Summary of the XWiki 10.x Cycle (XWiki.org)

This is a summary of the release notes for [[XWiki Commons>>http://commons.xwiki.org]], [[XWiki Rendering>>http://rendering.xwiki.org]] and [[XWiki Platform>>http://platform.xwiki.org]], for the whole 10.x cycle (i.e. the whole year 2018). They share the same release notes as they are released together and have the same version.

21

22

10.x cycle is defined by having an improved usability for on-boarding new users and administrators: from protection against refactoring operations, to editing inline macro content, to more auto-suggests, to a faster user interface.

23

24

Here are some [[stats of what happened during the 10.x cycle>>https://jira.xwiki.org/secure/Dashboard.jspa?selectPageId=14336]], more than:

25

26

* 750 issues were closed (see the [[full issue list>>https://jira.xwiki.org/issues/?jql=resolution%20%3D%20Fixed%20AND%20category%20in%20(10000%2C%2010410)%20AND%20component%20not%20in%20(%22Development%20Issues%20only%22%2C%20%22Development%20Issues%20only%20-%20Test%22)%20AND%20resolutiondate%20%3E%3D%20%222018%2F01%2F01%22%20AND%20resolutiondate%20%3C%3D%20%222018%2F12%2F31%22]])

27

* 415 bugs closed, 160 improvements, 31 new features and more:(((

28

29

)))

30

* And the top participants (those contributing to more than 1% of the total issue number):(((

)))

Congrats to all who participated!

35

36

== Top 10 Features ==

37

38

We've handled diverse areas of XWiki in order to achieve that and here are the top 10 features that we wish to mention (arbitrarily hand-picked; it's hard to pick only 10):

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12" %)

(((

=== Look & Feel ===

In the 10.x cycle the look & feel didn't changed drastically, but we've worked mostly on consistency and polishing of the visual elements we already have. In this section we can mention from improved PDF export, to consistent modals and icons, to adding new extension points; but our top 3 changes are:

)))

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

(((

==== New colors ====

In the beginning of the cycle we've refreshed our [[color theme>>extensions:Extension.Flamingo Theme Application]] while keeping our professional and clean look and feel. Our community [[voted>>https://forum.xwiki.org/t/refresh-the-default-color-theme-for-xwiki-10-x/]] for blue as our main color, replacing the black color we had in the past.

57

58

59

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.2.Change004.WebHome@Iceberg_XS.png]]

)))

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

64

(((

65

==== Visible Save ====

66

67

We made sure the save buttons are always visible when editing the content of the page. We've also simplified the available options and naming so that the editing process becomes more natural.

68

69

70

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.5RC1.Change003.WebHome@visiblesave.gif]]

)))

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

(((

==== Faster UI ====

We've added a new asynchronous rendering framework that assures that panels, menus, wiki UI extensions and wiki macros are cached and thus load much faster. This allows to have the page content rendered much faster than before giving a nice feeling of increased performance and snappiness.

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

87

(((

88

=== Administrate navigation ===

89

90

The [[Navigation Panel>>extensions:Extension.Panels Application||anchor="HNavigationPanel"]] is now configurable and we've removed the XWiki specific pages in order to provide an uncluttered view. You can now drag pages from the navigation tree to exclude or include them, while making sure the navigation is focused on users content pages.

91

92

Also the [[Menus>>extensions:Extension.Menu Application]] are now integrated inside the [[Administration>>extensions:Extension.Administration Application]].

93

)))

94

95

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

96

(((

97

98

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.5RC1.Change008.WebHome@navigationPanelConfig.png]]

99

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.8.Change001.WebHome@admin-menu.png]]

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

108

(((

109

=== Refactoring operations protection ===

110

111

In order to prevent accidental modifications of extensions pages and classes, pages that belong to installed extensions are now protected for the majority of refactoring operations: edit, rename, move, delete. Users are forbidden or warned that their actions will have consequences. This assures to have fewer unnecessary errors and to inform users about the nature of existing pages.

112

)))

113

114

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

115

(((

116

117

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.10RC1.Change001.WebHome@menu_rename_simpleuser.png]]

118

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.10RC1.Change001.WebHome@menu_rename_advanceduser.png]]

119

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.3.Change003.WebHome@editprotection.png]]

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12" %)

127

(((

128

=== Editor Improvements ===

129

130

We've added several improvements to our [[CKEditor integration>>extensions:Extension.CKEditor Integration]]. Here are our top 3:

131

)))

132

133

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

134

(((

135

==== Inline Macro Content Editing ====

136

137

We support inline editing of the content for some macros (like box, info, warning, error and figure macros). The user can edit directly in the context of the editor, instead of going to the dedicated macro modal.

{{html5video attachment="ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.10RC1.Change012.WebHome@ckeditor-macro-inline-edit.webm" width="420"/}}

142

)))

143

144

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

145

(((

146

==== Link Autocomplete ====

147

148

You can now create links to existing wiki pages and attachments directly from the editing area using the link auto-complete feature. Just type {{code}}[{{/code}} (open square bracket) followed by at least 2 characters and you will get link suggestions based on the typed text.

149

150

{{html5video attachment="ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.7RC1.Change006.WebHome@ckeditor-link-autocomplete.webm" width="420"/}}

151

)))

152

153

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

154

(((

155

==== Macro Content Prefill ====

156

157

When inserting a macro, the macro content text area is prefilled with the text selected within the editing area.

158

159

160

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.7RC1.Change007.WebHome@ckeditor-macro-prefill.png]]

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

171

(((

172

=== Auto-suggest for pages ===

173

174

Several inputs related to selecting pages references now support auto-suggestion, making it much simpler to use and less error prone (such as not having to know if the reference should end with ##WebHome##). You can find these inputs in Administration, when using the standard classes or you can use it when creating your own applications.

175

)))

176

177

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

178

(((

179

180

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.6.Change001.WebHome@autocomplete-page.gif]]

181

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.8RC1.Change004.WebHome@page-picker.png]][[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.8RC1.Change004.WebHome@admin-search-suggest.png]]

182

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.6.Change002.WebHome@awm-page.gif]]

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

191

(((

192

=== Users sections improved ===

193

194

We've revamped several [[places>>ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.6RC1.Change005]] to use the new compact users displayer. We display the user / group avatar followed by the user / group name, while suggestions are retrieved from both the current wiki and the main wiki.

195

196

We've improved the [[Groups>>extensions:Extension.Administration Application||anchor="HGroups"]] section in Administration to display the user type and scope. Also we are finally displaying the user membership in the [[profile>>extensions:Extension.User Module.User Profile Application||anchor="HGroups"]].

197

)))

198

199

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

200

(((

201

202

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.6RC1.Change005.WebHome@userPicker-createWiki.png]]

203

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.6RC1.Change005.WebHome@userPicker-sharePage.png]]

204

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.6RC1.Change005.WebHome@usersAndGroupsCompactPicker.png]]

205

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.8RC1.Change007.WebHome@groups.png]]

206

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.9.Change014.WebHome@adminSubWikiGroups.png]]

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

215

(((

216

=== Notifications ===

217

218

We've continued the work on [[Nofications>>extensions:Extension.Notifications Application]], by providing loads and loads of improvements and bugfixes. Notifications were the highlight on our 9.x cycle, but they made a come back also this year. We've improved our filtering mechanism and default values, added new macros, added auto notifications on changes, etc.

219

220

The Notifications Application is now the central feature in XWiki for notifications, finally replacing the [[Watchlist>>extensions:Extension.Watchlist Application]] and the [[Activity Stream>>extensions:Extension.Activity Macro]] features.

221

)))

222

223

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

224

(((

225

226

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.9.Change003.WebHome@Results.png]]

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-12" %)

235

(((

236

=== Under the hood ===

237

238

It' much easier to mention visual features, since we have screenshots to show, but under the hood features usually do all the heavy duties. Usually these features are mostly targeted towards administrators, but since they are so nice, we thought we could mention a couple:

239

)))

240

241

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

242

(((

243

==== Improved Multi-Term Search Relevancy ====

244

245

This is commonly referred to as //sloppy phrase matching// and allows for more "Googleish" query strings. The allows for partial multi-term matching so that [[searching>>extensions:Extension.Solr Search Application]] for long phrases won’t “hide” documents with a subset of shorter multi-term matches.

246

)))

247

248

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

249

(((

250

==== Filesystem store improvements ====

251

252

Filesystem store is now the default location for [[attachments>>Documentation.AdminGuide.Attachments||target="HAttachmentStorage"]] and deleted documents.

253

254

Also we've added support for case insensitive filesystems.

255

256

On top of that, we support larger attachments by default. Untill now the default limit for attachments was set at 32MB. It's now been increased to 100GB.

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-12" %)

264

(((

265

=== New community extensions ===

266

267

2018 was a good year for [[extensions>>extensions:Main.WebHome]], with over 40 new extensions released and plenty of releases for the existing extensions. We want to thank to all our contributors that spread the love for open source and invest in new ways of using and extending XWiki.

268

)))

269

270

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

271

(((

272

==== CAPTCHA implementations ====

273

274

Currently CAPTCHAs are used by default in the Registration and Comments areas. A new [[CAPTCHA>>extensions:Extension.CAPTCHA Application]] application was been implemented and now you can extend and change the implementation you use across the wiki from the Administration. You can install the popular [[Google reCAPTCHA>>doc:extensions:Extension.reCAPTCHA Application.WebHome]] or use the default [[JCaptcha>>doc:extensions:Extension.JCaptcha Application.WebHome]] that provides image, sound and text CAPTCHA formats.

275

276

277

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.8RC1.Change011.WebHome@captcha-jcaptcha-options.png]]

278

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.8RC1.Change011.WebHome@captcha-recaptcha.png]]

279

[[image:ReleaseNotes.Data.XWiki.10\.8RC1.Change011.WebHome@comments-captcha-recaptcha.png]]

)))

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

(((

==== LaTeX ====

You can now use [[LaTeX syntax>>extensions:Extension.LaTeX.Syntax 1\.0]] to write content inside XWiki. You can use LaTeX to add formulas, table of content, containers, footnotes, etc.

288

289

Also if the existing PDF export is not good enough for your needs, consider using the [[LaTeX exporter>>extensions:Extension.LaTeX.Exporter]].

290

291

292

[[image:extensions:Extension.LaTeX.Syntax 1\.0.WebHome@toc.png]]

293

[[image:extensions:Extension.LaTeX.Syntax 1\.0.WebHome@table-wrap-good.png]]

294

[[image:extensions:Extension.LaTeX.Syntax 1\.0.WebHome@formula.png]]

)))

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-4" %)

(((

==== New macros ====

Lots of new macros available, but we've going to mention just the most popular:

303

304

* [[Figure Macro>>extensions:Extension.Figure Macro]] adds a caption to tagged content or illustrations

305

* [[Numbered Reference Macro>>extensions:Extension.Numbered Reference Macro]] provides numbered headings, figures and tables and references to them

306

* [[Kanban Macro>>extensions:Extension.Kanban Macro]] displays a Kanban view of AppWithinMinutes data

307

* [[Organizational Chart Macro>>extensions:Extension.Organizational Chart Macro]] displays an organizational chart from list, json or XWiki data

308

* [[Insta Feed Macro>>extensions:Extension.Insta Feed Macro]] display a feed of you own Instagram's account

309

310

311

[[image:extensions:Extension.Figure Macro.WebHome@image-example.png]]

312

[[image:extensions:Extension.Numbered Reference Macro.WebHome@example.png]]

313

[[image:extensions:Extension.Kanban Macro.WebHome@kanban3.png]]

314

[[image:extensions:Extension.Organizational Chart Macro.WebHome@orgchart2.png]]

315

[[image:extensions:Extension.Insta Feed Macro.WebHome@macro_instafeed.png]]

)))

)))

(% class="row" %)

(((

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

(((

=== XWiki Store ===

XWiki's [[Extension Manager>>extensions:Extension.Extension Manager Application]] is now connected to the XWiki Store and will list the professional extensions.

328

)))

329

330

(% class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" %)

331

(((

332

333

[[image:extensions:Extension.XWiki Standard Flavor.WebHome@standard.png]]

334

335