Feature Survey Status 2009 - 2012

Last modified by Thomas Mortagne on 2023/10/10

Jan 19 2012

In September 2009 the XWiki.org project ran a survey asking users what features they'd like to see developed in the XWiki project.

2.5 years after, here's the result of what's been implemented and what's still outstanding. Since we're going to start defining the themes for the XWiki Enterprise 4.x cycle (which lasts 1 year), it's a good time to reflect on the results achieved so far compared to the community feedback from 2009. 

The idea is to start a new survey real soon to gather feedback again about what you'd like to see in the XWiki Enterprise 4.x cycle.

So without further ado here are the results...

Results Overview

resultsoverview.jpg

Click here to view the full results

Detailed Feature Status (@ 2012/01/19)

Below is the status of all listed features.

FeatureStatus as of 2012/01/19
Multipage Export (export multiple pages as a single PDF / HTML document)cancel Some Mockups were done but not implemented.
Search (better user interface, use the Lucene plugin to make results more relevant)accept Lucene is now used by default. We still don't have an advanced search UI. Search quality has been improved but we still need to improve it.
Performance (make XWiki faster, more responsive and less resource-intensive)accept We've improved the speed in several releases but this is a continous fight as new features get added. For example recently we've added the Activity Stream on the home page dashboard and it's quite slow. We need to work on performance again.
Application Manager (package, export, import and install XWiki applications easily)accept Done with the new Extension Manager. Still need to implement the export part and improve the Extension Manager UI
Multipage Management (define a collection of pages linked together as a single document)cancel
User Guide (a detailed guide explaining how to use XWiki for users)accept First version done. Could be improved even more.
Table of Content between pages (generate a table of contents spanning multiple pages)accept Works with XWiki Syntax 2.0+ using the the toc and include macros
Document Type Manager (easily create applications and templates in XWiki - improved XCLass editor)cancel Typing of pages is still not there
Offline XWiki (use your wiki while offline and synchronize it when you get back online)cancel Was implemented as part of XEclipse (not well maintained at the moment) but not XE
Form Builder (easily create forms in XWiki)accept Done in the new App Within Minutes feature
Real Time Edition (multiple users editing the same page at the same time)cancel Work in progress in the Wiki 3.0 Research project.
Refactoring Tool (drag & drop wiki pages to move them around)cancel
Development Guide (a detailed guide explaining how applications can be developed in XWiki)cancel Documentation has been improved but still lacking for developers
Contextual Help (add helpers throughout the wiki)cancel Mockups have been done for improving the first 5 minutes but not specifically on Contextual Help
Dashboard (each user is provided with a view of the mofications on pages of interest to him/her)accept
Workflow (simple workflow capabilities integrated in the wiki: page publishing...)cancel
Annotations (add annotations to content on a wiki page)accept
Skin Wizard (change your skin colors and logo easily, select a skin)accept Added with Color Themes
Wiki Importer (import other wiki formats in XWiki - MediaWiki, Confluence, MindTouch)cancel The work was started as a GSoc project and is currently in the contrib area. Needs to be cleaned and merged in XWiki Platform
Export to Word (export a wiki pages in the .doc or .docx format)accept
Getting Started Help (a guide included in the default wiki install to help new users use it)cancel Mockups done and a getting started guide was created.
Tasks management (create tasks related to wiki pages and follow their status from dedicated dashboards)accept Exists as an extension but not part of XWiki Platform
Skin (create a new, nicer, easier-to-change skin for XWiki)accept Done with Colibri but work still needed to make an even easier to extend/adapt skin
Administration (improve the administration user interface)accept
History + Diff (improve the user interface of the version comparison tool)accept Object diff was improved. Still possible to do better
Dev Model (make it easier to develop applications in XWiki)accept First step done with App Within Minutes
Office Formats Macros (display the contents of an attached office file into a wiki page)accept
Glossary (built-in application to create words and their definitions)cancel
Forum (create a default forum application bundled with the product)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform
Rights (improve the access rights management user interface)cancel Mockups and discussions have happened but not implemented yet
Calendar (built-in calendar application)cancel Calendar app has been retired because its quality wasn't good enough. We need to decide whether we wish to create a Calendar app or let user use an external integration only.
Survey Tool (create and run surveys from within XWiki)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform
PDF for Commercial Usage (improve the PDF generation feature to make it usable to generate sales proposals and reports)accept PDF generation has been improved a lot. Always margin for making it better though
Section Editing (2 users editing 2 different sections of a page at the same time)cancel
User Directory (list of all your wiki's users with their picture, name, contact information...)accept First basic version done. Need improvements
Install Wizard (make it easy to install XWiki on your server, whatever the configuration - OS, DB, webserver...)cancel
XWiki Model (continue the work on making XWiki component-based)cancel
WebServices APIs (add new APIs to make XWiki data available as web services)accept REST support added
Visualization Tool (show wiki pages as nodes in a mindmap)cancel
FAQ (create a default Frequently Asked Questions application)accept
SVN Integration (make it possible to store and edit wiki pages in SVN)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform
Mindmap (generate a wiki out of a mindmap and a mindmap out of a wiki)cancel
Anti Vandalism (better spam filtering for comments and user registration)accept Added Captcha support
No Locking (let multiple users edit the same page at the same time and reconcile their edits)cancel
Large Exports (make it possible to export files larger than 500MB by writing on disk)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform and we really need it in XE by default
Action Menu (make the top action bar easier to understand and to use)
accept Still need improvement to customize it
Large Imports (make it possible to import files larger than 500MB by writing on disk)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform and we really need it in XE by default
Web IDE (develop advanced applications and code in XWiki from the web interface)cancel We need syntax coloring and auto completion for example
WatchList (improve the way the watchlist work and its User Interface)accept
Email to Friend (email the content of the current page to someone)accept
SSO Support (CAS, NTLM)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform. We need to integrate this in platform.
VMWare Distribution (a distribution built to run seamlessly on the VMWare platform)cancel
Drawing Tools (create drawings online and share them within your wiki)cancel An SVG edit extension exists but not in XWiki Platform and not as good as an integration with Gliffy for example
Statistics (improve the statistics module user interface to make it more relevant)cancel Mockups have been done but not coded yet
Google Docs (online documents, presentations and spreadsheets)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform and there's room for improvements
Alternative Storage (JCR storage, storage on the filesystem...)cancel FS storage done for attachments
User Profile (improve the user profile to make it more relevant for wiki users)accept But needs to be improved for extensibility
Create Page by Mail (send an email to the wiki and create a new page out of it)cancel
Open ID (support OpenID as an authentication protocol for XWiki)cancel Patch provided but not committed in XWiki platform yet
XEM (improve XWiki Enterprise Manager's UI, integrate groups & invitations in the product)accept New Workspace feature
Web Site Publishing (use your wiki to create and publish to a website)cancel
Google Wave (use Google Wave for comments and discussion features within the wiki)cancel
Time Tracking (an application that lets users log their time and their current work)cancel
EditGrid (online spreadsheets)cancel
Newsletter (use XWiki to compose and publish email newsletters)cancel
Latex Integration (display LaTeX equations in wiki pages)accept
Chat (let wiki users chat together when they're connected)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform
Documentation Solution (build your product documentation or your help center easily)cancel
Intranet Solution (full-fledged intranet solution with meeting notes manager, paper documents to wiki pages conversion)cancel
Mailing List Archiving (archive mailing lists threads & messages as wiki pages)cancel
Discussion Solution (use the wiki to favorize discussions between coworkers within a company)cancel
Doodle (online event scheduler)accept Meeting Manager extension. Not in XWiki platform
XWiki.com Package (a package certified by the XWiki SAS company, with a specific release cycle)cancel
Gadgets (integrate gadgets such as Google Gadgets in your wiki)cancel
Video (google video, windows video server)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform
Wiki / Dictionary Tool (use the wiki to create a dictionary or an index of terms)cancel
Social Features (friends, followers, messaging...)accept
Polyglot Wiki (use the wiki syntax of your choice in your wiki - MediaWiki, Confluence, DekiWiki, Creole...)accept
Development Solution (wiki + issue tracker + code repository)cancel
Socialcalc (create spreadsheets right into your wiki)cancel
Wiki Portlet (use XWiki as a JSR 168 portlet in a portal)accept Portlet support improved. Still need work.
Watch (follow what's happening about a given set of topics on the internet and organize the collected information)accept Xwiki Watch developed but now retired and replaced by the XWiki Reader extension. Not part of Xwiki platform
Holiday Request (tool to collect and validate employees' holiday schedules - currently used on XWiki's intranet)cancel
Photo Album (built-in photo album application)accept Photo album retired and a poor man replacement has been added with the Gallery macro
Gliffy (online diagram software)cancel
P2P Wiki Servers (let wikis communicate together without the need for a central server)cancel A prototype has been produced as a result of the Concerto research project. It's available for download but it was developed for an older version of XWiki (2.0) and needs more updating and polishing work to make it usable in production.
Microblogging (twitter-like in your wiki)accept
Jabber (chat client in the wiki)accept An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform
Application Store (buy and sell XWiki applications from a central marketplace)cancel Getting closer with the Extension Manager and XWiki Repository application
More Dev Languages (add more scripting languages to the XWiki development environment)accept Ruby, Python, PHP, Groovy, Velocity and all JSR 223
Profile Photo resizing (resize your profile picture through a web interface)cancel
Sharepoint (create a XWiki part for Microsoft Sharepoint)cancel
Xamboxcancel
Social Network Solution (turn your wiki into an internal social / collaborative network)accept Partly done with the addition of user network, microblogging, user directory...
UML Tool (create UML diagrams out of your wiki)cancel
Expense Report (an application that let users create and store expense reports right on their wiki - used on XWiki's intranet)cancel
DimDim (web conferencing tool)cancel
SAAS Platform (online wiki creation & hosting, no need to install the wiki on a server, managed by XWiki SAS)accept XWiki Cloud
HR Solution (manage employee-related items in your wiki - holiday requests, expense reports, evaluations...)cancel
More Translations (additional languages)accept
Translation Management Tool (manage a piece of software's translation strings in multiple languages from a unified interface - see l10n.xwiki.org for an example)accept Done on l10n.xwiki.org. Needs to be added as part of XWiki Platform
Twitter (push notifications to twitter from wiki pages)cancel
EC2 Distribution (a distribution meant to be easily deployed on the Amazon platform)cancel
Employee Evaluation (an application that allows running and storing employee evaluations - used on XWiki's intranet)cancel
    

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