Wiki Edit

The MediaWiki Editor for iPad

Hi, I’m Don Kosak, the developer of Wiki Edit. I started my own consulting business in 2009 helping folks build scalable web services. In-between gigs, I like to learn new technologies and build things myself. Wiki Edit is one of those projects.

I use wikis a lot, personally, and for business. I use a personal wiki to organize my days and projects. For me, a wiki makes the ultimate “GTD” planning tool.

Of course I use wiki’s for my consulting work. When I’m out at a client, I’ll have all of the client data at my fingertips on my iPad.

While it’s a joy to browse a wiki on the iPad — it’s unfortunately a pain to edit them. Like most web based content tools, Mediawiki uses a browser text area to let you edit content. On a desktop, this is no big deal, but on the iPad, the text box is small, partly obscured by the onscreen keyboard, and requires a tricky two finger gesture to scroll through. Not fun at all.

That was the problem I wanted to solve with Wiki Edit.

I hope Wiki Edit will be as useful to you, as it has been to me.

- Don

10 Responses to Developer

  1. labische
    September 26th, 2010 at 10:00 pm

    How can I use your program, Wiki Edit, to create personal, work oriented Wiki’s and not have to interact with already published Wiki’s?
    I am an educator that wants to use a Wiki for different classes, different curriculum, and different training programs.
    Thanks
    labische

  2. Don Kosak
    September 26th, 2010 at 10:17 pm

    If your school or facility has an information services group, you could ask them to install MediaWiki on one of the school’s servers. It’s a simple process and only takes 15 minutes or so. Instructions are at:

    http://www.mediawiki.org

    If you want your own personal MediaWiki, and don’t have a lot of experience setting up Internet servers, I would recommend a MediaWiki hosting site. Siteground is one such site.

    http://www.siteground.com/mediawiki-hosting.htm

    I’m not affiliated with Siteground. There may be other MediaWiki hosting companies in your area. Doing a search on “MediaWiki Hosting” and your area may reveal other options.

    MediaWiki is an amazing platform for education. Best wishes on your project.

    - Don

  3. Andrea
    August 12th, 2011 at 4:43 am

    Hi!

    I am a teacher that uses pbworks form many student projects. At my school we know have iPads. Will wiki edit solve my editing problem with pbworks?

    Thanks!

  4. Don Kosak
    August 12th, 2011 at 7:26 am

    Hello Andrea,

    Wiki Edit is an application to edit MediaWiki based web sites, such as WikiTravel, Wikipedia, and so on. These sites generally have a “powered by MediaWiki” tag on the bottom of each page.

    PBWorks uses a completely different platform called PBWiki (Peanut Butter Wiki) that is not related to MediaWiki.

    I’m afraid Wiki Edit won’t be able to help you with PBWorks.

    - Don

  5. JIm
    October 8th, 2011 at 5:23 am

    Hi Don,

    This looks good. Would you know if there is a way to host MW on the iPad so that I can work even when not connected?

    I hope you are doing well with the product — it is a great idea.

    Thanks, Jim

  6. Don Kosak
    October 8th, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    Hi Jim,

    I’ve been looking at hosting MediaWiki on iPad, but at this time there are two many obstacles. The biggest is that there is no Apache Web Server or PHP language on iPhone/iPad. There are ways around this — but none of them are sanctioned by Apple so we probably won’t see MediaWiki on the device anytime soon.

    There have been a lot of improvements in Javascript parsers for MediaWiki that would render almost any MediaWiki markup. I’ve been experimenting with those to allow you to edit and preview markup off-line. There are some things that don’t work well. (custom skins, most templates, no extensions, and no parser-hooks.)

    Thanks for the feedback on the App. I’m working on the iOS 5 version right now. It’s coming a long well.

    Best,

    - Don

  7. Jörg
    September 7th, 2012 at 12:32 am

    Hi, I have a feature request :-) . Would it be possible to save a draft of a page internally, before I publish it? That would be really helpful if I write a longer, new text that I only want to publish when it is finished.

    Thanks, Jörg

  8. Don Kosak
    September 7th, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    Jörg, I’ve been thinking about that as part of the “off-line” editing capabilities. It’s definitely on my list of possibilities for future updates.

    Best,

    - Don

  9. Pete Stockley
    October 29th, 2013 at 1:48 am

    Hi,

    Does your app support the wikispaces service?
    E.g. Http://mobiilioppija.wikispaces.com

    Many thanks!

  10. Don Kosak
    October 29th, 2013 at 9:18 am

    At this time, Wiki Edit only supports Wiki’s based on MediaWiki wiki software. This includes many of the most popular public wikis like Wikipedia. It also supports most wikis running on Wikia (which is based on MediaWiki.)

    I’ve looked into supporting other wiki “engines”, but for now my focus has been on MediaWiki.

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