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View Full Version : Best mod for creating a book online?


Will.Spencer
02-21-2009, 12:48 PM
We are on the verge of starting a new project at NetBuilders (http://www.netbuilders.org) -- creating a book online.

The book will have a table of contents, with links to each chapter and section. Each section will be divided into pages.

A large number of members will be contributing by posting and editing pages of the book.

What mod would make this possible? Or does such a mod not exist?

Assistance will be greatly appreciated, I'm feeling a bit stuck here. :o

Lynne
02-21-2009, 03:12 PM
It almost sounds like you want a wiki of some sort?

Will.Spencer
02-21-2009, 04:09 PM
Sort of a wiki, but with BBCODE and using vBulletin forum memberships and permissions.

I also want something that works within the vBulletin templating framework.

It's sort of like Wordpress's distinctions between posts and pages. I want pages for vBulletin. :)

A wiki really "feels" like overkill, but it appears that's what I'm stuck with.

Doing some research, I find a few options.vBWiki (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=136242) is unsupported and does not work with current software revisions. That's not going to work.

I could install MediaWiki and integrate it using MediaWiki/vBulletin Single Sign-On (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=191186) and vBulletin Skin Style for MediaWiki (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=193244). Integrations are always pretty rough, and these are pretty new code.

Alternatively, I could install VaultWiki (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=189446), but even their own documentation says "VaultWiki is an extensive product and as a result does not work perfectly with everyone's vBulletin installation out of the box. If you plan to install VaultWiki, you should also plan for a few hours of site down time, and you should try to schedule it during a time when someone from support is available." That doesn't exactly inspire confidence.I suppose that MediaWiki will be more work up-front, but will be less likely to leave me with hundreds of pages of content in an unsupported product in the future.

I could also use Joomla. I could make Joomla the home page and move the forum to a subdirectory of subdomain. I really wanted to make this "book" integrate "inside" vBulletin -- instead of the other way around.

Hmmm...

Will.Spencer
03-25-2009, 06:20 PM
Alternatively, I could install VaultWiki (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=189446), but even their own documentation says "VaultWiki is an extensive product and as a result does not work perfectly with everyone's vBulletin installation out of the box. If you plan to install VaultWiki, you should also plan for a few hours of site down time, and you should try to schedule it during a time when someone from support is available." That doesn't exactly inspire confidence.I suppose that MediaWiki will be more work up-front, but will be less likely to leave me with hundreds of pages of content in an unsupported product in the future.

I ended up choosing VaultWiki for this project, and the code is much better than the documentation makes it sound.

The documentation needs a lot of love, but the software works well. :)