Handling of the wikitext uses a markup definition file. Application handles all elements configured in this file. Elements not recognised are presented as the original wikitext. So all elements can be used but then of cours not presented as wysiwyg. This means you can edit simple but also complex wikitext. Switching to other wiki-platforms can be done relative easy by simply changing the tags in de defintion file.
Application acts now as an addon to the standard MW functionality. It reads the textarea in the html given by MW editpage, returns again wikitext to this textarea after editing and save to wikitext button. The base functionality of MW stays intact. Template inclusion for example, will need some more conversation between the editor and the MWserver but again this must be possible. Properties for semantic mediawiki inline queries can be made more userfriendly by directly showing results (or errors), etc..
It is exciting to see how easy it is to add new alike elements but also a big challenge to fit in new ones in a way that is flexible and reusable. It is this combination that gives me the pleasure doing this thing. I like this manner of developing. Discovering the posibilities of new technics like Flex. It must be a combination of building the engine and making the chairs comfortable.
Right now I am wrestling with fonts in Flex/TLF for a good presentation. After that I switch back to the engine.
Thanks for your reaction. Andre
Op 11 mei 2009, om 12:04 heeft Mark Clements (HappyDog) het volgende geschreven:
'd be interested to see how far you get with this. The problem is not the interface - that is relatively easy even using HTML/JS, so creating a slick interface in Flash should be trivial. The problem is in correctly handling the more complicated elements of the wikitext markup, and round- tripping between your internal representation and that markup without losing information.
If I were you, I would concentrate on that firstly, and then work on the editing UI, otherwise you'll end up with something that looks good and works nicely for simple pages, but is too dangerous to deploy as it risks messing up anything more sophisticated. Here are some of the trickier elements for you to look into so you don't end up just wasting your time (in no particular order):
- Tables
- Template inclusion
- Parser functions
- Magic words (including ISBN, etc.)
- Comments
- Category links
- Extension-supplied HTML-style tags.
For a relatively complete list, and some exploration of the problems, see http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Markup_spec.
- Mark Clements (HappyDog)