NuWiki release notes.

[ElfMage]

Hello all,

As we have been discussing in some threads for the past couple of weeks we are releasing a new product named NuWiki.

NuWiki is a software package that adds a fully functional wiki to your vBulletin community. NuWiki has been coded 100% by nuHIT to work as a vBulletin add-on. It is not a bridge and it does not need nor use MediaWiki or any other third party software.

NuWiki uses vBulletin's editor, supports BBCodes (no need for your members to learn wikitext, or make do without a WYSIWYG editor), attachments, per-category usergroup permissions, and many features that have been requested by our customers in the past few months.

Some of these features like the per-category permissions, or the fuly integrated search, were requested for vbWiki Pro, but due to the nature and complexity of the MediaWiki software, we decided to implement them in NuWiki instead.

NuWiki's design guidelines were simplicity and ease of use, for both the administrators as well as the community members.

At the same time, NuWiki is much faster than MediaWiki, and shows a lower load on the server for comparable concurrent usage.

More information about NuWiki can be found in this page: www.nuhit.com/nuwiki/features.html, we also added a comparison between NuWiki and vbWiki Pro in this page: www.nuhit.com/nuwiki/comparison.html.

And there is also a demo forum found here: http://www.nuhit.com/forums/nuwiki-demo/. Notice that NuWiki is implemented on top of vBulletin's thread system. To create a new article, click on the 'New Thread' button.

Screenshots and documentation will be added shortly.

NuWiki's pricing will be similar to vbWiki Pro's. Although we will have a lower introductory price.

We will also be offering a license exchange program for those customers who have purchased vbWiki Pro prior to the launch of NuWiki (to take place in the next couple of days).

We will continue supporting vbWiki Pro. We feel that these are two complimentary products.

NuWiki is easier to use, install and maintain. If you have a forum and would like to add a wiki, then this is the product for you.

On the other hand, if you have an established MediaWiki site, and you are adding or integrating a forum, then vbWiki Pro is the way to go.

As always, we welcome all feedback and suggestions. Feel free to play with the software in the demo area, let me know what you think.

[Alfa1]

I find the vbulletin editor a very nice positive.

vbWiki pro functions which I miss in NuWiki:

• Article contents (Links to the various paragraphs)
• Header 1 use for article title
• Header 2 uses for article paragraph titles and header 3 for sub paragraphs.
• Keywords & description of article in page sources
• The function to add the latest threads of a forum to the article.
• Edit buttons per paragraph
• Categories. Simply putting it in a forum, doesn't cover articles which belong in multiple categories. And if this is possible then this should be visible in the article. And how about articles about categories?
• Navigation
• Recent changes

What I also miss:

• Rating contributors

How do you discuss an article?

[pegasus]

Articles about categories can be created by setting a Forum Link to the article in the Forum Manager. This will redirect you to the article when you click instead of taking you to forumdisplay. If you replace category pages entirely with these, it doesn't matter that you can't put articles in multiple categories because you can link them manually.

I figured out how to modify the BB-code external function and add 1 query to make all the "red" links when articles don't yet exist, but I also miss vbWiki Pro's Forum Headers in the non-NuWiki forums. In addition to what was listed in the above post, the Forum Headers are keeping me from converting to NuWiki.

[MaestroX]

Some points here that I was going to mention but you guys got there before me

I think the only "big" problem I find with Nuwiki at the moment is that it dosn't feel like a wiki. It still resembles too much of a forum. I suppose with a new style for the wiki only you could tweak it to an extent?

Here are my suggestions. Sorry if I'm repeating some already stated.

• Categories
• Navigation - Side bar with search bar
• Recent changes
• Use of templates like mediawiki's {{template}} command

There are a few more but I know its early days for NuWiki

Regards

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

I find the vbulletin editor a very nice positive.

Alfa, thanks for your feedback. Always appreciated. Some of the functionality you mentioned was already built-in, other was ready, but not in the release build. (We are still working on the documentation...)

Originally Posted by Alfa1

vbWiki pro functions which I miss in NuWiki:

* Article contents (Links to the various paragraphs)

Yes, indeed, the Table Of Contents is missing and will be added shortly.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

* Header 1 use for article title

This is now implemented. (I will clean up the header look found in the default nuhit style here at nuhit.com, since it is a bit busy).

Originally Posted by Alfa1

* Header 2 uses for article paragraph titles and header 3 for sub paragraphs.

This is now implemented. Follows the same syntax used in MediaWiki, which then translate into h2, h3, h4, and so on, just like in MW.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

* Keywords & description of article in page sources

NuWiki supports the same meta tag settings and functionality found in vBulletin. We'll be adding screenshots of the Admin CP, where these settings can be found.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

* The function to add the latest threads of a forum to the article.

This one is not implemented, since NuWiki resides within the forum, I am not sure where this would be useful. Unless you are using NuWiki to power your homepage. Thoughts?

Originally Posted by Alfa1

* Edit buttons per paragraph

Yes, this is still pending.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

* Categories. Simply putting it in a forum, doesn't cover articles which belong in multiple categories. And if this is possible then this should be visible in the article.

Currently NuWiki supports one category per article. This was a design decision, since it was required for some of the other features not found in MediaWiki / vbWiki Pro (e.g. hierarchical categories, per-category user permissions, etc).

Originally Posted by Alfa1

And how about articles about categories?

We don't have special provisions for category articles. However you could create the category article manually. And add the link to the corresponding forum header.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

* Navigation

Could you elaborate a bit more? What we did is that we added the 'NuWiki' menu in the navbar. It contains the link tot the Wiki Main Page, but the admin can add as menu links as needed to this popup, from NuWiki's Admin CP. (For instance, if needed entries could be added for Current Events, or Community Portal, or Help, etc)

Originally Posted by Alfa1

* Recent changes

This is implemented as a link in the NuWiki navbar menu. The recent changes lacks the user blocking function that is found in MediaWiki, but we are thinking on linking this to vBulletin's built-in banning functionality.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

What I also miss:

* Rating contributors

How is this implemented in MediaWiki?

Originally Posted by Alfa1

How do you discuss an article?

To discuss an article, simply reply to it, and the comments will be shown underneath the article.


Thanks.

[ElfMage]

Pegasus,

Thanks for your thorough PM. I will be replying to it shortly.

Originally Posted by pegasus

I figured out how to modify the BB-code external function and add 1 query to make all the "red" links when articles don't yet exist,

Yes, we haven't implemented this because we are trying to find a solution that saves this extra query. If we cannot find a solution, we'll add it with an option for the admin to enable/disable it.

Originally Posted by pegasus

but I also miss vbWiki Pro's Forum Headers in the non-NuWiki forums. In addition to what was listed in the above post, the Forum Headers are keeping me from converting to NuWiki.

Forum Headers are now fully operational in NuWiki.

The new and improved Forum Headers found in NuWiki actually offer more functionality than what is found in vbWiki Pro.

In vbWiki Pro you could only add URLs (internal or external). With NuWiki, the Forum Headers support full BBCode. You could use them for just links, or you could even have a message per forum.

In addition, there are new permissions that control who can edit forum headers. And there can be two versions of the forum headers per forum, one for the FORUMDISPLAY and the other one for the SHOWTHREAD. You could use the same forum header, or use the different two versions. This is configurable through the Admin CP.

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by MaestroX

Some points here that I was going to mention but you guys got there before me

I think the only "big" problem I find with Nuwiki at the moment is that it dosn't feel like a wiki. It still resembles too much of a forum. I suppose with a new style for the wiki only you could tweak it to an extent?

This is a good point. We had users that wanted to have the article comments right under the article, just like what you see in blogs. But there are other users that prefer to have the article by itself and the comments/discussion separate.

We will be adding the option to control how you would like the article and discussion to appear (together, as it is right now, or separate, more like vbWiki Pro / MediaWiki).

Originally Posted by MaestroX

Here are my suggestions. Sorry if I'm repeating some already stated.

• Categories
  

• As in multiple categories, like Alfa suggested? Currently categories are implemented inderectly through forums and sub-forums.
  
  

  Originally Posted by MaestroX

  Navigation - Side bar with search bar

  You can use the search in the navbar to search for Wiki articles. in NuWiki search is 100% integrated.
  
  

  Originally Posted by MaestroX

  Recent changes

  This is now implemented, although we will continue improving it.
  
  

  Originally Posted by MaestroX

  Use of templates like mediawiki's {{template}} command

Indeed this one is interesting. We'll be adding template support soon. We left this one for last because it adds a performance penalty (one extra query), and one of the goals in NuWiki was to achieve the speed of vBulletin for rendering pages.

Originally Posted by MaestroX

There are a few more but I know its early days for NuWiki

Regards

Thanks for the feedback. Keep the suggestions coming.

[MaestroX]

As in multiple categories, like Alfa suggested? Currently categories are implemented inderectly through forums and sub-forums.

Yeah, I quite liked the syntax that mediawiki used to create categories, I think its overall more powerfull than having things in forums and sub-forums.

Thanks for the feedback. Keep the suggestions coming

Will do

A few other things,

Rather than have the wiki reside in the forums like /forum/wiki/ (with vbseo) or /forum/forumdisplay=23 (without vbseo), would it be possible for it to reside in just /wiki/ to differentiate the forum from the wiki in the url.

Generally if you can get the functionality of mediawiki into NuWiki you've got a winner

Oh yeah BTW I can't access nuhit forums with IE I get an error.

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by ElfMage

This one is not implemented, since NuWiki resides within the forum, I am not sure where this would be useful. Unless you are using NuWiki to power your homepage. Thoughts?

It depends upon if you think of a NuWiki article as a thread concept or as a multi functional article concept: I want my wiki articles to make full use of vbulletin's possibilities, by interacting with it's functions. The topic the article is about, has a forum section, image gallery section, file archive section, etc. It is useful to add links to those relating parts, but it adds much more if you can use these vb functionalities in the articles:

• Show the latest pics of whatever the article is about.
• Show the latest threads of whatever the article is about.
• Show the latest files of whatever the article is about.

This way you can not only direct to relating sections of your site, but also show it off and change the staticness of articles to dynamic appearance.

Currently NuWiki supports one category per article. This was a design decision, since it was required for some of the other features not found in MediaWiki / vbWiki Pro (e.g. hierarchical categories, per-category user permissions, etc).

Understandable, but still a small handicap: topics will belong in multiple categories. How about a feature of adding redirects to an article so that it can be in multiple forums? And then automatically list the categories in the article itself.

About categories being forums: will users be able to create categories / forums, without being able to create forums outside the wiki territory? Since forum creation is normally a adminCP function, I am very interested to learn how you plan to structure this. If only admins will be allowed to create categories, then this will severely limit the possibilities to create new articles for writers.
The deletion of categories will then also mean a deletion of all articles within the deleted forum, which is a potential disaster. I hope deletion is restricted to admins.

We don't have special provisions for category articles. However you could create the category article manually. And add the link to the corresponding forum header.

How about a short synopsis of the category article in the forum description and add a 'read more...' link to the article itself?

Could you elaborate a bit more? What we did is that we added the 'NuWiki' menu in the navbar. It contains the link tot the Wiki Main Page, but the admin can add as menu links as needed to this pop up, from NuWiki's Admin CP. (For instance, if needed entries could be added for Current Events, or Community Portal, or Help, etc)

Wiki has an editable navigation menu on the left. This can give a good overview of the various sections of the site. I think this can be added with vbadvanced or a navigation module.

This is implemented as a link in the NuWiki navbar menu. The recent changes lacks the user blocking function that is found in MediaWiki, but we are thinking on linking this to vBulletin's built-in banning functionality.

Nice.

How is this implemented in MediaWiki?

It is not, but it would be a big plus for the software and a large incentive for members to write articles. Many communities are driven by reputation reward. It is an essential factor and if this can be added to the already successful formula of wiki, then that is extremely good IMHO.

To discuss an article, simply reply to it, and the comments will be shown underneath the article.

I really think this would be much better if this is changed: separate the article and the discussion thereof.
- Otherwise it would lead to normal forum discussion of the article topic. Not to the discussion of issues around the writing of the article.
- There is a distinction between the article readers and the article writers. Having the article writers discussion in the article itself will only confuse the article readers and frustrate article writing discussion. You can compare it with having the usertalk in the article.

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by ElfMage

Yes, we haven't implemented this because we are trying to find a solution that saves this extra query. If we cannot find a solution, we'll add it with an option for the admin to enable/disable it.

Isn't it possible to do this by cron? Have a scheduled task process everything once an hour.

Originally Posted by MaestroX

Rather than have the wiki reside in the forums like /forum/wiki/ (with vbseo) or /forum/forumdisplay=23 (without vbseo), would it be possible for it to reside in just /wiki/ to differentiate the forum from the wiki in the url.

Absolutely. Some will even want to have NuWiki on a separate domain.

What are you planning to do with usertalk?

I'd really like to get rid of the reply box in NuWiki articles. This makes the difference between an article and a thread.

[ElfMage]

Originally Posted by MaestroX

Yeah, I quite liked the syntax that mediawiki used to create categories, I think its overall more powerfull than having things in forums and sub-forums.

We'll probably add this as a feature separate from the forum categorization. We'll need to think about this.

Originally Posted by MaestroX

Will do

A few other things,

Rather than have the wiki reside in the forums like /forum/wiki/ (with vbseo) or /forum/forumdisplay=23 (without vbseo), would it be possible for it to reside in just /wiki/ to differentiate the forum from the wiki in the url.

Generally if you can get the functionality of mediawiki into NuWiki you've got a winner

I think that this is doable. I'll see if we can port the SEO functionality from NuSpace, which is already done.

Originally Posted by MaestroX

Oh yeah BTW I can't access nuhit forums with IE I get an error.

Yes, indeed, thanks for the heads up. vbSEO stopped working for IE. So, currently I disabled vbSEO, this is going to cause havoc with all inbound links. And it seems that vbseo.com is down as well, so I cannot even contact their support department.