BlueSpice for MediaWiki
-Logo-v2013.png){kind=logo} | |
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Screenshot  BlueSpice for MediaWiki-Admin Dashboard | |
| Original author(s) | Markus Glaser e.a. |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Hallo Welt! - Medienwerkstatt GmbH |
| Initial release | March 2011 |
| Stable release | 2.23.1 [1] / 16 March 2015 |
| Development status | Active |
| Written in | PHP |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Size | 87.8 MB |
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Type | Wiki |
| License | GPLv2 or later |
| Website |
www |
BlueSpice for MediaWiki (BlueSpice for short) is free wiki software based on MediaWiki and licensed by GNU General Public License. It is written in the PHP programming language and uses MySQL, Apache/IIS, Tomcat (optional). BlueSpice can be installed on top of an existing MediaWiki installation or as a standalone installation that includes MediaWIki.
It is especially developed for businesses as an enterprise wiki distribution for MediaWiki and used in over 150 countries.[2]
History
The German company Hallo Welt! has been working on developing the open source wiki BlueSpice since 2007. The project was originally initiated by IBM ("bluepedia"), who wanted to deploy MediaWiki but was unable to live with its downsides.[3]
In 2011, Hallo Welt! decided to publish their wiki as free Open source software. The stable version of BlueSpice for MediaWiki was released July 4, 2011.[4] From this point on, a free download has been available at SourceForge.[5] The first release of BlueSpice was a couple of extensions and is today a complete stand-alone distribution, which has the latest MediaWiki as a core system but offers in the free version more than 50 distinct extensions and a completely different user interface. Following independent sources the BlueSpice free distribution is one of the most popular wiki software for knowledge management in organisations.[6]
Autumn 2013 Hallo Welt! released the completely reworked version BlueSpice free 2.[7] According to the BlueSpice developers this release was aimed to open BlueSpice up for freelance developers in the global MediaWiki community and lays the foundation for many new language versions.[8]
In 2014, BlueSpice for MediaWiki became a project of Translatewiki.net.[9] In January 2015 the developer announced that they will change to a subscription model[10]
Functionality
BlueSpice free includes several modules[11] Some of the central features are:
- Visual editor (WYSIWYG) allowing editing without any knowledge of wiki code. This makes creating tables, and uploading and inserting pictures easier than with MediaWiki.[12]
- Extended search: A faceted search allowing searching in titles or full text. The search results can further be sorted or filtered by category, namespace, author, data type etc. Any files attached are also searched. It also provides common features like autocomplete and search as you type.
- Administration and management users, namespaces, groups, rights and settings.
- Review: Pages can be assigned to a reviewer. This allows articles to be reviewed and approved.
Additional Modules
There are additional expansion modules which require payment, and some complete solutions for particular applications e.g. central authentication LDAP, workflows, documentation, integration with SharePoint, Wordpress or Facebook, wiki farming, translation support and semantics.[13]
Usage scenarios for BlueSpice
Some of the uses of BlueSpice are:
- As a central company wiki
- As a technical documentation platform (e.g. IT help desk or for product specifications)
- As a quality handbook (descriptions of processes and procedures)
- In knowledge management (lessons learned, expert debriefing)
- Documentation for research and development
Customers and partners
Desertec, the renewable energy company uses BlueSpice as its collaboration platform. Furthermore, XTREMEtech,[14] HAVI Logistics [15] use BlueSpice as an internal or public wiki.
References
- ↑ "Download". sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
- ↑ "Countries in which BlueSpice is used". Sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
- ↑ Eckenfels, Mela (November 2011). "Spicy: BlueSpice for MediaWiki". Linux Magazine (Munich: Linux New Media) (132): 28–31.
- ↑ Eckenfels, 28.
- ↑ "Download BlueSpice". Soureceforge.net. Retrieved 2013-07-11.
- ↑ Figura, Maria; Gross, Daphne (13 June 2013). "Die Qual der Wiki-Wahl. Wikis für Wissensmanagement in Organisationen". Pumacy Technologies AG. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ↑ Huber, Mathias (27 November 2013). "Blue Spice 2: Enterprise-Wiki generalüberholt". Linux Magazin. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ↑ Heigl, Richard (4 September 2013). "BlueSpice 2: The new version coming up later this year!". BlueSpice News. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ↑ Muggli, Stephan (9 December 2014). "Translatewiki.net: BlueSpice for MediaWiki project". BlueSpice News. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ↑ "New model for BlueSpice". blog.blue-spice.org. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
- ↑ "BlueSpice features". mediawiki.org. Retrieved 2013-11-27.
- ↑ Bailey, Matt (12 September 2013). "BlueSpice (fixing MediaWiki)". Nerdnuts.com. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ↑ "BlueSpice modules". Blue-spice.org. Retrieved 2013-07-11.
- ↑ "Wiki as CMS". Tcworld.info. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
- ↑ "HAVI Logistics on their way to Enterprise 2.0". Blog.blue-spice.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
External links
- Official website
- Blue Spice for Mediawiki Test, Linux Magazin 09/2011 (German)
- BlueSpice as a CMS - report by XTREME technologies