Hello all,
I'm a newbie to XWiki, but have used and developed plugins for another Java-based
wiki. I've got a few days in which to find out what I'm letting myself in for if I
switch from that other Wiki to XWiki.
I've spend a couple of hours reading the web site documentation, but can't find
out if / how certain features I need are supported.
I'd be ever so grateful if someone who knows their way round XWiki could just give me
a quick indication of how much is going to be involved to provide the following features.
Just a quick 'OOB' (out of the box), 'AP' (available plugin), 'DN'
(development by me needed) or similar against each feature I need would be really
helpful.
The application is an on-line training programme for a closed charitable community. The
overall training material is structured into modules. Students have modules
'unlocked' for them on an individual basis as they proceed. Each module contains a
number of chapters, each chapter will be structured into sections for readability - a
section corresponding to a Wiki page.
Now for the unusual (?) features I need:
- Single login shared with an associated Database programme (a servlet), using JAAS.
(Preference is to run database and Wiki on a single Jetty instance, as I have 6 years
Jetty experience).
- That shared login also supplies user's group membership (student, editor, admin,
etc)
- Info obtained from database indicating which module(s) the student is permitted to view
(could be done by multiple-group membership),
- Security permissions for individual pages inferred by inheriting permissions from the
module containing that page,
- Inter-page references only shown if user is permitted to read those pages OR
(preferably) alternate paragraph-sized blocks of Wiki text are displayed depending on
whether an embedded link may be followed i.e. IF page_X_can_be_viewed THEN show_text_A
ELSE show_text_B.
- Output to database programme (by API or HTML call) or to machine-readable log, on
time/date each page viewed by each student, so that student-specific log may be compiled,
- 'Print Chapter' command - produces single printable document containing all the
sections (Wiki Pages) comprising that chapter,
- The above 'Print Chapter' command to omit any embedded 'eye-candy'
images from that printed chapter (by use of CSS @media ?)
- 'Help me on this topic' button. Sends private email help request to tutor with
hot-link annotation showing the tutor where the student was when help was requested. Must
at least identify location by Section (Wiki Page), preferably identify by paragraph in
section.
Preferable: simple, automatic next page / previous page buttons working through
- Quality feedback form at end of each chapter, form data sent to database (see linkage
options above).
Import of pre-written, formatted documents: I've found the XWiki method which uses an
Open Office instance running on the server, but I'm not sure if the virtual server we
can afford has enough RAM to cope with this. Is there any other way of uploading
pre-formatted documents, or of doing the format conversion before upload. I think we only
need simple formatting such as headings, bold, italic text. No tables. Some chapters have
already been written in M$ Word (can't be helped :-(
Many TIA,
Chris