EDT4OL/Snapshot/Wiki subpages

The general wiki editing space does not have a predetermined hierarchy of pages and sub-pages.This has the advantage of providing wiki editors with considerable flexibility in determining the structure of the wiki but also has the disadvantages that it can be hard to find pages and it can be difficult to decipher the interrelationships between pages.

However, when authoring online course content in a wiki we recommend that you:

1. use sub-pages to reflect the logical hierarchy of the materials you are developing, and
2. familiarize yourself with the Mediawiki software features to help find and keep track of related pages you or others have created.

In this section we will use the analogy of a 'family tree' of two generations to represent the hierarchical structure of a course website. In this wiki to WordPress publishing model, a course website is restricted to three hierarchical levels and in the explanations that follow we will refer to:

• parent pages,
• children pages, and
• grandchildren pages.

Setting up sub-pages in the wiki

Description

Outline page
In the context of this course, an 'Outline page' is a page in the wiki that lists the collection of sub-pages of a course site that will be published to a WordPress site using the snapshot process.

The 'Outline page' will become the parent page for its respective children and grandchildren.

In this section we will show you how to:

1. Create sub-pages in the wiki
2. Use Mediawiki software features to track sub-pages
3. Establish an outline page for authoring materials

Wiki markup to create sub-pages

The standard markup to create a sub-page is based on the use of forward slashes (/) to distinguish parents from their children and grandchildren. So for example, the 'Grandchild page' can be created as follows:

[[Parent/Child/Grandchild|Grandchild page]]

Notes

• 'Grandchild page' is the display link text (Pipe)
• The page: 'Grandchild' is a child of the Child sub-page
• The page: 'Child', is a child of the Parent page
• Wiki page names are case sensitive, so remember to be consistent with the use of uppercase and lowercase letters in your page names.
• To link to the "Grandchild" sub-sub-page, you use the following syntax: [[Parent/Child/Grandchild|This links to the Grandchild sub-sub-page]]

Shortcut to create a sub-page from a parent page

From any page you can quickly create a subpage for that page. So for example, if you are on the subpage called: [[Parent/Child|Child]], if you add the following syntax on that page, a sub-page will be created without the need to include the full prefix of the corresponding parentage.

[[/Grandchild/|Grandchild page]]

Notes

• The name of the sub-page must be included between two forward slashes (/) to instruct the wiki to create that page as a sub-page of the parent where the syntax is added.
• This only works for creating a sub-page of the parent, not subsequent children in the generation.

Mediawiki software features to track pages

The Mediawiki software provides valuable features to help you find associated pages. From the Tools menu there are two links that will help you find pages associated with any page in the wiki:

1. What links here: From any page in the wiki, using the 'What links here' option you can generate a list of every page that links to the page you initiated the request. In the context of developing a course, this is useful when trying to locate any 'Outline' page that is using a given page in the wiki.
2. Subpages: From any page that has sub-pages associated with it, you can click on the 'Subpages' option to generate a list of all the children pages associated with that page.

Finally, sometimes when you are developing course materials, you may create a page and forget to include this as a sub-page on your outline page. When you are logged into the wiki, there is a 'Contributions' link associated with your Userpage. Clicking on this link will generate a list of every page where you have contributed edits. This is a useful feature to locate pages on which you have been working.

Establish an outline page for authoring materials

For the purposes of this course, you will create an 'Outline' page as a sub-page of your Userpage in the wiki. This will make it easier for your facilitator and fellow learners to find the pages you are working on.

When developing online course sites in the future, the 'Outline' page is normally setup in the main wiki area (rather than your user page.) Should you wish to develop course materials in the future and reuse any of your pages you created on this course, it will be easy to copy or move these to a new outline page.

Activity

Purpose: Create an outline page as a sub-page from your Userpage.

==My EDT4OL development project==


[[/_Outline/|Outline page]]