Skinner for Instiki

Hi,

I was talking about an open source project that I am working
on
recently and someone introduced Instiki to me.

My aim for this project is to allow the user to create a
website
easily and be able to deploy the result on any HTML hosting
server.
So it is very important that the user can specify their own
skin for
the website (same as the template feature on blogger), and
possibly
check in the content source in the version control so that
they can
share the benefit as the source codes.

I took a look at Instiki and felt that it is solving a lot
of problem that I am
trying to solve.  The only thing left is just to allow the
user to
specify a skin for the website, and store the content in the
physical
file system instead.

I wonder if you have that on your road map, and maybe you
would like
to take a look at what I have done.

* For general idea of site building:
http://buildmaster.rubyforge.org/docs/site-diagram.html
* For template tags: http://buildmaster.rubyforge.org/docs/build-site.html

For the history on this part of BuildMaster, see
http://
buildmaster.rubyforge.org/history.html

Cheers,

-- 
Shane
http://www.shaneduan.com
_______________________________________________
Instiki-users mailing list
Instiki-usersrubyforge.org
h
ttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/instiki-users

I have used Instiki similarly for a client of mine. I
created a wiki  
that "looks" like their existing site by just
using a screenshot of  
their existing site as the background. I then modified
Instiki's  
export_html function to export the wiki's content as HTML
files, but  
wrapping it in the HTML ( or ASP/HTML code in my case) that
they  
provided for their site's template. Pretty simple, just
another view  
file in the layouts directory.

Basically they didn't have a content management system and
wouldn't  
be able to install one (internal politics i think) so I used
instiki  
to kind of fake it. The result is they can create and edit
the  
content as they like and see what it will look like, then
when they  
are done they press the export button and get a zip file
with all the  
appropriate files that they can just unzip on their server.

For me using a screenshot of the layout made everything easy
because  
I didn't have to merge their layout-specific stuff with
Instiki's  
html. I just added their CSS to instiki's layout so the
headings and  
everything appear as it would appear on their site.

Instiki inserts divs around bits of revised content,
enabling the  
"See Changes" link. If you have table or div
layout structure in the  
content, then occasionally the revision divs will not be
nested  
properly in the output, as it doesn't make any effort to
look at the  
content and ensure that it's revision divs do not wrap
around a </td>  
element for instance. For me this just occasionally causes
Instiki's  
footer to dissappear, which i work around by forcing a new
revision  
(changing my username and making a change to whitespace well
inside  
all layout elements).

The revision divs are not included in the export html, so
it's really  
only a problem when you're editing the content. In my case,
i have  
very little if any layout structure in the content, so the
users  
don't really ever experience this problem because they are
generally  
only making changes inside the layout elements.

Instiki has the ability to have one page that includes the
content of  
another page with a tag like [[!include Menu]]. One annoy
thing about  
it though, at least on the old Madeline version that i'm
using  
(v0.10.2), you have to make a change to the page that
includes it in  
order for the changes on the included page to show up.

Also to note, if you place a <nowiki> tag around
content, Instiki  
will treat it as HTML not to be marked up with Textile etc.

So the task could be fairly simple or more complex,
depending on if  
you want users to edit their template using the application
and how  
flexible the templates need to be. But create an instiki
with a  
completely custom layout is pretty simple, the default
template is  
stored at app/views/layout/default.rhtml. You can modify it
or direct  
it to render using a different layout in the
wiki_controller, either  
change the default or specify one on render, perhaps like  
render :layout => current_client.layout.

Anyway, those are some of my experiences. It's already
pretty easy to  
change the skin if you have access to the filesystem and
know what  
file to edit. Storing the content on a physical filesystem
can be  
accomplished via the export html function. Feel free to hit
me up  
with any other questions you have.

- Derek
http://www.derekgulbra
nson.com

On Aug 9, 2006, at 3:54 PM, Shane Duan wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I was talking about an open source project that I am
working on
> recently and someone introduced Instiki to me.
>
> My aim for this project is to allow the user to create
a website
> easily and be able to deploy the result on any HTML
hosting server.
> So it is very important that the user can specify their
own skin for
> the website (same as the template feature on blogger),
and possibly
> check in the content source in the version control so
that they can
> share the benefit as the source codes.
>
> I took a look at Instiki and felt that it is solving a
lot of  
> problem that I am
> trying to solve.  The only thing left is just to allow
the user to
> specify a skin for the website, and store the content
in the physical
> file system instead.
>
> I wonder if you have that on your road map, and maybe
you would like
> to take a look at what I have done.
>
> * For general idea of site building:
> http://buildmaster.rubyforge.org/docs/site-diagram.html
> * For template tags: http://b
uildmaster.rubyforge.org/docs/build- 
> site.html
>
> For the history on this part of BuildMaster, see
> http://
buildmaster.rubyforge.org/history.html
>
> Cheers,
>
> -- 
> Shane
> http://www.shaneduan.com
> _______________________________________________
> Instiki-users mailing list
> Instiki-usersrubyforge.org
> h
ttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/instiki-users

_______________________________________________
Instiki-users mailing list
Instiki-usersrubyforge.org
h
ttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/instiki-users

Thanks a lot for the reply Derek.

Since my websites are part of the development that is being
done, I
would need them to be stored as flat text file so that they
can be
under the same version control system, and I think it would
work best
to store the original text content rather than generated
HTML file for
various reasons.

I also found out that the template uses absolute link, which
will make
it very hard for others to download the document and read it
offline.

Nevertheless, I will need to spend more time on Instiki to
see how I
can make it work for me.

-- 
Shane
http://www.shaneduan.com


On 8/9/06, Derek Gulbranson <derek73gmail.com> wrote:
> I have used Instiki similarly for a client of mine. I
created a wiki
> that "looks" like their existing site by
just using a screenshot of
> their existing site as the background. I then modified
Instiki's
> export_html function to export the wiki's content as
HTML files, but
> wrapping it in the HTML ( or ASP/HTML code in my case)
that they
> provided for their site's template. Pretty simple,
just another view
> file in the layouts directory.
>
> Basically they didn't have a content management system
and wouldn't
> be able to install one (internal politics i think) so I
used instiki
> to kind of fake it. The result is they can create and
edit the
> content as they like and see what it will look like,
then when they
> are done they press the export button and get a zip
file with all the
> appropriate files that they can just unzip on their
server.
>
> For me using a screenshot of the layout made everything
easy because
> I didn't have to merge their layout-specific stuff
with Instiki's
> html. I just added their CSS to instiki's layout so
the headings and
> everything appear as it would appear on their site.
>
> Instiki inserts divs around bits of revised content,
enabling the
> "See Changes" link. If you have table or
div layout structure in the
> content, then occasionally the revision divs will not
be nested
> properly in the output, as it doesn't make any effort
to look at the
> content and ensure that it's revision divs do not wrap
around a </td>
> element for instance. For me this just occasionally
causes Instiki's
> footer to dissappear, which i work around by forcing a
new revision
> (changing my username and making a change to whitespace
well inside
> all layout elements).
>
> The revision divs are not included in the export html,
so it's really
> only a problem when you're editing the content. In my
case, i have
> very little if any layout structure in the content, so
the users
> don't really ever experience this problem because they
are generally
> only making changes inside the layout elements.
>
> Instiki has the ability to have one page that includes
the content of
> another page with a tag like [[!include Menu]]. One
annoy thing about
> it though, at least on the old Madeline version that
i'm using
> (v0.10.2), you have to make a change to the page that
includes it in
> order for the changes on the included page to show up.
>
> Also to note, if you place a <nowiki> tag around
content, Instiki
> will treat it as HTML not to be marked up with Textile
etc.
>
> So the task could be fairly simple or more complex,
depending on if
> you want users to edit their template using the
application and how
> flexible the templates need to be. But create an
instiki with a
> completely custom layout is pretty simple, the default
template is
> stored at app/views/layout/default.rhtml. You can
modify it or direct
> it to render using a different layout in the
wiki_controller, either
> change the default or specify one on render, perhaps
like
> render :layout => current_client.layout.
>
> Anyway, those are some of my experiences. It's already
pretty easy to
> change the skin if you have access to the filesystem
and know what
> file to edit. Storing the content on a physical
filesystem can be
> accomplished via the export html function. Feel free to
hit me up
> with any other questions you have.
>
> - Derek
> http://www.derekgulbra
nson.com
>
_______________________________________________
Instiki-users mailing list
Instiki-usersrubyforge.org
h
ttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/instiki-users