Portable Wiki using Veryquickwiki
Up until nine months ago I was dumping a lot of things into text files as a way of storing my “thoughts”. I used to search by the “Control F” in the windows directory, and used a firefox plugin that makes links out of text that looks like a link.
In my web wanderings, I came accross Wikipedia which is a very good example of what a Wiki is.
A basic definition of wiki is “A website that allows any user to add or edit content”.
This does present some security issues, such as “what if someone defaces or deletes the content ?”. This can be addressed by requiring registration and blocking IP addresses amongst other things. However, Wikis focus’ is on community effort and drive, and is moderated this way. Just take a look at Wikipedia. More often the community will make sure the original content is restored (Most wikis have some kind of version control or history).
Most Wiki’s implement some form of markup which does not require much technical savvy, only the concept of URL’s and Wiki topics. I strongly suggest that anyone who is unfamiliar with Wiki’s read the Wiki entry on Wikipedia. There are many implementations in just as many languages.
This technology (I suppose that’s what it is) allows easy idea dumping and content creation with linking between ideas built into the application. Many implementations also contained a search engine within the Wiki implementation.
Probably the most useful feature of a wiki is Show what other topics link to this one. This shows how things are related which is really important when your information is not really structured.
Anyway .. back to the Portable Veryquickwiki story.
I wanted my “thoughts” to roam between work and home. As portability was key I decided that a Java wiki (I code in Java at work, and have it installed at home) was probably the way to go. My current configuration is:
- Webserver – Tomcat
- Wiki software – VeryQuickWiki
- All stored on a USB portable Hard drive (for portability)
- Running a version of Java at both home and work (different versions !)
Both Tomcat and the Wiki database (in my install, the filesystem) liv e on the portable hard drive. This means that as long as I have a compatible version of java installed, I can run my “thoughts” database. With a little more configuration I could also install Java on the Hard drive as well, so you would only need whatever version of operating system. (In my case Windows XP)
Veryquickwiki also had an inbuilt search function built using Lucene. This is handy when you only remember a word or two.
This allows me to collect and sort my thoughts in a searchable fashion. I hacked in a “today” topic, which gives a mini blog like feature to track daily thoughts or links.
I have stopped using browser bookmarks and put them in my Wiki under a category. Some things will go in “finance” others in “programming”, “Cyberpunk” etc.
So now my “thoughts” are stored somewhere better than text files, are searchable and more rememberable :}