[support] current wiki tools in drupal

[Bill Fitzgerald]

Earnie Boyd wrote:
> Quoting Ari Davidow <aridavidow at gmail.com>:
>
>   
>> We're beginning to describe a Drupal project that we feel is "wiki-ish" and
>> I am thoroughly confused as to what would be needed to implement a "wiki"
>> using drupal. It looks like wikitools provides some filters to translate
>> between wiki markup and regular html, but for our purposes, that is the
>> piece we care about least. (We intend to use tinyMCE or equivalent for
>> markup--the users of this project will not be any happier with wiki markup
>> than with html.)
>>
>> So, what makes a page a wiki? We are thinking of a few primary elements:
>>
>> 1. The ability of any registered user to edit the page in a browser. (Note:
>> Any registered Drupal user with appropriate permissions can do this with any
>> Drupal page, as well.)
>>     
CCK node type, enable revisions.
>> 2. The ability to view the page's history and to roll back changes easily.
>> (This may also be built into Drupal?)
>>     
Install the Diff module, and allow users to revert revisions.
>> 3. The ability to create a new, blank page by creating a link to it.
>>     
Freelinking handles this nicely, and in conjunction with wikitools adds 
some nice admin features. There are also other input formats that, 
depending on your specific needs, might be better suited. One thing I 
like about freelinking is that you can use it in conjunction with 
TinyMCE by putting the freelinking filter below the filtered html filter 
in the input formats.
>> Are we really just talking about a standard Drupal book? When other people
>> say 'wiki,' to what more are they referring (or is the "what more" wiki
>> markup language?)
>>     
A BIG question -- in my experience, when people say "wiki" they really 
mean "a page that any user can edit" -- however, opinions probably 
differ widely here.
>>     
>
> Surely you know how to Google[1].  If you had you would have found a 
> recipe[2] at the top of the list.
>
> [1] http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wiki+howto+site%3Adrupal.org
> [2] http://drupal.org/node/203502
>   
Earnie -- this really isn't all that helpful, in both tone and 
information. I would suggest something along these lines, as it conveys 
the same message in a nicer way:

"A quick look through google  ( 
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wiki+howto+site%3Adrupal.org ) 
reveals a lot of info. However, Google doesn't always give the best 
information: this recipe ( http://drupal.org/node/203502 ) actually 
points to the liquid module, a very promising solution that has seen 
slower development over the last six months, and hasn't seen a cvs 
commit since June of 2007. The wikitools module has received some 
focused attention recently, and has a new co-maintainer who is actively 
involved in clearing out the issue queue. Another resource for wiki 
functionality in Drupal is the wiki groups on g.d.o, at 
http://groups.drupal.org/wiki"

Google is a great tool, but it returns the results that *it* thinks are 
most relevant. As the community continues to grow and expand, the 
support list needs to be a place where people can ask questions freely. 
Tone matters, and accuracy matters; in short, we need to be welcoming, 
and kind.

Cheers,

Bill

-- 
Bill Fitzgerald
http://www.funnymonkey.com
Tools for Teachers
503.897.7160