README

If you just want to get to the ODL wiki, use the following link: http://www.optimaldesignlab.com/optimaldesignlab-wiki/

Important for ODL users: You can ignore most of the instructions below. We inherited these when we forked the orignal version from exalted/mdwiki-seed. If you are in the ODL lab and want to update/add a page, follow the instructions on the home page of the wiki itself.

First things first

Learn Markdown! Then check out MDwiki's quick start.

Whenever you feel stuck, go to MDwiki's own site for further information.

One Wiki Only? Fork It.

First off fork this repo and call it something like <MyProject>-wiki.

Multiple Wikis? Clone It.

In case would you like to create more than one wiki for the same GitHub user or organization, then forking won't cut it. At the moment of this writing GitHub won't allow you to fork a single repository multiple times for the same account.

There's a workaround to this, however on GitHub's web interface you won't see the sign that says "forked from" in your cloned repository.

Below instructions how to clone this repository using the CLI:

First off, create a new (empty) repository on GitHub, then;

git clone https://github.com/exalted/mdwiki-seed.git
cd mdwiki-seed
git remote add foobar <HTTPS/SSH Clone URL of the New Repository>
git push foobar gh-pages

Create a New Wiki

It all begins by creating an initial file structure for any language that you would like to support. For example, if you're interested having a wiki in English, then you will duplicate ll_CC folder and rename your copy to en. (For a complete list of languages [ll] and country codes [CC] see here.)

ll_CC is a starter template folder which you shouldn't ever edit directly, since you may loose your changes when MDwiki gets updated later.

If you want to have your wiki in more than one language, then you duplicate ll_CC as many times as necessary and rename each copy with the appropriate language and country code. (Country code is optional and it is only useful if you want to distinguish, for instance, American English from British English, such as: en_US and en_GB.)

Getting Started

You should have a language wiki folder by now, if not, go back and read above to create one.

Suppose your first wiki is going to be in English, hence you must have a folder called en, as previously described.

1. Open index.html file with your favorite plain text editor (the one that is at the same level where ll_CC and your language folder is located, NOT the one inside your language folder)
2. Find where it says "Override ll_CC below with your default language and country code"
3. Change refresh meta tag from url=ll_CC/ to url=en/ (trailing / is very important)

Structure

All file references here are relative to their respective language folder.

Name	Type	Description
index.md	File	Starting point (a.k.a. "home page") for your wiki. Note this is not the index.html, but index.md!
navigation.md	File	Various settings of your wiki (e.g., name of your wiki, items in the navigation bar at the top, etc.)
config.json	File	If you don't know what this is for, don’t touch it.
pages	Folder	Ideally, inside this folder, you create one *.md file for every page inside your wiki (e.g., foo.md, much-longer-names-are-also-okay.md, etc.) You can also create as many subfolders as you need, just remember to link them accordingly.
uploads	Folder	An example folder structure where you could put other files. Although it is best to host your files somewhere else, like Dropbox, or a CDN, etc.

Best Practices

Relative URLs

Instead of using absolute URLs when linking one wiki page to another, use relative URLs.

For instance if en/pages/foo.md page had to link to en/pages/bar.md, it is enough to just add [Click here](bar.md) in your markdown.

Don't Host Your Uploads in Git(Hub)

Instead of hosting your uploads inside the uploads folder, consider using Dropbox, Google Drive, or a CDN.

Add References to Uploads

Whenever you can, avoid hosting your uploads using Git(Hub).

If you must add references to files hosted inside the uploads folder here's how to do it, for instance: ![Image Title](uploads/images/foo.png). Add that in your markdown and you're good to go.

How to Preview

In order to preview your changes locally, prior to publishing online, you may need to take some actions. Below some starting points for each operating system, also check out MDwiki's frequently asked questions section for some ideas.

Mac OS

The easiest way to serve up static sites on a Mac is to use Anvil. Go ahead and download it from their website, install and add a site using the status bar icon: simply select the folder where your wiki is located on your Mac.

If you don't want to download any apps, you can use the Terminal on your Mac and Python. To do this, go to your site folder in the Terminal app and type python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000. This will start running a local server which you can navigate to by typing the URL localhost:8000 in any web browser.

Windows

You can use Fenix to host a static site on windows. Fenix also comes with lots of advanced functionality that you might not use. Fenix can also run on a Mac.

Linux

You can use Prax. Prax is a pure ruby alternative to Pow!! that runs on GNU/Linux.

For Developers

You don't need to read below here or do anything at all if you're only interested creating your own wiki. This section is for developers or maintainers of this repository.

Update MDwiki

Current version: 0.6.2.

1. Go to https://github.com/Dynalon/mdwiki/releases/latest
2. Click on the green button on that page to download the latest release
3. Extract the contents of the archive file
4. Copy mdwiki-slim.html file from the extracted files onto ll_CC/index.html file in this repository by renaming, thus overriding index.html
5. Update the version information above
6. Commit and push your changes

You can now delete any files downloaded previously, if you want to.