wiki essentials what you need to know
TRANSCRIPT
2 Table of Contents
Table of Contents• What is a Wiki?• Some Common Wikis• Important Wiki Concepts• Wiki’s Role in MISMO• Getting Around
– Left Menu– Search/Quick Navigation– Document Tabs– Top Menu
• Getting Setup• Creating Wiki pages• Editing Pages
– Two Editor Options– Some Wiki Syntax– Plain Text Editor– Side-by-Side Example– WikiWizard (WYSIWYG Editor)
• Formatting– Page Structure– Bulleted & Numbered Lists– Links Expanded– Tables & Tabs
• Plugins• Customizing & Extending the
Wiki• Best Practices• Most Common Formatting
Rules
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What is a Wiki?
• “wiki” comes from the Hawaiian word which means “fast”
• You can see a pretty good definition at Wikipedia, but it is basically a web application that supports collaborative authoring of Web pages. The model is very dynamic and non-hierarchical. Wikis are extremely useful in places where the relationships between web pages are non pre-defined.
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Some Common Wikis• There are thousands of Wikis in use today. Wikis can provide a
benefit any time there is a community of people with a shared interest in some subject.
– Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org)• The granddaddy of them all. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia of everything
– LostWiki (http://lostwiki.abc.com)• ABC's Wiki on the TV show "Lost".
– Solar Cooking Site (http://solarcooking.wikia.com)• A site about solar cooking
– Wookieepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com)• Star Wars encyclopedia and all things Wookie.
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Important Wiki Concepts• Keyword-based/Topic-based documents
– Documents have an absolute name indicating their topic– Example document names;
• PhotoSynthesis• NamespaceApproach• XmlSchema
– Expectation is that there is single page for a given topic.
• Reuse (References Rather than Embedding)– When one topic needs to reference another, links are used rather than repeating
content• PhotoSynthesis -> Chlorophyll• NamespaceApproach -> LinkingApproach• XmlSchema -> Internationalization
• Linking– Lightweight Approach – links just use the keyword rather than complete URLs– Links can be made in anticipation of content that is not there
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Wiki Concepts (cont…)• Flat Repository
– No assumptions about hierarchy and relationships among documents
• Edit in Place– Changing content is easy, is done right in the same browser that is used for
navigating and viewing. – Source Control happens automatically– Pages compared on check-in to make sure no collision occurs
• Lightweight Syntax– Markup is lightweight and text based.– Rendering with different looks and feels done with styles– Can edit with text editor or WSIWYG editor
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Wiki's Role in MISMO• For Managing
– I-Guides– Engineering Guidelines– Commonly referenced documentation– Rapidly changing documents like task lists
• Changing the Process– More collaboration– Smaller more manageable topics
• Re-use and Modularity– Lighter-Weight process– More inter-linking
• Why not Sharepoint?– Strict Hierarchy versus web of data– Sharepoint is subscriber-only– Wiki has more comprehensive linking support
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Getting Around
Left Menu Breadcrumbs
Main Content Area
Search/Quick Navigation
Top MenuDocument Tabs
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Left Menu
• This is a nod to hierarchy
• Contains common starting points for navigating the Wiki
• Content to be finalized
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Search/Quick Navigation
• Allows search on document names and content• In Upper right Corner
Basic Mouse-Over Search for term “Secondary”
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Document Tabs
• View Tab– Displays main content of the page & available menus
• Attach Tab– Shows list of existing attachments and allows authenticated
users to upload and manage documents.
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Document Tabs: Info Tab
• Version History Sub-Tab– Note: you can link to specific versions
• Incoming Links Sub-Tab• Outgoing Links Sub-Tab
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Top Menu
• Home– Link to the MISMO Wiki Home Page
• Edit– Only available if you are logged in
• Comment?– Option to add a comment to a page
• Index– Displays an Alphabetical list of all documents (pages)
• Changes– Displays recent changes for entire MISMO Wiki site, not a particular document
• Prefs– Allows you to change your user preferences
• Login/Logout– Allows you to Login to edit or Logout from the wiki– Login is not required to view pages
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Getting Set up• Your Preferences
– Can adjust setting– Most important thing is your “skin”
• Controls look and feel of site
• Logging in– You must be logged into edit content– On the honor system – not tied to formal security– Full names should be used
• “JohnSmith”, not “SurferBoy312”
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Creating Wiki Pages• Start with References
– Pages are only useful if people can find them– Is your page related to pages that exist already?– Linking to non-existent page creates a placeholder
• Page Name Standards – Wiki uses MixedCamelCase – For example “MyTopicPage”– Plurals don’t matter
• Create a link in Sandbox page – http://wiki.mismo.org/MISMOWiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Sandbox
• Links take the form [<linktext>] or [<displaytext>|<linktext>]– *[MyTopicPage]– *[My Topic Page]– *[My Topic|MyTopicPage]– *[MyTopicPages]
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Editing Pages
• Follow “Edit” link in the Top Menu to edit existing pages (link only appears when logged in).
• Must use Wiki markup. For help when editing a page, a “Help” Document tab appears with the most common formatting rules.
• Complete Syntax Guide in Wiki document TextFormattingRules – http://wiki.mismo.org/MISMOWiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Text
FormattingRules
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Two Editor Options
• Plain Text Editor
• WikiWizard
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Some Wiki Syntax
• Formatting Text• Bold by bracketing with “__”: “__BoldText__”• Italics by bracketing with “’’’”: “’’’ItalicText’’’”• CSS for complex formatting:
• %%(color:red) This text is red. %%
• Embedded Images• Just create a link to them• Example:
• [{Image src='BREWDiagram.jpg' width='900' height='800‘ align='center' }]
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Plain Text Editor
• Must learn simple wiki Markup– See sample on next slide
• Screen background will change colors (usually blue)
“Plain” editor is selected
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Side By Side Example
• Edit in Place– Changing content is easy, is
done right in the same browser that is used for navigating and viewing.
– Source Control happens automatically
– Pages compared on check-in to make sure no collision occurs
• Lightweight Syntax– Markup is lightweight and text
based.– Rendering with different looks
and feels done with styles– Can edit with text editor or
WYSIWYG editor
*__Edit in Place__**Changing content is easy, is
done right in the same browser that is used for navigating and viewing.
**Source Control happens automatically
**Pages compared on check-in to make sure no collision occurs
*’’Lightweight Syntax’’**Markup is lightweight and text
based.**Rendering with different looks and
feels done with styles**Can edit with text editor or
[WYSIWYG|wikipedia:Wysiwyg] editor
!!!Side By Side Example
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WikiWizard
• WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor
• Useful when working with tables
“WikiWizard” editor selected
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WikiWizard w/ Tables
||Date||Agenda ||Minutes ||Type ||Discussion ||Documents|July 10, 2007|[Agenda|Agenda071007]|[Minutes|Minutes071007]|Conference Call|[Discussion|Meeting071007Discussion]| [Bulk Bid Use Case |https://sharepoint.mismo.org/secondary/Shared%20Documents/3.x%20Work/Pricing/Bulk%20Bid%20Pricing/Bid%20Process%20Business%20Use%20Case%20Draft%2020070709.doc], [Bulk Bid Pricing Worksheet|https://sharepoint.mismo.org/secondary/Shared%20Documents/3.x%20Work/Pricing/Bulk%20Bid%20Pricing/BulkBidPricingWorksheet.xls]|June 19, 2007|[Agenda|Agenda061907]|[Minutes|Minutes061907]|Conference
Equivalent Plain Text Editor
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Page Structure
• Headers are used for high level page structure– Headers visually partition a page– Headers create Anchors for direct links to sub-topics– Headers drive the table of contents– Syntax
Wiki Markup What You See
• !!!Biggest Header Biggest Header• !!Medium Header Medium Header• !Smaller Header Smaller Header
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Bulleted and Numbered Lists
Wiki Markup *Parent Bullet
**Child Bullet***Grandchild Bullet
# Parent Bullet ##Child Bullet 1##Child Bullet 2###Grandchild Bullet
What You See• Parent Bullet
– Child Bullet• Grandchild Bullet
1. Parent Bullet1. Child Bullet 12. Child Bullet 2
1. Grandchild Bullet
• * and # for bulleted and numbered lists respectively
• Repeat for indentation
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Links Expanded• Link to a local wiki page
• Syntax: [<displayname>|<page>] or [<page>]• Example: [Mismo Word Guidelines|ClassWords] Mismo Word Guidelines
• Link to an Attachment• Syntax: [<displayname>|<attachment name>]• Example: [Project Schedule|schedule.xls] Project Schedule
• Page subtopic • Syntax: [<displayname>|<page>#<header>]• Example: [Guideline|Terms#Guideline] Guideline
• Foreign Links• Syntax: [<displayname>|<url>]• Example: [SISAC|http://www.sisac.org/default.html] SISAC
• InterWiki Links• Assumes administrator has set up alias• Syntax: [<displayname>|<wikiname>:<page>]• Example: [Mortgage|wikipedia:Mortgage] Mortgage
What You See
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Tables & Tabs• Tables
– Example||Header 1||Header2|Row1Col1|Row1Col2|Row2Col1|Row2Col2
– Will make table sortable by column headers if you enclose within %%sortable %%
– Can be more easily maintained with WikiWizard
• Tabs– Example
%%tabbedSection%%tab-Tab1<Tab 1 content>%%%%tab-Tab2<Tab 2 content>%%
Header 1 Header2Row1Col1 Row1Col2Row2Col1 Row2Col2
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Plugins
• When using any plugin, the syntax is as follows: – [{<PluginName>}]
• Some Important Plugins– Table of Contents
• Displays TOC with links to sections.
• Based on header names.
• [{TableOfContents}]
– InsertPage Plugin• Embeds the content of another page in this one• [{InsertPage page=‘<PageName>'}]
Section Menu
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Customizing & Extending the Wiki
• We can create custom Plugins
• We can create New Templates and skins
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Best Practices• Keep pages small and on-topic
• Create obvious page names
• Don’t re-invent the wheel (look for similar pages before making a new one)
• Compose complex “documents” from small topics
• Don’t hesitate to put drafts out there, Refactor, redo later
• Work the Undefined Pages
• Create Page references for concepts that need to be fleshed out
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Most Common Formatting Rules