The one drawback of using MediaWiki is that you can’t create forms and other database-driven features because the editing boxes are entirely text-based. This meant that I had to say goodbye to my Unisa second-hand bookshop, which used to store buyer and seller and book details in a database.
Then, I had the idea of creating MediaWiki tables on the module pages, where students could edit the table cells if they wanted to buy or sell a book. Here is an example:
The trouble, I found out when doing usability testing, is that the MediaWiki table syntax is very complicated, and anybody who has never edited a wiki before will be confused by
|| || || ||
and it doesn’t naturally occur to someone that you need to edit in the book details between the pipe symbols.
So, rather than make people read detailed instructions and expect them to master wiki markup for tables, I’m going to put a hold on the bookshop for now, and write a standalone bookshop in 2010, where anybody (not just WikiStudent editors) can sell their books.
I finally found a MediaWiki calendar extension that does the job! Here is what the calendar looks like.
And it’s easily editable because you don’t have to mess with table syntax. All you do is type the date. e.g. 2009-10-13:::ALP101Q Exam
The purpose of this?
Well, if someone fills in the exam date for a module, I’ll know when to email everyone doing that module. Not really a ‘good luck for the exam’ email, but rather a request to come back to the wiki straight after the exam and put down all the questions you remember were asked.
Some improvements to be made: