25 votes

Personal Wikis

Posted by giodamelio
Tags: open source, brain dump, wikis, personal wikis, personal information management, ask.recommendations, self hosting

I have been looking for some software where I can brain dump all the things I need to remember on a constant basis so I can easily find it again in the future. A personal wiki basically. I am wondering what any of you tilderians are using?

The things I am looking for:

Absolute requirements:

  • Open Source: I want to be in control of the data myself, and I want to be able to hack on it myself as the need arises.
  • Self Hostable: Goes hand-in-hand with with open sourceness, I want the data to live on the server in my apartment, under my own control.
  • An API of some sort so I can programmatically add/read/modify data.

Nice to haves:

  • Revision history of some sort.
  • Common/simple data format for easy backup and longevity.
  • Web interface, with mobile compatibility.
  • Lightweight as possible, so I can run it on a low powered server.

Does anything know anything like that?

Options I have heard of:

Here is a previous discussion on the topic @ Lobste.rs

16 comments

  1. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. giodamelio
      Link Parent
      That is kinda the way I am leaning right now, I like the idea of TiddlyWiki, but after looking at the source I am not even going to touch it. Two minor things the turn me off from DokuWiki are the...

      That is kinda the way I am leaning right now, I like the idea of TiddlyWiki, but after looking at the source I am not even going to touch it.

      Two minor things the turn me off from DokuWiki are the fact that it's written in PHP (Not fun for me to hack on) and the fact that the API is a XML-RPC interface. Neither are dealbreakers, but also not ideal.

      I do really like the simple text based storage though. Very portable when I need to jump ship in the future. It also seems to have full text search which is nice.

      1 vote
  2. [3]
    kaushalmodi
    Link
    You already listed the Emacs with Org Mode option that I use. ☑ Open Source and Free — GPLv3 ☑ Self Hostable — I manage it via git and host it at couple of remotes for backup. ☐ An API of some...

    You already listed the Emacs with Org Mode option that I use.

    • ☑ Open Source and Free — GPLv3
    • ☑ Self Hostable — I manage it via git and host it at couple of remotes for backup.
    • ☐ An API of some sort so I can programmatically add/read/modify data. — This probably won't apply. You need a text editor (not necessarily Emacs) to edit the Org files.
    • ☑ Revision history of some sort. — Yes, your choice. I choose git.
    • ☑ Common/simple data format for easy backup and longevity.
    • ☐ Web interface
    • ☑ Mobile compatibility — Orgzly app on Android is very good.
    • ☐ Lightweight as possible, so I can run it on a low powered server. — I at least haven't seen a solution that edits Org files on the fly on a server.

    I publish my Org notes/wiki and posts as a static site — scripter.co, using Hugo.

    8 votes
    1. [2]
      mrbig
      Link Parent
      Org is great for that and org-wiki makes it even easier.

      Org is great for that and org-wiki makes it even easier.

      4 votes
      1. kaushalmodi
        Link Parent
        Yes, that's been on my "list of Org packages to try", and also org-brain.

        Yes, that's been on my "list of Org packages to try", and also org-brain.

        1 vote
  3. [4]
    Sidney
    Link
    One option would be Jekyll (or whatever the best static site generator is these days) with a collection of Markdown files in a git repo. You’d push the repo to a server that would generate a...

    One option would be Jekyll (or whatever the best static site generator is these days) with a collection of Markdown files in a git repo. You’d push the repo to a server that would generate a folder of static HTML to look at over the web, or do something to generate a folder locally. Sadly that doesn’t provide web-based editing.

    2 votes
    1. [3]
      giodamelio
      Link Parent
      This is basically what I have now, but it falls short in a couple of important ways. Mobile editing, I really need to be able to create and query entries on the go, this is really hard with my...

      This is basically what I have now, but it falls short in a couple of important ways.

      • Mobile editing, I really need to be able to create and query entries on the go, this is really hard with my current setup.
      • Programming API. The more I use it the more I want to tie it into various scripts of mine. With the unstructured text setup, this is really hard.
      1 vote
      1. [2]
        kaushalmodi
        Link Parent
        How do you plan to tie your wikis with scripts? Are you planning to manipulate your text using scripts? What will that do?

        The more I use it the more I want to tie it into various scripts of mine.

        How do you plan to tie your wikis with scripts? Are you planning to manipulate your text using scripts? What will that do?

        2 votes
        1. giodamelio
          Link Parent
          A recent example that comes to mind is that I saw Um on HackerNews. I really like the idea, but I don't want another program storing what are basically notes in another format and another location...

          A recent example that comes to mind is that I saw Um on HackerNews.

          I really like the idea, but I don't want another program storing what are basically notes in another format and another location on my computers. Having to sync every little thing like this is painful. So I want to be able to have a small script to store that on my wiki.

          Or maybe I want to use it to import export data I want to hang on too. Like an archive of the data from the journal app I am currently using (Day One).

          The more I am thinking about it what I really need is a personal cms, where I can define models of data and manage them. The wiki is really a subset of that desire. I have wanted something like that for years now, but have never found anything quite right.

          I have been keeping my eye on a number of projects (Perkeep (was previously called Camlistore), and OwnCloud) are the two that pop into my head). At some point I might try and build it myself. That is just so much work though.

          3 votes
  4. [2]
    nonesuchluck
    (edited )
    Link
    I'd vote for Gollum, the wiki that appears on Github. The wikitext is Markdown, same as Tildes. Version history is stored in git. Mobile editing might not be quite as easy as you're hoping, unless...

    I'd vote for Gollum, the wiki that appears on Github. The wikitext is Markdown, same as Tildes. Version history is stored in git. Mobile editing might not be quite as easy as you're hoping, unless you're comfortable using an Android git client such as MGit to edit Markdown, commit and push to your server.

    edit: Not a wiki at all, but a more mobile-friendly solution for notes might be some kind of Notes app hosted in your own NextCloud.

    2 votes
    1. giodamelio
      Link Parent
      Hmm, that is interesting. I had not heard of that one before. It looks like it has a web interface built in too. I will have to give that one a try.

      Hmm, that is interesting. I had not heard of that one before. It looks like it has a web interface built in too. I will have to give that one a try.

  5. SourceContribute
    Link
    DokuWiki is a good choice if you have to share the wiki with others. I prefer Emacs with Org-mode so that I can keep notes and whenever someone else needs info, just copy/paste or export a...

    DokuWiki is a good choice if you have to share the wiki with others. I prefer Emacs with Org-mode so that I can keep notes and whenever someone else needs info, just copy/paste or export a sub-tree (or a whole org-mode file) to Markdown or HTML or PDF (whatever format they need).

    2 votes
  6. aphoenix
    Link
    Depending on how much you need, you might want to try out something like GoWiki. It's not feature rich, but it's fast and it's easy to set up.

    Depending on how much you need, you might want to try out something like GoWiki. It's not feature rich, but it's fast and it's easy to set up.

    1 vote
  7. [4]
    mobius
    Link
    I'm happy with DokuWiki, and my use case seems similar to yours. Required: It's Open Source It's self-hostable (I host it on my laptop so it's always with me locally and w/o requiring a network) I...

    I'm happy with DokuWiki, and my use case seems similar to yours.

    Required:

    Optional:

    1 vote
    1. [3]
      giodamelio
      Link Parent
      That is the direction I am leaning right now. Seems like it will work decently. Perhaps I will find or build something else better in the future. Do you use the git plugin? I like that, but the...

      That is the direction I am leaning right now. Seems like it will work decently. Perhaps I will find or build something else better in the future.

      Do you use the git plugin? I like that, but the plugin hasn't been updated in a couple of years. It could just be stable, but I don't want to use it if it is buggy, or not compatible with up to date versions of DokuWiki.

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        mobius
        Link Parent
        I do use it, and it seems to be compatible with the latest version. I don't think it's doing anything fancy, so it probably doesn't really need to be changed often once it's stable.

        I do use it, and it seems to be compatible with the latest version. I don't think it's doing anything fancy, so it probably doesn't really need to be changed often once it's stable.

        2 votes
        1. giodamelio
          Link Parent
          Awesome! I guess I will try that out then. Which reminds me that I need to fix my self hosted Gitlab... I really need to overhaul my server at somepoint...

          Awesome! I guess I will try that out then.

          Which reminds me that I need to fix my self hosted Gitlab... I really need to overhaul my server at somepoint...

          1 vote