Writing and Editing Knowledge Base Articles
Contents
Like MariaDB, the Knowledge Base is developed by a community of contributors like you. If you'd like to get involved, you just need to create an account. If you have an account with Github, Google, or Linkedin, you need only log in with one of those accounts. Then you can share your expertise on any article in the Knowledge Base.
If you can't find something, click on the Ask a question here link in the left margin on any category page. Contributors and MariaDB experts answer questions in the Knowledge Base and create articles for common questions. View the open questions and help us help other users.
Incidentally, the Knowledge Base is not an appropriate place to ask about purchasing support for MariaDB. Instead, please use the MariaDB contact page.
Keep in touch with other Knowledge Base contributors. Join us on Zulip, and join the Maria Docs mailing list. Don't forget to introduce yourself.
See Contributing to the MariaDB Project for information on contributing to MariaDB itself.
Improving Existing Articles
If you spot an error, or a way to improve or enhance an existing article, just click on the "Edit" button. When you are finished editing the article, please add a revision comment. This will help our editors as they review edits.
Creating New Articles
Creating an article for the Knowledge Base is similar to asking questions. First, navigate to the category where you feel the article should be. Once there, double check that an article doesn't already exist which would work. It is usually better to improve an existing article (if possible) than to create a new one.
If you determine that a new article is needed, click on the "Create Article" button. If you are logged in and you don't see that button, you are probably viewing an article, not a category. In which case, you need to use the breadcrumbs near the top of the page to navigate up to the parent category.
Add your content, as well as an excerpt. You can preview the content before creating it to make sure the links and formatting are all correct. Be sure to consult the Style Guide so as to stay in conformity with our styles, so that the pages all have a consistent look and easier to read.
When editing an article — or creating a new one — you can select whether to subscribe to it. When you are subscribed to an article you will receive an email every time the page is updated. To unsubscribe from a page, click on the Subscriptions button, then Unsubscribe, or click on the Edit button, uncheck the subscribe box and click Save.
Formatting Content
Articles, questions, and comments are formatted in the Creole markup language. The Editing Help page has information on the various supported tags and macros. If you are familiar with MediaWiki or other wikis, you should have no trouble getting up to speed with Creole.
Translating Articles
See the Translation HOWTO for information on translating Knowledge Base articles.
Viewing an Article's History
You can view your or another editor's recent edit history by clicking on a username from a history page, or going directly to a URL of the form
https://mariadb.com/kb/user/id/username.
Contribution statistics for all users are located here: https://mariadb.com/kb/stats/users/
Tasks
The MariaDB issue tracker (JIRA) can be used to report and track tasks and mistakes in the Knowledge Base (choose Documentation as a component when submitting a knowledge base issue in JIRA). If you find something that needs improvement, just edit the page or, if you're unsure, discuss your idea on the maria-docs mailing list.
