3 Oct
2009
3 Oct
'09
2:06 a.m.
On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Eric Domeshek
<domeshek(a)stottlerhenke.com>wrote;wrote:
I'm starting to explore use of XWiki for a project where we want to
provide a domain-specific semi-structured wiki which seems like it ought
to be a good fit to XWiki's intended usage.
Yes, it is. Xwiki is the best thing to hit open source since Linux and Emacs
:-) .
Xwiki is Emacs for the Web. All it's missing is Clojure via JSR223 to get
the Lisp extension language...
However, we're having a bit
of trouble getting started understanding what can and can't easily be
captured in the XWiki data model. Specifically:
1- What is the recommended way to specify object fields that contain
references to other XWiki objects?
This is being discussed over on the dev list right now:
http://www.mail-archive.com/devs@xwiki.org/msg11295.html
http://osdir.com/ml/web.wiki.xwiki.user/2008-02/msg00135.html
[...] define the option lists is by using the fields: XWiki
Class Name, Id Field Name, Value Field Name and Parent Field Name. Using
those fields, the XWiki
platform<http://osdir.com/ml/web.wiki.xwiki.user/2008-02/msg00135.html#&…
constructs
the following hql queries:
select idprop.value, valueprop.value, parentprop.value from
XWikiDocument doc, BaseObject obj, StringProperty idprop, StringProperty
valueprop, StringProperty parentprop.value where obj.name = doc.name and
obj.className = "value entered in Class name" and idprop.id.id = obj.id
and idprop.id.name = "value entered in Id Field Name" and
valueprop.id.id = obj.id and valueprop.id.name = "value entered in Value
Field Name" and parentprop.id.id = obj.id and parentprop.id.name =
"value entered in Parent Field Name"
So, it selects from objects of a given type (XWiki Class) 3 properties
(of storage type String, read bellow what this means). As a special
case, you can use "doc.<some doc property>" or "obj.<some object
property>" instead of property names, and the query is adapted
accordingly. In the case of DBList, only 2 columns are selected, as the
Parent property is not used/defined.
String storage type means:
- either a property of type String
- or a property of type StaticList, DBList or DBTreeList with
multipleSelect = false
If you want to use the DBTreeList, you must model your data so that they
will allow these kind of queries.
2- What is the recommended way to specify object
fields that
contain references to non-XWiki plain old Java objects?
I'm going to let someone else answer what's recommended. This is one way:
http://code.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Modules/PropertiesModule
3- Is there a standard way to define fields as
holding
ordered/unordered lists/sets of objects as opposed to single objects?
Check the "multiple select" option for List, DatabaseList or
DatabaseTreeList? in the class editor (see
/xwiki/bin/view/XWiki/XWikiClasses
and http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Drafts/DatabaseListProperties )
4- Assuming we can define models that allow for these
sorts of things, are
there easy/standard ways to display such fields contents, as well as ways
for end-users to specify fillers (e.g. list/tree pickers of existing objects
of the desired type)?
Although not the Xwiki-officially-blessed technique, I like to use Exhibit
for this purpose:
http://simile-widgets.org/exhibit/
http://people.csail.mit.edu/dfhuynh/research/papers/www2007-exhibit.pdf
Some examples of my own using Xwiki:
http://nielsmayer.com/trainspodder-prototype.jpg (coming to the internets
real soon now)
http://nielsmayer.com/xwiki/bin/view/Exhibit/NPRpods3 (work in progress/old
code)
http://nielsmayer.com/xwiki/bin/view/Exhibit/Presidents4 (demo of Xwiki
integration)
http://nielsmayer.com/xwiki/bin/download/Exhibit/Presidents4/Presidents4Pkg…
including Exhibit&jQuery "Macros")
-- Niels
http://nielsmayer.com
