Gregory Szorc's blog

Storing XML in the Case Wiki

In a previous post I outlined a basic plan for using a wiki to store information in such a way that it is easily accessible to the computer world. Since that post, I have implemented the basic framework to start that process on the Case Wiki.

I have defined a basic XML schema using the RELAX NG schema (why doesn't XML Schema let you hava a maxOccurs="unbound" in a <xs:all>?!) at CaseWiki:RelaxNG. So far I have embedded XML into two pages, Subway and Tomlinson Hall. Currently, if you go to those pages, you will see an XML document on the page itself. The next step is to set up a template that does an XSLT so the XML embedded in the page will seemlessly flow with the page content.

I have also provided a very simplistic web service at http://wiki.case.edu/misc/xml.php which will return an XML document of all the embedded XML elements in the wiki. The idea is that once many pages start having embedded XML data the web service can be used to obtain real-time information about the campus. Say sometime in the future you are walking around with your GPS enabled phone. Someone could take all of the GPS data in the wiki (available through the wiki's XML web service) and put it in a format your phone can understand. You want to view places to eat within 1000 ft, just look for buildings with references to places to eat. You could then cross reference that list with the wiki entries for those places to eat and possibly obtain the hours of operation, menu, etc. All of this data is obtained from the wiki, which is maintained by the campus community. If there is data out of date, just log in and fix it yourself!

Besides buildings and places to eat, what other things can you think of that would benefit from being wiki enhanced? Could you actual envision someone using the wiki for the purpose of data storage? What type of interface to adding the data is needed? If the documentation is good enough, could the average person type XML directly into the wiki? Or, is a better form-based interface needed?

You can ping this entry by using http://blog.case.edu/gps10/mt-tb.cgi/1904 .

I like xml. XML likes me. XML is good for many things. Being had editable by the masses is not one of them.

I think there has to be a better way to present it on the page source side than as xml. Id even think that something like:

building

.name=Tomlinson Hall

.abbr=TOML

.floors=3

.food

..name=Subway

..wiki=Subway (Tomlinson)

would be better
Of course something like this would prevent us from using xml attrs.

The problem is being addressed. I am going to see if I can hide the XML from the user by auto-creating some web forms by looking at the defined schema. When a user goes to a page that is say in the buildings category, they will see an edit button that is like "Define Building Attributes" or something along those lines. They will fill out a web form and automagically populate the XML.

In mappeaperte.net I'm using WorldkitGeowiki to produce a map with georef items defined in xml. The user is just supposed to push i on the keybord, click in the map and fill in a form. I'm not good with xml..so I've a question: do you think i can pass in some way the xml stuff from the map to the mediawiki part of my website?

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