HTML to Wiki

[DaveNF2G]

Please point me to some guidance as to how to transform an HTML document to a Wiki page. I've searched the Forum and browsed the Wiki user guides but the process is not clear to me

Specifically, I have made an HTML table that shows airline communications data for the Albany International Airport. I want to share this via the Wiki in the appropriate category and with proper links to the DB and other related locations within RR if any.

 

[QDP2012]

Good afternoon Dave,

Please point me to some guidance as to how to transform an HTML document to a Wiki page. I've searched the Forum and browsed the Wiki user guides but the process is not clear to me

With tables, you can use either the "Wiki-style" code or "HTML-style" code. But, even with the HTML-style code, there are some minor differences compared to how you would write HTML-code for a normal web-page.

For documentation:

• The first place to start is the RR Wiki: Quick guide to editing pages, Section 3.6 - Tables.
  • One thing to notice, though, is that the Simplified table syntax is out-of-date and kept for archival purposes only.
• The second link gives guidance on using the Wiki-style table code: Help:Tables

Having used both styles, I prefer the Wiki-style when I want a sortable table, but prefer the HTML-style when I want to make columns-span-rows or rows-span-columns. One example is: Charlottesville City (VA):Fire/EMS/Rescue Agencies

<table border="1" cellpadding="1">
<tr bgcolor="lightgrey"><th colspan="2">Abbr<th>Agency<th>Radio Id<th>Location
<tr><td colspan="2" rowspan="3">CFD<td rowspan="3">Charlottesville Fire Department<td>Headquarters, Administration<td>203 Ridge St</tr>
<tr><td>Station 1<td>345 250 Bypass</tr>
<tr><td>Station 10 <td>2420 Fontaine Av</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">CARS<td>Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad<td>Rescue 1<td>828 McIntire Rd
<tr><td rowspan="6" bgcolor="lightgrey">UVA<td rowspan="2">MedicV<td rowspan="2">UVA Medic V Ambulance<td rowspan="2">Medic V<td>UVA ER
<tr><td>MJH ER Proffit
<tr><td>NETS<td>UVA Newborn Emergency Transport<td>NETS<td>UVA ER
<tr><td rowspan="2">Pegasus<td rowspan="2">UVA Pegasus<td>Helicopter Pegasus<td>CHO airport
<tr><td>Pegasus Ground<td>UVA ER
<tr><td>SEMM<td>UVA Special Event Medical Management<td>SEMM<td>UVA ER

</table>

As you can see in its code, the closing-tags for table-row and table-data are not required.and in most cases will be ignored if they are used. (If I remember correctly, when I first started making tables in the Wiki, I had some occasional problems with the closing-tags being unintentionally displayed, so I don't use them in the Wiki. The earlier problems might have been user-error on my part, though.)

So, depending on whether you want to benefit from the extra capabilities of the Wiki, like a sortable table, or not, you could

• fully convert to a Wiki-style table, or
• keep the HTML-style table and remove the closing tags for TR and TD and TH if they become a problem.

Specifically, I have made an HTML table that shows airline communications data for the Albany International Airport. I want to share this via the Wiki in the appropriate category and with proper links to the DB and other related locations within RR if any.

I find that links made with the Wiki-style code are best. When making links to other RR Wiki and RR DB pages, it helps the Wiki-engine resolve reverse-links, etc., and keeps the orphan-page list correct. You can use Wiki-style links inside HTML-style tables. There are also some templates that make linking to the DB easier, depending on which DB page is your target...including template "DB" and template "DBSite".


If you bump into any hurdles along the way, and want someone to review your code, feel free to send me a PM.

Hope this helps,

 

[ka3jjz]

Actually this is the page on MediaWiki that goes into table coding..

Help:Tables - MediaWiki

Mike

 

[QDP2012]

For documentation:
...

• The second link gives guidance on using the Wiki-style table code: Help:Tables

Actually this is the page on MediaWiki that goes into table coding..

Help:Tables - MediaWiki

Mike

That link seems to be the same one given in post #2.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Thanks to both of you. I will try converting my table and see what happens...

 

[ka3jjz]

Dave keep in mind that you have a work area, reserved under your id, that you can use to test your code. I've often used it to test code or develop new templates or even new articles.

To get to it, just click on your ID under 'Personal Tools' on the left panel.

It's a good way to work out the kinks before you publish something for the membership

Mike

 

[DaveNF2G]

Okay, I've finished the conversion and am ready to upload. What filename extension should I be using?

 

[AK9R]

If your intent is to publish an article in the Wiki, you edit the article directly. You don't upload a file unless you have data that's configured as a PDF or other non-editable file format.

This Wiki article explains the procedures for creating a new article:

New Article Guidelines - The RadioReference Wiki

Please make sure your article is categorized, as described at the bottom of the above article, and is linked to from another article so that it's not an orphan.

 

[DaveNF2G]

That should be made clear on the upload page. I just spent some time editing an HTML file to WikiMedia coding. Now I cannot upload it? Hopefully I will be able to paste it into a form.

 

[ka3jjz]

That's exactly what you do, Dave. Create a new article title - when the wiki stores the new code, the new article will be marked in red (that's the wiki equivalent of a 404). Click on that, then copy/paste your material into the new article. Mike

 

[QDP2012]

Footnotes etc

Good evening Dave,

Sometimes, the HTML/Wiki programming-lessons learned by reading the MediaWiki/Wikipedia help files will not (yet) apply to the RR Wiki, because some of the extensions that allow certain capabilities in Wikipedia have not been installed on the RR Wiki server.

As an example, if you are interested in using citations/footnotes in a narrative paragraph, etc. so that a linked superscript number is displayed in the main text and a footnote/reference section is automatically generated at the bottom of the article (as is common in many Wikipedia articles), I'm not sure that is possible (yet) in the RR Wiki. I think that the Extension:Cite extension is required in order to have the automatically-created footnote section at the bottom, and that it is not yet installed here. I might be wrong though.

The RR Wiki does allow an "unspecified" link, which will create a bracketed number, and which automatically chooses the next available number (meaning you don't need to worry about the numeric value being duplicated or skipped).

To use the "unspecified" link style, simply use the Wiki link but omit the description, like this:

[http://www.myexamplesite.com/myexamplepage.html]

instead of the customary Wiki link

[http://www.myexamplesite.com/myexamplepage.html My Page's Description]

An example of how these auto-numbered links are rendered can be seen embedded in the paragraphs of: Charlottesville City (VA):Charlottesville Communities

As a way to enforce/ensure the superscript appearance in the above linked article, I wrapped the "unspecified" link with the superscript HTML tag, like this:

<sup>[http://www.myexamplesite.com/myexamplepage.html]</sup>

(A manually-created reference list could be placed at the bottom of an article, but coordinating the numeric references with the various "unspecified" links used throughout the related Wiki article would be a manual process.)

There might very well be a better way to do this than what I used above. If you figure out how to do the "automagic" footnotes, please let me know here.

Maybe one of the Admins can shed some light on this and help us both.

Thanks,

 

[DaveNF2G]

Thanks for the tips. I'll play with that and see what happens. If all else fails, I can just add the notes as additional rows at the bottom of the table.

As for starting a Wiki page, that process is not at all clear anywhere in the online documentation. There is no category for "How to create a new document" anywhere. All of the information refers to editing existing documents. The closest thing I could find was the Upload page, which is not appropriate for reasons stated earlier in this thread, but which information is not specified on that page, either.

 

[DaveNF2G]

I'm having some trouble with rowspan and colspan, which do not work exactly as they do within an HTML table. I think I have to put the spanned rows after the spanning cellss in the wiki code, instead of in table order as in HTML.

 

[AK9R]

As for starting a Wiki page, that process is not at all clear anywhere in the online documentation.

New Article Guidelines - The RadioReference Wiki

For instance, type the following link into the address bar of my browser:

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Article_by_Dave

Then click on the "edit this page" link in the paragraph of text below the title or click on the Create button in the menu on the left.