[Koha] RFCs - could we make better use of MediaWiki?

[Thomas Dukleth]

Reply inline:


On Wed, November 10, 2010 13:52, Magnus Enger wrote:

[...]

1.  SEMANTIC MEDIAWIKI.

> For another project I have used the "Semantic Mediawiki"
> (http://semantic-mediawiki.org/) family of extensions to MediaWiki,
> and I think it/they might help with making our RFCs easier to interact
> with.

Semantic MediaWiki and various associated extensions are great and a
significant reason for my recommending that we test MediaWiki as the Koha
project wiki.


2.  ADOPTION OF MEDIAWIKI.

The MediaWiki test became the only Koha wiki after a misunderstanding with
PTFS which I hope to rectify in future.  Under the circumstances, adoption
was rushed at and I had no time to help properly.

I had hoped to have time to test everything more carefully but I did not
enough time even before MediaWiki was the only Koha wiki running.


3.  OTHER HELPFUL EXTENSIONS.

Just before and during KohaCon, I modified a couple of extensions so that
they work better in the case of Select Category and work better and are at
all usable in MediaWiki 1.15, which we have installed, in the case of
Category Breadcrumb.


4.  IMPLEMENTATION OBSTACLE FOR SEMANTIC MEDIAWIKI.

The basic Semantic MediaWiki extension had been installed just after
MediaWiki was set up for Koha, however, there is a problem.  To my
knowledge Semantic MediaWiki is partly dependent upon some command line
scripts.  Before we actually make use of Semantic MediaWiki, we should be
certain that MediaWiki is functioning properly beyond the mere evidence
that it is running and we are using it.

I have not found any MediaWiki script in the installation for Koha to run
without aborting with a Segmentation Fault.  I do not know what the cause
is.

I have speculated about initial misconfiguration.  The most obvious
possibility of misconfiguration missing a schema name should not be
possible using a Postgres database when following the basic MediaWiki
installation and set up instructions.

Maybe some php.ini setting needs to be different.

Maybe there is a conflict somewhere between PHP 5.2.6-1+lenny8 with
Suhosin-Patch 0.9.6.2 (cli) and MediaWiki 1.15.2.  PHP 5.3 may cause a
segmentation fault but we are using PHP 5.2.6-1,
http://www.mail-archive.com/mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org/msg02277.html
.  MediaWiki developers have considered the known problem with PHP 5.3 to
be a PHP 5.3 problem and not a MediaWiki problem,
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9365 .  Again, we are not
using PHP 5.3.

There should be no problem for MediaWiki 1.15 using Postgres 8.3.  I had
researched that issue before we set up MediaWiki.

Volunteers to investigate the failure of MediaWiki command line scripts
would be welcome.  I may not have proper time for a while.  Information
about the installation can be found at
http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Special:Version .

Meanwhile, I suggest that we wait on using the power of Semantic MediaWiki
which I understand would make some significant changes in the database. 
It may be much easier to correct possible misconfiguration before we start
using Semantic MediaWiki.  We should probably also first upgrade to the
MediaWiki 1.16, the current version, after fixing the command line
problem.

>
> It would go something like this:
>
> 1. Create a template that collects relevant information about RFCs,
> building on Template:RFC
>
> 2. Create a form
> (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Forms) that makes
> filling in the template easy, including lists of allowed values for
> things like e.g. sponsorship status or development status.
>
> 3. Create a number of pages with inline queries
> (http://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Inline_queries), that list
> RFCs based on given criteria, e.g.
> - all sponosored RFCs
> - all RFCs that do not have sponsors
> - all RFCs that are in active development
> - etc
> It is possible to confugure what is shown in these query results, so
> there could be columns for targeted Koha version etc (Basically all
> the info that is collected by the template).
> These pages could also link to the same results as RSS
> (http://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Inline_queries#Exporting_query_results:_RSS.2C_etc.),
> making it relatively easy to monitor e.g. all new, unsponsored RFCs.
>
> We could also create categories for different areas of Koha, e.g.
> cataloguing, aquisitions etc.
>
> *** Enhance RFC pages
>
> The page for an RFC could perhaps also be enhanced in interesting ways:
>
> * Pull in info from the relevant bug on Bugzilla
> (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Bugzilla_Reports - I havn't
> used this, but it looks promising)
>
> * Pull in info (commits) from public git repos when a branch has been
> published for the RFC (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:RSS)
>
> * Provide a "standard" comment form as an alternative to the "Talk"
> page (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ArticleComments)
>
>
> If this sounds like something people would be interested in trying
> out, I'd be happy to spend some time on setting it up.

[...]

Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
109 E 9th Street, 3D
New York, NY  10003
USA
http://www.agogme.com
+1 212-674-3783