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Page Editing

Version 86.1 by Sorin Burjan on 2010/09/15
Warning: For security reasons, the document is displayed in restricted mode as it is not the current version. There may be differences and errors due to this.
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In XWiki all pages are editable (provided you are logged in and/or have the edit rights). To edit a page, all you 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 if you're using the Toucan skin you should see what is on the image below:

EditSimpleMode.png

If you're using the Colibri skin with the new Action Menus introduced in XWiki 2.1 you should see the following:

EditSimpleModeColibri.png

Simple and Advanced editing modes

Since XWiki is an application wiki, not all users will need to use the same features. This is why XWiki comes with a Simple and an Advanced editing mode. Users can easily choose which editing 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 editing modes they may not be familiar with. By default new users are given the Simple editing 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 (i.e. pages using the #includeForm() macro). The two editing modes available in Simple mode are:

Advanced Mode

Experienced XWiki users will want to use all the editing 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 on any page will display the full editing menu, letting the user choose which mode he wants to use ("Wiki", "Inline form", "Objects"...). Under the "Show" tab, the "Wiki code" option is displayed too.

AdvancedEditMode.png
Once you have switched to advanced mode, the "Edit" menu will look like this on mouse over:

EditAdvancedMode.png
This will give you access to the following additional editing modes:

Common edit actions

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

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 responsibility to distinguish between major and minor changes.

Reminder: A wiki document's version is composed of two numbers. 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 that is 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 how the wiki edit mode looks like with the Colibri skin:

WikiEditing.png

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:

Syntax2.png

Failed to execute the [velocity] macro. Cause: [The execution of the [velocity] script macro is not allowed in [xwiki:Documentation.UserGuide.Features.PageEditing]. Check the rights of its last author or the parameters if it's rendered from another script.]. Click on this message for details.

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.

wysiwyg.png

Failed to execute the [velocity] macro. Cause: [The execution of the [velocity] script macro is not allowed in [xwiki:Documentation.UserGuide.Features.PageEditing]. Check the rights of its last author or the parameters if it's rendered from another script.]. Click on this message for details.

Read the documentation for using the new WYSIWYG editor for more details.

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 and the form view is automatically displayed.

Technically the inline mode is triggered automatically differently whether the page is written in XWiki Syntax 1.0 or 2.0, using the following algorithm:

  • XWiki Syntax 1.0: If the page contains a call to #includeForm()
  • XWiki Syntax 2.0: If the page is including another page which itself contains an object of the type XWiki.SheetClass

Note that 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 simple sets of properties with values that add 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 representing 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.
ObjectEditor.png

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 find out more about programming with Objects/Classes.
ClassEditor.png

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 green button at the top right of the edit box will send the editor in full-screen mode. You can then edit your page as usual and click on the green 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

Editing while in full-screen mode
FullScreen.png

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