Hello Everyone,
I am in the process of setting up our first live Moodle site and am faced with the dilemma of selecting the wiki to use now, knowing that there will be a new wiki in Moodle 2.0.
Our users have limited experience of using Wiki's and my primary concerns are for stability and a clear upgrade path to 2.0. I have some experience of using the current wiki that is in the Moodle standard distribution and no experience of using Nwiki.
If I use Nwiki, in order to gain more functionality will there be a clear upgrade path to 2.0 or am I better staying with the current standard wiki?
Kind regards
Johnathan
In reply to Johnathan Kemp
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Steve Wright -
From my extremely painful experience so far with nWiki I would recommend sticking with eWiki for now... Depends if you believe reliability is more important than endless new features and minimal documentation 
In reply to Steve Wright
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Jestin VanScoyoc -
my 2 cents ...
I was using nWiki with moodle 1.8+ and moved to moodle 1.9+ At first I had trouble (a parsing error?) but they posted a revised nWiki version and since then have not had any problems. Not sure if I am "the norm" or "just lucky," but its been working well for me in moodle 1.9+
I would say the learning curve is a little steeper with nWiki because I didn't know media wiki syntax which I now prefer, but it is much better than standard wiki that I used for a short time in moodle 1.8+
I was using nWiki with moodle 1.8+ and moved to moodle 1.9+ At first I had trouble (a parsing error?) but they posted a revised nWiki version and since then have not had any problems. Not sure if I am "the norm" or "just lucky," but its been working well for me in moodle 1.9+
I would say the learning curve is a little steeper with nWiki because I didn't know media wiki syntax which I now prefer, but it is much better than standard wiki that I used for a short time in moodle 1.8+
In reply to Jestin VanScoyoc
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Steve Wright -
I can't get rid of nWiki now - no matter how often i try to delete it it comes back! Replacing its use with OU wiki which is simple, robust and searchable... Depends on whether you want features or reliability in my experience... (And I think you'll pick up that i'm not exactly alone in finding nWiki a tad unreliable...)
In reply to Johnathan Kemp
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Frank Fulchiero -
Just wondering, for those trying to make a decision, is there a current feature set comparison between the standard wiki and NWiki somewhere? That would make the decision easier.
In reply to Frank Fulchiero
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Ludo (Marc Alier) -
Plain and simple: The standard wiki is buggy and does not has support... nwiki is not perfect but works as a wiki and you have support from me and pigui.
Is not about features... that nwiki has of course (if you activate blocks on activities and use some usefull blocks or you use the wiki format course.
http://morguapu.upc.es/crom/course/view.php?id=2
Why don't you try it on a dummy instalation on a windows XAMP machine...
Cheers
Is not about features... that nwiki has of course (if you activate blocks on activities and use some usefull blocks or you use the wiki format course.
http://morguapu.upc.es/crom/course/view.php?id=2
Why don't you try it on a dummy instalation on a windows XAMP machine...
Cheers
In reply to Ludo (Marc Alier)
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Frank Fulchiero -
Ludo, Thanks for the response. If one is comparing two products to decide which one to "buy", you HAVE to compare features. Less bugs and more support sounds like a feature + for NWiki. What else is a plus at this time? I am not being difficult or sarcastic, just inquisitive.
You know it's not enough for tech types to be told one product is better than another, they want to know why (real reasons) especially if they have to go out of their way to support it. ewiki is still included, so there is less initial support needed.
However, you are making a valid claim that one has to look at the TCO. As all this stuff is "free", the cost is time, of course.
As I have not used either ewiki nor NWiki very much, I was hoping that a feature comparison already existed, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel.
We have 4 installations of Moodle going, one 1.9 with ewiki and one 1.9 with NWiki, so I will get my hands into it. Any comparison info that can be passed along would be welcome.
You know it's not enough for tech types to be told one product is better than another, they want to know why (real reasons) especially if they have to go out of their way to support it. ewiki is still included, so there is less initial support needed.
However, you are making a valid claim that one has to look at the TCO. As all this stuff is "free", the cost is time, of course.
As I have not used either ewiki nor NWiki very much, I was hoping that a feature comparison already existed, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel.
We have 4 installations of Moodle going, one 1.9 with ewiki and one 1.9 with NWiki, so I will get my hands into it. Any comparison info that can be passed along would be welcome.
In reply to Frank Fulchiero
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Ludo (Marc Alier) -
For starters... nwiki unique features:
* wiki course format (see demo at http://morguapu.upc.es/crom/course/view.php?id=2)
* 3 markups - ewiki, html editor and mediawiki + creole (nwiki)
* 2 ways of comparing difereneces
And now just enable (on moodle admin) blocks on activities and play with the 8-9 blocks that can be used with nwiki...
Cheers
L.
* wiki course format (see demo at http://morguapu.upc.es/crom/course/view.php?id=2)
* 3 markups - ewiki, html editor and mediawiki + creole (nwiki)
* 2 ways of comparing difereneces
And now just enable (on moodle admin) blocks on activities and play with the 8-9 blocks that can be used with nwiki...
Cheers
L.
In reply to Ludo (Marc Alier)
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Eric Carlson -
In many of your posts, you mention "enable blocks on activities" through moodle admin. For the life of me, I can't seem to find anything in any of my moodle admin topics where "blocks on activities" is listed as an option. Could you please give a specific moodle admin location where this is supposed to be? If we do not see this in the "modules->blocks->manage blocks" (or wherever you say this should be), would this suggest that the nwiki install was not done properly?
Regards,
Eric Carlson
In reply to Eric Carlson
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Ludo (Marc Alier) -
sorry, the exact variable is: "Show blocks on module pages"
Cheers
Ludo
Cheers
Ludo
In reply to Eric Carlson
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Johnathan Kemp -
Just in case you are wondering where to find the "Show blocks on module pages" setting it's in Site Administration / Appearance / Themes / Theme settings (in Moodle 1.9)
It took me a while to find where it had been hidden
.
Once this value has been set you can see the blocks drop down list displayed in the Wiki activity and add the various Wiki blocks.
Kind regards
Johnathan
It took me a while to find where it had been hidden
Once this value has been set you can see the blocks drop down list displayed in the Wiki activity and add the various Wiki blocks.
Kind regards
Johnathan
In reply to Johnathan Kemp
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Eric Carlson -
Indeed, this is exactly the info I was seeking. Found it and am now looking forward to giving NWiki a rigorous test ride on a clean moodle install.
Thanks for the location. That is probably the one spot I did not search.
Regards,
Eric
Thanks for the location. That is probably the one spot I did not search.
Regards,
Eric
In reply to Johnathan Kemp
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Neil Birt -
I am also using the latest version of nwiki on 1.9 without any problem.
I ran the upgrade from a previous 1.9 version without incident or loss of data. I will add that I have had various problems with previous versions of nwiki, but the most recent version seems pretty solid.
In any case, either the OUwiki or nwiki would be superior to the default wiki in Moodle.
I ran the upgrade from a previous 1.9 version without incident or loss of data. I will add that I have had various problems with previous versions of nwiki, but the most recent version seems pretty solid.
In any case, either the OUwiki or nwiki would be superior to the default wiki in Moodle.
In reply to Neil Birt
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Frank Fulchiero -
That's the impression I get in this forum, but is there an actual comparison list or features comparison somewhere, besides "superior"?
What exactly is superior?
I have to justify having our admin install, support and debug it, and need reasons.
What exactly is superior?
I have to justify having our admin install, support and debug it, and need reasons.
In reply to Frank Fulchiero
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Steve Wright -
Been looking for a feature list as well and can't see a side-by-side. The discussion over choosing the core wiki is helpful though:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=89653
Then there's the roadmap list at http://docs.moodle.org/en/NWiki_roadmap:
Hope that helps you choose...
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=89653
Then there's the roadmap list at http://docs.moodle.org/en/NWiki_roadmap:
- wiki course format
- discussion pages ?
- grading in wikis ?
- ranking and votes?
- Wikibook
- PDF Generation
- Timeline-like wiki history browser
- Import / export from openoffice writer and (eventually) msword
In reply to Steve Wright
Re: Which wiki to use in 1.9 on a new Moodle installation?
by Frank Fulchiero -
Hi, thanks both to you and Ludo for some more info on this, it will make my job easier. Appreciate the help.
Frank
Frank