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Is Zikula right for my project - social network w/ collaborative content

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movemaine

Rank: Registered User

Registered: Feb 09, 2010

Last visit: Feb 14, 2010

Posts: 6
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 01:04 AM

Ok,

I am building a hiking database/social network -

I'm not familiar enough with zikula to determine if it will cover my needs:

* pages (wiki-like and user editable) with a description, image gallery, google map, checkbox
list of features - set up as a page template, so that each entry looks
uniform

* image upload while editing Wiki page (not URL based) with lightbox on
thumbs

* Large map page with all entry pages as placemarkers

* site searchable by distance, length of trail, type of trail, etc.
(important for site hierarchy, and usability)

* difficulty rating

* profile pages (social network features)

* blogs (main blog and user blogs)

I had originally began building this site in Joomla, but since there was no
wiki-like functionality (user collaborative content), I abandoned that and
then was looking at buddypress and mediawiki and now looking at tikiwiki as
well.

So can anyone let me know if this is feasible? and maybe point me in the
right direction.

Thanks,

Jason
slam

Rank: Team Member

Registered: May 03, 2004

Last visit: May 31, 2010

Posts: 509
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 02:52 AM

A member of the German Zikula Community runs something very similiar (for bikers) at http://www.netbiker.de/
You can see there that Zikula is indeed the right base to build such a site on.
Greetings,
Chris

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movemaine

Rank: Registered User

Registered: Feb 09, 2010

Last visit: Feb 14, 2010

Posts: 6
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 05:00 AM

That site does look interesting - I see Wiki functionality with social networking features.

Does the zikula Wiki enable page templates (similar formatting on each page)? and can images & maps be embedded in Wiki?
How about reviews & ratings on a Wiki page? and comments?

Thanks!
slam

Rank: Team Member

Registered: May 03, 2004

Last visit: May 31, 2010

Posts: 509
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 05:12 AM

The Wiki modules is called Wikula - project site here http://code.zikula.org/wikula see more example sites there.
Yes, templating is supported, as with all modern Zikula modules and a simple visual editor is included. You can embed images, you should simply install and play with it.
If you miss any feature let me know, I am one of the developers at Wikula.
About the social networking features you might also want to talk to the netbiker webmaster, I am sure he will be telling you how he did implement whatever you see there.
Greetings,
Chris

--
an operating system must operate
development is life
my repo
Guite

Rank: Team Member

Registered: Jan 19, 2003

Last visit: Apr 06, 2010

Posts: 432
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 06:08 AM

If you search a click-n-go approach, Zikula might not be the appropriate solution. However, if you want to put your application on a solid base with powerful flexibility for enhancing, customization and maintenance, then Zikula is definitely a candidate for you.

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Guite | ModuleStudio
HalbrookTech

Rank: Developer

Registered: Dec 31, 1969

Last visit: Jun 01, 2010

Posts: 6840
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 09:48 AM

I even build simple forum sites on ZIkula, because it allows me to expand the functionality in the future easily. No mods to do to the code, just add the new module and go. Closest site I have to what you're wanting to do is http://goodeatsfans.net

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nestormateo

Rank: Team Member

Registered: Sep 06, 2006

Last visit: May 09, 2010

Posts: 2411
Posted: Feb 10, 2010 - 04:40 AM

If you are a developer,
you're pretty welcome to try Wikula and its available actions, and to give us a hand implementing any new feature that you would need. The coolest thing on Zikula is that all is templated, so you can customize the stuff on a pretty deep level.

Quote
pages (wiki-like and user editable) with a description, image gallery, google map, checkbox
list of features - set up as a page template, so that each entry looks
uniform
Currently wikula uses the Wikka engine, and with the Zikula templates you can customize it to look as you like. You can check the way it looks here in the community Wiki.

What I don't get so good is the other fields (descriptions, gallery, maps, checkbox), our Wiki works depending on the needs, so, if you want to embed a map, we should build the action (plugin) to allow that with ease, and to insert an image, etc. More than that needs customization about how the module creates new pages.

Quote
image upload while editing Wiki page (not URL based) with lightbox on
thumbs
Here MediaAttach or another script can be integrated.

Quote
Large map page with all entry pages as placemarkers
Pretty custom need so it needs a custom code

Quote
blogs (main blog and user blogs)
There's a module on the way (Blogz) that will let to all the users to have a blog. A central one can be based on the News module, as we do here on the community site.

So, if you're a developer and appreciate the power of Zikula about flexibility, scalability and customization, nice, if you don't code, then may consider to open a request on zikulapro.com and sponsor the time of a developer to solve some of your custom needs with custom code

Greetings

--
- Mateo T. -
Mis principios... son mis fines
slam

Rank: Team Member

Registered: May 03, 2004

Last visit: May 31, 2010

Posts: 509
Posted: Feb 10, 2010 - 05:14 AM

Quote
Large map page with all entry pages as placemarkers

http://support.zikula.de/module-gmap.htm is done with the Gmap module, which could be a fine starting base to do what you want.
Greetings,
Chris

--
an operating system must operate
development is life
my repo
movemaine

Rank: Registered User

Registered: Feb 09, 2010

Last visit: Feb 14, 2010

Posts: 6
Posted: Feb 10, 2010 - 06:43 AM

Great!

thanks for the input.

I am not a coder more of a code hacker (I can roughly hack a code to sort of get the functionality I want) but it's usually dirty.

I'll take a look soon to play around with everything.

The module-gmap looks promising - I'm assuming that it is a map of users, but it could probably fairly easy to get a map of Wiki entries with links to the item.
HalbrookTech

Rank: Developer

Registered: Dec 31, 1969

Last visit: Jun 01, 2010

Posts: 6840
Posted: Feb 10, 2010 - 03:59 PM

gmap has multiple uses as I recall. Been awhile since I used it, I just use the GoogleMap plugin for Content, since I usually use it for most of my sub pages.

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