Hi anyone!
Here is my transcript of trying to find out something about XWikis quaility.
1. I started at the home page.
Hey looks quite good. Not too much info, main "Products" presented well,
good navigation.
Looks promising.
2. So take a look at the Products presented so prominent.
Well done. Good overview about the products.
3. So what problems do people have with XWiki, lets take a look at the FAQ.
What the ****?
We want to use Wiki for structuring Information and XWiki itself does
not get a simple FAQ right?
(Compare thet to
http://ant.apache.org/faq.html)
Hmm... maybe they got overwhelmed lately?
No, latest changes date back to March of 2009.
1. The "F" in FAQ stands for "frequently", so a split betwenn FAQ
and
QA may be useful.
2. 204 Questions without any structuring? (compare to e.g. the ant
link above)
3. 73 unanwered FAQs?
OK, so the XWiki don't care much for questions and usability?
Hmmm can't believe that, lets try more.
3. So what does it feel to use xwiki? Any sandbox or demo available?
Hey great, main navigation contains a "Playground", lets give it a try.
Reading ... "second generation" (sounds promising) and "how to start"
(they guide me, good!).
So lets start.
"Configuring your wiki by clicking on the 'Administration' link at the
top right."
Hmm, no "Administration link", only "Log-In" and
"Register".
Any info on the Log-In-Page? No.
Does "demo"/"demo" work? No.
Any info on the Playground-Startpage? No.
Hey there is a "sandbox"-Space, lets dig. Hmm, no way to edit, just
Menus "Show" and "Print".
Maybe problems due to a brand new update? Hmm.
Need to register? Lets try.
"This will allow you to edit pages, once the admin gives you appropriate
rights." OK, lets try nevertheless.
4. While waiting for the mail, lets explore the playground via "Quick
Links".
Index - Hmmm, velocity errors and endless "Loading" ...
What's New - RSS Included and my Registration is in, too. Looks good.
Hmm Adminstrator changed XWikiPreferences, maybe the cause of my problems?
Taking a look at the page.
"To edit preferences, please use the Administration page. " - If I only
could ...
Blog - Lets add an Article - OK, needs Log-in. No Registration-EMail yet :-/
Calendar - just some velocity code on the page, no calendar. :-(
Photo-Album - Yeah someone managed to upload a photo.
Tags - "To tag a document, edit it and enter the tags". OK, later. (No
Registration-EMail yet)
2 of 6 give errors right awy, hmmm gets disappointing.
5. While waiting for the mail, lets explore the playground via "What's
New".
Mail - Error number 4001 in 4: Error while parsing velocity page
XWiki.Mail Wrapped Exception: Failed to evaluate content with id Mail
JavaScriptExtension - Hmmm looks pretty empty the page, can't figure out
what it is good for.
StyleSheetExtension - Same here. Maybe thats part of the extensability,
but where would I find Information about the Extension and how to use it?
(The Information-Tab on he page does not help me.)
AllDocs - Hmms same as "Index", yeah it's the same page, so does not work.
TreeView - even more empty than the Extension-Pages
TableView - some endless loading, got bored after 2 minutes waiting for
"loading" to complete.
Hmmm, not much Information for a "wiki".
My question to the xwiki users mailing list and the xwiki team.
Does that represent typical xwiki experience?
Does that represent the quality of care of the xwiki developers?
Is it worth downloading xwiki and spending more time digging into it?
Somewhat disappointed but not totally scared (yet :-),
Carsten Heyl