A Bliki -what’s a Bliki? at bavatuesdays

/*
* Created on Mar 12, 2007
*
* To change the template for this generated file go to
* Window – Preferences – PHPeclipse – PHP – Code Templates
*/
//error_reporting(E_ERROR & ~ E_NOTICE);
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, “http://courses.jimgroom.net/engl101_f06/wiki/index.php?title=Bliki_Experiment”);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

$page = curl_exec($curl); // sucks the mediawiki page in
curl_close($curl);
$page = str_replace(‘ ’, ‘ ‘, $page); //kills the nbsp entitiy–make sure visual editor doesn’t clobber it’

$wppageDOM = domxml_open_mem($page); //puts the mwpage into a form for manipulation

$divs = $wppageDOM->get_elements_by_tagname(‘div’);
foreach ($divs as $div) {
if ($div->get_attribute(‘id’) == ‘column-content’) { //grab only the body of the mw page
$contentDiv = $div;
}
if ($div->get_attribute(‘id’) == ‘jump-to-nav’) { //kill navigation div
$parent = $div->parent_node();
$parent->remove_child($div);
}
$div->remove_attribute(‘class’); //clear off classes to avoid style collisions. might need to do the same if style attributes are present
}

$h3s = $contentDiv->get_elements_by_tagname(‘h3′);

foreach ($h3s as $h3) {
if ($h3->get_attribute(‘id’) == ’siteSub’) { //kill the reference to original mw page
$parent = $h3->parent_node();
$parent->remove_child($h3);
}
}

echo $wppageDOM->dump_node($contentDiv); //spit it out!

11 Responses to “A Bliki -what’s a Bliki?”

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1 jimgroom Apr 26th, 2007 at 9:34 am

I encourage everyone to change the text of this post using the edit buttons to see how seamless the editing process is!
2 D'Arcy Norman Apr 26th, 2007 at 1:32 pm

well, hey now! How’d you embed the wiki in the blog post?
3 Kiran Bettadapur Apr 26th, 2007 at 3:40 pm

Hey! This is fantastic! But, will each edit be automatically reflected? Or, does it pass through any editorial filter?

We have built a platform – Cylive (http://www.cylive.com) – which features “collaborative” content creation, sharing and publishing in a (content-owner-assigned) rights-based environment.
4 jimgroom Apr 26th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

@D’Arcy: We’ll be releasing this very simple (but very beta) 15 lines of PHP code shortly so that we can open it up for others to tweak and maybe create a plugin from. Right now, it sorta works with WordPress and Drupal, but not without many bugs and styling issues. Also, it seems to choke for some MediaWiki installs. Long way to go, but I think the concept is sound enough. It even works with WP-o-Matic, I tested this post being fed into the open social and connected blog (here), and it worked without a hitch -cool! More details to come…
5 jimgroom Apr 26th, 2007 at 4:02 pm

@Kiran: Thanks for the comment. We’d hate to get anyone’s hopes up too high. This is really just a proof of concept for the idea of blurring the lines between wikis & blogs. We have no formal filtering system in place, nor is it in the form of a WP plugin. We will be releasing the simple PHP code, and maybe some folks will take pity on us and make it sparkle:)
6 Martha Apr 27th, 2007 at 7:40 am

Jim,

This is sort of a boring question, I suppose, but I’m wondering how this blog/wiki mashup affects the feed out of the blog. When posts are updated via the wiki, does the feed reflect those changes? Does this change the way we approach/consume feeds from this kind of space?
7 jimgroom Apr 27th, 2007 at 8:43 am

Good question Martha. Right now, this code doesn’t update a feed every time you change the MediaWiki article. That may be something we consider testing out. What it may allow for, which really wasn’t possible before, is giving MediaWiki articles a feed by way of the blog. This may be a solution to this shortcoming of MediaWiki, but it might also create an unnecessary amount of noise for subscribers. I know I’m constantly re-editing my blogs after the fact because I am so quick to publish -I’m not sure if I would want people notified of every change. What might be really cool would be the possibility of turning on, or renewing the feed with the click of a button, when significant changes have been made to the blog/wiki post/article. So, yeah it might change the way we consume feeds in that we may have more control over the feeds for WordPress, as well as creating feeds where they weren’t before in MediaWiki.
8 Jerry May 1st, 2007 at 7:58 am

This is really cool.

One feature that would be nice to add is a way to get back to the blog from the wiki once you make and publish an edit. Maybe it can be as simple as creating a link back as part of the wiki post, but I imagine something more grand, like a floating “Take Me Back To the Blog” button, or something like that.

Can you plug this into a page tab on the blog? I could see there being some really cool class administration uses of a one page wiki, like a class calendar or announcements page, or some sort of group writing exercise.

I wonder about spam here too…

But this is a really great idea and great work so far! You guys are rocking.