Wiki project: Define and illustrate your data

Image via Wikipedia

I‘m currently working on building what my team’s called a “metadata repository” using a SharePoint wiki.  The idea is that users will be able to right-click on various parts of our web application and then take a link to a wiki full of definitions, diagrams, and other useful information regarding the reports or processes they are currently engaging.

How it works

Right now we have a “define this” function on our application that searches our database for the term highlighted.  This works fine but the glossary is locked down and fairly simple.  Only definitions are available.  Most users can’t update it or figure out where the data is coming from.  Our plan is to replace the back end with a wiki so that any user can change the data as needed.

My only problems at the moment are getting SharePoint to work the way we want it to.  Building a wiki is easy, searching is relatively easy, but getting the search results to display in a manner appropriate to this project has proven more difficult.  I’ve installed something called MS Search Server Express in hopes of finding some good search customization options.  So far, so good.

Once we get this project finished I’d like to share the details on this blog as an example to others who might have a need for this type of user-driven documentation system.

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