Wiki Strategies: JS Tools
##Wiki Strategies - JavaScript Based Tools
(This post has been edited to remove company-specific information)
We used JavaScript extensively in our wiki. It made a big difference to our look-and-feel, functionality and statistical data gathering.
Recently we added a JavaScript based tool to our wiki. The tool parses our product-specific logs and displays them in an easy-to-read format. Since it was meant for developers, it was also tweaked to support multiple file-handling (for browsers with HTML5 support) and filters based on fields a developer would use.
The benefits of such JavaScript-based wiki tools are obvious.
- We didn’t have to worry about packaging it as an installable or hosting it on any server
- All the actual processing happens on the developer’s machine without causing any load to the server
- Developers can simply choose “File-Save as” and create a local copy of the tool which they can access offline
- Upgrades, Changes are transparent and does not cause any downtime
- Since it hosted on the wiki, we were able to integrate our dynamic searches and were able to show users useful contextual information as well