Rails - Jul 2009 - Kii, a Rails based wiki with a sensible code base

http://kiiproject.org/

Kii is a young and open source Rails powered wiki. I started this
project for two reasons.

  1. Whenever I need a wiki, I end up using something that isn''t
     Rails based. The existing Rails based wikis has strange
     codebases, is outdated, and generally isn''t very nice to work
     with.
  2. Wiki systems tends to look like they were made in 2001. No
     AJAX, etc.

Kii sets out to fix this. The codebase is at the moment quite
sensible, and I tend to keep it that way. The preview interface
(http://kiiproject.org/Sandbox/edit) does not look like it was made in
2001, either. AJAX, wohoo!

There''s still a long way to go, and the http://kiiproject.org/Worklist
is pretty long. Accepting contributions!

August Lilleaas wrote:
> http://kiiproject.org/
> 
> Kii is a young and open source Rails powered wiki.
This sounds interesting, and I''ll definitely check out -- I''ve
been
looking for a Rails wiki engine.  But:

[...]
>   2. Wiki systems tends to look like they were made in 2001. No
>      AJAX, etc.
Who wants Ajax in a wiki?  I can''t see how that would be a good thing. 
More to the point, I can''t see how the lack of Ajax is a
"problem" that
needs to be "fixed".  There are some types of site where Ajax features
are useful, but I am having trouble coming up with appropriate uses of 
Ajax for a typical Wiki.

(That said, I''ll be interested to see how you''ve used Ajax in
Kii.)

[...]
> There''s still a long way to go, and the
http://kiiproject.org/Worklist
> is pretty long. Accepting contributions!
Do you want or need a MediaWiki markup parser?  If so, please check out 
Rookie ( http://github.com/marnen/rookie ).

Best,
--
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Regarding AJAX: Take a look at the preview tabs on e.g.
http://kiiproject.org/Sandbox/edit. Make some changes and click the
preview tab. A lot easier to use than the conventional full resubmit
with article on top, form on bottom, á la wikipedia.

On Jul 18, 10:28 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-
s.net> wrote:
> August Lilleaas wrote:
> >http://kiiproject.org/
>
> > Kii is a young and open source Rails powered wiki.
>
> This sounds interesting, and I''ll definitely check out --
I''ve been
> looking for a Rails wiki engine.  But:
>
> [...]
>
> >   2. Wiki systems tends to look like they were made in 2001. No
> >      AJAX, etc.
>
> Who wants Ajax in a wiki?  I can''t see how that would be a good
thing.
> More to the point, I can''t see how the lack of Ajax is a
"problem" that
> needs to be "fixed".  There are some types of site where Ajax
features
> are useful, but I am having trouble coming up with appropriate uses of
> Ajax for a typical Wiki.
>
> (That said, I''ll be interested to see how you''ve used
Ajax in Kii.)
>
> [...]
>
> > There''s still a long way to go, and
thehttp://kiiproject.org/Worklist
> > is pretty long. Accepting contributions!
>
> Do you want or need a MediaWiki markup parser?  If so, please check out
> Rookie (http://github.com/marnen/rookie).
>
> Best,
> --
> Marnen Laibow-Koserhttp://www.marnen.org
> mar...-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Regarding rookie, the MediaWiki markup parser: That looks very
interesting. I''m currently using http://wikitext.rubyforge.org, but it
has a bunch of limitations. And since it''s written in C,
there''s
nothing I can do about it, because of my low C fu.

One of the problems I''m having with wikitext is adding my own syntax
to it. Can''t touch the C as mentioned. Can''t preprocess before
sending
it to wikitext, because of wikitext''s HTML stripping. Can''t
post
process it either, because the markup has been lost (newlines and
such, for instance) when passing it through wikitext.

There are a few things that I can see is missing in rookie, though,
such as <nowiki> and [[page links]]. Another interesting feature of
wikitext is to set the base level of the headings, so that `= Foo =`
is a <h2> tag instead of a <h1> tag, for instance, which is useful
if
your main page title is a <h1> and you want to avoid multiple <h1>
tags on a page.

Do you plan to continue hacking on rookie, or has the project stalled?

On Jul 18, 10:28 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-
s.net> wrote:
> August Lilleaas wrote:
> >http://kiiproject.org/
>
> > Kii is a young and open source Rails powered wiki.
>
> This sounds interesting, and I''ll definitely check out --
I''ve been
> looking for a Rails wiki engine.  But:
>
> [...]
>
> >   2. Wiki systems tends to look like they were made in 2001. No
> >      AJAX, etc.
>
> Who wants Ajax in a wiki?  I can''t see how that would be a good
thing.
> More to the point, I can''t see how the lack of Ajax is a
"problem" that
> needs to be "fixed".  There are some types of site where Ajax
features
> are useful, but I am having trouble coming up with appropriate uses of
> Ajax for a typical Wiki.
>
> (That said, I''ll be interested to see how you''ve used
Ajax in Kii.)
>
> [...]
>
> > There''s still a long way to go, and
thehttp://kiiproject.org/Worklist
> > is pretty long. Accepting contributions!
>
> Do you want or need a MediaWiki markup parser?  If so, please check out
> Rookie (http://github.com/marnen/rookie).
>
> Best,
> --
> Marnen Laibow-Koserhttp://www.marnen.org
> mar...-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

August Lilleaas wrote:
> Regarding AJAX: Take a look at the preview tabs on e.g.
> http://kiiproject.org/Sandbox/edit. Make some changes and click the
> preview tab. A lot easier to use than the conventional full resubmit
> with article on top, form on bottom, � la wikipedia.
>
Ah, yes.  I''ve used other wikis with Ajax preview -- that''s
often *very*
useful indeed.  I don''t know why that didn''t occur to me
earlier.

Best,
--
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

[Sorry about the slow response.  I just noticed your post.]

August Lilleaas wrote:
> Regarding rookie, the MediaWiki markup parser: That looks very
> interesting.
[...]
> There are a few things that I can see is missing in rookie, though,
> such as <nowiki> and [[page links]].
Yes, the project is definitely in an early phase of development. 
Double-bracket link syntax is probably the next feature.
> Another interesting feature of
> wikitext is to set the base level of the headings, so that `= Foo =`
> is a <h2> tag instead of a <h1> tag, for instance, which is
useful if
> your main page title is a <h1> and you want to avoid multiple
<h1>
> tags on a page.
I don''t think this is the job of the parser, but I''ll consider
adding it
as an option.
> 
> Do you plan to continue hacking on rookie, or has the project stalled?
Yes and yes. :)  More is coming, and I''ll try to raise
Rookie''s priority
now that I know that you''re actually interested.  In the meantime,
I''d
welcome contributions if you''re so inclined!

Best,
--
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.