WikiRing Blog (combined)

MichaelDaum replies on "Development of Foswiki and TWiki – get the facts"

MichaelDaum — 2011-01-17T09:32:00Z

Ohloh Charts <p />… <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/compare?metric=Contributors&project_0=Foswiki&project_1=TWiki" target="_top">show</a> that we are doing quite fine actually. Note also, that the number of active contributors is higher than ever before, even on the old project. <p /> <p /> <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogComment13/compare_chart.png" id="" class="imageHref imageSimple " title="Contributors Foswiki vs TWiki" ><img border="0" src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogComment13/_500___compare_chart.png" alt="compare_chart.png" width="500" height="241" longdesc="Contributors Foswiki vs TWiki" /></a> <p /> (red: foswiki, green: twiki)

Foswiki is getting SQL RDBMS support!

CrawfordCurrie — 2010-10-26T11:07:00Z

<div id="" class="imageFrame imageFrame_left " ><a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry41" class="imageHref" title="Foswiki Storage"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogImages/_170___419970_33314492.jpg" alt="419970_33314492.jpg" width="170" height="128" longdesc="Foswiki Storage" /></a></div> For a long time we've talked about stitching a relational database into Foswiki, mainly to speed up query searches. To keep things simple Foswiki uses a text database, which stores topics in lots of individual files. By default, searches are implemented by searching every one of these files individually for matching text. This isn't as bad as it sounds; searching is surprisingly fast. But it doesn't scale up terribly well, so people have coupled in various full-text search engines, such as Kinosearch, to accelerate text searches.<p />However there's been very little successful work yet on speeding up query searches – which is a shame, because query searches are heavily used in most wiki applications. The problem has always been that it's difficult to map from a Foswiki search query to any kind of structured search language, such as SQL. <p /> One approach (championed by WikiRing member Sven Dowideit) has been to support a wider range of queries in the text search engine. Using the code I wrote to map query searches to regular expressions, Sven has been able to couple Foswiki to the MongoDB database, with some pretty impressive results. This is already available as the <a href="http://foswiki.org/Extensions/MongoDBPlugin" target="_top">MongoDBPlugin</a>. Other approaches have tried to map Foswiki queries to other database search models, such as XQuery, but with little success. <p /> SQL is still the most common query language, and the RDBMS that support it are among some of the most mature and robust software on the planet. It's important that Foswiki has solutions that fall into that comfort zone. To that end I have implemented a new module, the <a href="http://foswiki.org/Extensions/DBIStoreContrib" target="_top">DBIStoreContrib</a>, that maps from the Foswiki query language to SQL. This allows us to use many of the existing RDBMS, such as MySQL, SQLite and PostgreSQL, to accelerate queries. By caching topics into the database in parallel to the text database, we avoid the risk of data loss that has made people nervous of other wiki solutions that use RDBMS, such as Mediawiki, while still maximising search performance. <p /> It's early days for this module, and there's still lots to do to optimise how it works, so watch this space! If you are interested, and have a development environment, then you can check out the DBIStoreContrib from the Foswiki Subversion trunk. <p /> Foswiki – the very best wiki application platform – is taking another giant leap forward…. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=database" rel="tag">database</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=plugin" rel="tag">plugin</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=searching" rel="tag">searching</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=sql" rel="tag">sql</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=storage" rel="tag">storage</a>

The Dark Side of Open Source: pwning a copyright

CrawfordCurrie — 2010-04-27T10:36:00Z

What is legally permissible when adding a copyright notice to a derivative work?<p />In 2008 I stopped contributing to an open source project when it was <a href="http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/p/f/pwned.htm" target="_top">pwned</a> by a commercial interest. At that time a number of my original works existed in their source code repository, and still exist there pretty much as I left them 2 years ago, when I moved further development to a different repository. All of these works were released under the GPL, and carry my personal copyright notice, or that of a wider group of contributors who had worked on the project up to that date. <p /> Since I left the project, the now-owners have redefined that contributors group, and have taken to retrospectively applying a different copyright to a number of these works. They have made some minor changes (mostly removing my personal branding, but also adding some scraps of new documentation) and <em>added a dated copyright notice of their own</em> that <em>extends their claim back several years</em>, despite the fact that (according to their own public records) no changes have been made until very recently. <p /> Now, all the code and documentation is in their source code repository, so I would have no problem proving that I am the original copyright holder. However by making some very small changes, they have technically created a derivative work, and I don't have any problem with them adding a copyright notice to cover these new changes. <p /> But what I find really objectionable is the <em>dating</em> of that new copyright notice back to a point well before the changes (5 years before, in at least one case). <p /> This is obviously immoral, but the question is, is it actually illegal? <p /> Update: it has come to light that in at least one case (not my code) the new copyright notice has been extended back to a date <em>before the work was first published</em>. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry! <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=collaboration" rel="tag">collaboration</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=community" rel="tag">community</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=copyright" rel="tag">copyright</a>

WebDAV gets data views

CrawfordCurrie — 2010-04-12T16:09:00Z

The WebDAV support for Foswiki took another leap forward this morning, when we finished development of a new FilesysVirtualPlugin which supports different <em>views</em> for topics. This makes Foswiki topic content much more accessible to a wider range of tools.<p />Some time ago we (C-Dot Consultants and Kontextwork) jointly released the WebDAVContrib and FilesysVirtualPlugin, which together support access to Foswiki data via the <a href="http://webdav.org" target="_top">WebDAV</a> protocol. More recently we released the WebDAVLinkPlugin, which enhances the integration of WebDAV documents into Foswiki, by allowing links to WebDAV documents to be edited using native applications on the client, such as the Microsoft Office™ suite. <p /> That's great for working with attachments, but what about topics? Up to now, if you wanted to edit a topic, you had to edit the raw Topic Markup Language (TML) that the topic was stored in. Using Microsoft Word to edit TML is like using the space shuttle to commute 2km to work. Life would be much simpler if we could feed Word with a format it understands, like HTML. <p /> We've been able to WYSIWYG edit Foswiki topics in the browser for a long time now; so the technology to convert topic content to other formats and back again exists; all we needed was a way to present this through WebDAV. <p /> What we need to do is to give the WebDAV user a way to select what format they want the topic in. We've done this by allowing the <em>same topic content</em> to be mapped to <em>more than one file</em> entry in a WebDAV directory listing; each file entry is referred to as a "view" (because it's just a different way of looking at the same data). <p /> The FilesysVirtualPlugin is configured with a list of views that it supports; for example, txt, html, json. When it is asked for a list of files in a Foswiki web, it generates a file entry for each of the different views, so the topic <code>MyTopic</code> ends up with the entries: <ul> <li> <code>MyTopic.txt</code> </li> <li> <code>MyTopic.html</code> </li> <li> <code>MyTopic.json</code> </li></ul> These file entries can be read and written just like normal files; the FilesysVirtualPlugin takes care of mapping the content back to TML. Because these file entries are all views of the same data, then if you edit MyTopic.txt, then MyTopic.html automatically changes too, and vice-versa. <p /> Besides <code>txt</code>, <code>html</code>, and <code>raw</code>, two meta-data views have been provided, <code>json</code> and <code>perl</code>. These views allow you access to topic meta-data. It's easy to add new views, and we foresee other useful view types, such as <code>xml</code> and <code>yaml</code> coming along later. <p /> WebDAVContrib, FilesysVirtualPlugin and the companion WebDAVLinkPlugin are available from <a href="http://www.kontextwork.de/" target="_top">Kontextwork</a>. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=ajax" rel="tag">ajax</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=webdav" rel="tag">webdav</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=wysiwyg" rel="tag">wysiwyg</a>

Paula Jenna replies on "Hostile takeover of Open Source Project TWiki"

Paula Jenna — 2010-01-13T04:38:43Z

Thanks <p />I think im gonna start a wiki for web hosting. Could any one point me at a link for a how to on getting started. Which interface to use ..etc. <p /> Thank you <p /> Paula J

gmc replies on "Development of Foswiki and TWiki – get the facts"

gmc — 2009-11-17T13:04:24Z

Some other sources underwriting your results <p />Sven Dowideit made a reasonable comment on IRC as well, with links to some objective sources that confirm your analysis: <p /> 11:31 <@SvenDowideit> <a href="http://foswiki.org/Tasks/HallOfFame" target="_top">http://foswiki.org/Tasks/HallOfFame</a> and <a href="http://develop.twiki.org/~twiki4/cgi-bin/view/Bugs/HallOfFame" target="_top">http://develop.twiki.org/~twiki4/cgi-bin/view/Bugs/HallOfFame</a> shows those stats reasonably too <p /> Quite dramatic indeed!

Development of Foswiki and TWiki – get the facts

AndreUlrich — 2009-11-17T09:55:00Z

It is often claimed that only a few developers moved from TWiki to Foswiki, therefore the first article will look at who are/were active core developers of both projects.<p /><style> .oldmember{ color:#ccc; } .DISheadline{ background-color:#ddd; font-weight:bold; text-align:center; } .memberaction{ width:100px; text-align:center; } </style> <h2><a name="Number_of_core_developers"></a> Number of core developers </h2> The analysis focus on core development of both projects, as this is a major indicator for the health of a software project. This is because you need a lot more knowledge and background for developing the core product than for writing an extension with a clearly defined API. <p /> <h3><a name="Claim"></a> Claim </h3> <p /> <blockquote><i>"We have healthy downloads, an active user community, and a very active support community. However, we are a smaller developer community than we used to be."</i> <br>Source: Blog post by Peter Thoeny (Twiki.net) – 11 Nov 2009</blockquote> <p /> <h3><a name="Fact"></a> Fact </h3> <p /> <table class="twikiTable" > <tr><th class="headline" colspan="3">Developers of TWiki and Foswiki</th></tr> <tr><td align="center"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/twiki-icon.png"></td><td></td><td align="center"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/foswiki-icon.png"></td></tr> <tr><th class="headline" colspan="3">Core contributers</th></tr> <tr><td>PeterThoeny</td><td></td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>SopanShewale</td><td></td><td></td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">CrawfordCurrie</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>CrawfordCurrie</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">KoenMartens</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>KoenMartens</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">MichaelDaum</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>MichaelDaum</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">RafaelAlvarez</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>RafaelAlvarez</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">AndreUlrich</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>AndreUlrich</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">TravisBarker</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>TravisBarker</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">ArthurClemens</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>ArthurClemens</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">GilmarSantosJr</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>GilmarSantosJr</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">LynnwoodBrown</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>LynnwoodBrown</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">OliverKrueger</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>OliverKrueger</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">ColasNahaboo</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>ColasNahaboo</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">KennethLavrsen</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>KennethLavrsen</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">MarkusUeberall</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>MarkusUeberall</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">SvenDowideit</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>SvenDowideit</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">AntonioTerceiro</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>AntonioTerceiro</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">WillNorris</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>WillNorris</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">MartinCleaver</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>MartinCleaver</td></tr> <tr><th class="headline" colspan="3">New to core development</th></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">SebastianKlus</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>SebastianKlus</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">OlivierRaginel</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>OlivierRaginel</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">EugenMayer</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>EugenMayer</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">LarsEik</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>LarsEik</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">IsaacLin</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>IsaacLin</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">GeorgeClark</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>GeorgeClark</td></tr> <tr><td class="oldmember">AndrewJones</td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/arrow.gif"></td><td>AndrewJones</td></tr> <tr><th class="headline" colspan="3">New developers</th></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>SeanMcCarthy</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>RobManson</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>BenBeijer</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>RaulFRodriguez</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>MarkSchumann</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>MichaelTempest</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>AndrewPantyukhin</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>DrakeDiedrich</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td class="memberaction"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry36/new.gif"></td><td>PaulHarvey</td></tr> <tr><td class="headline">2 Core Contributers</td><td class="headline"></td><td class="headline">32 Core Contributers</td></tr> </table> <p /> <h3><a name="Statement"></a> Statement </h3> <h4><a name="Developer_community"></a><a name="Developer_community_"></a> Developer community: </h4> Look at the list of developers contributed to the core of both projects since the commercial takeover of Twiki.net. The TWiki.org development community has dropped to almost nothing – only Peter and his employee Sopan is left. Whereby all other TWiki.org core developers moved to Foswiki.org. Together with new developers, Foswiki has almost doubled its core contributors! <p /> <div > <table cellspacing="0" id="table1" cellpadding="0" class="twikiTable" rules="rows" border="1"> <tbody> <tr class="twikiTableOdd twikiTableRowdataBgSorted0 twikiTableRowdataBg0"> <td bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol0 twikiFirstCol">   </td> <th bgcolor="#687684" colspan="2" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol1"> <font color="#ffffff">Number of core contributors</font> </th> </tr> <tr class="twikiTableEven twikiTableRowdataBgSorted1 twikiTableRowdataBg1"> <td bgcolor="#edf4f9" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol0 twikiFirstCol">   </td> <th bgcolor="#687684" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol1"> <font color="#ffffff">before commercial takeover<br>of TWiki.org (2008-10-27)</font> </th> <th bgcolor="#687684" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol2 twikiLastCol"> <font color="#ffffff">one year later (2009-10-27)</font> </th> </tr> <tr class="twikiTableOdd twikiTableRowdataBgSorted0 twikiTableRowdataBg0"> <th bgcolor="#687684" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol0 twikiFirstCol"> <font color="#ffffff">TWiki.org</font> </th> <td bgcolor="#ffffff" align="center" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol1"> <b>18</b> </td> <td bgcolor="#ffffff" align="center" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol2 twikiLastCol"> <b>2</b> </td> </tr> <tr class="twikiTableEven twikiTableRowdataBgSorted1 twikiTableRowdataBg1"> <th bgcolor="#687684" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol0 twikiFirstCol twikiLast"> <font color="#ffffff">Foswiki.org</font> </th> <td bgcolor="#edf4f9" align="center" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol1 twikiLast"> <b>n/a</b> </td> <td bgcolor="#edf4f9" align="center" valign="top" class="twikiTableCol2 twikiLastCol twikiLast"> <b>32</b> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p /> <h3><a name="Healthy_Downloads"></a><a name="Healthy_Downloads_"></a> Healthy Downloads: </h3> Yes, lots of users still download the old TWiki code as they don´t know about Foswiki and its progress. Our marketing was very bad as we are better in concentrating on improvements than in talk about it. Sadly even most of our old TWiki user community don´t know about Foswiki and may wonder why there is no progress on TWiki.org. <p /> <h3><a name="Sources"></a> Sources </h3> <p /> As the analysis is based on open source, you can easily check the correctness of the data by yourself. For the first analyzation I used the following sources: <ul> <li> <a href="http://svn.twiki.org/svn/twiki/trunk/core/">TWiki.org SVN trunk/core</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://svn.foswiki.org/trunk/core/">Foswiki.org SVN trunk/core</a> </li></ul> <p /> Don't miss the rest of the series: <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry35" class="twikiLink">Introduction</a> <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=community" rel="tag">community</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=opensource" rel="tag">opensource</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=twiki" rel="tag">twiki</a> </li></ul>

Development of Foswiki and TWiki – get the facts (Intro)

AndreUlrich — 2009-11-14T16:57:00Z

One year after the commercial take over of TWiki.org its time look how TWiki and its successor Foswiki performed. A small blog series will cover facts and give you insight into the development status of both projects.<p /> <h2><a name="Intro"></a> Intro </h2> <p /> As a Wiki consultancy we regulary got asked about different projects and how good they are. In case of TWiki.org and <a href="http://www.foswiki.org" target="_top">Foswiki.org</a> customers are very irritated and cannot see the difference. The fact that Foswiki is based on TWiki, but got developed much further within the last year is not obvious to most users. Contrary to the fact that Foswiki is the superior product, TWiki still has the better recognition marketing wise. <p /> In order to help our customers getting an insight into the development of both projects I will do an analysis and compile the results in an understandable way. The results will be published in a small series of articles. <p /> The first analysis will be based on core development of both projects, as this is a major indicator for the health of a software project. This is because you need a lot more knowledge and background for developing the core product than for writing an extension with a clearly defined API. <p /> As the analysis will be based on open source, you can easily check the correctness of the data by yourself. For the first analyzation I will use the following sources: <ul> <li> <a href="http://svn.twiki.org/svn/twiki/trunk/core/">TWiki.org SVN trunk/core</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://svn.foswiki.org/trunk/core/">Foswiki.org SVN trunk/core</a> </li></ul> <p /> Stay tuned and see how Foswiki and TWiki developed over the past year. <p /> Continue reading at: <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry36" class="twikiLink">Development of Foswiki and TWiki – get the facts</a> <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=community" rel="tag">community</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=fork" rel="tag">fork</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=opensource" rel="tag">opensource</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=twiki" rel="tag">twiki</a> </li></ul>

Foswiki-1.0.7 released

MichaelDaum — 2009-09-21T10:25:00Z

The amount of improvements is impressive. The bug fixing carousel passed another lap and pace increases noticeably as new high potential contributors have joined the Foswiki core team. This is easily the best release we ever had. <p /> <div id="" class="imageFloat imageFloat_right " ><a href="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogImages/virgo-300.gif" class="imageHref" title="Foswiki 1o7, a Virgo"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogImages/virgo-300.gif" alt="virgo-300.gif" width="300" height="171" longdesc="Foswiki 1o7, a Virgo" /></a></div><p />And this is not all. The Fosswiki Association e.V. has <a href="http://blog.foswiki.org/2009/09/foswiki-association-was-founded-on-20090909/" target="_top">just recently been founded</a> formally. The first constitutive general assembly will take place within the next two months to ratify its articles, vote for the board and convert <a href="http://foswiki.org/Community/VirtualBeer" target="_top">virtual beers</a> into physical ones. Maybe it will take place around Nov 20. This would be a great date as we could celebrate Foswiki's first anniversary having decided on the new project's name one year before. <p /> <br clear="all" /> Read the <a href="http://n2.nabble.com/ANNOUNCE-Release-of-Foswiki-version-1-0-7-td3682089.html" target="_top">full release notes</a> and <a href="http://foswiki.org/Download" target="_top">go grab it here</a>. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=community" rel="tag">community</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=opensource" rel="tag">opensource</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=release" rel="tag">release</a>

Foswiki and TWiki reviews on Sourceforge

MichaelDaum — 2009-09-21T00:00:00Z

<p />

Foswiki.org running on a new server

MichaelDaum — 2009-08-24T09:43:00Z

<div id="" class="imageFloat imageFloat_right " ><a href="http://www.sonologic.nl" class="imageHref" title="sonologic-logo.png"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogImages/sonologic-logo.png" alt="sonologic-logo.png" width="146" height="55" longdesc="sonologic-logo.png" /></a></div> We are all quite excited about the recent and upcoming changes on the <a href="http://foswiki.org" target="_top">Foswiki project</a>. Now <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Public/KoenMartens" class="twikiLink">Koen Martens</a> has set up a new hardware for the Foswiki main server and migrated the site. Big big thanks to Koen and his company <a href="http://www.sonologic.nl" target="_top">Sonologic</a> hosting it and all people that donated money to buy the new iron. <p />Here are some pictures: <p /> <div class="igp"><a name="igp1"></a><div class="igpThumbNails"><table class="igpThumbNailsTable"><tr> <td width="50%" class="igpThumbNail"><a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry33?id=1&filename=1250942581310.jpg#igp1"><img src="/pub/images/Blog/BlogEntry33/1/thumb_1250942581310.jpg" title="1250942581310" alt="1250942581310.jpg"/></a></td> <td width="50%" class="igpThumbNail"><a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry33?id=1&filename=1250942758547.jpg#igp1"><img src="/pub/images/Blog/BlogEntry33/1/thumb_1250942758547.jpg" title="1250942758547" alt="1250942758547.jpg"/></a></td> </tr> <td width="50%" class="igpThumbNail"><a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry33?id=1&filename=1250970501191.jpg#igp1"><img src="/pub/images/Blog/BlogEntry33/1/thumb_1250970501191.jpg" title="1250970501191" alt="1250970501191.jpg"/></a></td> <td width="50%" class="igpThumbNail"><a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry33?id=1&filename=1250970545822.jpg#igp1"><img src="/pub/images/Blog/BlogEntry33/1/thumb_1250970545822.jpg" title="1250970545822" alt="1250970545822.jpg"/></a></td> </tr> </tr> </table></div> </div> <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=community" rel="tag">community</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=hardware" rel="tag">hardware</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=server" rel="tag">server</a>

ClearQuest interface for Foswiki (and TWiki)

CrawfordCurrie — 2009-06-04T11:14:00Z

Is there any interest in such an interface?<p />For the last couple of years, C-dot Consultants has been working with a client to develop a plugin that interfaces to the well known (and quite excellent) <a href="http://www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/clearquest/" target="_top">IBM ClearQuest</a> bug tracking and workflow management system. This interface allows Wiki users to make queries into the ClearQuest database, and present the results of those queries in tabular and graphical form. The interface was developed for the client's internal use, and has been heavily used by a large number of people for quite some time. It has proven to be very reliable. It occurred to us that it might be of some use to other enterprises who use ClearQuest. If you are interested, please contact me. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=clearquest" rel="tag">clearquest</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=ibm" rel="tag">ibm</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=integration" rel="tag">integration</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=plugin" rel="tag">plugin</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=tracking" rel="tag">tracking</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=wikiapps" rel="tag">wikiapps</a>

New WebDAV plugin for Foswiki (and TWiki)

CrawfordCurrie, AndreUlrich — 2009-05-08T11:04:00Z

The new WebDAV plugin provides direct access to files stored within the Wiki for desktop applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. <p /><a href="http://www.webdav.org"><img src="http://www.wikiring.de/pub/Blog/BlogEntry31/webdav-logo.jpg" ></a><a href="http://www.kontextwork.de" target="_top">KontextWork</a> and <a href="http://c-dot.co.uk" target="_top">C-Dot Consultants</a> have worked together to create the WebDAVContrib, a brand new Web DAV implementation for <a href="http://www.foswiki.org" target="_top">Foswiki</a> and Apache 2. <p /> <a href="http://www.webdav.org/" target="_top">Web DAV</a> (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that allows users to edit and manage files collaboratively on remote World Wide Web servers. <p /> The new Web DAV module maps Foswiki content – webs, topics and attachments – to a directory structure, and exports it using the Web DAV protocol. It allows users to work with Foswiki content using the tools they are most familiar with, without compromising on Foswiki features. For example attachments can be opened, manipulated and saved right within desktop applications such as Microsoft Office, Open Office, Adobe Photoshop (and many more). Wiki webs can be opened in file browsers such as Windows Explorer, and wiki topics can be edited using many different text editors. <p /> The new plugin is a completely new Perl implementation of Web DAV, written specifically for Apache 2, and has been extensively tested using the standard <a href="http://www.webdav.org/neon/litmus/" target="_top">litmus tests</a>. It works over HTTP and secure HTTPS, fully respects Foswiki permissions, and can be used with all standard Apache authentication methods. A version for TWiki is also available. <p /> The WebDAVContrib is currently undergoing final pre-release testing. Contact <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Public/AndreUlrich" class="twikiLink">Andre Ulrich</a> for availability and pricing. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=documentmanagement" rel="tag">documentmanagement</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=integration" rel="tag">integration</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=webdav" rel="tag">webdav</a>

Improve PublishContrib

CrawfordCurrie — 2009-05-08T09:22:00Z

I've been thinking about doing some more work on the PublishContrib, to make it more useful for people who want controlled publishing processes, for example those who publish process manuals.<p />Here are some of the requirements I've been thinking about: <ol> <li> More flexible specification of publish sets, including publishing groups of webs </li> <li> Record keeping (who published what, when, and what they published) </li></ol> <p /> <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Main/MichaelDaum" class="twikiLink">Michael Daum</a> has related, but slightly different requirements. Michael publishes by copying content to a static web where it is picked up by a different CMS. So he has a common requirement to specify publish sets, but has additional requirements such as unpublishing, and automation of approval processes. Anyway, the upshot of the conversation was that we should have some common way of specifying "publish sets". The current method – regexes in the publish topic – is so crude as to be laughable. The obvious approach to specifying publish sets would be to use WebNotify, but as Michael points out that's far too geeky. Another approach would be to think about "specification" and focus on the UI, perhaps build on the <a href="http://foswiki.org/Extensions/SubscribePlugin" target="_top">SubScribePlugin</a>. Another approach would be to use a wiki app to gather published content into one place, similar to the genwebnotify.pl approach taken to generate the notification mails from the <a href="http://foswiki.org" target="_top">Foswiki:Tasks web</a>. Record keeping means maintaining unforgeable records of a publishing event. That means stamping the published docs with publishing information, including the history in the published data, and publishing to publish-event specific targets (e.g. directories named by the current date). <p /> It would be interesting to hear what other ideas people have had. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=automation" rel="tag">automation</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=cms" rel="tag">cms</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=content" rel="tag">content</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=plugin" rel="tag">plugin</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=publishing" rel="tag">publishing</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=wikiapps" rel="tag">wikiapps</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=workflow" rel="tag">workflow</a>

MichaelDaum replies on "Hostile takeover of Open Source Project TWiki"

MichaelDaum — 2008-11-21T11:30:25Z

<p />Aron, thanks for your warm words about TWiki. We still appreciate it, as we are all still deeply linked to our roots. These are roots that we left behind now as we build up the TWiki successor called <strong>Foswiki</strong> right now. <p /> Thanks also for offering that we all are welcome to come over to DekiWiki. I really am a fan of DekiWiki and highly appreciate the gr8 work MindTouch does to produce such a high quality product. <p /> However, TWiki somewhat became our second nature, so most, if not all developers stay on course doing whatever we always did, just faster and not threatened by Peter's trademark. <p /> I only wished he would not see a need to turn around and use the trademark against the core of TWiki, its own community. <em>That</em> was not for the best of the project for sure. Peter obviously did not assess the situation clear enough coming to the conclusions and actions as outlined in the above posting. <p /> Most probably, this is not for the best of TWiki.net either, as it <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10078682-16.html" target="_top">might have become "radioactive" for more venture investments</a>. They might milk the open sources for some time but the product already starts to rotten with TWiki.net not able to execute. <p /> Not so Foswiki. The number of people that take part is just amazing as proven by pure number of submissions in the recent surveys to <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry29" class="twikiLink">find the new brand name</a>. <p /> TWiki was in the transition from one governance model with a sole dictator to another one with an elected board of directors and an association to promote the project and take care of legal matters. This process failed and Peter installed an even more restrictive dictatorship by ruling the project from within his new company called TWiki.net. <p /> Frankly, we have seen this coming and we tried to keep the project true Open Source. From TWiki's perspective we failed. From Foswiki's perspective we now work unleashed from the curse of a bad governance structure. <p /> Just have a look at <a href="http://foswiki.org" target="_top">http://foswiki.org</a>. This new old community is working like crazy to get the new release out. And we will do it. It will be a much better wiki than TWiki ever was. All of the roadmap for TWiki-5 will be executed on Foswiki. The Foswiki Association, the formal body for this project, will come to live very soon. <p /> So basically, we just get what we want. It only needs a bit more work. All these efforts are more than worth it as the new site already shows. And we just started. This is only weeks ago and look at it… <p /> Note, that these are the <em>same</em> people that have formerly been known as the TWiki community. Just imagine how badly TWiki was managed looking at the unleashed energy and abilities that people can now unfold on the new project. <p /> And we are not done with it. It's renovation & innovation time.

MartinSeibert replies on "Hostile takeover of Open Source Project TWiki"

MartinSeibert — 2008-11-21T10:05:04Z

I did not see any Core developers leave! <p />Hi Aaron, <p /> I am sorry. But I have been involved in TWiki for quite some time now. I did see all active developers to switch from TWiki to Foswiki (formerly NextWiki). I believe that your post is merely trying to attract our developers. <p /> Please name any developer who changed. That would be really interesting. <p />

Birthday Nr. 0 for Foswiki, the Free and Open Source Wiki

MichaelDaum — 2008-11-19T10:34:00Z

The community formerly known as TWiki.org has entered the home stretch to strip off its burdens of the past.<p />On November 18th, the community has voted for a new name for the project that recently forked off TWiki.org and which hit the front pages recently under the working title NextWiki. So welcome the new old player. <p /> <div > Happy birthday to Foswiki. </div> <p /> This is the start of a great new brand that is about to evolve at <a href="http://foswiki.org" target="_top">foswiki.org</a> The tagline of the project is <p /> <cite> The Free and Open Source Wiki </cite> <p /> which obviously is reprocessing the trauma of the <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogEntry28" class="twikiLink">Hostile takeover of the Open Source Project TWiki</a> but also targets at its best competitors in the market segment, which are <em>not</em> Open Source. <p /> It remains to be seen if this new project will be able to catch up with the field, as it was dropping behind recently, according to the <a href="http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=789812" target="_top">Magic Quadrant for Social Software, 2008</a>. In this paper, Gartner categorizes TWiki as a niche player only whereas it was on par with Socialtext in the <a href="http://www.socialtext.com/about/resources/resource-files/Socialtext_2513_GartnerM.pdf" target="_top">Magic Quadrant for Team Collaboration and Social Software, 2007</a>. That might be the result of the long paralysis caused by the governace crisis over the recent years on the TWiki project, which finally culminated in the recent fork 3 weeks ago. <p /> This paralysis obviously has been overcome as the new project Foswiki shows an impressive amount of activities by all members. Long-time contributors, that went on strike as the trademark issues on TWiki started to manifest, now show an outburst of activities, committing and impressive stream of updates and bugfixes to the new platform. Surely, a vast amount of work is related to rebranding the software by pinching the string "TWiki" out of every place. <p /> The questionnaire on finding the new brand name for the project had an impressive 100 submissions spot on just within a few days. There was a prior survey among the community to find out about its likings for a new name that had even more submissions. Compare this with just a hand full of members that dared to voice up on the old TWiki project during all of its quarrels. That's over now and people obviously have fun again to volunteer. <p /> There was already very positive feedback on the <a href="mailto:Nextwiki-cheer-and-donate@lists.sourceforge.net">cheers-and-donate mailing list</a> coming from outside. One of which says: <p /> <cite> The new website is very appealing and the first impression is not "bitter" but "better", so keep that up! A big cheer for everyone involved in this initiative!! </cite> <p /> Still, according to the criteria for a product to be listed on the Magic Quadrant study by Gartner, it seems quite probable that TWiki will drop out on 2009, as it lost its community which created the product before. Regarding its Open Source process, TWiki can be considered dead and with it goes its core engine. Foswiki, on the other side, now continues work on the engine with a lot of verve, but won't show up easily on a forthcoming 2009 Magic Quadrant as it still has to build up its new brand and user base. However, as most authors of extensions have moved to Foswiki and now maintain their work on the new platform, moving from TWiki to Foswiki is a natural choice to keep up with upstream updates and improvements. <p /> TWIKI.NET, the new owner of TWiki.org, won't rest and just watch. They are actively working on interesting applications to address intranet needs build on top of the TWiki engine. The fact that this software can be used to build applications like that is great in its own and TWIKI.NET does score in that field as far as can be seen from outside. But of how much value are such applications in the long run, when the platform they are build on erodes? TWIKI.NET is funded by venture capital paying a bunch of developers in Asia and elsewhere. Time will show if that business plan pays off to cope with all the open road works that they have to face all alone now. Good luck from WikiRing. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=community" rel="tag">community</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=fork" rel="tag">fork</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=foswiki" rel="tag">foswiki</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=opensource" rel="tag">opensource</a>, <a href="http://www.wikiring.de/Blog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&search=twiki" rel="tag">twiki</a>

JohnSmith replies on "Hostile takeover of Open Source Project TWiki"

JohnSmith — 2008-10-30T18:21:30Z

<p />Looks like yet another captain has thrown it's Titanic onto iceberg. We all remember Joomla vs Mambo clashing. Now, who cares of Mambo if there is Joomla? Seems to be quite similar case. I hope you will have same success as Jumla did once..

Aaron Fulkerson replies on "Hostile takeover of Open Source Project TWiki"

Aaron Fulkerson — 2008-10-30T00:36:34Z

<p />Hi all. I'm one of the founders of www.MindTouch.com. We make MindTouch Deki (sometimes called DekiWiki). I've been following the coming storm at TWiki for a little bit. Primarily because I've become aware of some core TWiki developers switching their development projects to MindTouch Deki. Secondarily because MindTouch is also open source and we develop a product that loosely competes with TWiki. In fear of stirring up more s**t I want to chime in here. <p /> First let me say I do not know all the details of this mess, but I've met Peter and I think he's a stand up guy who is undoubtedly trying to do what he thinks is best for the TWiki project. Moreover, I think TWiki was way ahead of others players in this space for a long time. So, kudos to all of you. <p /> Trademark aside, who owns the copyright for the Twiki codebase? Does any one entity? In open source, trademark is nice, but copyright is king. <p /> I'm writing because I wanted to make two points. <p /> First. Building a business on an open source project is a balancing act. On one side you're trying to build a sustainable business by creating revenue through customer acquisition. On the other side you have a desire to do what's best for the community of users (distinct from customers), developers, system integrators and VARs. If you're not careful you can put these groups at odds and look like an asshole or even worse, really hurt your business. This balancing act is especially challenging when you're building on a project like TWiki that has been around <em>forever</em> and has had a significant amount, or perhaps even the majority, of development from the community. I believe the easiest way to find balance is to have an open source core that the company(ies) can add value to in the form of development and services or even sell commercial layers of additional functionality on top of this. In this way the devs and users win and also the company(ies) are able to create clear differentiation that helps in the customer acquisition effort. You don't have to look far to see that these are the most successful open source projects and businesses. Apache Web Server is an example of this. So is SugarCRM. In both cases you have an open core that others can build and sell additional value on top of, be it open source, closed source or services. <p /> Second. As previously mentioned there have been many TWiki developers that have migrated to development on MindTouch Deki. I encourage you to take a look at this project and product. It's modern architecture and high quality user experience is being cited as a reason for the switch. <a href="http://mindtouch.com/technology" target="_top">http://mindtouch.com/technology</a> is a good resource to learn more about the architecture, <a href="http://mindtouch.com/demo" target="_top">http://mindtouch.com/demo</a> provides some demo vids of the platform in action and you may download the FOSS version and source code at the developer community: <a href="http://wiki.developer.mindtouch.com" target="_top">http://wiki.developer.mindtouch.com</a> <p /> I want to reiterate that Peter and the guys at TWiki.net are surely trying to do what they think is best for the project as a whole. In every case it is true that what is best for the project is also best for the business. And vice-versa. Although sometimes it takes a misstep to realize this. I think it's interesting to juxtapose Acquia/Drupal with what's going on here with TWiki.org/.net. Being on the outside, it's easy to see what was done well and what was done poorly by these two entities. <p /> Best of luck gang and I hope you'll take a look at MindTouch.

MichaelDaum replies on "Hostile takeover of Open Source Project TWiki"

MichaelDaum — 2008-10-29T18:58:40Z

Slashdotted <p />Lots of comments on <a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/29/146201" target="_top">slashdot</a>.