DROP Task: Documentation for the wikitools module

Yes, documentation is definitely needed. Anyone who wants to write some is welcome to; if not, I'll write it myself when I have a moment.

Turning this into a documentation DROP task.

right now i'm just commenting to subscribe, but I may take this one once I'm done with the "section edit" functionality drop task, since when I tried to get it up and running today just to start doing the development, it took me a while to figure out how it was supposed to work! :)

Cwells, I am taking this but do join me after your prior task. Deal?

Benc/cryptonomikon

benc: There's no reserving of tasks, so it's all yours!

However, if you and cwells would like to do this together, DROP does support team tasks, so that would be great/awesome too.

In another part of the drupal site, probably for people of similar interest, I noticed a note that indicated that this group or drupal in general was going to implement a public wiki. What is the status of that? Was that just a brainstorming idea, or is there gonna be a public drupal wiki? I am hoping there will be, and will be happy to start participate in using it as soon as it comes online. If there is going to be one, what is the URL going to be? wiki.drupal.org?

Cheers! Ricco

Thanks! Claiming it now. (Using 'cryptonomikon' as username in the DROP site).

This is what I have so far (see DRAFT, below). I need a guide to help me build a full-featured wiki (something like wikipedia).

*DRAFT DOCUMENTATION - VER 2*

Overview

The Wikitools module builds basic wiki functionality in Drupal. (What are these basic functionalities?)

Note: to offer wiki-like notations and tags, you need also need to install additional features like Flexifilter (insert link), to create wiki sites similar to Wikipedia.org.

Here is how to install and configure Wikitools. You need administrator privileges to perform the tasks below.

Installing Wikitools

1. Install the files. Unzip the downloaded module and copy its contents (wikitools.info and wikitools.module) into /sites/all/modules directory.
2. Activate Wikitools. Administer > Site building > Modules > check the box near Wikitools (under the Other dropdown).

Configuring Wikitools

Next step is to tell Drupal where you wish to apply your Wiki-type notation and tools. You can do this quickly by simply linking Wikitools capability to the Page or Story node types. But if you want a Wiki that is separate from your basic website, then you first need to create a new node type.

• Create a Wiki node type (you can skip this if you do not wish to create a new node type).
1. Go to Administer > Content types. Click "Add content type". In the form, type a Name (eg, "Wiki") and Type (eg, "wiki"). Then click "Save content type".
• Configure Wiki settings.
1. Go to Administer > Site configuration > Wikitools.
2. Define the wiki path. The wiki path is the URL of your wiki (by default it is, //wiki). You can change this to something else. For example, if my is http://example.com, my wiki path is therefore http://example.com/wiki.
3. Define the Title of main page. By default this is My Wiki. You can change this to something more suitable, like "Company Wiki" etc.
4. Choose Wiki options. By default, the ff options are checked:
• Node creation
• Node search
• Unique Titles
• Treat underscores as spaces

* No need to change these for now. You can return to this later, as your need becomes more sophisticated.

5. Choose Wiki node types. If you created a Wiki node type (II.A), check the box near "Wiki". If you did not, just choose Page and/or Story.

Using the Wiki

1. Create your main Wiki page. In the Admin menu, click Create content > Wiki. Type your content. Be sure to use Wiki notation. (link to notation guide). Question: Should input format be Full HTML here?
2. Save.

LINKS to resources:
Flexifilter wiki how-to: http://drupal.org/node/217177

Several bad things:

Clean up your post. Use tags like <ul> or <ol> instead of hard-coded "I.", etc.

Also, your post contains a misconception about the wikitools module. It does not provide any wiki-notation by itself.

Some options are missing from the "wiki options" list you provided.

Please explain each of the wiki options, rather than just stating the title.

Hi Charles, thanks for these comments. I've noted them.

I need more information on how to proceed (beyond the formatting edits you suggested -- those are easy). I think my misconception will be common to most users who would like to use Wikitools, so bear with me on this. Think of me as representing the majority of users who will have the same confusion. And if I go through this experience, I can then write better documentation for the module :)

Here are the original questions posted about this module:

Can anyone provide some information about how this module is supposed to work? What tags are supported? Are there any examples that we can see? Do we create pages to point to wiki or wiki to point to pages? ;) I installed the module in the hope that there would be some information somewhere - I'll be happy to RTM if someone can point me to one. TIA

I know how a wiki should work and I've successfully installed the Wikitools module -- but I still don't know how the Wikitools module can be used to produce a working wiki. I threw in that rough draft because I wanted something to start with quickly. I can only proceed if someone helps me make a working wiki. :)

I need help on the following:

• Do I need to run Wikitools with other modules to get the wiki notation? The documentation itself is vague about this. And this in the first place was the issue about lack of documentation.
• There are instructions in Wikitools itself that add to the confusion. For example: The Wikitiools configuration page says: "To take full advantage of the options Node Creation, Node Search and Automatic Redirect you should use an input format which creates wikilinks which point to the wiki path set. For exapmle a wikilink [[Page Name]] should be linked to wikipath/Page Name." This sentence may be clear to those who are familiar with the module, but it's not for me :). Is it saying that I need another module (an input format other than what's pre-installed in Drupal)? I can see the "wiki path" on this page but what does "creates wikilinks which point to the wiki path set" mean?
• You mentioned that Wikitools "does not provide any wiki-notation by itself". My expectation as a clueless user is that the Wikitools module *should* provide this feature. So now it's evident that it does not. But knowing this limitation, how do I get over it? The Wikitools config page says, "The options Node Creation, Node Search and Automatic Redirect work only if a wiki path is set or if freelinking hijacking is enabled. They take the page name from the path after the wiki path, i.e. wikipath/Page Name, or the page name of a freelinking link, i.e. freelinking/Page Name." Again this is not clear to me. If someone like me who understands a bit of Drupal cannot make sense of this sentence, what more the rest of the users? :)

Thanks!

Yes, you need other modules to get a full "wiki". For the input format you can for example use "freelinking" or "pearwiki_filter". Both of these provide wikilinks in the [[Page name]] style.

Depending on your understanding what a "wiki" is, you will need other modules as well (diff, recent_changes, talk, subscriptions, views and more). The purpose of wikitools was never to provide a full wiki, but only some tools to be able to build one together with other modules. This should probably go into the documentation as well (and the project description here on drupal.org).

Rotzi, thanks for this.

We can reflect these in the documentation. I know there may be different interpretations of what a wiki should be, but there is a common understanding of what a wiki should at least do for most users who are expecting to run a wiki. By listing all the dependencies, then we can help users (like me) to make the wiki run.

I definitely agree. When I first downloaded it I was like "umm, so what tags can I use? What gives?" It took me a while before I installed Flexifilter and then some magic started happening. I think it just needs to be very clear at the top of the documentation that this module by itself only helps your site "do wiki-like things," but not all of it.

Thanks for the insight, cwells. I'm just clearing some work stuff and will go back to revising the documentation. If possible, could you list down other modules you used with wikitools, other than Flexifilter?

Flexifilter is all that I ended up using. I tried the PEAR one, but it was a little confusing (to me), so I uninstalled it rather quickly. Flexifilter more quickly gave me the functionality I needed.

Some Updates:

Clean up your post. Use tags like <ul> or <ol> instead of hard-coded "I.", etc.

* * * DONE * * *

Also, your post contains a misconception about the wikitools module. It does not provide any wiki-notation by itself.

* * * CORRECTED * * *

Some options are missing from the "wiki options" list you provided.

Please explain each of the wiki options, rather than just stating the title.

* * * FIXING THESE * * *

Just an update. I've successfully installed Flexifilter and configured it to run like a full-bodied wiki :)

I'm just cleaning up the steps. Will complete them over the Holy Week! Thanks to cwells and rotzi for the guidance.

Flexifilter is a powerful but confusing tool :)