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PageEditing

Version 22.1 by Silvia Macovei on 2009/08/18
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Page Editing

In XWiki all pages are editable (provided you are logged in and/or have the edit rights). To edit a page, all you have have to do is to click the "Edit" button which is usually located at the top left of the page you're viewing (please note however that the location of the "Edit" button varies depending on the skin your wiki is using). For instance using the Albatross skin you should see what is on the image below.

EditionSimpleMode.JPG

Simple and Advanced edition modes

Since XWiki is an application wiki, all users will not need to use the same features. This is why XWiki comes with a simple and an advanced edition mode. Users can easily choose which edition mode they prefer on their profile (available at the top right of the page when you are logged in). This way, standard users do not have to choose between edition modes they may not be familiar with. By default new users are given the Simple edition mode but they can switch to the Advanced mode as described below.

Simple Mode

After clicking on the "Edit" button in simple mode, XWiki will automatically edit the page in the basic mode (WYSIWYG or Wiki) for standard pages and in Form mode for pages which include Forms (ie pages using the #includeForm() macro). The two edition mode available in simple mode are:

Advanced Mode

Experienced XWiki users will want to use all the edition choices (particularly those who want to use XWiki programming features). They can choose to switch to advanced mode on their user profile page (see image below). Following this, clicking on the "edit" button will display the full edition menu, letting the user choose which mode he wants to use (Wiki, Form ,Objects...). Under the "show" tab, the "code" option is displayed too.

AdvancedMode.JPG

Once you have switched to advanced mode, the Edit menu will look like this when the mouse is over:

EditionAdvancedMode.JPG

This will give you access to the following edition modes:

Common edit actions

All edit modes have some or all of the elements in the following filename

editactions.png

The minor edit checkbox is meant to mark the fact that superficial changes were made to the document. Such changes may include, but are not restricted to: spelling error corrections, text rearrangements, formatting. It is the editor's responsability to distinguish between major and minor changes.

Reminder: A wiki document's version is composed of two numbers: <Major>.<Minor>. Saving a major change will increase the first component and reset the second to "1", while a minor edit will just increase the second component.

By default, minor edits do not appear in the "What's New" page and in the document history. The option "Show minor edits" will list all the versions, including minor ones.

The comment field allows entering a short description of the changes made to the document in the version being saved. It is displayed in the history page and it is meant to increase comprehensibility of the content's evolution.

The Cancel button causes the changes to be discarded and forwards to the document view mode.

The Preview button shows the document as it would look with the current changes saved, but does not actually change the document. From the preview mode, the user will be able to cancel the changes, return to edit mode, or save the changes. This button is not available in all edit modes.

The Save & Continue button submits the current changes and returns to the current edit mode.

The Save & View button submits the current changes and returns to the document view mode.

Wiki editing mode

This is a mode you should be familiar with if you're already a wiki user. In this mode you can enter text using a simple Wiki Syntax. Note that the syntax documentation help is displayed in a menu on the right when you edit a page in this mode.

This is what the wiki edition mode looks like with the Albatross skin:

WIKIEdition.JPG

In Wiki and WYSIWYG mode, the user can maximize the edit area to occupy as much as possible of the full window. For this, there is a double-arrow blue button on the top-right corner of the editor, which launches the fullscreen editing mode. In order to save or to preview the document, the user can press the "Back" button or the 'X' to close the window and restore the original dimensions of the editor. The Fullscreen mode will be improved, so the user will be able to save, preview or continue working without closing the fullscreen window.

Choosing a syntax

Starting with XWiki Enterprise 1.7 you now have the option to choose what syntax you want to use for writing the content of the page (see the XWiki Syntax Guide for more details). To choose one of the configured syntaxes go in wiki edit mode and in the Information Panel select the syntax to use. For example using the Toucan Skin:

syntax.png

Information

If you choose the XWiki Syntax 2.0 and switch to the WYSIWYG editor you'll notice that you'll be using the new WYSIWYG editor.

WYSIWYG editing mode

This mode is ideal for first time users or people who do not want to use the Wiki Syntax. It's a mode similar to the one used by your favorite word processor in which you see how what you type is rendered. There's a toolbar available to add special effects to your text, add images, insert links, add macros, etc.

Information

Starting with XWiki Enterprise 1.7 we now have 2 WYSIWYG editors and we are phasing out the old editor (based on TinyMCE) that you'll be automatically using if your documents are written in XWiki Syntax 1.0. If your document is using the XWiki Syntax 2.0 or if your wiki is configured to use the XWiki Syntax 2.0 by default then you'll be using automatically the new WYSIWYG editor (based on GWT).

Warning

The screenshots below need to be updated since they're showing the old WYSIWYG editor

This is what the WYSIWYG edition mode looks like with the Albatross skin:

WYSIWYGEdition.JPG

The user can edit in fullscreen mode as explained above, at WIKI editing mode.

Form editing mode (aka inline mode)

Inline mode, or Form mode, is a special feature of XWiki, that allows administrators to define patterns of structured information (like a blog entry, or a standard tax form). Pages containing such structured information can be edited and re-edited as simple HTML Forms, which have (almost) the same structure as the displayed page. Thus, when clicking the edit button, it seems that the page content can be edited in-place, or inline.

You can only use this edit mode for pages having such structured content.

Technically this mode is used to edit pages that use the #includeForm() macro to display Forms objects attached to the page. It is beyond the scope of this simple guide to explain the programming technique supporting this feature. Please check the Developer's Guide to find out more about programming with Objects/Classes and Forms.

Objects editing mode

In XWiki it's possible to attach Objects to pages. Objects are simply sets of properties with values that adds additional information about a page. For example a security right can be added to a page to control its rights, a blog object is attached to a page representig a blog entry, etc. Again it's beyond this simple guide to explain this programming technique. Please check the Developer's Guide to know more about programming with Objects/Classes.

Classes editing mode

We've seen that some pages can have Objects attached to them. Some pages can also be Object definitions, a.k.a Classes. The Classes editing mode calls the class editor on the current page, allowing to edit the Classes attached to the document. Again it's beyond this simple guide to explain this programming technique. Please check the Developer's Guide to know more about programming with Objects/Classes.

Page Access Rights editing mode

This mode allows you to control the access rights for the page you're viewing (you need to have the correct access rights to modify a page's rights of course!). See the Rights Management topic for more information.

Full Screen Mode

From version 1.1 onwards, a full-screen mode is available in XWiki. When editing a page either in Wiki or WYSIWYG mode, clicking on the blue button at the top right of the edition box will send the editor in full-screen mode. You can then edit your page as usual and click on the "back" button to return to the usual interface when you are finished.

The button you need to click to go in full-screen mode \ FullScreenButton.png

Edition while in full-screen mode \ FullScreen.png

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