By Gunnar Langemark on

37 signals announced "Writeboard" a collaborative writing tool.
http://writeboard.com/

The social software weblog (http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/) had it.

But Drupal could do that - and much more.

So this is a kind of software which could be supported by an installation wizard.

best
Gunnar

Comments

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

If these guys could provide an API, someone could try implementing in drupal. They have one for backpack, with which the writeboard service integrates (http://www.backpackit.com/api).

I suppose it could be done even without an api.

moggy’s picture

moggy commented

it's just a wiki?!

drupal is quite capable of doing that already.

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

I think the site mentioned it is quite different from a wiki.

And, drupal cannot really do wiki at the moment- all it has is a wiki-like syntax.

moggy’s picture

moggy commented

drupal cannot really do wiki at the moment- all it has is a wiki-like syntax

...and freelinking, and the ability to allow anyone to edit the page.

does a basic wiki do anything else?

Ian Ward’s picture

Ian Ward commented

and diff-ing versions (http://drupal.org/project/diff)

if you put the pieces together you have a wiki. So this makes for an interesting thread, how would you ideally make a wiki in Drupal?

cel4145’s picture

cel4145 commented

We've offered this setup for teachers at Purdue. Once we switch to Drupal 4.7, we'll also have the ability (thanks to Gerhard's changes to revisions) to let all users see and/or rollback revisions. I'll probably add in the diff module at that time.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

-sp
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

boris mann’s picture

boris mann commented

I wrote up some recipes on how to do wikis with Drupal. They are, unsurprisingly, stuck in a Drupal-based wiki: http://wiki.bryght.com/wiki/DrupalWikiRecipe -- please edit and improve, and feel free to stick it in the handbook.

I would love it if we turned on more wiki functionality (i.e. anyone can edit, without moderation queue) for the handbooks. Unfortunately, without being able to subscribe to changes in book pages directly, we can't turn this on on Drupal.org without getting spammed to death.

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Please turn on the "story" type, so we can use it to have an archive of best practices, how tos, and configuration recipes.

cel4145’s picture

cel4145 commented

I doubt it would ever happen, but I would love it if the freelinking and wiki (and possibly diff) modules were added to core for 4.7. When coupled with the new revision features, we could tell people to use the now (supposedly) redundant page module to build wikis since it has the necessary permissions. Stories for announcements/community blog, page for wiki pages. Built in wiki functionality in Drupal core would be one hell of a selling point for Drupal as a CMS.

cel4145’s picture

cel4145 commented

I should add that the page module would need the "edit all pages" permission added.

cel4145’s picture

cel4145 commented

It's been on my todo list, but most recently I've been waiting for 4.7 to test it with it first.

BTW: If we made you cut back the time you write in the forums by 10%, you could write 2 or 3 handbook pages like this a day :-)

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

What has been your experience with using node_privacy_by_role for the wiki? I have had all kinds of problems using that module.

Also, is there anyway the latest changes to revisions can be made to work with 4.6.3? I have to immediately implement a site using CivicSpace and a CS version based on drupal 4.7 is probably a couple of months away. Just wondering about the possible solutions.

styro’s picture

styro commented

What has been your experience with using node_privacy_by_role for the wiki? I have had all kinds of problems using that module.

For wikis? or just normally?

We use it successfully - although there was a problem bug in one of the early 4.6 releases. Basically all roles needed the permissions for permissions right for it to work. It has since been fixed though.

--
Anton

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

Just normally. I think my problem with it had to do with the bug you mention. Glad to know it's since been fixed.

boris mann’s picture

boris mann commented

I haven't had any problems so far. Can you tell us what sorts of problems you had?

Backport of revisions for 4.6.3: short answer -- ask Gerhard. Slightly longer answer -- this is highly unlikely, since it affects every single core module, IIRC.

--
Please turn on the "story" type, so we can use it to have an archive of best practices, how tos, and configuration recipes.

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

Well, despite Ankur trying to help me, I ended up trashing a site into which I had put lots and lots of work and which was working fine until I installed NPBR. Fortunately, it was a test site.

Sad that revisions won't be backported. That's significant functionality lost for those who base their sites on 4.6. Is it difficult technically or a question of time available to the volunteers?

boris mann’s picture

boris mann commented

There is a reason we have releases....revisions works with 4.7, and relies on lots of code in that release.

To backport it, one would have to duplicate/change the functions it required on and include it in the module or patch all the other functions it relies on. And then make sure those new functions don't break anything that 4.6 modules rely on.

Make sense?

And, of course, you can always just upgrade your site to 4.7 if you want the functionality offered by it.

iraszl’s picture

iraszl commented

Drupal can certainly do that. Just make "Create new revision" default for the content type under administer/content/configure. Every time a person edits a document the old version will be saved. All previous versions will be saved under a tab called revisions attached to the node. You can view, roll back and delete the revisions.

Writeboard may look nicer than the default bluemarine installation of Drupal, but it's just a matter of styling. The functionality is there already.

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http://creativebits.org

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

Well, I am glad I chimed in on this thread and learned something, although I have definitely seen forum postings about the relative lack of wiki-like functions in drupal. But, how well does 'revisions' work well under 4.6? I remember that the revisions issue generated something more than about a 100 postings...

And, yes, there is a lot of eye candy (not using this negatively) in all that 37signals does. But, that's to be expected since they are a design company.

bonobo’s picture

bonobo commented

is tied to the "administer nodes" permission. So, a user who can access revisions can also edit any post on the site.

I don't know how this works in 4.7 -- I tested a patch that was designed to separate the ability to access revisions from the ability to access nodes, and from cel4145's comment above, this feature made it into core, but I haven't experimented with this in the last few weeks. This should REALLY simplify implementing collaborative authoring within drupal sites.

Cheers,

bonobo

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http://www.funnymonkey.com
Tools for Teachers

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http://www.funnymonkey.com

Gunnar Langemark’s picture

Gunnar Langemark commented

I intended to state that Drupal can do what Writeboard does.
I thought that it might be interesting to have an "installation" for this KIND of software. I don't think Drupal should "connect to" Writeboard. I thought that Drupal maybe would like to compete in that market...

Collaborative Writing is quite cool. And Drupal does it well.

Best

Gunnar Langemark
http://www.langemark.com