Earlier versions of Wiki Edit will not operate under iOS 6.0. If you have issues editing a Wiki, or if articles display strangely please check to make sure you are using a recent version of Wiki Edit.

To check the version of Wiki Edit, tap the Wiki menu icon (the “❃” flower icon) at the top right of the app. From there select to last option “Settings”. The version number is shown at the top of the settings menu.

Wiki Edit 1.9 went live in the App Store on September 19th.

[UPDATE 7/11]

Thanks for everyone’s patience and understanding.  I believe we found the cause, and I’m working on a fix the the issue.

Basically, when I added Spell Checking as an option to the editor screen, I failed to realize it was a iOS version 5.0 feature, and didn’t add checks to disable it for older versions of iOS.

If you’re using iOS 4.x and Wiki Edit is crashing when you try to edit a page — you can either:

• Upgrade to the latest version of iOS (5.1.1 currently).  This will immediately correct the issue you’re having with Wiki Edit.
• Wait for Wiki Edit 1.8.1 – it should be available within a few days once Apple has approved it.

Again, I’m very sorry some of you had issues with the App and for not catching this sooner.

- Don

This version includes:

• A Settings Menu under the Wiki Menu (flower menu on right side of toolbar)
• Spell Checking in the Editor
• Auto Correct in the Editor
• Font and Color settings for the Editor
• Settings menu allows you to change Wiki Edit’s theme as well
• A fix for saving the Editing Session even if Wiki Edit is force-quit or unloaded due to low memory
• Better memory management for smoother multi-tasking

Please help support Wiki Edit by rating it highly in the App Store. Ratings help sustain sales for independent App authors like myself, and continued sales leads to more updates.

New Features

Upload Support:

• Upload images from your photo library and camera roll
• New “Upload” option in Wiki menu

Edit Recovery:

• Network failures no longer result in lost edits.
• Tapping “Cancel” while saving or previewing will return to the editing screen with your changes intact.  Helps recover from stalled or dropped connections and unresponsive servers.

Bug Fixes:

• iOS 5.x support added
• iPad 3rd gen support added
• Better memory management using ARC
• Fixed missing activity spinners on load/save/preview operations
• Fixed missing HTTP: from some Wikipedia pages and forms

Special Note:

Some Wikipedia sites now use an “Upload Wizard” which does not work on iPad.  Try using the upload option from the Wiki Edit menu instead.  That will by-pass the wizard and upload directly using the MediaWiki upload page.  You may need to go in and add Wikipedia specific file ownership information after the upload.

I’d like to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of Wiki Edit. Please keep them coming.

If you have questions about Wiki Edit, you can:

Read the Wiki Edit Guide

Read the Wiki Edit FAQ

You can get updates from Wiki Edit on your Facebook or Twitter account.

“Like” our Facebook Page to receive periodic updates. Or “Follow” our Twitter account.

This version greatly expands the configurations of MediaWiki supported by Wiki Edit, including support of many “New” and “Experimental” configurations in the MediaWiki 1.17 Beta and MediaWiki 1.18 Alpha.

It also addresses several issues including difficulty with new article creation.

I’d like to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of Wiki Edit. Please keep them coming.

If you have questions about Wiki Edit, you can:

Read about New features in Wiki Edit 1.6

Read the Wiki Edit Guide

Read the Wiki Edit FAQ

You can get updates from Wiki Edit on your Facebook or Twitter account.

“Like” our Facebook Page to receive periodic updates. Or “Follow” our Twitter account.

The problem has been resolved in version 1.6.1 which was released world-wide by Apple on May 25th.

If you’re still using Wiki Edit 1.6, please update at your earliest convenience.

I’d like to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of Wiki Edit. Please keep them coming.

If you have questions about Wiki Edit, you can:

Read about New features in Wiki Edit 1.5

Read the Wiki Edit Guide

Read the Wiki Edit FAQ

You can get updates from Wiki Edit on your Facebook or Twitter account.

“Like” our Facebook Page to receive periodic updates. Or “Follow” our Twitter account.

• New: Slide-out MediaWiki Markup Keyboard Accessory
• New: Slide-out MediaWiki Markup Help Bar
• New: Enhancements for multitasking iOS 4.x
• Bug Fix: Buttons in articles and forms can now invoke markup editor
• Bug Fix: URL’s in non-roman characters no longer get “%xx” encoded
• Bug Fix: Remembers history and bookmarks if “task killed”
• Bug Fix: Removed extra HTTP HEAD request on self-signed SSL sites
• Bug Fix: All outstanding issues on private MediaWiki sites resolved
• Bug Fix: All outstanding issues on Public Wikia sites resolved
• Preparing for Universal App: New Authentication dialogs, new Web Engine
• Tested on both original iPad and iPad 2

I had several requests for a keyboard enhancement that would place MediaWiki markup symbols in easy reach. At the same time, I wanted people to have the largest editing area possible. The new markup keyboard accessory achieves both. It’s a strip of markup symbols at the top of the keyboard that you can slide out or hide with a tap.

Also, for people not familiar with MediaWiki markup, I’ve included a sliding help panel that appears on the right side of the editing screen. You can scroll it up and down to review common usage of markup.

The new version of Wiki Edit manages memory better when being swapped into the background. If you kill Wiki Edit from the task bar, it will now store its position prior to exiting.

The release also includes numerous bug fixes, better support for international character sets, better support for private wiki’s, and resolves all open issues I’ve received on public Wikia, and public/private MediaWiki sites.

I expect Apple to approve version 1.5 for release to the App Store within the next few days. For breaking news follow Wiki Edit on Twitter at @WikiEdit

During the Labor Day weekend in the United States, one of my testers found a few moderate bugs… I had a dilemma, yank the App and lose my place in line, or let it slide.

The errors were:

• Tapping Preview/Re-Edit rapidly 4 or more times would cause the program to not load previews until you saved the page or canceled.
• Typing “ ” (the entity code for no-break space) in the editor caused the editor to replace it with a normal space.
• Some Wikia sites use a special Wikia Rich Text Editor which doesn’t work with iPad.

I decided to fix the bugs, and resubmit.

The button mashing problem was simple to fix. I hadn’t encountered it before, but it was easy to recreate.

For me, the biggest bug was the   issue. It was happening somewhere deep inside of Apple’s UITextView control.  It turns out that a lot of iPad Apps that let you edit text fail when you enter  .  (Try it yourself on Evernote, or any of the To Do or Notepad apps that give you a rectangle to type text into.)  The   gets converted to a regular space and is gone for good. Type “[ ]“, hit save, and you’ll end up with “[ ]“. Wow. That’s a big problem when editing HTML or Wiki Markup.

I discovered it when I made a small change to a long Wikipedia article. I looked at the change list, and found 30+ lines that had   in them were unintentionally changed. I had to revert the article, as without   many phrases were now badly formatted. There’s actually a two year old bug filed with Apple on the issue, and it’s still not fixed in iOS 4.1. I ended up spending about 10 hours making   work in Apple’s UITextView control.  As far as I know, I’m the first to actually fix this.

The last issue turned out to be a simple fix.  I now send a code to Wikia with each edit request letting them know I’m using regular Wiki Markup. (&useeditor=mediawiki)

I retested through the weekend, and re-submitted the App to Apple on September 6th.

Wiki Edit version 1.1 is still “Waiting for Review” as of today (September 16th). I’m disappointed it hasn’t been reviewed yet, but happy to have those three issues taken care of.

In the meanwhile, I’ve been working on Wiki Edit 1.2.

The main changes are in the Webkit based web browser. I’m working on another browser based project, so I took the time to really streamline the browser core. It loads faster, and uses less memory than before. That will be important for the multitasking iPad update in November.

I’ve also streamlined the Wiki detection code, so that once you’ve visited a Wiki, future visits will populate the Wiki menu pretty much instantaneously. In the current version, the page needs to partially load before Wiki Edit can detect if its a MediaWiki site.

I won’t submit version 1.2 until Apple approves version 1.1. I don’t want to delay getting Wiki Edit into the App Store. You’ll automatically get a free update a week or two after 1.1 launches. I’ll keep folks informed via the blog and Twitter.  (@wikiedit)

I am waiting until Wiki Edit launches before adding any major new features.  I want to see what is important to the folks who bought the App.

I’m always looking for suggestions on making Wiki Edit better.

Best,

- Don

I’ve been using the app everyday for about a month now. It’s pretty exciting to put it out in the world for other folks to start using.

There seem to be a bunch of “Wiki” apps in the App Store right now, but they all focus entirely on Wikipedia reading.

Now I really like Wikipedia, but it’s just one of thousands of wikis. Wikia alone hosts 100,000 wiki’s.

I also know a lot of product and development folks (like me) that manage their businesses with a wiki. While viewing these wikis on an iPad was a joy — editing them was not.

MediaWiki, like a lot of other web apps out there uses a “textarea” box for you to edit articles. On a website with a full keyboard and mouse – these are no big deal.

Textareas on the iPad are a different story. The box is tiny, scrolling on the page doesn’t scroll the text inside of the box — you need to use a tricky two fingered scrolling gesture.

Fixing that simple problem was the motivation for building Wiki Edit.