PmWiki

Infobox Software

name = PmWiki
developer = [http://www.pmwiki.org/ PmWiki]
latest release version = 2.1.27
latest release date = release date|2006|12|11
latest preview version = 2.2.0-beta68
latest preview date = release date|2008|08|14
operating system = Cross platform
platform = PHP
genre = Wiki
license = GNU General Public License
website = http://www.pmwiki.org

PmWiki is free wiki software written by Patrick R. Michaud in the PHP programming language. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Design focus

PmWiki is designed to be easy to install and customize as an engine for creating professional web sites with one to any number of content authors. The software focuses on ease-of-use, so people with little IT or wiki experience will be able to put it to use. Despite having such low barriers to install a basic wiki, the software is also designed to be extremely extensible and customizable.

The PmWiki wiki markup shares similarities with MediaWiki (used by Wikipedia). The PmWiki markup engine is highly customizable, allowing adding, modifying or disabling markup rules, and it can support other markup languages. As an example, the WikiCreole specifications can be enabled. [http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Creole]

Features

Content storage

PmWiki uses regular files to store content. Each page of the wiki is stored in its own file on the web server. Pages are stored in ASCII format and may be edited directly by the wiki administrator. According to the author, "For the standard operations (view, edit, page revisions), holding the information in flat files is clearly faster than accessing them in a database..." [cite web|url=http://pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/FlatFileAdvantages|title=PmWiki Design - Flat File Advantages|accessdate=2008-08-14]

PmWiki is designed to be able to store and retrieve the pages' text and metadata on various systems and formats. It does not support databases in its default installation. However, via plug-ins, PmWiki can already use MySQL or SQLite databases for data storage.

PmWiki supports "attachments" (uploads: images or other files) to its wiki pages. The uploads can be attached to a group of pages (default), individually to each page, or to the whole wiki, depending on the content needs and structure.

The out-of-the-box installation has the uploads disabled - to enable them, the wiki administrator needs to add a line in a configuration file. There are PmWiki recipes allowing an easier management of the uploaded files, e.g. deletion or thumbnail/gallery creation.

Wiki structure

In PmWiki, wiki pages are contained within "wiki groups" (or "namespaces"). Each wiki group can have its own configuration options, plug-ins, access control, skin, sidebar (menu), language of the content and of the interface.

By default, PmWiki allows exactly one hierarchical level of the pages ("WikiGroup/WikiPage"), but through recipes, it is possible to have a flat structure (no wiki groups), multiple nested groups, or sub-pages.

Special wiki groups are "PmWiki", Site, SiteAdmin and Category which contain the documentation and some configuration templates.

Templates (skins)

PmWiki offers a template scheme that makes it possible to change the look and feel of the wiki or website with a high degree of flexibility in both functionality and appearance.

Access control

PmWiki permits users and administrators to establish password protection for individual pages, groups of pages or the entire site. For example, defined zones may be established to enable collaborative work by certain groups, such as in a company intranet.

Password protection can be applied to reading, editing, uploading to and changing passwords for the restricted zone. The out-of-the box installation uses "shared passwords" rather than login names, but a built-in option can enable a sophisticated user/group based access control system on pages, groups of pages or the whole wiki.

PmWiki can use passwords from config files, special wiki pages, .htpasswd/.htgroup files. There are also user-based authorization possibilities and authentication via various external sources (e.g. LDAP, forum databases etc.).

Customization

PmWiki follows a design philosophy. [http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/PmWikiPhilosophy] Its main objectives are ease of installation, maintainability, and keeping non-required features out of the core distribution of the software. PmWiki's design encourages customization with a wide selection of custom extensions, known as "recipes" available from the PmWiki Cookbook. [http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Cookbook] Creating and maintaining extensions and custom installations is easy thanks to a number of well documented hooks in the wiki engine.

ystem requirements

Prerequisites for running the PmWiki wiki engine:

* PHP 4.1 or later
* Any webserver that can run PHP scripts (e.g. Apache, Microsoft IIS, Lighttpd)
* Write permissions for the webserver user account in the PmWiki tree (required for off-line editing only)
* No file type extension restrictions on the webserver (sometimes a problem with free web hosting providers)

PmWiki has been reported to work with the following OS/webserver combinations:

* Apache 1.3 or 2.2, on roughly anything (Unix, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X)
* Microsoft Internet Information Server, on Windows
* Appweb [http://www.embedthis.com/products/appweb/embedded-web-server.html] (a very small, php-enabled webserver) executing on a Linksys NSLU2 Network Storage Link device (running Unslung 5.5 beta, a Linux derivate for embedded systems)
* x86 Linux + LiteSpeedWeb Server Standard Edition
* There is a "recipe" to allow running PmWiki "Standalone", without a webserver, for example from a Flash USB stick. [http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Standalone]

Author

PmWiki was written by Patrick R. Michaud. Patrick owns a trademark on the name "PmWiki". A number of other developers and users write, maintain and discuss "recipes" (special purpose configurations, skins or plug-ins) in the PmWiki Cookbook.

See also

*Wiki
*Wiki software
*Comparison of wiki software
*WikiWikiWeb

References

*cite web|url = http://linuxgazette.net/114/shekhar.html | title=PmWiki - Wiki the Painless Way | author= Raj Shekhar|publisher=Linux Gazette|date=2005-05-01
*cite web|url=http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060201/handson-technology.html|title=The End of E-Mail|author=Darren Dahl|publisher=Inc.com|date=2006-02-01
*cite web|url=http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/16421/discuss|title=PmWiki Multiple Input Validation Vulnerabilities (version 2.1 beta20)|publisher=SecurityFocus.com

External links

* [http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/PmWiki PmWiki Home Page]