On Aug 16, 12:24 am, "Dave Liquorice" 
wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:07:01 GMT, Phil Addison wrote:
> >> If I'm new to the wiki, and I've been given a link from uk.diy to a
> >> wiki article, I want to read the article.
>
> > Obviously!!
>
> And if the link doesn't take them to that article it is the fault of the
> person providing the link not the wiki.
>
> > No, the main page needs to remain as an introduction as Dave L
> > describes, but it needs a much clearer link to the meat. At the moment,
> > the location of the meat is concealed in the last point "5 See Also".
>
> Agreed. I don't know the structure of the categories/sub-categories within
> the UK DIY wiki well enough to know which ones would make sensible choices
> for the top level ones to be included into a template to display them in a
> logical manner, rather than the huge single list of the special page.
>
> Here is some sample code for a wiki template:
>
> <p>'''All Categories available:'''</p>
> <p>
> {|cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="0"
> |-
> |[[:Category:Electrical|Electrical]]||Things that bangen and sparken
> |-
> |[[:Category:Plumbing|Plumbing]]||Splish, splash, splosh!
> |-
> |[[:Category:Building|Building]]||Crash, bang, wallop
> |-
> |[[:Category:Tools|Tools]]||Ouch! My fingers
> |-
> |[[:Category:Heating|Heating]]||Ah, nice and warm...
> |}
> </p>
>
> This is easy to change and maintain, bear in mind the top level categories
> aren't going to change much, if at all. Sub-categories could be entered
> under the relevant main category and made to look like sub-categories with
> a bit of simple formating, say by using <ul>...</ul> and fontsize
> tweaking.

OK, we already have a categories page and an allpages, which I've now
renamed 'contents by category' and 'index'. What shall we call this
heirarchical access page?


NT

On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:40:57 -0700 (PDT), in uk.d-i-y meow2222@care2.com
wrote:

> Phil's pdf looks like a great start. Personally I'd like to limit the
> depth of the levels, and probably not list any individual articles but
> end up directing the user to the applicable wiki category. More or
> less everything on that list has a wiki category, and new cats can
> always be created.

See my comments to DL's post.
 
> Phil I can dl your doc file no prob, but opening it things go wrong.
> If you wanted to post it in plain text I'd be happy to work on it, see
> if we can move toward the finished article.

The pdf content is identical to a plain text dump, but I have done a
fair bit of work on it since that outline which is a few years old. I'll
hopefully complete a new version over the next couple of days and see
what you think of it.

Rather than downloading the doc, I just dbl-click on the url and it
opens in word; you might get better luck with that, otherwise I can mail
you the current in-work version. If d/l-ing it you have to treat it as a
binary file not txt, maybe thats the prob. I prolly have my puter setup
for firefox to open docs in word rather than wordpad.

Phil

On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:44:00 +0100 (BST), in uk.d-i-y "Dave Liquorice"
 wrote:

> On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:44:16 GMT, Phil Addison wrote:
> 
> > There is also a pdf on the site at
> > http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/beta/FAQ_Prospective_Contents_List.pdf but it
> > is fixed at the fully expanded hierarchy so not so convenient. 
> 
> Does the fully expanded one actually include real article titles? It looks 
> as if it does.  

By 'fully expanded' I simply meant that is showing everything that is in
the document, i.e. nothing folded as can be done in the MS doc version.
Its basically the same as a txt version.

> I can't really imagine that there are a dozen or so pages 
> relating to Central Heating > Design, Installation, Setting up > Pipework 
> > Copper > Small Bore (15, 22, 28mm). 

I'm not claiming the hierarchy in it is either complete or the best one,
it was just given as a proposal for others to comment on - no one did!!
:( This was some time ago.

I just started at the top level and drilled down through the tasks
subdividing as seemed appropriate. I figure the best hierarchy is one
where you minimize the number of tasks that could fit into more than one
place.
 
> I should think the category levels can stop at Pipework.

Best to postpone that decision. A good hierarchy will have the branches
more or less equal sized, so if you find one section drilling down a lot
deeper than others its probably time to re-think if the higher levels
could be done better.

If you don't go deep enough you have a category spilling over several
screens, e.g. with only 1 category (the diy wiki) you would have 384
linear items.

Phil