:17 UTC [diff]


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IE SCREW UP

Does a fresh install not work at all with IE? Im getting a screen w/o any css formatting..

ANSWER:
Check the file wikka.config.php
Probably you forgot the trailing slash at the end of your wikki path, Look for: "base_url"
--TomEk

On WikiEdit

Search within the textbox: its pain to find where you want to edit in long pages.
How about integrating a search function in wikiEdit, or implementing paragraph editing like wikipedia.

Also how about anchor in wikiedit and a way to link to them ?
--GiorgosKontopoulos

wikiwyg

copied from UnderDevelopment --NilsLindenberg
Not sure where an appropriate place for feature requests is so here goes:
http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2005/08/wikiwyg.html
--gw.netwide.com.au (2005-08-22 02:28:01)
now supports IE....see www.wikiwyg.net --GmBowen

Automatic conversion from HTML to WakkiWiki syntax

Does such thing exist? For a number of other Wikies, it does.
It should be nice (one could say, essential) to have this here, too.
--CsillagKristof

:Try out http://diberri.dyndns.org/html2wiki.html (Won't work with tables yet). --NilsLindenberg
wikka convertor currently not working --GmBowen


Improved code for error messages in Action() method

The Action() method in wikka.php produces errors in some cases; the error class was implemented as a span rather than directly on the <em> element surrounding the message. The span elements are superfluous and bad coding style.
Change:
  1.     function Action($action, $forceLinkTracking = 0)
  2.     {
  3.         $action = trim($action);
  4.         $vars=array();
  5.  
  6.         // only search for parameters if there is a space
  7.         if (is_int(strpos($action, ' ')))
  8.         {
  9.             // treat everything after the first whitespace as parameter
  10.             preg_match("/^([A-Za-z0-9]*)\s+(.*)$/", $action, $matches);
  11.             // extract $action and $vars_temp ("raw" attributes)
  12.             list(, $action, $vars_temp) = $matches;
  13.  
  14.             if ($action) {
  15.                 // match all attributes (key and value)
  16.                 preg_match_all("/([A-Za-z0-9]*)=\"(.*)\"/U", $vars_temp, $matches);
  17.  
  18.                 // prepare an array for extract() to work with (in $this->IncludeBuffered())
  19.                     if (is_array($matches)) {
  20.                         for ($a = 0; $a < count($matches[0]); $a++) {
  21.                             $vars[$matches[1][$a]] = $matches[2][$a];
  22.                         }
  23.                     }
  24.                 $vars["wikka_vars"] = trim($vars_temp); // <<< add the buffered parameter-string to the array
  25.             } else {
  26.                 return "<span class='error'><em>Unknown action; the action name must not contain special characters.</em></span>"; // <<< the pattern ([A-Za-z0-9])\s+ didn't match!
  27.             }
  28.         }
  29.         if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$/", $action)) return "<span class='error'><em>Unknown action; the action name must not contain special characters.</em></span>";
  30.         if (!$forceLinkTracking) $this->StopLinkTracking();
  31.         $result = $this->IncludeBuffered(strtolower($action).".php", "<em>Unknown action \"$action\"</em>", $vars, $this->config["action_path"]);
  32.         $this->StartLinkTracking();
  33.         return $result;
  34.     }


to:
    // JW Action() modified to allow attributes in single quotes
    // JW 2005-07-08 error class moved to em
    function Action($action, $forceLinkTracking = 0)
    {
        $action = trim($action);
        $vars=array();

        // only search for parameters if there is a space
        if (is_int(strpos($action, ' ')))
        {
            // treat everything after the first whitespace as parameter
            preg_match('/^([A-Za-z0-9]*)\s+(.*)$/', $action, $matches);
            // extract $action and $vars_temp ("raw" attributes)
            list(, $action, $vars_temp) = $matches;

            if ($action) {
                // match all attributes (key and value)
                preg_match_all('/([A-Za-z0-9]*)=("|\')(.*)\\2/U', $vars_temp, $matches);

                // prepare an array for extract() to work with (in $this->IncludeBuffered())
                if (is_array($matches)) {
                    for ($a = 0; $a < count($matches[0]); $a++) {
                        $vars[$matches[1][$a]] = $matches[3][$a];
                    }
                }
                $vars['wikka_vars'] = trim($vars_temp); // <<< add the buffered parameter-string to the array
            } else {
                #return '<span class="error"><em>Unknown action; the action name must not contain special characters.</em></span>'; // <<< the pattern ([A-Za-z0-9])\s+ didn't match!
                return '<em class="error">Unknown action; the action name must not contain special characters.</em>'; // <<< the pattern ([A-Za-z0-9])\s+ didn't match!
            }
        }
        #if (!preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$/', $action)) return '<span class="error"><em>Unknown action; the action name must not contain special characters.</em></span>';
        if (!preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$/', $action)) return '<em class="error">Unknown action; the action name must not contain special characters.</em>';
        if (!$forceLinkTracking) $this->StopLinkTracking();
        #$result = $this->IncludeBuffered(strtolower($action).'.php', '<em>Unknown action "'.$action.'"</em>', $vars, $this->config['action_path']);
        $result = $this->IncludeBuffered(strtolower($action).'.php', '<em class="error">Unknown action "'.$action.'"</em>', $vars, $this->config['action_path']);
        $this->StartLinkTracking();
        return $result;
    }


Now implemented as beta on this site. --JavaWoman


Files Management

copied from FilesManagementSolution --JW
Link to files, rather than upload? Would it be possible to add the functionality so that rather than store the files within the Wikki, there was an option box for 'link' as well as upload. This would be useful on internal wikki deployments where you want to avoid file duplication by allowing users to point at the file to create a link to that file on a separate internal server. - RogerD


Exclude certain CamelCase words from formatting


Popular Scottish surnames such as McKenna are wrongly being interpreted as WikiNames - is there any way to prevent that happening?
-- host86-133-223-194.range86-133.btcentralplus.com (2005-07-09 13:23:06)

How about something like a lookup table where WikiAdmins enter a list of words that will be ignored for formatting on all pages? -- JsnX


Automatic summary

copied from Sourceforge --NilsLindenberg

Is it possible to display through an action a little summary of the categories and sub categories available from the page we are in ?


Improving Wikka


A nice list of suggestions can be found at: By Blood and bone.


Import WikiPedia database

How can I import the Wikipedia database? I don't want to use MediaWiki. Any idea?


Note on edit, mandatory field

I think it would be a good ide to let the administrator choose if the field is mandatory.
If it is, the form doesn't submit until there is content into it, and it should warn too with an alertbox.
Only a little bit of PHP is necessary, the big part is in JS, if i don't make any mistake...
--SamuelDr


Login using retrieved password

The password retrieved from forgotten password does not work for me. Is there some setting in php4 or mysql that would allow md5(md5(password)) == md5(password) to return true? Since the password sent is the hash of the clear-text password, the current line in usersettings.php compares a hash of the hashed password to the hashed password, I think. I've found the correct code elsewhere in usersettings.php.
// usersettings.php line 130 fixed
if ($existingUser["password"] == md5($_POST["password"]) || $existingUser["password"]==$_POST["password"])

This is the current version:
// usersettings.php current line 130
if ($existingUser["password"] == md5($_POST["password"]))

The first one works for me. Is there a problem with security in using that version?
-CharlotteFischer


Order of comments

WikiJochen made a comment on my page that would like to see the latest comment shown first and not last. --NilsLindenberg


Own comments editing

I think that it would be a good option to allow one to edit its own comments, sometimes, I make mistakes when commenting, typos or language things (i'm a foreigner) and I want my texts to all look clean.
Currently, we can still copy and then delete the comment, but it is a pain to do so... sorry, I'm lazy, just like many other people. --SamuelDr


Google Sitemap

See here pushing the sturcture and changes of wikka to google could be an interesting (optional) feature. --NilsLindenberg


versioning of attachments

copied from a comment from AttachmentInfo --NilsLindenberg
Does Wikka support versioning of attachments?

IMHO a good idea. --Nils


Making PageIndex go faster

By default PageIndex uses $this->LoadAllPages() which reads your whole site into one array. If you would use a new function like $this->LoadAllPagesInfo() you will get the same info but without the 'body' content. This should speed up PageIndex a bit on larger sites...
  1. Find in wikka.php (Around 33%)
        function LoadAllPages() { return $this->LoadAll("select * from ".$this->config["table_prefix"]."pages where latest = 'Y' order by tag"); }

And replace it with:
        function LoadAllPages() { return $this->LoadAll("select * from ".$this->config["table_prefix"]."pages where latest = 'Y' order by tag"); }
        function LoadAllPagesInfo() { return $this->LoadAll("select id,tag,time,owner,user,latest,note from ".$this->config["table_prefix"]."pages where latest = 'Y' order by tag"); }

  1. Find in actions/pageindex.php (top)
if ($pages = $this->LoadAllPages())

And replace it with:
if ($pages = $this->LoadAllPagesInfo())

  1. Same trick as in (2) can be done in actions/mypages.php...
-- OnegWR



Generate ID in forms; allow class

I know we've dicussed this multiple times but could not find an actual suggestion; I've made it into a semi-spec.
Every form really should have an id (attribute) to provide a 'hook' for styling (and JavaScript, if desired). We have a FormOpen() method in the core that should be used to generate the opening form tag (and its counterpart FormClose()) - but this method does not generate an ID nor accept a parameter to create one. It should be able to do both:
In addition, some forms really need to have a class attribute (as well); the button-form for the grabcode handler is a good example: if you have a number of forms on a page that all should have the same styling, a class would provide the 'hook' rather than the id (which should still be there). So the FormOpen() method should also:
--JavaWoman


Hiding anonymous host/IP from non-administrators

On the Wiki I run, it is not desireable for the IP/hostname of anonymous users to be displayed to just anyone. I've made a small modification to hide the IP/hostname of anonymous users to users that (a) Are not administrators, and (b) not themselves. In handlers/page/show.php, around line 80 you can find:
print("\t<div class=\"commentinfo\">\n-- ".$this->Format($comment["user"])." (".$comment["time"].")\n");
I modified this to:
if ($this->IsAdmin() || $current_user == $comment["user"] || $this->LoadUser($comment["user"]))
{
    print("\t<div class=\"commentinfo\">\n-- ".$this->Format($comment["user"])." (".$comment["time"].")\n");
}
else
{
    print("\t<div class=\"commentinfo\">\n-- Anonymous#".str_pad(dechex(crc32($comment["user"])), 8, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT)." (".$comment["time"].")\n");
}
And in actions/recentlycommented.php:
if (!$this->LoadUser($comment_by)) $comment_by .= " (unregistered user)";
was changed to:
if (!$this->IsAdmin() && $this->GetUserName() != $comment_by && !$this->LoaderUser($comment_by))
{
    $comment_by = "Anonymous#".str_pad(dechex(crc32($comment_by)), 8, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT);
}
And in actions/recentcomments.php:
if (strlen($comment["comment"]) > 120) $comment_preview = $comment_preview.".... ";
after this add:
if (!$this->IsAdmin() && $this->GetUserName() != $comment["user"] && !$this->LoaderUser($comment["user"]))
{
    $comment["user"] = "Anonymous#".str_pad(dechex(crc32($comment["user"])), 8, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT);
}


You will probably need to also update the XML handlers and the history page handler, but right now anonymous users cannot edit pages on my Wiki. (actions/recentchanges.php, handlers/page/really don't want them to have 2 seperate usernames/ passwords. Therefore ideally I would like the wikka to use the usertable from phpBB... Has anybody else done something like this? -- KiltanneN
    • One solution that I've used is to set up a registration page that registers the user into both the bulletin board and the wiki user tables. I've then removed the registration screens from each of the two. Users can then log into either of them using the same username and password. Of course, this only works when registering "new" users...one would have to write a script to copy existing users from the bulletin board into the wiki user tables for current users. --GmBowen
      • Not a bad idea - but breaks down for password changes and also name changes... I am going to try and build what I have described. I will make notes over here: UseThephpBBUserTable -- KiltanneN



Documentation

copied to DocumentationDiscussion. --NilsLindenberg


Pages linking to nonexisting pages

As MovieLady pointed out somewhere, it could be usefull to see if there are pages linking to a non existing page (for example when you have renamed the page and have to update the links).

The following solution just prints out the links, without any other text ("the following pages link here") - which should be better placed in the backlinks action.

Change in handlers/page/show.php the lines with if (!this->page) to:
  1.     if (!$this->page)
  2.     {
  3.         print("<p>This page doesn't exist yet. Maybe you want to <a href=\"".$this->Href("edit")."\">create</a> it?</p>");
  4.         print $this->Action("backlinks")."</div>";
  5.     }

  • What's the </div> for? I see no opening <div>. --JavaWoman
      • But I don't see an opening <div> - and this closing </div> is within an if clause. So when/where is that div opened, and when/where does it get closed when the condition is not true? Something wrong with the logic here, or you're not showing enough of the logic. --JavaWoman
        • Ok, I was a littler bit short here :) the show handler opens a <div class="page"> before doing anything else (like the "has access"/page is existing check). So it has to be closed (and actually is closed) in every one of the three cases (1. no access to the page 2.pages is not existing 3.pages is displayed). In the official version it is closed after the "create it". I just moved it to have the backlinks inside the page-class (should have written that earlier :) --NilsLindenberg.
          • All right :) I guess the show handler is just sloppily written. If you open a div no matter what conditions apply, then you also close it no matter what, i.e., opened outside the if statement, then close it also outside the if statement. Whatever you do inside the if statement should have no influence at all: if opened, you must close it, no ifs and buts. I guess it's not wriiten like that (yet...). One for the code cleanup list. ;-) --JavaWoman


Sending 403 headers

(related to the
Search engine results inflation item below)

For pages to which the user has no read-access, do you think it might be feasible/interesting to send - along with the
You aren't allowed to read this page message - a HTTP header like the following:
 header('HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden');

-- DarTar
  • Oh, and maybe 404 headers for missing pages (which would help prevent SE from spidering links to non existing pages)? -- DarTar


Numbers as page names?

I'm curious about the Wikka convention that numbers cannot be page names. I'd like to be able to create "date page" (e.g. 2005-02-26) for notes and journaling, so this is a feature I'd definitely suggest.

BTW, doing something along the lines of "journal/2005-02-26" or "journal_2005..." wants to create an external link.

Thx, RobertDaeley
  • Agreed, we should drop this restriction. Numbers in page names might also be useful to use Wikka as a bliki engine, i.e. a hybrid blog/wiki software which is drawing increasing attention in the SocialSoftware social software community. Robert, take a look at this user-contributed plugin, which allows creating a calendar with single pages for days: JwCalendarWithPageCreation -- DarTar


Configurable name for Wikka engine

I think it might be interesting for many of our users if we gave the possibility - in the install/upgrade wizard - to
rename the engine from wikka.php to something else (for instance, index.php). This might be useful in cases where RR are off and the user wants to avoid long URLs: http://www.mydomain.com/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage can then become http://www.mydomain.com/wiki/?wakka=HomePage. The name should be specified as an option in wikka.config.php, for instance

 "wikka_engine" => "wikka.php", 


This option might also allow using different engines (say, different versions of wikka.php) on the same installation.
-- DarTar


Search engine results inflation

I have recently installed Wikka on my personal website. Everything works fine, except that the TextSearch link in the page header (which I masked through CSS - I don't want to hack the code) produces dozens of search results that I really don't want to be cached on Google. Same story applies to the revisions and history links that are cached on search engines: this is what happens in the case of our main server. I'd also would like to avoid default wiki pages (like SandBox, MyPages, UserSettings etc.) to be crawled and cached (simply setting ACLs to !*-!*-!* won't do the job). Maybe we should think of a way to allow the user to decide
what kind of content of her Wikka-powered site should be spidered by SE and what content should not. -- DarTar
  • I think I've suggested before that the SandBox should not be indexed - the way to avoid this would be to add the appropriate meta tag to the page's head. That concept could easily be extended by allowing a WikiAdmin (not the WikiUser!) to define a list of pages where such a meta tag would be inserted. Generating a little text note to the effect for all these pages could also go some way to discourage spammers. --JavaWoman


For Better Overview

1. It often takes too much time to check if a wiki has changed and what has changed. In the case of wikkawiki one has to check RecentChanges as well as RecentlyCommented. A combined page would be more convenient - RicharD


Generate page from an external database

As described in DynamicPageGeneration I'd like to create a mailling-like system to fill in pages containig custom fields with data from an external database or a simple table. This could be done through a few actions or by writing a new handler.
This idea can be extended to an inline editor to add/remove/edit entries in this external table if wikka store creditentials with write access in its own tables.
The main goal is to integrate data from an existing knoweldge base in a wikka based documentation repository.

DotMG insists about favicon.ico and robots.txt

Please add the following two lines to ./.htaccess
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/robots.txt
 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ wikka.php?wakka=$1 [QSA,L]
This will prevent /favicon.ico and /robots.txt from being redirected to wikka.php?wakka=favicon.ico
With these 2 lines, we don't have to modify wikka.php as suggested in FaviconDotIco --DotMG
  • It can be done more generically by simply preventing rewiting happening when the requested URL matches an existing file or directory:
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

    The first line excludes any directory, the second any existing file (which would include robots.txt and
    any icon file - you do not necessarily have to use favicon.ico). --JavaWoman


Category Icons

Create a table which maintains a mapping between wikka categories and an associated predefined icon graphic. When the directive {category_icon} is used the category's icon is dropped into the page at the location of invocation. -KarmaTester

  • Karma, we are actually considering the possibility of integrating a set of GPL'ed icons (and the relevant actions/formatters) in Wikka. Stay tuned... -- DarTar
    • You're more than welcome to use our icon action and icons: WikiIcons which were copyleft from here. The icons were auto-generated from the SVG versions at various sizes, you can take what you want. Only problem is they are PNG's -great in ANY browser but IE!!! --IanAndolina


Automatic Table of Content Generation

A table of contents {TOC} directive is replaced by an ordered list of defined headers in the wiki page. This makes it easier to navigate pages which are very long like this one. -KarmaTester


Wikka markup inside tables
- I think it would be nice if you could use wikka markup (**bold**, //italics//, __underline__, etc.) inside of tables. - RichardTerry
  • Richard, thanks for the feedback. It is on my agenda to look at another solution for tables. My plan is to allow straight HTML table syntax after running it through the "safehtml" checker. But I need to check that there are no security risks with this first. Also, I'll take a peak at your suggestion too. -- JsnX
  • Check out my proposal for an extended TableAction which does provide this. (TableAction is intended as a preliminary solution until we have table markup.) --JavaWoman


Robot Friendly Pages


Right now (1.1.6.0), if a non-existant page is requested, the wiki returns status code 200, which will cause the page to be indexed by search engine spiders. It'd probably be better to return 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) or include robots exclusion meta tags in the pages that don't exist. --BarkerJr
  • Ah, maybe this is why a now non-existent page that I deleted 2 months ago is still getting 50hits or so a day from the porn/vicodin/viagra sites that linked to it (don't ask me why...it was a completely inoccuous page)...at least according to the referrers database table. --GmBowen


Kant-en-klaar code blocks


A micro-idea before going to bed. We all know it's a bad idea to copy code blocks from the formatted version of a page.
If I want to test some freshly posted code, here's what I have to do:
  1. open a /raw version of the page;
  1. scan the page for the chunk of code I want to save (this can be pretty difficult on long source pages with no syntax highlighting);
  1. open a text editor;
  1. copy the code block;
  1. paste it in the text editor;
  1. save the file.

Wouldn't it be nice to have at the end of each code block a small link pointing to a handler allowing the user to download the code block with the right name and the right extension just
with one click?

See GrabCodeHandler for a first proposal -- DarTar


Security Verification Test from Wikini

On the top of most page handlers, the Wikini developers have:
// Vérification de sécurité
if (!defined("WIKINI_VERSION"))
{
die ("accès direct interdit");
}

I'm not sure what exactly this does, can anyone enlighten me; and if it is a good idea, then it should considered for Wikka too... --IanAndolina
  • This is to ensure that a hacker can't view a page directly, with url like http://wikka.jsnx.com/actions/recentchanges.php. If this technique is possible, he (the hacker) can send request to make your wikka site output error strings. But in wakka forks, this will result in handlers "page/recentchanges.php.php" not found, if rewriteengine is on. If else, I' ll test it and I'll tell you. The simplest workaround, if it's the case is to add a .htaccess file at ./actions, .handlers/page directories, with the content : Deny from all. --DotMG


mod_rewrite idea (.htaccess)

(The following was copied from a comment on ModRewrite -- JavaWoman)
Hi, I discovered that the default .htaccess included did not work for my setup up. I needed to include RewriteBase /directory/ as well since Wikka is installed in a subdirectory. I hope this helps anyone having trouble getting Wikka to work.
-- h-67-102-97-191.mclnva23.covad.net (2005-02-11 04:49:37)
The installer
correctly deduces the base path for the configuration; it could conceivably also detect if it's sitting in a subdirectory, and if so, dynamically change the .htaccess file and include the correct RewriteBase statement to take care of this. --JavaWoman


Separation of Wakka class from wikka.php

I use wikka as wiki engine of my page.
IMO, the wikka.php file is too big to be one single file. I suggest that we separate the Wakka class into new file, say Wakka.class.php
And then in the wikka.php, e.g at line where the Wakka class previously located, simply we put:
include ('Wakka.class.php');

-- DiN
  • DiN, this is a very good idea. I fact, the idea had crossed my mind already, but thanks for the reminder. :) Indeed, a class belongs in a file of its own. --JavaWoman
    • Maybe a folder called classes? the handlers/page/diff has a bunch of classes inside, too. --NilsLindenberg
      • With my current proposed structure on WikkaCodeStructure, it would go into the library folder; classes that are shared, into library/common. I prefer a functional separation rather than one based on coding format. --JavaWoman


Inherit ACL from 'parents'

Create a page and when creating a page from there, give the option to copy the ACL of the first page.
Should pages be linked in some form to some documents given the fact that Wikka is flat, not hierarchic.
ForTheLazy - chatlog and summary.
-- FreekNL
  • IMO the acl system has to be dumped and/or renewed/rewrittem to accomodate usergroups..
  • I have been thinking of presenting a modification that will actually implement this user managment system ..
  • having privileges for each page is making userprofile-specific-features on Wikka efficiently non-existant.
  • The ability to create custom usergoups ( aka levels, profiles etc. ) would enable the addition such features
  • ( ip/hostname display , access to special parts of the wiki and such .. ) -- GeorgePetsagourakis
See also HierarchiesAndInheritance for some background --JavaWoman


Paragraph instead of line-breaks

(copied from WhatsNew -- DarTar)
Why is it that the formatter creates line breaks instead of paragraphs? I've been trying to figure out a way to get Wikka to do this, but it may be nice for there to be some sort of option in a future release. Paragraphs tend to be more useful for doing CSS formatting.
-- ScumBle

+1 — semantically, Wikka's current lack of proper paragraphs and liberal sprinkling of line breaks is really undesirble. I made a hack-mod on my wakka some time ago in formatter/wakka.php (just after the preg_replace_callback):

$pattern2 = "/^(\040|\t)*(?!<|\040)(.+)$/m"; //matches any line with no <element> (and variable leading space) - assume a paragraph
$replace2 = "<p>\\2</p>";
$text=preg_replace($pattern2,$replace2,$text);

$pattern1 = "/^(\040|\t)*(<(?!hr|(\/|)h[1-6]|br|(\/|)li|(\/|)[uo]l|(\/|)div|(\/|)p).*)$/m"; //matches any <element>text lines not considered block formatting
$replace1 = "<p>\\2</p>";
$text=preg_replace($pattern1,$replace1,$text);


I don't know how that will affect wikka (it was designed for my formatting which is different to wikka slightly), and there is probably a much better way to do it (call a post-formatter?), but it is possible using a small modification at least... --IanAndolina


Save Pages to PDF Format

(copied from WikkaDevelopment --Nils)
Page output to an Adobe pdf file using FPDF.
E-mail this page facility
--JamesMcl


Usergroups

(copied from WikkaDevelopment --Nils)
Yet another idea from me:
Usergroups. So i can create a group of users, and just write that group into the ACLs...
- Take a look at GroupManagement (which doesn't seem to be finished) - or at ACLsWithUserGroups.


"In work" for Wikka-pages

(copied from WikkaDevelopment --Nils)
Add a page property, 'Status' [?] that can be used to facilitate code development within Wikka. Imagine a very basic CVS system. A user can change the status to "In use' while considering improvements to the code, and then change it to 'Available' when done. This may prevent this scenario:
  • Multiple users see the same code and concurrently start working on changes.
  • One user posts his changes.
  • Another user posts his changes without realizing that the code had been updated.
OR
  • Another user has to go back through his code and incorporate the changes made by the first user.

  • Comments:
  • Dangerous! Consider the following scenario: user has been hard at work all week, now it's Friday afternoon and there's some time to do an edit or three. User opens each page in a browser tab, marking all three as "in use" and starts to edit them. Clickety-click. Suddenly user realises he has to run to catch the train home. Run! On the train, user realises the three pages are still open in the browser and "in use". "No matter", thinks our user, "it's always quiet during the weekend and I'll get back to it first thing Monday morning. On Sunday afternoon, user plays soccer, as he always does, and breaks a leg, which he usually doesn't do. User is transported to hospital where he has to stay for four weeks. ... A bit exceptional maybe - but what do you do with "dangling in uses" and when (how) are they considered "dangling" in the first place? --JW
    • Good point, but this modification would be only an informational resource to facilitate user communication. Techically, users could still update the page any time they wanted. It would just be a courtesy to hold back if you saw that a page was 'in use.' I didn't mention it above, but I planned to also add a field that would timestamp when the status was last changed. So in your scenario, we would see that the page had been marked as 'in use' for several days and feel free to ignore it. However, this does bring up the idea that it would be good to also have a 'note' box available for updating the page status -- used for comments such as, "should have the code updated within a few hours." Better now? -- JsnX
  • I've got code/table changes done that indicate if anybody (other than oneself) opened the page to "edit" in the last 15 minutes. It's on an iteration that isn't "live" right now (it's part of an earlier installation of wikka that we just haven't brought the code forward from yet), but I can make it that way so you can test out the functionality if you want. Since much of our site will be geared towards small teams doing collaborative editing, it was designed so that editing conflicts would not occur. Let me know if you want me to get it installed at a test site. -- GmBowen
  • I agree, it's an important issue (some Wakka forks have already addressed the problem of concurrent editing) -- DarTar
  • JsnX: If it's purely informational, that's better; I thought the intention was some kind of locking. So you'd have something like:
    • -state: in use | available
    • -timestamp: in use since
    • -note: applies to the in use state only
  • Then - would the state apply to the logical page or to a particular version? If the latter, what happens if a page is reverted to that version? What happens to the state when another user goes ahead and edits the page anyway?
  • And I still think you'd need some kind of admin function to "clear" dangling in use states that are older than xx minutes/hours/days.
  • GmBowen: is yours completely automatic or user-initiated? What happens in the run off to catch the train scenario? -- JavaWoman
  • (i) it's purely informational, not a "lock"...it sets a red exclamation mark beside the page name at the top if the "edit" link (or double click) has been used in the last 15 minutes by anybody other than yourself (ii) it's automatic (iii) the "train scenario" can't happen. It doesn't check if "saved" or not, just whether an edit was started in the last 15 minutes. This means that if the person doing the edit hasn't saved in the last 15 minutes when editing then the exclamation mark isn't activated for another user. But, people should save edits every 15 minutes anyways methinks. It's not "foolproof", but was meant to avoid many sorts of common editing conflicts on collaborative documents. It's not a very "big" edit of the wikka code actually. The edit.php script timestamps the most recent version of the page when it is activated, and there's a small addition to header.php that checks when the page is loaded to see if the current time is < 15 minutes from that timestamp & if so shows an exclamation mark. Finally, there's a small linked graphic that "refreshes" the page beside "homepage" and the "edit" link (essentially, it's just a link to the page itself) so a user can check the edit status before deciding to edit it themselves. For server load reasons I decided to not have an automatic check (once every 5 minutes for example) since most people read & don't edit much of the time so it made sense more to encourage people to check edit status themselves. Of course, it would also be possible to have edit.php check to see if the file was edited in last 15 minutes and if so, ask the user if they wanted to continue with their own edit. Hmmm...I'll have to think about that. As it sits it worked pretty well when tested (but remember, I'm into small group collaborative writing tasks....I'm not sure how it would work if the pages were "open" to everyone). It originally took me several hours to write the code myself, but I'm sure it would take JW or DarTar or Jason maybe 30 minutes....and the code would probably be more efficient (I'm not a real coder remember :-( ) -- GmBowen (aka Mike) (I've now provided my code & mods @ [GmBowenRecentEditCheck] for people to play with)


Searching (in) comments

(copied from WikkaDevelopment --Nils)
Add the ability to 'search for all comments by user X'. How this might be useful: I want to find a comment by JavaWoman
(really?), but I can't remember which page it was on -- she's quite prolific! -- (I admit I'm easily distracted. What am I doing here, now!? :)) so I use this new function to list all of her comments.
  • Yes. And related: an extension of this or the general search function to search by comments content (in addition to page name or page content) would, I think, be also useful. --JW
  • Nice idea :). For comments by user X (and, why not, mods by user X) we could imagine something similar to Google syntax for site-restricted queries. E.g.: I18n user:JavaWoman. The scope of the query (pages, mods, comments, anywhere) should be settable as a radio button (similar to Google's restrict search options). FYI, Comments by user X, Pages owned by user X and Changes done by user X were already partially addressed by the following action proposals: UserCommentsAction, UserPagesAction, UserChangesAction -- DarTar


(copied from WikkaDevelopment --Nils)
It would be good if the text-search would be sorted in some way. If I search for example for "GmBowen", a page with the exact match (his userpage) should be on the top of the results. The next results perhaps in alphabetical order? --NilsLindenberg


Highlight unseen Recentchanges

(copied from WikkaDevelopment --NilsLindenberg)
Add fields to the 'users' table [?] to track when RecentChanges and RecentlyCommented were last viewed. Then RecentChanges and RecentlyCommented can by modified to highlight new items since the user last viewed the page.
  • If it's only for highlighting, OK, but I'm not waiting for that. If it's for filtering, please no. I quite often trace back several days to re-review pages or comments --JW
    • OK. Point taken. I was considering doing some form of filtering, but will now only consider higlighting, as requested. -- JsnX
    • I totally agree with JW's point -- DarTar


Is there a way to include a target in a link, so that the Link opens in a new window?
--GregorLindner


Signature

(copied from WikkaFaq, but perhaps better at WantedFormatters? --NilsLindenberg)
Does Wikka support automatic user signatures in pages (not comments)? I need some code so that users don't need to enter their username and time/date when they are working on a page in ThreadMode. I've searched in the docs, but I could not find anything about this, any ideas?
-- JeroenJansen (2005-01-28 11:35:43)

  • Jeroen, there is a hack for automatically adding a user's signature in WakkaWiki posted by NickK on his homepage. It should be easy to adapt to Wikka. -- DarTar
    • Dartar, just saw your reply. Thanks for the hint! --JeroenJansen


Most wikis I have set up have the need for a page containing a list of links. It would be great if Wikka could support this in some way - such as providing an easy way of adding links to a configured page. One way of doing this could be a simple Java Scriptlet that you configure with the address of the link page. Then, you mark a link in a web-page, click on the scriptlet, enter a short description and bang - the link is added to the wiki page.
The del.icio.us page offers some user contributed hacks which may be a starting point.
-- MatthewLangham
  • MatthewLangham, I propose AddLinkAction as solution for adding links on a page in a structured way. I also added (under the Beta section at the end) a JavaScript-link that you need to bookmark to fast add a link in two mouse clicks... (Works with Firefox and IE under XP, still needs testing with other browsers) -- OnegWR


Create rewrite rules on install

copied from comment on WikkaInstallation --JavaWoman
Since I installed wikka in a subdirectory under the domain root I needed to add the following to the .htaccess file just under "RewriteEngine on":

RewriteBase /subdirectory/

Devs, how about writing the .htaccess rules at the same time you write out the wikka.config.php file since you automatically pickup the wiki base location at that point?

-kt
-- KarmaTester (2005-01-26 06:52:07)


Image dimensions


The AddingImages image action really needs the ability to specify image height and width. :) --MovieLady
  • I agree that it would be better to have defined width and height in the resulting img element: faster output, and no "jumping" pages. However, PHP can easily derive these dimensions by itself - would that be sufficient or do you think it's also necessary to be able to override the actual dimensions of the image file? --JavaWoman
    • There surely will be users which want to do that. My suggestion (if possible): allow height and width as optional input. If nothing the variables should be filled with the values of the image. --NilsLindenberg
      • Noted. More easy suggestions like this, please. :) --JavaWoman
        • Yes, that exactly, Nils. LOL Lemme get my list, JW. ;) Seriously, though, I really like what you all have done with this wikki, and the multitude of suggestions are only because I'm getting invested in it. *g* I've been sick or I would've worked on the DeleteSpamAction changes sooner so I could feel like I was actually doing more than "I want it to do this!" ;) --MovieLady
Dear all: see my proposal at EnhancedImageAction
  • That's great, Christian, thank you! --MovieLady


Clearing ACLs


There should be a button on the ACL page to "Reset ACLs to Default". What this would do is delete the record for the current page from the acls table. There is a distinction between setting the ACLs to the sites default values and not having ACLs defined for a page. If the ACLs are set and the default values get changed, the page will remain at the set values. However, if no ACLs are defined, the page will always use the default values.

To help show the distinction, there should be a visual indicator on the ACL handler page which states whether the page has ACLs defined or is using the site's default values. Basically, just check for a record in the acls table for the current page, and display a message accordingly. -- JsnX

User registration control
It would nice to have the registration function check to make sure there isn't another account with the same email already registered so that one person doesn't clutter up the db with multiple accounts. (Or at least the configurable option to check for only one email/one account.)

It should also then be easier (I would think) to use it to essentially ban by email address; if the registration process checked for an email in the user table, found that it was already in use and didn't let the person create a new username, one could use the wonderful ACLsWithUserGroups hack that Christian created to make a list of banned users by username. Yeah, yeah, folks who want to abuse the system could always create new email addresses on the various free sites, but that's an awful lot of work, and this would at least slow down some of it. --MovieLady

  • You know how many TestUsers my Wikka already has? *g* This should do the job (this time no config option, sorry jw :)
  •     function ExistsEmail($email)
        {
            $count = 0;
            $query =    "SELECT COUNT(email)
                        FROM "
    .$this->config['table_prefix']."users
                        WHERE email='"
    .mysql_real_escape_string($email)."'";
            if ($r = $this->Query($query))
            {
                $count = mysql_result($r,0);
                mysql_free_result($r);
            }
            return ($count > 0) ? TRUE : FALSE;
        }
  • Place this function in wikka.php right after function UserWantsComments(). And change in actions/usersettings.php the following line:
    else if (strlen($password) < 5) $error = "Password too short.";
    to
    else if (strlen($password) < 5) $error = "Password too short.";
    else if ($this->ExistsEmail($email)) $error = "You already have a username.";
    • LOL I can imagine. Thanks so much for this - I'll try it out this evening. --MovieLady

  • Speaking of registration control, note to self: make a configuration option to turn off new account registrations. Some sites might be private and not want people registering. Admin privilege should override this and still show the registration fields in usersettings, to save the admin from having to go into the database manually to add acounts or some other hack. -- JsnX
    • (you saw UserRegistration by Nils? I think it, or something like it, should be standard. mike)
      • Doh! I somehow missed that. That's pretty much what I had in mind. Nice job, Nils! :) -- JsnX
        • Thank you. About your Admin-adding-user case: that's an addition to UserAdmin, not for usersettings. --NilsLindenberg
      • there's also code around that uses GD & that could be built onto Nils' code that generates a "registration password" automatically and outputs it as a distorted graphic image.....the code is intended to befuddle auto spam registers & thus stop open-registration sites from being hit by spam bots that register themselves as users. Ultimately, as the bots become more sophisticated I think we'll have to use something like that or else sites like this one (with open registration) will be victimized. Here and here are examples of what I mean (I like the simplicity of the first version in the second example). -- GmBowen
        • Yes, "Captcha" is an old trick - it will keep out some bots (but not all) and it will keep many people out, too, like those who are visually handicapped (not just people who are totally blind - being colorblind may be enough to be defeated by such tricks). Add a sound equivalent? Well, there are people who are deaf and blind. Are we going to deny them access to our wikis? I'm not in favor of making Wikka inaccessible when we should be working towards making it more accessible. --JavaWoman.


RSS options


It would be wonderful to be able to choose what kind of RSS feed is created for a page. For example, {{rss}}/{{rss show="1"}} could show only the headlines and the update field (current setting), {{rss show="2"}} could show a blurb of the updated info, {{rss show="3"}} could show the whole update. --MovieLady


Embed a blurb from a news page into another page?


I currently have no idea how one would approach this, but thought I'd toss it out there for others to think over. I would find it really useful to have an announcement action (maybe {{news}}?) that I could use which displays only the most recent (configurable) number (e.g. {{news show="2"}} would show the most recent two entries from the page) of entries from a specific (configurable or static?) page. Right now I do this by hand, adding the current announcement to both the front page and the news archive page (so I'll have a history of the announcements), and boy, what a pita! What I'd like to be able to do is just edit the news page and have it automatically update what displays in the news area on the front page. Possible, or am I smoking something I need to share? ;) --MovieLady
      • Did you do anything to get it to add only part of the page being included (for example, down to the first horizontal line)? --MovieLady
        • Nope. I just only keep the news updated in TheNews page so that the whole page is displayed when included. --ChristianBarthelemy
          • Ah well, I'll keep working on trying to figure out a way to do it. *g* Thanks! :) --MovieLady


Logging-out

Perhaps the installer should tell the user that he will be logged-out (because of the new cookie-names). Would be nicer. Btw, the /setup directory needs an update (or better the files in it). --NilsLindenberg



It would be wonderful to have the option to display the results of the {{backlinks}} action in columns, similar to what {{Category col="3"}} allows you to do. --MovieLady

backlinks.php
if ($pages = $this->LoadPagesLinkingTo($this->getPageTag())) {
    foreach ($pages as $page) {
        $links[] = $this->Link($page["tag"]);
    }
    // #MW:commented print(implode("<br />\n", $links));

// #MW: Ja, här ska jag fixa stöd för kolumner via parametern col

if (!isset($col)) $col=1;
$out = "<table width='100% border='0''><tr>";
$count = 0;
while (list($key, $val) = each($links)) {
    if($count == $col) { $out .= "</tr><tr>"; $count = 0; }
    $out .= "<td>" . $val . "</td>";
    $count++;
}
$out .= "</tr></table>";
print $out;



Language file

I would be nice to see all phrases put into a single file. This would allow to translate the wiki in a few hours without changes every single file.
  • Look at DotMgs approach at WikkaInternationalization. But at least it should work for languages in the range of the "normal" (ascii?) code. If you are interested, you should start a page in where we can collected the hard-coded sentences (would wait for the .6 relase, anyway). --NilsLindenberg
    • The most flexible and powerful way to support i18n is still Gettext which is supported by PHP. If we go in that direction (likely), manually creating a "language file" is needless work since Gettext does all that automatically for you. And it supports options for handling plurals and such which simple string-to-string language files cannot handle. The problem is that code needs to be written in a way to properly be able to use Gettext, so that translatable strings do contain whole phrases with punctuation and do not contain any HTML markup (actually this is true for simple laguage files as well). Currently our code is not "in shape" for i18n though, so that's the first job we'll have to tackle. --JavaWoman


User names


Is there any likelihood of non-wikiname usernames (e.g. Movielady) in the future? It's one of the things I've been asked a lot by the users of the site I use Wikka for. (Most often heard comment: "but other wikis I've used let me do it!") Obviously it's possible to create non-wikiname pages, so why not usernames? (I have looked on the site, but I've probably missed the explanation.)

I also agree with Nils that it would be really wonderful if some sort of default user page was created when a person creates an account.
  • Should not be that difficult? In usersettings.php there is a part where a new user is created. After the mysql query which adds the user to the user-base, another query which inserts the user-page to the pages table is needed. Anybody here whos good in creating mysql-queries? --NilsLindenberg
    • Automatically creating a user page should certainly be possible (easy enough). But while on some Wikis you may have a small group of people regularly contributing, on others many people may register just to post one or two things, and then disappear, never even look at their user page - and you'd end up with a lot of empty pages, all of which will show up in the PageIndex. So it really should be a (WikiAdmin) option to determine whether user pages are automatically created or not. --JavaWoman
      • Excellent point, hadn't thought about that. :) --MovieLady

Y'all are doing a marvelous job, BTW and it is greatly appreciated! :) (I will try to contribute as I can, but honestly, some of the programming is beyond me at the moment.) --MovieLady

I actually hacked UserSettings.php to allow for non-wikinames. Just change lines such as 152 and 179 from:
if (!$this->IsWikiName($name)) $error = "User name must be WikiName formatted!";

to something like:
if(false);

Then modify header.php so that the username is Wikified. So change a certain line (I modified my Wikka so much that I can't give accurate lines) to:
echo "You are ".$this->Link($this->GetUserName());

I'm not sure how well this will work in the long run, but it worked for me!
-- MikeXstudios
  • Good idea, except that having a non-wikiname causes problems elsewhere. For instance, I edited my db by hand and changed a couple of names to non-wikinames, and then one of the users with a non-wikiname forgot (sigh) her password. She tried to request a new one, but the temporary password function wouldn't recognize her username as being valid. And that's certainly not the only place that checks for a valid username. (The automatic sig on comments doesn't show a hotlink to a username if it's not a wikiname, either.) Just FYI. :) --MovieLady
    • I do really want to use non-wikinames (or just turn wikinames off completely somehow). The temp pass and comments can be easily modified, comments can use the same header code above if the user exists. I know many of us are used to wikinames, but it is extremely odd and intimidating to newbies. Thats why Mediawiki dropped all wikinames so not to intimidate anyone and lessen the learning curve. So I hope there is some way to make wikinames an optional thing. --RyanKnoll


Finally using CVS?

I apologize since this idea has been suggested before, and I believe the developers are working to implement it already. However, with the beta of 1.1.6.0 released, I think it would be a good time now to start using CVS. This allows for better collaboration and as each bug fix or feature is implemented, developers and testers can grab new copies and work out further bugs. In addition, this allows more outsiders to participate in the code development process and not wait as long from the transition of releases.

Also, I am willing to help with the CVS migration process if needed and help anyone who is interested in learning how to use CVS.
-- MikeXstudios
      • The "just was meant as an addition to existing ("Of course" would have been better, though :). I just wanted to point out the existing (or better non-existing ;) usage of sourceforge, in case Mike does not no. It is obviously to me that you have to integrate it into your development-process, otherwise it would not be out of date (*duck & run* ;) --NilsLindenberg
        • Hi Nils. Actually, I did find Wikka's CVS repository at SF weeks ago, but I forgot to mention it in my above post. JavaWoman pretty much echoed my thoughts. We need to actively use CVS/update it constantly as changes are made. I run a project called Xcomic that uses Sourceforge's CVS a lot, so I have some experience with that. In addition, I recently set something up for my project that I think will be pretty cool if Wikka decides to really use CVS: a commit mailing list. Anytime someone makes a change to the CVS (modification, addition, or deletion), an automatically generated email will be sent to anyone on the suscribers list detailing the files changed and the areas changed (a diff). In any case, version 1.1.6.0-beta4 should be committed and access should be given to a few main developers. Then smaller contributors (like me) can send code changes to the main developers who subsequently commit. --MikeXstudios
          • Mike, I for one would welcome your insights in using CVS. Both DarTar and I have some ideas about how we want it set up - but no experience in doing so (in CVS). May I suggest you join our developers mailing list? For this type of thing I think that would be the best medium to discuss thoughs and methods. I like the idea of a commit mailing list. --JavaWoman


List of special actions?

A complete reference list of all the special actions (e.g. {{nocomments}}, {{Category}}, etc.) would be really nice. --MovieLady

  • Have a look at UsingActions which has a current list of available actions. We're working on automatic actions documentation, so that both that list (expanded with short descriptions), and documentation pages for individual actions will pull content from the actions files themselves. (Not for 1.1.6.0, but likely the version after that.) --JavaWoman
    • Thank you! I figured something like that somewhere, but couldn't find it. :) I'm more than happy to help out with documentation if you need help! --MovieLady


Allow spaces in pagetitle

Allow Spaces in the document title and replace it later with "-" to optimize it for search engines.
  • Wikka already uses the SmartTitle formatter, which displays the highest-level header present in the page (like: ===== This is the main heading) as a HTML title. See for instance the title of FormattingRules. -- DarTar


User-defined formatting rules

It would be nice if Wikka supported some way to add in user defined wikki formatting rules (that is, without editing ./formatters/wakka.php). Not sure what that would look like. A few thoughts I've had:
  • An array in wikka.config.php
  • A function defined in a standard place (like ./formatters/wakka_user.php). ./formatters/wakka.php could then call that function, if it exists). Maybe even a flag in wikka.config.php to enable it.
--KickTheDonkey


It would be nice if a link to the same host as the wikka install was not flagged as 'external'. I've added a 'hack' to my personal page: KickTheDonkey. Works fine here.
--KickTheDonkey


Compile Category action
A "compile category" action. Right now, if I go to CategoryDocumentation I can see a list of all of the pages in this category...but it still requires a lot of snooping to find what I want. As an administrator I'd like to provide a pdf "booklet" of all of that output for users to download. To make this now would mean going to and printing each and every page (using a software tool, TO a pdf file). Ugh. An action that let me go {{compile category="CategoryDocumentation"}} to generate a single web page of all of that documentation would be quite useful because then I could just print it to a pdf file once.....then I could provide a link to the PDF file so users could download it and print it off.


Compatibility & Installer

(Copied from comment on WikkaInstallation, I support this proposal - and agree that @ in front of a statement should generally be avoided, unless any errors are actually dealt with. (Layout slightly adapted.) --JavaWoman)

IMPORTANT: installer uses TOO MUCH "@" before all mysql calls...
-- 213-140-6-98.fastres.net

- Compatibility-problem is solved now, text moved below to Resolved Suggestions->Compatibility with PHP 4.1.x) --NilsLindenberg


Handling the config

I have three questions about the config. See HandlingWikkaConfig.
--NilsLindenberg
See also WikkaSecureConfig for a possible new appraoch. --JavaWoman


Markup for code not to be shown

I read this suggestion elsewhere (not in wikka I don't think...some other wiki I think) and didn't think anything about it at the time, but now with the showpagecode action (Mod042fShowPageCodeHandler) am thinking that maybe some wiki markup for "comment text" that is not shown by the code interpreter might be useful (in other words, visible when editing the page, visible when showing the code, NOT visible when just viewing page). I suspect it might be simple to add this....am I wrong?? -- GmBowen (Mike)
Essentially you can already do this -- well, mostly -- since Wikka supports HTML markup: just enclose the element to be hidden in HTML (SGML) comments: <!-- at the start and --> at the end, and then mark the whole as being HTML. One gotcha: the content between inside the comment declaration cannot itself contain a double dash (hyphen) since that would terminate the comment. And a proviso: HTML should be enabled. --JavaWoman
I played with this a little and did a modification of formatters/wakka.php (see here) that got rid of monospace and replaced it with the comment brackets. It works okay, although it does leave a blank line in the code. I tried making my own format within that code (using ^^) and got nowhere....but what I did works okay. Thanks for your feedback...it provided info I needed to do the change in the wakka file. -- Mike
But why make a modification at all? HTML is already supported. Do you see the commented out text? It's right here in my reply; edit the page to see it. :) --JavaWoman
Ha...I learned something here....I didn't have HTML turned on in the config file (oops!)....however, one thing to remember is that I'm dealing with a different "audience" for using this wikka tool (13-18 year olds, many not computer literate at all, and who would be completely alienated by even thinking about using html...although maybe not all that different from an "average" user) and I'm trying to have it as useable as possible for them. For that group, there's a big difference between typing ## twice when they might want to add a comment they don't want anyone else to see as they're reading the document, like a thought they don't want to forget, and having to remember BOTH of "<!--" AND "-->" (with the double quotes remember). From a useability perspective the latter is a LOT more difficult, and therefore students would be much less likely to use it (altho' the ability to drop in quick notes would be quite useful to the writing process....like I use the post it boxes in MSWord). Imagine them writing an essay that they want comments back on from the teacher or other students. They would never put "off-topic commentary" (to remind themselves of a reference, etc) into the overall "visible" body in a way that you and I might (it runs completely against how students write in school culture)...although such personal sorts of comments might be really useful when re-editing the document. My overall schtick is trying to provide a scaffolding of use so that complete newbies can better proceed to more sophisticated usage...and part of how I do this is considering the culture they work in and how they use similar tools in the context that I'm interested in them using the wiki....which is what many of my comments and additions here are all about eh. ; ) I agree though that for my useage, and for your useage, what you're suggesting makes complete sense....and besides, why do we need monospace anyways?? {grin} -- Mike
Ah, yes, I see your point about the "available" commenting method being unusable for your (and similar) audience. (One could possibly extend the WikeEdit toolbar to provide an easy "commenting out" action though) On the other hand, maybe you don't need monospace, but I, often writing about code (and planning Wikis where users would do the same), need it all the time: I use it as a "fake" inline code markup (see my new JwCalendar page for an example :)); real inline code markup might be nice, of course, but I still wouldn't want to give up monospace markup! So, I'd suggest a choosing different set of characters (possibly a combination of two different characters, we're fast running out of candidates!). --JavaWoman
My, uh, comment on monospace was a "poking fun" "tongue in cheek" kind of comment (meant in the kindest possible ways) that programmers use monospace a lot (which is probably why it's there), whereas non-computer sorts don't.....my (maniacal?) focus is on the latter groups eh? LOL. I did try to have code in formatters/page/wakka.php to add in ^^ as code for commenting, but I couldn't get it working...which is why I switched to just replacing monospace. Do I need to edit a file other than that one to get it to work?? I couldn't find another relevant file, but I might have missed something. I've played with editing the wikiedit toolbar before (I now have Image Manager in mine to make placing images easier (from the students personal directories)) and will add in code (either for the replaced monospace or some other code (if I can get it working)) for commenting at some point. -- Mike
Heh, poke fun all you like. ;-) I know us coder types can take thinks rather literally sometimes (and some of us make an art of that! "can you pass the salt?" "yes.").
About not getting ^^ working - without looking up the Formatter code, I think you'd need to add both the code to handle the "tags" and the appropriate regular expressions, I think. Did you do that? Everywhere? If not, does that hint help at all? --JavaWoman
Oh, regex stuff. Ugh. I don't understand those worth a darn. (although some comments here last week helped me understand them a little) Okay, thanks for the hint. I'll have to tackle it a bit later (got marking to do). -- Mike


Online editing of mindmaps would be great

(copied from Sourceforge.net --NilsLindenberg)
It would be great, if users should work together on mindmaps.

Maybe by downloading/ Open With FreeMind and then having a possiblity to save changes in FreeMind directly back to the online mindmap.


How to format code to get two % characters without space together?

I want to produce a code sample page in wikka with DOS batch code. The code syntax requires two percent characters together to markup a variable. Example: % %variable% % (without the spaces). Wikka always tries to format the text as code, even if I format the DOS code inside a code block, even if I
 marked it as code with two percent characters like this here


Is there a solution? I could not find a literal entity for "percent"

You could use % which is the numerical entity reference for the percent sign: % - but *within* a code block an entity is "escaped" - a problem by itself, and so it wouldn't help. See:
some text with &#37&#37 embedded in it

But it should be possible to just plug in a piece of code without having to worry about which characters and strings to somehow escape - maybe the double percent isn't such a happy choice for Wiki markup of "code"; should we find a character combination that is less likely to be a syntactical meaning in an artificial language? (And how do you markup Wiki markup as
code?) -- JavaWoman

How about the € (euro) Symbol? Or is it to new? --NilsLindenberg

The main problem with the € (euro) symbol is not that it's new, but that it's hard to type: most keyboards don't have the symbol. And it might occur in code as well (imagine a sample conversion routine). Wiki markup should be easy to type. So we need a symbol (or sumbol combination, maybe), that's:
  1. easy to type
  1. not likely to occur in any programming code (note "likely" - you can never completely exclude it; think of APL!)
The
exclamation mark still seems to be "free", and although a single exclamation mark often is used for negation in programming languages (and in comments, of course) a double one isn't (just don't use rows off exclamation marks in your code comments); or else a combination of an exclamation mark with something else (that is not itself an "operator" in languages). Maybe we should do a search (Google?) to check whether !! or a combo is actually an operator in any language.
-- JavaWoman


markup of diff pages

The 'diff' facility is if course nice - and essential to a Wiki. But I note the differences are marked up only with classes which match to coloring in the stylesheet. If we're doing XHTML, we could do that a little better (as well as more accessible!): the
del and ins elements are created to markup deletions and insertions: fully semantic markup!

My proposal:
  • mark up a deletion with the <del>...</del> tag; since we actually know the timestamp of the change, add that in the datetime attribute (properly formatted);
  • mark up an insertion with the <ins>...</ins> tag; same recipe for the timestamp
  • then use the stylesheet to render those two in whatever font/coloring you like (even as done now) - but note that most browsers have a default rendering anyway

See 9.4 Marking document changes: The INS and DEL elements for all the details (HTML 4.01 since that's where all the semantics are).
--JavaWoman (standards junkie)

This is related - I found that the diff engine and page history sometimes forgot to close tags. With a list of lists, the indents would get carried forward. Check out my hack. Not CSS compliant by any means, but then again, your suggestion isn't either (list tags are not closed etc etc). I reckon you would probably have to parse each addition/deletion through the SafeHTML checker. -- Sam

Assuming you mean XHTML compliant (sorry) my suggestion certainly is (believe me, I would
never suggest anything that isn't XHTML compliant) - I just forgot to mention that closing tags properly is a prerequisite... although I did point to the actual standard which indicates how ins and del must maintain proper tag nesting.
You're right though, I did notice that lists don't seem to be closed properly. I think that should be fixed first (it's a bug, not sure it's recorded as such yet) -
then you can do more semantic markup.
-- JavaWoman (standards junkie)

You mean something like that?:

// deletions
else if ($thing == ""¥¥") 
{
$timestamp = $wakka->GetPageTime(); //hopefully this function returns the right format?
return (++$trigger_deleted % 2 ? "<DEL datetime=\"$timestamp\">" : "</DEL>");
}


(naturely the rest has to be changed too)
--NilsLindenberg


showing comments

Working on a test installation, I found the user setting "Show comments by default" did not work. Testing it here, I found it doesn't work here, either.
Haven't dug in the code yet to find where this should happen (but will).

I'm quite happy with Wikka's capabilities out of the box - good starting point! :) I'll likely stay with it - but I'll probably make some extensions... (such as an option to require confirmation of a registration before allowing edit access - validates email).

Great work! JavaWoman

It does work.... just not as might be expected. Comment preference is stored for each page as you browse the wiki. So, if you browse a few pages with comments not showing, it remembers this. Then if you update your preferences and return to the same pages, it still remembers that your previous preference was not to see comments on those pages.

Try this:
  • Browse to UserSettings and check off "Show comments by default" and click "Update Settings".
  • Now close all browser windows
  • Open back up your browser and go to the same pages......
  • Comments are now showing by default, right?

- JsnX

Right. I see it does work. ;) Somewhat, um, counterintuitive, though. So I guess my suggestion then becomes that when a user configuration is changed, this change should immediately be stored in the user session/cookie so it's active right from that moment (without closing the browser). That would, I think, be more in line with expected behavior. Possible? (I haven't looked at that area of the code yet.) --JavaWoman.


Language support


I was searching almost whole site to check what kind of languages are supported by this wiki. I was unsuccessful. Is it possible to put somewhere (main page, release note, futures section…) some information about languages they are supported?

Thanks MDD


Problem: Scrolling in the search - field


Not worth to mention but now I am here I write it. Text in the search field is a little bit scrollable. Again ... ;-)

-- SkyWalk


Question: note?

It is me again! What is the function of the "Please add a note on your edit" - field? Again and again: Keep on the good work.

-- SkyWalk

  • this note is shown in some lists like the RecentChanges and the page revisions. it's just a little helper to keep the wiki organized and has no effect on the page itself. use it whenever you can to drop a short abstract of what has changed, even if you have corrected some typos to let others know that no essential changes were made. it is a really useful feature --DreckFehler
    • maybe we could have a level switch on that feature, constituting it obligatory, optional, or off... an addittion to the conf will be neccessary thought.. --GeorgePetsagourakis


Problem: Five Line Breaks


Just a small problem i found. If you insert five line breaks at the end of a site, the footer jumps into the box.
After all a nice wikki. Keep on the good work.

-- SkyWalk


DB Export


ExportDB : as i'm discovering Wikki (and WikkaWiki) and playing with it on my main server and on my laptop (which too runs an Apache installation), I
was needing a quickly way of making export of my database. So I wrote a quick (and dirty ...) export page to get all the replace SQL commands to populate an instance.

I too may use this in the future to quickly backup an online Wikki site. See this additionnal page for the code : CodeExportdb

-- SergiO


Code block formatting

I was converting a document to Wikka markup format, and I was trying to display MySQL (Console) Table output using the "Code" formatters %%. Everything that appears in a code block is formatted using a monospace font (as I expect), however, since the Edit page handler converts every instance of 4 spaces to a tab, the spacing is thrown off. Below is an example (Select some of the whitespace with your mouse to see the tabs):
----------------------------------------------------------------
OBJECT_TYPE		  COUNT(*)
------------------ ----------
FUNCTION				   12
INDEX					  55
LOB						 4
PACKAGE					 2
PACKAGE BODY				2
SEQUENCE					9
TABLE					  37
TRIGGER					 6
VIEW						1
9 rows selected
no rows selected
--------------------------------------------------------------------


The edit page handler seems to convert spaces to tabs throughout the entire document, including Code blocks.

From edit.php
11:     // replace 4 consecutive spaces with tab character
12:     $body = str_replace("   ", "\t", $body);

Is there any way to make the edit handler leave the spaces alone inside of code blocks?
Thanks! -RichardTerry

Noted. Try commenting out that line for a temporary workaround. -- JsnX
// $body = str_replace("    ", "\t", $body);



Various suggestions

- See MarkHissinkMuller for things I would like to see in Wakka/Wacko/Wikka. Feel free to add/discuss.


Other method to attach files

- I'd like a way to attach files to a page without having to include the {{files}} action. I like using the action to
link to attachments, but I'd rather click a link at the bottom of each page to reach the attach form or to see which files are attached to the page. (I'm a PHP newbie, so It would probably take me some time to make a handler to do what I want.) Actually, now I'm kind of used to having all of my attached images displaying at the bottom of the screen, so this isn't a big deal. If I really don't want the attachment list (usually a bunch of images) to display I just remove the {{files}} from the page. -RichardTerry


Installation problem - UTF-8?

- Not a suggestion, but problems: with installing 1.1.3 on a Win 32 Apache 2, with Php 4.3.8 and Mysql 4.1.3. Upgrading from wakka 0.1.2 didn't work (ended with: "creating comment table - failed - hmm"). So I thought I'd do a fresh install. Everything went fine, but there seems to be some problem with utf8. Even when I set the charset in header.php to utf-8, the page is all scrambled. However, in phpMyAdmin, the text in the pages table shows up fine. Any clues? (I need utf-8, by the way ...) BirgitKellner.

Sorry if this was the wrong place for posting this, and feel free to move it to a more appropriate one.

wikka don't support utf-8 yet. this issue is discussed here: WikkaInternationalization (and should be moved from there to its own page, 'cause it's not a trivial problem ;) --moved to HandlingUTF8 ). anyway, i'm afraid you won't find comprehensive help in that discussion. it's not enough to change the meta-tag. that only tells the browser to assume a charset, which in fact isn't used.

i haven't spent much time on that issue, although i am (or should be) interested in it. but be assured that it's not a simple config-value to be squeezed to solve the problem. i hope the discussion mentioned above will get more precise in the next days, as i would appreciate any hint how to start to despair of it ;) i think in long terms it's
a must to support different charsets. -- DreckFehler


  • It would be Really Nice to be able to have an Add Page link that allows a user to create a new page without having to edit an existing one. (I don't belive this is currently possible, I'm a newbie however) Perhaps this could be achieved via a simple HTML Form that prompts the user for a Page Name, and Category. It would be even better if the Category was selectable (dropdown list) from existing categories. And to top the whole thing off, it would be perfect if it was possible to define Template files (eg. per Category) where by when a user creates a new page of category ABC, the template file for ABC is used as the default page text. This would aid in keeping some kind of consistancy between pages of the same category. (ie. for one thing the correct category definition could be placed in the appropriate location/style). An Add Page link would posssibly be usefull on the standard Category pages, especially as the Category is already known.

  • It would be nice if ACLs were somehow inheiritable from their creating pages (Created either the current way or via the above described method)

  • Is it possible to define User Groups to simplify editing ACLs also.

  • Finally, (although I think I can possibly do this one myself) , On the Editor Page a link to the standard FormattingRules page would be most useful. Especially if it opened in a different window.

Regards Simon H.

  • I like the Add Page link idea. It would be really simple to implement, too. Perhaps a text form where you'd enter the page name, which would take you to http://some.host.com/wikka.php?wakka=NewPage/edit, where you would actually create the content. I like it! --KickTheDonkey


Mod_rewrite

take a look at FaviconDotIco and RobotsDotTxt


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