Festipedia talk:About
Add topicLatest comment: 15 years ago by Peter Harrison
Where can I get FestWiki? Dagoth Ur, Mad God (talk) 09:02, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
Your using it now - its the old name for this systen
- I meant the software, not the site. Dagoth Ur, Mad God (talk) 10:41, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
- If someone really wants the software, they can get it from me. It is still very much a work in progress and I'm not sure how much further I'm going to take it. It does not currently have any easy mechanism for installing the software and setting up an administrative user, so anyone wanting to use it for another site would have to do some work. It came into being because our hosts at the time didn't support PHP and MySQL. Our new hosts support both of those. Moving into a proper database has some obvious advantages. If I go down that route, it isn't obvious what advantages FestWiki will offer (other than being smaller and, possibly, faster), so I may simply move the site to MediaWiki. Discuss! --Peter Harrison (talk) 16:27, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
- I'll take on the FestWiki project. It requires:
- If someone really wants the software, they can get it from me. It is still very much a work in progress and I'm not sure how much further I'm going to take it. It does not currently have any easy mechanism for installing the software and setting up an administrative user, so anyone wanting to use it for another site would have to do some work. It came into being because our hosts at the time didn't support PHP and MySQL. Our new hosts support both of those. Moving into a proper database has some obvious advantages. If I go down that route, it isn't obvious what advantages FestWiki will offer (other than being smaller and, possibly, faster), so I may simply move the site to MediaWiki. Discuss! --Peter Harrison (talk) 16:27, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
- UseMod
- An understanding of Perl
- A way to make UseMod look like MediaWiki.
Dagoth Ur, Mad God (talk) 12:19, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
- I'm not really looking for someone to take on the FestWiki project at the moment. Just to be clear about the current status:
- The software was originally adapted from UseMod although the amount of UseMod code goes down with every new release. Some of the code looks very much like MediaWiki, particularly around the parser and the page edit code. The stylesheets and javascript are lifted direct from MediaWiki - thankfully GPL allows you to do things like that.
- I have not been using any form of source code control so I only have the code for the current release. I know, I know...
- I don't have any means of migrating a UseMod site to FestWiki. I think it is reasonably straightforward provided there are no images but I wouldn't swear to it.
- Because of the way FestWiki has evolved, there is no installation process. In particular, any new user would need to set up a bureaucrat before they could bring the software properly into use but there is no easy mechanism for doing so. It isn't impossible but it would mean messing with permissions, which is less than ideal.
- FestWiki incorporates a number of bad design decisions because of its history. I am gradually trying to fix those.
- I have been broadly keeping FestWiki in line with relevant changes to MediaWiki and intend to continue doing so.
- I am gradually adding some of the MediaWiki features that are currently missing. For example, I would like to add support for uploading media files as well as images. Before Keith asks, I'm not promising any particular timescale for that.
- I am gradually fixing a number of areas where my implementation produces slightly different results to MediaWiki, mainly concerning navigation of long lists.
- I have a low priority project under way to convert FestWiki into object oriented Perl.
- I am debating whether or not to put the data into a proper (MySql) database at the same time. Doing so would allow easy backup, support of both Windows and Linux (technically both are supported but page names are not case sensitive on Windows whereas they are on Linux), use of transactions to ensure the database remains consistent and so on. The downside is that it is then less clear why we are using FestWiki rather than MediaWiki. Perhaps the way forward is to support both MySql and the current text file approach and provide a maintained migration path between the two. If I also added an installation process, that would then give a reason for FestWiki's existence. If the database used the MediaWiki schema, it would allow users to upgrade to MW at any time. But this is still just a possibility, not a definitive statement of direction.
- So FestWiki is under active development, even if I am unsure of the precise direction for the future. I may, at some point, make it into an open source project but don't quote me on that! --Peter Harrison (talk) 16:40, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
- I want to use FestWiki for a wiki called VFDWiki (www.vfd.org/wiki). Dagoth Ur, Mad God (talk) 11:59, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
- I am going to move FestiPedia to MediaWiki. Can I pleage have a link to a place where I can download FestWiki? Dagoth Ur, Mad God (Talk contribs E-mail) 03:11, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
- I want to use FestWiki for a wiki called VFDWiki (www.vfd.org/wiki). Dagoth Ur, Mad God (talk) 11:59, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
- So FestWiki is under active development, even if I am unsure of the precise direction for the future. I may, at some point, make it into an open source project but don't quote me on that! --Peter Harrison (talk) 16:40, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
(outdent)I have moved Festipedia to MediaWiki: http://festipedia.wiki-site.com/ Dagoth Ur, Mad God (Talk contribs E-mail) 03:21, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
- You may NOT move Festipedia to MediaWiki (and having a copy of FestWiki wouldn't help you). Festipedia is an FR Heritage Group project and that is how it is going to stay. You may not unilaterally take decisions about the hosting of this wiki. Your claim to have "moved" Festipedia to MediaWiki is rubbish. You have simply set up an empty wiki on wiki-site. Please desist IMMEDIATELY --Peter Harrison (talk) 18:48, 20 June 2008 (UTC)