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March 21, 2007
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January 8th, 2007

Hi Helmut. I'm getting a lot of spam at http://www.ourculture.info/wiki.cgi?OpenLeader/MinciuSodas/AndriusKulikauskas/GuestBook I'm trying to block the page with

  • status.for.edit.page.OpenLeader/MinciuSodas/AndriusKulikauskas/GuestBook=Admin
at http://www.ourculture.info/wiki.cgi?Context But it keeps getting created or edited. What can I do? Thank you! AndriusKulikauskas January 8, 2007 18:56 CET

Andrius, sorry for the delay. When I go to the page and try to edit it, I get a Login for to identify as an Admin, so the configuration is correct. I don't assume that the spammers can actually login as Admins, but we should check that. Could you look at the current LogFile log_0701 and look at one of the spam interactions to make sure? Can you see something unusual? -- HelmutLeitner January 10, 2007 10:31 CET

Helmut, Thank you. I looked at the file and found the following. Any thoughts?

  1. DONE2|1|UT|0.440|ST|0.020|STAMP|1. Januar 2007 1:17|IP|203.144.160.242#111|HOST|203.144.160.242#111|USER||NAME||ACTION|/home/ourculture/html/wiki.cgi?form edit=1&action=form edit&lang=0&formpage=&title=OpenLeader/MinciuSodas/AndriusKulikauskas/GuestBook&id=OpenLeader/MinciuSodas/AndriusKulikauskas/GuestBook&incoming=AndriusKulikauskas/GuestBook&oldtime=1163093986&rndstamp=592147545&oldconflict=0&Save=Save&summary=&text=(NN)|TS|1167607064
  2. DONE2|1|UT|0.460|ST|0.010|STAMP|1. Januar 2007 1:37|IP|82.137.247.131#111|HOST|82.137.247.131#111|USER||NAME||ACTION|/home/ourculture/html/wiki.cgi?form edit=1&action=form edit&lang=0&formpage=&title=OpenLeader/MinciuSodas/AndriusKulikauskas/GuestBook&id=OpenLeader/MinciuSodas/AndriusKulikauskas/GuestBook&incoming=AndriusKulikauskas/GuestBook&oldtime=1163093986&rndstamp=813112671&oldconflict=0&Save=Save&summary=&text=(NN)|TS|1167608225

December 5 th : About user-admin / changing password / delete users ?

Bonjour Helmut. On FractalWiki, some users and authors did lose their passwords. And I am currently losed to find out in the UserManagement interface, how could we reinitialize passwords. I'd be interested to erase some old users currently inactive. How about imagining a password reminder for users registered with an email. Moreover, one day I'd be interested to know more about your opinion on OpenID to simplify login/identification on wikis. Thanks for all -- ChristopheDucamp December 5, 2006 22:22 CET

Currently the server admin (in this case me) can dig out lost passwords. If you send me an e-mail with the names, I can pass them to you as the "fw admin". The "delete user" feature is currently not turned on, it would only remove the UserStatus regarding the FractalWiki but still keep the server-wide registration. I think registration has to be reworked (there has been a discussion with AndriusKulikauskas about that, who has different needs, I can only imagine to create a number of optional RegistrationFeatures). -- HelmutLeitner December 7, 2006 9:13 CET

November 24th

Hi Helmut,

I am a newbee to wikis. I've compared them at http://www.wikimatrix.org and based on my needs yours is 'best'. I have two questions:

1) Do you have an installation guide that outlines how to construct a standalone proWiki server? Specifically, how do I configure apache and proWiki to work together in a standalone environment? I run Gentoo linux where vs. 2.0.58 of apache is installed. I do not want to port my wiki pages to the world - they will be my personal sandbox.

2) I have looked at all of your links on the sidebar with regards to any documentation or examples on how to write math formulae. I found none - just that that wiki page is under construction. The fact that your math is built-into your wiki server was one of my deciding factors in choosing proWiki. I assume that you use LaTeX as your underlying math compiler.

Hi, Alan. This should pose no problems. There is no difference between an "internet-connected" and a "standalone" wiki server. Just follow the installation instructions. TeX and utilities are installed separately and a small script forms the interface to the TeX sourcecode and utilities that produce the graphics file that is finally shown in the wiki page. I'll check and update the documentation for this as soon as possible. Give me a few days because I'm currently on the road. -- HelmutLeitner November 24, 2006 15:25 CET

Alan, I've now written the missing parts of documentation. Please tell me when there is something missing or unclear. -- HelmutLeitner November 28, 2006 11:52 CET

November 22nd

Helmut is there any way to have toc break into columns? I have a page that the toc contents are 2-3 screens long and would like to break it in half with 2 columns on the top. I have tried [[toc][columns=2]Contents], but it ignored the cloumns statement. I could make a table and create all the links but that wouldn't be any fun. Thanks again for a great product. Greg Rommel November 22, 2006 16:33 CET

Such a columns parameter is good idea for the near future. I should rework CdmlToc anyway because of the CSS layout needs of the French FractalWiki users. Currently you can only marginally improve the situation by using table parameters, less "padding" and "linewidth". -- HelmutLeitner November 22, 2006 16:58 CET

November 13th, Christophe about SearchForm in the SideBar

Bonjour Helmut. For a new private Branch dedicated to organize a brainstorming mode towards newbies on wikis, I'd be interested to study the opportunity to embed directly the SearchForm in a SideBar. Think it could help on a usability point of view. Still interested also to know more about any evolution on the future SearchFocus feature.

I'd like also to study with SamRose and some fellows a WikiNet proposition to serve the overall BarCamp memory and project management wiki. -- ChristopheDucamp November 13, 2006 10:31 CET

Christophe, sorry that I only just saw your posting. The normal SearchForm could be include by using an TemplateInsert command {Insert:wiki.

Search for:
Options:
titles
texts
words-only
match-case
regex
 
}</n> , but it will probably be too big. I'll prepare a smaller as soon as I've solved the MultiDomainProblems, next week. Is that ok. -- HelmutLeitner November 22, 2006 17:07 CET

BTW I forgot the insert markup {SearchForm} which might to the job for now. Of course, one can also write a HTML form directly into the template, which is the available on any page and which is completely under the control of the web designer. -- HelmutLeitner November 28, 2006 11:56 CET

Thanks a lot Helmut. I'll translate that and will talk to Laurent about this feature. -- ChristopheDucamp December 3, 2006 3:36 CET

October 23 th 2006, Christophe

Bonjour Helmut, I paste here some questions from LaurentLunati coming from FractalWiki:Forum :

''How function CdmlElementDefaults (they do not work on my context page) and more precisely how to make so that they do not return values? it is unbearable to have these css values on the tag ( example h4 style = "background:#ffaa66 )...
  • a div in a H(1,2,3...) tag ... is not a good idea''
Cheers -- ChristopheDucamp October 23, 2006 17:23 CET

Christophe, let's sort this out. I don't understand the remark about div (there is no div in this context) and whether to have a style-parameter within a h-tag is debatable (it's just a symptom of the problem, thew point is that there is no other efficient way to enable users to give individual elements specific properties, e. g. colors). But I understand the rant, because it also hit me occasionally.

If there is a default not working in a Context page, please provide a link so that I can look at it.

The style-parameter is controlled by defaults, but there are three levels of defaults, for backward compatibility (that's where the problem comes from). There are CdmlElementDefaults, default parameters (in configuration files and Context pages) and script defaults (effective when no other defaults are given).

TitleColor is probably the one that is creating the trouble, it must be cleared by a

  TitleColor=""
option. If it is just removed, a script default $TitleColor="#ccccff"; becomes effective.

Hope this helps. Sorry for the inconvenience. -- HelmutLeitner

For the TitleColor this helps But what, exactly poses problem, it is that all is based on table layout, leave this logic generates errors (in IE) hard to correct with css. For exemple in this page : http://www.wikiservice.at/fractal/wikidev.cgi?LaurentLunati/TestPage . There are CdmlElementDefaults for Table of Content,but the table is in another table on which one has no control. that made waste time, but i persist --LaurentLunati

I'm sorry for these problems. You are the first pioneer who really goes to the limits. What would be your ideal envrinoment to apply css design? And how can we keep the ability of the user to override these attributes from configuration files or individual parameters? More individual parameters like TitleColor would be possible but are hardly desirable. Can you think of a solution? BTW kudos to your excellent designs, they are really beautiful! Would you care to make them more accessable through a page listing them? -- HelmutLeitner October 28, 2006 11:55 CET

October 23 th 2006, Sam

Hello folks. I am wondering if anyone has ever set up ProWiki in OS X? I have started the process of trying to do this on my local machine, to try and learn more about the possible configurations and administration of ProWiki. I have gotten as far as:

 Forbidden
 You don't have permission to access /prowiki default/wiki.cgi on this server.

Which tells me that I probably have the files in the right place, but have the wrong permissions (Apache newbie here). I'll keep playing around with it until I have it up and running. But any advice would be appreciated. -- SamRose

Sam, up to now no-one has reported an OS X installation, but as OS X is a Unix family member there should be no serious problems. The "permissions error" is 99% related to Unix level permissions, but it may be connected to the Apache configuration (which defines "User" and "Group" variable of the running Apache process). The installation readme should cover this. If it is unclear we should discuss this and improve it. Anyway, I'm very much interested in experience on OS X and will give you any support needed to get it up and running. -- HelmutLeitner October 24, 2006 8:41 CET

Helmut, thanks for the pointer. I'm sure that you are right about Unix level permissions, so I'll look into that, and see if I can figure out how to see and change those. I am not going to mess with the Apache config file at all unless I figure out that it is somehow not related to Unix level permissions (and it probably is Unix permissions, as you've said). If I can get it to actually work with localhost, I'll report back here about how I got it working. -- SamRose

Sam, in short: changing ownership is "chown -R username:groupname directoryname" and giving necessary permissions "chmod 770 -R directoryname". "username" and "groupname" must correspond to your Apache settings (the variables "User" and "Group" somewhere in the configuration files). If you want to do a quick check whether permissions are the problem and changing them will solve the problem, you can do a "chmod 777 -R directoryname" which gives everybody all permissions but you must quickly restrict permissions back to 770 not to be vulnerable to attack. Should I write a page here about UnixPermissions? -- HelmutLeitner October 25, 2006 7:49 CET

Have been playing around with this on OS Xin my spare time. Still struggling with permissions. getting 403 permissions error on ../prowiki_default/test.cgi

and

 ../prowiki_cgi-bin/test.cgi

Have done chmod 770 on prowiki default. What else am I missing? What else should change permissions on?

Also, I've been struggling with setup on a Debian server. Most of the problem is that I am very novice with UNIX, while the INSTALL file pretty much assumes that you are comfortable with UNIX command line. None the less, I feel like I am getting extremely close. I was able to get OddMuse and WikiCalc installed on this server, and I believe that ProWiki can be installed to, and that it is just user-error (me) that is the problem. -- SamRose

In Debian server case, I am using media temple grid server, which gives admin access, bit no root account. Not sure if that is crippling me or not.

Update: on OS X, when I run

 ../prowiki_cgi-bin/test.cgi

I know see the following in my web browser:

 #!/usr/bin/perl
 print "Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n";
 print "Hello, World.";

Which I believe is not exactly what I should see (I believe that I should just see "hello world"). But, I feel I am possibly getting closer. --SamRose

Sam, I think this means that the permission problem is solved but the script is not called but just delivered as text. I would now check whether you Apache configuration contains something like

   AddHandler cgi-script cgi pl

If not, put it in (don't forget to restart Apache to make the configuration effective). -- HelmutLeitner

October 17th, 2006

Helmut,
I must continue to praise you for such a great program. With all the work I did on creating a wiki for helping my company's admins with Linux, my company has asked me to setup wiki's for our other operating system admins. So I tried to add a unix wiki under my current wiki but had troubles setting it all up with the WikiFractality. So instead I have installed prowiki again in a directory called unixwiki under my htdocs directory. So it currently looks like this.

/srv/www/htdocs/prowiki_default <--- linux wiki
/srv/www/htdocs/unixwiki/prowiki_default <--- unix wiki
/srv/www/htdocs/aixwiki/prowiki_default <--- aix wiki to be???

I have an index file that loads up under a virtual DNS name cnamed to my machine. The index.html file has links to both linux and unix wikis. I have also added a link under the Navigation for useful links which each has a link back to the other. They like this so much that they are pushing for an aix wiki, a project database wiki with flowcharts or dataflow charts. I want to implement wikifractility, but don't know how to do this. Instead of a bunch of wiki's I would like to have a superwiki instead.
So my main concerns are this:
Is it possible to have on the navigation bar links to linux, unix, aix, and projects that lead to there own seperate wikis? Having it be their own seperate wikis that would include different users, authors, etc. We currently have ours so all can read but only the users can edit. We don't want an HP-UX admin deleting something on the Linux side and vice-versa. An example of the Navigation bar for the main wiki would be:
This will be the main wiki Navigation list
FrontPage
Linux
HP-Unix
AIX
Projects
Useful Links
Downloads
Search
This will be the Linux Navigation list
FrontPage --> Link back to the main wiki
StartPage
Starting Points
Linux Projects
Search
Veritas commmands
SLES issues
ILO Consoles
Munin Sites
The main page of the wiki would be readable by all and only admins can edit(me). The main page would be something with a company logo and other stuff, maybe an org chart. Then the linux page would like like I currently have it, same users,same everything. The same for the unix. I have tried to implement this in a test enviroment and was unsuccessful. Has anyone had success with this? What is the easiest way to take two different Prowiki's and turn them into one big wiki?
Greg Rommel October 17, 2006 16:36 CET


I did get the wiki to have seperate pages with cp -rp prowiki_default unix_wiki. The problem was the user configuration, how to keep the two seperate. Greg Rommel October 17, 2006 22:18 CET
I decided to try again and the errors I get are with creating a user under one wiki. When I try to launch a different subwiki I get this:
Programmfehler:
Fehler beim Öffnen von File /srv/www/htdocs/unix_wiki/user/3/1003.dp: No such file or directory Script= /srv/www/htdocs/unix_wiki/wiki.cgi Function= FileRetStr Line= 1970
So how is it possible to have different subwikis or subpages with different users?
Greg Rommel October 18, 2006 5:25 CET

Greg, there is a list of issues:

  • The error. The 1003.dp file stores the "Preferences" data of cookie #1003 and it seems that the cookie/file pair was created and then somehow broken. Delete your corresponding cookie to work around this. The script should be more tolerant in this non-standard situation.
  • How to configure multiple sidebars. HowToAdmin/MultipleSideBars
  • How to configure subwikis. See Top:SubWiki and Option/SubWiki
  • How to configure separate wikis so that they work together.
  • How to protect a page: HowToAdmin/ProtectPages (I added recipes for front page protection)
please add to this list what I may have missed. I'll provide links to existing documentation and extend it where necessary. -- HelmutLeitner October 18, 2006 9:30 CET

October 11 2006

Hi Helmut,

I'm having a problem to activate SectionEditing in my pages. Is the feature activated by default? I have tried various features in the context and template files but can't seem to get it to appear. I'm using version 2.0.044 with basically the standard template.txt and context as downloaded.

Thanks for a great product!

Henno

Henno, yes SectionEditing is activated by default. If the editing icons do not show, try [[display][variable=SectionEditing]]:

Variable SectionEditing:
1

to verify it's value. -- HelmutLeitner October 12, 2006 8:05 CET

Helmut,

I did and the variable is set to 1. , but the icons still does not show.

Henno, Are there icon urls visible in the page source?

  • If yes, do the icons show when they are directly viewed in the browser (like http://www.domain.org/image/icon_edit.gif)?
  • If no, could you post the template and wiki.cfg files? -- HelmutLeitner
October 12, 2006 14:29 CET

Thanks Helmut, That fixed it, I did not have a path to that image file. Working just fine now. Henno

You're welcome. -- Helmut

September 18, 2006

Helmut Thank you for your response. I am much closer now to getting this to work. I have tested my script with http://localhost/cgi-bin/ping.cgi?IP=10.123.4.56 and get replies. I can even do hostnames. When I try to attach that to my button I get Form Input Error:Target page missing. These are what I have tried:
[[form][type=input]
 [[button][label=PING][command=cgi-bin/ping.cgi?IP=10.123.4.56]]
]
and 
[[form][type=input]
[[button][label=PING][command=http://localhost/cgi-bin/ping.cgi?IP=10.123.4.56]]
]
and
[[table][type=input]   [[button][label=PING][command=cgi-bin/ping.cgi?IP=10.123.4.56]]
]
I tried changing form to table, I have tried changing input to action. Any other help would be greatly appreciated. I know that I could just add a little jpg file but would rather do it with a button.

Greg, I have to extend the ProWiki script a little to become powerful enough to handle this. Currently the HTML form feature is used in its simple form, where the script url is defined when displaying the page (and identical to the wiki url including "wiki.cgi?"), only parameters are added using fields or button. We must make this url definable, which is simple and should go into the next release, which is overdue anyway. -- HelmutLeitner September 22, 2006 11:31 CET

September 14, 2006

Q : I was asked by my team lead to try and setup a wiki page for our new Linux group. I downloaded a few different wiki's and decided on prowiki because it was the easiest and best one that we tested. I have added a bunch of personalization?s to our wiki site. We are using our site as a means to communicate information from VPN?ed users. I have just finished an inventory sheet of all of our servers. I wanted to add a button in the table for pinging. I have a ping.cgi script in my cgi-bin directory, I just don?t know how to call it. I have figured out[[button]PING] but that is it. I have tried [[button]PING? prowiki_default/wiki.cgi?cgi-bin/ping.cgi? IP=$row[3]&COUNT=3?] to no avail. -- GregRommel

A: Greg, thank you for choosing ProWiki and sorry for lack of good documentation. I think the form elements need to be enclosed within an CdmlForm element. Don't know whether they work without. Anyway you currently need label and command parameters.

Hope this helps:

[[form][type=input]
 [[button][label=INDEX][command=action=index]]
]

creates:

I hope we can extend the functionality and simplify the syntax during the next few weeks. Using the body as label might be an intuitive thing, thank you. -- HelmutLeitner September 16, 2006 22:00 CET

August 16, 2006

Q.: Bonjour Helmut. MarkDilley told me that WikiIndex's url has changed to http://wikiindex.org/ . Even if the previous url (.com) is still pointing, could you make a change to InterWiki lists hosted on the server (here and on FractalWiki:InterWiki) ? Best, ChristopheDucamp August 16, 2006 8:37 CET

Done. Let's try WikiIndex:FractalWiki. Thank you for the information. Should probabably write a HowToAdmin for this. -- HelmutLeitner August 16, 2006 8:57 CET

August 3, 2006

Q: I am just digging into the huge diversity of different wikis. In fact and so far, ProWiki seems to be one of my favorites, because I didn't come across another wiki with such a consequent and well-designed concept and ease-of-use. I am impressed indeed. Of course at the end you have to compare the pros and cons and this depends on the requirements one have. I am looking for a wiki for our company where I want to (a) distribute our poicies (ISO), which of course needs some form of restriction, (b) allow employees to work together very freely, and (c) manage our (internation) projects. For (a) and (b) ProWiki surely can fulfill all my requirements, but I have no idea of what ProWiki is capable of for (c). I hoped to find some information (page ProjectWiki is empty). Can anyone explore this side of ProWiki? How can ProWiki help to manage projects (with tasks, resources, etc.). Are there 'plugins' for this?

Best regards, Dieter

Dieter, thank you for your interest. Give me a day or two to write a bit about handling projects on ProjectWiki. In short: projects need hierarchical structures, the ability to contain subprojects and the configurability to restrict access to certain users and/or user groups. On the other hand, if you use a number of wikis, you may need WikiCluster and WikiNet concepts to have syndication (singel points of access for RecentChanges, searching, statistics ... I think ProWiki can do more than any other wiki in that respect. -- HelmutLeitner August 3, 2006 15:40 CET


Q: Helmut, what can I do so that the page http://www.patternlanguages.info/wiki.cgi?PatternLanguages/UniversalLanguage/MyQuest finds the page for AndriusKulikauskas which is at http://www.openleader.info/wiki.cgi?OpenLeader/MinciuSodas/AndriusKulikauskas Also, I have set up http://w.ms.lt to point to MinciuSodas and it is partly but not entirely working, it would be good to plan out a debugging of that with you, or for me to understand if it should work at all this point. It works about 90%. Thank you! AndriusKulikauskas July 29, 2006 23:46 CETAndrius

I think this is a configuration issue. Probably you will want to turn LeafLinking and MultiLinking (needs an icon file that you don't have installed) on. -- HelmutLeitner July 30, 2006 8:14 CET

Helmut, Thank you. I added LeafLinking to the AutoLinkStrategies and it works now. AndriusKulikauskas August 2, 2006 14:21 CET


Q. Bonjour Helmut. I tried to update the page on FractalWiki:FR/VirtualData and got this message error :

timed out waiting for /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/fractal/lock

I used the ActionUnlock. And now I have this message :

File-Open-Fehler (/usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/fractal/vida/data.lvd): 
No such file or directory at /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/fractal/wikidev.cgi 
line 4864.

Any idea. Thanks and have a nice week-end. The content is temporarily saved here on my Bliki... -- ChristopheDucamp July 15, 2006 15:22 CET

Christophe, sorry for the problems you ran into. VidaCaching is pretty new and has rough edges. But I was able to remove the lock by a normal ActionUnlock. This didn't solve the problem. But the situation became xclear quickly: VidaCaching needs to be turned on in the Top:Context page, otherwise ActionBpx will not see it and create no cache directory. Updating the page data into the not-existing directory causes the error and locks the wiki. Should be working now. I'll improve the documentation. Thank you for the bug report. -- HelmutLeitner July 15, 2006 22:53 CET


Q. I don't know were to put this

On Solaris the following warnings appear when using diff:

 Warning: missing newline at end of file /path/to/prowiki/d old
 Warning: missing newline at end of file /path/to/prowiki/d new  

This comes from the Solaris diff. Use GNU diff instead to get rid of these warnings -- MarkusLude

Markus, I'll start some os specific section in the README or INSTALL file and put it there. Thank you for this valuable information.

Actually FreeBSD diff also complains, but I filter the complaints. diff complains because it is basically built for comparing source files requiring complete lines, while wiki doesn't require a newline at the end of page content.

I got rid of the problem by stripping newlines in general and stripping complaints too. May not be the ideal solution, though. I could try to strip Solaris complaints too. -- HelmutLeitner July 6, 2006 10:10 CET

IIRC the warnings were written to stderr with Solaris diff. GNU diff writes the warning to stdout. What about simply adding a newline at the end before doing the diff?


Q: What is the difference between wiki.cgi and wiki2.cgi?

A: wiki.cgi and wiki2.pl are similar symbolic links to the central wiki.pl and wiki2.pl scripts. wiki.cgi/wiki.pl is the standard user access point. wiki2.cgi/wiki2.pl is a kind of a programmers access point and workspace. wiki.pl and wiki2.pl are identical (redundant) in the distribution.

The assumption is that a programmer will do his changes and programming in wiki2.pl and can test all features in place with all his wikis. At some point he will do an atomic copy of wiki2.pl => wiki.pl (there is a special "update" script) and the features become available.

Note that while uploading a script change by FTP (wiki2.pl), which may take a few seconds, an access will result in some "missing end of file" (or a less understandable "Premature end of script headers") error. Note that no harm is done, but it's not what you want users to run into. So this is the programmers world.


Q: Hello Helmut - On http://www.prowiki2.org/jaws/wiki.cgi , I tried to upload an image, and it got displayed automatically as expected. However, the file was rather large in size, and I was wondering if a) there is a way to control that default size, somehow (i.e., upload, tag w/ Cmdlmage, reduce size to something reasonable on the browser etc), and b) why the link is not working. If you look at the URL, you get the broken image marker. I tried various combinations of this, but could not get it working... Please advise, thank you. -- RickCogley July 3, 2006 9:05 CET

A. With respect to (b) this is a missing orthogonality in the CdmlImage and Upload feature, sort of a bug, currently you have to use the URL. With respect to (a) currently there is no feature to automatically controll uploaded image size. Such features (downssizing, automatical thumbnails and a form interface to page content) are needed for the "galery" subproject in our AlliedSchoolsGraz project (original inofficial ETA Dez 2005) but there has been a delay caused by the customer. -- HelmutLeitner July 3, 2006 9:41 CET

Actually on testing I found that "Upload" works if the syntax is entirely correct. With the original problem there was a heading [width:300] parameter (colon instead of "=") which made it fail. Also leading or trailing whitespace may create problems. I'll reduce that intolerance in the next release. -- HelmutLeitner July 6, 2006 10:47 CET

I am not sure how to enter that within the context of a CmdlImage tag; could you kindly explain it step by step? Is it still a two step process, or, can you get the upload to work by formatting the CmdlImage string from the first entry, somehow? Also, even if I use the [width=NNN] parameter assuming NNN is pixels, it does not want to re-dimension the image, and still displays it very large. Am I doing something wrong? In other words, yes, the = sign does indeed allow display to occur (where the : blocks it) but the parameter seems to be broken... -- RickCogley July 6, 2006 12:51 CET

Rick, I'm sorry that I missed to answer the original wish to resize the image. The width parameter is for the overall box, not for the image. Typically HTML resizing is low-quality costing high-bandwidth, so currently there is no way to resize the image on display. It's a bit of a grandmothering attitude that I will drop. Probably a parameter [imagesize=640x480] or [imagesize=50%] might do the job? -- HelmutLeitner July 6, 2006 17:19 CET

Helmut, yes, that sort of parameter would be perfect. The best thing of course is to prep the images properly, but it is tough to expect the users to do that, and, some will just keep trying to upload 1200 pixel images, which mess with the site's CSS... Further, in terms of priority, I think the percentage would be great to have, then the ability to specify a width in pix, and then the width x height - the reason I say so is, just knowing if I reduce it to 25% of its original value, or, if I make the max width 300 pixels, would be enough, and further, easy for the user (whereas busting out the calculator to do some quick algebra to get that new height, might be a "pain" for some). So, yes, that would be much appreciated. Thank you. -- RickCogley July 6, 2006 23:46 CET

Q2: How do I find out what the URL is supposed to be for that image? Please advise. RickCogley July 3, 2006 10:05 CET

A2: The simplest way is: put the Upload-command outside, where it works, right-click the image and open it in a new window to see and copy its url. Maybe I should write an HowTo/FindUrlOfImage. -- HelmutLeitner July 3, 2006 10:35 CET

Yes, after I deleted the URL to try to use the CmdlImage, I realized I should have kept it. Is there a way to list all the files, so I can get that URL? Maybe, the HowTo/FindUrlOfImage could be some kind of general set of guides for this process. HowTo/ProcessImages . In the future, one step would be good, but before that, a set of steps for the uninitiated is enough, I think... RickCogley July 3, 2006 10:44 CET


Q: Hello Helmut - I am noticing certain features are cited as being available after version x.y.z, but I cannot figure out what exact version of ProWiki I have. The install tarball is just called "current" so that was not a help. Action Env gives a ProWikiSession variable, but is it not possible to get a ProWikiVersion variable too, I wonder? Or, is there some other method? Please advise. RickCogley July 2, 2006 1:30 CET

A: The current revision is 2.0.41. The version number is in the header of the wiki.pl script. Yes, there probably should be a ProWikiVersion. -- HelmutLeitner July 3, 2006 9:41 CET


Q: Hello - I would like to work on a Japanese translation, and in the Russian TranslationMap example you gave, it mentions needing to stick to WikiWords for one of the sections at the top. However, Japanese does not have a concept of capital letters. Please advise. -- RickCogley - 30 June 2006

A. ''Hello Rick. This was just a "soft" desire directed to Russian translator, there is no technical need for CamelCase. I'll prepare a wiki for testing so that we can look at all issues in place. -- HelmutLeitner June 30, 2006 8:55 CET


Older Questions

Q. Currently discoverting and exploring the perspectives of MicroFormats for wiki on FractalWiki:FR/MicroFormats, I plan to make some tests with the InsertHtmlCode but I'd be also interested to get "pure" HTML in order to produce some translations and hResume tests. I used to make some personal html writing - on this Branch FractalWiki:ChristopheDucamp/HtmlTest/Context whose Context is described with PageType=html. I've tested now with PageType=htmlpage but it does not seem to work ? Any idea. Thanks a lot -- ChristopheDucamp June 29, 2006 5:23 CET

A. You need a corresponding option that allows this PageType, e. g. "AllowPageType=htmlpage,html,code,table" and I recommmend a restriction of editing, e. g. "status.for.edit=Author" because freeely editable HTML is considered a security risk. -- HelmutLeitner June 29, 2006 7:51 CET


Q. This is a newbie question, but anyway.... I would like to a link to a page who has an ip-number in the title, like {{First server 127.0.0.1}}, but it seems that no dots are allowed. I believe I could do that on other wikis (like phpwiki). Any ideas? Excuse me if this is trivial, but I have really searched the documentation and can not find any solution. like on http://www.wikiservice.at/prowiki/wiki.cgi?HowTo/Link -- Richard Niklasson June 27, 2006 14:00 CET

A. Hi Richard. Yes, currently special characters are not allowed in page names. At least that's the normal configuration. One can allow additional characters using the Option/AddLetter (we sometimes do we "-" for example) but the full stop would probably create some additional problems, so I can't recommed using that way. -- HelmutLeitner June 27, 2006 14:51 CET


Q. Bonjour Helmut. I love the MultiLinking feature. Is this feature implemented on FractalWiki ? For the moment, the symbol is appearing on every link and I've desactived it on the overall ProWikiCentre. (please see the example on FractalWiki:FR/MultiLinking, the SideBar could be confusing for the reader). Did I miss anything ? Pehraps wait for the ProWiki 2.0.040 Is there a way to know the release number of FractalWiki ? -- ChristopheDucamp June 3, 2006 7:55 CET

A. Christophe, thank you for testing the new MultiLinking feature. In real world (here and FractalWiki) three minor problems (ml suppresion in sidebar, duplicates are removed from ml page but not on symbol creation, sister sites filtering must be improved) emerged that I will work on, so that you can make another try as soon as possible. FractalWiki uses the same version as ProWikiCenter, upcoming 2.0.040. -- HelmutLeitner June 3, 2006 8:27 CET

A. Thanks Helmut. It's huge, wow ! This feature has to be explored but it seems very interesting in education purposes... Just a small detail, the Option/WordAutoStrip seems desactived ? -- ChristopheDucamp June 3, 2006 12:34 CET

A. Not itentionally: Context and Contexts, HelpDesks. Ok, thank you. Is it now working for you again, as expected? -- HelmutLeitner June 3, 2006 16:26 CET


Q. 'Is there a way to insert any page in a template-file ? I've made some tests on FractalWiki:FR/EveMoreau/GabaritLaurent and would like to test to insert the FractalWiki:FR/EveMoreau/PageCalendrier in the extreme-right sidebar (accessible via the TemplateFile). I've dropped this line in the template but that does not seem to work :

{Insert:page.{PreInsert:PageCalendrier; FR/EveMoreau/PageCalendrier}}

If it's not possible, is there any way to insert a CdmlCalendar in a normal SideBar ? I cannot find any way to have an absolute page for the page-month even in assiging a page in the CdmlCalendar command :

[[calendar][page=PageName]]

Thanks -- ChristopheDucamp May 24, 2006 18:53 CET

A. Sorry that I have no immediate answer to your question. I have to think about this, probably there should be some general mechanism to insert CDML or wiki text like {Insert:wikitext.Calendar: <br> [[calendar]...] <hr>...}. There is a conceptual problem with pages. Usually we deal only with one page, the current page. But a page reference in a SideBar may refer to the displayed page or to the page in the SideBar. Give me a day or two to think this through. -- HelmutLeitner May 24, 2006 22:10 CET

Christophe, I'm now prepared to do some testing. What do you mean by absolute page? Can we test it on /TestCalendar ? -- HelmutLeitner May 29, 2006 17:10 CET

Merci Helmut. It works fine if people want to drop any calendar in a SideBar. I've made some first tests on FractalWiki:FR/EveMoreau/SideBar. The calendar is related to a base-page named "Calendrier" in french. I'll look later to find out a way to make them tiny... But they could be really useful for group-organization ! Furthermore, we could invite testers to mix several different calendars (events, talks, blogs, projects...) in any SideBar. -- ChristopheDucamp May 29, 2006 18:32 CET


Q. OlivierZablocki is currently trying to install a ProWikiSoftware. I just drop here his contribution coming from FractalWiki:FR/HelpDesk. -- ChristopheDucamp May 18, 2006 20:49 CET

  1. - Prowiki has been downloaded here : http://www.prowiki2.org/pub/prowiki-current.tar.gz
  2. Unpacking the distribution file => all is ok
  3. Ownership and permissions according to Apache (they are asked which names and groups to give to the files ?
    1. names of the owner of the hosting (ftp)
    2. Apache names
    3. Others ? prowiki readme/INSTALL seems to indicate the Apache names.
Merci de votre aide... -- OlivierZablocki

A. Olivier, it's not entirely clear to me, how you are working, but nevertheless: ownership should always be according to Apache, because Apache sub-processes need to access the files. Follow the INSTALL instructions . -- HelmutLeitner May 18, 2006 20:59 CET



Q. Hi Helmut. I'm happy because LaurentLunati just arrived to make some first CSS tests and try to play with the TemplateFile. If you've some time, could you email him a pass for an Admin status on FractalWiki ? (l.lunati@gmail.com). Thanks in advance -- ChristopheDucamp May 18, 2006 11:05 CET

A. Christophe, I think you should be able to do this in FractalWiki:action=admin, aren't you an Admin on FractalWiki? -- HelmutLeitner May 18, 2006 12:57 CET

Yes Helmut I'm admin, I can create Author... but not any amin : Illegal user rights entered. The user was not created. --ChristopheDucamp

Ok, then we should change that behaviour. I'd like you to be able to create Admins on FractalWiki. The question is, whether to change this in general or make it more or less configurable. --HelmutLeitner

How about a SuperAdmin : an Admin who could create other Admins ? -- ChristopheDucamp

Sorry, I forgot, it's rarely used, we have the Owner UserStatus. I changed you to an Owner of FractalWiki. An Owner can make admins, pretty much the same as a SuperAdmin. Would you try again? -- HelmutLeitner May 18, 2006 16:41 CET

Thanks Helmut. It works. Laurent is now Admin on FractalWiki. We could hope some design works pehraps tomorrow ? -- ChristopheDucamp May 18, 2006 17:04 CET


Q. Perhaps you intend to write soon a SearchForm pattern. How could we narrow or widen the focus of the SearchForm on any SubWikis. Moreover, it could be interesting to imagine a SearchForm which could search only on the SubWiki and suggest the user to visit "proximity links" on other Branches e.g. two or three independant and neighbour SubWikis or any WikiGroups ? -- ChristopheDucamp May 16, 2006 14:24 CET

A. Christophe, perhaps we should discuss this in detail on FeatureRequests/SearchFocus? -- HelmutLeitner May 16, 2006 15:59 CET


Q. Helmut, I'd be interested to suggest some minor corrections to the french TranslationMap. I've found FractalWiki:Languages/French but it does not seem complete. Could you confirm us where is the official link ? -- ChristopheDucamp May 14, 2006 16:39 CET

A. Christophe, sorry, French is not supported by a TranslationMap, but internally in the script. Usually this is an advantage, with respect to performance and completeness, but not if you want to do independent changes. So we can (1) quickly integrate small changes if you post them anywhere (2) create an external TranslationMap and create "standard" support. -- HelmutLeitner May 15, 2006 18:15 CET

Thanks Helmut. I'll try to track some minor corrections and will suggest french contributors to drop them on FractalWiki:Languages/French. - ChristopheDucamp May 16, 2006 14:11 CET

Christophe, just as you prefer, but perhaps it would be better to create a TranslationChangeRequests page to put such things? -- HelmutLeitner May 16, 2006 15:50 CET

Ok good idea. -- ChristopheDucamp May 18, 2006 16:33 CET


Q. What is the username of the administrator/supervisor? I have defined only the password in the ProWikiAdmin.xu. Have I to define the admin username there too? RichardRafalski May 9, 2006 1:08 CET

A. It's in the filename: "ProWikiAdmin". -- HelmutLeitner May 9, 2006 6:56 CET


Q. I would like to use the mail notification feature of this wiki. Therfore I have to register on this server. Is this right and how can I register here?

RichardRafalski May 7, 2006 18:12 CET

A. There is currently no automatic registration. The normal procedure is that you create a homepage here, tell about your want, put your EmailAddress there (or send me an email) so that I can send you your password in return. -- HelmutLeitner May 7, 2006 18:59 CET


Q.' Hi Helmut, I would like to submit a bug report. Is here anywhere a special form for bug reports or have I to edit the bug report page [1] directy? If so are you using special convention for a bug report?

RichardRafalski May 7, 2006 17:32 CET

A. Richard, thank you for feedback. Just put it on BugReports and follow the examples there. Don't worry about the layout. Me or someone else will care for that. -- HelmutLeitner May 7, 2006 18:59 CET


Q. Bonjour Helmut. Currently testing localization of SideBars on the french Branches of FractalWiki and some test on a personal workspace. I'd like to :

For the moment, it does not seem to work. I'd be interested in the future to read any page like HowTo/PersonalizeYourSideBar -- ChristopheDucamp

With certainty the wiki.cfg (which is rather old) doesn't define a proper TemplateInsertPassList. I'll add that. For the moment ChangeableSideBar should provide all information needed, but I'll write a HowTo too. -- HelmutLeitner May 7, 2006 10:19 CET

Thanks a lot Helmut, it works now on my personal wiki. I'll study that quietly tomorrow (day off in France) for our french ProWikiCentre. Your HowTo will be useful to open the future FractalWiki:FR/CommentFaire/PersonnaliserVotreBarreLatérale or something like that. Have a nice week-end -- ChristopheDucamp May 7, 2006 18:11 CET


Q. We have scripts for producing e-mail address images. How can these been shown in the wiki.

A. See HowTo/ShowRareImageFormats


Q. Self-collisions are happening. They are keeping me from updating pages. How do I turn off collisions?

There are currently two causes for Self-collisions. Both are only effective when you are anonymous. So if you store a name at the "preferences", all self-collisions will stop.

The first reason: on your first edit you had no cookie, later on you have, so the software thinks you are two different users, when you repeat edits using the brwoser "back" function. (if have a name at "preferences", this ambiguity is gone).

The second reason is spam defense: anonymous users have limits for what they can do, how much text (links, lebeled links) they can add or delete. So if you are anonymous, its easy to run into this limits. One can also weaken these limits, but usually this is less desirable. See NoCookieSpamLimits.


Q. Might it be possible to have an additional variable option for [hotspots] which displays the total page numbers as the reads minus the edits, or would that not really be worth it? -- MilkMiruku

There is another function ActionTop that might do the job. It predated CdmlHotspots. Of course it should also be possible to integrate this into Hotspots if there is a need. -- HelmutLeitner

But would deducting edit numbers from read numbers give a balanced view of wiki visitors? -- MilkMiruku


When using the spell check facility, many regular words come up as unrecognised. Would the best thing be to add them to to the extra dictionary, or is the basic English dictionary going to change at any point? -- MilkMiruku

It would be best to add them to the English dictionary. -- HelmutLeitner

I'll give it a try, but I'm dyslexic so you may have to run the added word list through a proper spell checker at some point. -- MilkMiruku

Is there an English dictionary? Just about every word on this page -- http://www.wikiservice.at/user/milk/wiki.cgi?action=rsk&id=DotWant -- is unrecognised. -- MilkMiruku

Now it is a little bit better. It seems that up to now no wiki talked about petticoats and ties. But I'll try to find a reasonable word list to extend it. -- HelmutLeitner

Thanks =) It's not just the big words, but one's like "nice", "milk", "history" and "apply". -- MilkMiruku


Is here a way I can hide the listing of either specific wiki pages or all private wiki pages in the recent changes screen? -- MilkMiruku

Currently there isn't, but it should be easy to implement. Would be useful against Wiki-spammers too. -- HelmutLeitner


Hi Helmut, still impossible to adapt any personal TemplateFile on FractalWiki. Just translated and tried to understand FractalWiki:VariableContext/FichierGabarit..., uploaded a small example of template file in the upload directory... but still unable to modify any ContextPage to personalize a template design ? Could you give an exemple if I wanted to personalize a branch to practice some test.

Christophe, I've created an example at FractalWiki:ChristopheDucamp/TestGabarit. I assume the problem was how to address the file?

Like a small french demo for a Jabber WikiSchool or any local experience for a FamilyWiki . WikiQuizz is really nice. How about the opportunity to build one WikiSchoolDemo on FractalWiki before push the offer on MeatBall:FreeWikisForSchools. Have a good night Helmut. -- ChristopheDucamp

Yes, lets translate it. I'll give you the texts in the evening. -- HelmutLeitner

Thanks a lot Helmut. Will work later on FractalWiki:CommentFaire/TravaillerAvecGabarits -- ChristopheDucamp


Helmut, still on FractalWiki I think I've made a mistake in NameRecentChanges (perhaps via WikiConfiguration). FractalWiki:RecentChanges is now called FractalWiki:DernièresModifications ? I will tell you that I feel a bit lost tonite to adapt the LinkBar in french. Will come back tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for all -- ChristopheDucamp


Bonjour Helmut,

We made yesterday some very simple tests of WikiDesign with FractalWiki:LaurentLunati to produce a TemplateFile who could be XHTML compliant. This test has been based on a "template + css" inspired from the CssDiscussWiki. It works great but some chunks in the code let us know we have to stay on HTML.

So my question is to know if it would be possible to modify some markup produced by some variables like PageText or LinkBarTextVer....

Some suggestions who could be great to produce some exemples of WebStandards XHTML compliance on the wiki :

  • About titles in the variable PageText :
    • = Title = : : could produce a <h1>Title 1</h1>
    • == Title = : : could produce a <h2>Title 2</h2>
    • === Title = : could produce a <h3>Title 3</h3>
  • About paragraphs : could we close the <p> : <p>content</p>
  • breaklines could be closed with
  • menu items could be marked with <ul><li>item 1</li></ul>
Think that's could be great to produce some new TemplateFile ( FractalWiki:Variable/FichierGabarit i