KSW Home

This tool is the first on the market to put hierarchy and index on a generic web, UNICODE-wise. Previously, other tools did this within custom environments and limited features.

KSW IN SHORT: HOW TO USE, FEATURES

To understand KSW, think of the Help window of an application. The help topics are categorized, an index is usually available, you can perform searches. KSW does all these too, but for a web site and its pages (full featured, UNICODE site search is coming up as a free upgrade soon).

HOW TO USE
Suppose your site at www.niceweb.com is hard to navigate. You want to give your visitors the means to find what they need, at ease. You are going to use KSW for that:

1. In a quick case study, the C:\Webs\NiceWeb folder on your hard drive is where the site's local/working copy resides. This is where you create pages using your web page editor. When you publish, the page editor updates the www.niceweb.com remote location.

2. In KSW, create the 'NiceWeb' project that points to C:\Webs\NiceWeb. In the process, the tool builds information about the local/working web - pages, titles, encodings, invalid files, etc. Follow prompts and open project.

3. Inside the KSW project, pages are all listed as 'available' for now, meaning they can be used to populate folders. Do create some folders and build a hierarchy. You can drag pages to folders in order to populate them. Similarly, you can drag pages to the index and create terms.

4. All you do inside KSW is to create a model of the future real hierarchy/index on www.niceweb.com. So folders and pages inside KSW are abstract elements of a model.

But with the modeling drag & drop, your work comes to an end. When you save the project, KSW creates the real hierarchy/index, the real framework for www.niceweb.com, and inserts everything at C:\Webs\NiceWeb. It is nothing else you need to add or configure. Just publish and your site is live on the internet.

5. Now when visitors come to www.niceweb.com, they can navigate and find their way using a full-featured hierarchy and index of pages on www.niceweb.com.

FEATURES AT A GLANCE
- Hierarchy/index maintenance/update after each site editing session.
- Suitable for a large collection of documents (a "knowledge base" site).
- Suitable as a personal repository tool. A personal/secured web can give access to one's own knowledge from anywhere.
- Unicode/UTF8, designed for all languages.
- Supports PDF and Word documents, in addition to HTML-based web pages.
- Manual (drag to position) or alphabetic sorting, can change language per folder.
- Multiple instances of a page, in hierarchy.
- and others; please see Specifications.

Tucows rating:

Here is the meaning of grades received on key points, from Tucows guidelines: Functionality. Extensive functionality, no speed or resource problems. Unique Features. Several/major unique features. Program Interface. Very good in all areas. Learning Curve and Accessibility. Easy to run, moderately easy to use. Cost vs. Value. Good value. Reviewer's Recommendation. Yes. Reviewer's Overall Impression. Good, solid, memorable product.

Put your knowledge base on the web

KSW is a software tool that does two things:

• It creates the KB structures - hierarchy and index - on an existing or a new web. You do not need to write any code. All you do is drag things around.
• It updates the KB structures when you update your site. All tasks that could be automated, have been, so your work is minimized. If you need to change the hierarchy/index manually, that's again drag and drop.

In short, KSW creates the framework and KB structures for a web site - plus it maintains them with every site editing session.

How it works

It works in conjunction with a web page editor. You use the editor to create topics and publish to server. KSW scans and parses files in your web. It is aware of what is there. In KSW, you create the hierarchy and the index. When you save in KSW, it creates all files (.htm, .js, .css, etc.) required by the KB structures and puts them at the location of your local/working web. Now your site opens a frameset (created by KSW), displays a hierarchy and index in the left frame (the HI frame), and your regular site pages in the right frame (the main frame).

Stay organized

KSW creates a folder, named ksw, under the root folder of your local/working web. That's where it puts all its files. It never writes anything anywhere else on your site. You may ignore the ksw folder, and your site is yours like before, nothing changed to it. The only difference is that now your site opens in a frameset with KB elements.

To frame or not to frame

Frames, as a web technique, have well known drawbacks. When you create a site on your own, that can be a problem you may not want to deal with. But with KSW, we fixed ALL frames drawbacks - and since code is generated for your site, you stay clear from any such issues. On the other hand, in some respects frames are unbeatable and unmatched by any other web technique; download speed, screen flicker/reloading, resizing, and other such web traits are dealt with masterfully with frames.

What do I need to learn?

Two things:

1. All topics go in the root folder of your web; see Topic Files Location.
2. Put a link in your default/front page; see Default/Front Page.

For the rest, just play with it, you'll figure things out.

Note. If you'd like to quit reading now, see Minimal Info Before You Start and God speed!

But if you'd like to first hear a word from those who made it, read further.

So how exactly do I create a KB site?

Let's say you start from scratch. Otherwise, see Start with an Existing Site or Add Hierarchy and Index to an Existing Site Temporarily. You'll certainly do things your way, but these few steps help see what's involved.

    • Use your page editor first. Create a site, a barebones default/front page with an empty <body> tag, and some topics, which you'll probably base on an HTML template. Topics must be located in the root folder of the site (required). Note, there is no need to organize topics in folders at editor/web level, since this task is taken over by KSW completely.
    • Add a special link to the default/front page (see Default/Front Page). This link opens the frameset.
    • Close editor, open KSW:
                • Make new KSW project, point to the new site location on disk.
                • Create the hierarchy and the index, by dragging elements from panel to panel.
                • Save; KSW inserts all KB elements at the location of your local/working web.
    • Publish site using your page editor; now you are live on the web.

Editing Your Site

You delete a topic, change a title, add a few topics, move some non-topic files to a subfolder, etc. Of course, these have an impact on the hierarchy and the index. Here is how it works:

    • When done editing in page editor, open the KSW project of this site.
    • At this time, most of the changes you made are dealt with automatically. Deleted topics are removed from HI (all instances), new titles replace old titles (all instances), relocated non-topics are removed from the 'Excluded' list; these and all other such operations require not user intervention.
    • For the rest, like assigning new topics to folders or creating new index terms, use the UI - drag and drop.
    • Save and publish.

Alternative Usage

Topic titles are automatically added to the Index (besides any custom index terms). Thus, the Index facility can be used as an alphabetic list of all topics. Also, a project may define an Index only, or the Hierarchy only, or both.

KB publishing for all

With today's technology, creating a web page is not much different from creating a document in Word. Now KSW requires no programming as well. That takes the absurd requirement of KB programming connaissance out of the way, and anyone, not just programmers, can publish a web that is organized and navigable. In fact, we are programmers, and still use KSW all the time. That's because writing code every time you reorganize a web is simply too much work - now that we have KSW.