RefactorWiki - 0.2

RefactorWiki is a Java-component and accompanying J2EE-webmodule to rename (move) pages and their respective links within a Wiki.
Currently the following Php-MySql-based Wiki-engines are supported: WackoWiki v4, WikkaWiki v1.1.6.0.

Introduction

The ability to refactor knowledge in a Wiki bridges the gap between the flexibility offered by a Wiki, where the structure will get messy over time and the inflexible hierarchical structure offered by a traditional CMS^[1]. The combination of a Wiki with a Refactor-component allows ideas to be quickly captured in pages and the knowledge to be 'reshaped' as users are learning more about a problem domain, its environment and challenges.

Component functionality

Current features (v0.2)

• Move pages and page clusters (for Wacko4) in the Wiki's namespace
• Validates target-page does not overwrite existing page
• Dynamic Hibernate-mapping to ease use of non-standard prefixed tables
• Component can be called from commandline or from a web-page (links to the application if you're viewing this page from your installed RefactorWikiWeb-0.2.war)
• JUnit-tested codebase (add your own to test more complicated content-refactorings)

See screenshots of the latest version.

Potential future features

• Support for more Wiki-engines
• Allow Wiki-content to be copied from one engine to another
• A workflow engine requesting key-user/page-owner permission for a refactor-action

Feel free to send in your suggestions.

Downloading and installation instructions

After downloading the source or binary, please see the installation instructions.

Component applicability

The following is Work in Progress and Open for Discussion.

As is argued on Why Wiki Works, a common sense of responsibility is important to get and keep users involved in a process of collaborative knowledge contribution. Since the RefactorWiki-component (currently) restructures pages regardless of the page contributor's consent, its applicability is probably limited to situations which meet the following characteristics:

• Knowledge Consistency adds value to the domain, as is realized by all contributors
• The contributors are a part of a Closed User Group
• Every participant is made aware of the fact that information is re-structured from time to time
• A vision regarding the emerging structure of the knowledge is quickly captured and adopted by some user with seniority in the group

Licensing and acknowledgements

Licensing

RefactorWiki is released under the General Public License (GPL).
Please see the licensing-information from the respective copyright holders of the used components, as supplied with the source and binary releases.

Acknowledgements

This component would not have been possible without help of the following people and components:

• Roman 'Kukutz' Ivanov, lead developer of WackoWiki
• Jason Tourtelotte, developer of WikkaWiki
• Hibernate for flexible OR-mapping
• Eclipse, an excellent IDE
• Jakarta-Commons, a fine set of components
• Struts, which makes J2EE Web-development easier
• And of course, Java itself; true Lego for the mind...

The stylesheet for this page was kindly borrowed from the stylish style.org.

Contact details

Feel free to contact Mark Hissink Muller for questions, suggestions or remarks (remove the SPAM-decoy.).
To share something which might be interesting for other users, please post to the appropriate forum.

[1] - Content Management System
Last changes: February 7th, 2005.