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Release Notes of TWiki-5.1 (Istanbul), 2011-08-20

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Introduction

TWiki is an enterprise collaboration platform and application platform. TWiki has been downloaded over half a million times and is used by many leading Fortune 500 businesses and government agencies as an intranet, extranet or a public internet website.

TWiki Release 5.1 is a minor release that brings many usability enhancements (such as point and click user data management, more visual user profile pages with picture selector, and a backup feature that helps upgrade TWiki sites) and strengthens TWiki as an application platform (such as a new macro language with parameterized variables).

New Features Highlights

  • Usability Enhancements
    • API and GUI for point and click user data management
    • Support disabled users in password manager
    • More visual user profile pages with in-place editing of form fields and picture selector
    • In-place editing of TWiki group settings using PreferencesPlugin
    • Point and click bookmarks for better usability
    • Improved statistics showing overall site usage over time, such as total number of webs, topics, users, etc
  • TWiki Application Platform Enhancements
    • Macro language with parameterized variables
    • Ability to auto-create page on view if it does not exist
    • Relative heading levels for INCLUDE
    • Relative heading levels for SEARCH
  • Security Enhancements
    • Set a flag to force password change on next login
    • S/Mime support for notification e-mails
  • Plugin Enhancements

See the full list of new features and bug fixes further below.

Pre-installed Extensions

TWiki-5.1 ships with:

Note: BackupRestorePlugin, ColorPickerPlugin, SetGetPlugin are new in TWiki-5.1.

Supported User Interface Languages

The user interface of this TWiki version is localized to 19 languages:

English (default), Bulgarian (bg), Chinese simplified (zh-cn), Chinese traditional (zh-tw), Czechoslovakian (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), German (de), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Russian (ru), Slovakian (sv), Spanish (es), Ukrainian (uk).

Note: TWiki needs to be configured properly to display user interface languages other than the default English language. Details in TWiki:TWiki.InstallationWithI18N and TWiki:TWiki.InternationalizationSupplement.

Deprecation Notices

  • From TWiki 5.0 on, the ClassicSkin is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

  • From TWiki 4.2 on, the %MAINWEB% and %TWIKIWEB% variables have been deprecated. For compatibility reasons they are unlikely to ever be removed completely, but you should use the %USERSWEB% and %SYSTEMWEB% variables instead.

  • From TWiki 4.2 on, functions TWiki::Func::getOopsUrl and TWiki::Func::permissionsSet have been declared deprecated. There is no plan to remove them yet.

  • From TWiki 4.0 on, the syntax "* Set DENYTOPICVIEW = " (nothing) in a topic means deny noone. Even if ALLOWTOPICVIEW is set to people or group setting DENYTOPICCHANGE to nothing means allow anyone. You have to remove the DENYTOPICVIEW or comment it out to have the ALLOWTOPICVIEW working. The reason for this behavior is that it enables limiting access to an entire web by setting a blank DENYTOPICVIEW setting. Same rule applies for DENYTOPICCHANGE and DENYTOPICRENAME. The rule does not apply for access rights defined for webs. Ie. "*Set DENYWEBCHANGE = " does not allow anyone to edit topics in the web. There has been strong oppinions against the syntax "* Set DENYTOPICXXXX = " meaning giving all access. So please be warned that we will change the syntax to a more transparent and logical syntax in future but we will ensure that it is still possible to secure a web and open up individual topics in future also.

Notes for TWiki Administrators and Wiki Champions

Improved User Data Management API and GUI

TWiki-5.1 introduces a new API and GUI to manage user data. It enhances the user mapping and password managers TWiki already has with point and click user management.

Password managers can declare their own data (fields with name, value, type, note) so that TWiki's user manager can show queries and forms to display and manipulate user data in a transparent way. It is a data driven design that can be extended easily.

There are two new topics for TWiki administrators:

At this time, TWiki::Users::HtPasswdUser, TWiki::Users::TWikiUserMapping and TWiki::Users::BaseUserMapping support the new user data management API. Other user mapping and password managers will follow. The implementation details are described at TWiki:Codev.UserDataManagementApiAndGUI - developers are encouraged to use the new API.

Improved Statistics Showing Overall Site Usage

TWiki used to generate just web statistics in each web. TWiki now generates also overall site usage statistics shown in SiteStatistics (do not create that page, it is created automatically based on SiteStatisticsTemplate). TWikiSiteTools explains how to enable automatic updates of the statistics pages.

For each month, the following items are recorded using system data and TWiki log data across all webs: Total number of webs, number of webs viewed, number of webs updated, total number of topics, number of topics viewed, number of topics updated, number of attachments, number of topic views, number of topic updates, number of files uploads, data size, pub size, disk use, number of users, number of groups, number of plugins installed compared to number of plugins available, and 10 top contributors.

The statistics script contacts twiki.org to query the number of plugins available for the currently installed TWiki version via an http GET. It also sends anonymized site usage statistics to twiki.org via query string. Example http request:
  /cgi-bin/pluginstats?statSite=978B8B8FC5D0D0888888D18B97909A9186D1908D98;statDate=2011-04;
  statWebs=20;statWebsViewed=15;statWebsUpdated=6;statTopics=1501;statTopicsViewed=724;
  statTopicsUpdated=137;statAttachments=724;statViews=578;statSaves=223;statUploads=19;
  statDataSize=46.4;statPubSize=238.4;statDiskUse=93%25;statUsers=31;statGroups=7;statPlugins=22;
  statVersion=TWiki-5.1.0;
Example response:
  plugins: 196
The statistics script will not contact twiki.org if a {Stats}{DontContactTWikiOrg} configure setting is set.

Automatically Create Topics on Page View

A new feature has been introduced to automatically create a non-existing topic on page view. With this it is possible to link to a topic, and in case it does not exist, have the topic created based on a specific template when clicking on the link.

Use-case example: The new user bookmarks feature has a pulldown menu link to bookmark the current page. That link points to the <wikiname>Bookmarks page, which has a form pre-filled with the page and name of the to-be-bookmarked page. In case the user bookmarks page does not exist it is created first before showing the topic with the pre-filled form.

Details in TWikiScripts.

New Page Bookmarks Feature

A new bookmark feature has been introduced that replaces the personal left-bar links. Bookmarking a page is now a simple point and click operation: In the Account pulldown menu, select "Bookmark this page...". Existing bookmarks can be managed with an edit table in Main.<wikiname>Bookmarks topic, accessible via the "----- Bookmarks -----" pulldown menu of the Account pulldown.

The personal left-bar topics such as JohnSmithLeftBar are no longer used. Ask users to select the "----- Bookmarks -----" pulldown menu of the Account pulldown to initially create the bookmarks topic, then to either bookmark pages, or to manually copy & paste old left-bar links to the bookmarks topic.

User Profile Pages Tailored for Workplace

Previous user profile pages had a bare bone look and the form fields were more tailored for public TWiki sites. TWiki-5.1 brings a more visual/modern page layout with profile picture selector, as well as default form fields tailored for the workplace.

Changes to the UserForm:

Renamed:

  • FirstName to First Name (no change in %META:FIELD name)
  • LastName to Last Name (no change in %META:FIELD name)
  • OrganisationName to Organization
  • OrganisationURL to URL
  • Profession to Titles
  • VoIP to Skype ID
  • State to Region
Removed:
  • Address
  • InstantMessaging (IM)
  • HomePage
  • Comment
Added:
  • Department
  • Status Update

When upgrading user profile pages pay attention to the renamed and removed fields.

Upgrade From Earlier Releases

Follow the TWikiUpgradeGuide to install TWiki and migrate data from your existing TWiki.

Watch TWiki:Plugins.BackupRestorePlugin for an updated version. Once the web-based restore feature is implemented it will be easy to backup an old TWiki and restore content on a new TWiki.

TWiki-5.1.0 Major Release - Details

TWiki-5.1.0 was built from SVN http://svn.twiki.org/svn/twiki/trunk revision r22128 (2011-08-20)

Enhancements

TWikibug:Item6511 New PARENTTOPIC variable
TWikibug:Item6512 Adjust the search order for WebTopicEditTemplate to also include the USERSWEB
TWikibug:Item6515 Relative Heading Levels for INCLUDE
TWikibug:Item6516 Hide TOC flag in INCLUDE
TWikibug:Item6528 Set the Flag to Change Password in next Login
TWikibug:Item6560 Relative Heading Levels for SEARCH
TWikibug:Item6586 User Data Management API and GUI
TWikibug:Item6587 Support Disabled Users in Password Manager
TWikibug:Item6598 Feature: Parameterized Variables
TWikibug:Item6599 Add format parameter to var URLPARAM
TWikibug:Item6615 Build: Add ColorPickerPlugin to Core TWiki Distribution
TWikibug:Item6620 Add encode parameter to FORMFIELD
TWikibug:Item6639 Add writeLog() to TWiki::Func
TWikibug:Item6640 Add isValidWebName() and isValidTopicName() to TWiki::Func
TWikibug:Item6656 Add meta data to attachment save handler
TWikibug:Item6670 SetGetPlugin: Make variables persistent across topic invocations
TWikibug:Item6671 Build: Add SetGetPlugin to Core TWiki Distribution
TWikibug:Item6672 New HIDE variable
TWikibug:Item6680 Add counter to session variables
TWikibug:Item6684 Include parameters with default feature
TWikibug:Item6690 SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions BITXOR(), HEXDECODE(), HEXDECODE(), XOR()
TWikibug:Item6712 User interface translation for TWiki-5.1.0
TWikibug:Item6724 Feature Proposal: Pass text and meta data to registerTagHandler callback
TWikibug:Item6731 InterwikiPlugin: Allow quotes in page pattern, and URL-encode quoted page patterns
TWikibug:Item6733 TWikiUserMappingContrib: More Visual User Profile Pages
TWikibug:Item6747 Set form field on file upload (for better usability of profile picture upload)
TWikibug:Item6748 TWikiUserMappingContrib: Usability: Use PreferencesPlugin to edit TWiki group settings
TWikibug:Item6749 S/Mime support for notification e-mails
TWikibug:Item6750 Encode also space in encode="html" to preserve TML in HTML input fields
TWikibug:Item6759 PatternSkin: User Bookmarks for better usability
TWikibug:Item6762 Usability: Auto-create page on view if it does not exist
TWikibug:Item6768 TagMePlugin: Allow login name or WikiName for queries
TWikibug:Item6769 Build: Add BackupRestorePlugin to core TWiki distribution
TWikibug:Item6777 PreferencesPlugin: Scroll to preferences section on edit
TWikibug:Item6778 TWikiUserMappingContrib: Usability: Use PreferencesPlugin to edit user profile settings
TWikibug:Item6780 TopMenuSkin: Usability: Link to UserList topic instead of TWikiUsers
TWikibug:Item6781 configure: Configure Support for Task Framework
TWikibug:Item6782 TWikiUserMappingContrib: Usability: Add search filter to UserList
Total: 38

Fixes

TWikibug:Item6209 WebTopicCreator: underscores in topic name with WebTopicCreator are not possible
TWikibug:Item6496 TWiki 5 configuration page wrongly complains "This version of Perl is likely to exhibit extremely slow performance for certain critical operations."
TWikibug:Item6658 When a URL parameter with value 0 is passed into getScriptUrl, it is incorrectly removed
TWikibug:Item6687 Statistics: Statistics script leaves temp files behind
TWikibug:Item6715 Better layout for checkboxes of TWiki forms while in edit mode
TWikibug:Item6732 TagMePlugin: Administrator can't delete tag if Main web is renamed to User web
TWikibug:Item6751 TopMenuSkin: Cutoff buttons in header when using IE7
TWikibug:Item6754 CommentPlugin: Action comment template in CommentPlugin is missing %ENDACTION%
TWikibug:Item6755 Displayed search string shows expanded TWiki variables and text formatting
TWikibug:Item6757 Configure: Unprofessional text in Configure utility
TWikibug:Item6763 TopMenuSkin: WYSIWG editor corrupts TopMenuSkin system pages
TWikibug:Item6767 TWiki statistics update not working properly on CentOS 5
TWikibug:Item6770 Warning message: Use of uninitialized value in lc at twiki/lib/TWiki/UI/Edit.pm line 83
TWikibug:Item6775 Require Perl 5.8 or later
TWikibug:Item6779 TablePlugin: Tables rendering too dark in Firefox 4
TWikibug:Item6783 configure: Incorrect file test in bin/configure
TWikibug:Item6784 DoS on bin/search with an asterisk wildcard using bookview
TWikibug:Item6788 Better error handling in create new topic screen
TWikibug:Item6789 SlideShowPlugin: Better error handling in SLIDESHOWSTART variable
TWikibug:Item6790 configure: Wrong type in "MailProgram.pm" of configure
TWikibug:Item6792 TWikiUserMappingContrib: Typo fix in registration page and change e-mail address page
Total: 21

Related Topics: TWikiHistory, TWikiInstallationGuide, TWikiUpgradeGuide, TWikiReleaseNotes04x00, TWikiReleaseNotes04x01, TWikiReleaseNotes04x02, TWikiReleaseNotes04x03, TWikiReleaseNotes05x00, TWikiReleaseNotes06x00, TWikiReleaseNotes06x01

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Topic revision: r1 - 21 Aug 2011 - TWikiContributor
 
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