phpBB Code Wiki - How you can Help

[Highway of Life]

This is the Discussion topic for the phpBB Code Wiki and How you can Help Blog post.

If you have not yet read the phpBB Wiki Announcement or have not followed the discussion topic. I would encourage you to do so and take a look at the new development wiki: http://wiki.phpbb.com

What is a Wiki and what can I do with it?
A Wiki is a type of website that allows the users and visitors to add, remove, and edit the available content. -- Anyone who is interested in working with the phpBB Codebase, from website administrators who want to integrate phpBB into their site, or create a quick-script, to bridge or application developers to bridge phpBB with their application, to MOD Authors. The wiki is for those who want to learn more about the phpBB Codebase or simply have a question about how to do something or how something works within phpBB.
The wiki is also a great way to learn about how to begin programming in PHP/phpBB and developing a MOD.

What can I do to expand the wiki?
The wiki also extends beyond those wanting to learn about Codebase. -- Every MOD Author, Developer, site administrator or simply anyone with experience or expertise in working with phpBB, whether that knowledge is limited or extensive, you can contribute to the wiki. If the content you can contribute is only partial or limited, we still encourage you to contribute what you can. Wiki’s can be expanded by others, so don’t be shy about contributing small or limited documentation.
The wiki is a great opportunity for those of you who have wished for more extensive documentation on the phpBB Code base or wish that the documentation was easier to access in a single location.

I’d like to contribute, but I don’t know what to write about
If you’d like to contribute to the wiki but don’t know what to write about or don’t know if your content would be good enough to be included into the wiki here are some suggestions:

[1] Creating function manual pages.
The idea is that these pages are a lot like the php.net function reference pages. (example of fopen();), you could take an existing function from the phpBB3 Sourcecode Documentation and convert it into a wiki function reference article.
Here is an example of the dbal::sql_build_query converted into a wiki dbal.sql_build_query page. -- You can click edit to view the wiki markup used on the page. The sources that could be used for these kinds of pages are:

1. Sourecode Documentation
   
2. Coding Guidelines
   
3. Viewing the function
   
4. Viewing example implementations
   
5. Referencing existing documentation.

Because of the nature of the wiki, your article does not have to be a complete article, it can be a partial article, a paragraph, or even a contributed sentance to an existing article.

[2] Converting Tutorials
The trigger_error article from phpBBModders is a good example of a good article that could be converted over to a trigger_error wiki article.

There are other locations here on phpBB.com such as the Knowledge base code articles, phpBB Modifications Documentation, and even some posts on the MOD Writers Discussion Forum.
There are some 3rd party sites like phpBB Modders articles, StarTrekGuide tutorials, or ktuk notes that have a "free documentation" or "beerware" license for documentation and can have content copied over into the phpBB Wiki.

[3] Ask.
If you would like to write about something, but you don’t know what, or if you would like us to tell you what the most needed documentation is, please reply to this topic or you can contact me via PM.

But I don’t know how to create wiki markup!
I hope that won’t stop you from contributing. -- even if you contribute in plain text, someone else can come along and easily format it. But wiki markup is easy enough to create.
There are some Help Articles that should help you get started formatting wiki pages. You can also reference existing pages by clicking the EDIT tab and viewing the markup.

The wiki accepts many types of HTML tags, so you can use HTML markup to get started if it makes it easier for you.

Alternative, you can reply to this topic and ask for assistance or contact me via PM for assistance.

Good luck in creating articles!
- Highway

[mtrs]

[2] Converting Tutorials
The trigger_error article from phpBBModders is a good example of a good article that could be converted over to a trigger_error wiki article.

I put trigger_error article from phpBBModders into wiki format and inserted into trigger_error wiki article. But, someone would need to overview, since that article seems to have duplicate explanations now.
I intend to look into a few kb or other articles and add wiki later..

[Highway of Life]

I already created the trigger_error wiki article, so now it was a bit redundant. I was using it as an example.

[mtrs]

Well, I compared trigger_error after formating at the end, noticed late that they are very similar.
Now, I added Knowledge Base - Add a New Custom Page to phpBB article to wiki as Add_custom_page .
I hope this is not duplicate again. There are long article names in kb, I thought it may not be nice with very long URLs, so I shortened name in wiki: Add a New Custom Page to phpBB -> Add custom page
I guess, someone might need to check naming and correct again.

[∞House]

It's going to be fun messing up the wiki. 8-)


/makes list of things to do.

[eviL<3]

mtrs, there is this one: Adding pages

[mtrs]

mtrs, there is this one: http://wiki.phpbb.com/Adding_pages

My second attempt is similar to my first one. I picked that kb article as it is the first in alphabetical order, searched author in wiki before formating, then converted. A kb article takes around one hour to convert over to wiki.
Next time, I'll be careful.

[Highway of Life]

Regarding the duplicated article, there is discussion for it: Talk:Add custom page

There is also quite a few functions that could still be created:
build_hidden_fields, user::add_lang, template::assign_vars as a few examples.

[Highway of Life]

BTW, for those who are editing and watching the wiki, you can bookmark the Recent Changes RSS Feed:
feed://wiki.phpbb.com/index.php?title=S ... &feed=atom

Thanks to all those who have been contributing recently! Erik, Technocrat, and 3Di especially.

[3Di]

My pleasure, thx.

Anyway, I have some Qs and I don't know if I'm allowed to post them here.

example: I would like to translate this link http://wiki.phpbb.com/Coding_guidelines to Italian and make it working in to the Italian Main Page as a working link like the English one does... whoa, I'm getting dense I think...

thx

[Highway of Life]

Of course you can post them here.

----

Yes, it would be just like the German translation of that page: http://wiki.phpbb.com/Deutsch:Coding_guidelines
But your URL would be: http://wiki.phpbb.com/Italiano:Coding_guidelines

[3Di]

Perfect, a good start I can say. Thank you.

[Highway of Life]

We have a new BBCode.

Code: Select all

[wiki=Wiki_page]Title Text[/wiki]

dbal::sql_escape

[Erik Frèrejean]

Thanks to all those who have been contributing recently! Erik, Technocrat, and 3Di especially.

My pleasure .
I also had a thought that the dbal pages might be cleaned a bit as there is a load of duplicate (and sometimes different) data. As you have the DBAL page that holds all the functions, and most of these functions have their own pages as well.

[Highway of Life]

Thanks to all those who have been contributing recently! Erik, Technocrat, and 3Di especially.

My pleasure .
I also had a thought that the dbal pages might be cleaned a bit as there is a load of duplicate (and sometimes different) data. As you have the DBAL page that holds all the functions, and most of these functions have their own pages as well.

Yes, Database Abstraction Layer should just be a wiki page on the DBAL itself, not on the individual functions. Not so much a function reference page, but a class reference page. But I’ve been using the information from this page to create the individual DBAL pages. -- we still have some functions to go here before we can completely rework the DBAL page.

EDIT: Like this page: http://php.net/manual/en/intro.mysqli.php
and/or this page: http://us3.php.net/manual/en/book.mysqli.php