So I'm working for a Material Science research group for a summer job, and they want me to set up a wiki to centralize data and experiment results. I've taken exactly one Java class.
So, I set up a MediaWiki site, but they want to connect the data together, along with citations.
For example, Silicon has two properties they're interested in, "hole mobility" and "electron mobility". So on the wiki article on Silicon, they want to list Silicon's hole mobility and the electron mobility, but on the page for electron mobility, we want a list of many different elements' hole mobilities. When they update the hole mobility on the Silicon page, they want the number on the Hole mobility page to update as well. They will also want a citation attached to each data bit, so they'll know what circumstances and where that information came from
I believe that this will require a database system, and was wondering if you guys could point me in the right direction. I've just started to learn MySQL, and well frankly and slightly overwhelmed. Is MySQL too powerful of a language for this? Is there a simpler way to implement website-wide changes?
How on earth did you even get the job. Is there no CS/SoftEng class in your town?
Name:
Anonymous2010-05-16 1:51
MediaWiki actually sucks.
Its only purpose is to run Wikipedia. It's huge and heavy, and the code is nasty and convoluted, and the developers only care about anything you have to add or request as long as it doesn't affect how Wikipedia runs. Its full-text search is so highly defective that nearly everyone who wants to search for something on Wikipedia will just use Google instead. The wiki syntax is a horrible, nasty pile of hacks, it's monstrously incongruent (for one example of many, why are internal links double-brackets with a pipe separating target and text, but external links have to be single brackets with a space separating them?) and often it's easier or even necessary to fall back to writing plain HTML because it's either inflexible or simply lacking syntax outright for something. And you don't even get to write proper HTML, it's this bastardized "cleaned" version that strips out useful things like image links (this requires installing an extension, despite half of all websites in the world using an image as a link at some point or another), and integrating logins with other web services is nothing short of painful.
That aside, if I understand you right, you seem to be describing the relations between one article and another, and this is exactly what SQL is made for. (Although I would never choose MySQL for anything, ever.)
So you'd have a table of (page_id, citation_id), and (citation_id, text); then you look up the page's id in the former table, collect all your citation ids, look up the text for them and fetch all the other pages that those link to, and dump it all out at page render time. Of course all of this can be done in one query with a few joins, it's a bit messy but entirely straightforward.
Name:
Anonymous2010-05-16 4:05
You will have to write >Silicon's hole mobility and the electron mobility
In a template and include the template in pages you want to be updated. Also, MediaWiki is overkill.
Name:
Alex2010-05-16 5:38
Oh wow... okay so I didn't know there were other options other than MediaWiki. I'm reading through www.wikimatrix.org right now, which looks like a good resource.
As for the database, I'm pretty sure I'm trying to do something extremely simple (have a "core" that other pages reference for data when loading), so is SQL or MySQL simpler to learn? Or perhaps another language?
Thanks!
I didn't think there would be any computer coding, certainly wasn't in the job description. I think they just need to keep me busy while they try to find something more productive for me to work on.
>>5
If you can't program, just use one of the off-the-shelf apps, there's plenty open source wiki's, and you need minimal programming knowledge to set them up.
Well aren't you an ass. I'm not trolling, and I already know the basics of object-oriented programing (Java). I'm just trying to figure out what system/system would work best, which SICP fails like a fish on ice at.
Does anyone have strong thoughts about JSPWiki or Daisy? I think those are the most fully featured non-MediaWiki wiki's out there, but it's impossible to tell a finicky system by its feature set.
>>1,8 Is MySQL too powerful of a language for this? I already know the basics of object-oriented programing (Java) which SICP fails like a fish on ice at.
Jesus fucking Christ. I weep for humanity.
>>19
1. Open irssi.
2. /connect -ssl irc.nuu.cc 9999
3. /msg MrVacBob japanese bird cooking spaghetti
Name:
Alex2010-05-16 16:30
Well, it's become apparent that no one is interested in giving me a serious answer, so fuck it. It's not like I'm asking for "help on my tank homework" or "please write code for me". I'm just asking about what would be the best method to implement an idea, but instead I get told to read a textbook on fucking Lisp and trolled.
>>22 but instead I get told to read a textbook on fucking Lisp and trolled.
This is what happens when you don't take the time to look around and acclimatise yourself before posting.
>>23
Vaccum Bulb-san has been known to dole out sage advice when he feels like it. I think you should explore the options he presents you with to the fullest extent of your abilities.
>>27
Then I'm afraid you may want to avoid the internet. It's kinda full of shit.
Name:
Anonymous2010-05-16 16:50
>>30
I take your throbbing member in my soft hands. They massage gently, rubbing up and down. You grasp my hair and moan.
>>29
You bend over. I tickle the hairs surrounding your brown eye, then rip them out. You wince and ask wtf is going on. I shove my cock down your ass. You shut up, and push back.
>>32
Alex-sama, MacVob has just told a japanese bird to cease cooking spaghetti so that it may relay to me that he believes it would be in your best interests to read SICP.
>>37
Your question only seems slightly programming related. It's more of a question on software choice, which is something you could ask /g/ instead. If I was in your situation, I'd just try various open source solutions and settle on one. I never really had problems with mediawiki myself, but it lacks many features unless you decide to use plugins.
Name:
Alex2010-05-16 18:10
>>39
Thanks for ignoring my snarkiness, didn't realize you were serious.
I think I'm going to use TikiWiki because it supports dynamic variables.
"The dynamic variable feature allows you to add some content once, assigning it to a variable, and then you can use it dynamically throughout all your tiki site by calling the variable name surrounded by percentage characters (%)"
Props to the first couple of responses - didn't realize there were options other than MediaWiki... which upon reflection was a retarded assumption.