JSPWiki

JSPWiki

Screenshot  File:JSPWiki.PNG JSPWiki main website powered by itself
Developer(s)	Janne Jalkanen, Apache Software Foundation
Stable release	2.8.3 / November 13, 2009
Preview release	n/a / n/a
Written in	Java, servlets and JSP
Operating system	Cross-platform
Development status	Incubation
Type	Wiki software
License	Apache License
Website	http://www.jspwiki.org http://incubator.apache.org/jspwiki/

JSPWiki is wiki software built around the standard J2EE components of Java, servlets and JSP. It was written by Janne Jalkanen and released under the LGPL. It is currently undergoing incubation with Apache and its license has been changed to the Apache License. The Sun Java System Portal Server includes it as one of its core applications. It is primarily used for company intranets and has an active developer community, also including the i3G Institute of the Heilbronn University.

History

Janne Jalkanen started developing JSPWiki in 2001. This software is used by many different companies and universities, primarily as a project wiki or a knowledge management application. Sun Microsystems has integrated JSPWiki into their portal server software. Due to its easy installation, many people also use it privately to organize their personal information (for example, as a Personal Information Manager). It can also be used to create a blog because of its blog plugin and RSS support.

As of November, 2007, JSPWiki has been a part of the Apache Software Foundation's incubation process.

Features

• Internationalization - It uses UTF-8 unicode as its standard encoding, making it work in languages such as Thai and Hebrew.

• Plugins - It has a simple plugin system, so advanced users can extend its functionality using Java. Many plugins are freely available and even the Recent Changes functionality is a plugin. This way different elements of a site can change flexibly at run-time.

• Forms - Forms can be written using plugins. Using the form handler, which is similar to the plugin interface and the output data can then be evaluated in Java.

• Version management and search - JSPWiki saves older versions of a page and has functions to show differences (for all users) and to delete pages (for admins only). Search is performed by Lucene which also powers Mediawiki searches.

• File management - Files can be attached directly to a wiki page. JSPWiki has the philosophy that a wiki should be as easy to use as email. File histories can be then be accessed like versions of wiki pages.

• Templates - An administrator can change the look and feel of a wiki using templates. Many templates have been developed, including one that makes JSPWiki look similar to Wikipedia.

• RSS - Recent changes can also be seen by an RSS feed. JSPWiki uses an XML-RPC interface for external control. Through the blog plugin, JSPWiki can also be used as blogging software - Janne Jalkanen's blog uses JSPWiki. Using another plugin, JSPWiki can also be used as an RSS reader.

• Access control - In version 2.4, there is access control using Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS). This allows an admin to set up group access to particular wiki pages or sets of wiki pages.

• Storage - Through its PageProvider mechanism, its wiki storage method can be changed. Wikis can be saved as either as plain text or in any database system. The default option is for wikis to be stored as plain text files. This simplifies the installation process, so even admins with no database experience will have no problems.

• Filter - A filter system makes it easy to develop filters so a wiki can transform customizable symbols. For example there is a spam filter and an emoticon filter. The spam filter removes spam and the emoticon filter transforms emoticons into images of their respective facial expressions.

• WebDAV - JSPWiki supports the WebDAV protocol for page access. This way file attachments can be handled using a file manager directly from the operating system.

External links

• Official JSPWiki wiki
• Article at Linux Gazette
• JSPWiki & Glassfish Getting Started Series