Editable page

See /files/editablePage/demo/editablePage.

New and improved, version 3. Now you are presented with the page as normal at first. Kind of like Open Wiki, if you double click, a toolbar of buttons pops down and now you have a cursor and can edit the page.

Course, the toolbar doesn't have any buttons on it right now. I'm imagining the standard word processor toolbar with buttons to bold, italicize, add a link, etc. Plus a save button and a cancel button.

So the toolbar's not working yet. But you can edit the page. Try it out. How's that looking as far as the editing interface goes?

Discussion follows

[I pared this discussion down a bit to make it more manageable. You can still view all the previous comments from the history.]

At C2 you read a text. You want to correct something in the middle. You have to go to the bottom and click on Edit. Then you have to go from the top to the middle again make the correction and then hit the save button on top of the edit box. What a waste of time, effort and energy.

I remember thinking often while I was reading a page on C2: "Wouldn't it be great if we could just click on the word here and we could correct it". Well you've done it!

Now all we need to have is a save button on the tool bar somewhere.

Once this is done you can put the new simultaneous/view editing function on your wiki.

— ar

As for the rest of your comments, have hope! I don't foresee any problems getting this thing working just like a word processor. I think the idea here is original, but the implementation is nothing special. I've been using a tool called HTMLArea as my basis. It turns out, actually, that both IE and Mozilla have a built in feature where with one line of code you can make the page editable. So it's not like I'm doing anything crazy. I can't believe nobody's done this before, in fact! (Or if they have, I haven't heard of it.)

And like I said, the toolbar right now is empty. I'm now working on getting some buttons in there, along with "save" and "cancel" buttons.

— John

Montreal, Friday 8 January 2004, 12:40

I'll let you work on this very promising thing. If you need me just send me an e-mail.

Now I understand that if we want this feature we'll have to have a program in PHP and MYSQL right?

I have worked on an algorithm for the problem; I think I have a solution and I can do it without PHP and MYSQL. Let me know if you want to try it my way.

Could you please go back to my Dow and enter the database called "Dow Welcomes the great John ". That is page 2.

The URL: http://lizardking.ca/test2

Could you tell me if it is possible to:

The page will be saved automatically when I'll leave the program.

Could you also prepare a proof of concept? (The DOW is programmed in PHP and in MYSQL). If you want I can send you the code.

This has nothing to do with your editable page. We'll use your concept of editable page to edit cards (page 3) if your concept works well that is.

Thanks!

— ar

I'm not sure that I understand what you're asking. Tell me if this is right: you want this page to be editable, and have the ability to create a new card and add a hyperlink to it wherever the cursor is. Right now I presume that page is automatically generated by the knowledge.php script; you'd rather have the page be created manually by users?

If that's what you're asking, then yes that should be possible, though I'll have to discuss this with you before I try implementing it. If it's not what you're asking, please clarify.

Montreal, Friday 9 January 2004, 7h 50 pm

Before we move to the DOW let's finish discussing the editable page. Have you examined Peppys? If not can you have a look and tell me what you think. I sent it to you a few days ago.

You'll note that the file is constantly on edit.

— ar

Yes, I did look at Peppys. That's exactly the type of thing I'm trying to implement, but as a regular HTML page viewable in a web browser instead of as a standalone program. Yes, ideally I'll have it so you can configure it to be indistinguishable from Peppys.

Most people visiting a site just want to view the pages, so if I use this on my site I'll have some way to toggle between viewing and editing modes. For your purposes, if you use this on the DOW or elsewhere, I can configure it to always be in edit mode. That's no problem at all.

— John

Montreal, Saturday 10 January 2004, 9h 55 am

John,

When it comes to issues related to wiki, editing etc. I am the expert. I don't program but instead I explore.

Now let's try to see if you can do it my way.

See Robert's Concept of an Editable Page

Thanks!

AR

Montreal, Wednesday 14 January 2004, 4h 19 pm

John,

Thanks for putting the DOW on your site! :-)

Please report to the DOW on the Lizard King page.

Wouldn't the answer to all the problems of the editable page be a sort of modeless editing like Peppys and Notewiki do?

We'd click on a page title and we'd be directly on edit and we'd have WYSIWYG as on a word processor.

This could be worth a try!

— ar

PS: For your yellow high-lighting system can you put the hightlight as long as the same author writes in a file a little like Ward's diffs?

Yes, I'll do that as soon as I figure out an efficient way to code that up.
Update: Done

[ You're rocking Big JK! Way to go! You get things done! Thanks for the mod to your highlighting system and thanks for the section mods to the DOW!

This highlighting system is a beauty!

I am testing to see if all the mods by the same author appear! I am like Saint-Thomas I gotta see it to believe it. * It works A1! *

Hey are you a night bird? I see you post at 4h am sometimes! Well same here usually! — ar]

Montreal, Friday 15 January 2004, 3h 00 pm

Why don't I get my yesterday's edits highlighted? I am still the same user!

Since you haven't signed in, your IP address is logged. And as you're using AOL, your IP address is changing frequently, and the site thinks you're somebody else. If you sign in you won't have this problem.

For your wiki:

Let's compare your new way and the traditional wiki way.

  1. Go to the page where you want to create a new page.
  2. Double click on the spot where you want to create a wiki page.
  3. Create a wiki page
  4. Save the page
  1. Click on the new page title
  2. Double click on "delete", delete the word delete, enter your text
  3. Save the new page

COMPARED TO:

  1. Go to the page where you want to create a new page.
  2. Click on Edit
  3. Create a wiki page on the spot you want
  4. Save the page
  1. Click on the new page title
  2. Double click on "delete", delete the word delete, enter your text
  3. Save the new page

Here in creating a page you don't get a substantial improvement.

  1. You view the page. You see the highlight.
  2. You double-click and enter your text
  3. You save the page

COMPARED TO:

  1. You view the page.
  2. You read the diffs
  3. You go all the way down the page to click on edit
  4. You localize where you want to edit
  5. You edit
  6. You save

There is a huge improvement in the editing with your new concepts (editable page + highlight).

Let me be honest with you, big John.

The real problem with Wiki is this page inside a page concept. It's a dimension people are not used to. No matter what you do you cannot escape it.

But with your editable page system and the highlighting used together, you made a huge improvement to the wiki concept.

Now if you want me to show you the only way to escape the page inside a page paradigm, simple: make a second copy of the DOW. Call it Test99 and I'll show you something a little bit far-out!

Let me know the URL in the Bulletin board in the DOW. But we'll work on it some other time. We can't do 10 things at once!

— ar

/Okay, I'll create a copy at http://www.viatasso.com/files/dow/test99/./

Saturday 17 January 2004, 12:46 pm

Now let's try to integrate the PalmWiki's world method with the cursor localizing the text like I explained in the E-mail I have sent you yesterday. — ar

Montreal, Monday 26 January 2004, 8h 54 am

Hi John!

It was a pleasure talking to you over the phone on Saturday night.

I tried to run your demo for the editable page with the AOL browser and with IE. With both browsers I was taken out of the page and back to the browser.

I was very disappointed!

Well...I'll come back some other time.:-)

— ar

Edit this page | 6 years, 7 months old