Wikipedia emulator software?

[Sifu Blackirish]

You know what?

I am really tired of searching through all of my boxes of game books, supplements, magazines, copies from reference books and handwritten notes. One of my early desires was to be able to get it all in a computer and be able to look up anything I wanted to.

I inherited my son's old phone, which has net capability. One day, I kept sneaking it out at work to peek at the Traveller Wikipedia, looking up interesting things at random. Fascinating!

Could I do that myself? I was going to put everything in a MS database, but now that seems too restrictive. Anything out there--freeware (preferred), shareware (doable), commercial (ouch!)?

 

[chshrkt]

Well, you could always go the LAMP route:

Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP

Or, if you don't need/want to create a whole platform, just use the Windows versions of MySql and PHP to create a database with a web front end. I took a semester long class at the local community college a million years ago (only a slight exageration ) and was able to immediately create a pretty nifty knowledge base for my support team, fully searchable and cross referenced.

Just my .02 CrImps

 

[veltyen]

You know what?

I am really tired of searching through all of my boxes of game books, supplements, magazines, copies from reference books and handwritten notes. One of my early desires was to be able to get it all in a computer and be able to look up anything I wanted to.

I inherited my son's old phone, which has net capability. One day, I kept sneaking it out at work to peek at the Traveller Wikipedia, looking up interesting things at random. Fascinating!

Could I do that myself? I was going to put everything in a MS database, but now that seems too restrictive. Anything out there--freeware (preferred), shareware (doable), commercial (ouch!)?

The wikipedia engine is open source.

Look for mediawiki.

Though drupal, twiki and other wiki instances are also usable for various levels of useable.

You might want to go down the scan-autoindex-search path as well.

Lastly you probably want to make it a collaborative effort. Otherwise you'll be rebuilding the wheel yet again.

Gah. Too much like work.

Veltyen
Who looks after enterprise web/wiki/information systems when not daydreaming about spaceships.

 

[deniable]

Assuming this is a local project and not something you want to put on a public web server:

Mediawiki is a bit heavy for a single user local install. But if you're going to go to the trouble of installing a full LAMP / WAMP / WIMP stack then installing it won't take much more effort and it is decent software. (It's been a while since I did anything with a mediawiki installation.)

If you want a wiki on a local machine you could try the Moinmoin Desktop Edition. It needs python installed, but won't need a database or separate web server. I don't remember having too much trouble putting it on the laptop, but it was a while back and YMMV.

For really low end uses, try Tiddly Wiki. It won't handle attachments but it only needs the browser. I've used one as a notepad in the past.

 

[Hemdian]

If you have IIS (comes with some versions of Windows) then there is WikiAsp. Free, straight-forward to use, doesn't need extras. I have a little version (called SolWiki) as part of StuffOnline.

 

[Gadrin]

You know what?

I am really tired of searching through all of my boxes of game books, supplements, magazines, copies from reference books and handwritten notes. One of my early desires was to be able to get it all in a computer and be able to look up anything I wanted to.

I inherited my son's old phone, which has net capability. One day, I kept sneaking it out at work to peek at the Traveller Wikipedia, looking up interesting things at random. Fascinating!

Could I do that myself? I was going to put everything in a MS database, but now that seems too restrictive. Anything out there--freeware (preferred), shareware (doable), commercial (ouch!)?

Classic Traveller CD-Rom, JTAS CD-Rom and the MegaTraveller CD-Rom. I have the first two and they're very, very handy.

The CT ROM is 700 mb, the JTAS is 200 mb, so those should fit on a flash drive fairly easily, and no firewall monitor to infiltrate...

if you like the Traveller Wiki...

Well, there is mirror software out there that'll let you download a website so you can have it local. Once you save the project you can revisit it periodically so that you get all the updates/changes.

www.httrack.com

best of all it's free. I have several sites I've downloaded and kept local (such as a star wars deckplans site and a few Traveller sites).

I haven't tried it with Wiki, but it should work. The other thing is that it will give you an insight into the organization -- presuming you need some help there too.

The only thing I've done with Wiki is use wGet to download some pages on a super-heroes/powers site, then parse out the links, and download each of the powers into a single file, so that the users don't have to click a separate link/page for each, they're all rolled up into one file for Majors and one for Minor powers. wGET and SED are perfect for that.

Hmmm, I might be able to centralize some of the Traveller Wiki info that way...keep it local for my own purposes.




>

 

[aramis]

Also note: IF YOU GET CAUGHT MIRRORING COTI without permission, you will get suspended.

Many site owners see mirror-grabbing as bandwidth theft. Hunter is one of them.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Thanks for the suggestions, all.

Some refinements--which software would make it possible to transplant the entire project onto a web server for website purposes?

Okay, I admit it. With these newfangled computers, I have a skill rating of Computer-0 (I can turn the darn thing on). What is mirroring, and why is it so hazardous to my CotI health?

 

[tjoneslo]

Some refinements--which software would make it possible to transplant the entire project onto a web server for website purposes?

All of the mentioned wiki software have the ability to either export, or otherwise allow you to make a copy of your local project and import, or copy it into another exact setup on a web server.

What is mirroring, and why is it so hazardous to my CotI health?

Mirroring a website is the process of making a copy of a website by visiting every single page. Usually this is done automatically through a program which downloads the data to pages on your machine. It's considered bad form because unless you configure your mirroring program correctly, you end up reading the pages from the website very quickly, which uses much bandwidth and overloads the web server.

If you want a copy of the Traveller Wiki, drop a note on the Wiki Forums and I'll give you a download link for the entire thing. Much better than downloading the pages one at a time.

 

[Gadrin]

Mirroring a website is the process of making a copy of a website by visiting every single page. Usually this is done automatically through a program which downloads the data to pages on your machine. It's considered bad form because unless you configure your mirroring program correctly, you end up reading the pages from the website very quickly, which uses much bandwidth and overloads the web server.

You use it when you have no other options.

If you want a copy of the Traveller Wiki, drop a note on the Wiki Forums and I'll give you a download link for the entire thing. Much better than downloading the pages one at a time.

Much better. How big is the site total ? (in megs)

I might go for that myself. Maybe a quarterly update or twice a year.

>

 

[tjoneslo]

Much better. How big is the site total ? (in megs)

The download comes in two versions (really four but...) the current pages xml file is 19.5MB or comressed is 5.2MB. Plus another 21.7MB for the images (mostly book covers).