How Wiki Works

(Pulled out of context of GeekingConversation read it there, the original conversation is so much better. Anyway, thanks to Dr. Nick, there's a great description of how Wiki works.)

1. you go to nbtsc.org/wiki/MyPage?login in netscape

2. netscape contacts the nbtsc.org web server and says "give me /wiki/MyPage? login"

3. the web server checks to see just what sort of page /wiki/MyPage?login is.. in this case, it finds that it's a program, not just a plain old page

4. the web server runs wiki

 <@Roya> so if it's just a plain old page
 <@Roya> the server hands teh client the file?
 <@Platypus> Roya: yep, exactly
 <@Roya> are most websites jsut plain old pages and wiki's special?
 <@Zaphod> yes
 

5. wiki sees that you thoughtfully included "?login", and sends a response asking for a username and password

6. wiki's response gets handed to the web server

7. the web server sees that wiki's response is actually a response to your netscape request, and sends it back to netscape

 <@Roya> so teh server is the translater

8. netscape gets that response, interprets it as a password request, and prompts you for one

9. so you enter your username and password and hit enter

10. netscape sends a new request to the web server.. this time it says "gimme /wiki/MyPage?login, and my username is and my password is "

11. the web server again checks to see what sort of page /wiki/Mypage?login is, sees it's a program, and runs it as before.. but this time, it also includes the username and password you sent, since that's part of the request

12. wiki runs and verifies that your username and password are correct

 <@marina> how does it do that though...?
 <@Platypus> now here is were Ari did something rather clever.. 
 <@marina> just looking at a list of passwords to see if it matches?
 <@Platypus> wiki needs to be able to check your username and password
             easily.. so what it does is check your mail

13. wiki contacts the nbtsc.org mail server (which is yet another program)

14. the mail server says "who the heck are you?"

15. wiki says "I'm and my password is , let me see my mail!"

16. the mail server does what it was designed to do already, and checks your username and password with the big list of usernames and passwords it has

17. if youre username and password match, the mail server let's wiki see you have some mail

 <@marina> wow, that is cool
 <@Jauss> yah

18. wiki doesn't actually open your mail, it just verifies that the mail server was going to let it.. that means your username and password are correct! ;)

18. wiki, now being satisfied that you didn't like about your username and password, sends the contents of wiki page you asked for back to the web server

 
 <@Platypus> (there's some more Ari-coded cool stuff going on here, in that
             before wiki sends the page it makes it look all purty... you
             know, the way editing a wiki page looks hideous, but viewing
it
             is nice..  wiki takes the stored hideous version and
translates
             to pretty..)
 <@Platypus> which saved everyone from having to know crap like HTML

 <@Roya> wow.
 <@Roya> i never realized before how......... understandable these
         complications can be

19. (I think I'm on 19). the web server gets the contents of the page from wiki and sends it on to netscape

20. netscape displays the page and you see wiki!