TikiWiki (Tiki) CMS/Groupware is an open source web-based application that you can use to build a website for working collaboratively with others. The content management system at the heart of TikiWiki powers wikis, forums, blogs, map servers, and more. You can configure the various tools and customize the appearance of the website from Admin Pages that are also web-based.
There are some video-tutorials at the end of the review. Check them out!
Wikipedia definition of a Wiki:
A wiki is a software that allows users to easily edit and link pages together. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. Wikipedia is one of the best known wikis.
Wikis are used in many businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets and for knowledge management. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.”
WikiWiki is a re-duplication of “wiki“, a Hawaiian word for “fast“. Some suggest that wiki means “What I know Is”. However this is a backronym(a phrase that is constructed “after the fact” from a previously existing word).
TikiWiki CMS/Groupware www.tikiwiki.org was created by the Tiki Wiki Community, and is available for free under the LGPL General Public License. The last release was February 23rd, 2008. Tiki Wiki is a dynamic application and not a static.
You can customize some of the links and URLs that Tiki produces in order to create “search engine friendly” links. Tiki includes a “_htaccess” file that takes advantage of the web-servers re-write rules. If you would like to enable this feature, you simply rename the _htaccess file to .htaccess
Is this software compatible with your server?
TikiWiki (Tiki) CMS / Groupware can be used on all web servers whether Linux/UNIX, based, Windows based or MAC X based. As long as you have a database installed this system is setup to run on multiple database options with even going the extra mile and offers the ability to use the assistance of ADOdb-which is a Database Abstraction Library for PHP and Python. If you are not currently using MySQL, Postgress, or Oracle, you can check the library to see if you can use your database system at http://adodb.sourceforge.net/
Runs on any server that supports PHP and has 512 MB RAM, 100 MB free storage and at least 32MB of memory allocated for PHP.
Note on PHP Memory Limits: most ISP’s install PHP with a memory_limit = 8m. While Tiki Wiki may install, and initially appear to work fine, when faced with even a slight load, this limit will be easily passed and the system will constantly fail: pages will not load properly, odd errors will occur etc. To check this limit, try yourdomain.com/tiki-phpinfo.php .
Run that and search for three values on your ISP’s server:
This limit is not generally user managable so you must rely on the kindness of your ISP to grant you more resources. On a busy shared server that will also mean that all other PHP users on that shared server will also be granted those resources.Although many databases can be used with Tiki not all have full support offered. This system was originally designed with the MySQL in mind and the MySQL 4.0x and higher have full support. Postgress, SQLite, Oracle, Sybase, and MSSQL have only partial support offered.
Installing the software and Running the Tiki Admin Installer
There are two ways available to install the Tiki software. If you have Fantastico as part of your hosting package, you can install automatically (one click).Look for your Fantastico icon in your cPanel.. You may have to scroll all the way down to the bottom in the Fantastico panel to find the Tiki Wiki link.When you click “new installation” you will need to fill out some information such as what domain you will be using, and assign an Admin access name and password.
The second step will tell you what directories the files have been placed. On the third step, you will be given a URL of where your admin control panel can be found. Be sure to bookmark this as you will be going into that admin panel every day for configurations.
The last step will be to set the CHMOD-permission settings so the files can be written as well as read.
You will need to change the following files to 777:
Although you can install the software automatically with Fantastico, using Fantastico for upgrades is not recommended as it will not preserve any theme changes, image galleries, etc. that have been made.
Installing the Tiki Software Manually
If you do not have the Fantastico as part of your hosting package you will need to install the software manually.This is a lengthier process as you need to also create a database before the software can be installed.To create a database you will need to go into you cPanel and find the database icon.
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