Flex Wiki Faq

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Summary

This page provides answers to Frequently-Asked Questions about FlexWiki

General

• Q: Are templates supported in FlexWiki 2.0?
• A: Templates are supported in FlexWiki 2.0 and function as described in CustomizableTopicTemplates. It is critical to have your template name start with an underscore and the word 'Template'. If you use _TemplateDefault then the content of that file will be used as the default for any new files in that namespace, otherwise if it is any other template name you have to select the template from the dropdown in the right border on the edit page and click the arrow button for it to be inserted.

• Q: How do I make a link using the federation.LinkMaker to fit into a topic? Such as, I tried to do:

 "this is my link text":@@federation.LinkMaker.LinkToTopic("Topic1")@@

When I do this though, it just shows on the page:

 "this is my link text"[blushing smiley face]{0}

How can I get this to work properly or what alternate methods can provide this functionality? --by Ned [9 April 2008 7:03am PDT]

• A: it should look like this below

 @@Presentations.Link(federation.LinkMaker.LinktoTopic("Topic1"), "this is my linktext", "tooltip text")@@

• Q: Is there any way to comment-out code to not be parsed at all? --by Ned [8 April 2008 12:29pm PDT]
• A: If you want a way to comment out code in WikiTalk, there is no way at this time. If it is just to not parse some WikiText then just wrap it in a pair of double quotes which will then prevent auto-linking

• Q: How do you center text on a page? I'm trying to make a Bottom Border but have the text centered and not left-justified as it's doing now. --by Ned [8 April 2008 7:15am PDT]

• A: If you can add or modify your stylesheets the best way is to use a Presentations.ContainerStart("div", "centeredFooter"), "text for the footer,Presentations.ContainerEnd("div"). Or, put the text in a borderless table and then center the table

This is a footer text

• Q: Is there any way to set the default index page for a Namespace? For instance, I have a particular Namespace called Pizza, and when the user goes to the Pizza Namespace, it will take them to a general index.html page? --by Ned [7 April 2008 12:29pm PDT]

• A: The topic ContentBaseDefinition holds details on customizing a namespace. In order to change the default HomePage to a new topic named Index create the topic Index (by entering Index in the TopicBar and pressing return to edit). Then in _ContentBaseDefinition for the the namespace add a property HomePage and put Index in the property value

 HomePage: Index

• Q: Is there any way to delete a topic? I've done a lot of playing around on my flexwiki setup and created a bunch of useless topics. I can see them on the Recent Changes screen, but there is no button to delete them. How to delete a topic? --by Ned [7 April 2008 10:32am PDT]

• A: Remove all text from the topic in the editor and then put the text 'delete' (without quotes and with no carriage return or line feeds) in the topic and save it. When you complete the save the HomePage for the Namespace will be displayed. I have been creating a button to do a delete but there is a bug that needs correction for it to work.

• Q: Trying to navigate flexwiki can be really confusing. Is there any way to access a complete listing of the hierarchy/structure of a namespace? I don't even know which pages exist and which don't anymore, it seems kind of hit-and-miss. How do you handle organization? --by Ned [7 April 2008 9:41am PDT]

• A: The left border has a menu item Recent Changes which shows alist of all pages in a namespace and allows you to select the namespace to display. There is also a topic RecentChanges that does the same, but is in WikiTalk and executes faster. A namespace is the basic hierarchy level and as such has no structure. If you need to then topics should be moved to more appropriate namespaces as required, like weeding in a garden or moving plants between various garden beds.

• Q: I've just installed FlexWiki 2.0.0.186 and I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. I have created a new Namespace and have set it to be the default Namespace. However, every time I go to the default page (http://localhost/flexwiki), even after I edit it and save the changes, it saves for my temporary session, but when I close Internet Explorer and go back to http://localhost/flexwiki, all my changes are gone. How do you edit the default page so that it keeps the changes and shows them the next time I restart my browser? --by Ned [7 April 2008 9:04am PDT]

• A: I think I got it fixed; now, when I go to the default flexwiki page, it goes to my Namespace's default page, which is customized and not the same as what came loaded in flexwiki originally. What seems to have resolved this is, by experimentation, on the default page I clicked on the "Rename" link on the left menu. Once I renamed the page to something other than "Homepage", it now saves the changes and http://localhost/flexwiki takes me to this customized page. --by Ned [7 April 2008 9:38am PDT]

• Q TableCentering - How do you do it?
• A See the instructions in TableFormattingRules. An example is

Title	Row
Col1	Col2

 

T-H-A-N-K-S!

• Q How do you delete "Sample Name Space one" and "Sample Name Space Two"
• A These two Namespaces are included so that you have immediate confirmation that your wiki is working after install. To delete them you must edit the flexwiki.config file. This should be done via the Web Administration interface that is part of FlexWiki, which allows you to delete the namespace definitions. It is necessary to delete the xml tags <Provider Id=....> to </Provider> for each namespace. Then remember to save flexwiki.config, re-read the file and then reload the application. It can be done outside of the application using Notepad, but then the application must be restarted (sometimes including the webserver, depending upon configuration). After editing Fflexwiki.config then the directors should be deleted from Namespaces directory in you root directory for the application.

• Q I'm upgrading from FlexWiki 1.8 and I'm using SQL namespaces. When I change the namespace providers, the Namespace Index on the left hand side is producing links like: "Sample":/wiki/default.aspx/Sample/Homepage and it's not converting to a link. How do I fix this?
• A The best way to diagnose this issue is by asking on the FlexWikiUsersMailingList

• Q How do I globally define a WikiTalk function, so that it may be referred to on all pages? [2007-10-17]
• A You need to define the function in a separate topic/file, then you add a With:<topic> to import the functions. Then you can @@FunctionName(Param)@@ to call the function. An example of this is in the topic JohnDavidsonBlog which uses the BlogSupportLibrary

• Q How do I activate the RSS-Feed for the "Recent Changes"? -- G.Ziegler [2006-12-19] -test
• A In your RSS viewer subscribe to http://www.flexwiki.com/rss.aspx?namespace=FlexWiki. You can find this link for other flexwikis in the Subscriptions menu. -- SzaMa - 2006.12.23.

• Q Is it possible to have the next scenario?. Some registered users have privileges to edit all the documents (their own and other's documents), and all anonymous users just can read the documents. -- LMurillo (lmurillo@microsip.com)[2006-10-02]
• A Yes, by setting the NTFS rights of the files, and setting the security in web.config see AccessControl -- SzaMa - 2006.10.23
• A2 The above answer is correct for both version 1.x and 2.x, but version 2.x has a mechanism described in FlexWikiSecurity, FlexWikiAuthentication and FlexWikiAuthorization. This allows controls for users or roles and allows read or write restrictions.

• Q Any plans to port the code base for use with the 2.0 CLR? If not, why? PatrickAltman [2006-03-08]
• A Version 2.x ow supports version 2.0 of the CLR.

• Q I am trying to document design specifications using a Wiki to better accomodate our team atmosphere and allow contributions from the whole team but am having difficulty finding a way to get our code snippets displayed as desired. The ideal scenario would allow us to use a custom property with the code embedded but the code formatting is not recognized inside the property (or a table for that matter). Furthermore, we need to be able to add color to our code samples. Is there a way to accomplish what we are after? Best example of the appearance we are after would be any of the Microsoft .NET documentation -- J.Miller [2006-02-13]
• A This is available by using a plugin on OdsWiki FleXhtml and creating a page similar to OdsWiki CodeColorSample

• Q I'm working to help set up a flexwiki to help support electronic theses and dissertations. Should I point readers to the User Manual here or should I copy the User Manual to the other site? I hate repetition but I also fear creating confusion because the site (http://flexwiki.etdguide.org/default.aspx) looks like this one... I'm not clear on the ethics of this given the wiki way and the MSFT Terms of Use linke and so on JoeMoxley.
• A It is perfectly correct to point users to the FlexWiki site documentation from your site. By using the FlexWiki site documentation users ensure that the quality of documentation is high. On the other hand the documentation here is very general and you should have site specific instructions on your local site.

• Q In the new UI how can I get the diff between the selected and previous versions?
• A There's a "Show Changes" button, first thing in the left sidebar. This does the same as the "highlight changes" checkbox in the old version.

• Q How do I create image links? -- ScottW
• A Like this: -- JoeFrayne
• A Better way: -- Ben Bonavia

• Q How do I upload the image to images directory?
• A FlexWiki v2.x now has an optional facility to allow uploads and linking of uploaded files. See AttachmentPage for details. (References to upload scripts were for a workaround in FlexWiki v1.8)

• Q How do I create links to anchors within the same page? -- PradeepKumarcxczxc
• A This is now supported (as of Build 1.8.0.1661). See FormattingRules#Anchors

• Q Can I continue a line to the next line without FlexWiki inserting a new paragraph? -- Ken [2004-10-26]
• A The only way to insert a linebreak and have it ignored is to write a WikiTalk expression, but then you have to add a lot more stuff: each line has to be quoted, separated by commas, and you need the WikiTalk delimiters at the beginning and end of the phrase. Effectively, the answer to your question is that you can't.

• I've used the WikiTalk hack with this bit of text. Open this page for editing to see the source and see how I formatted it. -- TommyWilliams [05-Jan-2005]
WikiTalk is a language for including dynamic content in FlexWiki topics.
1/24/2008 6:51:51 AM - FLWCOM-jwdavidson
Tommy Williams is a lead program manager in MSDN.
12/11/2007 1:00:37 AM - -221.208.174.223

• Q Is this really an FAQ? ...or is it a place to ask questions? -- HarryWood [18-Apr-2005]
• A That depends on whether your definition of FAQ is frequently ASKED questions, or frequently ANSWERED questions

• Q Tell me if I understand this right. FlexWiki does not require a database to work? It only requires IIS 5+/6 and asp.net. If this is true then I will surley be looking into using it when I get around to redesigning my web site. -- Created by: X [27-June-2005]
• A FlexWiki does not require a database to work. Without a database, revisions are stored in a series of files within the web site's directory.

• Q I'm trying to indent a paragraph and I don't see how it's done based on the User's Guide information. Is this possible? -- Kevin [17-Aug-2005]
• A See the topics ChangeNoteContainerPresentation and StylesheetOverride. You will need to use a custom css file in conjunction with the <span> or <div> element to create the indentation.

• Q How do I include a field name that has the capitalization format that Wiki interprets as a Hyperlink without Wiki making it a hyperlink? -- Jennie K. [16-Nov-2005]
• A You need to escape the text by wrapping it in a pair of double quotes

 ""NoWikiHyperlink""

NoWikiHyperlink

• Q I need to hyperlink to a local file. The file path has spaces. When I do a link e.g. file://c:\my directory\file.txt it won't create the whole text as a link. How can I resolve this? -- Martin C [24-Nov-2005]
• A Frist, you can create a virtual directory in your IIS, and let directory to you want directory. Then, you must make the space to %20. So, it will be like follow: -- DanceTime[25-11-2005]

http://YourSiteName/my%20directory/file.txt

• Another Q But now, i have another trouble. If i have a url like follow, the "_" will make the char to Italic. Who can tell me how to do? Thanks! -- DanceTime[25-11-2005]

http://MySiteName/my%20directory/file_test_error.txt

* More Q That works okay for websites. Is it possible to link to a file on the intranet such as file:////MyServer\FolderName with spaces\FileName with Spaces.doc ?

Page layout and borders

• Q1: How do I change the way the layout looks, for example I want the links on the left to be on the right. I also want the search button to be on the top right. Is there a simple way to customize the whole layout.? -- DanyM
• A: See CustomBorders for information about how to modify the borders on FlexWiki pages.

• Q2: How do I change the left menu? After the site was installed, I FTPed all of the code down, did a search for names in the left menu (so I could locate where the code was) and found nothing. Is that in something that is compiled? -- ChadMa
• A: See CustomBorders for information about how to modify the borders on FlexWiki pages.

• Q3: How do I change the right menu in Edit mode? -- LiamOGorman
• A: It is not possible to change the right menu when in Edit mode. If you want to have a new feature please submit a Feature Request

• Q4: I'm new to wikis but would like to try FlexWiki. Is it possible to insert a user control on a wiki page?
• A: It is possible using a plugin from OdsWiki See FleXhtmlImplementation and FleXhtmlDemo

Q5: Hi, I'm getting Sharepoint errors on both the left and right borders. The error message is:

Method 'IEnqueueEventJob' on type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPListQueueEventsClass' from assembly 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Library, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' is overriding a method that has been overridden.

Has anyone seen this error before? Thanks -- John Gamble

A: SHP is adding some stuff to default behaviour of IIS, if you want to install wiki directory under Sharepoint web site do following:

• exclude your virtual directory from SHP managed directories (in site menagement)
• add to your flexwiki web.config

    <trust level="Full" originUrl="" />
    <httpModules>
      <clear />
      copy all <add ... /> tags from C:\windows\microsoft.net\v2..\config\web.config
    </httpModules>

-- Jan Stuchlik

• Q: Is there a way to load an Background Image in top border? Backgroundimage meant as bg-image in a frame... Juergen
• A: See the topic CustomBorders. StylesheetOverride and ChangeNoteContainerPresentation may also be of use.

• Q: Is there a recommended reference on 'Presentations' and 'federation'? I can't find much.
• A: Not really. The start point is of course InstructionCard, and then review _NormalBorders (as it uses Presentations heavily).

• Q: I'm trying to use the ComboSelectField to update information within a topic itself. For example, when someone (like an administrator) selects a value from this dropdown:

Alert Level RedYellowGreen

I'd like the value to be disaplayed at the top of every page on the wiki. Thx.

• A: It may not be possible using the Drop down selection box. The easy way to do this is to put a property in the _ContentBaseDefinition of the namespace such as AlertLevel: and then put the value in that property. Then modify the _NormalBorders for the namespace so that it reads that value and does something with it:

 @@namespace.GetTopicInfo("_ContentBaseDefinition").GetProperty("AlertLevel").....@@

• Q: To follow up on the dropdown question: The information on how to do a property is helpful, but would there be a way to set that property dynamically?
• A: The only practical way is to do it by manually editing the page. It only needs to be done to a single page however, as all other pages can then use that value.

Security

• Q Is there any way to restrict the Wiki to be only viewable and editable by Certain users? -- [24-Feb-2006]

• Q Is there any way to restrict the Wiki to be only viewable and editable by a particular security group(s)? -- [07-March-2006]

• A These features are available in FlexWiki v2.x. See topics FlexWikiSecurity, FlexWikiAuthentication and FlexWikiAuthorization

General Page Error - Please Help

Dear All,

I'm new to the wiki setup and have been getting the following problem:

When I press the save button I get the following Web Page displayed

HTTP/1.1 404 Object Not Found

The URL displayed is:

http://localhost/educationWiki/default.aspx/EducationWiki.HomePage

Any help would be much appreciated

Thank you in advance.

Hitesh Ladva

A: I believe this happens when the first machine you use FlexWiki from is the machine on which it is installed (and you then go to a different machine and try to use flexwiki from there). To resolve it, I copied the installation files back in to the server, and then opened the wiki from the other machine (my desktop machine). The problem was resolved.

Bill Price

---

I encountered this same problem. Turns out UrlScan was the problem. If you have UrlScan installed (typically installed as part of running the IisLockdownTool), you will want to edit C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\urlscan\urlscan.ini and set AllowDotInPath=1

This sounds like it may be related to a known bug, too. You can find it here:

https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1039466&group_id=113273&atid=665396.

- Ray Dixon

One more thing to check, if ASP.NET isn't registered right with IIS then you'll see this. Try re-running:

 aspnet_regiis -i 

to reinstall the asp.net bits. -- PaulPetterson

• Q: Can I configure flexwiki to use a ? between default.aspx and the namespace instead of "/"? -- PaulPetterson
• A: No.

• Q: How to create site Index?
• A: Copy the source for the topic Index or roll your own based on WikiTalk. See NamespaceInfoDemo

Q: HELP! I need to know how to move an existing wiki site to a new server. Anyone know how to do this?!!!

A: Install FlexWiki on the new server and copy across your Namespaces folder (in v1.8 it may be called WikiBaseFolder). See the topic FlexWiki2Upgrade

Searching

• Q: Is it possible to limit search for a particular user over different namespaces?
• A: Yes, a user can be excluded from seeing any topics in a namespace or may be restricted from seeing multiple topics in a namespace where some topics may be viewed. A user may only search topics where there is the right to read that topic. See FlexWikiSecurity, FlexWikiAuthentication and FlexWikiAuthorization

Organizing

• Q: This is going great and our wiki is growing. I am splitting an existing namespace into three. I see a lot of useful pages about creating new namespaces, but nothing about how to move pages from one NS to another. Alternately, how do I change the namespace of a topic?
• A: While it is possible to split a namespace you should be aware of the likely consequences. Topic links that are valid in the current namespace will no longer work if the topic is not in the same namespace as the referencing topic after the move. These can be fixed by changing the reference to include the namespace with the topic reference, but is likely to be very work intensive and prone to error. The easiest way to do this is to create the new namespaces and then as an administrator on the web server copy all *.wiki and *.awiki files from the old namespace to the new namespace. Again this is only recommended if you have resources to do the considerable fixup, otherwise your users will be clicking on the now non-existant topic links for the local namespace and recreating topics in the local namespace.

• Q: How do you create a new page? Mukesh
• A: Click on the title of the current page, an input box will allow a new topic name to be entered, then press return and you will be in Edit mode for the new page. After saving this new page will be part of the namespace.

Basic Setup

• Q: I set up FlexWiki using IIS 5.1. I can see and use the page just fine from the Server but I can't seem to access it from other computers. Any suggestions??
• A: What is the URL you are using on the Server and the URL you are using on the other computers? Did you install it as a WebSite or as a Virtual Directory? Did you set the permissions as in InstallingFlexWiki

• Q2: After reading your responce, I reinstalled everything (IIS, and FlexWiki) based on the detailed install instructions. I ended up with the same result - work on local machine but not on a remote machine. The server is on an intranet and I used the IP address http://192.168.200.57/. I also used http:/machinename/ with the same results. I'm new to web publishing, so I wonder if the server is setup incorrectly for publishing? The server isn't the companies main server but a shared engineering workstation on the intranet. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (I have no IT help)