Hi devs,
I think it would be great to have some indication of how many active instances of XWiki are out there in the wild. The idea is not so much to know the figure but to see how this figures evolves and thus to see if we're doing things right. It will also give us information about how quickly or slowly our user base upgrades from version to version.
Here's my proposal:
* When installing XWiki on a clean DB (ie first time install) generate a unique id and store it in the DB (similar to the version we're storing in the DB but using some UUID). Thus when an install is upgraded the same id is preserved.
* When the Extension Manager is used and thus connects to extensions.xwiki.org (default extension repository), this unique ID is sent too.
* In addition the version of XE is sent too
* On extensions.xwiki.org side, we only log the unique ID/XE version **without** logging the IP or any other information thus ensuring that the ID remains completely anonymous
* We display a counter on xwiki.org about the # of active instances of XE with a graph about XE versions used
WDYT?
Thanks
-Vincent
Hi developers. I'm sorry to post such a long post, but the workspace
integration
in XE is a big deal, with a lot of things to discuss. That is why I
describe
the current state, what we want to have in the long term and what we can do
for 5.2.
1 - Current state
------------------
1.1 - What "Workspaces" is
---------------------------
Currently, "Workspaces" is a set of features developped on top of XWiki
Entreprise. It was developped for a research project and released as an
extension. We now have a special release for it, but "Workspaces" is still
not
integrated deeply into the core. From the core perspective, it is still
like an
"add-on".
That is why we have 2 modules: xwiki-platform-wiki-manager and
xwiki-platform-workspace.
1.2 - What a subwiki is
------------------------
A subwiki is just an other wiki, that can use either global or local users
(as
you decide). You can invite people to your subwiki through the "Invitation"
application, which is bundled by default. But the "Invitation" application
is
now hidden, so we need to add a new entry point for it.
1.3 - What a workspace is
---------------------------
A workspace is a "space" where people can collaborate for a project.
The actual implementation says that:
- a workspace is a subwiki
- a workspace does not have local users
- there is an option that make possible for people to "join" the workspace
(if
he is not already in), with the optionnal validation of an admin. These
options are called "membership type".
- a workspace can be created by everyone, by default.
+ there is an UI in the workspace administration to invite user to the
workspace.
1.4 - WorkspaceManager has to be installed
-------------------------------------------
When you download a new XEM and create a fresh instance of "Workspaces",
you
will have a message on the main page that invite you to "Install
WorkspaceManager".
This installation of WorkspaceManager creates a new subwiki called
"workspacetemplate". In this template, 2 XARS are imported:
- workspace-template.xar, which is a nothing but a renamed
xwiki-entreprise-ui-all.xar, most of the time.
- workspace-template-features.xar, that add some UI for the workspace
features
(changing the top menu, etc).
The installation also changes some settings in the template subwiki and
then,
4 pages are removed: XWiki.AdminRegistrationSheet,
XWiki.RegistrationConfig,
XWiki.RegistrationHelp, XWiki.AdminUsersSheet. This is because a workspace
is
not supposed to have local users.
This new workspace is a template, hidden to the users, and it will be used
when
you create a new workspace, unless the user manually decide to use an other
template.
If "WorkspaceManager" is not installed, you won't have the ability to
create
workspaces.
This installation process is dirty in my point of view. Why should the user
install something else after having installed XEM?
1.5 - What "WikiManager" is.
----------------------------
The module xwiki-platform-wiki-manager is the module that provides an API
and a
UI to manage multi-wikis. Is is a dependency for xwiki-platform-workspace.
But this module is quite old. It was first developed as a "plugin" and not
as a
component, even if it can be used through a bridge.
2 - Long term objectives
---------------------------
2.1 - What we have discussed
---------------------------
After some discussion in the mailing list, we have decided the following:
- the ability of create subwikis will be integrated by default on XE.
- we will stop making a distinction between workspaces and subwikis. There
will
be only the notion of "subwiki", with several options to cover all the use
cases.
- we will have a single UI to create a new subwiki, integrated in the top
menu,
like the space and the page creation.
Now, this is what I propose to do after a discussion with Vincent:
2.2 - Create a new 'wiki' module
---------------------------------
Currently we have xwiki-platform-wiki-manager and xwiki-platform-workspace.
But
it no longer make sense to have 2 distinct modules since we will have only
one
concept. But instead of integrating the workspace features into the
wiki-manager
module, we will create a new one.
Why? Because xwiki-platform-wiki-manager is not a compoment and this new
module
will be a clean component with a clean API and a clean script service.
Vincent
already has created a new 'wiki' module for his URL module so it make sense
to
go in this direction.
This new module will not be too long to implement since we can keep a lot
of
code from the 2 existing modules, but it will be written in a manner that
the
"farm" and the "workspace" use-cases are handled.
2.3 - The creation of a subwiki will not be possible until a subwiki
template
is created
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The user may not want to use subwikis, so we should not force him to do it.
Moreover, instead of having a "WorkspaceManager Install" process, we can
add a
new entry in the Administration that create the "workspacetemplate" and
actually
enable the "subwikis" features. It will not be seen a post-install
installation.
When creating the "workspacetemplate" (which will be called
"subwikitemplate"),
I will not remove XWiki.AdminRegistrationSheet, XWiki.RegistrationConfig,
XWiki.RegistrationHelp and XWiki.AdminUsersSheet. I will make some code to
"disable" them if the "local users" option is disabled. For example, the
RegisterSheet will redirect to the main wiki Registration.
2.4 - Merge WorkspaceManager UI and WikiManager UI
--------------------------------------------------
There will be only one UI in the future that shows all the subwikis and
offering
features of the 2 current UIs.
2.5 - Improve Invitation application
-------------------------------------
Right now, we both have the "workspaces users" section in the
administration and
the Invitation application. It seems that Invitation application is a
better
application than the "workspace users" section because it can do more
things.
But the UI should be improved.
Moreover, if a user wants to "join" a subwiki, the "join" link should be
located
near the "register" one. It would look more "integrated" than the current
thing.
At the end, it should replace the invitation feature of the current
"workspaces
users" section of the administration.
3. What I have already done
---------------------------
I have made a new wizard, based on the Caty proposal and the current
workspace
creation UI.
Screenshots:
- Step1:
http://tof.canardpc.com/view/582b629c-80c7-4e82-acda-ea99a20741a8.jpg
- Step2:
http://tof.canardpc.com/view/32737e88-9f78-4249-8063-caa42f92665c.jpg
I have also started to change the XARs organization of enterprise, see it
there:
http://markmail.org/message/e4agvo2gevst6gox
4 - What I propose to do for 5.2
---------------------------------
Regarding the objectives, it seems obvious that we won't have the time to
do all
the work for 5.2. So we have to decide what we do.
I propose to make it iteratively, but we have to take into account that the
"Workspace Integration" has been voted for 5.2.
So, we should:
- bundle the "Workspaces" application by default, not bundle the
"Wiki Manager UI". So the user can only create workspaces, which is the
main
use case. If the user want to create a subwiki like in the "farm"
use-case, he
will have to manually install WikiManager UI from the Extension Manager,
which
is not very hard!
- start dropping the "workspace" terminology. The Workspaces application
will be
integrated, but all the texts will mention "subwikis" instead of
"workspaces".
So the user will not be used to the "workspace" term since we want to
drop it
in the near future.
I don't know yet if it is better to create new translation keys or to
reuse
current ones (like workspacemanager.doc.createwiki.wikiname).
- we keep the current main page, we do not put the Workspaces main page by
default.
- we integrate the new subwiki creation wizard that I have made, but in the
end
it does not do more than the current workspace creation UI. We do not
implement the "users isolation" option.
- Add a link to WorkspaceManager.Install in the administration instead of
having
it in the main page.
- I create the menu Home/Wiki/Space/Page based on the option D of the
Caty's
proposal.
http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Improvements/CreateWikiImprovem…
The menu will be:
* Add
* Subwiki (if WorkspaceManager has been installed)
* Space
* Page
* Home
* Administer wiki (if you have the right)
* Subwiki directories
---
* Watch home (if you are in the main wiki)
* Document index (if you are in the main wiki)
* Subwiki (if you are not in the main wiki):
* Watch subwiki
* Administer subwiki
* Document index
* Delete subwiki
* Space:
* No change there
* Page:
* No change there
Then, for the next releases (5.3?), we start to make the work that I have
described in the long term objectives section.
Conclusion
----------
WDYT? ;)
Hello there,
I'd like to try to limit/customize the shown facets in the refinement
panel for the Solr search. This would allow for a custom search page
with different facet fields than the standard search (e.g. the facet
"page" or "date" might not be useful in every case) or the addition of
custom facet fields, for example "tags".
Instead of modifying the global defaults in solrconfig.xml, I'd want to
name the desired facet fields in the concrete solr query. Like
documented for example in
http://wiki.apache.org/solr/SimpleFacetParameters#Examples, if I want
both fields "cat" and "inStock", I need to add both fieldnames to the
query for the parameter "facet.field". On the Solr side, the set(String,
String[]) method
(http://lucene.apache.org/solr/4_2_1/solr-solrj/org/apache/solr/common/param…)
could be used for this. However, the current SolrQueryExecutor
implementation does not support this "multiple arguments" case, so for
example a $query.bindValue('facet.field', ["cat", "inStock"])) doesn't work.
To solve this problem, I suggest that SolrQueryExecutor.execute() checks
each value of the named parameters for a list and optionally calls
set(String, String[]) instead of set(String, String). I'd gladly supply
a patch for this issue. Is there any interest in this?
Sincerely,
Martin Kresse
--
Martin Kresse
Anwendungsentwicklung
EsPresto AG
Breite Str. 30-31
10178 Berlin/Germany
Tel: +49.(0)30.90 226.750
Fax: +49.(0)30.90 226.760
m.kresse(a)espresto.com
HRB 77554 B - Berlin-Charlottenburg
Vorstand: Maya Biersack, Peter Biersack
Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Winfried Weber
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