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NuWiki Comparison E-mail

NuWiki and vbWiki Pro both provide a way to add a wiki to your vBulletin community. But they are very different in their approach, ease of administration and ease of use for the end-user. This article will compare these two products to help you decide which one is right for your community

Description vbWiki Pro NuWiki
What is it? A bridge between vBulletin and MediaWiki A full wiki implemented natively on vBulletin
Wiki Functionality Implemented by MediaWiki Built-in
Third party software required? MediaWiki must be installed and fully operational before vbWiki Pro is installed. No third party software required.
Integrated user logins Supported. Implemented by vbWiki Pro Not needed. NuWiki uses vBulletin's users, usergroups and login system.
Integrated look and feel Supported. Implemented by vbWiki Pro's custom skin. Some minor tweaking may be necessary. Supported. Uses vBulletin templates and phrases.
Editing syntax Wikitext. vBulletin's BBCode.
WYSIWYG Editor Very limited built-in editor. There are some extensions for MediaWiki that add WYSWYG editors, but it may be difficult to get them to work. Uses vBulletin's built-in WYSIWYG editor that your community members already know how to use.
Collaboartive editing Supported. Supported.
Syntax for linking articles [[article title]] [[article title]], or [wiki]article title[/wiki]
Embeded Images Supported. Supported.
Attachments Supported. But, users have to first upload the attachment, and then go back and add the link to the article (or vice versa). Supported using vBulletin Attachment manager.
Polls Not supported. Supported using vBulletin polls.
Integrated search Not supported. Supported. Users can search through one wiki category, or throughout all the forums, including posts, wiki articles, and wiki comments.
Article discussion threads Functionality added by vbWiki Pro. Clicking on the 'Discussion' tab takes the user to the corresponding 'Talk Thread' in the forum. Fully integrated. Option to have discussion in a separate page, or right below article.
Can organize article discussion threads ? No. All discussion threads must reside in the same forum. Yes, article discussion threads are tied to their Articles. Articles can be placed in different forums/categories.
Categories Supported. An article is added to a category by editing its source. Supported. Implemented through forums and sub-forums. An article belongs to the category represented by the forum where it is located.
Category permissions Not supported. Users groups cannot be restricted to specific categories. Supported. Based on vBulletin's Forum and Usergroup Permissions. Full support for per-category permissions.
Category hierarchies Limited support. An article has to be added to the desired category, and all its parent categories.
 Supported using forums and sub-forums.
Multiple categories per Article Supported. Not Supported. Will be added in a later version.
Templates Supported. Supported.
Article Revisions Supports unlimited article revisions. Supports unlimited article revisions.
Revision Comparison Supported. Supported.
Revision Rollback Supported. Supported.
Protect/Unprotect Supported. Supported.
Article subscriptions Supported. Two steps required. 'Watch' article and then subscribe to discussion thread. Supported. Uses vBulletin thread subscription system.
Ease of installation Difficult. MediaWiki has to be installed and working first. And then vbWiki Pro is installed. Easy. NuWiki is distributed as a vBulletin product. Upload the files, install the product xml, and that's it.
Auto-Links Not supported. Supported. Scans posts and links phrases that match existing NuWiki Articles. Optionally shows the article introduction in a popup when the user hovers over the auto-link.
Books Not supported. Supported. Allows the organization of related article into collections (NuWiki Books)

Overall, we feel that NuWiki is better suited if you don't have to use MediaWiki:

  • NuWiki is easier to install, customize and maintain.
  • NuWiki uses BBCode and vBulletin's WYSIWYG editor, so your users will not need to learn a new syntax
  • NuWiki's data is stored within vBulletin's database, and re-uses as much functionality from vBulletin as possible, which makes it feature rich. (Inclluding integrated search and navigation).
  • NuWiki supports per-category (forum) permissions.

On the other hand:

  • If you have an existing community using MediaWiki, your users may be more familiar with wikitext than with BBCode.
  • MediaWiki supports some advanced functionality like multiple categories per article that NuWiki does not have in the current version.
 
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