JSPWiki

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JSPWiki

Latest release:	2.4.100 / March 2, 2007
Preview release:	2.5.28 /
OS:	Cross-platform
Use:	Wiki software
License:	LGPL
Website:	JSPWiki wiki

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. The Glassfish Application 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.

1 History
2 Differences from other wiki engines
3 Features
4 External links
- 4.1 Sites using JSPWiki

[edit] 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 PIM - Personal Information Manager). It can also be used to create a blog because of its blog plugin and RSS support.

[edit] Differences from other wiki engines

JSPWiki adapted and extended the PHP Wiki wiki markup. Since version 2.3, CSS can be integrated using %% tags. For example, a text can be made red using the following markup: %%(color:red) RED TEXT %%. Its users believe its wiki syntax is more intuitive than other wiki engines like Mediawiki and TWiki. In contrast to Mediawiki, JSPWiki allows files to be attached to a specific wiki page. Every page generates its own RSS feed of its changes.

[edit] Features

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

Plugins - JSPWiki 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 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.