Category Archives: Lego

Stuph about Lego – Blocks of joy.

Lego Wiki – Update

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The OpenWiki software kinda sucks. I must admit that it was easy as hell to install. Since I already have a directory on the site dedicated to “full control” access, I was able to just pop the database file up there, edit the path to the database in the config file and upload the core code to another directory. Browse to the directory and -bling- OpenWiki is running. However, the software is insanely old and insanely crappy. MediaWiki makes OpenWiki look like a college course programming assignment. No apparent skinning capability, no user access control, horrible default layout, and an unintuitive user interface. It's out of the question for the kinds of projects for which I want a wiki. It can still be useful for some more basic stuff and it's SUPER easy to install, so I will keep it in mind for less intense projects.

So, I tried to install MediaWiki on my home Windows Server '03 development box (using IIS, not a WAMP thing) to see if I could use it for my Lego database and my Computer Museum on the inanis.net server, and it was an utter failure. They (the wiki people) weren't kidding when they said that MediaWiki doens't play nice with IIS, even when you do follow the directions. This means no Wiki running directly underneath my Windows web host, unless I can convince the host engineers to hack away at it until it's installed (unlikely).

Even if I do get them to get MediaWiki installed, I won't be able to have access to the database, because I don't have access to a console to dump the database out. This means that If I ever decide to move hosts or host my site at home, I won't be able to get at the data, and I will have to rebuild both databases from scratch. Ugh.

So, I am probably going to have to set up an Ubuntu 6.0.6 LTS LAMP server and either 1) run it with a DynDNS account from home -or- 2) co-locate it on a public IP at my host or at work and set up a subdomain like wiki.inanis.net.

Ubuntu is so awesome. MediaWiki installs on that in, oh, about 8 1/2 minutes. On top of that, I have experience getting Ubuntu LAMP running: I use it for some customized scripts for shatteredwindows.com and for a Tech Tricks Wiki for my job at work (no real link to the Tech Tricks I'm afraid. Can't let everyone know all my tricks: we call that job security).

*sigh*

Time to find a spare box and get out the old Ubuntu disc…

Lego Wiki – On a Windows Box?

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Well, it seems that if my hosting provider is willing to do some custom installation for me, then I can probably have a Wiki on their windows server.

What sucks about this entire wiki situation, is that because inanis.net is hosted on a windows box, the blog is a .NET application, and can't be moved to a linux box. I also don't feel like trying to hand convert all the blog entries, so the site will have to stay on windows. This means if I want wiki,  I need a seperate domain/ip address/server for it, or somehow get it on the windows server.

Anyways, Take a look here.

I also found that there is a wiki software called OpenWiki that runs natively on Windows servers. Might have to try that out!