I wrote this today to Thomas, author of Halo ACL...
Hi Thomas, MW today provides the capability to define one interwiki descriptor which points to the local wiki - I want to build on that with my aim to avoid the technical and administrative hassles of extensions like Distributed Semantic Wiki which shares common information across physical wikis. There's another way though to share common information, across not physical wikis but logical wikis, that is based on interwiki descriptors.
Consider the fully qualified pagename a:b:c (a=wikispace, b=ns, c=pgnm). This page can only be accessed when its name is fully qualified. I want to attach an ACL to all pages in the "a" wikispace. Wikis have one physical database today managing "b" logical databases. I want a*b logical databases, and to attach ACLs to a:b wikispace-qualified namespaces.
This would likely eliminate the headache of federating wikis within an organization, while preserving access to common information resources held as unqualified pages in the wiki. Replication schemes like DSW would be more integrated with the MW base software if the base software was aware that a:b:c pages MIGHT exist in the local wiki, accessing the federated wiki only when the page could not be resolved in the local wiki.
You ask about brittle Category ACLs. If the category is (inadvertently) deleted, removed from a page, mistyped or redirected, I'd imagine there'd be a problem to be resolved by someone (else). And I wonder how receptive folks are to using the Category namespace both for a folksonomy & for the database of security tags. And I wonder about maintaining schemes that categorize security categories... All messy.
But my point is not to bash Category ACLs. They play an important role for managing page security within a namespace. I dislike their use across namespaces however so I believe another approach is worthwhile to explore. Wikispace ACLs make little sense today, I agree, but they would if my proposal to orient interwikis descriptors as wikispace descriptors is acceptable to the MW community; indeed my proposal rests on attaching ACLs to wikispaces (and to namespaces within wikispaces) - whether it's a Halo ACL or a MW ACL, I can't say I care too much. I'm just hoping to start the conversation among you.
Best regards, John
John McClure wrote:
Consider the fully qualified pagename a:b:c (a=wikispace, b=ns, c=pgnm).
Not for nothing, but "wikispace" is generally used in the context of http://www.wikispaces.com/ (a completely separate site/software architecture). It might help avoid confusion to use a different term.
MZMcBride
Hah! Once again, little is thought that hasn't been thought before.
Suggestions are welcomed. "Intrawikis" is about the only alternative I can come up with, wikis within a wiki.
-----Original Message----- From: MZMcBride [mailto:z@mzmcbride.com] Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 7:52 PM To: jmcclure@hypergrove.com; Wikimedia developers Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Wikispaces Not Interwikis
John McClure wrote:
Consider the fully qualified pagename a:b:c (a=wikispace, b=ns, c=pgnm).
Not for nothing, but "wikispace" is generally used in the context of http://www.wikispaces.com/ (a completely separate site/software architecture). It might help avoid confusion to use a different term.
MZMcBride
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