Major Additions - VaultWiki: A Wiki for your forum

** THIS MOD IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED **
We are no longer developing this, a newer version is available here: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=309676

** DOWNLOAD REMOVED **
The download attached to this thread has been removed due to known unpatched security issues: https://www.vaultwiki.org/pages/Book...-Patch-Level-2

We do not recommend using this version, and we cannot offer support for it any longer.

VaultWiki does not bridge from other wiki products (like MediaWiki, etc). It is a wiki product written just for vBulletin.

About VaultWiki
"The powerful editing options in VaultWiki allow your community to collaborate to create and publish content pages for your site. Multiple users can edit the same page, and your staff can moderate changes as they are made. VaultWiki maintains a detailed history of every page, making it just as easy to reverse unwanted changes.

Use to create general site content, user manuals, wikis... VaultWiki works by extending vBulletin's forum and permissions systems - easily create and designate forum areas for different purposes. With a little imagination, VaultWiki can be configured to do almost anything."

Features and the Full Version
The find out more about VaultWiki Lite's features or to purchase the full commercial version, see the comparison here: http://www.vaultwiki.org/features/

VaultWiki Lite cannot import data from other wiki products. If you want to do this, you'll need the full commercial version.

Requirements:

• PHP 4.4.0 or higher
• MySQL 4.1.2 or higher
• vBulletin 3.6.x, 3.7.x, 3.8.x, 4.0.x
• about 1 MB of space

Copyright Info
VaultWiki Lite places a copyright notice in your forum's footer on any page where wiki functions are used. You are not allowed to modify the source code or phrases to remove this copyright.

Troubleshooting and Support
While VaultWiki Lite is offered for free on vbulletin.org, you will receive faster responses to support questions made at the official VaultWiki site: http://www.vaultwiki.org/

[thincom2000]

That's most likely caused by a skipped installation step. The lite version is a pretty bad representation of what the full version has to offer. Now that the VaultWiki license agreement has been adjusted, the demo is back up, so I recommend checking it out before frustrating yourself with this "Lite" version.

[Big-Pete]

Originally Posted by ekantnl

The installation guide is a little bit confusing and there should be a manual that describes step by step what to do and how to do things (in simple English please) but the product is great!

I couldn't agree more! the manual does no more than show you what you've already seen in the admincp... a proper manual and an easier installation / setup process would benefit this greatly...

Originally Posted by Scooty

I have been pretty lucky so far installing most mods but this one seems a bit techincal.
Thanks

This is quite hard to install and setup... I bought the commercial version a few weeks ago and its now been uninstalled..

Originally Posted by Elenna

It does seem rather... tedious to install

I bought the full version of this, it was a nightmare to install, and seemed quite tedious to set up and get working and i could only envisage lots of threads and pm's from members having problems using it, so as said above its been uninstalled...

[thincom2000]

I'm still a little baffled by claims like this. While it's true that most of the manual just says "this is option A and this is what it does", the pages most important for achieving core functionality state the necessary information right at the top. Users still have to put 2 and 2 together in many cases, but there is a step-by-step instructions page that gets updated with each new build - a lot of users tend to miss this page. While the install / setup isn't just importing a product file and voila, the instructions do say at the end "Review the Manual".

The Forum Settings page states (right at the top):

Originally Posted by Help:Forum Settings

VaultWiki uses vBulletin forums to store articles for your wiki. In order to operate, the wiki needs at least 1 dedicated "Wiki" forum for each of the following namespaces, should you plan to use them...

While it's on the previous page, the Namespace Manager page discusses that only some forums are usable in this manner, and tells you what the criteria are.

On the VaultWiki Settings page, it tells you what settings you need to fill in before the wiki will work.

These are the only parts of the setup process that I can see being confusing. Nevertheless, for those of you considering paying for the commercial version, these confusing steps leftover from the Lite version's install process were removed in the most recent build.

All users I know who have had frustration setting up the product, but actually stuck with it, love the product and are still happy despite having put up with the old install style. I haven't heard any reports of any-scale community rejection of their wikis.

The manual is visible to the public in its entirety. View it before buying. If you feel like there's enough information there to get you started, by all means install the product. If you feel a bit uneasy and don't feel comfortable asking support questions every once in a while, why are you modifying software?

A new product is always something new to be learned. Didn't they always teach us in school, if you have trouble or don't understand something, ask a question? Rather than get disgruntled and post bad press about a product that otherwise does its job, use the support system and get it explained in a different way.

Most users (I don't know 100% of cases) who have thought to say "I'm having trouble installing. What am I doing wrong?" have gotten a response and thereafter had a successful experience with this product.

[Big-Pete]

Originally Posted by thincom2000

but there is a step-by-step instructions page that gets updated with each new build - a lot of users tend to miss this page. While the install / setup isn't just importing a product file and voila, the instructions do say at the end "Review the Manual".

Thats because your site is not the most user freindly, fastest or easiest to navigate site around..

Originally Posted by thincom2000

The manual is visible to the public in its entirety. View it before buying. If you feel like there's enough information there to get you started, by all means install the product. If you feel a bit uneasy and don't feel comfortable asking support questions every once in a while, why are you modifying software?

Modifying software is only as easy as the instructions given, and the instructions included with the product are poor, this thread is quite old now yet you've still not improved the instructions, one rule you should follow is simply that the customer is always right, and you've had a lot of potential customers and actual customers on here complain and comment about the installation being tedious and the product hard to use and you've not listend at all!!

Originally Posted by thincom2000

A new product is always something new to be learned. Didn't they always teach us in school, if you have trouble or don't understand something, ask a question? Rather than get disgruntled and post bad press about a product that otherwise does its job, use the support system and get it explained in a different way.

In the school I attended they explained things precisley and clearly, something that doesn't apply to the instructions given by CES..
I installed vbulletin with no prior knowledge at all, it was infact very easy, why?? because they have an excellent user manual that explains things clearly, no need to take time out of a busy day to "ask" for help that should infact be given in the form a useable userguide!

Originally Posted by thincom2000

Most users (I don't know 100% of cases) who have thought to say "I'm having trouble installing. What am I doing wrong?" have gotten a response and thereafter had a successful experience with this product.

Again, how can you expect people who use your products to have to "ask" you for help that should be given with the product / item anyway

[thincom2000]

Originally Posted by Big-Pete

Modifying software is only as easy as the instructions given, and the instructions included with the product are poor, this thread is quite old now yet you've still not improved the instructions, one rule you should follow is simply that the customer is always right, and you've had a lot of potential customers and actual customers on here complain and comment about the installation being tedious and the product hard to use and you've not listend at all!!

Again. It's claims like this that annoy me. I have stated time and time again that we do listen to our customers, and if you actually bothered to read the discussions and talk to our CURRENT customers - not customers from 10 months ago or 5 months ago or even 3 months ago that have moved on, and not people in this thread using a Lite version created 12 months ago that is not supported in any way - you would know this.

We have made many efforts to improve usability of our site and our product and the "quality" of the instructions, but the problem comes when claims like this are made: "The instructions included with the product are poor". How is that supposed to help us write better instructions? We have no idea what change should be made when this is all they say.

Thankfully you have mentioned the vBulletin User Manual as a model - we actually modeled ours after theirs. Imagine that. But we didn't want to create a manual with so much information that a new user didn't know what to do with it.

So I ask you again - what, specificially, would make the manual better? As someone who has already given up on the product, you probably aren't capable of answering this, because as stated, we can't make any improvements by guessing on vague charges of inadequacy.

You will notice that I am almost completely ignoring your statement that the web site is impossible to use - everything is available from a single neat page by clicking the giant "VaultWiki" link at the top of the site. And if you can't figure out that you should be looking on the VaultWiki page for VaultWiki information, the site's home page essentially says "click the giant VaultWiki link".

Originally Posted by Big-Pete

how can you expect people who use your products to have to "ask" you for help that should be given with the product / item anyway

Because when someone pays for a software license and they pay for the support that comes with it, how is support supposed to know there is a problem when the customer doesn't say something directly, but instead go post about it in a thread on some other site. Again, this is not taking advantage of the services you have paid for, but rather saying you don't care that you have paid for them.

Now, please get back on topic. This thread is only for discussion of the unsupported Lite version of VaultWiki. Do not use this thread to discuss the commercial version or propagate your personal qualms that should be instead be directed to the commercial product's technical support team.

[thincom2000]

@berben4, Big-Pete is not a potential customer. He is a prior customer that has not used the official support he paid for, and has posted his ideas for improvement here rather than on the company's site. He has suggested that the company is responsible for making changes based on users' comments in random places on OTHER web sites.

I am not trying to say that Big-Pete is an idiot, nor imply that anyone else is. My point is that he has let his frustration get out of hand. My explanations of how easy it was to get support was to demonstrate not that he was too stupid to figure out how to get it, but that he is so frustrated that he did not want to bother spending any more time to get support.

All of my questions to him, both here and elsewhere, have tried to get at the root at what exactly caused his frustrations. I can't see that it's simply that the manual was insufficient to setup the software - since he could have just asked someone for clarification. The only reason I can see anyone getting this upset is if their database crashed, but he hasn't mentioned anything like this.

If there is a severe problem like this, he needs to report it. If there isn't, he needs to calm down and just tell the proper support person (this is not the place for that) what he couldn't install. His license included professional installation free, after all.

While people have said "it's not easy to set up" here, those issues have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis for users with a license, and those users' suggestions that were made on the official site were not ignored. Now, many of those concerns... are no longer concerns, because in fact, every suggestion I have seen made on the site has been answered, and many of these led to improvements in the setup and functionality of the product itself. However, we have to ask that users be specific when they make a criticism or request a change, or a speedy and effective change cannot be made.

Regarding this thread: It contains an unsupported version of the product that has nearly every feature removed - from a year ago. It is not a good advertisement for the actual current product, nor is anything people say about this unsupported version. This thread goes largely ignored by any staff at the official site. Several weeks after opening this thread I regretted it, and would have deleted it if I could.

[chick]

'Not easy to setup' is an understatement unless you wrote the script...

Ted is improving the instructions, hopefully to include video instructions. (Hi Ted) I too was so lost and could not understand how to set-it-up.... (bought 2 pro versions) and his support is the BEST out there. Support is the MOST important thing. That is what I pay for... I just love my wikis'

[Kiint]

Originally Posted by chick

'Not easy to setup' is an understatement unless you wrote the script...

Ted is improving the instructions, hopefully to include video instructions. (Hi Ted) I too was so lost and could not understand how to set-it-up.... (bought 2 pro versions) and his support is the BEST out there. Support is the MOST important thing. That is what I pay for... I just love my wikis'

The first version I bought was pretty difficult to set up but I managed it and with the expert help from the great support people who even logged in (with my permission of course) and fixed problems which were caused by my custom template, something they didn't have to do at all. They continually upgrade the vaultwiki and are always available to help should any problems arrise, they listen to feedback and act on it.

If you are looking for a wiki that integrates with vbulletin, then this is the one you should get. Go take a look at their site and ask your questions there. You will always get an answer...always.

[Elenna]

Ted, thanks again for VaultWiki!

I did think that it was confusing to install, but not as confusing as other products that require a separate wiki package and then bridge to vBulletin. I fumbled through it using my vbtest site and got everything up and running. I found the concept of a wiki was confusing in and of itself, especially when we are all so used to being thread/forum driven. VaultWiki bridged that gap very well, with very very little work needing to be done after the initial setup.

I submitted a few bugs in the past (on their "official" site, by the way), and always received prompt and polite responses, even checking up to see if I had managed to fix it on my site.

I'm glad that your new version has an expanded help section, and the ease-of-use changes look wonderful!

Thanks again, our admin staff and general members love the wiki, even if we don't use it to its fullest capacity (we don't allow everyone to add/edit).

[thincom2000]

Hey guys, but thanks for your kind words. I'd hate to bring it up on this forum, but since you've essentially done it here, if you haven't posted a testimonial for VaultWiki yet on the official site, that would be great - you can ask how to do so over there.