Help:Topics

From wiki.pidx.org

Using this site

• This wiki site has been designed to make it easy for users to enter and find information.

Finding Information

• See Dictionary Help for more information about finding information in the PIDD.

Adding Information

• See Dictionary Help for more information about adding information to the PIDD (such as new entries and/or suggestions).

Editing Wiki Text

• The pages on this site that contain text (such as the 'PIDD Welcome Page') can be edited very quickly and easily, but we recommend that changes to them be made with some discretion.
• See the MediaWiki User's Guide for information on interacting wiki pages.
• See the MediaWiki FAQ for general questions.

Wiki Technology

• You may have heard of the term 'wiki' by way of the now prevalent Wikipedia.com site. The generic term 'wiki' refers to a web site that is meant to be accessible and edited by a wide audience - and thereby helping to promote collaboration in virtual environments (such as PIDX).
• You may notice that this wiki.pidx.org site looks a bit like the Wikipedia site. That's because we've used the same wiki platform (called MediaWiki) as Wikipedia. Thankfully, MediaWiki is freely available and provides a ton of useful out-of-the-box functionality. The table below is an excerpt from a document compiled within the PIDX 'Standards and Guidelines' committee in early 2007 when we were investigating the wiki.pidx.org concept and outlines some general benefits:

Search – The MediaWiki software comes out the box with a robust search engine. Terms, definitions, codes, and XML content can be located easily.

Change tracking – Users can view each iteration of a page and the exact changes that were made. When needed, a previous ‘version’ of a page can be reinstated as the master.

Namespaces – MediaWiki supports the concept of namespaces which can be used as a very powerful tool for finding content and applying access policies across a group of pages.

User management – A list of all registered users is available and provides an easy reference for member names and eMail addresses. Certain OpenTravel members have extended their wiki user page to include contact information and other relevant information. This represents a move toward social networking by the organization but supports the core mission of making business easier and faster.

Calendar – An extension to the core software is available and provides a very intuitive calendar.

Access policies – Fine-grained access policies and restrictions can be easily defined and applied so that certain pages can be visible (and/or changaeble) to a certain group while also being hidden/restricted from others.

Open-source – Since MediaWiki is an open-source application that has broad and global use, the user community can expect a steady stream of free improvements and extensions.

Printing – Each page can be printed as a ‘printable version’. This is similar to sites such as Google maps which make it easy for the user to create a printer-friendly copy.

eMail notifications – Users can mark one or more pages as a ‘watched’ page so that they are notified of any changes to that page(s). Once useful application of this would be to capture comments or suggestions on a page and to have changes to that page be eMailed to a distribution list—the members of which could then take appropriate action.

File maintenance – Users can upload files of various types for subsequent download. MediaWiki maintains a change history for each file and past versions of a file can be retrieved and/or re-instated.

Customizable navigation – MediaWiki allows administrators to modify the navigation area on the left side of all pages.

Sandbox

• Click here to play in the sandbox.
• This page exists so that you can explore addding and editing your wiki markup without having to worry about messing up this web site.