Considering this plugin

[iamacyborg]

Hi,

I'm currently running a fan site for an online game, which consists of a forum (vB 3.8, no plan to upgrade to 4.0 in the near future) and Mediawiki. I've also got a user bridge set up which links the forum accounts to wiki accounts.

I'm wanting to change to something that makes upgrades easier for the site as well as theme development and VaultWiki seems like the obvious answer, but I've got a few questions before I purchase the software.

• How easy is it to transfer existing mediawiki content to vaultwiki?
• Can I keep the same URL structure that I currently have?
• Do I have to have a landing page like this, or can I make it default to land at the main page?
• How does the auto linker work? Could I use it to only take certain content from Wiki pages, ie a particular template on some pages?
• Can I change the behaviour and styling of the autolinks?
• I also want to purchase vBSeo, how well does VaultWiki work with it?
• Would my existing links lose their position in the SERP's?
• Is the contents box automatically created like that in MediaWiki?

Thanks,

Jacques

[pegasus]

• How easy is it to transfer existing mediawiki content to vaultwiki?
• Can I keep the same URL structure that I currently have?
• Do I have to have a landing page like this, or can I make it default to land at the main page?
• How does the auto linker work? Could I use it to only take certain content from Wiki pages, ie a particular template on some pages?
• Can I change the behaviour and styling of the autolinks?
• I also want to purchase vBSeo, how well does VaultWiki work with it?
• Would my existing links lose their position in the SERP's?
• Is the contents box automatically created like that in MediaWiki?

There is an included import system to import MediaWiki content to VaultWiki. Because the importer lets you choose which content to import, before importing, you should create namespaces in VaultWiki that you already have in MediaWiki.

VaultWiki accepts a variety of URL structures, but the files must be physically located in the vBulletin directory. Using server rewrites you can create almost any URL. There is a built-in tool to help with .htaccess rewrites, if you need to use another kind, you may want to ask for assistance on the forums.

You can customize your landing page using one of VaultWiki's settings.

The auto-linker searches forum posts for text that matches the titles of your wiki articles and automatically links to that article. This also works in articles themselves so your editors don't necessarily have to create links manually. Aside from a small text preview, it doesn't insert content from the article. Auto-links only link to articles that are contained in the same namespace.

You can customize the appearance of wiki links in general by modifying VaultWiki's vw-links.css template.

VaultWiki works fine with the current branch of vBSEO. If you are rewriting VaultWiki URLs, you may need to make a small change to your vBSEO rewrites.

Provided you keep the same URL structure, your SERPs should not be affected much. It's hard to say definitively if it would be AT ALL, because the HTML output of the page of a VaultWiki page is obviously going to be different from MediaWiki output.

Yes, the contents box is automatically created in VaultWiki like in MediaWiki.

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There are some important distinctions between VaultWiki and MediaWiki that have not been discussed:

VaultWiki uses forum BB-Code syntax, rather than MediaWiki's syntax. If you have a very large wiki, it may take a long time to change them all. There is a converter included in VaultWiki, but a human would probably do a better job anyway. You can also enable MediaWiki's parser in your VaultWiki articles, but this is not recommended because MediaWiki's parser is much slower than a BB-Code parser.

There is no built-in support for the Media namespace (there is support for an Image namespace). If you require a Media namespace, this is something you would have to use modifications to achieve for now. A Media namespace is not a high priority right now - we are mainly looking into performance and ease-of-use for the time being.

If you require an Image or Category namespace, you will need to purchase the Premium version of VaultWiki.

[iamacyborg]

Thanks.

Would it be possible for me to turn off the auto-linker from this mod and use another one, ie the premium version of the autolinker lite mod available from vbulletin.org? And would those mods work with this plugin?

Are basic templates such as the category template provided with the product, and would those categories be imported from mediawiki or would I have to do that myself.

Would you be able to provide support with the installation and transfer of existing data if I purchased the professional installation option?

[pegasus]

I am not familiar with that auto-linker mod, so I can't say.

Yes, categories are included with the Premium version of VaultWiki. You should be able to import existing categories from MediaWiki. Category membership should rebuild over time.

Yes, if you purchase a professional installation option currently (as of this posting, a professional import option is not available separately), then we would provide assistance during the import transfer. If you purchase after a separate option is posted, then you would need to purchase that option.

[iamacyborg]

Great, thanks for the help.