[pmwiki-users] PITS 00417 WikiGroup Mirroring

[Monty]

Re: PITS 00417 WikiGroup Mirroring
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PITS/00417

Howdy guys,

I submitted request #417 in the PITS system suggesting a feature for 
implementation in a Recipe, the next version of PmWiki, and/or both:

Here are some justifications for automating this group mirroring 
capability, offered for discussion; please read the PITS before reply:
~~
Presently, the only way to mirror a WikiGroup from one site (for 
example, on a personal laptop) to another is to copy the group's files 
from the wiki.d directory from one to the other, which has these limitations
   ** Both website administrators must have SSH access from their 
hosting provider - this costs more or must be justified in most cases 
and is not commonly handed out
   ** The person doing the mirroring must have the root passwords for 
both websites
   **	The person doing the mirroring must know how to use the shell 
commands necessary to perform the operation, and must spend the manhours 
to do it manually each time.

WikiGroups in different farms on the same server could periodically 
sync. Don't know why you wouldn't want to give read write access to the 
group from all farms concerned, but maybe you would rather sync them 
manually or regularly, and keep independent copies.

In order to mitigate high traffic volumes, sometimes it is desirable to 
create mirrors of web pages on the network to distribute heavy traffic 
to prevent "the slashdot effect." This feature would provide an easy way 
for doing that.

This would gain a capability to PmWiki similar to the Win95 briefcase 
feature that allowed mobile users to work offline and then sync up with 
the office later.

The ability to mirror a WikiGroup need not be restricted to the wiki 
administrator only, but this power could be given to anyone by merely 
sharing the URL and password to do so.

In an organization where content is proofed for spelling, grammar, and 
correctness before being published, this would permit for a two tier 
operation of having a content staging site and a production wiki site.
   ** Many departments and schools would find this advantageous, as it 
would permit some professionalism and journalistic integrity before 
going live with information.

High Availability - Mirroring a WikiGroup to another server on a regular 
schedule ensures that the information will be highly available in case 
of disaster, catastrophe, service interruption, intrusion, or data loss 
at one location.
~~

--
Monty