[wiki-standards] WikiGateway Debian packages

[Bayle Shanks]

There are now easy-to-install (I hope!) Debian packages for the main
components of WikiGateway: the Perl module, the Python module, and the
commandline client. See installation instructions at the bottom of
this email.


WIKIGATEWAY: STATUS SUMMARY

WikiGateway is a suite of libraries and adaptors
to allow clients to communicate with wiki websites, using operations
like getPage, putPage, and getRecentChanges. WikiGateway translates
your requests into the idiosyncratic HTML form interfaces of various
popular wiki servers. The wiki which you are accessing doesn't have to
know about WikiGateway; it sees you as just another user. Basically,
WikiGateway does Wiki I/O and import/export.

For example, a client can speak WikiRPCInterface to access a UseMod
wiki server, even though the server doesn't support
WikiRPCInterface. 

Currently, if you want to communicate with any of these wiki server types:
 
 * OddMuse
 * UseMod
 * MoinMoin
 * MediaWiki
 * PhpWiki (not fully tested yet)
 * Or any WikiRPCInterface-supporting server
 
then you can do so, via WikiGateway, using any of the following methods:
 
 * WikiRPCInterface
 * Atom
 * WebDAV
 * Python module
 * Perl module
 * Command-line client


More info at http://interwiki.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiGateway.



INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS (assuming you are running Debian)

(1) Make sure you are using Debian's Unstable distribution; some of WikiGateway's dependencies aren't in Stable yet.

(2) Add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

	deb http://interwiki.sourceforge.net/debian/ ./


(3) Do this:

apt-get update
apt-get install python-wikigateway libwiki-gateway-perl wikiclient

(or, if you only want the command-line client or only the Python module or the Perl module, just pick one of those packages; there are some dependencies between them, but apt-get will figure that out for you and install what's needed)


(4) To test, do this:


/usr/bin/wikiclient --type=usemod1 read http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl:SandBox


If everything is working, that should dump the content of MeatBall:SandBox to STDOUT. 

Please send me an email if you get it installed (or don't!) so that I
know if I did the Debian packaging correctly. 

Note that the WikiRPCInterface, Atom, and WebDAV proxies have not yet
been packaged; you'll have to install those using the .tar.gz on the
sourceforge site.

Thanks,
  bayle