Help:Contents
This Wiki aims to create an online resource for Field Operational Tests. If you want to contribute, please create an account!
The FOT-Net wiki is powered by MediaWiki, a free Wikipedia-like software. We recommend that you have a look at the Mediawiki help page to discover all the functions you can use within the FOT-Net wiki.
What is the FOT-Net Wiki?
The FOT-Net Wiki is an open collaborative tool which gathers information about Field Operational Tests for Intelligent Transport Systems worldwide. Anyone can see it, and anyone can edit it. The content of the Wiki doesn't come from FOT-Net, but from the various FOTs listed, and links are usually provided to get to the source of information.
Interested in knowing more? See also the article about wikis on Wikipedia
When viewing any page on the FOT-Net wiki, you'll find three main navigation elements:
- The sidebar on the left gives you access to important pages in the wiki such as Recent changes or Upload file.
- At the top of the page are links (often called tabs) which relate to the page currently displayed: its associated discussion page, the version history, and—most notably—the edit link.
- In the top right corner you'll find user links; as an anonymous user, you'll see a link to create an account or log in (they are the same page). As a logged-in user you have a collection of personal links, including ones to your user page and preferences.
Editing an article
It's very easy to edit the contents of a wiki. It only takes a few clicks.
- Click the "Edit" page tab at the top of the page.
- Make changes to the text.
- Click the "Save page" button.
Simple as that!
Editing rules, editing conventions, and formatting
The number one rule of wiki editing, is to be bold. Dive in and make changes. Other people can correct mistakes later, so have confidence, and give it a try! There can be all kinds of editing conventions, rules, and philosophy governing the editing of wiki pages, but the "be bold" rule overrides these!
In general try to write clearly and concisely and make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the wiki contents. An edit might be to contribute whole paragraphs or pages full of information, or it could be as simple as fixing a typo or spelling mistake.
When you need to use some type of formatting e.g. new headings or bold text, you do this using wiki syntax. See Help:Formatting for some of the common types of formatting used.
Edit Summary
Before you save a change, you can enter a short note in the Summary: box describing your changes. Don't worry too much about this, or spend too much time thinking about it, but try to give a little description of what you just changed e.g. "fixed typo" or "added more information about sunflowers".
The summary gets stored alongside your edit, and allows people to track changes in the wiki more effectively.
Preview
It's a good idea to use the "Show preview" button to see what your change will look like, before you save it. This is also related to track changes because every time you save, this is displayed to others as a separate change. This isn't something to worry about too much, but it's good to get into the habit of eliminating mistakes in your own work, by using a preview before saving, rather than saving several minor corrections afterwards.
Show changes
Another option is the "Show changes" button which allows you to see the differences between the current version and your edited version.
Other types of editing
With wiki edits you can start a new page, move (or rename) a page, or even delete a page:
Remember you should always aim to improve the overall contents of the wiki with your edits.
Discussion
Every article has its own “talk page” where you can ask questions, make suggestions, or discuss corrections. See help:talk pages
Writing a new article
There are several ways to start a new page. These can vary based on the type of page started.
If your Field Operational Test is not in the FOT-Net wiki and you would like to add a page, please use the FOT sheet template.
Using Wikilinks
MediaWiki makes it very easy to link wiki pages using a standard syntax (see Links). If you (or anyone else) create a link to an article that doesn't exist yet, the link will be coloured red, like this.
Clicking a red link will take you to the edit page for the new article. Simply type your text, click save and the new page will be created.
Once the page has been created, the link will change from red to blue (purple for pages you've visited) indicating that the article now exists.
Usually this is the best way to create a new page, because it means that right from the start, the page will be linked from at least one other place on the wiki (and typically you will want to mesh it into other related pages later). If you are creating a new page without creating any link to it, you may need to ask yourself: Does this page really fit in with the topics already covered in the wiki? Also, how are you expecting visitors to find this page? Normally there is no reason to create a page without first creating a red link to it.
From the search page
If you search for a page that doesn't exist (using the search box and “Go” button on the left of the page) then you will be provided with a link to create the new page.
Using the URL
You can use the wiki's URL for creating a new page. The URL to an article of the wiki is usually something like this:
http://wiki.fot-net.eu/index.php?title=ARTICLE
If you replace ARTICLE with the name of the page you wish to create, you will be taken to a blank page which indicates that no article of that name exists yet. Clicking the "Edit" page tab at the top of the page will take you to the edit page for that article, where you can create the new page by typing your text, and clicking submit.
Adding a video
You now have the possibility to embed videos from popular video sharing services (YouTube etc.) on the Wiki. To do so insert the following:
{{#ev:service|id}}
Where service is the name of the video sharing service (YouTube,vimeo etc.) and id is the id of the video to include.
More help here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:EmbedVideo
Requesting an article
Should you have heard of a promising FOT or related activity which is not listed in the FOT Catalogue and that you like to see in, although you are not able yourself to write the new article, please mention it in the FOT Request List page. In order to help the contributors writing the article, try to mention as many details as you know, and possibly links or contacts.
Remember that the FOT-Net wiki is a collaborative tool: it can very much be that the best suited person to write the article is YOU! So don't hesitate: be bold, and write it!
You may anytime ask help from the administrators or to the FOT-Net team.
