Subdivisions of a wiki

In large companies, a wiki will have to handle multiple subjects, not related to one another. The initiator of a project might want to have some separation between his pages and the rest of the wiki¹.

Reasons

1. Restrict acces rights (who can read, who can write?)

2. Limit search and navigation to his pages (FindPage, TitleIndex, WordIndex, RecentChanges...)

3. Different default presentation style or logo

ACL's could be used for point 1., but would have to be managed by the users for each of their pages (too dangerous and too complex).

Wiki farms could answer to all the points; each wiki would have different configuration files and of course the search and navigation would be limited to one wiki.

But

Large wiki farms have many disadvantages:

• no common user base and separated user group management
• a lot of additional cookies on the user's PC
• non negligeable management work for each additional wiki
• no possibility to use a common URL root (well, we didn't figure out how to do it)
• navigating from one wiki to another requires some work
• no existing meta search tool

Solution

New sub-wiki feature:

• individual configuration files

• the sub-wiki is an optional attribute used at page creation or for searching & navigating

• global searches or indexes are possible
• ... (to define in detail)

IMHO it would make more sense to discuss this single features needed seprately.

• /SharedUsers

• /SharedRecentChanges ?

• /SharedSearchResults

Additionally there are some general questions:

• Do the subwikis run on the same server or may they be dirstibuted over several computers?
  • Is it possible to share the files via NFS or SMB or do we need a network protocol?
    • if so which security level is needed (application level encryption, SSL, SSH/VPN tunnel...?)

Alternative 1

Extention of the wiki farm model:

• possibility of a common user and group base
• metasearch engine
• simplified procedure to add wikis in a farm

Alternative 2

Multiple UnderlayPages (see also MultiLang):

• one underlay level could contain the common user and group base
• possibility of searching in several wikis, defined as underlays

What is needed here is not underlays but overlays. Pages from different wiki are visible within one other wikis but are edited in their original wiki.

• Needs a way to deside where new pages go to

Alternative 3 - facets

Have one big wiki, where subwiki is a facet. For example, each page in a wiki can belong to multiple subwikis, or groups. In this alternative, there is actually one big wiki that you can filter by your needs, or is being filtered for your by your access control rights.

Currently moin does not have a way to add meta data, but we work on it (see MetaData and MetaDataInMoin). Here is an example for wiki meta data:

{ { {
#!meta
Wiki: RedWiki
Wiki: BlueWiki
...
} } }

Now with meta data search, or filtering, you can do a partial search. You can also assign users to pages by meta data and like.

For example, we can have a facet browsing device, like FacetBrowsingTheme, that let you filter information you see in the wiki. Or a search menu that let you search in all wikis or only in one.

Having one big wiki will solve automatically the user management, and save lot of duplication of pages.

We wait for your comments about these alternatives.

-- JeanJacquesKahn 2005-03-15 12:23:02

This last one seems the most elegant because it satisfies the funcionality needed with a powerful resource (MetaData) that is being developed right now and serves also other purposes. I vote for it, no doubt. -- EduardoMercovich 2005-03-15 16:01:34