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Wikidot Moved To Git And Other Changes

tags: git guide install

21 May 2009 16:05

Yesterday I moved the Wikidot Open Source code to GitHub.

The preferred way to obtain the Wikidot is cloning our repository:

git clone git://github.com/gabrys/wikidot.git
cd wikidot
git submodules update --init

The last line fetches additional software that Wikidot uses:

Zend Framework
H2o template language
Spyc YAML file parser

Additionally I reorganized this site a bit: introduced blog, polished the theme, cleaned the outdated docs and updated the installation guide. Due to last changes to the Wikidot, it is now much easier to install. I would say, as easy as never before!

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Wikidot Open Source Changes In Trunk

tags:

21 May 2009 16:01

I decided to wait no more and share what I've kept at my local disk. I committed the changes I've been working on to the repository.

The biggest change is Wikidot is now single wiki engine by default (you need additional configuration for the wiki farm mode).

What demonstrates the change is the simplified installation process.

Now it's as simple as installing any other software or service:

install the dependencies
- for Ubuntu: sudo aptitude install lighttpd php5 php5-cli tetex-bin tetex-extra gs-gpl imagemagick libmagic1 subversion postgresql-8.3 php5-tidy php5-pgsql php5-gd zip make
get the code
- svn co http://svn.wikidot.org/repos/wikidot1/trunk/ wikidot-install-dir
- cd wikidot-install-dir
if on Ubuntu: configure conf/wikidot.ini and set user at [db] section to your login name
prepare database (create role and database)
- as user postgres: make prepare_db
build Wikidot: configure files and make initial dabatase
- as you: make
- this prints a secret URL at the end, you'll use it to configure Admin password
start Wikidot
- ./wikidotctl start
set Admin password
- use your browser and navigate to the secret URL make prints at the end

We would like to finally create Debian/Ubuntu packages for that (once it gets more stable and have some bug fixed). So keep tuned!

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Is Wikidot Open Source Stable?

tags:

21 May 2009 16:00

Many of you ask about the development of Wikidot Open Source Edition. Is it stable? Can we safely use it.

The thing that needs to be said is the Wikidot Source changes. It is not meant to be solid stable yet. The development of .com and OS version is quite separate, although there is a flow in code in two ways:

fixes for bugs in .com having the way to OS
many future improvements in .com are first tested and introduced in OS

The latter introduces not-working revisions into the OS repository from time to time, but this is a product in creation (pre-1.0), so this just can happen.

Stability

The current version (revision 317) of Wikidot Open Source is used on Wiki Complete.

It's rather stable, but you have to know the following:

Lighttpd only

It's for lighttpd only (we want support for Apache back in 1.0).

INI file for configuration

File conf/GlobalProperties.php is no longer needed and needs to be deleted. But first have a look at conf/wikidot.ini and try to migrate any custom settings you had in conf/GlobalProperties.php.

The full-blown verbose example of wikidot.ini is stored in conf/full-example-of-wikidot.ini. This is not meant to even work, it's just every possible option listed and described. If the option has an default value it is also mentioned. Use the file as the reference for your wikidot.ini file.

HTML user-uploaded files hosting disabled by default

Since it could be dangerous in certain cases, we have disabled serving of HTML files with the default Wikidot installation. However Internet Explorer (6 and 7) ignores the hint to display HTML files as source, so it's not really a solution.

The solution that really works is having a totally separate domain for hosting uploaded files only (at wikidot it is wdfiles.com). The settings for this would be:

[security]
upload_separate_domain = true
upload_domain = your-different-domain.com
; having different domain for uploads we can safely enable user-uploaded HTML files serving
upload_restrict_html = false

Search All Wikis module

The SearchAllModule (allowing to search all wikis) is very experimental now. If you have already any content, that needs to be searched, don't upgrade (or you can restore the previous php/modules/search/SearchAllModule.php file after the upgrade).

The module is being migrated to Zend_Search_Lucene and require doing an initial indexing of all sites.

Also it's very probable the search mechanisms changes any time soon, so I just don't recommend using the new version of module.

Search This Wiki feature is unaffected!

Search Highlight

In the meantime of developing new search engine for Wikidot, we came into an idea to highlight phrases user searches for (using internal Wikidot search or Google/Yahoo search engine).

You can enable it in the wikidot.ini file appending:

[search]
highlight = true

Search features (the new SearchAllModule and Search Highlighting) is already tested on Wiki Complete, however there are some known limitations it the search module, that need to be improved yet.

Upgrading

As a matter of fact, we don't supply any "upgrade" script. This unfortunately doesn't mean that there are no problems with that.

Once we release the first stable version, we'll supply upgrade scripts for each incremental upgrade i.e. 1.0 -> 1.1 -> 1.2 and so.

This is because it would be really easier if we know what version EXACTLY we're moving from to what EXACT version. Otherwise we would end up with scripts that can work but can break something. If you're in trouble with upgrading, ask on our dev-list.

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