Release Notes of TWiki-6.0.0 (Jerusalem), 2013-10-14
Introduction
TWiki is an enterprise collaboration platform and application platform. TWiki has been downloaded over half a million times and is used as a mission critical platform by many leading Fortune 500 businesses and government agencies on their intranet, extranet or public website. Users without programming skills can create web applications. Developers can integrate TWiki applications with other enterprise applications. TWiki-6.0.0 released on 2013-10-14 is a major release that has a shiny new dashboard look. It brings many usability enhancements, strengthens TWiki as an application platform, and scales to very large deployments with thousands of webs and a million pages.Feature Highlights
- Usability Enhancements
- Add dashboards to Web home topics
- Categorize TWiki variables & add TWiki Variables wizard
- Upgrade to TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor to version 3.5.8
- New TOPICTITLE variable for non-WikiWord topic titles
- Show topic title in square bracket links using
[[+TopicName]]syntax - Icon bullet lists: Specify any TWiki doc graphics icon as a bullet
- WebSearch and WebChanges has now search result pagination
- WebChanges shows topic age instead of topic date
- Auto-discover TWikiForms, e.g. no need to set in WEBFORMS preferences setting
- Move change TWiki Form from edit screen to "more" screen
- Show link to older versions of attachments in attachment table
- Automatically link @Twitter
handles
- Add comment section to new topic template
- Copy/clone topic function in more topic action screen
- Configurable signatures with profile pictures
- Open external links in new browser window or tab; show external link icon
- Scalability Enhancements
- Read-only and mirror web support for distributed TWiki sites
- MetadataRepository for site metadata and web metadata to speed up operations across many webs
- Rename topic operation with option to not replace web internal references
- Rename web operation can cope with a large site and read-only/mirror webs
- Introducing web-level administrator for higher web autonomy; web specific WIKIWEBMASTER
- Support for multiple disk drives for data and pub directories
- TWiki Application Platform Enhancements
- New EDITFORMFIELD variable to easily create custom forms to create/change topics with TWiki Forms
- Add rev parameter to FORMFIELD variable
- New combobox TWiki Form field type
- New ENTITY variable to entity encode content
- Add createdate, default, encode parameters to SEARCH variable
- SEARCH variable with sort by parent feature
- SEARCH variable extended to make results pagination possible
- Add encode, newline, nofinalnewline, allowanytype to INCLUDE variable
- Add subwebs and depth parameters to WEBLIST variable
- Add section parameter to ADDTOHEAD variable
- Add encode and decode functions to TWiki::Func
- Add LWP parameters to TWiki::Func::getExternalResource
- Conditional Skin based on group membership and other criteria
- Finer-control variable expansion in topic creation
- Add topic parameter to VAR variable to get settings defined in another topic
- Add raw parameter to INCLUDE variable to include a topic in the raw mode
- Security Enhancements
- Support for an implicit "all users" group
- Empty DENY setting means undefined setting
- Dynamic access control (experimental)
- Upgrade support for secure email notification
- Restrict HTTP variable to not reveal certain header fields
- User masquerading to check if access restriction is working as expected for another user
- Disable XSS Protection for JavaScript
- Extensions Enhancements
- Add new WatchlistPlugin to core and deprecate MailerContrib
- Add new TWikiDashboardAddOn to core distribution
- Add new ScrollBoxAddOn to core distribution
- Add new DatePickerPlugin to core and deprecate JSCalendarContrib
- Add new MovedSkin to core distribution
- SpreadSheetPlugin supports hash variables with new functions GETHASH(), HASH2LIST(), HASHCOPY(), HASHEACH(), HASHEXISTS(), HASHREVERSE(), LIST2HASH(), SETHASH(), SETMHASH()
- SpreadSheetPlugin adds new functions BIN2DEC(), DEC2BIN(), DEC2HEX(), DEC2OCT(), HEX2DEC(), OCT2DEC()
- SpreadSheetPlugin supports quoted parameters with '''triple quotes'''
- InterwikiPlugin to observe the links configuration parameter
- TagMePlugin with support for multiple tag namespaces
- Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
- CGI Engine to be made Fast CGI compatible
- Empty IF condition to be regarded valid and false
- Add seconds to the timestamp in debug/log/warn
- Viewing topic text with variables expanded
- WEBLIST canmoveto and cancopyto
- Add viewRedirectHandler callback to plugins API
- No such topic, no such web, access denied are done right
- Return "404 Not Found" status for topic not found instead of 200 OK status
- Return "404 Not Found" status and show "No Such Web" page title for no such web without redirecting to an oops URL titled "Access Denied"
- Return "403 Access Denied" status for access denied without redirecting to an oops URL whose status code is "200 OK"
- Statistics enhancements to show most viewed webs, most updated webs, most popular webs, top viewers, # of unique users who viewed, saved, and uploaded on the web/site, affiliation breakdown
- Specifying webs to be excluded from WebStatistics update
- Statistics topics can be annualized to e.g. WebStatistics2013, WebStatistics2014. This prevents statistics topics from growing indefinitely
- For paragraphs generate <p>...</p> instead of <p/>
- 20 new TWikiDocGraphics icons
Pre-installed Extensions
TWiki-6.0 ships with:- Plugins: BackupRestorePlugin, ColorPickerPlugin, CommentPlugin, DatePickerPlugin, EditTablePlugin, EmptyPlugin, HeadlinesPlugin, InterwikiPlugin, JQueryPlugin, PreferencesPlugin, RenderListPlugin, SetGetPlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin, TablePlugin, TagMePlugin, TinyMCEPlugin, TWikiNetSkinPlugin, TwistyPlugin, WatchlistPlugin, WysiwygPlugin
- Contribs: BehaviourContrib, JSCalendarContrib, MailerContrib, TipsContrib, TWikiUserMappingContrib, TwistyContrib
- Skins: MovedSkin, PatternSkin, PlainSkin, PrintSkin, TopMenuSkin, TWikiNetSkin
- Apps: TWikiDashboardAddOn, ScrollBoxAddOn
Supported User Interface Languages
The user interface of this TWiki version is localized to 19 languages: English (default), Bulgarian (bg), Chinese simplified (zh-cn), Chinese traditional (zh-tw), Czechoslovakian (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), German (de), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Russian (ru), Slovakian (sv), Spanish (es), Ukrainian (uk).
Note: TWiki needs to be configured properly to display user interface languages other than the default English language. Details in TWiki:TWiki.InstallationWithI18N and TWiki:TWiki.InternationalizationSupplement.
Notes for TWiki Administrators and Wiki Champions
New Dashboard Feature
A dashboard comes into play when users need to get an overview of their work and want to navigate quickly to relevant places. The TWikiDashboardAddOn application is designed to give administrators a tool to quickly create dashboards for the intranet home, knowledge base, team homepages, project homepages, and more. The TWiki web homes are now dashboards, and we invite you to use this to prettify your own team homepages and TWiki applications.
Dashboard screenshot (click to enlarge)
%DASHBOARD{ section="dashboard_start" }%
%DASHBOARD{ section="box_start" title="Tile 1 title" }%
Tile 1 content
%DASHBOARD{ section="box_end" }%
%DASHBOARD{ section="box_start" title="Tile 2 title" }%
Tile 2 content
%DASHBOARD{ section="box_end" }%
%DASHBOARD{ section="box_start" title="Tile 3 title" }%
Tile 3 content
%DASHBOARD{ section="box_end" }%
%DASHBOARD{ section="dashboard_end" }%
Dashboards can optionally have a banner image. TWikiDashboardImages has a collection of over 100 images to chose from.
The tiles have a gray shadow look and have rounded corners. The style is based on the ScrollBoxAddOn. That application also supports scrollable text and image rotation.
New WatchlistPlugin
The WatchlistPlugin is a new addition to TWiki. It adds watchlist feature to TWiki topics. Topics of interest can be watched and unwatched. A user can see recent changes of all watched topics. A user can also subscribe to get e-mail notification of changes, either immediately on each topic save, or in digest mode once a day. The top-menu has a new "Watch" pulldown to watch and unwatch the current topic. The WatchlistPlugin will eventually replace the MailerContrib, e.g. the current WebNotify based subscription is deprecated and will be retired in a future TWiki release.Scalability Enhancements
TWiki has been enhanced to support and manage large site with thousands of users, hundreds of webs, and a million pages:- You can enable the MetadataRepository to enumerate webs. If you have thousands of webs, it takes a while to traverse the
datadirectory to find out all webs, which happens e.g. when showing the selection of move destination. MetadataRepository can house additional information for your custom user mapping manager to consume.
- You can make webs autonomous, which means that each web has its owners, who get full access to the web regardless of access restriction setting. If you have thousands of webs, you may be fed up with web owners asking for help when they lock themselves out by mistake.
- You can use multiple disks. If you have thousands of webs, all webs may not fit one single disk.
Spec Change for Empty DENYTOPICVIEW
From TWiki 4.0 and prior to 6.0, the syntax* Set DENYTOPICVIEW = (nothing) in a topic means deny nobody the topic view. The reason for this behavior is that it allows public access to a topic in a restricted web, e.g. having * Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = Main.VipGroup in WebPreferences. This is not symmetric with the fact that an empty DENYWEBVIEW is the same as an undefined DENYWEBVIEW, hence confusing.
From TWiki 6.0 on, an empty DENYTOPICVIEW means the same as not defined. To open up a topic in a restricted web, you need to use * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = Main.AllUsersGroup. The Main.AllUsersGroup is new. It is a pseudo group containing all authenticated and unauthenticated users. You can use Main.AllAuthUsersGroup if you want to specify all authenticated users.
To keep publicly accessible topics in restricted webs publicly accessible, the tools/eliminate_emptydenytopic script is provided, which replaces * Set DENYTOPIC<action> = with * Set ALLOWTOPIC<action> = Main.AllUsersGroup in all topics in all webs.
Dynamic Access Control
Dynamic access control allows you to use TWiki variables in access control variables such asALLOWWEBVIEW. You can restrict access based on topic name pattern or TWiki form field value, for example. This feature is considered experimental.
User Masquerading
With user masquerading, you can check if access restriction is working as expected for another user. To use this feature, the following requirements need to be met.-
initializeUserHandler()is provided by a plug-in and it sets a special user identity under masquerade. -
getWikiName()andfindUserByWikiName()of the user mapping manager handle masqueraded cUIDs and wiki names.
TWiki Forms Enhancements
Several enhancements have been done to TWikiForms to make it easier to create TWiki applications and for better usability.- Adding/changing/removing a TWiki Form has been moved from the edit screen to the "More topic actions" screen. Users are no longer tempted to accidentally add or remove TWiki Forms.
- The WEBFORMS preferences setting has been removed. TWiki Forms Template topics are now detected automatically.
-
New combobox TWiki Form field type. In some cases it is desirable to have a fixed picklist, and at the same time an edit field to override the picklist options.
- Use the new EDITFORMFIELD variable to create HTML forms that update TWikiForms, such as a custom "create new topic" form, or a topic header that allows users to change some form values at the top of the page. A valid form is composed of a start form type, various form fields, a submit type, and an end form type.
New TOPICTITLE Feature
The%TOPICTITLE% variable will expand to a nice display name of a page. The existing %TOPIC% variable expands to the page name, and is typically restraint to a WikiWord or acronym.
The TOPICTITLE variable expands to the topic display name in this sequence until found:
- Value of form field named "Title" (already in use by several TWiki applications such as the TWiki:Support forum on TWiki.org)
- Preferences setting TITLE
- Topic name %TOPIC%
- Create new topic, edit topic: New field for topic display name
- Rename topic: Show topic display name field
Statistics Enhancements
- A number of enhancements have been made to the
statisticsscript. To make use of these enhancements, you need to update TWiki installations with existing WebStatistics and SiteStatistics topics. The tools/convert_stats_twiki6 tool does that. No action needs to be taken for new TWiki installations.
- On SiteStatistics, to show the lists of most viewed webs and most updated webs, you need to specify a number in
$TWiki::cfg{Stats}{SiteTopViews}and$TWiki::cfg{Stats}{SiteTopUpdates}. The SiteStatistics used to use the WebStatistics parameters. These changes are described at TWikiSiteTools#MaxNoOfItemsInColumns
- You may want to see which divisions/department of your company are using TWiki overall or on a web level. This can be done by providing a
getAffiliation($cUID)method in the user mapping handler. Details at TWikiSiteTools#AffiliationBreakdown
- You may want to exclude Trash and other webs from getting their WebStatistics updated. Setting a regular express of excluded webs to
$TWiki::cfg{Stats}{ExcludedWebRegex}achieves that. Details at TWikiSiteTools#ExcludedWebRegex
- WebStatistics and SiteStatistics grow indefinitely, which may not be an issue in most cases. They may grow really big in 5 years or 10 years time. Read TWikiSiteTools#WebStatisticsYYYY if you want to prevent that.
New MovedSkin
Use the MovedSkin when you migrate TWiki to a different site with a different URL. When enabled on the old site users will be redirected to the new page URL on the new site.Usage of $TWiki::Plugins::VERSION
The$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION number can be used by plugins for conditional code execution. From TWiki-6.0.0 on, the version umber is aligned with the TWiki version number, e.g. for this release, $TWiki::Plugins::VERSION is set to 6.00. The number needs to be numeric so that a number comparison can be done. By convention, Major.MinorPatch is used, e.g. 6.12 for a future TWiki-6.1.2 release.
History of $TWiki::Plugins::VERSION numbers:
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Upgrade From Earlier Releases
Follow the TWikiUpgradeGuide to install TWiki and migrate data from your existing TWiki. You can use the new BackupRestorePlugin to backup an old TWiki and then simply restore the content to a new TWiki.
Make sure to exclude the TWiki web on restore!
Deprecation Notices
JSCalendarContrib Deprecated
The Mishoo JSCalendar based DHTML pop-up calendar is now repackaged as DatePickerPlugin. The JSCalendarContrib is deprecated and will be removed in the next release. Actions to take:
- TWiki pages that use JSCalendarContrib need to be updated to the much easier format of the new plugin - details in DatePickerPlugin
- Extensions that have a dependency on JSCalendarContrib need to be updated to version 2012-12-12 or later:
- ChecklistTablePlugin - TWiki:Plugins.ChecklistTablePlugin on twiki.org
- DateFieldPlugin - TWiki:Plugins.DateFieldPlugin on twiki.org
- EditTablePlugin - TWiki:Plugins.EditTablePlugin on twiki.org - pre-installed
- EditTablerowPlugin - TWiki:Plugins.EditTablerowPlugin on twiki.org
- FormPlugin - TWiki:Plugins.FormPlugin on twiki.org
- RenderFormPlugin - TWiki:Plugins.RenderFormPlugin on twiki.org
- ChecklistTablePlugin - TWiki:Plugins.ChecklistTablePlugin
- Once plugins and page content have been updated it is safe to remove the JSCalendarContrib completely.
MailerContrib Deprecated
The MailerContrib is deprecated and will be replaced in a future TWiki release by the newly added WatchlistPlugin.TWikiNetSkin & TWikiNetSkinPlugin Deprecated
From TWiki 6.0 on, the TWikiNetSkin and TWikiNetSkinPlugin are deprecated and will be removed in a future release.ClassicSkin Removed
The ClassicSkin has been deprecated in the TWiki-5.0 release and has been removed from this release.TWiki-6.0.0 Major Release - Details
TWiki-6.0.0 was built from SVN http://svn.twiki.org/svn/twiki/trunk revision r26523 (2013-10-14)
Enhancements
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Fixes
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r1 - 14 Oct 2013 - 07:44:44 - TWikiContributor
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