Help:Contents
From Digital City Design Workshop 07
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Wiki Help Quick Links:
- Help < How-To for most wiki tasks
- Formatting < A quick formatting cheat-sheet
- FAQ < Answers to frequently asked WIKI questions
- WikiText < HTML and tags, wiki markup language, style
The Course Locker
The course locker is located on Athena, at (Z:)afs/athena.mit.edu/course/11/11.941/FILES. You can access the locker from any Athena machine, by logging on and navigating to the directory above, located on the Z drive
- If you want to access the files on the course locker from your own computer, you have two options:
- The recommended option for remote access is File Transfer Protocol. Just download a free secure ftp client (google: free sftp client), install, and enter the following for your site: site address = ftp.dialup.mit.edu, user = your kerberos id, password = your kerberos password. connect using Secure FTP.
- Note: when you log in to Athena by way of ftp, you are directed by default to your personal locker, located at afs/athena.mit.edu/user/firstinitial/secondinitial/yourkerberos. so jase is /user/j/a/jase. To get to the course locker, navigate up to the athena.mit.edu folder level, and then in to course/11/11.944/FILES.
- With most ftp clients, you can create a simple shortcut, or a favorite for this site profile. This way, you need only click on an icon in the future to get to the course locker.
- If you prefer a "physical" connection (mapping the Z drive to your machine) you can follow the instructions here.
- Note: If you do not know what mapping a drive refers to, then it is strongly recommended you do not use this method.
- Also, this method only works for Windows users, and requires installing very inefficient software to your machine, which runs all the time and will consume a large quantity of your system's resources.
- The recommended option for remote access is File Transfer Protocol. Just download a free secure ftp client (google: free sftp client), install, and enter the following for your site: site address = ftp.dialup.mit.edu, user = your kerberos id, password = your kerberos password. connect using Secure FTP.
The woe of wiki: finding the right help info can be difficult.
Mediawiki, the software driving this site, houses a vast library of help articles, tutorials, tech specs, etc. But the shear quantity of information, coupled with the absence of meaningful separation between basic and advanced information, means that their help resources are not as accessible as help material generally should be. In an effort to distill the enormous body of knowledge in to a handful of workable, relevant topics, i've created a list of some of the more pertinent articles from the Mediawiki library. Links are listed herein, organzied (somewhat) by topic. Please be aware that this list is far from exhaustive- it probably has what you're looking for but, if it does not, be sure to search directly through MediaWiki's vast resources. Should you find something useful in your search, whether within MediaWiki or elsewhere on the web, please add it to this page so that others may find it useful in the future.
jase
Getting Started: The Basics
WHAT is a wiki?
- A useful introduction to wiki concepts, on perhaps the most famous wiki of them all.
General Help using MediaWiki.
- Go here for general help on just about everything related to editing, creating pages, making links, etc. Unfortunately, there is not much separation between basic user information and more complex developer info. For cheatsheets, see the How-to section below this section.
HOW Do I...
Quick Reference for Common Tasks
Create a page
- Need a new page? Easy:
- Log in
- Search for the page name (though it doesn't exist yet). You are told that the page doesn't exist, but that you can create it.
- Follow the Create this page link
- Fill in the starter content for the page (you can always add more later, as can other users)
- Click "Preview Page." If you want to make changes, do so. Once you like what you see:
- Click "Save Page."
- Admire your contribution. You're done!
- For more explanation, go here.
Edit an existing page
- Need to edit an existing page? Even EASIER.
- Log in
- Go to the page you wish to modify / add to.
- Click the "edit page" tab at the top of the page (between 'discussion' and 'history.'
- Once the edit page comes up, have a look. You see the 'source' for the information displayed on the page itself. It consists of unstyled text, and probably contains some basic markup language. Here you can modify what's on the page- you may find it helpful to look at other pages to see how to make basic styling moves, or check out the quick style sheet here.
- Make the desired revisions / additions
- Preview the page before you save it.
- You can always go back and correct mistakes, but it's generally best practice to look at what you've written before you publish it. I preview a page many times while authoring it- this way I'm able to see my progress, which makes me feel special and shows me what I've done right/wrong.
- Once you are satisfied with your change / addition, click "Save Page."
- Admire your contribution. It's that simple.
- For more explanation, go here.
Create a link
- There are many ways to link to files, other pages in this wiki, or other pages on the web. The method varies, depending on what you want to link to, and the type of link display you wish to create.
- Here is the MediaWiki primer on creating links to various things.
| Description | You type | You get |
| Internal link | [[Main Page]] | Main Page |
| Internal link, named | [[Main Page|different text]] | different text |
| Section link | [[#External links|Anchor link]] | Section link |
| External link | http://mediawiki.org | http://mediawiki.org |
| External link, title | [http://mediawiki.org MediaWiki] | MediaWiki |
| External link, no title | [http://mediawiki.org] | [1] |
| Email link | [mailto:info@example.org info] | info |
| Redirect | #REDIRECT [[Main Page]] | → Main Page |
- Go Here for more information on creating links.
Del.icio.us
Contributing to the group references bibliography is easy using del.icio.us. To get set up:
- visit del.icio.us
- sign up for your own del.icio.us, and download this toolbar (this version is for firefox, the best browser in the known universe)
- add dcdw07 to your del.icio.us network
- any time you run across a website you want to share with the group, simply tag that site and include the tag for:dcdw07
- note that your contribution will not show up immediately in the group bookmarks, as it requires someone to login to the dcdw07 delicious and accept the incoming bookmark :(
- all of these bookmarks are being aggregated beneath this line - a true collaborative, liquid bibliography.
Still want to know why the F we're keeping group bookmarks? Watch this:
Post a Youtube-hosted video
Want to post a video? EASY!
- to post a video from youtube, simply copy the video's 8-16 digit ID (from its url) and place it between the tags <flashvideo>.
like this: <videoflash>inert_video_ID_here</videoflash>
Advanced Editing
(consume at your own risk)
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
- Mediawiki's dominant script language. Be cautious. Be very cautious- slippily slopes ahead.
- Unless you really want to change this wiki, it's best to let sleeping 'docs' lie.
Configuration Settings.
- SysOp configuration parameters
- Most require SysOp credentials - ask jase if you're interested in assisting in development.
Developer's Manual
- Guide to underlying code specs
- Look here if you're interested in developing wiki software, or figuring out how it all works.
Wiki Unlimited: Strong examples of MediaWiki in action
Often, examples are the best way to grasp broad concepts. Examples can spur the imagination, guide thought, etc. This section of the help page contains examples from around the web of MediaWikis in action. Some are quite brilliant and contain many useful ideas. Remember, you can always look to see how someone achieved a particular objective in their wiki- simply click 'edit' on any pages (many wikis require you to log in) and look at the underlying wiki code.
Wikipedia
- Perhaps the de facto standard in wiki's
OpenWetWare
- A brilliant MIT-based wiki for biological engineers around the globe
- Very innovative in its approach to media in wikis
- Requires registration for login permission (to edit or view source information)
Biological Parts Registry
- Another MIT-based wiki for biologists
- Highly pictorial, this wiki challenges the idea that wikis must comprise mostly text.
Wiki Books
- Open source text books
- This project illustrates the capacity of wikis to facilitate collaborative authoring at any scale- whether the objective is a few pages (like this wiki) or entire libraries.
Home Star Runner Wiki (Yes it's real...)
- Wiki about the infamous HomeStar Runner
- Proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that wikis can be used for anything', whether useful [or not...]
WarCraft Wiki
- The wiki for the largest online multiplayer role playing game, Warcraft.
- The most accessed wiki of all time, presently with about 4 times the number of page hits than Wikipedia (about 250,000,000 unique visits).
the Lost Wiki
- Yep. About the f*~ing tv show.
- Wikis are QUICK, this site proves it. Authors write pages WHILE the show airs, recording every detail in minutia.
- At once sad, and awe-inspiring.
- Just one of hundreds of tv show-based wikis. Virtually every major tv show has its own wiki (created and developed by fans, not the show network.