# App/Personal wikis/New wiki

From XOWA: the free, open-source, offline wiki application

## Domain name

The domain name is a unique id to your wiki within the XOWA app. As reference, English Wikipedia has a domain name of `en.wikipedia.org`.

Here are some guidelines:

- A domain name should be short. The maximum length is 64 characters.
- A domain name can only consist of alphanumeric characters, a dot, or a dash.
  - If a dash is present, it cannot be at the start or the end of the domain.
    - For example, the following is invalid: `-en.wikipedia.org-`.
    - For another example, the following is valid: `en.wikipedia.org.2016-12`.
- A domain name should be unique. Uniqueness is important if you ever share your wiki with anyone else. If you name your wiki `notes`, and someone else names their wiki `notes` then XOWA won't be able to use both wikis at once.
- A domain name should look like a regular url. Although XOWA is meant for offline environments, it does have a HTML dump feature[1]. Using a regular domain name will make any future transition to online publishing easier.
- A domain name cannot be changed after the wiki is created. Please choose the domain name carefully.

## Name

The name is a freeform text name used to identify your wiki. Currently, it's only being used on Special:XowaWikiDirectory, but it will be used more elsewhere.

The name only has a limitation of 255 characters or less.

## Folder

The folder is where your wiki is located. XOWA saves all data in one `.xowa` file[2], but it needs to assign a folder to a wiki to generate other temporary data.

When creating a wiki, XOWA will create the folder if it doesn't exist.

When editing a wiki, changing the folder requires extra steps.

For example, consider a wiki which was created with a folder of `C:\old\wiki.me.org` and should be moved to a folder called `C:\new\wiki.me.org`

- Close all tabs that have pages from `wiki.me.org`
- Close XOWA
- Move the file manually from `C:\old\wiki.me.org\wiki.me.org.xowa` to `C:\new\wiki.me.org\wiki.me.org.xowa`
- Open XOWA
- From the main menu, do `Personal wikis` -> `Personal wiki list`
- Click the wrench icon next on the same row as the moved wiki
- Enter in `C:\new\wiki.me.org\wiki.me.org.xowa`
- Press the Save button

## Main Page

The Main Page is the default start page for your wiki.

- XOWA will creating this page after your wiki is created.
- The Main Page is also the default page when using just the url. For example, entering in `en.wikipedia.org` in the url bar will automatically navigate to `en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page`
- The Main Page should follow standard conventions for page titles. As a brief overview:
  - Alphanumeric characters are fine
  - Spaces are fine
  - Try not to use colons. They can be mistaken for namespaces
  - Try not to use punctuation. Some are invalid (For example: `<`). For more info, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Page_name#Technical_restrictions_and_limitations
- The Main Page cannot be changed after the wiki is created. Please choose the domain name carefully.

## Notes

1. ^ This is how http://xowa.org is generated
2. ^ A .xowa file is just a .sqlite3 file. Only the extension is different; everything else is the same.

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