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Looking for better documentation options

PostPosted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 12:51 pm
by Kumba
I'm looking for a way to document features of ViciBox that is HTML enabled and easily maintainable. I am thinking of something with a Table of Contents and then different sections for different features like the VBF.

Other then hand-coding HTML and dealing with all of that statically, has anyone used any sort of documentation system? I've thought about the various Wiki systems but they just seem to turn into a maintenance nightmare as well as being a huge web attack vector.

Re: Looking for better documentation options

PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 5:16 pm
by williamconley
I'm partial to MediaWiki as opposed to "various Wiki systems". The original and still best. We still use it on ViciWiki.com. Also seems to be secure, and we've Never updated our publicly-visible one but it's never been hacked.

In fact, if you want to test I can give you edit access to it and you can try it out for a while (or forever ...). ViciWiki.com's available if you want to use it for your documentation. Just don't delete our stuff.

Re: Looking for better documentation options

PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 11:43 pm
by Kumba
I'll add it to the short list to test with. I just want something easy to update that is also intuitively navigable.

Re: Looking for better documentation options

PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 11:56 pm
by williamconley
It's a quick configuration option to lock "edit" to specific users. After that, it's just like Wikipedia cuz it's the same software. So navigability depends on how well you build the pages, but everyone knows how to actually navigate wikipedia (well, except my grandparents who just barely have email).

Re: Looking for better documentation options

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 7:06 pm
by dspaan
Are you planning to install this wiki on the internet or on the vicibox ISO?

I spent quite some time searching for a documenation platform and was amazed how limited the options were. I finally settled for this one:
http://matterwiki.com/

It's really simple, you can make users, and each document has a version history. It's also simple to install.

If you want to make a fancy one you could also use Wordpress:
https://themeisle.com/blog/create-wordp ... edge-base/
(and in that case you should use Wordfence for security)

Here is a nice overview on Quora:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best- ... e-software

Re: Looking for better documentation options

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 10:08 pm
by williamconley
dspaan wrote:Are you planning to install this wiki on the internet or on the vicibox ISO?

I spent quite some time searching for a documenation platform and was amazed how limited the options were. I finally settled for this one:
http://matterwiki.com/

Pretty sure he's talking about this being the documention for Vicibox on vicibox.com in lieu of a PDF.

Matterwiki seems small. No "base level" editing and a dropdown for categories (which is great when small: a dozen or so major categories ...). I don't see a "markup help" to allow specialized formatting help to be always visible. For instance: How do you link to another article? Using the full URL when linking to something in the same system is problematic in some circumstances.

It's a good quickie-wiki for small stuff, looks like, just like the one built into Redmine and several hundred others.

But MediaWiki is still the king of this hill, IMHO. And continually being updated. I've had two of them online for years ... no breakins. 8-)

Re: Looking for better documentation options

PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 8:20 am
by dspaan
You are probably right, in my search i was looking for an internal wiki, that could be locked off from the outside world. But that's not what is needed here.

Re: Looking for better documentation options

PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 1:28 pm
by williamconley
dspaan wrote:You are probably right, in my search i was looking for an internal wiki, that could be locked off from the outside world. But that's not what is needed here.

Internal wikis are excellent. Good replacement for the (now outdated) KnowledgeBase crap. lol. But when the wiki may grow to huge proportions over years of use: Continual updating (because the company maintaining it is HUGE) and the ability to serve thousands, millions, of pages in an organized fashion (by design) is ... handy.