RSS validator SOAP interface

The RSS validator is sporting a spiffy new SOAP interface with a WSDL file to make your life easy in Java, or C#, or probably any language you might want to use, as long as it’s not PHP. More grousing about SOAP and PHP than you could want to read, being added to every time I fail to figure out something else, in my RssValidationViaSoap wiki page.

Oh, did I mention I’ve got a wiki? For once, while I was checking on RevJim’s aggregator, seeing if it was ready for me to steal the code yet, I noticed the wiki instead of the content. Turns out, WakkaWiki does some very cool stuff, in what seems to me to be pretty well written code (after all, if a well known code bigot like the good Reverend is willing to use it…), with only a few annoyances that haven’t been too hard to fix (Mozilla seems to think you are double clicking when you scroll, and by default double-clicking tells Wakka you want to edit the page; no problem: sign in, set your prefs to not edit on double-click; you need tabs to indent or do HTML lists, but tabs in textareas are a pain; no problem: a little hacking and tildes count as tabs). I don’t really know why I need another place to write, but my theory about it so far is that I can use it as a combination notepad and place to keep things that should last longer than a blog entry. So while you are welcome to edit any page that lets you (Wakka has a nice feature that lets the page owner decide who can read it, write it, and leave comments (and another nice feature of having comments, rather like weblog comments, for people who are afraid to edit a wiki page directly)), you’re not obligated to: it’ll suit me just as well being a solo wiki as it will being a proper community wiki.

6 Comments

Comment by Reverend Jim #
2002-12-23 21:38:46

It looks like you are using your Wiki for pretty much the same function that I use mine.

If you haven’t seen them yet, here are some code fixes and enhancements you might want to make to Wakka:

http://www.wakkawiki.com/WakkaCategories
http://www.wakkawiki.com/WakkaBacklinks
http://www.wakkawiki.com/WakkaBugTracker

I edited my version of Wakka to remove the ”comments” feature. I also added the ”~” for tab hack as you did.

Wakka isn’t perfect, and it appears as though the developer has either left it to rot, or is just very busy lately.

Regardless, the code seems to be very sound. Additionally, it is fairly easy to extend. As soon as I get GoFoR out of the way, and then the WebLog application, rewriting/fixing/starting-from-scratch a wiki is next on my agenda.

For Christmas I would like 5 extra hours in each day, please. Thank you.

 
Comment by Phil Ringnalda #
2002-12-23 23:12:05

Ah, Backlinks goood. I can’t decide whether comments are a good set of training wheels, or a crutch. We’ll see (assuming anyone ever comments or edits, that is).

Is the weblog app definately a separate process than the wiki? I can’t quite grasp how to do it, but things like Wakka’s ACLs and the way Disenchanted lets you essentially send a TrackBack ping to an individual paragraph make me feel like there’s a way to do a wikish weblog that weblog people will like and use. Just grafting the two together like decafbad and decafwiki is a great start, for the author/owner, but it doesn’t really seem to make the connection with the readers.

Five extra hours? No more photography, and no alcohol, only caffeine and lots of it. Oh, you want five hours where you’re happy and productive, not jittery and chained to the computer? That’s harder.

 
Comment by Phil Ringnalda #
2002-12-25 18:15:43

Wakka Not Dead After All – Hendrik just added Carlo Zottmann of G-blog.net fame as co-developer.

 
Comment by Eric Vitiello #
2003-01-03 15:35:57

Speaking of Wiki’s, is there a website anywhere that compares the different wiki codebases? I’d love to start using a wiki (I’ve been attempting to find very way possible to catalog the things that cross my mind), but I’ve yet to find anything that shows me what the best wiki for me is.

 
Comment by Phil Ringnalda #
2003-01-03 19:21:38

I’m not sure if there is. The standard thing seems to be just to list every known WikiEngine, generally subdivided by language. I think the theory is that whatever you’re going to use, you’ll of course hack on it, so first you pick a language, and then you look at the sources and pick the one whose code style you like the best. Depending on your hosting situation, you may need to watch out for requirements a bit (there was one PHP one I really liked, but it made system calls to do diffs that my cheap shared host doesn’t allow).

One other way to cut down the list: John Abbe has a page for Wikis with RSS (though if you pick a cleanly hackable one, it shouldn’t be hard to graft RSS on: that’s my plan with Wakka, if Carlo doesn’t get there first (he said, dragging his feet)). And while you’re there, if you like Python be sure to take a look around: from what I hear PikiePikie, which he’s using, is mighty nice (and lets you turn a wiki page into a weblog, which is quite cool. I’m thinking more of going the other way, turning a weblog entry into a wiki, but either way they meet is good stuff.

 
Trackback by revjim.net #
2003-02-27 14:54:05

GoFoR the aggregator: it’s getting close

For those of you who’ve been waiting patiently for a public release of GoFoR the aggregator, have no fear: it will be soon (read: within the next 20 years).

 
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