Extension:FlowchartWiki

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FlowchartWiki Release status: beta
Implementation	Link markup, Tag, Database, Page action
Description	Flowchartwiki creates flowcharts from the links between wikipages in a category and can be used for process modelling and process documentation.
Last Version	1.1.0-RC1 (November 14th, 2008)
MediaWiki	tested with 1.13.1
License	GPL 2 or later
Download	http://sourceforge.net/projects/flowchartwiki/
Example	see http://www.flowchartwiki.org for a demo, sample processes and full documentation.
Hooks used ArticleSaveComplete InternalParseBeforeLinks LinksUpdateConstructed ArticleDelete TitleMoveComplete ArticleUndelete

Flowchartwiki is an extension to MediaWiki for creating flowcharts from the links between wikipages in a category to support process modelling and process documentation in MediaWiki. This simplifies the self-organizing of teams and processes.

Each process-step is a wikipage and based on the tagged links between the wikipages and a type assigned to a wikipage, a flowchart diagram is created automatically. This keeps the diagram always up to date and reduces manual maintenance. The Diagram itself is clickable to simplify the navigation in the wiki. A hierarchy of Processes is supported.

In comparison to popular office software, all users of the wiki can simultaneously access the process model and keep it up to date.

Contents 1 New in 1.1.0-RC1 2 Usage 3 Download instructions 4 Installation 5 See also

[edit] New in 1.1.0-RC1

Arrows to next steps can be customized with arrow-type, color, line-type and a label can be added. (Think of "Yes/No" links, where a "Yes" or "No" appears as a label next to the line to the next step and where the "Yes"-line is green and the "No"-line is red.)

[edit] Usage

How MediaWiki is used to model processes:

• Process = Category Page
• Process-Step = Wiki Page
• tagged Wiki-Links
• Result: clickable graph

By adding a few special tags to category and wiki pages, a graph is created from the links between these pages.

Add these tags to a category page:

<CategoryBrowser />
[[ModelType::Process]]

• The CategoryBrowser tag creates and displays the clickable flowchart on the category page.
• The Modeltype tag selects the type of diagrams used for the process (fully customizable).

Add these tags to the individual wikipage (besides the usual Category Tag).

<CategoryBrowser />
[[NextStep::Download]]

<Dependencies />

[[Type::ProcessStep]]
[[Level::100]]

• The CategoryBrowser tag creates and displays the flowchart on the wikipage and highlights the current page in the graph.
• NextStep::Download tags the link to the "Download" wikipage in the process.
• The Dependencies tag is a special version of "What links here" and shows a list of links from and to this page - including the type of the links.
• Type::ProcessStep defines the type of this process step and determines the shape type and color used in the graph. The shape types and colors are customizable.
• Level::100 is a hint to the graphing-algorithm (graphviz) on where to place the process step in the graph.

[edit] Download instructions

Downloads are available from sourceforge.net [1]. For prerequisites (Graphviz) please also check the project website at http://www.flowchartwiki.org.

[edit] Installation

Installation and upgrading instructions can be found on flowchartwiki.org.

[edit] See also

• FlowchartWiki uses an extended/modified version of the Extension:Pdf_Book extension that exports the whole process documentation including the graph images. It can be downloaded from the flowchartwiki.org download page as a separate file.
• The Graphviz Extension Extension:GraphViz is not required, but the GraphViz Software needs to be installed.