TWiki

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TWiki

TWiki
Basic data

developer Peter Thoeny ( Memento from October 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) and colleagues
Publishing year July 23, 1998
Current  version 6.1.0 (July 16, 2018)
operating system Operating system independent Perl
programming language Pearl
category Wiki software
License GPL ( Free Software )
German speaking No
twiki.org

TWiki is largely in Perl developed free (under the GPL licensed) Wiki software. As a more technically oriented application, TWiki has so far been used primarily in intranets of medium-sized and large companies as a knowledge and document management system.

history

On July 23, 1998, the first version of TWiki based on “ JOS Wiki ” was installed. Further releases will follow on July 1, 1999, September 1, 1999, May 1, 2000, December 1, 2000, September 1, 2001, December 1, 2001, February 1, 2003 and September 1, 2004 These releases do not have a coded version number, but are only marked with their release date. In addition, the last three of these releases still have code names for national capitals: "Athens" (December 1, 2001), "Beijing" (February 1, 2003) and "Cairo" (September 1, 2004).

With the release of February 1, 2006, these have explicit version numbers starting with "4.0". The city names remain, but no longer necessarily with national capitals (for example "Edinburgh" for Release 4.1 on January 16, 2007).

On October 27, 2008, a large part of the TWiki community, including the core developer team, split off from the TWiki project. The background to the fork were tensions between the community and the TWiki founder Peter Thoeny or his company twiki.net. The main point of contention is the increasingly commercially oriented corporate policy of twiki.net, with which the community did not identify. The dispute escalated when Thoeny wanted to enforce new rules of procedure by blocking developer accounts until those developers agreed to the new rules of procedure. The community viewed this as a hostile takeover of the project.

The fork initially started under the working title NextWiki , but was renamed Foswiki ( Free and Open Source Wiki ) in November 2008 .

properties

The following functionality is characteristic of TWiki in this combination:

  • no additional database system - all content is saved directly in files
  • Version management - every change to the content is recorded using RCS and is traceable
  • Access control - fine-tuned read and write rights for users and groups
  • dynamic content using TWiki variables
  • large number of plug-ins for additional functionality
  • Web applications with forms
  • WYSIWYG editor based on TinyMCE
  • Skin-enabled user interface
  • Web feeds and email notifications

architecture

TWiki is a structured wiki and allows (similar to a database application) the modification of data via input fields that are stored on the individual pages. However, TWiki does not use an external database to store the content, only text files, and logs the changes with the RCS version control software. The revision data and other meta information are embedded in the Wiki pages via this SQL -like database query language.

user interface

TWiki is completely skin- capable, the surface is mapped using templates and CSS . TWiki supports internationalization , multiple character sets and encoding in UTF-8 URLs. The interface has been translated into Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish and Spanish.

Content structure

In TWiki, data is organized in webs, topics and attachments:

  • Topic is the basic unit, such as a section or document, but not necessarily a (web) page. Topics can be hierarchically superordinate and subordinate to each other.
  • Web is a superordinate task group for any number of topics.

Extensions

There are more than 200 extensions and plug-ins for TWiki, for example to connect the system to databases, to create charts, tags, tables, picture galleries, usage statistics, etc. and to expand TWiki functionally. The system's plug-in API and the TWiki Markup Language allow developers to write additional modules and thus expand the functions.

application areas

TWiki is mainly used in company intranets as a corporate wiki. The software is used in particular to coordinate the activities of working groups and to map, document and develop project statuses, internal processes and other information of relatively permanent relevance.

distribution

According to the TWiki community (as of September 2011), TWiki is used in 50,000 companies. In addition, 20,000 public websites are to be based on TWiki. The TWiki community puts the total number of users at more than two million people. The best-known companies that use TWiki in their own intranet include Nokia , Motorola , Yahoo! , DHL , SAP , United Internet , Disney and others.

particularities

The most important difference to other wiki systems, including the Mediawiki used by Wikipedia , is the simple programming of applications: TWiki pages can generate and process variables and forms from the source text of the pages . This allows Wiki users to create form-based applications without having in-depth programming knowledge. The system also has a finely adjustable access control.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ twiki.org: 1998 release (accessed May 2, 2009)
  2. ↑ twiki.org: TWikiHistory (accessed on May 2, 2009)
  3. ↑ heise.de: "Twiki.net vs. NextWiki: Free developers go their own way "
  4. ↑ foswiki.org: Why this fork?
  5. ↑ News.cnet.com: "TWiki's hunt for cash fractures its community"
  6. ↑ foswiki.org: The Press Room: Foswiki in the news and in weblogs
  7. ↑ foswiki.org: Project Update
  8. ↑ http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/SearchExtensions?qs= .
  9. ↑ http://twiki.org/
  10. ↑ http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/2008-02-28-twiki-youtube-and-2000#BlogPosts
  11. ↑ TWiki: Customers ( Memento from January 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Web links