Lesson #5: Working with Wikis

Collaboration depends on communication. E-mail is one of the most common channels especially for incidental forms of contact. For example, "Here is something I'd like you to review". However, when you want to leave a more lasting message about important content and you want others to contribute to it, a Wiki might be the right tool for the job.

A cross-functional team might need a Wiki as a common reference for a product. An individual might create a Wiki to provide information and invite other people to add to it. Many e-portfolio applications and social networking sites are in many ways personal Wikis. A department might create a Wiki as an adjunct to the regular Web site and invite many people to contribute and discuss the content displayed.

In Xythos on Demand, Wikis are an excellent way to share and publish stored content while still providing the flexibility to refer to content in other locations.

 

Task #5a: Editing a Wiki

For this lesson, we are going to edit a sample projects Wiki. If your account was created after March 6, 2008 it will have been provisioned with a Sample folder containing a sample Wiki which will be used for this lesson.

  1. If you are not in the Document Manager view, click the Home link at the upper left corner of the web view.

  2. Using the breadcrumb, click on the triangle to the left of Users and select the Sample folder from the dropdown list.
    Among the documents in the Sample folder you will see a document labeled "Projects Wiki.xapp" which is a Wiki we have already created for this lesson.

  3. Double-click the link for this Wiki.
    The Wiki opens in another browser window. You can add a shortcut to this page in your Web browser just as you would any Web page.

  4. Click the Edit Page button.
    You now see the edit view of this Wiki page. The Xythos Wiki is comprised of panels. The first panel in this sample Wiki is called a Text Panel which allows you to enter and format text, links, charts and images. The second panel is an Upload Files Panel which allows you to upload documents to the Wiki from your computer or network. A third type of panel which is not present but we will create is called a Saved Search Panel. It allows you to display documents based on search criteria.

  5. In the Text Panel below the first line of text under News type, "I am a member of this team."

  6. Move the cursor to a new line below the one you just typed.

  7. Click the Add Link button.
    We are going to link to a document that is already stored in Xythos.

  8. Type, "Here is a project plan outline", for the Link Label.

  9. Then Select the Select File option and click on the arrow to the right.
    We need to navigate to the document.

  10. Click the Account folder, then click on the Sample folder, and select the document Project Plan.doc.

  11. Click OK.
    The new line of text appears, linking directly to the document.

  12. Click Finish to save the edits which is located toward the bottom right of the screen.
    If the edits do not appear right away, you may need to refresh your browser. Test the link you just created.

 

Task #5b: Shared Searches and Wiki Publication

Remember the saved search we created in an earlier lesson? We will use it here to publish documents for Project Phoenix. We will use the Projects Wiki.

  1. On the Wiki, click the Edit Page button.

  2. At the bottom of the Wiki page, click the Add Panel button.

  3. In the pop-up that appears, select Saved Search Results and click OK.
    A new section appears on the Wiki page. It will display the results of the saved search.

    While you are editing this page, you can re-order the panels. For now, this new panel is in just the right place.

  4. For the Panel Title, enter “Project Phoenix”.

  5. For the Description enter, "Here are important documents for this project".

  6. Click the Choose Search drop-down list and select the Project Phoenix saved search.

  7. At the bottom of the page, click Finish.
    You now see the finished page which includes all of your edits. The new panel shows the documents tagged with phoenix101. If you do not see these changes, refresh the Web browser page.

 

Lesson #5c: Collaborating Through the Wiki

Since Wikis are designed with collaboration in mind, we will take a quick tour through some of the ways you can use a Wiki to share and collaborate.

  1. Click the Discussion tab.
    Here is where users can enter comments about your page.

  2. Click the History tab.
    Xythos on Demand automatically creates and stores versions of your Wiki each time you save your Wiki. Click on earlier verions to open and view.

  3. Click the Edit Page button.
    We are about to see how to invite someone to view or contribute to the Wiki page.

  4. Click Permissions.
    The permissions page should look familiar to you. You use the same features throughout Xythos, whether you are working in the Document Manager or the Wiki.

  5. Click the Email tab.
    Another familiar page, the one used to send a link to content from within the Xythos Web View. In this case, we will be sending a link to the Wiki from this e-mail form.

  6. At the bottom of the page, click the Finish button.

 

What's next

The Wiki gave you a brief introduction to some of the collaboration features in Xythos on Demand. In the next lesson we'll see the same features plus a few more in the Document Manager view which will help us to collaborate more easily.