TWiki® - the Open Source Enterprise Wiki and Web 2.0 Application Platform
Welcome to TWiki, a flexible, powerful, and easy to use enterprise wiki,
enterprise collaboration platform and knowledge management system. It is a
Structured Wiki, typically
used to run a project development space, a document management system, a
knowledge base, or any other groupware tool, on an intranet or on the
internet. Web content can be created collaboratively by using just a
browser. Users without programming skills can create web applications.
Developers can extend the functionality of TWiki with Plugins.
TWiki fosters information flow within an organization; lets distributed teams work together seamlessly and productively; and
eliminates the one-webmaster syndrome of outdated intranet content.
Tell a Friend
We have almost 200 employees. said
Arthur Clemens, wiki champion at Lost Boys, when interviewed by Hill & Knowlton for their masterclass New
media and internal communication in Amsterdam.
We all get them to use TWiki daily because of one killer application: the telephone quick search. People that use it come across our second killer application on the
homepage: the internal weblog. They see new postings and new reactions. Anyone can start a new post or add comments. This functions as a gentle introduction to wiki-ness: to add and to change
contents. Read the success story of Lost Boys.
We use TWiki internally to manage documentation and project planning for our products. said Eric Baldeschwieler, Director of Software Development of Yahoo! Our development team includes hundreds of people
in various locations all over the world, so web collaboration is VERY important to us. TWiki has changed the way we run meetings, plan releases, document our product and generally communicate
with each other. We're great fans of your work!
What does it look like?
TWiki looks and feels like a normal Intranet or Internet web site.
However it also has a Edit link at the bottom of every topic
(web page), everybody can change a topic or add content by just
using a browser.
TWiki is hosted and developed here at the TWiki.org web site.
You can surf and add/change content to get an idea of how TWiki works.
Start surfing at the
WebHome topic, or learn
about the platform in the
Welcome Guest.
Who is using TWiki?
TWiki is installed on many web sites, mainly behind corporate
firewalls. Many major companies use TWiki because it is very user
friendly compared to some well established commercial groupware
systems like Lotus Notes. Read some
TWikiSuccessStories
to get an idea of how companies such as Motorola
(story) or SAP
(story)
use the TWiki platform.
Read also the testimonials
to see what other people say about the platform.
TWikiInstallations
has a small list of TWiki installations and clones. (Note: In case
you installed TWiki on your server, please add it to the
TWikiInstallation
directory.)
How is TWiki being deployed?
A wiki is a Web 2.0
platform to create, share and remix content. TWiki as a structured wiki
goes a step further; it enables users to automate their workflow by
creating custom tailored wiki applications.
Companies are deploying TWiki in different ways, and TWiki is
quite flexible to adapt to different needs. Here is a non- comprehensive
list of how TWiki is being used:
-
To replace a static intranet. Content is maintained by the
employees, thus eliminating the "one webmaster syndrome" of
outdated and insufficient intranet content.
-
As a knowledge base and FAQ system. The
TWikiSuccessStoryOfTakeFive
tells you more about that.
-
To design and document software projects.
-
To track issues (i.e. bugs) and features. TWiki itself is
managed this way; more on that in the
Codev web.
-
As a document management tool.
-
To collaborate on common goals, such as the
Javapedia
online encyclopedia for Java developers on java.net,
or the Biowiki for computational biology projects
of UC Berkeley.
-
As a software archive, i.e. the
TWiki Plugins archive.
-
As a company internal message board, i.e. for job listings.
What are the Main Features of TWiki?
TWiki is a mature, full featured web based collaboration system:
-
Any web browser: Edit existing pages or create new
pages by using any web browser. There is no need for ftp or
http put to upload pages.
-
Edit link: To edit a page, simply click on the Edit
link at the bottom of every page.
-
Auto links: Web pages are
linked automatically.
You do not need to learn HTML commands to link pages.
-
Text formatting: Simple, powerful and easy to learn
text formatting rules.
Basically you write text like you would write an e-mail.
-
Webs: Pages are grouped into
TWiki webs
(or collections). This allows you to set up separate
collaboration groups.
-
Search: Full text search
with/without regular expressions. See a sample
search result.
-
E-mail notification: Get automatically notified when
something has changed in a TWiki web. Subscribe in
WebNotify.
-
Structured content: Use
TWiki Forms
to classify and categorize unstructured web pages and to
create simple workflow systems.
-
File attachments:
Upload
and download any file as an attachment to a page by
using your browser. This is similar to file attachments
in an e-mail, but it happens on web pages.
-
Revision control: All changes to pages and attachments
are tracked. Retrieve previous page revisions and differences
thereof. Find out who changed what and when.
-
Access control: Define groups and impose fine grained
read and write access restrictions based on groups and users.
-
Variables: Use
variables
to dynamically compose your pages. This allows you
for example to dynamically build a table of contents:
include other pages; or show a search result embedded in
a page.
-
TWiki Plugins: Enhance the TWiki functionality with server side
Plugin modules.
Developers can create Perl Plugins using the
TWiki Plugin API.
Some example Plugins:
-
Application Wiki: Contributors use the TWiki platform to create web
applications. The TWiki Variables, Plugins and sample applications offer
a rich environment where domain-specific applications can be built
efficiently by contributors with moderate skill sets. Developers can create
new Plugins to enhance the functionality of TWiki even further.
Some example applications:
-
Templates and skins: A flexible templating system
separates program logic and presentation. Skins overwrite
template headers and footers; page content is unaffected.
-
Managing pages: Individual pages can be renamed,
moved and deleted through the browser.
-
Managing users: Web based user registration and
change of password.
-
What's new:
See recent changes
of TWiki webs. The change log can also be exported in
XML RSS format
for news syndication.
-
Statistics:
Create Statistics
of TWiki webs. Find out most popular pages and top
contributors.
-
Preferences: Four levels of preferences:
TWikiPreferences
for site-level;
WebPreferences
for each web; user level preferences; and page level preferences.
-
Conflict resolution: Content is merged automatically if more than
one user is edit a page at the same time. In rare cases where a
conflict cannot be resolved automatically, users are warned and
guided to resolve the conflict manually.
-
Referred-By: Find out back-links to a page.
-
...
plus many more features not listed here.
How does it work?
TWiki is a cgi-bin script written in Perl. It reads a text file,
hyperlinks it and converts it to HTML on the fly.
Can I get the source code of TWiki for my own web site?
TWiki is GPLed software.
The Perl CGI source code, templates and documentation is available for free.
What about Tech Support?
TWiki is free software and does not include support, so please do not contact
the developers directly if you have installation questions.
-
TWikiDocumentation
is all about installing and configuring TWiki.
-
TWikiFAQ has frequently asked
questions around the TWiki platform.
-
TextFormattingRules
and TextFormattingFAQ shows
how to edit text.
-
In case you can't find an answer you can ask a question in the
Support web. This is a
forum by TWiki users for TWiki users.
-
Support the TWiki community by answering questions. You can
subscribe to be
notified of changes in the Support web.
-
You can also visit the #twiki
IRC channel to ask questions.
-
If inclined, hire a
consultant
to get you up to speed, or a
programmer
to customize your TWiki installation.
Can I contribute as a developer?
TWiki is open source collaboration software, contributions are very much
appreciated. TWiki is further developed here at TWiki.org, and guess what, the
Codev web serves as the
platform for collaborating on that.
-
Join the team of TWiki
developers.
-
Go to the Codev web, the home
of TWiki developers.
-
List topics that recently
changed in the Codev web.
-
Search the Codev
web.
-
Suggest
an enhancement.
-
Get notified by email
when topics change in the Codev web.
-
Fix a bug that has been
reported.
-
Peek at the planned
features.
Acknowledgments
In addition to the contributors listed on the
TWikiHistory page,
the following parties are to be acknowledged for their contributions.
-
TWiki is a Wiki system and has its root in JosWiki that was in use
at the JOS
(Free Java OS) web site.
-
TWiki is inspired by the brilliant idea of the original
Wiki Wiki Web
by Ward Cunningham.
-
Sun Microsystems for donating
powerful hardware to run twiki.org.
-
TWIKI.NET, an enterprise wiki
company, for sponsoring the hosting of twiki.org.
-
FastServers.net, an ISP offering
managed dedicated servers, for hosting
develop.twiki.org free of charge.