• Set JUPLACE = Code_Saturne User's club meeting. EDF, December 2008

Title

The TWiki at the University of Manchester

 

A Taste of TWiki

The basic function of TWiki is a Wiki (if that helps!)

A Wiki is like a web site, except that you can edit the content in your browser

• "Wiki" is short for "wiki wiki", the Hawaiian for "Quick"
• The idea originates from Macintosh Hypercard, via Ward Cunningham
• In Ward's words, Wiki is "the simplest online database that could possibly work"
• A Wiki is basically a shared, online, persistent whiteboard

TWiki Wiki

TWiki implements the basic Wiki idea of a shared whiteboard

• Anyone can add content
  ... or change what is written
  ... or change the organisation of the content
• Whatever what you write is
  ... nicely presented
  ... remembered... and never forgotten

TWiki also acts as an "application platform" to integrate a number of other functions.

TWiki was an Open-Source development on TWiki.org

• led by TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
• with over 100 regular contributors in many countries

Where is it used?

TWiki is mainly used in commercial environments, often on corporate intranets

• Examples: Disney, British Telecom, SAP, Wind River, Motorola, Epic Games
  

A number of public Wiki sites also use TWiki

• Examples:
  https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/
  http://csci.mrs.umn.edu/twiki/view

TWiki Features

TWiki builds on the original Wiki concept and adds a number of features that make it very useful in a business environment.

• TWiki pages are fully revision controlled, so a record of every change to every page is kept

  r6 < r5 < r4

• The look-and-feel is highly configurable, through use of templates

• A "plugins" interface eases customisation extension application integration

  Applications of basic TWiki

  Basic TWiki can be used as:
  • A whiteboard
  • A document repository
  • A collaborative authoring environment
  • A notebook / scrapbook
  • A chat room

  Extended applications

  TWiki-with-extensions has been used as:
  • A Content Management System (CMS) for websites
  • A presentation development tool
  • A Blog
  • A database
  • A project management system
  • A tracking tool
  • ( truth is, we don't really know its limits!)

  Structure of this TWiki

  • Webs: A TWikiSite is divided into webs, each one represents an area for collaboration. This site has the following webs:
    

  Web	Use to...
  CfdTm	Learn about the group and its research
  GarteurAG54
  Main	...collaborate on the ATAAC project
  Main-old	Access to the group webs
  RaLESin	...collaborate on the ATAAC project
  Sandbox
  TWiki
  TestWeb
  This table is updated automatically based on WebPreferences settings of the individual webs.

  • Topics: Each web is made up of hyperlinked topics that appear in your browser

  Users and Groups

  • To edit pages, you need to be registered (To register just send me an email!).
  • Each user has his own page set up as a Wiki name, i. e. guest (see TWikiUsers)
  • Groups can be created to restrict access to certain webs or topics. (see TWikiGroups)

  Wiki Culture

  How is a wiki actually used ? Well, that's really up to you, but there are a number of tricks that the wiki community has developed for collaborative writing that work pretty well:
  • What can I edit?
    • Anything. But it's good etiquette to sign your contributions
    • If someone doesn't want you to edit a page, it's up to them to say so, clearly, on the page
  • But what if somebody doesn't like my edits?
    • In TWiki, they can always recover the old revision and re-instantiate it if they really want to
    • Otherwise they should regard your changes as an opportunity for discussion
  • Pages in wiki are (usually) in one of three "modes"
    • DocumentMode
    • ThreadMode
    • StructuredMode
  TWiki doesn't automatically distinguish between these modes; they are purely semantic.

  DocumentMode

  • A page in DocumentMode usually comprises a contribution which is written in the third person and left unsigned.
  • The piece of text is community property
    • It may have multiple and changing authors as it is updated to reflect the community consensus.
  • For example, the Code_Saturne Frequently Asked Questions

  ThreadMode

  • Thread mode is a form of discussion where the community holds a conversation
  • The discussion usually starts out with a statement, at the top of the page, that is subsequently discussed
  • The page may be periodically "refactored" (edited) to remove some of the comments
    • As long as the comment is accurately reflected in what replaces it, nobody usually minds.
    • Remember to always maintain a complete list of contributors, though!
  You may see a comment box on a page in ThreadMode that makes it easy to quickly add your inputs. Typing in a comment and adding it to a page this way is known as "blogging"
  • ThreadMode is rather like an e-mail thread
    • Except that new comments are usually added to the end
  • ThreadMode pages often get refactored into DocumentMode
  • For example the Forum
    

  StructuredMode

  • A page in StructuredMode follows some predefined structure for example
    • An agenda
    • A set of meeting minutes
    • A requirement description.
  • Pages in StructuredMode will usually have rules governing how they are edited.
  • For example the CFD meetings:
  

  Structure of a TWiki page

  TWiki pages are usually organised into three parts:
  • A header
  • A body
  • A footer
  • The header and the footer are generated by the system
  • The body contains the text of the page, as entered by you
  TWiki is very configurable, and the look can change. However the essentials will all be there on the page (somewhere!)

  WikiWords

  • One special hieroglyph that is very important is a BumpyWord
    • a word that starts with uppercase, then some lowercase, then more uppercase (a.k.a CamelCase)
  • This has a special meaning to TWiki; if it matches the name of another topic, TWiki will automatically create a link to that page for you.
  • If there is no such page, then the word is highlighted and a question mark is put after the word, LikeThis
  • If you click on the question mark, then TWiki will invite you to create that page.
  • This lets you enter the names of topics you think should exist, but don't yet
  • You, or someone else, can always come along later and click on the question mark!

  The Code_Saturne TWiki Web

  • Alias at http://saturne.cfdtm.org
  • Tool for the community working on the code to interact and spread knowledge.
  • Allows for centralisation of information, ease to locate and contribute.
  • NOT competing with EDF's website but complementing.
  • Registration needed to edit pages, but all pages can be read by anyone by default.
  • Individual pages can have restrictions to some users (groups).

  Group Interactions

  • The TWiki allows for easy interaction between different research groups and projects on different topics:

  Main Features

  • Latests news
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Relevant Publications
  • "Tip of the day"
  • Forum
  • Test Case Database.
  • Statistics

  News and Contributions

  • Can be updated by anyone registered
  • Automatically updates headlines on the Main page.

  

  Frequently Asked Questions.

  • Repeated questions asked by young students.
  • Useful knowledge base.
  • Saves time for both students and support.

  

  Publications

  • List of all related publications to Code_Saturne.
  • Can have pdfs when copyright permits it.
  • Also a databse with publications from the University CFDTm group
  • Requires a lot of work to update past publications but new ones will be added automatically.

  

  Tip of the day

  • Random tip on the main page
  • Anyone can contribute.
  • Changes every time the page is reloaded.

  

  Forum

  • A place to discuss and interact on different issues.
  • Has a list of recent updated topics.
  • Easy to post new topics or comments.

  

  Test Cases database.

  • Database with cases, similar to the ERCOFTAC database but with results.
  • The results can be added by anyone with any code.
  • The use of mandatory forms allows for standardisation of information.
  • It can be easily searched and linked by any of the fields in the forms.

  

  Test Cases database

  • Divided in two templates:
    • Test Case Description: Includes all relevant information about the case, parameters, dimensions etc...
    • Test Case Results: A page with specific results for a certain model / mesh / code etc.
  • One case can have many results pages associated.
  • The results can be plotted directly on the web using GNUPlot plug-in, allowing for easy cross plotting.
  • The results pages can have meshes, set up subroutines, post-processing scripts etc.

  

  Some statistics

  • Statistics automatically generated.
  • More than 100 users. More than 2000 hits per month on the Saturne web only (>25000 in total)
  • Users from UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Pakistan, India, Brazil, ....

  

  What's Next?

  • For more help and information go to the TWiki page and follow the tutorials and user's guides.
  • Play with in the Sandbox web. You are free to experiment and make as many mistakes as you want!!
  • Add information to you user page (i.e guest), put up your photo, contact details, interests etc, so that other people know you.
  • See how can you contribute on all the other webs.
  • Spread the word!