Thread

Does someone know if the documentation on Ellis Lab is EE Wiki module?
http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/index.html

If not, do they even use their own module somewhere?

The thing is that in the past I found Wikis to be cumbersome to make manuals or user documentation. I know use an offline software but I was wondering if there was an easy way to create a user manual with EE. Not because how they worked, but because you had to use tags everywhere and it took to much time vs just writing and formatting topics in other ways.

The problem with creating manual and documentations pages, like I did in the past, is that I need to keep modifying sections and categories. I had this in a FAQ system and it was a mess, when you had to move categories or sections, or a new one was added, you had to relink everything, etc.

This is the biggest problem with user documentation, that topics are into sections and sections sometimes in categories, and from time to time you need to add new topics, move them around or change sections.

I was wondering if there was an easy way to do this in EE, to be honest I did not used the categories yet, not even channels, so im sure this can be done but since there is a Wiki module maybe this is actually designed exactly for this, and if it remembers positions or ordering in the main index it would be great. This means, what I need is able to move a topic into another sections, and all pages with the button “Next” or “Previous” will be updated correctly as well the main documentation index. Because usually someone uses a manual like a book, from page to page, or searches directly something, or clicks directly on a topic from the index of topics.

I don´t need something fancy, something simple, but that lets me organize topics in a nice way and since the Wiki allows other people to edit and control changes as well I think this could work great for documentation.

Is the Wiki module usable for this or should I use something else?

Any ideas?

I activated the Wiki and I see its rather powerful and it seems its actually a good fit for user documentation, it seems it could scale well and allow version history and multi user editing plus what other wiki usually have.

Is EllisLab themselves using the Wiki module somewhere in their site to see what can be done with it?

The EE docs are not managed using EE.

There used to be an EE wiki using the wiki module but it went silently into that good night a few years ago.

FWIW the EE wiki hasn’t seen significant updates or feature additions since shortly after it debuted. Don’t invest a bunch of effort expecting that it will in the future..😉

Thanks, that is sad, because the Wiki module does look quite good. After Googling a while it seems Wikis are actually pretty good for technical documentation. Not sure if the EE module can export data, because if it can export to PDF then you can actually use it for online and offline (printed) documentation as well.

When you mean the EE docs are not managed by EE you mean they are not using Expression Engine for their user guide section? This community is EE and I assumed their own website is using their own CMS they sell and promote.

It would be rather strange if Ellis Lab themselves are not using their own software and using an external one for some parts of their site because it would be like admitting its not good enough to do the job. Even the account systems is EE so why would their own docs which is rather something more simple than anything else in their website be outside of EE? That would be rather odd in particular if the account system, their blog, their forum, etc, everything is EE powered.

When I say the EE docs/user guide are not managed by EE I mean exactly that. 😉

Understand I don’t speak for EllisLab officially but in the past when this topic came up I recall them saying EE just wasn’t a great fit for the task when you factor in documentation changes with regards to new releases, etc.  It probably appears simple to an outsider but is more complex with aligning changes to software that is changing (I have a similar challenge with my own book).

They’re smart people - I’m sure their reasoning is logical…;)

The site and forums are EE. The eCommerce uses BrilliantRetail - after running for years on a custom/hacked solution. I’m not sure what if any customizations are in place between BR and EE account system.

There is no built-in export from the wiki, but it is all in a database so open to custom work. Personally other than WikiPedia I have never found a wiki to ultimately be useful - they always tend towards entropy.

Yes documentation can be a challenge, in particular with software that changes and requires small tweaks and constant updates to not go into oblivion of being outdated.

I tried many solutions and approaches in the last years from simple ones as using ms word to expensive documentation software. I always knew wikis where a fit but I just never desired to have another extra software to maintain, update and extra logins.

Im now replacing several softwares with build in EE features for simplicity and management reasons. Dropped wordpress for the blog part, dropping vbulletin for the community side, etc.

Every external app needs time invested to learn it, then fit it to a corporate design wich is a challenge but worst having to update them and even apply regular changes to them.

Documentation is not different if its going to be online and free for the public. Its part of your marketing and needs to maintain a consistent brand and website look plus integrate with your user base. A wiki has its downsides like having to learn its syntax or getting tedious when it scales but so does anything else you use. I researched this allot and wikis seems to have more plus than cons on this and since EE ships with it there is nothing to lose in terms on integration.

You mentioned wikipedia but i actually know allot of user guides from software companies made in wikis. Atlassian is one which is very popular for example for documentation.

Sorry for mispelling. Im on my phone.

There’s always the possibility of using a Channel + categories etc for documentation. The big benefit here is that you can group and cross link doc articles via categories or even relationships, plus easily link back and forth from product pages on your main site.

I follow the Electronic document and records management system (EDRMS)  is a type of content management system and refers to the combined technologies of document management and records management systems as an integrated system. Where it should be more effective in standard aswell as in easy to maintain.A range of software vendors offer these systems at an enterprise level (i.e. targeted at managing all documents and records within an enterprise).http://www.ashconversions.com/