MindTouch has a Free MediaWiki Migration tool available for anyone that would like to convert existing MediaWiki installs to MindTouch Deki. The migration tool converts attachments and the database of MediaWiki to MindTouch Deki, meaning that all of your versions of pages are kept intact along with your users and file references. You can go through the documentation which includes 2 ways of running the tool, one is utilizing our migration server which is hosted with MindTouch, the other way is to download the migration tool locally and run it. The latter is best for users that have sensitive data in their MediaWiki install that they don’t want to leave their local network. This documentation doesn’t require you to be technical and will convert your MediaWiki install in about 10 min (time can be longer if you have a larger MediaWiki install)

MindTouch Deki is already creating a revolution in collaboration with millions of ecstatic users, hundreds of thousands of installations, and a long list of marquee customers. Now, more than ever, your organization needs you to start the revolution by migrating your MediaWiki installs.

To start your MediaWiki Migration today, follow the 5 steps in the documentation.

This week’s extension of focus is for MySQL. The MySQL Extension allows you to surface information from a selected MySQL database and display the results or provide the results as a list to be utilized with other extensions.

To get started add the MySQL Extension.

Once installed edit the Deki page you want to aggregate the results on and then click the Extension button in the editor:

This will bring up the extension dialog where you can scroll down and select the MySQL extension and select the function that you want to invoke. In this example we are going to use the mysql.table function to display a set of results in a table.

Next we will paste the SELECT query that we want the MySQL extension to return. Note: Your SELECT query will vary depending on results desired along with table name.

 SELECT * from tags;

Paste the SELECT query into the query field as seen in the extension screen shot above.

Once you have the query in the field click the Insert Extension button and it will insert the following code into the MindTouch Deki page:

{{ mysql.Table{query: " SELECT * from tags;"} }}

When you click save in the editor it will output the following table:

The example in this blog post is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the possibilities with this extension. Any applications that use MySQL as a backend can have information surfaced in MindTouch Deki. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

We are migrating to a new support portal and help desk system in an effort to improve the customer’s support experience. Included in the the new help desk is a Customer Exchange section where customers can post questions, tips, and solutions for MindTouch Deki along with interfacing with other customers.

Over the next day you will receive an email with a login and password to the new support portal which can be accessed by going to http://www.mindtouch.com/support and clicking on Support Portal or by going to http://support.mindtouch.com If you don’t receive an email over the next couple of days please send an email to support [at] mindtouch.com

All previous cases will be archived in our old help desk software and all outstanding cases will be resolved through the old help desk. We are working on migrating over old cases to the new help desk so that you have better transparency into your case history.

Thank you for your patience while we go through this transition.

The extension I’m focusing on this week is the Xbox Live extension. The Xbox Live extension allows you to include your Avatar or your Game Card widget onto a MindTouch Deki page. This is a good one to get users contributing to Deki along with letting them get comfortable with the Extension dialog.

To get started install the Xbox Live extension.

Once installed edit the page that you want to include the avatar or game card on and then click the extension button in the editor: This will then give you the insert extension dialog where you can select Xbox Live. To add your Avatar or your game card include your gamerTag in the provided field. In this case we are going to use the gamerTag of an avid Xbox player here at MindTouch, wikinaut:

Then click Insert Extension and it will produce the following code:

Avatar:

{{ xboxlive.avatar{gamerTag: "wikinaut"} }}

Gamer Card:

{{ xboxlive.gamerCard{gamerTag: "wikinaut"} }}

Then click save in the editor and the following will be displayed on the page:

The Xbox Live Extension is a fun way to increase activity on your MindTouch Deki by allowing your users to add personal touches to their profiles.

If you are interested in writing your own extension, you can easily do it with a little HTML knowledge and the tutorial here. As always if you have any questions/suggestions please leave a comment or contact us.

Happy New Year! The first Extension of the Week for 2009 is Zoho Meeting. This extension allows you to share presentations at anytime anywhere. Zoho Meeting’s support for remote access lends an interactive element to presentations. With the MindTouch Deki Zoho extension you can embed a screen share on a Deki page allowing viewers to view the presentation directly within MindTouch Deki.

To get started, install the Zoho Extension and sign up for a Zoho Meeting account.

Once you have signed up for Zoho Meeting, create a new meeting. The created meeting will generate a meeting key that you will use with the extension. Now go to Deki, edit the page where you want to embed the meeting and click the Extension button in the editor:

Then search for the Zoho extension and add your username for your Zoho account along with the meeting key as follows:

Click Insert Extension and it will show the following code:

 {{ zoho.meeting{user: "cjtannu", key: "3337639500000000900517"} }}

Then click Save in the Editor and you will be presented with a login screen where the viewers of the presentation can put their name/email:

The viewers will then click Join and will be on hold until the Presenter share’s their screen:

Using the Zoho Meeting Extension will allow you to have a single location where users can gather to not only attend the screen sharing application, but also capture notes and collaborate.

If you are interested in writing your own extension like this Zoho extension, you can easily do it with a little HTML knowledge and the tutorial here. As always if you have any questions/suggestions please leave a comment or contact us.

The extension I’m focusing on this week is the Facebook Extension which allows users to have a dashboard view of their Facebook account including the Inbox, Status, Friends, Photos, and more. In order to invoke the Facebook extension first we need to install the WidgetBox Extension as we will be using WidgetBox to invoke the Facebook Extension.

Once installed paste the following code into your MindTouch Deki page:

{{ widgetbox.widget{id: “b8c780c5-0508-4de8-b0b4-d7d2be7d99d5″} }}

This will invoke the Facebook extension and embed it into your MindTouch Deki page as follows:

This widget is cookie based so you can post it on a Deki Page and that allows all users to login. The Facebook Extension is a great way for your users to access their Facebook Profile within Deki.

If you have any questions please feel free to comment or contact us

Adobe recently came out with Adobe Flash 10, which caused an incompatibility with our browser-based Flash uploader. Currently, the Flash uploading software is in beta. When SWFuploader comes out with their next stable release, which supports Adobe Flash 10, we will include it in Deki. In the interim, there are a couple of options to get the Flash uploader working:

1. Downgrade your Adobe Flash version to Flash Player 9. This will then allow compatibility for the current Flash uploader
2. Apply the patch that has been prepared which will make the flash uploader compatible with Flash 10

Make sure that the patch is applied by your System Administrator

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or contact us

The extension I’m focusing on this week is a new extension for EditGrid.  EditGrid is an Online Spreadsheet service delivering Data on Demand. With the EditGrid extension you can embed an EditGrid Spreadsheet into a MindTouch Deki page and then allow users to add to the spreadsheet.

To get started install the EditGrid extension. Once you have the extension installed then go to the page that you want to embed the spreadsheet on, edit the page, and click the Extension dialog button which looks like this:

This will bring up the Extension dialog where you can scroll down to the EditGrid extension. Then select editgrid.widget and add the username for your profile at EditGrid along with the sheet name. For this example we’ll use my EditGrid account which the username is coreyg and the sheet name is MindTouch_Deki Note: You need to include the underscores in place of spaces for the sheet name.

Now click insert extension and the extension will be inserted with the following syntax:

{{ editgrid.widget{user: "coreyg", sheet: "MindTouch_Deki"} }}

Now save the page and you will see that the spreadsheet renders with the ability to be edited by anyone who accesses the page.

Note: EditGrid has permissions for the sheets that can be altered so that people can only read the sheet and not add to it. Also if someone makes a change to the spreadsheet it will not associate the edit with the user editing, it will be associated with the one general user.

EditGrid is a nice addition to Deki as it will allow your users to collaborate around spreadsheets all within Deki.

If you have and questions or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

The extension I’m focusing on this week is the Instacalc extension. Instacalc is a fast, easy and shareable online calculator. The Instacalc extension will allow you to include a calculator on any Deki page for quick calculations or Advanced Calculations using variables.

To get started install the Math Extension. The configuration/installation of ImageMagick, MiKTeX, and Ghostscript aren’t required to use the Instacalc part of the extension.

Once you have installed the extension you can invoke it by editing the page and clicking on the extension dialog button which looks like this:

This will load the Extension dialog, as seen below, where you can scroll down until you see the Math option, click on that and then select the math.sheet and paste the following url into sheet field:

http://instacalc.com/?d=&c=UHJpY2U9JDMuNzUgLy9Db3N0IHBlciBHYWxsb258RGlzdGFuY2U9MzAwIG1pbGVzIC8v
TWlsZXN8R2FzPSA5IC8vZ2FsbG9uc3xNaWxlcyBwZXIgR2FsbG9uPXIyL3IzfENvc3QgcGVy
IE1pbGU9JHIxL3I0fHw&s=sssshss&v=0.9

Then click the Insert Extension button and the following code will be added to your page:

 {{ math.Sheet{sheet: "http://instacalc.com/?d=&c=UHJpY2U9JDMuNzUgLy9Db3N0IHBlciBHYWxsb
258RGlzdGFuY2U9MzAwIG1pbGVzIC8vTWlsZXN8R2FzPSA5IC8vZ2FsbG9uc3xNaWxlcyBwZXIgR2FsbG9uPXIyL3
IzfENvc3QgcGVyIE1pbGU9JHIxL3I0fHw&s=sssshss&v=0.9"} }}

On save this will show the following Instacalc sheet which calculates the cost per mile for your car:

You can find more Instacalc sheets or create your own at Instacalc.

If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

Today we launched a new Documentation space at http://www.mindtouch.com/Documentation. This Documentation space is the official Documentation for MindTouch Deki. Included in the new documentation space are the following sections:

• Installation - Installation guides for MindTouch Deki for supported Operating Systems
• User Manual - User Manual for MindTouch Deki
• Server Management - Includes tutorials for configuring MindTouch Deki’s server environment for Linux and Windows
• Tips and Tricks - Tips and Tricks for MindTouch Deki configuration and use
• FAQs - Frequently asked questions for deployment, configuration, and activation
• Video Library - Videos of MindTouch Deki in action including tutorials of functionality

If you have any questions about our documentation please contact us.