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Community and *.tiki.org site organization

Community and *.tiki.org site organization


Idea: Groupware needn't ONLY be used for groups.

posts: 12

I'll 'splain what I mean:

Waaay back when daily usage of the internet had become a normal activity, I found I was getting all sorts of great things via email and seeing others shared on sites.

Wanting to be as well informed in a functional manner as possible - I began saving 'snippets'.

This got messy...VERY messy - very quickly !!!

I started using a clipboard manager app, and found that after a while it became overwhelmed, crashy, and lost things.
(A major drawback of the above is that it keeps ALL the bits one copies to the clipboard, so daily cleaning becomes critical in a huge hurry...)

Many methods and iterations later I finally settled on creating *.TXT files as needed for things I wanted to keep.
And the mess has grown, and grown and GROWN.

Enter the desktop wiki concept, and hear the 'AH-HAH !' moment...

Trying several of these lead to the realization that with at least 2 PCs in use at different locations the info needed to be either portable, or synchronized somehow.

Ugh. New problems now.
The portable method means a USB stick - easily lost; the sync idea has a bunch of permutations=> all slow, cumbersome and/or needing 3rd party s/w and/or site usage.

So the search began...there MUST be some kind of ONLINE wiki which is good, will import existing files, and allow personal access via website from anyplace, right ?
Nope. Only -sort of-.

Meantime the need for online access for note-taking has exploded and all sorts of sites one must join & use have popped up...notice for example Evernote & Workflowy.

But this type of thing means trusting a total stranger's site to keep your private & precious info up & accessible; which can lead to harsh lessons - witness how the developer just summarily 'pulled the plug' on his Luminotes site.
It was great - well done - well loved - and -POOF-, gone.

And what ISN'T there to be found ?
An online tool for one's own website to manage one's own info-keeping needs.

It just doesn't yet exist.


I want this for myself.
If I can get Tiki Wiki molded to what I seek I'll be happy to share what I've learned with others too.

What it needs to be is LIVE, and:
1. On one's own hosted site.
2. Must be able to import existing items.
3. With WYSIWYG editing mostly for links and such
4. Flat-file storage rather than DB storage.
5. Able to be fully closed for personal usage.

Well OK=> 4 out of 5 of those are found in Tiki Wiki now !

I'm still hoping to get 'em all working together on my site, and with the help of the nice, helpful folks here maybe I will yet succeed ?!

And BTW, since there's no 'Hello World' forum here - I want to thank the good folks here for this great place to go with an incredible, well-made & useful/usable software !!!

Best Wishes to All.

posts: 1563 Germany

Hi smallhagrid,

your ideas and needs are not so far from my needs - apart from that I need locally AND online.
That might be number 6 in the list and my personal focus at the moment really is websites and groupware.

But every so often, I am planning to use Tiki as my PIM aswell - just do not want to depend on an internet connection.

Now to your text:

"... Well OK=> 4 out of 5 of those are found in Tiki Wiki now ! ..."

=> Which is the one out of five, you do not find in Tiki?

Maybe the point, that there is not yet a technique, that automatically extracts the text out of the .txt files, creates appropriate wikipges, adds the content and saves?
Maybe included with appropriate autocategorisation.

Woohoo that would be nice and coming nearby a kind of "brainbased teleconfigaration" ;-) loool.

But in the end, once you have the .txt in the wikipages, you can do anything to structure your personal content.

And with XAMPP it is even possible to have a local copy of the website with you for the case that you have no internet connection.

Ok, there are a few more things to be considered, like

  • what's about the files which are stored in a directory
    -> mind that the files saved on the server (via the tiki file galleries) have md_5 eencrypted names and you cannot easily use them if you wanted to download them directly out of the folder -> batchupload works fine, but not a batchdownload
    -> Tiki is not (yet?) s.th. like teamdrive, which synchs files between server and several local instances, whilst teamdrive is a paid service once you need more than (I guess) 1 GB storage
  • what's about synchronisation, in case I want to add information while offline
    -> Linux and Linuxshell might make this easy according to the database with a little script
  • what's about using different local instances on different computers?
  • maybe some more points to be considered
posts: 12

Hello Torsten, I think you are a very wise & thoughtful man indeed !!!

One mode which can be added harmlessly/easily/transparently:
> your ideas and needs are not so far from my needs - apart from that I need locally AND online.
> That might be number 6 in the list and my personal focus at the moment really is websites and groupware.

WebDAV as a mounted drive works very well indeed, but slowly.
(I use a win-doze app which adds a drive letter.)

For me:
> But every so often, I am planning to use Tiki as my PIM aswell - just do not want to depend on an internet connection.

No internet connection just tells me to read, nap, or leave !!!

" => Which is the one out of five, you do not find in Tiki?"
See - you already knew !

TaaDaa!:
> Maybe the point, that there is not yet a technique, that automatically extracts the text out of the .txt files, creates appropriate wikipges, adds the content and saves?

But I'd be very happy with just this much:
> 2. Must be able to import existing items.

Meaning files to pages, as DokuWiki does (but the rest of it is AWFUL).

This is very cute:
> Woohoo that would be nice and coming nearby a kind of "brainbased teleconfigaration" ;-) loool.

What=> no talking Star Trek computers YET ???!!!

YES!:
> But in the end, once you have the .txt in the wikipages, you can do anything to structure your personal content.

Yes, twice:
> And with XAMPP it is even possible to have a local copy of the website with you for the case that you have no internet connection.

No problem here for me:
> *what's about the files which are stored in a directory

+-> mind that the files saved on the server (via the tiki file galleries) have md_5 eencrypted names and you cannot easily use them if you wanted to download them directly out of the folder -> batchupload works fine, but not a batchdownload



As my only need is IMPORT, then I'll make NO MORE text files.

As mentioned:

  • what's about synchronisation, in case I want to add information while offline


WebDAV solves this, and if one must, then BeyondCompare will sync files nicely in either win-doze or Linux.

For me, this means...:

  • what's about using different local instances on different computers?


I work from home, and have a tiny office 20+ miles away = 2 PCs, also have a notebook and a netbook...and someday want a tablet.

Of course:

  • maybe some more points to be considered


And...Thank You Torsten !!!


posts: 1630 Canada

> 1. On one's own hosted site.

Yes. (or USB key)

> 2. Must be able to import existing items.

Depends on format


> 3. With WYSIWYG editing mostly for links and such

Yes

> 4. Flat-file storage rather than DB storage.

You mean for text of wiki pages?
Why do you want this?

> 5. Able to be fully closed for personal usage.

Yes (just a simplied case of group management)

Best regards,

M ;-)

posts: 12

Hello Marclaporte, and thanks for pitching in !

Most of my questions have been answered in the replies from Torsten, but this one remains unclear to me:

>> 2. Must be able to import existing items.

> Depends on format

Yes - I have asked about file format, but still do not have a clue...
I can batch convert my existing files into most anything if needed for easy importation=> but WHICH file format will work please, and how to import it, please ???!

As said above:
As my only need is IMPORT, then I'll make NO MORE text files.

Thanks Again !

posts: 1563 Germany

Hi smallhagrid,

>> 2. Must be able to import existing items.

> Depends on format

As far as I understand, you want to achieve the following:

  • Several .txt FILES (or whatsoever format - .txt should be one of the least problematic)

  • Convert the FILES into DATABASE ENTRIES - given you want to convert the .txt files into wiki pages.


I have no idea, if that is possible.

Maybe a linux crack who also has a decent knowledge in MySql could write a script for that.

The script must "fetch" the text out of each file and write it into a mysql table.

If you analyse the structure of a typical wikipage table of a Tiki database I can imagine, that it would be possible with some kind of Regex Search and Replace.

Maybe with a similar method it would also be possible to add certain information into the textfile, which makes it a database table and then rename it.

If all that is done, you could import the tables into the Tiki database.

I think it is possible, but to do so the first time would need either a very high specific knowledge or a good amount of time.

I think a very interesting problem - I start to get some appetite ;-)

How many Textfiles you have, which must be converted?

Cheers

--ToF

posts: 12

Hello Again Torsten !

Great:
> I think a very interesting problem - I start to get some appetite ;-)

There is really, SERIOUSLY no option for folks wanting to host their own collection of notes on their own space; this does not currently exist, and I am certain it is desperately needed & wanted by many.
I even have an email-friend in China who is trying to find a solution for this problem and his workplace wants it too.

MANY !!!:
> How many Textfiles you have, which must be converted?

Hundreds segregated already, and hundreds more hiding in all different places waiting for me to dig them out.

Marclaporte, none of this is any help to me, but thanks anyhow:

> In general: Import-Export
> For wiki pages: XML Wiki Import-Export
> Unless you have a very large number of pages, I suggest you just copy-paste them all.

That would take many months, and I am NOT a young man anymore !!!

Best Wishes to ALL.


posts: 1563 Germany

Hey smallhagrid,

just in case you getalerts from the forums: How things are going with your Tiki-PIM?

Greetz,
Torsten


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