Re: MediaWiki vs. wikispaces

Okay, I've found out some stuff of interest.

1) I was able to create a couple of pages on
the sourceforge wiki. I cut/pasted from the
bitpim wiki the two pages we have there.

See: http://bitpim.wiki.sourceforge.net/

2) The markup language is very similar to MediaWiki,
but is different. The wikispaces has its own proprietary
wiki engine.

3) Editing was not bad ... they have a wysiwyg editor
which is what most users would want. Developer-type
people tend to prefer the text editors. To get to the
documentation of the markup language requires
navigating through four(!) screens, which is workable
but not ideal. (I take this as a symptom of immature
software ... I saw several of these kinds of symptoms
while poking around)

4) The really good news is that they have an
"export html" feature which seemed to work without
a hitch. I exported just the two files, but it worked
great. Links worked too. I don't know if pure html
is what you want for the help system, but that's what
it is. Has a style sheet too, but I don't know how
well integrated it is.

5) They don't seem to have an automatic table
of contents feature, which I will miss. They have a
"navigation" panel on the left, which is constructed
manually. It is a workable alternative to automatic
table of contents. I don't know if it has multiple layers
or not.

6) The bad news is that they do not have any kind of
import capability, at least according to this link:
http://www.wikispaces.com/message/view/help/37738

Check the dates on the link:
Jun 26, 2006: question from a user
Jun 26, 2006: reply, but no answer
Nov 22, 2006: reply with negative answer

Perhaps there is some happiness by now; it would
seem like a very common request, especially from
sourceforge.

I sent an email to their help address; will see what
they say, if anything.


Summary:
1) the html export is a big win, assuming raw html
is what you need
2) the apparent lack of bulk import will be a pain, but
not a show stopper since the BitPim help is not
all that big anyway


Bottom Line:
Mixed bag, no show stoppers.





On 6/16/07, Joe Pham <[email protected]> wrote:
> >Probably all that is needed is for an admin to turn on the wiki.
> >After it's turned on, I can experiment.
>
> I just turned it on.  Please give it a try and let me or Stephen know
> what you need.
>
> -Joe Pham
>
>
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