GetWiki:2.0

Introducing GetWiki 2.0

With the ability to develop GetWiki fully independently of “legacy” concerns, GetWiki 2.0 has brought major improvements and changes to GetWiki 1.0. Beyond the endless bugfixes to the old MediaWiki codebase and Pseudopedian origins, development stabilized for 1.0 and has since moved toward a few major changes, key features and stabilities, which make 2.0 even more unique. All remaining inherited code has been eliminated for performance, usability, and design reasons. 2.0 is a completely new “bloki” application.

Since the debut of GetWiki in 2004, there had been a proliferation of wiki applications available, but more importantly, a noticeable reduction of public interest in Wiki-websites in general, as blogs and discussion forums have also proliferated to capture more “mindshare”. GetWiki 2.0 has moved toward a model in which “wiki” is only a name for the multi-user aspect of the content, and has been based on new codebase, code-named “Plug”, at rimric.com, a site which uses basic wiki functionality alongside a discussion forum and article commentary.

This new “GetWiki Lite”, if you will, “Plug” was named for its basis in “plugging” one's books and publications. It runs on a fully custom PHP/MySQL(or MariaDB) code platform, with 0% “legacy” from MediaWiki (or even from the existing GetWiki 1.0 codebase). This meant GetWiki 2.0 was rewritten from scratch using Plug as a “platform”, instead of MediaWiki. Thus, it has become a social networking, blog/bulletin board model using WikiCreole, multi-user content. This eliminated much of what seemed necessary to wikis only recently: The much misused and outmoded “talk page” is nowhere to be found in Plug, or their particular use of “namespaces”, and vandalism is essentially impossible, because edits are prevented from “out of network” members.

GetWiki 1.0 [would] continue to be supported as technical needs demand[ed]. The greatest assets of GetWiki 1.0 [were] that it [was] simple, powerful, and based on XML standards. 2.0 simply takes this to the next level by vastly improving the security and interactivity of GetWiki.

Technical Features

key features from GetWiki 1.0

• auto-import of Wiki articles via XML using PHP's Expat Library
• well-formed XHTML (later HTML5) and effective use of CSS2 (later CSS3)
• clear labeling and checkbox placements
• image thumbnail display
• whitelist settings, or blocking of non-account editing
• integrated blocks of edits, new accounts and uploads from IP range blocks
• conversion of TeX code for formulas into XHTML (now HTML5)
• comprehensive administrator tools

key features in GetWiki 1.x

• anti-spam blacklisting
• email registration only, required unique email addresses
• user rights enhancements and display
• dynamic content categories and facets with an index
• inline references/citations and other wikicode
• multiple wiki importing, evaluation
• atom/xml news feed
• removal of legacy biases
• (deprecated, unnecessary) rollback/delete new pages from a malicious user
• (deprecated, inapplicable) customizable “support” and “meta” namespaces

key features in GetWiki 2.0

• simple social networking, preventing “out of my network” edits
• internal email box, or private messaging
• full forum/bulletin threaded board forums
• member bio and avatar basics, instead of “User” wiki pages
• blog-style, threaded article comments below content, instead of “talk” pages
• full support for WikiCreole, and common blog and wiki code formats
• additional 'Pedia-style code support, such as “px” and “infoboxes”
• reduction of WikiComplexity toward “Plug” standards
• complete reorganization of functions and filenames (from 80+ PHP files to 5)
• clear documentation and explanation of code
• new visual style based on rimric.com

Releases and Downloads

GetWiki 2.0 is not available for download at this time. The (then) current getwiki-1.0.tar.gz' for 1.0 was the only GetWiki public release. 1.x ran on [the former] Wikinfo and here on [and older] GetWiki, but was never released.

• GetWiki 1.0 (getwiki-1.0.tar.gz, no longer available)

current technologies

• Apache under Unix/Linux installation recommended
• PHP 4.3.2 + required for application, with the common GD enabled (used for uploading images)
• MySQL 4.1 + required for database (later MariaDB)

Acknowledgments

• GetWiki 2.0 designed by M.R.M. Parrott (User:Proteus) and rimric.com
• GetWiki.net - official website (was ibiblio)