Hi Caty,
On Feb 7, 2013, at 5:08 PM, "Ecaterina Moraru (Valica)"
<valicac(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
XWiki Flavors are a set of predefined extensions having a specific use
case in mind. XWiki Flavors can be considered specializations of XWiki
instances suited for different purposes like public websites,
intranets, content sharing, project management, community status,
business intelligence, etc.
Scenario: You want to install XWiki. The installer will propose
different 'flavors' and will install automatically all required
extensions. This way you will have a product close to your initial
needs. You can later refine it by installing / uninstalling other
extensions.
So when I first thought about the process of installing a Flavor I
imagined that I could customize what I wanted from the Flavor and
select just the things I need. Actually for me Flavors were like
categories with subcategories, and more of a classification system,
than a packaging one.
http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Improvements/Flavours/custo…
Also another difference in my vision is that I had a Base Package that
contains the common denominator for all Flavors. The Base Package
should contain basic mechanics for managing content and users.
Selecting no flavor will still result in having basic wiki features
(page creation, attachments, history, users, etc.).
After some discussions with Eduard I understood that Flavors could be
defined as extensions and they could contain just a list of
dependencies on other extensions. The Extension Manager will install
the 'exact' list it gets from the definition without the ability to
exclude some dependencies.
Indeed.
I've watched the 'recent' mails about
XWiki Flavors [1] [2] [3] [4]
and for me the conclusion is clear: we will never agree on what
starting features are the best and that will solve everybody's
problems. But that is ok and normal and the strength of XWiki is it's
extensibility.
So the next idea was to have a Flavor Creator that will allow users to
create their own collections of extensions. This collection should be
then published to
extensions.xwiki.org and could appear in the
installer list as suggestions.
Some thoughts:
* Yes, the idea is that anyone can contribute a flavor on
xwiki.org, since it's an
extension like any other (it would just have a new type, called "flavor" since
we don't have this ATM). The DW will list all flavors it can find from e.x.o. This is
where we need some ways to bring the best flavors to the top. My idea was to add ratings
to the Repository app for that
* Also, in the DW the user should be allowed to not install any flavor so that he can then
install extensions one by one if he so wishes
* Re the base package there's no need to have one since extensions declare their
require dependencies
http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Improvements/Flavours/flavo…
If Application Within Minutes let's you create your own applications,
the Flavor Creator would let you make packages of extensions for a
specific purpose. This way we strengthen XWiki's extensibility and we
let the users take the power and customize the solutions that are
perfect for them.
Sounds good.
Thanks
-Vincent