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I need some advice: old version of tiddlywiki or new version of wikimedia on my own server?

posted by ScorpioGlitch on AskPhuks

Don't bother looking up tiddlywiki. It's become some kind of lobotomized note taking app. But the gist of it is that it is a single HTML file that allows you to make entries and then click a save button, the html file itself is modified and your changes are saved in it. It used to be a phenomenally useful "wiki in a single file". At least the version I have still is. And it's useful, wicked fast, easy, incredibly small file size, and has great features.

On the other hand, I have my own website/server and can (and have) installed wikimedia on it (the platform running wikipedia). It's okay but I find myself wanting some of the features in the tiddlywiki that I can't install on my wiki because I can't shell into it.

So here's my dilemma, spelled out:

Tiddlywiki has a problem where it won't function anymore except in IE because it uses active X technology to save changes (you can get plugins to get around that but my version is so old, they're likely not to work). But, aside from the features that I use to cross reference other entries, it is a single file, makes history backups of itself, is a full-featured wiki, and I can store it in my cloud storage account and access it anywhere from any computer with a browser as well as expose my cloud storage folder and link it anywhere. But because it's so old, it's almost guaranteed I won't get any support for it. I can also work on it without an internet connection. I can load it onto a flash drive or micro sd card and use it (at least view it) on any tablet or phone. But being in my cloud storage, I have version history as well as the version history it generates (like a backup of the backup???)
Wikimedia is mature. There's support. But it completely lacks the features I find incredibly useful. It's on my own server and I've already required login and disabled account creation. But it's not a single file. On the contrary, it's a mess of entries in MySQL. Also, it's php on the server.

Neither are designed with small viewports in mind so viewing it on a phone is pretty much out of the question.

Thoughts?

Don't bother looking up tiddlywiki. It's become some kind of lobotomized note taking app. But the gist of it is that it is a single HTML file that allows you to make entries and then click a save button, the html file itself is modified and your changes are saved in it. It used to be a phenomenally useful "wiki in a single file". At least the version I have still is. And it's useful, wicked fast, easy, incredibly small file size, and has great features. On the other hand, I have my own website/server and can (and have) installed wikimedia on it (the platform running wikipedia). It's okay but I find myself wanting some of the features in the tiddlywiki that I can't install on my wiki because I can't shell into it. So here's my dilemma, spelled out: * Tiddlywiki has a problem where it won't function anymore except in IE because it uses active X technology to save changes (you can get plugins to get around that but my version is so old, they're likely not to work). But, aside from the features that I use to cross reference other entries, it is a single file, makes history backups of itself, is a full-featured wiki, and I can store it in my cloud storage account and access it anywhere from any computer with a browser as well as expose my cloud storage folder and link it anywhere. But because it's so old, it's almost guaranteed I won't get any support for it. I can also work on it without an internet connection. I can load it onto a flash drive or micro sd card and use it (at least view it) on any tablet or phone. But being in my cloud storage, I have version history as well as the version history it generates (like a backup of the backup???) * Wikimedia is mature. There's support. But it completely lacks the features I find incredibly useful. It's on my own server and I've already required login and disabled account creation. But it's not a single file. On the contrary, it's a mess of entries in MySQL. Also, it's php on the server. Neither are designed with small viewports in mind so viewing it on a phone is pretty much out of the question. Thoughts?

4 comments

[–] Polsaker 1 points (+1|-0)

wikimedia

Wikimedia is the foundation running Wikipedia, did you mean Mediawiki? (yeah it's confusing)

You could try it dokuwiki, the downside is that it's php on a server too, but it can store the pages in plain .txt files that you can just write to or move around

[–] ScorpioGlitch [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

Yeah, sorry. Been a long day.

Doku is not available on my server. I have a selection of free "apps" that I can install. It doesn't include Doku but it includes screwturn.

[–] Polsaker 1 points (+1|-0)

if it's just a regular web hosting you can just download the dokuwiki zip file and then upload everything via ftp to the server, the setup process is quite simple.

but if the problem is mediawiki lacking features you could try looking for extensions, there are many, many, many mediawiki extensions out there, most are available on mediawiki's wiki

[–] ScorpioGlitch [OP] 0 points (+0|-0)

I'll take a look then, thanks.

I don't know, I'm really in love with the idea that I can work on my wiki offline. I'm struggling with the danger of potentially losing my data with an old web app vs how flipping useful it is. I was just kind of hoping someone could point out something I hadn't thought of.