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DokuWiki as private personal online wiki for reading notes
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Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 2, 2018 at 10:10 PM
DokuWiki has been mentioned a few times on this forum.
Those of you that have used it, would you think the following would work conveniently enough (as a reading notes database and as a workflow)?
I’m thinking of setting up DokuWiki as a self-hosted wiki on A2Hosting (subscription-based).
I’d like to be able to use it as a private, personal wiki for my reading notes.
I’d want to be able to create my notes via a web interface, add categories, links to PDF files, insert the occasional image (normally just a screenshot of a diagram), and of course create links between them.
The other use would be to browse the reading notes, annotate them further, and search them.
I may also want to import my existing reading notes database from ConnectedText.
My main motivation for the above is to free myself from my current setup which lockes me into a Windows laptop. My reading notes reside in CT, my references are in EndNote, with links from both CT and EndNote to PDFs of articles and books on the harddrive.
This setup often limits me, as my Windows laptop is heavy and so it’s not always with me, and I prefer to use my Chromebooks whenever I can.
As I often do my reading on a Chromebook these days, I’d prefer to be able to directly type my reading notes into an online wiki (open in a Chrome tab), if the interface makes that easy enough.
Why DokuWiki? I compared several and that one appeals to me, as it looks the closest to CT, both in terms of being plain text-based and the syntax, and it sounds like it has a good search facility.
I still love CT, but not being able to have it with me constantly is frustrating, so I’d want to replicate it online (and the associated toolchain, i.e. my references database and my PDF library—finding online solutions for those is less problematic, as I could use Paperpile, and Google Drive).
Posted by Paul Korm
Jun 3, 2018 at 12:19 AM
I have DocuWiki installed on my NAS for use on my local network. I believe it would be useful for your note taking purposes. The interface is simple and effective, with all the basic tools you would need for notes, wiki linking, image uploading and inserting, etc. I have never exported from ConnectedText for import to other wikis, so I cannot comment on that piece.
Posted by Eric
Jun 3, 2018 at 06:04 AM
Dokuwiki is the reason why i created Start & Doc, I use it for years, It’s the simplest wiki i found, the easiest at use and your pages are stored in plain text (no database and a good way to reuse them in other apps). Wiki are in my opinion the best way to store many type of notes, you can includes links (internal or external), table, charts, annotation and references, also there is a lot of plugin or addon for everything and anything (PDF export, backup, latex, ...). To this, there is also versionning and teamwork.
The bad part is that you need to configure a local server for it, as a developer it’s not a problem for me but for most people it’s a tricky thing, and an other point is Dokuwiki does not use standard markdown but its own syntax.
If you search for a free hosting (without ads or premium features, really completely free), there is https://frama.site/, enjoy.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jun 3, 2018 at 11:28 AM
We’ve been moving our extranet over to DokuWiki since the demise of Kerio Workspace.
It’s a good wiki system - relatively simple to set up, very fast, and with an outstanding search function (highlights everything instantly - you all know how happy this makes me!).
I think it’s an excellent idea for a personal server. Otherwise I’d recommend one of the TiddlyWiki server-based variants, but I personally have found it quite difficult to make them 100% private.
Cheers,
Bill
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jun 3, 2018 at 11:30 AM
Frama looks pretty cool - thanks for the reference, Eric.
I’ll have to check it out, especially since I’ve now moved to France (Brexit? Don’t talk to me about Brexit!)