Customer Reviews

Professional Wikis (Programmer to Programmer)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the best technical guides I have encountered and I have used hundreds of them. I am not a programer, but I work with open source software regularly and I am comfortable hacking code.

I have administered simple MediaWiki sites successfully, but this book has shown me how to make major improvements with my existing sites, and will serve as a guide in the creation of many planned wikis. This book has also extended my understanding of php.

The author, not only clearly outlines how to work with MediaWiki software, but concisely and intelligently discusses the merits of options in configuring and working with the software.

Even if you are not currently administering a MediaWiki site, his discussion of formating wiki text is excellent for those seeking more than the basics.

I was very impressed by the clarity of the writing and the organization of this book. Many great specific examples on how to get your wiki up and running in MediaWiki, plus lots of helps for customization. My first experiece with a Wrox book. I will look to them for future resource needs.
If you can only afford one book to help you with MediaWiki this is the book to buy.

I just received the text. It has "beginner" information about what I consider fundamental structures of wikis and it includes resources where to find more info. I read it by jumping around in the book and I have had no problem. I find what I want and then see something interesting and move to it, so it is not a linear read like an instruction manual, more like a first pass resource manual for beginners. Looking for the next level up. I rate this a 4 for starters.

Where to next?

Clear style & mercifully short at under 300 pages (it can be faster to troll the interwebs than page thru the brontosauri that many tech publishers are bringing out).

Very practical, introduced me to several useful tools (i.e. pywikipedia).

Copyright only 2008 but is still slightly dated, especially given that mediawiki issues a new rev several times a year. Have generally had to do a bit of shimming & swerving to get the examples to work with the latest & g'est. Not the author's fault of course; just the way things go nowadays.

On a whim I downloaded MediaWiki software after having read an article about it on Lifehacker. Once I got it up and running, I thought it was totally cool, and imagined any number of ways I might use it. Then I bought this book and the wiki world opened up in about a dozen different ways. The book is well organized, well written, and extremely informative. Now I'm seriously thinking about pushing my work place to establish a wiki based on the software this book documents. I wish all technical books were of this caliber.

I won't go into many details, but this, as far as I can tell, is the best book for a new MediaWiki admin.

As in -- you have to install it & configure it & support it.

The book is -- very thorough, well-organized, technically accurate. I haven't needed another resource but this book.