This is a sub-page of Wiki (Portlet) Overhaul. This page created to break out discussion related to alternate Wiki engines that might be considered for integration into Liferay's Wiki Portlet.

Note: JSPWiki has been finally chosen as Liferay's wiki new engine. Nevertheless a flexible infrastructure has been implemented so that it's possible to implement custom engines if desired.

DISAMBIGUATION: Wiki Portlet#

This is a page to discussing overhauling the Liferay portlet functionality that end users can use to implement a wiki. It is not intended for overhauling the content of wiki.liferay.com. For that, see wiki.liferay.com Content Overhaul.

Java based wiki tools #

Following is a list of wiki tools ready to be used. It describes their applications, strengths, weaknesses, notable features, notes. For Liferay's wiki Overhaul, only the underlying engine of the wiki would be used and the new design, which has already been committed to svn, would be kept. The next section lists wiki engines that are independent of any tool.

A list of of open-source Java-based wikis can be found at: java-source.net

JSPWiki#

Homepage: www.jspwiki.org

Distribution License: GNU Lesser GPL

1. Notable Features
1. Submitted to Apache Incubator ref: JSPWiki Apache Proposal
2. Extensible through JSPWikiPlugins, some core features are also plugins.
3. supports JAAS authentication
4. data storage default = flat file, but plugins built for JDBC connections to backend databases
5. Templates Support
6. Support for Creole markup: JSPWiki Creole Filter
2. Pros
1. Mature, with large, active developer community (about 40 developers subscribe to JSPWiki-Dev mailing list / 200 subscribers to JSPWiki-Users mailing list)
1. Appears to be most active Java Wiki project out there today (1 Nov 2007).
3. Cons
4. Notes
1. e-mail from JSPWiki-Users mailing list from Janne Jalkanen (JSPWiki Originator and chief architect) regarding integration with Liferay:

:::://Re: [Jspwiki-users] More on Liferay integration:::://(Janne Jalkanen, Mon Oct 29 14:48:08 2007)

:::://Couldn't figure out how to post to either blog or the forum, so I'm responding here :-) :::://I noticed a couple of worries. First of all: authentication. JSPWiki supports the JAAS authentication scheme out-of-the-box, so you can use whatever you have built-in already. In addition, our authentication system is fully pluggable, so you can just write a plugin to your own code. :::://The other worry mentioned was that there would be one global namespace for all users. This is true for the stock jspwiki installation (we're working on it!), but if you are embedding, you have several choices ranging from using JSPWiki just as a rendering engine (and providing the page repository by yourself - might be good if you already have a storage system) to spawning a new WikiEngine instance for each of your user areas. So embedders do have a bit more freedom than people who just install it. :::://Anyway, practically all of the internal modules can be overridden via configuration, so you do have quite a lot of flexibility in figuring out just the right level of integration to your app! ::::/Janne

VQWiki#

Homepage: www.vqwiki.org

Distribution License: GNU Lesser GPL

1. Notable Features
1. File- or database-based persistency
2. Switchable parsers
3. Virtual wikis
4. Email change notifications and more.
2. Pros
1. Switchable parsers (presumably including Mediawiki, but not clear yet
3. Cons
1. Version 3.0 (no release date yet) seems to have entirely new interface, with most not working in demo site, but "coming soon." They don't seem to project much stability in it.
4. Notes

JamWiki#

Homepage: jamwiki.org

Distribution License: GNU Lesser GPL

1. Notable features:
1. Attempting to reach MediaWiki formatting parity
2. Notes:
1. Site has minor discussion on problems with non-embedded pasers here

DevWiki#

XWiki#

XWiki Homepage

Distribution License: GNU Lesser GPL

Friki (inactive project)#

Friki is the current wiki engine being used by Liferay's wiki portlet.

No longer active development - last activity on Sourceforge during 2004-2005.

SnipSnap (inactive project)#

As of 6/29/2007 SnipSnap is no longer being actively developed, although RADEON (the underlying engine) is still active. (maybe make entry just for Radeon engine?)

Java based wiki engines #

Introduction to Wiki syntax standards #

These wiki engines implement wiki syntax standards, specifically Creole and Textile, which seem to be the most popular:

• Creole: has a syntax very similar to that of MediaWiki but removing the characteristics that are specific to that implementation. More information can be found in: http://wikicreole.org/
• Textile: aims to create a humane syntax for formatting text. More information can be found in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_(markup_language)

Java Wiki Engines for MediaWiki #

• Bliki: aims to create a Java API for the Wikipedia/MediaWiki syntax. More information can be found here:
• http://matheclipse.org/en/Java_Wikipedia_API (Homepage)
• http://groups.google.com/group/bliki (Forum)
• http://plog4u.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/plog4u/info.bliki.wiki/ (SVN)

Java Wiki Engines for Creole #

• JSPwiki's engine: supports Creole 0.6
• Is there documentation about how to use the engine? Jferrer|Jferrer 02:42, 4 November 2007 (PST)
• Radeox: limited Creole support: http://www.radeox.org/
• Opinions:
• Is it really actively developed? Jferrer|Jferrer 02:42, 4 November 2007 (PST)

Java Wiki Engines for Textile #

• Plextile: https://sourceforge.net/projects/plextile
• BSD License
• Developed by the Plink team
• Supports conversion to PDF
• Opinions:
• Looks like the most promising to me Jferrer|Jferrer 02:42, 4 November 2007 (PST)
• JTextile: http://philwilson.org/projects/jtextile/
• Textile4j: http://sourceforge.net/projects/textile4j
• Textile-j: https://textile-j.dev.java.net/
• Includes components for SWT and JFace and an Eclipse editor plugin