This Frequently Asked Questions page is a work in progress. More information will continue to be added as it becomes available. For the overview of wiki retirement issues, please see Illinois Wiki Retirement.
Timelines and Background
The following dates provide a high-level timeline of retirement plans:
- June 30, 2023 – No new sites can be created.
Existing sites can be edited and exported for migration to other sites. - January 10, 2024 – Illinois Wiki set to read-only.
Existing sites can no longer be edited but can be exported for migration to other sites. - June 30, 2024 – Full Illinois Wiki retirement
The decision to retire was made at the CIO level for a variety of reasons. We were unable to find a suitable cost effective replacement service. There are still many options for hosting your content and we are aiming to help you with that as much as possible.
Because we cannot formally recommend a particular product, but we understand that campus may benefit from seeing some of our analysis (especially accessibility), the Web Hosting team is working on an appropriate way to share our research.
We hope to be able to provide information about the other wiki products that were considered, including accessibility and scaling and AD integration notes. However, note that our reviews were taken over the past year, and ongoing product updates mean that our conclusions are most applicable to the specific edition we reviewed.
Not at this time.
As soon as you have determined the appropriate next home for your content. The earlier you start, the easier it will be for us to provide assistance.
If you wish to schedule a consultation to help choose the most appropriate platform and the best method of exporting your content to it, visit https://go.illinois.edu/wikiconsultation.
Over the course of the retirement process, Technology Services will continue to host town halls, Caffeine Breaks, and other opportunities for community conversation. Stay tuned for upcoming event announcements.
In addition, you can contact us via the Illinois Wiki help and support form.
Permissions and Identities
You can continue to use the wiki AD groups that you have created. We will no longer maintain our flattened copies of your AD groups, so you will need to consider whether the technology you choose handles nested groups.
Wiki guest accounts cannot be transferred to other services. You may need to copy a list of your guest accounts, then create guest accounts for your users on your next platform.
Choosing your Next Home
The Wiki Options Finder guides you through considerations like:
- How did you use your wiki space?
- What types of organization will be helpful for your content?
- Who should be allowed to read and edit your content?
- What additional features are important for your content?
In addition, different methods of exporting wiki content will preserve different types of information.
HTML and Word files will be more editable.
PDF files will be more fixed. However, we do not recommend exporting directly to PDF because the resulting files are not accessible. If you need PDFs, exporting first to Word and then converting to PDF will give better results.
XML will be difficult to use directly by most people, unless you have an XML parser available; XML is best used for importing into another web hosting system that supports it.
More export information is available under “How do I know what format to export my content in?” below.
If you would like to schedule an appointment to consult with members of the Web Hosting team about the best next home for your content, contact us at https://go.illinois.edu/wikiconsultation
If you would like to schedule an appointment to consult with members of the Web Hosting team about the best next home for your content, contact us at https://go.illinois.edu/wikiconsultation
The Wiki Options Finder features platforms that are freely available to everyone on campus with central support behind them.
However, some more advanced options are available to members of certain departments, or with additional responsibilities taken, or with additional cost.
If you’d like to discuss whether any of the more advanced options suit your needs, contact us at https://go.illinois.edu/wikiconsultation
The Moving Process
There are several options for exporting your content.
- HTML will be easiest to migrate into another web-hosting-style home. This may include WordPress, Drupal, (in some cases) Sharepoint, or another HTML-serving system. This method of exporting will also bring your images and attachments with it.
- We do not recommend direct PDF export because the resulting files are not accessible. However, if you need a wiki page in PDF format, exporting first to Word and then converting to PDF will produce a better result. The PDF format will make your content mostly read-only and will be better suited to a file store without a web interface, like Box or (in some cases) Sharepoint. In this case, images are preserved, but other attachments are not.
- Microsoft Word will create editable files that are easier to update than PDF, but stored as objects in a file server like Box or (in some cases) Sharepoint. In this case, some images (up to 50) are preserved, but other attachments are not.
- XML contains the most content, including comments, attachments, and version history. However, it’s not easily human-readable as-is; it’s best used for import into another web hosting system. Tech Services is currently testing out XML imports to platforms such as WordPress and Drupal.
- Atlassian’s Export Content to Word, PDF, HTML, and XML document contains more information.
If you want to export your entire space:
- Click the Gear Icon or Space Tools button on the lower left side of your home page
- Click “Content Tools“
- Click “Export” on the second tab row, left side.
Your content can be then exported as HTML, XML, or PDF format.- Note: We do not recommend exporting directly to PDF because the resulting files are not accessible. If you need PDF format, export to Word and then convert to PDF.
- Complete or partial exports can be selected on the following page.
- A regular export will not include attachments or comments. As a space administrator, you will need to use the Space Tools Attachments tab to get to the attachments.
- A custom export will not include attachments, but will include comments.
If you want to export individual pages:
- On the page you want to export, click the three-dots icon in the upper right corner
- Click either the “Export to PDF” (not recommended) or “Export to Word” menu entries.
If you exported to Word or PDF, your images will have been included, but other attachments such as Excel files or other PDFs would not. See “The attachments didn’t come with my export” below for how to get the full set of attachments.
According to Atlassian’s export documentation, PDF and Word do not bring attachments with them, only images. If you want all of the attachments, you’ll want to export the space as HTML or XML.
However, if you’ve otherwise chosen Word or PDF for your export format, you can still get your attachments. In the Space Tools tools available to the space administrator, the Attachments tab will show you a listing of all of the attachments in your space. You can download all of the attachments within a space from there.
If you are not the administrator of the space, you can also see the attachments for any of the pages you can access under the three dot icon’s Attachments selection. However, you would need to download each page’s attachments separately if you do not have access to the site’s Space Tools.
As tools are identified and made available, information will be posted to the Illinois Wiki teams channel in the Web on Campus MS Team.
The wiki itself allows either space-wide export or individual page export.
HTML and XML exports are more likely to be able to be imported into other web hosting platforms such as WordPress and Drupal. Technology Services is still testing the HTML and XML export/import process on our various platforms; more information will be provided when we have it.
Some universities are exploring a paid Atlassian to Sharepoint migration tool called Tzunami.
Atlassian’s forum contains a suggested Atlassian to Sharepoint via HTML path that does not require a paid tool (but we have not tested it ourselves).
BlueSpice offers an Atlassian to MediaWiki script that can be used independently of the BlueSpice product itself, but requires comfort with GitHub and the command line.