TWiki

Infobox Software
name = TWiki



caption =
developer = [http://www.twiki.net/about.html Peter Thoeny] with s
released = 23 Jul 1998
frequently updated = yes
programming language = Perl
operating system = Cross-platform
platform =
language =
genre = Wiki
license = GPL
website = http://twiki.org/

TWiki is a structured wiki ["TWiki is a structured wiki, which is a combination of a traditional freeform wiki and a more structured database" - in InformationWeek article [http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201805279 Everything You Need To Know To Get Started With Content Management Systems] ] , typically used to run a collaboration platform, knowledge or document management system, a knowledge base, or team portal. Users can create wiki applications using the TWiki Markup Language, and developers can extend its functionality with plugins. The TWiki Open Source project has been founded by Peter Thoeny.

Major features

* 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 TWiki markup language
* TinyMCE based WYSIWYG editor
* Dynamic content generation with TWiki variables
* Forms and reporting - capture structured content, report on it with searches embedded in pages
* Built in database - users can create wiki applications using the TWiki Markup Language
* Skinnable user interface
* RSS/Atom feeds and e-mail notification
* Over 400 Extensions and 200 Plugins

TWiki extensions

TWiki has a plugin API that has spawned over 400 extensions [ [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/SearchExtensions?qs=. TWiki.org extension repository] ] to 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, track Extreme Programming projects and so on.

TWiki application platform

TWiki as a structured wiki provides database-like manipulation of fields stored on pages [ [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiForms TWiki Forms] ] , and offers a SQL-like query language to embed reports in wiki pages. [ [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/VarSEARCH SEARCH variable] , [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/FormattedSearch formatted search] , [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/QuerySearch SQL-like query search] ]

Wiki applications are also called situational applications because they are created ad-hoc by the users for very specific needs. Users have built TWiki applications [ [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/TWikiApplication Sample TWiki 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 interface of TWiki is completely skinnable in 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 cite web
url=http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/UserInterfaceLocalisation
title= User Interface Localisation
accessdate=2008-03-01
author=TWiki Contributors
publisher=twiki.org ] .

TWiki deployment

TWiki is primarily used at the workplace as a corporate wiki [ [http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006/wiki/space/Paper%3E%3ECorporate+Wiki+Users-Results+of+a+Survey Paper on corporate wiki users] ( [http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006/wiki/space/WikiSym_2006_Presentation.pdf slides] )] to coordinate team activities, track projects, implement workflows ["The wiki as online conveyor belt" section in BusinessWeek article [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_36/b4048441.htm Make Some Noise - How web 2.0 tools can help you communicate with customers more effectively] ] and as an Intranet Wiki. The TWiki community estimates 40,000 corporate wiki sites as of March 2007, and 20,000 public TWiki sites [ [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/NumberOfTWikiInstallations Estimated number of TWiki installations] ] .

TWiki customers include Fortune 500 such as Nokia, Motorola and Yahoo!, as well as small and medium enterprises [ [http://twiki.net/customers.html What do TWiki users say?] ] , such as ARM [Financial Times article [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e6df0a4a-a7d3-11db-b448-0000779e2340.html CASE STUDY: Wikis give ARM Holdings a leg-up] ] and DHL [ [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Main/TWikiSuccessStoryOfDHLPackstation TWiki success story of DHL Packstation] ] .

Realization

TWiki is implemented in Perl. Wiki pages are stored in plain text files. Everything, including meta such as access control settings, are version controlled using RCS. RCS is optional since an all-Perl version control system is provided.

TWiki scales reasonably well even though it uses plain text files and no relational database to store page data. Many corporate TWiki installations have several hundred thousand pages and tens of thousands of users. Load balancing and caching can be used to improve performance on high traffic sites [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiScalability TWiki Scalability] .

TWiki has database features built into the engine. A TWiki Form [ [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiForms TWiki Forms] ] is attached to a page as meta data. This represents a database record. A set of pages that share the same type of form build a database table. A formatted search [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/FormattedSearch formatted search] with a SQL-like query [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/QuerySearch SQL-like query search] ] can be embedded into a page to construct dynamic presentation of data from multiple pages. This allows for building wiki applications and constitutes the TWiki's notion of a structured wiki.

History

Dates of TWiki releases:
* 1998-07-23: Initial version, based on JosWiki
* 2000-05-01: TWiki Release 01-May-2000
* 2000-12-01: TWiki Release 01-Dec-2000
* 2001-09-01: TWiki Release 01-Sep-2001
* 2001-12-01: TWiki Release 01-Dec-2001 ("Athens")
* 2003-02-01: TWiki Release 01-Feb-2003 ("Beijing")
* 2004-09-01: TWiki Release 01-Sep-2004 ("Cairo")
* 2006-02-01: TWiki Release 4.0.0 ("Dakar")
* 2007-01-16: TWiki Release 4.1.0 ("Edinburgh")
* 2008-01-22: TWiki Release 4.2.0 ("Freetown")

Gallery

Footnotes

ee also

* Comparison of wiki software

External links

* [http://twiki.org/ TWiki.org - Open source community site]
* [http://www.wikimatrix.org/show/TWiki WikiMatrix description of TWiki]
* [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/ComparisonOfMediaWikiToTWiki Comparison between TWiki and MediaWiki]
* [http://twiki.net/ TWIKI.NET - company providing commercial installation, support and hosting solutions for TWiki]
* [http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/ConsultantsForHire Consultants for professional TWiki-support]
* [http://wikiring.com/ WikiRing] - network of wiki consultants