Some Hints on using the CBM Wiki

General Advices

The prime Directive

Don't be lazy reading hints! The very simple rules to use this wiki are published here and on the welcome page of every web (if there are special conventions at all).

Known Issues

• The comment to a file being attached is mandatory! So, fill out the related box in the upload dialog.
• Do not set your "TWiki ID Card" (which is created automatically while registering) or other topics in the Main and TWiki web read-only to you! This causes problems while login in to the wiki site. And since you should not publish topics in those webs at all, usually there should be no problems.
• A comma seperated list (like the list of users in a group definition) - in terms of TWiki's syntax - is something like "foo, bar"; the white space is mandatory!

Using the CBM Wiki

How to start using this Wiki

• Read the 20-Minute TWiki Tutorial
• Print out the reference card for all basic TWiki features.
• Play around in the Sandbox
• All help topics are listed in the TWiki Web. Have a closer look on the short references.

How to join the Group of Wiki Authors

1. Have a look at the list of registered users: TWikiUsers
   • If you find your name there: Fine!
   • If not - register: %TWIKIWEB%.TWikiRegistration
2. Have a look at the list of our existing user groups: TWikiGroups
   • If you find your name in the group(s) you want to join: Fine!
   • If not: Tell somebody who is a member of the group you want to join, that he should add you to the list of members.
   • If you want your own, new group ask an administrator.
3. After you are a member of any group, basically you can edit any topic.

Special Webs

• The Main Web: This system web contains the user and group database, as well as the Wiki ID Cards, which are created during registration. Normal users have read-only access.
• The TWiki Web: This system web contains the settings database and the help topics. This is read only stuff for normal users.
• The Homepages Web: You want (not) to publish private topics - so put them here.
• The Sandbox Web: The playground for any user - no restrictions, no warranty for correctness and availability of content.

Where to place your Documents

The web layout of this TWiki site at first mimics the group and project structure of the CBM collaboration. Thus, if you want to add a new topic, then deliberate about who is most likely going to read this document and place it in the related web.
If you have doubts about your conclusion, then it might be a good idea to place a link somewhere in the concurrent web to the newly created topic.
A last resort to place your topics is always given by the knowledge base web.

How to structure your Web Content

Basically it is up to everybody who feels responsable to structure the content of the webs. For example you want to publish several topics related to a single subject? So think about writting an entrance page with a table of content which is compiled of WikiWords of your different topics. In addition try to guide the user to different sub-topics by placing hints and links on the WebHome (welcome) topic of your web.
In the background TWiki provides a parent-child relation between topics. A topic is a child to the (parent) topic which was displayed while going into edit mode for writting the newly created (child) topic. This relation can be altered by choosing a new parent from the More topic actions menu at the bottom of each topic. These relations are also used by some plugins, like the TreePlugin which provides nice features for automatically created topic overviews.

Access rights

• All users who are a member of any group can basically read the whole content of our wiki - except the topics which were explicitly blocked by the author(s).
  • All other people on the planet cannot read the content. However in some cases it is possible to list the topics' names.
  • Exceptionally, read-only access is granted to the Sandbox, the Main web as well as to the TWiki web.
• Any registered member of any group can add or rename topics in any of the webs, except the Main and TWiki web.
  • All other people on the planet can not modify the content of our wiki.
• Conclusion: We have a fine grained group management, however we should not use it by default - this is the idea of a wiki: WikiCulture
  • That's why currently only the "AllUsersGroup" is actually used.
  • Restrict access to a group only if it is really necessary!

FAQ

Forgotten your password?

Go to this page, fill out the form, and the administrator will approve your new settings.

You want to change your password?

So use the form on this page.

How to stay up-to-date

TWiki comes along with an email notification mechanism. It is specific to single webs, thus every web has a topic WebNotify which contains a list of users and their email address who will be informed if a topic of that web changes. Put your name on those lists too, and you receive a mail two times a day.
Another possibility is the subscribtion to the RSS channels provided on web basis, too. For this you need a RSS reader or browser which can handle this format (like Firefox). Then you get the names of the changed topic, together with a short summary, as newsticker messages in your program.

A trick how to learn the usage of advanced TWiki Features

There is a button "Raw Text" in the menu bar at the bottom of each topic. Click it, to read the topic's TWiki code. Then, cut-and-paste the good looking stuff from other authors .

How to log out of the Wiki

If you are using Mozilla/Firefox install the Clear HTTP Auth Extension.
If you use Internet Explorer, then you have to close your browser; at the moment there is no other way.

---

-- FlorianUhlig - 15 Sep 2005