= A Review of Web Collaboration Software To Run With Apache Modified: May 2003 INTRODUCTION Since Ella Associates will probably have a need for some kind of Web Collaboration system, this document attempts to review some of the available software (free or open source) which can be used with the Apache Web Server. The Alexis software eventually will also provide for this sort of functionality, but in the mean-time it may be useful to have a working system. At the moment, it would seem that the most important feature for Ella Associates would be a 'File Galery' allowing members to upload links and documents as well as comments. Some kind of discussion forum may also be useful. Web collaboration systems are often known as 'communities' or as 'Wikis' . Perhaps a good way to discover the 'really good stuff' would be to look at what the major open source projects are using for their discussion forums etc. For example: www.bugzilla.org, www.gnu.org, www.debian.org etc SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS For a discussion system see the 'yabb' software. I think it wins the contest. Or maybe phpBB A wiki system is perhaps too anarchic (and unreadable) for Ella's purposes (Althougth wiki-tiki is not just a wiki!). One problem is that the available systems while good almost provide too much and would be intimidating to a new user. I want something with a very simple interface. In this field of the Internet there is quite a lot terminology which is not immediately obvious to the new user. A number of different terms are used for the same thing. Also, there is a conceptual overlap. For example a system where users can maintain an FAQ and add answers and comments and questions, is really the same thing as a 'discussion board' except that for the discussion board the 'questions' are called 'topics'. TERMINOLOGY Faq Is a list of Frequently Asked Questions. Although the questions may never have been asked by any-body Wiki A 'wiki' is a system where every web page is editable by everybody or by a certain set of people, and the system uses a special and simple plain text markup language to allow people to do the editing without knowing HTML. This is the most anarchic of the collaborative systems. In many cases there is nothing to stop any body deleting or defacing pages. According to the 'wiki' advocates, human psychology prevents this from happening. The pages produced by this system tend to be completely unstructured. This is really the 'brain-storming' of the web collaborational systems. Forum A place where people can discuss various topics by posting messages and replies Bulletin Board BBS Message Board Discussion Board I think these are essentially the same as a Forum Weblog News and discussion community sites are also called 'weblogs',or 'web journals' But a Weblog has an emphasis on some kind of 'diarized' entries, that is, entries for sequential dates. Content Management System This is a system which allows users to edit the web-pages and have input into the web site, among other things, but is less anarchic than a Wiki. This is possibly not a great definition Web Application Server This is a program to allow the simple setting up of web-applications, such as CMS's, Forums, Faq's and web based intranets etc. The line between this and a Content Management System can be blurry. Automatic FAQ A system where-by users can maintain a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is often called an 'faq-omatic' File Gallery A system where users can upload files and descriptions of those files is often called a 'File Gallery'. NOTES It is a perhaps strange fact that these systems which allow such flexible user input (CMS, forums, discussion boards, automatic faq's) often seem to have less real 'content' than sites which are maintained in a more traditional and restricted manner. It is possibly that the wealth of choices facing the web-site visitor and the wealth of input capabilities confuses or de-motivates the user. It is also possible that the complexity and capability of the system reduces the users sense of 'ownership' of the site, and of his or her input into it. This lack of ownership could lead to a lack of motivation to contribute. Because so many of the basic tasks are automated and because all the web-pages have such a uniform 'look and feel', the user may feel as if he or she is within some great monolithic monster that will devour all his or her efforts and input. This is often my reaction. Also, because of the 'slick-ness' of the user inter-face of the web-site that uses one of these zope, or phorum or webgui (see below) type tools, the user get a sense of 'commercialization', that is, that he or she is dealing with some large and wealthy company, simply because of the wealth of 'features' in the user interface. This sense of commercialization may be completely unfounded, especially considering that all of the reviewed tools are free and open source. Never the less, this sense of commercialization can reduce the motivation to contribute. Also because many of these features are 'threaded' in some way, the real content often seems hidden or hard to get at. Also, sometimes the comments posted by users interfer with the flow of the original content, for example in the Zope user-guide there are so many comments, most of them polemical, that the actual user guide is practically unreadable. Also, these systems provide a temptation to leave every-thing, including the creation of decent documentation, up to the 'community'. And often, it just doesn't seem to get done. Also, there is a temptation to use these collaborative tools in situations which they are not appropriate. In some circumstances the reader simply wants a readable document, not hundreds of threaded discussions or posts or comments all of which contain a small amount of content, if any. In the case of Ella Associates, I believe it would be difficult to persuade any body to use the system in a productive way. It would be hard to wean people off the old 'group email' system, which people seem very attached to. There is also a certain change in mind-set which these collaborative systems require on the part of the user. They contradict the centuries old paradigm of having a central authority, or publisher who controls and manages information. In these collaborative systems, there is no real central authority and this can give a real sense of disorientation to the new user. It did to me. In many cases, I have been looking for something much simpler than the solutions that are available. For example, for the purposes of Ella, it would be sufficient to have an FAQ which would all be on the one HTML page, and to which any body could add an answer of comment. All these comments would be 'in-line', there would be no threading. Also a simple 'File Gallery' where member could post links, comments and actual files would be good. But all the bells and whistles are not really necessary, and may be negative. In the case of Forums, BBS's etc, I have a general prejudice against them because a lot of the content seems to be of low quality. FORUMS AND DISCUSSION BOARDS In summary of this section, I would say that Yabb (yet another bulletin board) is the right choice, although it is difficult to know with so much free and good software available. Yabb seems to have the largest and most enthusiastic user base, which perhaps tips the scales. The home site has something like 20,000 posts and from random reading they seem genuine. Also phpBB is very good http://tikiwiki.sourceforge.net/ This is a very capable system called the 'Tiki Wiki' , in active development, using php and mysql, which suppports things like an automatic FAQ, Web-Mail Interface, 'File Galeries' which are systems that allow users to upload and down-load file, 'Discussion Forums' etc The only disadvantage of this is that it possibly includes too many features and may be tricky to install. http://alt.thetinfoilhat.com/htmldoc/index.html Html documentation for the tikiwiki software http://www.plainblack.com/webgui An web content management system and collaboration etc. Perl, Quite a nice looking interface. In Active Development. There does not appear to be any online documentation. may be contained in the download. This GPL system is backed by a commercial company. http://www.movabletype.org/ Another content management system. Perl, and Mysql or Berkely DB (which I think is just files and therefor does not require any database to be used). It seems to have some good online documentation as well as some nice output templates. Supports weblogs, But not entirely free. It seems to be free only for personal use. InvisionBoard phpBB Two more forum or discussion boards. http://www.phpbb.com phpBB, is pretty impressive. It appears to be non threaded. It has icq, live user statistics and a wide range of styles (skins) very good documentation. Good language support. http://www.sporum.org/ A GPL'd discussion Forum system. Uses Perl and MySql. A Debian Package is available. http://phorum.org/ A forum/ message board system in PHP with MySQL or PostgreSql. Appears to have a lot of users. Interface in many languages. Doesn't seem to be a Debian package. Is in active developement (apr 2003). Has a Catalan language interface file (and spanish). Usable from within Lynx but not a very good text only layout. Allows upload file attachments. http://www.scriptarchive.com/demos/wwwboard/wwwboard.html A simple perl cgi message board. Reasonable documentation. No database is required. A very plain interface. http://www.hotscripts.com/Perl/Scripts_and_Programs/FAQ_and_Knowledgebase/ A list of web Frequently Asked Question systems. (such as, I presume, faq-o-matic) http://www.ikonboard.com/ Another swish looking 'bulletin' board or message board, or forum system. http://blog-java.sourceforge.net/ Java based blog (web journal system). Perhaps immature. http://acity.sourceforge.net/ A threaded discussion system (agora) using perl, mysql. But hasnt been updated since nov 2001. Documentation appears very patchy. http://squishdot.org/ A news and discussion system. Looks good but uses a thing called 'zope' (which is an open source 'web application server'). http://www.zope.org/ An all bells and whistles web application basis. Appears complex to set up(?) Zope can be attached to Apache but by default is not and serves on port 8080 or 9673. It has a browser based management interface. A Debian package is available. http://www.phpgroupware.org/ Another system using php and postgreSql. Debian Package is available. http://tavi.sourceforge.net/ Another 'wiki' system. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors Another wiki site with some explanations http://www.yabbforum.com/ Perl forum and chat system. Yabb. In active development. Reasonable looking online documentation. Instant messaging support. Apparently is not designed on the 'threaded' concept. That is the conversations on the discussion board do not run in threads. There are topics and anybody can post a message to that topic but you cannot reply to a specific message within the topic, except by making it clear in the text of your message who you are replying to. Appears to have a very active user base. There are a very large number of posts to some of the forums. Good language support, Spanish but not catalan. Is readable in Lynx, just. This site also contains a java applet based IRC chat client, which is located at eirc.sourceforge.net (?) Because YaBB relies heavyily on HTML tables for its layout it is quite difficult to read within the Lynx text only browser (which doesn't support tables). Also, many of the icons do not have text equivalents. One solution may be to use the 'links' browser, a version of Lynx which supports tables. my yabb account is mjb/bacibaci AUTOMATIC FAQS (all the links, unless stated otherwise, are GPL's or equivalent) The Main CVS site contains an example of an Automatic FAQ The faq generating script at the sed faq site produces decent output http://faqomatic.sourceforge.net/ A Cgi based system. Each answer seems to appear on a new Html page. The interface is a little cluttered. Seems to have some important 'users' (debian home site, lynx home site). Is available as Debian package. Supports question categories, searching, etc. The user is allowed to answer questions, or add comments etc. I have found the installation process for the faqomatic not entirely straightforward. For example, it appears that you need a working 'mailer' on your system in order to configure the faqomatic after you have installed it. http://www.fourteenminutes.com/code/faqmanager/ A nice simple perl faq manager. But does not seem to have user update capabilities. The FAQ produced is reasonably good looking and clean. Has a search capability. All the answers for one particular section are on the same page, but a different page from the questions which are hyperlinks. http://www.interlogy.com/products/content/faqman/index.html Reasonable perl faq manager. Has an update facility through an admin page. All the questions are output on the same page. No hyperlinked table of contents is displayed. Reasonable looking documentation. The lack of hyperlinks should be easily customised. http://opensource.yourdecor.ca/faq1/ A Jsp, Mysql faq system. None of the demo sites work currently (apr 2003) Does not seem to be actively developed. Last updates were in late 2001. http://artho.com/webtools/faq/ A simple FAQ generation system written in Perl. It is a perl script to generate an HTML FAQ File from a 'plain text' file with optional section headings. Also the site contains an 'html generator' with reasonable documentation. http://www.chadsdomain.com/phpsimplefaq/ Another Php, mysql faq system. Not many features. Was still being developed in late 2002. I dont know if it still is. http://mtvwebdesign.hypermart.net/products/faqgen/ Another FAQ generator. No online documentation is available. Written in Perl http://www.cis.rit.edu/~sdlpci/Software/perl/#FAQ A very basic perl faq2html filter script. The questions can only be one line long http://www.codegrunt.com/ Another FAQ system in Php, MySql, with searches, comments, section headings etc. Not in active development (apr 2003). States that it is beta. Not a bad looking interface. http://faq-system.sourceforge.net/ An FAQ System written in C++, for Linux, MySql database. You probably have to compile it with gcc. http://mason.gmu.edu/~bhroleno/FB.html Another PHP, Mysql system. The web-site has no docs or other info. http://www.kendermore.de/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2 Another tool but also all in German. http://www.phpmyfaq.de/ A php based faq system, but all in German currently. MISCELANEOUS http://www.boutell.com/search/ A perl web-site search engine by thomas boutell who wrote the gd library. Probably knows what he's doing. Uses an index file. http://dunne.dyn.dhs.org/~paul/scripts_text.html Some reasonable shell scripts, including 'exclusive delete' for sed http://www.shelldorado.com/ Shell programming resources. A good archive of shell scripts, cgi, etc reading from standard input etc. Contains a script 'urlgetopt' which get the data posted from a form in a CGI script http://www.shelldorado.com/goodcoding/cmdargs.html Using getopts example http://bashlib.sourceforge.net/ A library for writing CGI scripts in the Bash shell http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/ProcCGIsh.html Shell script and C program for processing CGI form data http://heron.snell.clarkson.edu/~horn/classes/tc444/scripts/bestbash.seegi.html Bash CGI 'here document' example, and nothing else http://web20013.tripod.com/webprogramming-unleashed/17.htm A Bash CGI tutorial. doesn't seem to cover form data. http://bashish.sourceforge.net/ A 'theme' engine for bash, ie a customizer http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=96 The CGI Tools category listing on sourceforge http://txt2regex.sourceforge.net/ An engine for converting plain english into regular expressions (?) Part of Debian. displays regular expression syntax for a variety of tools, perl, awk, sed etc http://www.loquo.com/english/cat/103 A Barcelona 'Community' Site, in some-ways similar to 'the grapevine' Based on the 'phorum' software. (See above) http://lynx.isc.org/ The Lynx home site. (Uses the 'faqomatic') http://jui.sourceforge.net/ A tool for creating Java Swing layouts. CONTACT INFORMATION please send comments about this document to: matthew@ella-associates.org or matth3wbishop@yahoo.com