Helping Out

First of all thanks for clicking on the link to find out how you could help.  We need your help to move Kablink forward and make it the best software solution that it can be.  There are many tasks involved in moving an open source project forward, development being only one of them. You are welcome to take a look at the open tasks in the Kablink Projects area.  These projects have already been agreed to by the community and are in need of volunteers to help complete them.  If you have a new idea for a project related to Kablink simply describe your idea and post it to one of our development lists for Teaming or Conferencing.

If you have a couple of hours of time on your hands (we all do right ;-) we could use the help ...

Use the Software and Get the Word Out

One way to help is to just use Kablink and let us know about your experience.  Believe it or not this is probably one of the most important jobs in any open source community.  Without users there is no community or project!  So tell your friends.  You can download Kablink and get started here.  As you use the software let us know what you think.  How are you using it?  How is it working?  How is it not?  All these things are important to us.  To get involved and tell us your comments you can post to our mailing list or in the General Project Topics, either way we'll hear your feedback.  THANKS!

Find Bugs

If you've found a bug we'd love to hear about it.  Anyone can file a bug in our bug database (although it does require a separate login :-( ), simply select the version of the product you are using and tell us about the platform you're using and the circumstances under which the bug occurred.  You can't imagine how valuable these are in our efforts to create a stable and useful product.

Providing Patches

Now for some of the adventurous out there who like to fix things we'd be more than happy to have a patch for a bug thats been "bugging" you ;-).  To provide a patch to Kablink you'll need to first file a bug (see above) and then attach your fix as an attachment to the bug.  You'll also want to post your fix to the mailing list and describe what you've done.  In most cases this is just a formality but if you've extended the functionality of Kablink beyond just a bug fix the community at large may have some valuable advice for what you are doing.

So what do you do if you've added functionality to the platform (after discussing it in the list)?  You still file a bug in the bug database and explain what you have done.  This give us one single source for all our community driven changes.

Creating Wiki Articles

Registered users of the Kablink Community can create new entries in the Wiki.  Users who are visiting the Kablink Community can browse the wiki articles but are not allowed to create new entries or editing existing ones.  To create a new Wiki entry select the New: Wiki entry option at the top of the Wiki home page.  This will bring up a new web browser window that contains the TinyMCE html editor.  Users can title their entry at the top of the page and then add the necessary content for that entry in the Description section.  Selecting "OK" at the bottom of the page will save the content into the Wiki.

The Teaming Wiki uses a simple bracketing notation to link Wiki articles together.  Once inside the TinyMCE editor you can reference another wiki entry by adding two brackets on each side of the wiki entry's title (ie. [[ An Example Entry Title ]] ).  The brackets will indicate to the Teaming software that the contents inside the brackets should be replaced with a link to a particular entry.   If the wiki article contained within the brackets does not exist the software will ask you if you would like to create it when it is selected.  This makes it very easy to pre-populate an outline and have users add content later.

Another way to add Wiki articles in Teaming is to start with the Index page of the section you want to contribute content to.  Insert an unique Wiki Entry Title surrounded by the bracket notation and save the Index.  A link will appear for the entry you just created.  By selecting the new link Teaming will ask if you would like to create a new Wiki article.  Simple as that and the Index has already been updated!

Creating a new entry certainly has its benefits, but adding the entry to the Kablink Wiki Index pages will allow users to find it more quickly.  To reference a Wiki Entry from another location inside of Teaming follow the procedure below to Edit Content.

Editing Content

Registered users of the Kablink Community can edit wiki entries in the Kablink Community.  To edit an entry users should select the "Modify" option at the top on the entry.  This will open a browser that contains the tinyMCE html editor with the entry pre-populated inside it.  Make the changes that are appropriate for your edit and select the "OK" button at the bottom of the page.

Markup Syntax

Page links look like this:  [ [ Some page title ] ]

This would create a normalized link to:  some_page_title

Moving outside the folder gets tricky:   [ [ <workspacePath>Some page title ] ]

where workspacePath looks like:

• a|b|c - relative path down from where you are
• ..|b - path to siblings (also a relative path)
• |a|b|c - path from the top of the Aspen tree

There are 3 ways to reference attached files:

• {{image: abc.jpg}} -- inline image, no link
• {{thumb: abc.jpg}} -- inline thumbnail of abc.jpg and link to abc.jpg
• {{file: abc.doc}} -- link to abc.doc

Anchor tags will be processed looking for the following schemes:

• wiki:Some Page Title   -- same syntax as [ [ above ] ]
• wimage:abc.jpg -- same as {{image: }}
• wthumb:abc.jpg -- same as {{thumb: }}
• wfile:abc.doc -- same as {{file: }}