Help:Wiki Community

Before you continue reading, join the wiki as a user. We do not require for you to do this, but encourage you to register.

Why we need YOU! The Xen.org Wiki has existed for some time and as with many Wiki's contains a lot of content that is out-of-date, or not relevant any more. We decided to migrate to a new MediaWiki based wiki, which allows us a fresh start. We hope to be able to mobilize Xen community members and are planning a number of regular activities and approaches: Regular Document Days on IRC Recognize community members for their contributions Make new Wiki much more manageable by using Categories and other proven Wiki tools Help magrate pages from the old Wiki: Migration Instructions from Old to New Xen Wiki

Wiki Conventions

We want to make it as wasy as possible for users to use and find content in the new Wiki and also ensure that the Wiki remains up-to-ate.

Useful Built-in Wiki Pages

These pages will help editors spot pages that need work.

Changes	Missing Content	Manage Pages
Recent Changes	Wanted Pages »» Create page	Uncategorized Pages »» Categorize
Related Changes	Wanted Files »» Upload file	Action Needed »» Needs deletion, refactor, review, ...
	Wanted Categories »» Create category	Needs formatting »» Easy fix for a beginner
	Wanted Templates »» Create template	TODO Item »» Contains TODO item

Managing Pages via Templates

Templates to help manage content
Template	When to use
Template:Needs_Archive	Indicates that this page needs to be archived. Please specify a reason why.
Template:Needs_Additions	Indicates that this page is incomplete and can benefit from additions and improvements. Please specify what should be added.
Template:Needs_Delete	Indicates that this page needs to be deleted. Please specify a reason why.
Template:Needs_Formatting	Indicates that this page has some formatting issues. Please detail the issue.
Template:Needs_Refactor	Indicates that this page needs to be refactored, such as merging or splitting. Please be concrete about the reason and proposed ocurse of action.
Template:Needs_Review	Indicates that this page needs to be reviewed. If specific parts of the page need reviewing or are incorrect, please state in the macro.
Template:Needs_Rewrite	Indicates that this page needs to be rewritten; in other words it is useful but contains lots of errors. Please provide more information in the macro.
Template:Needs_Recategorize	Indicates that this page needs to be properly categorized. Please specify a reason why.
Template:TODO	This is a generic template that indicates that something needs to be done to this page. Should only be used if the more specific templates are not applicable.
Other more generic templates
Template	When to use
Template:Info	This is a generic info box, which highlights some information about this page.
Template:Warning	This is a generic warning box, which highlights some information about this page that typically warns the user of something.

Also see:

• Help on Templates
• Example on how to use any of the above templates:

  {{Info|This is an infobox with this text in the box}}

• Another example:

  {{Needs_Archive|This page is out-of-date: this project completed in 2009.}}

Improving Navigation through Categories

Common Categories

Categories by audience
Category	When to use
Category:Users	This document is for users of Xen or any project hosted on Xen.org
Category:Beginners	This document is primarily targetted at beginners. Note that this category should primarily be used together with Category:Users.
Category:Developers	This document is for developers of Xen or any project hosted on Xen.org
Category:Project	This document is primarily a project document such as a roadmap, TODO lis, minutes, etc. for a project hosted on Xen.org
Category:Community	This document is a community document that doesn't fit elsewhere. It is intended for general information of Xen and the community at large
Categories by lifetime
Category	When to use
Category:Transient	This document has a limited lifespan (e.g. it describes an event or a short-lived activity). Pages in this category should be reviewed at least annually and archived appropriately.
Category:Archived	This document has been archived.
Categories by document type (note that these should be used in conjunction with audience categories)
Category	When to use
Category:Overview	This document contains an Overview document for a specific topic. Overviews are typically introductory and contain definitions, trade-offs, basic concepts, etc.
Category:FAQ	This document contains one or several frequently asked questions including answers
Category:HowTo	This document contains a HowTo document, which usually is a short tutorial
Category:Tutorial	This document contains a step-by-step tutorial for a fairly complex use-case
Category:Example	This document primarily contains example configuration files, settings, scripts, etc.
Category:Compatibility	This document contains a information about software - software, software - hardware and other compatibility.
Category:Index	This document is largely an index to other pages.
Category:Glossary	This document is a definition of a term used in the Xen community or more generally.
Categories by project or technology
Category	When to use
Category:Xen	This document is related to the Xen Hypervisor project or technology. This category may be used for user, developer as well as project categories.
Category:XCP	This document is related to the XCP project or technology. This category may be used for user, developer as well as project categories.
Category:PVOPS	This document is related to the PVOPS project or technology, which is about upstreaming and maintining Xen support in Linux. This category may be used for user, developer as well as project categories.
Category:XenARM	This document is related to the XenARM project or technology. This category may be used for user, developer as well as project categories.

Other Categories

These are more specialised categories. Please ensure that these are used in conjunction with

Project type: Categories that relate to a specific project
Category	When to use
Category:OCaml	This document is related to the OCaml language, in which most of XCP is implemented.
Document type: Categories that are mainly relevant to developers
Category	When to use
Category:Development Process	This document describes a process or technique relates to projects on Xen.org. Documents in this category are mainly relevant for developers.
Category:Design Document	This category contains design documents, architecture descriptions, and so on: in short it contains documents that describe how parts of the codebase work. Documents in this category are mainly relevant for developers.
Document type: Categories that are mainly relevant to users
Category	When to use
Category:Release Notes	This document describes Release Notes for a specifc project or product hosted on Xen.org.

Improving Accessibility of topics with Trails

Trails are sequences of documents (or indeed sections of documents) that are suggested to be read in a certain order. Good trails will be. Note that trails are automatically added to the Category:Trail.

Syntax of Trails Trailbox Syntax Trail Syntax

Use of Discussions: Talk pages

Every wiki page has an associated talk page which can be used for discussion and communicating with other users. Talk pages can be accessed by clicking the “discussion” tab at the top of the page. Simply edit the page as normal to add your comment.

We encourage the use of talk pages. However, it would be good if you followed these Guidelines What to discuss:

• Keep focused on the task of building a wiki article: remember that editing the article itself is often a more effective means of communicating.
• Use discussion pages only to support this process: the topic of conversation should generally revolve around what needs to be done to make the associated article better.
• Talk pages are good in particular, if you suspect something is wrong with the content, but you do not quite know how to fix the page.

Conventions:

• Start a new discussion with a ==level 2 heading== at the bottom of the page (or use the “+” tab)
• Always sign your name after your comments. Use the four tildes “~~~~” wiki syntax (or the signature button in the toolbar above the editing textbox). For more information see Help:Signatures.
• Indent replies with colons (:) at the beginning of the line.

Also See:

• Help on Talk Pages