XWiki Product Feedback

Here are some excerpts of what users have said while filling the XWiki Product Survey.

• Feedback from 2023
• Feedback from 2022
• Feedback from 2021
• Feedback from 2020 The survey was broken between October 2019 and April 2020
• Feedback from 2019 The survey was broken between October 2019 and April 2020
• Feedback from 2018
• Feedback from 2017
• Feedback from 2016
• Feedback from 2015 and older

• 29.12.2024 18:39:24:

   Make it possible to Drag&Drop PDF-files to the Editor and get a preview (thumbnail) of the first page automatically which links to the PDF-file. This was suggested in the forum https://forum.xwiki.org/t/pdf-attachment-thumbnail-like-in-confluence/15920 already.
   Read confirmations for pages would be a great feature. From time to time we users need to confirm that they saw and understood an instruction (page).

• 20.12.2024 18:47:20:

   more turnkey customizations that allow for quick and easy themes and functionality.

• 16.12.2024 10:20:44:

   Hi, Here are the different issues that I found could be improved:
   1) Easier upgrade: it's not clear the procedure to upgrade, the compatibility between versions and if I will be able to continue using XWiki after updating. Takes as example Jenkins, which is very easy to update.
   2) Your XWiki weird markdown syntax is problematic:
   * ==Title== instead of the more accepted ## for titles
   * mermaid diagrams Local/relative links are a pain: How to write a [[link]] to a specific page? when there are ":" or other symbols?
   * Attachements require to open a new page to load them and them embed them.
   * Lists with weird and non-intuitive 1. 11.  why? 1. why not 2.?
   I hope it helps.

  Answer from Vincent Massol (XWiki Core Dev):

   1) Procedure to upgrade. Upgrade can be as easy as apt update. Generally speaking it's a bit more complex than Jenkins as we allow for more environment choices.
   2) a) ==Title== is XWiki markup. XWiki supports several markups, including Markdown markup.
   2) b) XWiki doesn't have any mermaid integration yet...
   2) c) Re links creation, you can use the WYSIWYG editor and you'll get autocompletion. For wiki markup, indeed we need to improve that
   2) d) Re lists, again you can use the markup you wish, including Markdown.

• 07.12.2024 18:07:35:

   To be honest. . our biggest hurdle is keeping track and achieving our goals. We believe that a good design and easy handling would make things much easier. There are a few colleagues for whom the appearance should be more customisable. So far, everything can only be specified globally. This refers to the themes. The colour coordination is also not conclusive. Many formulations, e.g. in the selection menus, are not immediately formulated for the purpose. It is not immediately clear what is meant.

• 12.09.2024 11:22:38:

   I would like to resolve the REST-API-URI from the document e.g. with $doc.getRestUri().
   I LOVE XWIKI!

• 19.08.2024 20:09:24:

   So far, all looks good.
   Probably I would ask to improve the documentation, and to have the option (unless it is there and I haven't see it) to have all the documentation as an add-on in the xwiki implementation.

• 16.08.2024 19:50:48:

   Improve documentation.
   I've always felt welcome when looking for help! Thanks for this great software!

• 08.08.2024 18:48:40:

   Using Jetty instead of Tomcat makes most installations (on Linux) probably a bit more difficult, I'd say. However, a video "Install XWiki on Ubuntu 24.04" exists which was essential for me to get installation done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alVbEpbr36o&pp=ygULeHdpa2kgamV0dHk%3D

  Answer from Vincent Massol (XWiki Core Dev):

   We provide a Jetty Debian package to make it easy to install.

• Sent 07.08.2024 11:53:17:

   Bookmarks or favourite articles

• Sent 31.07.2024 18:43:04:

   Menus schould be scrollable and it should be possible to make them to a Burger
   Menu Assignment of Users to Troups is far to complex, should be possible from the Users or the Groups with a Click in an array, and not a Drop-Down
   When changing the colours of a theme, it would be nice to ee faster, which coulor need to be changed for wich area.
   There should be a extra kind of users, that can only read and are chieper. This would make it a greate tool for Dokumenation that only customers are allowed to see.

  Explanations from Clemens:

   "There should be a extra kind of users, that can only read and are cheaper": applies if users want buy paying extensions for which the cost depends on the number of users. If there could some read-only users vs editors then the license costs could be reduced.
   "Menus should be scrollable and it should be possible to make them to a Burger Menu": collapsible panels, and preferably let the side panels scroll separately from the content. (i.e. you should still be able to see the navigation panel if you scroll down the content of a longer page.)  Should likely be easy to do with a bit of CSS/Javascript.
   "Assignment of Users to Groups is far to complex, ...": a) assigning groups to a user (instead of users to groups) would be nice. b) if you don't have many groups, and would like to have a checkbox list to select the groups a user is member of. (of course not a scalable solution)
   "When changing the colours of a theme, it would be nice to see faster, which colour need to be changed for which area": you have to guess from the names what setting is used where, then check the preview if you have guessed correctly or changed a completely different color setting.

  Answer from Vincent Massol (XWiki Core Dev):

   Re collapsible panels, we're working on it, see https://forum.xwiki.org/t/implement-collapsing-panels/13918
   Re color themes, we should provide Hints below the property names to indicate what it's used for.

• 29.07.2024 17:49:21:

   When it loading take to long, memory need alot resources,stability is super good,style is acceptable, need to improve the top menu in confection, the side bar is amazing but try to hide the page name when is to long,
   You are doing great Job,kudos to your Team!!!

• Sent 25.07.2024 09:38:49:

   Default style is ugly. Font should be at least 12pt, and line width shouldn't expand to the width of browser window. It is extremely hard to read such a long lines of small text.

• Sent 22.07.2024 11:47:45:

   Right implementation of https in all links, by farm use. We use different domains for different documentations and https over HAproxy on our firewall. xWiki still use mixed content, for attachments.

• Sent 12.06.2024 18:20:34:

   - choose own fonts
   - dark style which includes all elements like input fields
   - modernize user interface with menu structures with a look and feel like modern Android and iOS apps
   - use of TLS right from the beginning automatically; certificates can be replaced afterwards
  
   Add-on structure seems to be old-style and quite complicated. Why not create a separate module with all in one data and not by creating pages and its extensions. Example: one Java script extension file which includes macros, styles and define UI-Elements; communication over API.

• Sent 11.05.2024 14:22:32:

   Incredible that in 2024 It is so complicated (impossible) to install offline. What utility for thé without flavor install. Just to have a chance to sélect thé seing download
   And why is is so complicated to get an all in one extension package to install off Line. Try with mocca calendar and I am still trying. No error message when install but no solution, no warning but It does not work.

• Sent 10.05.2024 20:38:40:

   I think the Features are very good, many of them are a little bit hidden behind a complexity of the UI. For example the Live Tables.
   Better Documentation how to write own applications in XWiki

• Sent 28.04.2024 03:51:01:

   Should be more secure out-of-the-box, especially on the spam side, prevent from un-register users to perform actions. When installing LTS version, there is no flavor available, so you have to go with an empty blog. is LTS actually supported?

• Sent 30.03.2024 14:39:19:

   By default, pages in the navigation menu are ordered alphabetically. But custom ordering would be helpful for a series of pages with a specific, non-alphabetical order. Use case: tutorial series.

  Answer from Vincent Massol (XWiki Core Dev):

   * We're working on this in the current roadmap and it should be implemented in XWiki 16.3.0.

• Sent 25.03.2024 12:07:31:

   Not too fast on AI.... and add it through extension, without imposing it to clients and users. Main thinking and design : do you really need it ? how do you really use it ? Hence, ... provide it accordingly to that, and properly.
   Keep it this way : pure libre, for use with respect of privacy, and respect of the company data.

• Sent 25.03.2024 11:40:33:

   Search engine fails to find the correct article more often then not

• Sent 03.03.2024 10:01:11 by Stephan Jensen:

   Better Usability with Editing Inline Content of Makros. For example in other Wikis to create a simple List of Checkboxes (no complex Task-Logic needed), you just enter something like "[] my task", and to edit it, you just go there with the cursor keys and edit the Text. In XWiki, you need to choose and call a makro, enter content in different form fields in a layer/popup and close that layer. If you want to edit content, you cannot easily navigate to it with the cursor keys. So it is much more inefficent and needs more time in XWiki. In this case it feels to be to much overhead for such a simple task. Other things to approve:
   - Better Style/Design/UX/Look und Feel (I know you are working on a completly new state-of-the-art frontend, that's great!)
   - Fulltext search (doesn't find everything you search for; better design, filter)
   - Makro to create a whole hierarchy of pages (based not on just one template, but on a template and it's subpages)
   - Makro to include a search bar into a page to search online on that page/space and its subpages
   - Better Support for Tables: sortable columns as a standard feature, easy way to set backgroundcolor of cells from a list of predefined colors
   - Better WYSIWYG Editor to easier enter base content (Like Entering "* " to directly start an unordered list of bulletpoionts)
   - Better Support of a wider range of Confluence Makros would be great, especially page properties.
  
   Keep up the good work. It is really great (and from a view of digital souvernity important!) to have a commercially supported, self-hostable, open source wiki with this amount of features. Please get even better and grow, but never follow the way that Atlassian showed us (like force users to cloud, huge price changes within a few years)

  Answer from Vincent Massol (XWiki Core Dev):

   * Regarding creating whole hierarchies of page, XWiki Templates support that. If your template page has children they'll be copied when creating a page from that template.

• Sent 22.02.2024 13:27:05:

   More flexible text editing features that are more like ms word or google docs.
   The navigation tree and the ability to list the contents of it in a certain order. It would be great if it were more like Windows File Explorer and/or the sidebar in MacOS finder.

• Sent 16.02.2024 01:25:22:

   An auto-suggest wildcard search option you can turn on.
   It's great! Thanks for the Docker images

• Sent 09.02.2024 01:14:46:

   More modern appereance, for example a variant updated of flamingo
   - The google translation macro don´t work in multilingual environments, if you use it with translated pages xwiki becomes mad when you try to edit. A macro to translate paragraphs could be very usefull.
   - The ability to generate diferent layouts for different users
   - More fonts

• Sent 26.01.2024 10:56:16:

   I would like to have a spell checker when writing a text.
   Manage the hierarchy of pages as in confluence, i.e. by dragging the mouse

• Sent 26.01.2024 07:19:22:

   Marcros should have clickable buttons instead of text fields for their configuration. It’s impossible to configure the macros without reading the documentation. Same for LiveTables. There is some space for improvement to be much more “clickable” in many details.
   Great alternative to Confluence! Usebility could be better. It was quite a bit work to be productive with XWiki compared to Confluence.

• Sent 26.01.2024 01:08:40:

   Super easy to use wiki, i learned pretty fast how to get one setup, it being one click and ready to go is super convenient.

• Sent 05.01.2024 18:29:50:

   Interface should be modern and loaded faster

• Sent 03.01.2024 11:45:40:

   Batch move pages!
   Thanks for this great project. (Sometimes I find it hard to figure out if information/advice on your wiki, docs, forum etc. are outdated or deprecated, e.g. PDF export capabilites)

  Answer from Vincent Massol (XWiki Core Dev):

   Thanks! Re deprecated, we work a lot to update the wiki but probably not enough (it's collaborative too and anyone can edit it).
   On the PDF export capabilities, AFAIK they are updated.