[pmwiki-users] Minor question regarding the definition of "Wiki farm"

[H. Fox]

On 3/19/06, christian.ridderstrom at gmail.com
<christian.ridderstrom at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been too busy to follow the recent (long) discussion and have only
> just now read it - I greatly appreciate the effort by everyone!
>
> Quoting (Neil's work?) at http://pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/WikiFarms
>
>         A WikiFarm is a collection of two or more wikis running on the
>         same web server and sharing a set of common components.
>
> I wonder: Why does a wiki farm have to have two or more wikis?
>
> The phrasing above implies to me that it's not possible to have a wiki
> farm *installation* with only a single wiki, which you can of course.
> Could we come up with a slightly different definition which says something
> more along the lines of:
>
>         A WikiFarm is a way to run one or more wikis on a single web
>         server, where the wikis share a set of common components.
>
> Or am I missing something conecptually here?

Short answer:
 A wikifarm with one wiki is like a server farm with one server. 
It's, possible, but it's beside the point.

Another short answer:
It's a bit confusing that way because one wiki, by definition, doesn't
share anything.

Slightly longer answer:
Here's one way (because there are many) you could create what someone
might call a "single-wiki farm".

* Unzip the PmWiki software somewhere outside the web document tree.
* Move the pub/ directory to somewhere within the web document tree
("in the web space").
* Add a local/farmconfig.php and set $FarmPubDirUrl to the URL of the
pub/ directory.
* Create one wiki using "the four steps":
  1. Create a directory (in the web space, of course).
  2. Add a wrapper script that points to pmwiki.php.
  3. Add a local configuration file. (Optional.)
  4. Let the PmWiki engine create a wiki.d/ directory for page storage.

But why bother?  If you only want one wiki it's just easier to use the
one that's pre-installed with the software.

"A WikiFarm is PmWiki configured to run multiple wikis" is easier to
grasp, especially if followed by "The term is related to the computing
phrase "server farm"".

Hagan