Ari Oinas wrote: >> Thanks for your feedback. I would be glad to know a bit more about what you >> were looking for, which wikis you tried and what made you choose XWiki >> rather than another system. This would help us understand better what makes >> XWiki stand out and what it lacks compared with other platforms. >> If you've got a little time, do you think you could tell us a bit about >> that? >> Many thanks in advance, >> Guillaume >> > > Ok, here's a small list of reasons why I chose Xwiki and not some other > wiki. > Before I begun searching for suitable wiki, I gathered a list of > requirements that a wiki must have. > Wikis that I tested or studied were: MediaWiki, TikiWiki, Xwiki and > Confluence. Maybe some others too, but I don't remember ;) > > Here is that list and how different wikis fulfill those requirements: > > Requirement 1: Ability to transclude pages and sections of pages in other > pages > MediaWiki: Yes, support page transcluding natively and section transcluding > can be added with plugin > Xwiki: Supports page transcluding. Section macro was easy to do, and I got > to do it just the way I like it :) > Confluence: I think it supports transcluding. Not tested it though. > > Requirement 2: Support for hierarchical information ( tree-like ) > MediaWiki: Very bad. Can be achieved using categories, but because Category > is a namespace, category names must be unique which was unacceptable in > mycase. > Xwiki: Very flexible. Namespaces ( Spaces in Xwiki ) are easy to create and > pages can be ordered hierarchically using page's parent -field. > > Requirement 3: Support for content localization/translation > Mediawiki: None. AFAIK every language needs it's own Wiki. > Xwiki: Built-in. Creating translated content is easy. Functions to retrieve > translations still needs work, but are good enough to get the job done. > > Requirement 4: Flexible, easy to maintain user rights > Mediawiki: User right management very restricted. Better with plugins but > still poor. > Xwiki: Superb! Very easy, yet powerful way to handle user rights. I really > liked that user right has 3 options: allow, deny, neutral. This combined > with user groups and spaces makes user rights management very enjoyable. > TikiWiki: Frustratingly detailed. Has some very powerful features, but list > of about 100 different user right parameters is very frustrating. (This > opinion is based on very quick tests) > > Requirement 5: Ability make offline HTML dumps of wiki content > MediaWiki: Possible (maybe with a plug-in, I don't remember) > Xwiki: Supported natively. Yet, I decided to make my own XML Dump program > which fetches content through XML/RPC interface. > > > And now a list of pros and cons for every wiki I tested: > > Mediawiki: > + Widely used, lots of help available > + lots of plugins > - hierarchical information support very bad > - user right management limited and hard to comprehend > > TikiWiki: > + Lots of features > - User interface looks clumsy and is difficult to use ( maybe because I > tested Xwiki just before this ;) > - User rights management is overwhelming > > Confluence: ( not tested, opinions based on what I read about it) > + seems finalized > + used widely in enterprises and universities > + XML/RPC interface > - PRICE > > Xwiki: > + Very slick UI > + Macros / Programming capabilities > + XML/RPC interface > + User rights management > + customer support > - Seems in many ways incomplete/work in progress > - Documention is scattered across the internets / help is very hard to find > using Google. Most searches end up in Xwiki JIRA-pages. > - Xwiki documentation pages seem disorientating. Even if I know theres some > useful info there, it takes me 15mins to find it. (DevGuide, dev.xwiki.org, > xwiki.org/Features) > - Example: > http://xoffice.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/CodeBase/XmlRpcProxy and > http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Features/XMLRPC, so similar, yet in > totally different places > The XmpRpcProxy page was created after you sent your first mail. I published that page, as a result of your mail, so that it potentially helps you. As you can see the notes in the page, it is only a draft. When completed(fully maps the xml-rpc model&api) it will be linked/added to the platform page. > - Scandinavian characters in pageIds don't seem to work > > > I hope these lists are helpful to you. Despite some criticism I presented > here, you have developed an amazing wiki. I think you should focus a little > more on making documentation easy to find and read even for someone who is > just starting to code or otherwise noob (such as me ;). Now it gives an > impression that you have to be Linux-expert/super-coder/uber-nerd to be able > to set up wiki and program it (which you don't need to be, it's actually > quite simple). > > Best regards, > > Ari > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > users mailing list > users@xwiki.org > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users > >
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