Welcome to Elgg's documentation

This is the place to find documentation on all aspects of Elgg. If you would like to contribute your own documentation please do; we want this to be a real community effort!

From Elgg Documentation

This is some user support documentation that was put together for Nathan's "Folio PlugIn (v.49/.5)" that specifically describes the Wiki and Pages functionality for users (not yet the 'activity' browser). If you wish to use this on your site, please replace [THIS SITE] with your site name.

Using the Wiki and Pages ("Your Pages" or "Community Wiki Pages")



The Wiki feature of [THIS SITE] is extremely easy to use but still incredibly powerful for documentation or construction of page based navigation of content (structured content, such as guides or directories, just like this).



Every user and community has a Wiki and every Wiki can have the same permission level viewing rights as anything else on [THIS SITE] – plus control all the way down to the individual page level. 


Wiki Pages have 3 basic levels of Privacy Control:


There’s a lot of control over who gets to see what at [THIS SITE], you probably sense that already. Wiki’s are no different – and like everything else, you can always change your mind and go back and changed the permissions.

1. Public: This means that anybody can edit the page – including a random visitor to [THIS SITE] who isn’t even registered! This is definitely not recommended and is turned off by default.
2. Moderated: The common default setting, recommended.
3. Private Pages: These pages are visible to only you, that’s it, nobody else. These are probably most useful when you’re working on a long draft of a page and don’t want others looking it over yet (or adding new pages to an existing Wiki that you don’t want others editing until you’re done with your first draft).

Technically, ‘Moderated’ generates 2 types of moderation depending on where the Pages are created (either personal or within a community):
1. Moderated Personal Pages: This means that anybody, including an unregistered site visitor, can see and view the Page but can not edit anything without permission. This kind of page would be created by clicking on “Your Pages” from the top toolbar or would be viewed/edited by clicking the links to the right on the sidebar.
2. This would be great if, for example, you wanted to build a special directory of content, links, recipes (whatever) that you want to share with anybody but do not want anybody else editing.
2. Moderated Community Pages: This is just like Moderated Personal with one clear difference. The Wiki Pages belong collectively to all members of a community within [THIS SITE].
This is a great way to have a group build out a Wiki collaboratively with a focus and common theme or interest. By default, any member of a Community can edit the Pages within that Community Wiki, although each page still could be set to “Public” or “Private” (neither is ever recommended within a Community Wiki!).

Creating a Page and Building the Wiki:


Creating a page is actually very, very simple. By default, when no Wiki page has been created yet, every User and Community will be presented with a ‘Home Page’ (actually called Home Page) that is visible by simply clicking:
1. For Individual users: click ‘Your Pages’ in top toolbar.
2. For Communities: click ‘Pages’ on the right sidebar.
You’ll see a few options that are familiar to Wiki users, such as the history of the page (changes that have been made) along with the ability to Edit the Page.


Click ‘Edit this Page’ and you’ll see a familiar open text box into which you can type your text. This box accepts standard text formatting as well as simple text formatting using the What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get toolbar just like the blog posts on [THIS SITE].


To create a new page, you might simply click ‘Create a new page under this one’ below the text box, at which point you will see a new page and it will be ‘automagically’ linked to from the first page. This is a quick and easy way to add pages, particularly if you’re copying and pasting a lot of stuff from a word processor. 


Alternatively, the common “Wiki Way” to create a page – or create a reminder to yourself or others to create a new page – is to put the name of the New Page inside double brackets ( these: [[)– like New Page (currently blank if you click that!). That will automatically turn the text ‘New Page’ inside those brackets into a hyperlink. If somebody (or just yourself) clicks on that link, they will be presented with a new blank page to edit. This is a great way to suggest “Pages Wanted” within a community, or just a great way to remind yourself to add content later as you build out your pages.


Moving Pages Around:

Every new page, regardless of how you create it above, will present you with the same Privacy options along with the ability to quickly move that page around if you change your mind.


For example, you might create a top page called ‘Cars’ with subpages for Sedans, Vans and Trucks. You then create a link to a MiniVan under Trucks by accident, completely fill out the page, and realize you want to move it around. Simply click ‘edit this page’ and from the small drop down menu toward the bottom, you will see a ‘make child of’ drop down that allows you to choose a new ‘parent’ page. That’s it.