HowTo: Build a Web Site with FrontPage, Community Server, and MediaWiki

By Eric Hartwell - last updated March 18, 2006

These days, many of the best applications for web portals are free, open source programs. Two of the best are Community Server 2.0, a knowledge management and collaboration platform, and MediaWiki 1.5 for collaborative writing.

The flip side is that each has its own appearance, user interface, and data store. Fortunately, open source developers seem to have a thing for skins. And, of course, there's always the source.

This series of tech notes documents my progress in building a unified web portal using Community Server, MediaWiki, and static web pages - using FrontPage shared borders, style sheets, a bit of JavaScript, a bit of PHP, a bit of brute force, and a few rolls of duct tape.

Is all this overkill for a personal web site? Of course it is. Is it overkill for a project web site? Of course not.

Installation

• HowTo: Install MediaWiki on IIS Shared Hosting

Look and Feel, Navigation

• HowTo: Customize Community Server Navigation
• HowTo: Integrate FrontPage Webs With Community Server
• HowTo: Integrate MediaWiki with Community Server and FrontPage Webs

Search

• Now here's a challenge: Provide a unified search function for FrontPage pages, Community Server data in SQL Server, and MediaWiki data in MySQL.

Part 4: Administration, Management, Backup

• Common membership roles for Community Server and the wiki
• Backing up the data

Revision History

• 20060318 - Initial version