docsWiki

[David Bovill]

On 26 Oct 2005, at 11:57, Marielle Lange wrote:

>> Could an expert scripter create a template rev stack  that would  
>> wikify all the existing revdocs in one fell swoop and send them  
>> to  their appropriate places in the wiki/web structure (however  
>> that works for wikis, no idea here).   Just a question.  I'm sure  
>> it's not easy or someone would have done it.
>
> I wouldn't call myself an expert scripter but
> (1) I have already written an html 2 wiki translator for my own needs
> (2) I have already written a rev application that let you edit wiki  
> documents on the desktop:
> http://projects.lexicall.org/portal/wikipad.php
> (3) I have a start of a colorisation routine (to apply colorisation  
> according to the wiki syntax).

Yes -- and I have code to read and write to an online wiki (at the  
moment not with authentication for TikiWiki) - I am aiming to use ssh  
and certificates for any secure and easy to script work on this - lot  
easier than coding the session managment.

> What do you suggest for the name?  The following names are  
> available:  revdocs.co.uk, revdocs.org.uk, revdocs.ltd.uk,  
> revdocs.plc.uk, revdocs.me.uk, revdocs.com, revdocs.net,  
> revdocs.org, revdocs.info, revdocs.biz  (with xtalk, all  
> interesting ones are registered).

revdocs.org / net / com sound fine to me. Happy to register them  
today if you want on behalf of any group that want to take this forward.

> Many providers nowadays give access to Fantastico. This means that  
> any of the packages below can be installed at the click of a mouse.  
> The pros and cons of each package can be evaluated at: <http:// 
> opensourcecms.com/>  (a website that gives you the opportunity to  
> "try out" some of the best php/mysql based free and open source  
> software systems in the world). For my wiki, I use tikiwiki and I  
> am very happy with it ). Wikipedia uses media wiki (http:// 
> www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki). If you have any experience with  
> any of these and strongly recommend one for the purpose of hosting  
> software documentation, give a shout.

I have moved off TikiWiki and MediaWiki has the same problems - hard  
to integrate with Rev and not purpose built for the task. These are  
what I would suggest are the requirements for the best documentation  
wiki for our purpose:

     1) Robust well supported open source wiki
     2) Full wiki functionality revealed via web services - XmlRPC  
for instance - to allow direct integration with Rev
     3) Code and binary stack versioning linked to wiki documentation
     4) Extensible syntax highlighting
     5) Email notifications for changes
     6) Simple navigation and the ability

The basic functionality I imagine is to have a simple site with an  
index / outline of the documentation which would automatically be  
generated from the wiki. A user could use the web site to contribute  
to the wiki or access, read and write to the wiki directly from  
within Revolution. There would also be a section of code snippets and  
handlers with SVN for version management linked to the wiki  
documentation for the code. A user would be able to search and  
download these code snippets directly from within Revolution.

Additionally I have requirements to add the following:

     1) Issue tracking (tickets) and milestone support
     2) LDAP support
     3) Folksonomy tag support - ie video, regEx, recusive

The only wiki that supports all of these is Jira:

      - http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/
      - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA 
+Subversion+plugin

It is not open source, but is free for open source projects. It is a  
robust commercial product used by MySQl and a number of large open  
source community. Very well designed.

Trac is the only open source solution that comes close:

     - http://www.edgewall.com/trac/

We have it installed here, but not with the SVN bit and syntax  
colouring working here. It also lacks XML-RPC support at the moment,  
but using https we can work around that.

Regarding hosting - I can offer this on a dedicated server if a small  
group of us would like to contribute.