LauLima

http://onlinelearning.dmem.strath.ac.uk/laulima/img/llbig.png	LauLima [{{{recentchanges URL}}} Recent changes] [No WikiNode] [No About] [No Mobile URL]
Founded by:
Status:	Active
Language:	English
Edit mode:	Read-only
Wiki engine:	Custom engine
Wiki license:	[[:Category:Wiki {{{license}}}|{{{license}}}]]
Main topic:	Wiki engine

Description

LauLima is a modified TikiWiki. It is developed for an educational context but could be used in many situations. "LauLima" is Polynesian for "a group of people working together" or "it takes many hands to complete a task'".

LauLima source code is now available for download from the DIDET website.

On the site there is a forum there for LauLima, and on the forum there are screenshots and installation instructions. The installation is a bit long at the moment, but I've tried my best to detail it.

Features include forums, shoutboxes (with a profanity filter), articles, and file galleries, though we don't use image galleries as we use file galleries for most file storage. In addition there is a digital library component that allows the storage and reuse of material produced on the wiki site, or material uploaded to the library area. We use it to store useful materials generated by our students for subsequent use with other groups of students.

Throughout LauLima we have added a second permission system. The TikiWiki permissions system we call a 'capability', and we now have create, read, write and delete permission in addition to the capabilities, so for example, it is possible to specify for and individual, group, or globally whether someone can read, delete or edit a wiki page/ file gallery/ a forum area etc.

This means that you can have some pages visible and editable by some teams yet, invisible to other groups. We allow the creator (owner) of a page to control the permissions. What is more, as every object has permissions, we check on page creation whether the current user can access things, so one user may see a link in a wiki page, while another without read access to that page will see a non-active padlocked link. Wiki page editing has differences too with, quick ways of inserting links to files and images (only those that the current editor can read). This approach gives us the ability to have teams of users working concurrently and privately, then when they decide, they can allow others to view selected pages/file galleries.

We have a number of extra capabilities in the system, that allow some groups of users (e.g., staff) to view objects owned by students, even if the students haven't shared the objects specifically with the staff. There are many subtleties to this mechanism, e.g., as long as a file isn't shared it remains private to the owner.

I have prepared an 80+ page usage manual which I will post on our forum shortly, that details the use of LauLima as a user. A manual for the administration of a LauLima site will follow shortly.

I don't want to go on and on here, just simply to say that while it retains a lot of TikiWiki we have modified it extensively to our needs, and have been using and developing it for approx 3 years and our main server currently supports more than 500 user accounts, with a number of other sites adding to this total. It's development is still ongoing but we are releasing a version that has a lot of useful functionality (we hope).