Today, thanks to the upgraded layout system, I added a significant function to OrderSomewhereChaos.

Along with the 'choose a layout' selector, there is now an option to show the Wiki page that has been attached to that web page. using an iframe tag, I'm actually pulling the page up using the same old link I used to use (that's simply labeled "Read and Write Comments"). Now it's in-line, on the page (or off!) with just a click.

There's a ton of different pieces that make this happen:

A) JavaScript sets a cookie when the checkbox is clicked.

B) JS also re-loads the page when that happens.

C) When the SSI commands (at the proper point in the page template) see that the cookie has been set, they assign a couple of height and width variables and then

D) call the "commentary.shtml" file to be included.

E) This Commentary.shtml file makes an iframe (with the height and width set by the template) and

F) calls a special little tool called "wikilink.cgi". WikiLink will take a URL (or a phrase) and convert it into a WikiWord.

G) The Wikilink script then redirects the browser to the actual wiki "wiki.pl" with the appropriate WikiWord tacked onto the request.

Here's an example page that you can check out. Surf on over to OSC, check the "Comments" checkbox in the navigation bar, and you'll see the comments box come up with the page when it refreshes the page. Some pages already have comments on them. Now more will probably have them as well.

Also note that the comments box may appear at the bottom of the page, depending on the layout you are using. (If you click on the link above, did you notice that you were set to the Aqua layout?) You can compare it to this version which is the Grey layout. It's nice to be able to set a specific template to show up, even if it's just for the first link.

The end result is that the Wiki will have much higher visibility on the site. I still have to consider whether I want to add it more prominately to this journal. Maybe next weekend.

Last comment: I've also patched the Wiki code so that I now have a backup of the pages at each stage that they are updated. If someone comes along and wipes out whole pages, I'll be able to recover the original text.

Good thing, since I've got my Authoring students using the Wiki to keep notes on their class project.

Ross : Link : Discussion Board