Basic Setup Guide?

[Winterstride]

The more I tinker with VaultWiki the more I realize I have no idea how to properly set it up.

We're using this add-on over at sakugacity.com and want to use the wiki to come up with our own humorous take on anime, manga, video games, tv shows, film, etc but I can't quite figure out the optimal method for getting started. I've made a simple index page and I think I've figured out how to make categories but it looks like the articles themselves are coming from a path called Wiki -> System -> Article Name. That doesn't strike me as correct.

I've also noticed that the wiki linking system doesn't seem to work on some pages, like our page on "Naruto" (https://www.sakugacity.com/wiki/System/Naruto). My suspicion is that I've actually done something wrong and it's actually an article at all but something different called a template.

Basically: I have no real idea what I'm doing and I don't even know how to find a breakdown of all the BB Code unique to VaultWiki or what it all does. I can't even figure out how to use images. I've looked through a lot of the documentation already and most of it seems to assume some level competency that I don't have yet. Is there something I can refer to in order to get started and making an appealing wiki for my community?

Thanks.

[pegasus]

The path comes from the wiki-area you have saved the wiki article in.
Yes, your page where the wiki-links don't work is a template. You need to edit the page and remove the template behavior from the page. Since you are new to wikis, I would advise against using templates until you need them.

You should start with the following only:

- Wiki Areas to organize your wiki pages
- Normal Wiki Pages for your content

Everything else is for special use cases. We will consider a Getting Started or Basic Concepts section as we expand the documentation.

For now, the closest doc is this page: https://www.vaultwiki.org/pages/Help...irst-Wiki-Area

Which suggests to create a wiki area to store your pages inside. The wiki comes with two pre-installed:
- A hidden area called "System" where anything goes
- An example area called "Wiki Pages" where also anything goes

You should use the Area Manager to delete the example area and create a new one that works for the kind of content you want to create. Since you and your users are new to VaultWiki, I would suggest an area that only allows Normal Pages to start out.

You cannot delete the System area, but you can change its name. It's hidden, so you don't really need to touch it anyway.

You can find a breakdown of the wiki BB-Codes on your wiki's Special:WikiCodeList page. You can find as follows:
- Navbar > Wiki > Special Pages > Wiki Data Reports > List of Wiki Codes
OR
- via your forum's FAQ / Help page > Wiki, and following the link there.

[Winterstride]

Thank you very much for the speedy reply! I have a question about this bit, though:

You should start with the following only:

- Wiki Areas to organize your wiki pages
- Normal Wiki Pages for your content

Would it be possible to use Wiki Pages as a kind of makeshift category page? As you can see on our current setup we're going for having a main area that lists all the categories with the intention that clicking on the category will give you a list of individual articles. If I have all of the categories on the Wiki Area and use Wiki Pages to house lists of more specific Wiki Pages (like individual shows or books) is that fine? I imagine it would look something like this:

Index (Wiki Area)

• Category 1 (Wiki Page)
  
  • Article 1 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 2 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 3 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 4 (Wiki Page)
• Category 2
  
  • Article 1 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 2 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 3 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 4 (Wiki Page)
• Category 3 (Wiki Page)
  
  • Article 1 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 2 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 3 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 4 (Wiki Page)
• Category 4 (Wiki Page)
  
  • Article 1 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 2 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 3 (Wiki Page)
  • Article 4 (Wiki Page)

Would this be a viable way of setting it up or would this just cause a lot of problems?

[pegasus]

You can definitely set it up this way. I would not be too concerned about problems, as you can always move content around as your wiki grows.

But I do want to mention something that trips up newbies when learning about VaultWiki -- throughout the software and in our discussions you will find Areas vs Categories mentioned a lot, and there are some big differences between the two:

- Permissions can be inherited from Wiki Areas only
- Strict rules about what kinds of Wiki Pages can be created (e.g. disallowing templates) can currently be applied only to Wiki Areas
- URL paths are inherited from Wiki Areas only
- Storing everything in one Wiki Area may look cluttered later if you access the list-view of the Wiki Area.

Also note that:
1. a Wiki Page can be contained in zero, one, or in multiple Wiki Categories at the same time
2. a Wiki Page is always contained in exactly 1 Wiki Area
3. a Wiki Area can be nested inside another Wiki Area, it will inherit permissions and paths from the upper area.
4. Because of #1, even though you can nest Wiki Categories, there is no defined hierarchy. A side effect is that they can be nested infinitely or recursively

If you intend to have each Wiki Page only be in one Wiki Category at a time (or even only 1 "category" listed on the home page), I would recommend creating a Wiki Area with that category-name instead, and store the Wiki Page directly in that area. That is, unless you have another reason for wanting to use Wiki Categories (such as overlapping "main categories" that need to share some of the same Wiki Pages).

Whether you use Wiki Areas or Wiki Categories (or both) to organize your wiki, you can create your own makeshift navigation to them on the home page using wiki links. However, if you choose to use Areas, I would also recommend that you use the appropriate Area vs Category terms on your site, to avoid confusion. For example, if you call Wiki Areas "categories" on your site, users will get confused when a button that says "Create New Category" does not make a Wiki Area.

[Winterstride]

That's very helpful. Thanks for making that distinction clear.

I have one final question: is it possible to set up a Wiki Page that can automatically update itself when a page is created within certain parameters?

For example: say I set up a kind of index on a Wiki Page for "video games" and intend to list all articles pertaining to video games titles on that Wiki page. Is there a way for the Wiki to automatically recognise a new addition has been made and to add the title of that article to a list? If I have a list that reads:

Video Games Titles:

• Super Mario Bros.
• God of War
• Twisted Metal
• Pokemon
• Doom

And someone, somewhere, decides to make a page called "Sonic the Hedgehog", is it possible to have this Wiki page automatically add it to that list? And can it do so alphabetically?

I imagine some kind of tagging system would be needed for this? How does it work?

[pegasus]

Assuming the pages are in an area called "Video Games":

[WIDGET]area|area=Video Games[/WIDGET]

This will show the 5 most recently updated pages in the Video Games area. I could be wrong, but I believe it checks for updates every few minutes. If you want to show more than 5, you can try adding the |count=X parameter to your widget code (where X is a finite number you choose). You will need to update the maximum widget contents allowed first, in your AdminCP, locate the WIDGET BB-Code in your forum's Custom BB Code manager, and under Wiki-Related Options, there should be an option to control the maximum widget contents.

There is not currently a widget if it was for a category called "Video Games", although we intend to add one soon.

[Winterstride]

How about a complete list, not just the 5 most recent? Just curious.

[pegasus]

Increase the WIDGET maximum to a high enough number for your wiki. On most sites, letting the number be infinite could let users spam the area with 1M pages and then load them all at once, which could crash the server if well-coordinated. So you must pick a finite number that won't kill your server.

You can always view the full list in the area itself without using WIDGET at all. If you find yourself wanting to list the complete contents of a different wiki area, you should probably send the visitors directly to that area so they can interact with the real list. You can increase the size of an area list in AdminCP > Options > VaultWiki: Navigation

[Winterstride]

That's an excellent suggestion.

Thank you very much for your help!

[Winterstride]

Okay, I lied; I have another question.

Now that I know more about Wiki Areas I want to organise my content into specific areas but I can't figure out how to change an articles' area. I have an existing one I made before jostling my areas around but when I go to Edit it I see no way to change which area it belongs to.

How do I change a Wiki Article's Wiki Area?

[pegasus]

For most pages, at the top of a wiki page, Options > Move to Another Area.
You can also visit the area list of the page's current area and use the inline moderation tools to select the page in the list and use the Move action.

But if you want to move an actual area to another area, this can only be done in the admin page for that area.