GrokOla (software)

GrokOla is collaborative wiki software for knowledge transfer and user interface wireframing. GrokOla is used by software development teams in corporate environments as either on-premises software or a software as a service hosted solution.

Function

GrokOla offers private wikis for development teams. GrokOla integrates the functionality of Wikis with Markdown syntax, search queries, collaborative questioning, content management, and wireframing tools under one user interface. Content placed into the systems can be found through a common search interface.^[1]

GrokOla attempts to differentiate itself by being a “Q&A-driven wiki” that “connects your team with subject matter experts for knowledge transfer.” The 'Tribal Knowledge' transferred is then made available to other members of the team as an up-to-date wiki entry.^[1]

Additional education content is provided to include presentations and tutorials on various development topics^[2] including Siege, Backbone.js, representational state transfer (RESTful) API, model–view–controller (MVC) Spring Framework, Node.js, MongoDB.

The March 2015 release included a substantial feature addition known as MockOla, a “rapid wireframing tool that allows users to easily create user interface mockups.”^[3]

Development

GrokOla was developed and is marketed by Keyhole Software and Keyhole Labs based in Leawood, Kansas. The service launched in beta in 2014, and was released to the public in January 2015.^[4]

GrokOla was created as a JavaScript single-page application using Node.js, Backbone.js, Require, Bootstrap on the client side, and Java, Sherpa enabled RESTful endpoints, Spring Framework IOC, Java Persistence API (JPA) and Hibernate on the server side.^[5]

Name

Grok is a word coined by Robert A. Heinlein for his 1961 science-fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land, where it is defined as follows:

Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man.

Uses of the word in computer culture, as such as a 1984 appearance in InfoWorld: "There isn't any software! Only different internal states of hardware. It's all hardware! It's a shame programmers don't grok that better."

According to GrokOla, when you claim to Grok a tool or technique, you are saying that you have learned it so thoroughly that it has become part of you and your identity.^[6]

Features

• All features for GrokOla usability:

• Designed for speed and extensibility
• Quick and easy installation
• Integrated user management
• Easily customizable
• Supports unlimited projects running off the same GrokOla installation

• Code-sensitive wiki with language parsing

• Wiki content written in Github-Flavored Markdown
• Integrated page-commenting functionality
• Quick-linking between entries
• On-the-fly correction of punctuation typos & special characters
• Entry watching & email notification on changes/comments
• Supports entering text in multiple-languages (subject to browser limitations)

• Development education content provided to users
• MockOla allows rapid wireframing and collaboration for user interface design

• Lay out simple user interfaces configurations for web, tablet, and mobile application
• Drag-and-drop element editor
• Allows for collaboration and feedback

• Ask Questions to Software Experts

• Enter questions into the wiki to be answered by other members of your team, or designated Keyhole Labs experts on that technical topic.
• All results are then populated to the wiki for future use.

See also

• Comparison of wiki software
• List of wiki software

References

External links

• Official website