Manually creating permanent versions on this wiki

We are currently playing with concepts like permanent versions and trying to combine the best aspects of wikis and blogs - see Wiki practice meets blogging.

This guide was extracted from the above post for reasons of readability. It sets out how to create a new permanent version of a blog post, so that:

  • the current version always occupies the same URL, and yet can evolve
  • it links to the previous permanent version, which links forward and backward to the permanent version before that, which in turn links forward and back to permanent version before that...

The key to managing this lies in the "Revision notes" section at the bottom of each page, which should always include a version control section.

In the very first version of any "versioned" page this version control section should contain something like this:

  • this is version: current
  • here is the current version: [[filename]]
    (aware that including a link to itself looks odd, but as this is copied each time a new major version is created it will save a lot of time)
  • previous version: n/a

When it is time to update the current file, duplicate the file, creating [[filename-1]], and:

  • append the date to the filename - eg filename-1-YYYY-MM-DD
  • move it into the permanent versions subfolder
  • add a "snapshot warning" at the top of the page pointing to version control section
  • edit its version control section (italic = manual edits)
    • this is version: 1
    • here is the current version: [[filename]]
    • previous version: n/a
  • when editing the current file, edit its version control section (italic = manual edits) * this is version: current * here is the current version: [[filename]]
    * previous version: version 1: [[filename-1]]

When it is time to update the current file again, simply repeat:

  • duplicate the current file, creating [[filename-2]], and
    • move it into the permanent versions subfolder
    • add a "snapshot warning" at the top of the page pointing to version control section
    • edit its version control section (italic = manual edits)
    • edit the current file
      • this is version: current
      • here is the current version: [[filename]]
      • previous version: version 2: [[filename-2]]

Therefore each major update of the file requires creating a copy of the current file and making a total of 3 simple edits across the two files.

Why go to all this trouble? See Wiki practice meets blogging (the current version, of course).


Revision Notes