Some Assistance Please

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

doncram <doncram at gmail.com> writes:

> Thanks for replies.  I had previously confirmed my email, but I tried again
> now and it works, and I made a first edit at the page named "Concept Guide" to
> clarify that the page is to be about development of the GnuCash Tutorial and
> Concept Guide.  I also revised the Introduction and set up a section for a new
> review, as of May 2017, of the Guide.

Great!  I'm not sure why you need to confirm your email twice, but I'm
glad that that solves the problem!  That should be added to your new
"how to use the Wiki" page :)

> Great, maybe we have several new and old Wiki users who may work together for
> a bit to improve this Wiki, which in turn should advance the GnuCash project.
> :)  Right, the Documentation Update Instructions are not really that
> complicated, although they do state directly to me that "It is probably
> possible but complicated to update the documentation in Windows", which is
> where I am at.  In the past I used LaTeX and TeX in a Unix environment and
> could find my way to install Linux and do all the rest, but I would like to
> specialize where I can contribute most directly.  I can understand that the
> actual Guide can't be generated from Wiki pages;  the Guide exists in XML
> files which are what are to actually be edited.  But it seems to me that
> editing XML files and testing the documentation would be about rolling out an
> approved new version of the Guide. The instructions don't cover the probably
> informal process of sharing text files of the intended wording. All will
> become clear, I expect, when I first work on updating some specific section of
> the Guide. :)

Feel free to make the instructions more clear.
You should be able to edit the gnucash-docs repo on Windows.
I can't imagine there's no DocBook tools there, however the built-in
makefile might need massaging.

> Right now, I'd like to create a Wiki page about getting started in the GnuCash
> Wiki.  I personally am very experienced in editing Wikipedia and think I might
> be able to help the few others who are new to editing in the Wiki right now. 
> For example, this page would explain the concept of user rights and link to
> the page about user groups (
> http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Special:ListGroupRights), as in the following: 
> ... At the most basic level as a new user, you can't edit but you can have a
> watchlist, which is something more than readers who don't have accounts.  To
> be able to edit, you need to be a member of the emailconfirmed group.  To get
> that, click on "Preferences", see your "User profile", and select the option
> to confirm your email, which sends an email to your personal email account. 
> In your personal email software, find that email and click on the link it
> provides.  You may or may need to log out and log back in again.  Under
> Preferences, you should see your membership in "emailconfirmed" group.  At the
> main GnuCash page, there is nothing different...you still can't edit there,
> because it is protected for editing only by some other group.  At many other
> pages, you can now edit.

Sounds great.  I would also point out that Joe Average User does not
need an account to read the wiki content or use gnucash in any way.  The
only time you need an account is to edit the wiki.

> I would be happy to develop such a page and corresponding Discussion page.  I
> would include a section with links and some discussion for new users who are
> already are Wikipedia editors.  Could someone please create a page for that,
> or, better, could I please be given "Autoconfirmed" status, so I could do
> that?  :)  Of course I recognize that anything and everything I edit could be
> rolled back, if it doesn't fit in.  Without "Autopatrolled" status, any edits
> I make will be marked for others to patrol / review, and I have no problem
> with finding out that some edits are reversed...I would expect to discuss at
> Talk pages and learn from the process. 

Sounds great!

> cheers, Doncram

-derek

> On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 4:22 PM, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
>
>     Hi,
>    
>     On Tue, May 23, 2017 1:11 pm, doncram wrote:
>     > Wow the process to change documentation (at
>     > http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Documentation_Update_Instructions ) seems
>     > pretty complicated, even impossible for Windows users.
>    
>     What's so complicated about a git checkout and using the appropriate
>     DocBook tools to edit the DocBook sources of the manual?
>    
>     >   I would hope it
>     > should be possible to have a full working version of the Tutorial and
>     > Concepts Guide that is open for edits/improvement by users informed
>     about
>     > accounting and trying to make the Guide more useful for basic users, in
>     a
>     > wiki document (where changes can be seen and there can be discussion at
>     > Talk pages).
>    
>     There's no good way to translate from Wiki to PDF.  There was a conscious
>     decsion a while ago that we wanted offline help, which meant a non-wiki
>     form.
>    
>     >    Then periodically when the Wiki editors get consensus that a
>     > new version is ready, just one programmer type person with Linux could
>     go
>     > through those complicated steps to get it published.  Allow different
>     > parties to specialize in how they contribute.  I for one would like to
>     > contribute in improving the Concepts guide text.
>    
>     The publication side is fine, and we do already go through that.  As for
>     people reading/editing -- github pull requests provide that.
>    
>     [snip]
>     > Currently I am trying to log into the Wiki but keep getting error
>     message:
>     > There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has
>     been
>     > canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Go back to the
>     > previous
>     > page, reload that page and then try again.
>    
>     I think you need to clear your cache/cookies and try again.  Not sure what
>     happened here.
>    
>     > Recent changes shows that Jrall opened an account for me, which I
>     reported
>     > did not allow me to edit, because I need to get some user group rights
>     > added, and I don't yet know if I was able to log in again whether I
>     would
>     > be able to edit yet.
>    
>     This is correct; you have not validated your email.  At least according to
>     the database, you are not "email authenticated" which is a requirement to
>     edit the wiki.  I do not know why it says "email_authenticated" is NULL
>     for both you and Buddha.  Did you actually confirm your email?  Can you
>     try confirming it again?
>    
>     The previous users in the list appear to have done so -- but it also
>     appears there are a number of users who have not.
>    
>     This COULD be a bug in the ConfirmAccount plugin where it does not
>     properly translate the email authentication across.  Or it could be a bad
>     interaction between CA and the built-in email confirmation.
>    
>     So can you confirm you confirmed your email?  Can you try confirming
>     again?  Let me know if/when you attempt this.  Better yet, can you come
>     onto IRC during 9a-5p EDT and we can work on trying to track down the
>     issue.
>    
>     Yes, I could just go into the database and fix it manually (which I'll
>     gladly do as a last resort), but I'd rather get down to the bottom of the
>     actual issue.
>    
>     Thanks,
>    
>     -derek
>    
>     --
>            Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
>            derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
>            Computer and Internet Security Consultant
>

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available