Micah
Hey all,
I'm getting close to shipping a new feature, versioning and comparison of wiki pages. In other words, when you save a page, the old version is stored away and you can compare the two, see the changes, and get back to the old version if necessary. MediaWiki (ie. wikipedia) has this and it's pretty handy.
I want to do some beta testing and get some feedback on it prior to making it generally available. There may be aspects to it that I'm missing, and I'd rather iron out any issues in a small setting.
*Criteria for beta tester*
* Ascendant member
* Fairly active with your campaign (adding/editing/updating wiki pages frequently)
* Desire to actually give helpful feedback
* Patience with the process
*Warnings*
This is a beta feature and it will surely have issues. There is almost no chance that it will harm your campaign, but the old page versions may get corrupted or deleted. I may choose to wipe all the old versions out (and do it many times) until I get things the way I like it. Ultimately I may decide to scrap the whole thing, although that's unlikely. Basically, what I'm saying is: don't expect to rely on this feature during the beta phase. We've gotten along without it so far, so I'm sure we can limp through a little longer.
*Timeline*
I'm hoping to launch the beta in a couple days, but we've also got a big server move looming, so it may be delayed a little. However, I want to line up beta testers now so I can get feedback as soon as it's launched.
*Instructions*
If you're interested, leave a post here with your username (which is also on the post, but we'll just see who follows directions) and a link to your main campaign. I'll probably take 5-10 people and then go from there. For anyone left out, don't worry. I don't expect the beta to last long, as the versioning works pretty well in the testing I've done so far.
Comments
"A God Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
Just trying to help out.
"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night
"Paths of Destiny":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/paths-of-destiny-ken
"Dresden Files:Dallas":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/dfd
"The Broken Road":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/private-while-under-construction
"Morrinn's Tomb of Horrors":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/tohe
Try editing and saving a wiki page. Then, when you view it, you will see some controls in the right sidebar for viewing and comparing differences. I'd like to hear if anyone has any problems, or any suggestions.
I'll go ahead and address one major issue: the comparison isn't perfect, nor is it all that great. However, it's passable, and implementing a great comparison would be a big undertaking. So, unless everyone agrees that it's completely awful, I'll settle for passable and focus on other things.
Beyond that, I'd like to know if there are any usability enhancements I can add, or if there's some simple stuff I'm missing.
For now...bed!
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
Just trying to help out.
Also noticed that the log to the right of the page that shows updates is not functioning as normal. It seems to only be catching 1 update for every four or five posted.
Dont know if that is related to the tested object.
I am assuming wiki pages only? Not available on adventure logs.
Just trying to help out.
Very groovy Micah.
Can anyone else besides StephenWollett confirm that they are not seeing the list of previous versions saving with each update? It should save a previous version each time you edit the page. I may impose a limit, like only saving the past 10 or 20 versions.
Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming.
Just trying to help out.
Tonight I will try to deploy the compare/restore for adventure log posts, characters, and items. After that we'll let it run in beta for a week or two, then open it to everyone once we feel it looks good.
One question: Would any of you mind if it only tracked the latest X versions (say 5 or 10)? We could run into some very real storage issues if we track every past revision of everything forever. I can't imagine people wanting to look back all that far. Instead, this is meant mainly as a way to jump back to a previous version in case you accidentally save over it at some point. So it's less about history and more about undo.
Thoughts?
Just trying to help out.
3-4 sounds like a good number. It's definitely feasible from a storage standpoint. Thanks for the advice!
Just trying to help out.
Just trying to help out.
I cannot access the wiki at all, and I can only see the main page of characters & items. I get a 500 error when clicking on an individual character or item. The main page, adventure logs, forums, calendar, maps, and comments pages offer full functionality.
The reason I ran into this error was I was asked to move a character into a new campaign.
Just trying to help out.
I'm going to play with it a little more, but overall everything looks pretty good. Hopefully people will like it :)