Developer(s) | Foswiki Community |
---|---|
Stable release | 1.1.5 / April 10, 2012 |
Written in | Perl, Javascript |
Operating system | Cross-platform |
Platform | Linux, Windows, BSD, Solarix, OSX |
Available in | International ~ 20 languages |
Type | Wiki |
License | GPL |
Website | http://foswiki.org/ |
Foswiki is an Enterprise wiki, typically used to run a collaboration platform, knowledge base or document management system. Users can create wiki applications using the Topic Markup Language, and developers can extend its functionality with plugins.
Foswiki stands for "Free and Open Source" wiki to emphasize its commitment to Open Source software.
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Major features
- Runs on standard web servers, such as Apache and lighttpd
- Wiki application development leveraging the Data Wiki and Macro language functionality to allow collaborative data based applications
- Revision control - complete audit trail, also for meta data such as attachments and access control settings
- Fine-grained access control - restrict read/write/rename on site level, web level, page level based on user groups
- Extensible topic markup language
- TinyMCE based WYSIWYG editor
- Dynamic content generation with macros
- Forms and reporting - capture structured content, report on it with searches embedded in pages
- Built in database - users can create wiki applications using the Topic Markup Language
- Skinnable user interface
- RSS/Atom feeds and e-mail notification
- Over 400 Extensions and 200 Plugins
Extensions
Foswiki has a plugin API that has over 280 maintained extensions[1]. These extensions link into databases, create charts, tags, sort tables, write spreadsheets, create image gallery and slideshows, make drawings, write blogs, plot graphs, interface to many different authentication schemes, including Single sign-on, track Extreme Programming projects and so on.
Foswiki application platform
Foswiki as a structured wiki provides database-like manipulation of fields stored on pages,[2] and offers a SQL-like query language to embed reports in wiki pages.[3][4][5]
Wiki applications are also called situational applications because they are created ad-hoc by the users for very specific needs. Users have built Foswiki applications that include call center status boards, to-do lists, inventory systems, employee handbooks, bug trackers, blog applications, discussion forums, status reports with rollups and more.
User interface
The user interface is customisable through use of templates, themes and (per user) CSS. It includes support for internationalization ('I18N'), with support for multiple character sets, UTF-8 URLs, and the user interface has been translated into Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish [6].
Foswiki deployment
Foswiki is expected to be used primarily at the workplace as a corporate wiki[7] to coordinate team activities, track projects, implement workflows[8] and as an Intranet Wiki.
Realization
Foswiki is implemented in Perl and Javascript (using JQuery), though it can be used without Javascript being enabled in the browser.
By default, Wiki pages are stored on the server in plain text files. Everything, including meta-data such as access control settings, are version controlled using RCS. RCS is optional since an all-Perl version control system is provided. Other server-side databases, such as MongoDB, are supported through use of extensions.
Foswiki scales reasonably well even though it uses plain text files and no relational database to store page data. Load balancing and caching can be used to improve performance on high traffic sites. Foswiki is used in many corporate and research installations with several hundred thousand pages and tens of thousands of users.
Foswiki has database features built into the engine. A form[2] is attached to a page as metadata. This represents a database record. A set of pages that share the same type of form build a database table. A formatted search with a SQL-like query can be embedded into a page to construct dynamic presentation of data from multiple pages. This allows for building wiki applications and constitutes the Foswiki's notion of a structured wiki.
History
The Foswiki project was launched in October 2008 when a dispute about the future direction of the project [9][10][11] could not be settled, resulting in the decision of nearly all key TWiki contributors to fork. Since then the codebases have diverged significantly. However Foswiki continues to maintain compatibility with content written for TWiki.
Foswiki releases
- 2008-12-26: Foswiki Release 1.0.0 beta 1 from TWiki fork
- 2009-01-09: Foswiki Release 1.0.0
- 2009-02-24: Foswiki Release 1.0.1
- 2009-02-26: Foswiki Release 1.0.2
- 2009-02-28: Foswiki Release 1.0.3
- 2009-03-19: Foswiki Release 1.0.4
- 2009-04-25: Foswiki Release 1.0.5
- 2009-06-21: Foswiki Release 1.0.6
- 2009-09-20: Foswiki Release 1.0.7
- 2009-11-29: Foswiki Release 1.0.8
- 2010-01-17: Foswiki Release 1.0.9
- 2010-09-09: Foswiki Release 1.0.10
- 2010-10-09: Foswiki Release 1.1.0
- 2010-10-25: Foswiki Release 1.1.1
- 2010-11-09: Foswiki Release 1.1.2
- 2011-04-16: Foswiki Release 1.1.3
- 2011-12-20: Foswiki Release 1.1.4
- 2012-04-10: Foswiki Release 1.1.5
References
- ^ Foswiki Extension Listing
- ^ a b "Data Forms" (HTML). Foswiki. 2009-01-09. http://foswiki.org/System/DataForms. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
- ^ "SEARCH macro" (HTML). Foswiki. 2009-01-09. http://foswiki.org/System/VarSEARCH. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
- ^ "Formatted Search" (HTML). Foswiki. 2009-01-09. http://foswiki.org/System/FormattedSearch. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
- ^ "Query Search" (HTML). Foswiki. 2009-01-09. http://foswiki.org/System/QuerySearch. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
- ^ Foswiki Contributors. "User Interface Internationalization". foswiki.org. http://foswiki.org/Development/UserInterfaceInternationalisation. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
- ^ Paper on corporate wiki users (slides)
- ^ "The wiki as online conveyor belt" section in BusinessWeek article Make Some Noise - How web 2.0 tools can help you communicate with customers more effectively
- ^ Thoeny, Peter; Tom Barton (2008-10-31). "Relaunch TWiki.org Project" (HTML). twiki.org. http://www.twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/RelaunchTWikiOrgProject. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
- ^ "Why this fork?" (HTML). Foswiki. 2009-01-31. http://foswiki.org/About/WhyThisFork. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
- ^ Asay, Matt (2008-10-29). "TWiki's hunt for cash fractures its community" (HTML). CBS Interactive Inc.. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10078682-16.html. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
- Harrell Jr, Frank E (2009). The Wiki Approach to an Online Methods Resource. Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Department of Biostatistics. Foswiki is used as the main example for a general background on wikis.
- Lindner, Tobias (2010). Unterstützung des Projekt- und Wissensmanagements bei der Planung von Logistikstrukturen und Produktionsstätten durch Webanwendungen (thesis). Technical University Chemnitz. pp. 74-76. Foswiki is described as one of the three recommended wiki engines.
- Grzeganek, K.; Frost, I.; Gross, D (2011). Spoilt for Choice - Wiki Software for Knowledge Management in Organisations. Compares seven wiki engines regarding features like search, commenting, importing/exporting and workflow.
- Gross, Daphne and Frost, Ingo (2011). Die Qual der Wiki-Wahl - Wikis für Wissensmanagement in Organisationen. Open Journal of Knowledge Management, IV/2011. Comparison of eight wiki engines.
- Schindler, Esther (2009), Computerworld (US) Highly anticipated open-source releases coming in '09
- Bantle, Ulrich (2010). Cebit Open Source 2010 - Projektpräsentation Perl. Linux-Magazin Cebit 2010/Projekte
- Ulrich Bantle (2012). Cebit Open Source 2012 -Foswiki. Linux Magazin Cebit 2012
- Blankenhorn, Dana (2010). Black Duck honors best of 19,000 new open source projects. ZDNet. 2010-01-20. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- Bäcker, Renée (2010). Foswiki, Padre und OTRS: Erfolgreich Software entwickeln mit Perl. Lecture at CeBit 2010. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- Fuchs, Roger (2010). Kooperieren statt Koordinieren. Universität Freiburg (CH), Department of Informatics. Retrieved 2012-04-22. p. 100. Foswiki is mentioned as one of five wiki engines.
- Furthmüller, Steve Julius (2011). Das richtige Wiki für Unternehmen. PC-Welt. 2011-11-28. Retrieved 2012-04-22
- Prof. Anandarajan, Murugan & Prof. Ananarajan, Asokan. Eds. (2010). e-Research Collaboration - Theory, Techniques and Challenges. Springer. DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-12257-6. p. 215. Foswiki is listed as one of two recommendations for wiki implementations to be used for research projects.
- Kussmaul, Clif (2012). Wikis for Collaboration and Knowledge Management: Current Practices and Future Directions. In: Organizational Learning and Knowledge - Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications. IGI Global. p. 1141. Foswiki is listed as popular wiki platform.
- Hoefling, M., Menth M., Kniep C., Camen M. (2012). IPBM: An Open-Source-Based Framework for InfiniBand Performance Monitoring. In: Measurement, Modelling and Evaluation of Computing Systems and Depenability and Fault Tolerance. 16th International GI/ITG Conference, MMB & DFT 2012 Proceedings. Springer-Verlag. p. 238. Foswiki as base for an Open-Source IPBM Framework.
- Martin, Kristin E. (2011). Marrying Local Metadata Needs with Accepted Standards: The Creation of a Data Dictionary at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In: Journal of Library Metadata Volume 11, Issue 1, 2011. Taylor & Francis. pp 33-50. About the creation of a data dictionary based on Foswiki.
- Kussmaul, Clif (2011). Wikis for Education - Helping Students Communicate and Collaborate. t4e, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Technology for Education, 2011. pp. 274-278.
- Matthes F.; Neubert C.; Steinhoff A. (2011). Hybrid Wikis: Empowering Users to Collaboratively Structure Information. In: 6th International Conference on Software and Data Technologies (ICSOFT), Seville, 2011. pp. 250-259. Foswiki is mentioned as one of two structured wikis. This paper was awarded as best paper at the International Conference on Software and Data Management 2011 (ICSOFT 2011), Sevilla, Spain.
- Göhring M., Niemeier J., Vujnovic M. (2010). Enterprise 2.0 - Zehn Einblicke in den Stand der Einführung. centrestage GmbH.
- Wittkewitz, Jörg (2010). Marktübersicht: Firma 2.0.
- Dölle, Mirko (2012). CeBIT 2012: Open Source und Linux. Heise. Retrieved 2012-04-26 (German). Mentions Foswiki as one of the Open Source projects at Cebit 2012.
- Wuelfing, Britta (2012). CeBIT Open Source Project Lounge -- Perl. Linux Magazine. Retrieved 2012-04-26. Foswiki is mentioned as one of the three Perl projects presented at Cebit 2012.
See also
- Comparison of wiki software
- Statistics on interest in wiki software on wikimatrix.org. Foswiki is 7th most viewed and 9th most compared wiki out of more than 100 listed wikis. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- Open source Wiki software. Foswiki listed as one of the leading open source wikis.
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