[pmwiki-users] Mechanism for external editing of files

[Christian Ridderström]

Oops... I found the post below in my 'postponed folder', so I'm sending it 
now. Apologies if I've sent it already. The post is related to dealing 
with external files, especially spreadsheets.

/Christian

Hi,

I think that the following mechanism could be quite useful for the wiki. 
The basic idea is to make it easier to use other tools together with the 
wiki. This tool could for instance be spreadsheet software or a graphics 
software. Imagine the following scenario / use sequence:

1. The user creates a spreasheet using e.g. OpenOffice Calc.

2. The user clicks a special 'embed external object'-link, which lets
    him upload the spreadsheet file to the wiki.

The wiki now does the following automatically:
* Use the spreadsheet file to export a HTML-version of the spreadsheet
* Shows the user a markup snippet that the user can paste into a wiki
   page in order to embed the HTML-version of the spreadsheet.

3. The user edits a wiki page and insert the markup.

There is now a wiki page that shows the HTML-version of the spreadsheet. 
Clicking on that <object>..</object>, or perhaps on a special 'edit'-link 
above the object, the user will be able to edit the spreadsheet file.
When saving the file it, it'd be nice if the file was automatically 
uploaded to the wiki again, but this will probably require a manual 
upload.

4. Once a new version of the spreadsheet has been uploaded, the
    wiki engine detects this and automatically updates the HTML-version
    of the spreadsheet.


Anyway, the basic idea is to discuss if there are methods that can make it 
easier to embed other type of material inside a wiki page. And also 
methods to make it easier to modify such material.

Best regards
/Christian

-- 
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44            http://www.md.kth.se/~chr