Thanks a lot for the reply Derek.

Since my websites are part of the development that is being done, I
would need them to be stored as flat text file so that they can be
under the same version control system, and I think it would work best
to store the original text content rather than generated HTML file for
various reasons.

I also found out that the template uses absolute link, which will make
it very hard for others to download the document and read it offline.

Nevertheless, I will need to spend more time on Instiki to see how I
can make it work for me.

-- 
Shane
http://www.shaneduan.com


On 8/9/06, Derek Gulbranson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have used Instiki similarly for a client of mine. I created a wiki
> that "looks" like their existing site by just using a screenshot of
> their existing site as the background. I then modified Instiki's
> export_html function to export the wiki's content as HTML files, but
> wrapping it in the HTML ( or ASP/HTML code in my case) that they
> provided for their site's template. Pretty simple, just another view
> file in the layouts directory.
>
> Basically they didn't have a content management system and wouldn't
> be able to install one (internal politics i think) so I used instiki
> to kind of fake it. The result is they can create and edit the
> content as they like and see what it will look like, then when they
> are done they press the export button and get a zip file with all the
> appropriate files that they can just unzip on their server.
>
> For me using a screenshot of the layout made everything easy because
> I didn't have to merge their layout-specific stuff with Instiki's
> html. I just added their CSS to instiki's layout so the headings and
> everything appear as it would appear on their site.
>
> Instiki inserts divs around bits of revised content, enabling the
> "See Changes" link. If you have table or div layout structure in the
> content, then occasionally the revision divs will not be nested
> properly in the output, as it doesn't make any effort to look at the
> content and ensure that it's revision divs do not wrap around a </td>
> element for instance. For me this just occasionally causes Instiki's
> footer to dissappear, which i work around by forcing a new revision
> (changing my username and making a change to whitespace well inside
> all layout elements).
>
> The revision divs are not included in the export html, so it's really
> only a problem when you're editing the content. In my case, i have
> very little if any layout structure in the content, so the users
> don't really ever experience this problem because they are generally
> only making changes inside the layout elements.
>
> Instiki has the ability to have one page that includes the content of
> another page with a tag like [[!include Menu]]. One annoy thing about
> it though, at least on the old Madeline version that i'm using
> (v0.10.2), you have to make a change to the page that includes it in
> order for the changes on the included page to show up.
>
> Also to note, if you place a <nowiki> tag around content, Instiki
> will treat it as HTML not to be marked up with Textile etc.
>
> So the task could be fairly simple or more complex, depending on if
> you want users to edit their template using the application and how
> flexible the templates need to be. But create an instiki with a
> completely custom layout is pretty simple, the default template is
> stored at app/views/layout/default.rhtml. You can modify it or direct
> it to render using a different layout in the wiki_controller, either
> change the default or specify one on render, perhaps like
> render :layout => @current_client.layout.
>
> Anyway, those are some of my experiences. It's already pretty easy to
> change the skin if you have access to the filesystem and know what
> file to edit. Storing the content on a physical filesystem can be
> accomplished via the export html function. Feel free to hit me up
> with any other questions you have.
>
> - Derek
> http://www.derekgulbranson.com
>
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