MoinMoin: DruidWikiTestCase

Reproducing nicely designed front page in a maintainable way

See also MultiColumns, SectionParser

druidwiki had a very nice theme and front page - now [http://blog.yibble.org/2006/09/16/druidwiki-is-kaput/ DruidWiki is Kaputt!). This is exactly the the type of design that front pages or other main pages need, and is possible with current moin code, but with great pain. If you look into the source you see the horrible mess of tables and includes:

||<tablestyle="width: 100%; background: #c1d9c1; font-size: 1.5em;">
'''Utterly confused? See ["Getting Started"], now.''' ||

||<class="highlighted-table"> ["Welcome To The DruidWiki"]. The
DruidWiki offers an opportunity to investigate the feasibility and
practicality of providing an oral-like communication mechanism for
collaborative projects within the WikiPedia:Druid community, using
WikiPedia:Wiki technology and principles. All articles are published
under the ["GNU Free Documentation License"] (see ["DruidWiki
Copyrights"] for more details). ''Please also take time to read the
["Site Disclaimer"].'' [[BR]][[BR]] If you want to learn more about
Wikis in general, first read about WikiWikiWeb, then about
MoinMoin:WhyWikiWorks, the MoinMoin:WikiNature and the
MoinMoin:WikiWikiWebFaq. [[BR]] ||

||<width="40%" align="left" valign="top"
rowspan="2">[[Include(FrontPage/Explore, , , sort=ascending,
items=1)]]||<align="left" valign="top">[[Include(FrontPage/Featured
Page, , , sort=ascending,items=1)]]|| ||<align="left"
valign="top">[[Include(FrontPage/News, , , sort=ascending, items=1)]]||

[[Include(FrontPage/How to Use the DruidWiki, , , sort=ascending,
items=1)]]

==== Random Quote ====
||<class="quote-table"> [[RandomQuote(RandomQuotes)]]||<class="quote-
table-embedded-edit-link"> [[wiki:Self/RandomQuotes?action=edit edit]]||

||<tablestyle="width: 100%;"> '''Create a New Article''' [[BR]]
[[NewPage(DruidWikiArticleTemplate,Create article)]]||

• To make the code display in nicely in the page I hard wrapped the text, so its not valid wiki markup any more. This is one of the problems with tables.

These are the problems with this design:

• Hard to create and maintain, based on tables
• Use the buggy and hard to work with Include macro, with impossible arguments
• Tied to specific theme - uses live style data in the wiki page. If you change to a different theme, the colors or dimension might break. This is not always a problem, its make sense to offer only one theme per site.

* Need to edit many pages to update the front page, this may be right for some cases, if users can add data to a simple sub page without having to fight with the mess in the front page itself, or if the page is locked.

• The edit links on the various parts give easy access to the parts of the page.

What we need:

• A simple and clear way to say about a section of a page: "this is the main column", "this is a side bar" "this is a figure with a title".
• Set the location and colors of the element in css, so the page works with any theme.
• Easy to edit, either easy to edit in the main page, or supply an edit link to each part.
• Live style data in the page, as its used in table code is very powerful but create fragile design. Better not have this option at first.

Using SectionParser, its possible to create similar design with very little effort. Have a side bar with few sections using 30% of pages width. Other data can be at the main column. If you want to integrate data from differnt pages, use include macro in the main section (might be painful if you expect too much from this macro).

Here is an example - almost the full text of the front page:

= Welcome To The DruidWiki =

The DruidWiki offers an opportunity to investigate the feasibility and
practicality of providing an oral-like communication mechanism for
collaborative projects within the WikiPedia:Druid community, using
WikiPedia:Wiki technology and principles. All articles are published
under the ["GNU Free Documentation License"] (see ["DruidWiki
Copyrights"] for more details). ''Please also take time to read the
["Site Disclaimer"].''

If you want to learn more about Wikis in general, first read about
WikiWikiWeb, then about MoinMoin:WhyWikiWorks, the MoinMoin:WikiNature
and the MoinMoin:WikiWikiWebFaq.

{ { {
#!section
#class front-sidebar

= Utterly confused? =
See ["Getting Started"], now.

= Explore =
 * [wiki:Self/RecentChanges Recent Changes]: see where people are
 currently working
 * [wiki:Self/WikiSandBox Wiki Sand Box]: feel free to change this page
 and experiment with editing
 * [wiki:Self/FindPage Find Page]: search or browse the database in
 various ways
 * [wiki:Self/SyntaxReference Syntax Reference]: quick access to wiki
 syntax * [wiki:Self/SiteNavigation Site Navigation]: get an overview
 of this site and what it contains
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryCategory Categories]: most pages belong to at
 least one category

= Knowledge base =
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryCelebration Celebration]: honouring the turn of
 the wheel
  * [wiki:Self/CategorySacredSites Sacred Sites],
  [wiki:Self/CategoryRitual Ritual]
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryConcepts Concepts]: concepts applicable to
 druidry * [wiki:Self/CategoryPlantLore Plant Lore]: articles relating
 to any plant lore/herbalism
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryDruidryInAction Druidry in Action]: projects,
 charities and community work
  * [wiki:Self/CategoryEnvironment Environment],
  [wiki:Self/CategoryInterFaith Interfaith],
  [wiki:Self/CategoryEthicalLiving Ethical Living]
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryDruidOrganisations Druid Organisations]: a
 listing of Druid groups
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryEvents Events]: details of events throughout the
 year
  * [[Link(Events Board, accesskey="V")]], ["Regular Events"]

= Off Topic =
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryHomepage Users' Home Pages]: more about the
 people of the DruidWiki

= Random quote =
[[RandomQuote(RandomQuotes)]]

= Create new page =
You are invited to create new pages:
[[NewPage(DruidWikiArticleTemplate,Create)]]
} } }

= Featured Page =
## include the top of some page
[[Include(SomePage)]]
Visit SomePage...

= News =
## include the top of the news page
[[Include(NewsPage)]]
Read more at NewsPage...

= How to use DruidWiki =
Help text...

In the theme screen css:

.section-front-sidebar {float: right; width: 30%}
.section-front-sidebar h2 {font-size: 1.2em}

Note that this is a simplified design. The side bar contain the little things, and the main column the main content. Also, I put the sidebar on the right, not on the left, because I think the main content should come first, then the different exits from the page. I would also use shorter text in items of the side bar, simple list of links if possible. The page names should give enough information in most cases.