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 The Wikibased new site
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| Homdax |
Posted on 23-10-2019 07:41
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 Posts: 762 Joined: August 30 2005 |
https://www.pointdefensesystems.net I have handled Wiki based sites before, but not from an server/administration point of view. This is new to me and I progress slowly. Having said that I am progressing and the site is live with a healthy, error free setup. Until I screw it up of course.  1. Why? There are a a couple of good answers to that question. A : We all have experience with the Wiki syntax, we all have edited wiki pages at some point and the format is pretty much universal and used in many places. It is probably the closest thing to a non-programmatic markup (if that definition is accurate?) that we all have come across and that spans over many platforms and used to document just about anything, from code to vast projects. BBCode comes close, but is not as versatile, more like phun...  B : Longevity. This site and forums, the one you are on, reading this very text, is a CMS that, while picking up some pace recently, has a pretty uncertain future. I was in the development Team, I headed the Project for almost two years, so I know. While the current latest release is stable it lacks some functionality we need, namely said Wiki markup. Even if the Wiki functionality would have been in place, we don't really know whether the CMS (PHP-Fusion) would still be around receiving updated versions by Q4 2022, which is a date we all deem crucial for the development of our work. So longevity has to be accounted for. Eventually this site (pds.homeworldaccess.net) will die and content migrated to the new one. Somehow. 2. How? This is more tricky to answer since it depends on knowledge I do not yet have, but there are some simple answers. We need to migrate the info from this site to the Wiki. As for text and articles that is not an issue, basically copy paste in to wiki pages and review markup and categorisation. Files are easy, but I would like to see more of an introduction to every release on a separate page with a linked download, instead of a bunch of files in a directory. The Forum is of course the most challenging part. We need to identify and integrate a forum section to the new solution, and find a way to migrate the current forum (this) in to that, with attachments and discussions intact, as much as possible. Since all the forum content are based on user accounts posting them, we may have to create a number of fictive such to keep the coherence. A virtual set of accounts are probably needed to tie those posts together. Smileys, markup, lists items, bbcodes, anything and everything must be revised to avoid a confused garbled mass of text. 3. When? Work in progress. New tech, new code, some serious challenges. I could use a SQL cunning programmer to help. Then it could be done in a few weeks or less, as it is now, I am hesitantly aiming for Christmas. 2019. Not to mention new graphics and layout. Edited by Homdax on 23-10-2019 11:04 king-o'da'bigfile
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| Homdax |
Posted on 23-10-2019 07:43
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Posts: 762 Joined: August 30 2005 |
Progress reports may follow below, in need to keep track of what is done. And perhaps also how.
king-o'da'bigfile
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| Homdax |
Posted on 23-10-2019 07:55
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Posts: 762 Joined: August 30 2005 |
Identified an issue with external links. Well it's more of flavour. To me all links that are not internal should open in new window, this to prevent loosing focus. Implemented this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual...LinkTarget The result should be that all external links will open in new window. I would of course rather see this optional, as in html code using target blank or not, but better have it than not. Also, better have it now, before we start adding loads of new pages with content. Edited by Homdax on 23-10-2019 08:10 king-o'da'bigfile
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| Homdax |
Posted on 23-10-2019 08:10
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Posts: 762 Joined: August 30 2005 |
Identified an annoyance with wiki creating its new pages with a title we may not want, like the Main_Page title which has been removed by using an extension that adds a Magic Word usable in the page when editing it. Implemented this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extens...NoTitle/en Add __NOTITLE__ to any page that gives you an unwanted or undefined title created by Wiki. The title of the page will become what you have in the first row as corresponding H1 or H2. Edited by Homdax on 23-10-2019 10:23 king-o'da'bigfile
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| Homdax |
Posted on 23-10-2019 08:17
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Posts: 762 Joined: August 30 2005 |
GDPR. Yes, we need that covered. Wiki article about this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/GDPR_(...i_software
NOT implemented yet. king-o'da'bigfile
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| Homdax |
Posted on 23-10-2019 10:05
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Posts: 762 Joined: August 30 2005 |
Identified the need for Analysis/Stats We have default Webalizer Stats available via most of my hosted sites by adding /stats/ to the URL. https://www.pointdefensesystems.net/s...net/stats/ or https://www.homeworldaccess.net/stats/but in addition to that I have enabled some *serious* stats via Matomo since the given Webalizer stats do not account well for sub domains. Like PDS. Implemented this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extens...figuration Self hosted via https://matomo.conram.it Its on the same server farm so there may be performance impacts, but its a temporary solution. Edited by Homdax on 23-10-2019 10:24 king-o'da'bigfile
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| Homdax |
Posted on 23-10-2019 12:00
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Posts: 762 Joined: August 30 2005 |
Identified the need for preventive spam measures. Will implement some of the methods described here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual...ating_spam king-o'da'bigfile
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