[wikka-community] Killer feature for Wikka

[Brian Koontz]

On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 07:43:27PM +0000, Dario Taraborelli wrote:
> Lately we have all been busy with a lot of coding to improve Wikka's  
> architecture and performance, but I sometimes have the feeling we may  
> have forgot our mission towards world domination :) So what if you  
> should name the killer wiki feature for the 3rd millenium?

Sure, I have some ideas :)

1.  I'd like to see Wikka become a complete publishing platform.
Right now, when I write a LaTeX document, I use vim, TeXShop, and
BiBTeX, a setup that is not very trivial to install or administer.
I'd like to be able to type a document in LaTeX (with helpers such as
those provided by LaTeX-Suite under vim) on a Wikka page, and have it
render as if it was typeset.  Or be given the option of downloading a
PDF version, or PS version, or even printing it.  

At the same time, I'd like to see the BookmarkMgr [1] morph into  an app
to manage references, much like Wikindx3 or BibTeX.  In the end, I'd
like to be able to publish a LaTeX document without having to
instantiate any apps outside of Wikka. 

Or an HTML editor.  Right now, I use a local instance of Wikka to
write static HTML pages for a few college courses I teach.  I've
written a handler [2] to strip out all Wikka decorations, display as
HTML, and then I use the browser to save.  I'd like to be able to
print right from Wikka, or even export a set of HTML pages as a PDF
document or whatever.

The possibilities are endless.  I've always viewed Wikka (besides
being an excellent app to manage *data*) as a container that can be
used for many different embedded apps [3].  Publishing is one of them.
(I'm not talking about competing with Quark Express or FrameMaker!)

2. On the same track as "Wikka as a framework," I'd like to be able
to provide users with plug-in support for apps developed with
CakePHP [4].  IOW, Wikka would serve as the container, provide the
look-and-feel, authentication, security, etc., freeing a developer to
focus on functionality. I see so much time wasted when people develop
a new PHP app, and recreate look-and-feel *every time*.  For
instance, I'd like to be able to whip together a DB interface (data
entry and display) using CakePHP, test it as a standalone CakePHP
app, then install it in Wikka and let Wikka take care of
authentication details.

3.  An alternative to Moodle, Sakai, etc.  (These are CMSes that are
education-related and provide the means to publish on-line courses.)
I'd like to be able to set up a lesson in Wikka, consisting of linked
pages that allow conditional branching based upon the success or
failure of some event in a page.  I don't know if we really want to
try and compete with Moodle and the like, but maybe some basic
functionality to encourage the use of Moodle in an educational
setting. 

4.  Better tagging capabilities.  I'd like to incorporate FreeTag
into our tagging framework (much like we use GeSHi for syntax
highlighting), and explore new and innovative ways of access [5,6].  Right
now, so much of the access to a wiki is linear:  Even though one can
search, you still have to scroll through a (long?) list of choices.
Or scroll through a paged collection of links.  I think some sort of
conceptual search engine, combined with tagging, would be a real plus
over existing wikis.  

  --Brian

[1] http://wikkawiki.org/BookmarkManager
[2] http://wikkawiki.org/HTMLHandler
[3] http://wikkawiki.org/WikkaAsARapidDevelopmentFramework
[4] http://wikkawiki.org/WikkaCake
[5] http://wikkawiki.org/WikkaFolksonomy
[6] http://wikkawiki.org/FreeTaggingFolksonomy

-- 
Brian Koontz
Wikka Development Team
Systems Support and Random Tasking Dept.