Keith Richardson's Blog

Beginners guide to Dokuwiki

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:26:27 -0500

Beginners guide to Dokuwiki

When I first started using Dokuwiki I had a lot of problems understanding the working environment and the unfamiliar underlying concepts such as “namespace” and even “wiki”. None of it makes sense to a non programmer. The namespace concept and the way documents are stored in wikis and the lack of navigation are particularly disconcerting and probably off-putting. I always have to translate the latest jargon back into plain old English so I can understand it. Here is what I worked out so far. I hope this beginners guide helps anyone new to get started.

I'm assuming you know how to unzip and upload files and all that and you just want to get on and install and use the program.

Dokuwiki Installation

Installation, thankfully, is a breeze. So you've downloaded, unzipped and installed the program. Install into an Offline server first so you can play around, mess up, and delete the lot and start again.Now what? Here's what I think most people might want to do after the initial messing around.

Change the site style

Download a template

Go here: http://wiki.splitbrain.org/wiki:tpl:templates and download and unzip your choice into lib/tpl/ folder.

Configure the template

Go to the Admin Configuration screen and select the new template and save. Go back to your start page and refresh the browser cache. The 3 that have worked for me so far are: mmClean, r7throot1 and 3.

They produce a nice Website look and work in both Firefox and IExplorer. You can then mess around with the stylesheet to create your own look and feel.

Create new pages

Now the hard part for a beginner - creating new pages and sections. There is no obvious way to create a page or a section in a wiki once you have created the first one.

Overview

Docuwiki, confusingly, uses the namespace concept to create folders as document categories - like drawers in a filing cabinet. It might be that the Dokuwiki way makes more sense in the end than Mediawiki but it is still confusing to most of us users that Mediawiki does it differently but still uses the same concepts and system names. In practical terms a namespace is a physical folder that is shown as a Section in a menu. Click on the section and you will see the documents it contains. Because Dokuwiki does not use a database it is easy to find and see the pages you create. Very nice! Where do the pages go? In the actual folder space on your computer the pages are stored as text files here: \data\pages - but don't edit them from there because you will mess up the wiki indexing.

So how do you create a new folder/namespace?

Dokuwiki installs with a default namespace/section/folder called wiki which comes with a file on syntax and another one about the program. Each folder is a namespace and inside each folder you will see the documents or pages you created. In the beginning when I created documents they were all getting dumped into the root folder and I couldn't work out how to put them somewhere more organised. Some templates come with the Index function already installed and you can see a list of the current folders and documents.

1. From a point in a document you are writing in - document name 2. Search for a page eg computer:dokuwiki. If it does not exist and you click on the Create button you will create a new folder/namespace and a document called dokuwiki 3. Create a new document in a subfolder with document name

Delete all documents and folders

If you edit a page and remove all its content then DokuWiki will delete the page, and the associated page name. Very nice!

Install Plugins

http://wiki.splitbrain.org/wiki:plugins?s=plugins There are a lot of plugin enhancements and the first one you might like to install is a navigation system.

NsToC Syntax Plugin

The best (and simplest) I have found so far is NsToC Syntax Plugin http://dev.mwat2.de/dw/syntax_plugin_nstoc.zip which grabs the list of files stored in a section/namespace and presents them as a simple linked list - in fact it creates a navigable sitemap. I can't work without it right now.

addnewpage plugin

Next you might like the addnewpage plugin - http://wiki.splitbrain.org/plugin:addnewpage which takes the sweat out of creating new pages. You have to add the template call

{{NEWPAGE}}

to your start.txt file but manually via the backend by opening the file from your server via ftp. It won't work if you just add it to a page from the frontend. Alternatively, you can insert code into your template as follows:

<?php echo p_render('xhtml',p_get_instructions('{{NEWPAGE}}'),$info) ?>

Finally, the excellent Blog plugin - http://wiki.splitbrain.org/plugin:blog creates an easy to use blog front end.

Insert newsfeeds

One other thing you might like to do is insert newsfeeds with the built-in function. The syntax is :

Please help the poor and sponsor an MP - external edit

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:35:37 -0500

Forget about donkeys -Please help the poor and sponsor an MP

Hello, my name is Davy Gravytrain, MP for Upmystreet North and I need your help. Please sponsor me or any of my friends who are worse off than me. Or you can “adopt an MP” and he or she will send you a photograph from the Algarve or some other second home for distressed folk, two or three times a year.

I know there are monkeys, chimps, donkeys, dogs and other assorted animals that you might think are worse off but believe me it's very hard living on a basic salary of just £60,000 a year. What with the maid, the nanny, the tutor and two cars to run. Oh and let's not talk about the private school.

I know that people say we get expenses. Not so! It's charity. It comes out of the social fund for needy and distressed MPs for necessary living items. After all, could you live without your 42” Panasonic LCD TV? Here I am cold and lonely in my lodgings in London getting state support and supplementary benefit as if I were a Pensioner! Sometimes I even have to pay my own taxi fares - though not too often. My wife - in her role as proxy MP of course - gets money for that. God knows what she does with it. How many times a day can someone go to Harrods? Still she tells me that the simple life does her good.

My Glaswegian brother-in-arms Tom Harris who was in the papers today says we should be grateful and he should know on £92000 a year and his £153,862 state handouts from the MPs social fund. That's a lot more than I'm getting! He too has fond memories of the simple life he used to have. Now he has to carry around the burden of all that money. He must be worn out as I am by all that responsibility.

Anyhow, that's enough from me. I can see the tears in your eyes. After all who would you vote for - a monkey or me? Who is worse off?

Please send any cheques to my account which is handled by my cousin to:

Mr Arthur Dayley, Offshore Accounts Ltd, Bank Street, Monaco. Or to any member of my family who will pass it on directly to me.

Perhaps other people in Newcastle have their own stories of hardship to tell? Are any of you suffering the burdens of an MP?

Politics, Work

Tiscali and a lesson in contempt for the customer

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:35:16 -0500

Market forces and rising prices in oil, gas and electricity

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:49:17 -0500

Market forces and rising prices in oil, gas and electricity

There is a global crisis in oil = too expensive and food = too expensive and housing = too expensive and our government says there is nothing it can do about it. There is an economic downturn and no government can do anything about it. That's correct. They are powerless. Well, actually they all chose to be powerless. In fact all World Bank affiliated countries have given up their power to control the world or at least to influence it. The Global Market and the Banks are now in control and just look at the result: spiralling prices, financial collapse, dodgy money lending, environmental destruction and not least your impoverishment.

Of course these problems will not be affecting those who have created them. They are laughing all the way to the Bank - the safe Offshore one. And besides they will increase their wages while decreasing yours to pay for their increase. See how it works?!

The Free Market is good for you

Big lie number two is: You can trust Market Forces and the Free Market.

Rising gas bills and electricity bills and petrol for your car - your fuel bills - are the result of “market forces”. When Gas and Electricity were national assets they were not part of a market and therefore did not and could not “spiral”. The lie is that market forces are something natural and inevitable and will do the world some good when in fact the “market” is just a small bunch of big capitalists and commodity exchange investors seeking to make a killing and they really don't care who or what they kill. The free market is just a few selfish greedy people maximising their profit at any cost. Be sure that the cost will be born by you or me.

Now personally, I don't care if there is a free market in Mars Bars or Trainers or whatever because I really don't need to buy them. I really do have some freedom of choice as to whether I buy such things or not. But when it comes to essential goods and services there should not be a free market. We should own our own national assets and keep control of prices. If I had my way the Building Societies would never have become banks and would have remained Mutual Societies whose sole purpose was to help people save for a house to live in and there would not have been any housing crisis or the insane prices we see now when the market price of a house far outstrips what it actually costs to build and far outstrips our real incomes.

We were sold that particular lie in the Thatcher years and of course human greed got the better of those who had Building Society savings because they would then become shareholders and feel ever so important and ever so rich. And so it goes on. Don't believe the lies about inevitable market forces when essentials such as Gas have only recently become wholesale commodities that the super-rich can buy and sell and when the same company is selling Gas to itself and then saying it too can do nothing about its high prices. What they actually do is announce billion dollar profits and huge salaries on the back of higher bills paid by the mass of people who are poorer as a result.

Oil and Gas Fact box

Did you know that the wholesale price of oil is artificially linked to the wholesale price of Oil? There is no good reason for that, it just is!

You can compare electricity prices here.

Use the small arrows to click through the Google links.

Keith Richardson's Blog

admin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:07:53 -0500

Keith Richardson's Blog

My other sites are here and you can make your own contributions as well! A list of what's on this site.

Watch a film!

Please help the poor and sponsor an MP

→ Read more...

Politics, Work

Please help the poor and sponsor an MP · 2008/06/20

Market forces and rising prices in oil, gas and electricity

Nobby Solano's farewell party

Nobby Solano's farewell party · 2007/10/03 · Keith

Newcastle City Council and their parking charges stealth tax.

Deputy Lib Dem leader, Councillor David Faulkner thinks it is “reasonable” to increase parking charges in Newcastle by 50% and to additionally begin charging people for parking in the evening. That's all right then isn't it? That's his version of democracy and consent. I for one will never vote for any Councillor who wants to take more money from me without asking me first.

→ Read more...

Politics,, Economics

Newcastle City Council and their parking charges stealth tax. · 2007/10/03 · Keith

Tiscali and a lesson in contempt for the customer

Tiscali have done it again. More TV advertising, more big promises and more failure to deliver. The bulletin board is flooded with messages about how poor the service is and you will hardly find a single recommendation from ex-customers to sign up with them. And don't think “nice” companies belonging to the nice Mr Branson are any better: it currently costs you 25p per minute to ask a question if you sign up to Virgin Broadband. Consider that you might be kept on hold for 10 minutes or more and you can see why he is rich.

→ Read more...

Telecommunications, companies

Tiscali and a lesson in contempt for the customer · 2007/10/03 · Keith

Brown Nose Epidemic hits the UK

It was mistakenly reported that some UK livestock had a disease called “blue tongue” when in fact the report should have read “brown nose”. How this observation has been missed for so long is a mystery. It is also untrue that an invasion of foreign midgets was the direct cause, although scientists are not discounting an indirect link. The afflicted animal is not confined to one species but crosses over into all species, from worker to manager. The discovery has prompted calls for a National Brown Nose Day and a 60 hour week. Although it has to be said that those most in favour of the event are not those generally afflicted with a brown nose. This group of people (sometimes known as CEOs or SODs) often have blue blood and red noses, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as a G&T as the direct cause is often a superabundance of Gin and Tonic in the bloodstream. Scientists are still trying to find out how the blood is so affected when the red nose subjects swear they never touched a drop when they are actually at work.

Society

Brown Nose Epidemic hits the UK · 2007/10/03 · Keith

NHS Dentisty in a state of decay

The NHS postcode lottery metaphor often used by the press, is also relevant when trying to find an NHS dentist - as many people will now know to their cost in terms of their bank balance (debit) and mental health (debit). According to recent reports the new generation of dentists mostly want to go private and make a lorra money at our expense and damn the medical needs of the rest of us, unless you can afford the outrageous fees. It seems to me that they are out to imitate US dentists who make a fine living out of our decaying teeth and problem gums.

→ Read more...

NHS

NHS Dentisty in a state of decay · 2007/09/30 · Keith

Indian Dance at Dance City, Newcastle

Saturday 22 September

Hover your mouse over the video to see navigation controls and a Full Screen option

Inspirational. These dancers were the real thing. There were 6 men and a woman who looked like she had just been magically transformed from an ancient stone goddess into colourful life. The dance was a blend of traditional Indian styles and stylised yoga positions, requiring great strength and flexibility.

A large screen backdrop projected ancient carvings, etchings and paintings, illustrating scenes from Hindu mythology. Each dance was accompanied by music or a song. Some of the sequences were sub-titled which helped me appreciate what was going on a great deal; in the same way that sub-titles during an Opera make sense of the songs and action for those of us who don't know the subjects very well. The very last sequence was danced to the sound of hypnotic Mantras. You can get a more direct experience from the video clips I took.

→ Read more...

Indian Dance at Dance City, Newcastle · 2007/09/27 · Keith

Older entries >>

Labour helps the poor

admin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:27:36 -0500

Laobour helps the poor

Alastair Darling says he is committed to helping the poorest paid workers and one of the ways he is doing that is by increasing the basic rate of tax for low earners from 10% to 20%.

My other sites

admin — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:35:02 -0500

My other sites

These are the newsfeeds from my other sites. Click on a link to go directly to the site article.

Lifestyles site	Lifestyles Tiddlywiki source
The 160,000-Year-Old Man Woman convicted of mincer murder What Makes You Who You Are HOW YOUR MOBILE COULD BE SPYING ON YOU F*** THE NAZIS, SAYS CHURCHILL'S PARROT	Music Fun Shopping News Sources Self-employment and Small Businesses Find a job Umbrella Companies Interviews

Writers site	All things Computer and Web Design
Cinema for Surrealists Copywriting Services Christina Rossetti Assignments Ian Banks Critical Perspective Ian Banks Biography	Wiki Software MediaWiki TiddlyWiki Menu How to use a 3G mobile phone Portable software USB drives Portable Computing Best software

Free Public wiki

Green Politics

Quick Guide to securing your computer

admin — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:21:06 -0500

Quick Guide to securing your computer

Here is a list of the programs you need to clean and protect your computer from viruses, trojans and worms! Follow the links to fuller descriptions or amke a request for information on the forums here: http://www.healthwealthandmusic.co.uk/. If you know about downloading and installing programs you will probably be able to remove all the junk files you have downloaded without any further help.

You can get most of the programs you need for free - and yes, they do as good a job as the commercial programs. Please make a donation to the freeware author to keep his or her spirits up!

In all cases make sure you download the program updates before you use the program, otherwise it might not clean your system properly.

Clean all the Junk from your computer

http://www.filehippo.com/download/3c02a4aa130c2e9f965fed11bdb95923/download/ - free http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html - free http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/download/ - $30 to buy. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/download_and_buy/product_comparison_chart.php - with the SE version you get a Registry Guard program called AdWatch

Find and remove Viruses and Trojans

##http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html - free ##http://www.simplysup.com/tremover/download.html - free for 30 days then $30

Clean your Registry

##http://www.tucows.com/preview/501672 - evaluation then $30 !!Backup your Registry ##http://www.snapfiles.com/get/erunt.html !!Switch on the Windows System Restore Point A System Restore Point is a backup of all the files that are usually messed up by viruses and other unwelcome guests! It is normally done automatically. +++[System Restore Requirements:] System Restore is automatically installed and configured on Windows XP if your computer has at least 200MB of free disk space after Windows XP is installed. === +++[Enabling System Restore:] Right click my computer icon, properties. System Restore Tab, Clear “Turn Off System Restore on all Drives”. At this point a Restore file is automatically created for you though you won't see it because it is a hidden file. === +++[Creating Restore Points] Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore. In the System Restore window, click “Create a Restore Point button, next. In the window that appears, enter a description. The date and time is created automatically. ===

Protect yourself while online

http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/ This utility helps keep your browsing activities private. It is OK to switch it off when browsing legitimate sites like the BBC. http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/Download/ Well worth the £5. Your Firewall is THE main tool for protecting your PC. The Windows Firewall is not good enough - read what the Sunbelt site says. !!Browse in a more secure environment - use Sandboxie http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?DownloadSandboxie The program creates an extra line of defence by creating a special “virtual” folder which pretends to the outside world that it is your C drive and System folder when in fact it is just a copy of the parts you need. Your original files remain untouched. It might take some time to get your head around the concept but persevere and read more on this site.

Backup the Entire Hard Drive onto a DVD or Partition

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Symantec-Norton-Ghost.shtml This is the Big One. It's not absolutely necessary for home users but it will save you an enormous amount of time if your PC ever crashes.

Scenario 1: starting from a clean system

If you have just installed Windows from a legitimate source you should have a clean system which you must now backup. Do this before you install any new programs.

• ccxxcx • cxcxcxc

menu1

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:25:20 -0500

Keith's Blog sitemap

admin — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:54:18 -0500

Keith's Blog sitemap

A list of my blog entries:

This site is built using Dokuwiki

Computer Help

Site News

Computer Pages

admin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:44:16 -0500

Computer Pages

Anything and everything to do with computers and computing, including web site development.

Computer article index	Some newsfeeds from my other site:
Consumer Broadband Beginners guide to Dokuwiki Useful European web sites Quick Guide to securing your computer Tiscali Log Introduction to Wiki on a Stick	Wiki Software MediaWiki TiddlyWiki Menu How to use a 3G mobile phone Portable software USB drives Portable Computing Best software

Quick Guide to securing your computer

You can get most of the programs you need for free - and yes, they do as good a job as the commercial programs. Please make a donation to the freeware author to keep his or her spirits up!

In all cases make sure you download the program updates before you use the program, otherwise it might not clean your system properly.

→ Read more...

Quick Guide to securing your computer · 2007/10/26 · Keith

Introduction to Wiki on a Stick

Wiki on a Stick (WoaS) is an Open Source web application that runs completely in your browser- you don't even need an internet connection as it is all local. It consists of a large file with xhtml, css and JavaScript all embedded into it. It contains all the functionality to create, edit and maintain a wiki of multiple cross linked pages with all the formatting options available to webpages, including custom css and embedded graphic images.

If you are looking for an easy to use, portable way of documenting your work that can be moved easily between computers this is an excellent tool, at an unbeatable price (it's totally free). Why Use WoaS? For a developer, WoaS can be used for several different tasks, but these two are the principal ones.

 1. Managing a ToDo List
 2. Building Project or Company Wisdom

Wisdom is documenting anything relevant to the task, project or even the company.

→ Read more...

Introduction to Wiki on a Stick · 2007/10/20 · Keith

Beginners guide to Dokuwiki

I'm assuming you know how to unzip and upload files and all that and you just want to get on and install and use the program.

→ Read more...

Beginners guide to Dokuwiki · 2007/10/19 · Keith

Useful European web sites

It is always interesting to see what your neighbours are up to. Remember that you can use Google to translate a page - http://www.google.com/translate_t or http://babelfish.altavista.com/ - which seems to be even better.

→ Read more...

Useful European web sites · 2007/10/18 · Keith

Older entries >>

Introduction to Wiki on a Stick

admin — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:58:02 -0500

Introduction to Wiki on a Stick

 1. Managing a ToDo List
 2. Building Project or Company Wisdom

Wisdom is documenting anything relevant to the task, project or even the company.

Installation

First download Wiki on a Stick (WoaS) from sourceforge.net. Make the file read and writeable.

Forum - http://woas.iragan.com/

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze7pr2q/WoaS_0.10-a.html

If it loads in read only mode then any changes made (mainly adding new pages) won't be saved and will be lost. If you can see a pencil icon in the top right of the home page then your wiki is writeable.

When you run WoaS for the first time, your browser will probably issue a security warning when you try to save the file. This is a one time request. If you copy the file and work on the copy it will also request permission once for each copy as well.

The purpose of the Wiki is to let you easily create documents and it does this through a wiki markup language, together with html tags. If you know wikicreole (see wikicreole.org) which is an attempt at having a standard for wiki markup then you'll find WoaS is very similar to that. To see all the syntax, just click the syntax link on the menu and then click the pencil in the top right. Unless you've made a change that you want to keep, click the red circular X button to cancel. Saves are done by clicking the floppy disk icon.

How to use it

Tasks in WoaS These are the tasks that you'll be doing most of

Create a new Wiki
Adding New Pages
Formatting Pages
Linking Pages
Protecting/Unprotecting Pages with Encryption.

Create a New Wiki File

From Windows Explorer, make a copy of the file and rename it to something like blankwiki.htm. This will be your master blank wiki from now on but first you have to remove the existing text etc from it. Open the file in your browser and click the word Advanced on the left hand menu, it's under the word Special and near the bottom.

Under the Maintenance section on the page you'll see Erase Wiki. Before you click this, check that this is a copy of a Wiki and not your masterpiece that you have worked on for many months. It will require two confirmations, so if you click ok twice and lose all your work, you'll know who to blame!

If/When new versions of WoaS come along, I suggest you repeat this process and have an up-to-date master.

It's possible to import older WoaS wikis in so if there is a killer new feature that you want, it's easy to upgrade.

You now have a blank wiki file that you can copy. Even though it is no longer on the main menu, the Special::Advanced page still exists and you can access it directly by clicking the grey spanner and screwdriver icon. Or you can edit any page and just add it as a link to that page.

Adding New Pages

The easiest way is to click the Special::New Page on the left menu. This gives you the option of adding a link to the page in the main menu. But you can add links to non existent pages at any time when editing a page. Just add the link like this inside two nested square brackets

  [[C Code]]

and save the page. Now click on this link which will appear in red. It will ask if you want to create the page then jump straight into editing it.

Formatting Pages

Laying out text is vital and you can use bold, italic, underline, different header sizes, tables, rulers, and lots more. Rather than list everything here, just load up the original wiki, click the syntax link and then edit the page to see all the syntax. Other things worth checking are sub menus which appear on certain pages if you use the namespace feature. Click the features link to see more about these.

Linking Pages

A link is put inside two nested square brackets.

  [[like this]]

That link will show red if the page doesn't exist. Just click it and you'll get the option of having it created. For external links put the url in the double square brackets.

  [[http://cplus.about.com]]

You can also add extra text to appear instead of the url in the document, after a pipe | character. eg

  [[http://cplus.about.com|About C,C++ and C#]]

shows About C, C++ and C# as a clickable link that opens in a new window.

Administration

Pages in Special:: namespace

Special::About
Special::Advanced
Special::Bootscript
Special::Embed
Special::Import
Special::Lock
Special::Options
Special::Search
Special::Security

Protecting and Unprotecting Pages

Any editable page showing an open padlock can be encrypted. Click it then enter a password to encrypt the page using the AES encryption algorithm and is secure enough that if you lose your password, you will lose your text. You have to enter the password into both boxes and click the button. It takes a few seconds to encrypt as JavaScript is not the fastest code. Final Notes You now know enough to start using WoaS. There is a lot more in this for instance, you can include code using the no wiki syntax computer} and include pages within pages. Because it's in JavaScript you can view the source code in the browser and see how things are done. It's a bit of an odd concept having a file that modifies itself but is excellently done and quite elegant.

Brown Nose Epidemic hits the UK

admin — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 15:42:30 -0500

Brown Nose Epidemic hits the UK

Society