Catchy title goes here


I run WikkaWiki for documenting software I've written and projects I've done/hope to do. I've found it tremendously helpful in terms of set up, the symantic linking is awesome too.

At first I wasn't sure Wiki were going to be useful, but I realize that unless I wanted to write my own project, or use what I had been using (Apache Forrest) I was probably going to have to use a Wiki. I was familiar with sites like Portland Pattern Repository, PInvoke.net and several other (diverse) wiki applications. I did some quick research, late at night and obviously not paying attention, and thought MediaWiki was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Well, yeah, it was - compared to the other pieces of Wiki junk I'd used and it was cool. But it had all these annoying things, and the configuration file was just way too complex for what I wanted. I wanted something with ACLs (although, I kept hearing the word and thinking Active Directory for some reason... - JavaWoman helped me overcome that) and little required pages. Oh yes, not to mention that the MediaWiki editing guidelines is a blank page! Yes, Wiki aren't supposed to have many tags in their markup, but I had to search for the tags and that was quite annoying.

I was sitting on Freenode and I ran into JavaWoman - a very nice person, and also most persuasive. I like the way Wikka looks, the way it works and the fact that the dev team are all nice and passionate people. In their defense I'm sure the mediawiki folks are, but they seem more intimidating in the fact that they're the great Wikipedia yadda yadda yadda... It's been awesome and I'm hoping to hang around for quite some time.

Why Apache Forrest was wrong


So, this is my quick rant on Forest. It's awesome for code and whatnot, and I love the tags (reminds me of the Gentoo handbook). I hate the indexing system, and the tabbing (navigation tab) system. It's just too stifling, and it's heavy because you either need to run the process, or run the server internally. I don't really want to run either an extra server, or to statically render my pages every time I update them. Running a live editing server and then a static release server for documentation seemed a little offputting too.

Now, in their defense Forrest is a new project and it's really, really cool. I suggest people take a look at the apache projects. Still Wikka was light enough and does the job admirably.

Oddly enough... looking through the referrers I found out that this page has been spidered. I noticed that pretty far up on the search was a site talking about using Forrest+Wiki notation. Most curious...


Wikka issues found

Error 403 with .htaccess file: Originally I moved the file and set my ACL to register-to-post. I went back and troubleshot and figured out that you can do the following:

Fix: add Options +FollowSymLinks in your .htaccess file (like below).
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
 Options +FollowSymLinks
 RewriteEngine on
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
 RewriteRule ^(.*/[^\./]*[^/])$ $1/
 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ wikka.php?wakka=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>


Then
"rewrite_mode" => "1",
"base_url" => "wherever",

in your wikka.conf.php

HTTPS on Wikka

Someone asked in #wikka, so I figured I'd put something up. If you want Wikka to work with https, just edit your configuration file, changing your base_url to https. The fellow ended up reinstalling it, which is probably unecessary... but hey, do what you gotta right?

Alternatively you can edit all kinds of mod_rewrite rules: my roommate does this for some of the apps on his webserver. While I wouldn't do this, you *could* theoretically do it. And it *might* theoretically work.

I did notice,however, that very few of the links on the Wikka sites page were HTTPS, only one when I checked. If nothing else, then please, out of novelty put up some HTTPS sites on the wikka links. I do understand that some people will be running encrypted links for privacy purposes, and I'm not asking them to.

TeX


I'd love to integrate (La)TeX into Wikka. Any ideas?
Comments
Comment by DarTar
2005-06-24 08:28:10
KoG, you may want to take a look at Andrea Rossato's Uniwakka, another Wakka fork designed for academic use, with MathML support, BibTeX data management and Latex and Bibtex export.

http://uniwakka.sourceforge.net
Comment by JavaWoman
2005-06-24 23:26:59
DarTar, what are you doing?? Sending KoG away after I've done so much effort to get him here?

;-)

KoG - don't mind me, just joking: if you find that UniWakka suits your purposes better you *should* move. But I bet you won't find such an enthousiastic development team. :)
Comment by KoG
2005-06-29 11:10:08
or one that spells nigh as prettily... No, I quite enjoy Wikka and I want to see YOU folks implement it, or when I have time do it myself (hahaha. right). Ya bums.
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