[ale] alternatives to Wiki info

[JD]

I've found that for media wiki to be used by end-users, a GUI editor
add-on is needed.  Last time I looked, there were a few plugins for this
available, but I've never used them.  I think Copy/Paste RTF works with
at least 1.

Have you considered the mediawiki macro for OpenOffice/LibreOffice?  It
will save those files into a mediawiki-compatible format that can be
copied/pasted in.

The other solution is to deploy a document management system like
Alfresco.  It is a big, complex solution and the GUI leaves much to be
desired. OTOH, it does support full-text indexing for most formats, has
CIFS, webdav, nfs, and a webGUI interface built-in.  It is really
designed as a back-end server with the intent that the company would
either create their own custom front-end or pay another vendor to do
this.  whitehouse.gov runs on Drupal + Alfresco.  Alfresco deployments
inside serious companies usually run $200K (mostly paying people), but
if you are willing to live with the out of the box "community edition",
it is just 3-4 hours of work.

You can host anything inside Alfresco, but if you put video in there,
well, that's probably not a best practice. Creating a workflow to upload
a video, force metadata capture and push the video itself to another
online-store is a better idea, IMHO. You'll want lots of validation
routines to keep the Alfresco / Video-store matched.  Anything is
possible with enough effort.  I've seen Alfresco front-ends that look
like cnn.com or any of the huge media outlets.

I can recommend some Alfresco knowledgeable companies, if you have
budget.  The thing to keep in mind is that these folks are replacing
Documentum with Alfresco, so a $200K deployment is a bargain compared to
a $2M+ deployment.

Another option is a redmine server. You may already have one. I don't
think it indexes documents or has any built-in versioning for documents,
but it does have a project-based document store, wiki, and VCS
integrations. Bewteen those 3 things, you might find what you need. 2
hours or so to setup if you need to learn how RoR works. Much less if not.

Both of these connect to LDAP directories for user logins, if you like.
 Or not.

Wikis are fantastic for what they can do, but if the end users don't
contribute as a way-of-life, it becomes a dead document store.  For
programmers and sys admins, I cannot think of a better way to store
information than a Wiki.  The line-by-line versioning makes it perfect
for keeping up with environment changes.  I like that there's no need
for some-other-tool besides a browser to edit too.

OTOH, I doubt your accounting department will ever create a wiki page.

Good luck. Please let us know what you decide and how it works out.




On 10/19/2011 09:13 AM, Narahari 'n' Savitha wrote:
> Friends:
> 
> We at work use Wiki to store hints/tips/information about our
> environments etc.,
> 
> The media wiki server is   local to our intranet. It is working fine.
> 
> However the pain involved in converting to Wiki format from M$Office,
> OpenOffice, LIbreOffice is really not fun.
> 
> If it involves images GOD save us.
> 
> ==========================================
> 
> In the above context, is there a pure HTML based document storage, out
> of the box framework.
> 
> No coding, just create doc in any Office suite convert to HTML then just
> put it there easily.
> 
> Provide any solutions you have used and/or heard off that is easy to
> install too.
> 
> Very important :  It should be searchable easily.  If it can host video
> its even better.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> -Narahari
>