A "KNOWLEDGE BASE"?

[thatbruce]

My idea would be for a place for people to post their knowledge about any Gambas topic or technique.
It would:

• Have just one idea per topic, not a continuous stream like the "Did you know" thread.

• Be at a higher level than the IDE help/Wiki.

• Be a lot easier for anyone to contribute to than the wiki "Documents" section and the Buch

• Individual threads would be manageable by the originator of a topic, not just the SiteBoss. (Possible?)

For example:
Topic: How to manage multiple forms from a main startup form.
Scenario: You have a main form that can open, say 5 others. Each of them can also open or set focus to an existing instance of the others. When the main form is closed any and all of the others should close as well.
Solution: At the moment, damned if I can remember. Which is why I am suggesting this.

Thanks for considering.
thatBruce

p.s. Or there there something for this already?

[sholzy]

A knowledge base is a very good idea! I'd have to think about how to go about doing it. A single topic per idea would probably be the best way. The forum would be a good place to start out, but I think it could end up being another "did you know...", if it's not managed properly. All submissions would probably need to be validated to ensure quality, consistency, etc. Maybe a posting guide/format to follow to help with consistency?

It would be difficult allowing each submitter manage their own topic because of the way permissions are dealt with. I think I could allow any member to create/edit a topic, but no one can reply to the topic, and a "manager" would then review the submission and validate it if it met "quality standards" (whatever that might be).

Are you volunteering to manage it? I don't have time as I'm trying to spend any free time working on the new site.

The new site can have a wiki style area that I think would work great for this as it can have categories (could eventually have them in the forum also). (Currently, the new site is still months away.) Whether it would start out on the forum and later move to a wiki style, I think it would definitely need to be managed.

More discussion is needed...

[BruceSteers]

For example:
Topic: How to manage multiple forms from a main startup form.
Scenario: You have a main form that can open, say 5 others. Each of them can also open or set focus to an existing instance of the others. When the main form is closed any and all of the others should close as well.
Solution: At the moment, damned if I can remember. Which is why I am suggesting this.

Thanks for considering.
thatBruce

p.s. Or there there something for this already?

There is indeed

Application.Mainwindow = Form1

Then if Form1 closes all other windows do.
PS. also make sure all Timers have Timer.Ignore = True (it makes them auto-stop if the application quits)

[BruceSteers]

Besides none of that "knowledgebase" is needed,, you still have me
If help systems and AI can be the answer then what will I do with myself? lol

[BruceSteers]

I agree that "did you know" thread is not great.
Well, there's some great info but it would be better as a separate forum area with individual posts rather than one massively long post.

[sholzy]

This thread is a good example of something easily going off-topic if it's content isn't managed.

That "did you know?" thread wasn't started with the intent of being what it morphed into. It just took a life of it's own. The discussion of how it could be better organized is another topic.

Back on topic...
If started in the forum, the knowledge base would have to be hand ported over to the new system's wiki, which wouldn't be difficult since it most likely would still be small by the time the new site is ready. I won't start any new content on the wordpress side of the current site.

Someone will have to step up and volunteer to manage it once it's set up and working.

More discussion is needed...

[thatbruce]

Look, I'll give managing the forum a go, but I cant devote much time to it for the next 4-5 weeks as the Prof and his crew have extended the LP project. (But hey, it's real money eh!)
Best I can do at present is probably an hour or so a day. After the LP I'll probably have too much time on my hands.

@Brucey-boy,
Yes, Application.MainForm is part of the solution, but not all of it. I still need to be able to manage the child forms as single instances.
This is sort of what I mean about what I'd like to see. Not code injection material but more a discourse...
Solution: (so far)
The main form should be set up as the Application.MainWindow, probably in its' Form_Open() routine if it is the Startup class or in that startup class otherwise. (See Window.MainWindow as a wiki link i.e. https://gambaswiki.org/wiki/comp/gb.qt4 ... mainwindow)
To make sure there is only one instance of each child window that is opened, .....

[sholzy]

Look, I'll give managing the forum a go, but I cant devote much time to it for the next 4-5 weeks as the Prof and his crew have extended the LP project. (But hey, it's real money eh!)
Best I can do at present is probably an hour or so a day. After the LP I'll probably have too much time on my hands.

Good! It's not like it's going to be a flood of posts coming in. gbWilly and I will also get notices that a post has been made and is waiting to be validated. In the coming days I'll come up with some ideas on some sort of a posting format that can be followed. I'll also set up a forum for it.

If anyone has ideas, post them.

[thatbruce]

... ideas on some sort of a posting format that can be followed. ...

Yes! A sort of template for the initial post in a thread would be very advantageous IMO. Also for migration at a later date into a wiki.

My thoughts are that the initial post should have a template like ...(I'll get back to this later, people talking...)
and subsequent posts would be a sort of discussion session. Yeh, just like a wiki of note.

tb

[sholzy]

I know the new site will have the knowledge base (wiki) in the main part of the site and comments will show up in the forum under that topic. If I plan this out correctly... (famous last words!)

Since it's been a few years since I had set up the wiki set under my old site, I probably need to set one up on the test site to remember how to do the initial set up on the current forum so there will less work when the move to the new site is made.

I'm starting to think the knowledge base might include a "tips and tricks" category. On my old site I had a "tips and tricks" wiki and had some things in it that would also be in our current "did you know?" topic. That category could possibly be unmanaged, as long as it doesn't get out of control.


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