When is a wiki not a wiki?

April 11, 2007 10:19 PM

I'm setting up a little site that's like an encylopedia. I want the instant-linking that I've had in VooDoo pad (wiki)--when I type "Lincoln" it automatically links to the "Lincoln" page. But I don't need any other wiki features--this is not collaborative. Is there some way to just get that handy quick-link feature as I write my articles? Thanks, smarties!
posted by largecorp to computers & internet (8 answers total)

I'd write a couple of lines of perl/python/php to do a post-writing find and replace for me.

Hash the names of all the articles, then for each word in the current article, if it exists in the hash, replace the word with the appropriate link.
posted by chrisamiller at 12:28 AM on April 12, 2007

Not sure if it fits the bill precisely, but I really like TiddlyWiki.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:19 AM on April 12, 2007

IIRC, VoodooPad automically creates links for camel case. If you want words like 'Lincoln' to automatically link I doubt you can do it.

You also won't be able to get instant links created as you type, but as chrisamiller stated, a simple regex can convert them to links after you save the page.
posted by mphuie at 2:37 AM on April 12, 2007

That's not strictly true—you might be able to cook up some Javascript to do the regex replacement as chrisamiller suggests, passing in the dictionary of articles on preload via PHP or after loading via (shudder) an XMLHttpRequest call. But in either case I doubt it'd be very responsive or useful.

I think your best bet is to code up some Javascript that automatically attaches a link to any CamelCase'd words on the fly. Then it's just one regex, not hundreds or thousands, and you don't need to hit a database to grab the list of articles.
posted by chrominance at 3:16 AM on April 12, 2007

What you describe fits perfectly a handy little program called Zulupad.
posted by yclipse at 7:17 AM on April 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm confused...it sounds like you want a wiki but don't want the "colloboration". Why don't you use a wiki that you like, password protect the editing capabilities and then modify the templates to hide all the Wiki things like history, recently edited pages, etc.
posted by mmascolino at 8:31 AM on April 12, 2007

I don't think you want a wiki, you want an HTML-based help system. Something like EasyHelp or PaperKiller. (No endorsement, I have not used either.) Help systems -- most originally designed to work under the "Help" menu of PC/Mac software -- are intrinsically hypertextual.

Zulupad may well work for you, it seems similar in a lot of ways.
posted by dhartung at 9:09 AM on April 12, 2007

Thanks for all the help. Most of this is way over my head, but you've given me some new search terms to follow up with.
posted by largecorp at 2:55 PM on April 14, 2007