Functions

Functions of the Wiki server

The main characteristic of a Wiki server is to let any user create and edit pages. Each page has a title (also called its name), a short description and a category to help navigation. The name of the page is used to reference it from other pages, and can only be specified when the page is created. The description and category can be changed when editing a page.

The server manages a site map that lists all the existing pages by category, and a history of recent changes. For each page, the server keeps a history of the successive versions of that page and can show the changes between any two versions of a page.

These functions are directly accessible from the banners at the top and bottom of each page. To create a page, you need to first edit an existing page and insert a link to the new page into it. If a page is edited concurrently by two users, the server tries to merge the changes made by each user into a new version. The remaining conflicts, if any, can be resolved by the users. See the conflicts page for more details.

It is also possible to upload files to create pages with special contents such as images.

Here are some functions that we are considering for future versions:

a simplified form of editing where you add a comment at the end or beginning of a page. Useful when a page is in "discussion mode" (see social protocols) and avoids conflicts.
a "live" mode where a page reloads itself automatically when it has been edited by someone else.
full-text search over the whole set of pages.
mail notification of recent changes.

Let us know in the comments page or in this page what you think, or any other suggestion you may have. [mbl]

Version 3, Mon 22 Mar 1999 15:18:41 [mbl] - created Tue 24 Nov 1998 09:00:05 [mbl]