Doucumentation
RAILWAY KNOWLEDGE BASE - Design Notes
Every wiki is based on the concept of Pages that hold information and provide Links to further Pages, allowing a structured way of storing data.
The Design of this wiki started from the point of creating pages for every Station and Track-section between Stations for the whole of New Zealand. This then provides the framework to be able to record data about every aspect of the physical Railway. The key to presenting all the Station and Section pages in a meaningful way became a reality following some experimenting in MS Excel and it did not take long to be able to replicate the Excel table in the wiki using the Advanced Table commands, presenting what is known as a Network Diagram. Being a 'first-time' wiki user, and tackling something as complex as these Network Diagrams resulted in a very steep learning curve, and quite possibly not the most elegant way of implementing some aspects of it. The key area I have not attempted to understand is Style Sheets and how CSS can help rather than hinder certain functionality. As things mature and more experienced developers might get involved, considerable re-work might be advisable to help improve the forward plan for this wiki.
There are some key design features affecting all pages that perhaps need to be explained early on. Without understanding the full implications, I envisaged a Station Page as consisting of various 'layers', with access to each being the selection of a particular Tab at the top of the page. The Primary Page being the Topic defined by the PageName. In addition there would be layers (or associated Pages) for Discussion, Info Submission, Station Archive, Published References, Page Notes, Plan Register and Photo Gallery layers to the data. I have since learned that these are different Namespaces and I am not fully aware of how these will be best utilised as the site gets developed further. The majority of these are place holders for future developments, but the Station Archive tab has been populated with the relevant entries from the Station Archive spreadsheet, the results of many hours of research by Juliet Scobel for the Rail Heritage Trust. Only pages of Category 'Station' have a Station-archive tab.
The general process envisaged is that all registered users of the site can add information to the Info Submission tabs. This could be in the form of simple statements of fact i.e. Stationmaster's name was Bob Smith in 1942, or it could be fully prepared text telling a whole story about the pages topic. All registered users will also be able to upload images. This is a two step process with step 1 being the actual image upload, and step 2 being referencing that image on one or more pages. As the site develops further, a more formal image registration process will need to be implemented to avoid duplicate images and provide a standard image description and key-word format.
Users can become certified Editors by showing they have competency in preparing structured data in the form of stories or tables. They will be able to take information from any source and prepare final data pages from there.
INITIAL PAGE LAYOUT
The initial preparation of pages adds certain functionality to the pages. The data for this is pre-prepared in excel worksheets which will be explained shortly, but the end result is that pages each have a defined name, they are classified into Categories, either Station or Track-sections, as well as any possible Line groupings. Each Category is accessible via a hyperlink at the bottom of the page. A hyperlink is also added to each page allowing ready movement between a Station or Track-section page and its 'cell' on the relevant Network Diagram. This functionality uses the Anchor feature of Media Wiki. It has some limitations as it attempts to place the referenced Table cell at the top right of the screen, which is often not physically possible, but the cell will be within the visible part of the screen, avoiding the need to search outside the currently visible area. Each page also has a graphics and text area at the top right of the screen, which I have termed a Trail. For a Station page it shows the current station as a larger central red dot. A horizontal line goes out to the right and left representing the Track-sections either side of the Station, and at the ends of these lines are smaller red dots representing the adjacent Stations. The Lines and dots all have hyperlinks above or below them providing a simple way to move 'along' the track. Additional text shows the distance between adjoining Stations. Where a Branchline starts or ends at a particular station, this is represented by an additional line and adjoining Station. The arrangement of the lines and dots making up the Trail diagram is intended to represent the Station as closely as the system will allow, but as junction yards can become quite complex, some compromises need to be made occasionally. Track-section pages have a slightly simpler Trail diagram showing just the stations at either end of the current track-section.
The whole system of Trails is made possible through the use of Templates and Parameters, with most Stations and Track-sections being able to use one of two standard templates. I have developed processes to make use of Excel to generate all the standard Template coding, leaving just the Junction Stations requiring to be manually coded.
In summary then, the initial functionality includes the items in the following list. Some of the documentation is very extensive, with the Word document now at 55 pages with many example diagrams etc. the relevant portions will be progressively added to each of the Links.