Appendix A: TWiki Development Timeline

TWiki Release 4.1 (Edinburgh), 16 Jan 2007

New Features and Enhancements of TWiki Release 4.1

• Easier Installation and Upgrade
  • Plugins can now be installed from the configure script.
  • The loading of plugin preferences settings has been moved earlier in the preferences evaluation order so that plugin settings can be redefined in Main.TWikiPreferences, WebPreferences and in topics. To make TWiki upgrades easier, it is recommended to set the plugin settings in Main.TWikiPreferences, and not to customize the settings in the plugin topic. For example, to change the TEMPLATES setting of the CommentPlugin, create a new COMMENTPLUGIN_TEMPLATES setting in Main.TWikiPreferences.
  • Plugin settings can now be defined in configure instead of in the plugin topic (requires that the individual plugin has implemented this). TWiki performs slightly better by not looking for preferences settings in plugin topics.
  • Configure no longer shows many unnecessary errors when run first time.
  • The webmaster email address is now defined in configure instead of TWikiPreferences.
  • Default file access rights in the distribution package have been changed to be more universally defined and in line with the default access rights for new topics.

• Usability Enhancements
  • Redesigned result page when typing incomplete topic name into the Jump box, so that it is possible to quickly navigate to a topic, also in a very large TWiki installation. For example, "I know there is a topic about Ajax somewhere in the Eng web. OK, let my type Eng.ajax into the Jump box... Here we go, the third link is the AjaxCookbook I was looking for."
  • Many user documentation improvements.
  • URL parameters maintained in Table of Contents links so you can stay in a temporary skin (e.g. print) and keep URLPARAM values when you click the TOC links
  • Attachment tables now sorted alphabetically.
  • Better printing of tables and verbatim text in PatternSkin.

• Application Platform Enhancements
  • Auto-incremented topic name on save with AUTOINC<n> in topic name; used by TWiki applications to create topic based database records.
  • The edit and save scripts support a redirectto parameter to redirect to a topic or a URL; for security, redirect to URL needs to be enabled with a {AllowRedirectUrl} configure flag.
  • CommentPlugin supports the redirectto parameter to redirect to a URL or link to TWiki topic after submitting comment.
  • The topic URL parameter also respects the {AllowRedirectUrl} configure flag so redirects to URLs can be disabled which could be abused for phishing attacks.
  • The view script supports a section URL parameter to view just a named section within a topic. Useful for simple AJAX type applications.
  • New plugin handler for content move.
  • Enhancements for Ajax based applications with TWiki:Plugins/YahooUserInterfaceContrib and TWiki:Plugins.TWikiAjaxContrib (available at twiki.org).

• Search Enhancements
  • METASEARCH handles a format parameter like SEARCH.
  • Topic not found / WebTopicViewTemplate search now case insensitive.
  • FormattedSearch header supporting $nop, $quot, $percnt, $dollar.
  • Add search by createdate option to SEARCH.
  • New newline option for SEARCH to protect e.g. formfields from being altered during rendering in SEARCH.

• Skins and Templates Enhancements
  • Support for templates to have text rendering affecting aspect outside of textarea.
  • Pattern skin dependence on TwistyPlugin instead of TwistyContrib (performance improvement.)
  • Don't strip newlines from the front of TMPL:DEFs.

• Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
  • Change in WikiWord definition: Numbers are treated as lower case letters, e.g. Y2K is now a WikiWord.
  • Configurable template load path. Advanced feature for those that work with customized templates.
  • Added %VBAR% to TWikiPreferences for vertical bar symbol.
  • On topic creation, force initial letter of topic name to be upper case.
  • Allow date format in form fields.
  • Enhance REVINFO{} variable with same date qualifiers as GMTIME{}.
  • WebTopicCreator - adding ability to select a template from any topic name ending in ...Template
  • Functionality of TWiki:Plugins.DateFieldPlugin merged into core

• Enhancements of Pre-installed Plugins
  • CommentPlugin: Supports removal of comment prompt after a comment is made.
  • EditTablePlugin: Default date format based on JSCalendarContrib instead of plugin topic.
  • InterwikiPlugin: Supports custom link formats.
  • SlideShowPlugin: Preserves URL parameters in slideshow
  • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions $LISTRAND(), $LISTSHUFFLE(), $LISTTRUNCATE().
  • TablePlugin: New attribute cellborder.
  • TablePlugin: Highlight the sorted column with custom colors; includes also a general cosmetic update of default colors.
  • TablePlugin: Support for initsort on more than one table. A table with the initsort option is initsorted UNLESS it is sorted by clicking on a column header. If you click on a header of another table all other tables goes back to the default sort defined by initsort or not sorted if no initsort, and the new table is sorted based on the user clicking on a table header.

• Bugfixes
  • More than 200 bugs fixed since 4.0.5

Hall of Fame of TWiki Release 4.1

Although many more people have been involved in creating TWiki-4.1, special thanks go to the most active contributors in the following areas:

• Sponsor and facilitator: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
• Process improvement: TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie
• Release management: TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen
• Spec, code, testing: TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit, TWiki:Main.HaraldJoerg, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum, TWiki:Main.MeredithLesly, TWiki:Main.WillNorris, TWiki:Main.RafaelAlvarez, TWiki:Main.AntonioTerceiro
• Templates and skins: TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum, TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
• Documentation: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen
• Translations: Coordinated by TWiki:Main.AntonioTerceiro
  • Chinese: TWiki:Main.CheDong
  • Czech: TWiki:Main.IvanKuncl
  • Danish: TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen
  • Dutch: TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens
  • French: TWiki:Main.BenVoui
  • German: TWiki:Main.AndreUlrich
  • Italian: TWiki:Main.MassimoMancini
  • Polish: TWiki:Main.ZbigniewKulesza
  • Portuguese: TWiki:Main.AntonioTerceiro, TWiki:Main.CarlinhosCecconi
  • Russian: TWiki:Main.AndreyTkachenko, TWiki:Main.SergejZnamenskij, TWiki:Main.SergeyJSinx, TWiki:Main.AlexTananaev
  • Spanish: TWiki:Main.WillNorris, TWiki:Main.MiguelABayona
  • Swedish: TWiki:Main.ErikAman
• Public relations: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.TomTansy
• TWiki.org wiki champions: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum
• Customer support: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.SteveStark, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum
• System administration: TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie

If you find an omission please fix it at TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. For the full list of contributors see TWikiContributor.

Note: Sequence of contributors under "Spec, code, testing", "Templates and skins" and "Documentation" is based on number of SVN check-ins for core and default extensions from 2006-02 to 2006-12. Sequence of contributors under "TWiki.org wiki champions" and "Customer support" is based on TWiki.org web statistics from 2006-02 to 2006-12.

See more details on the TWiki 4.1 release at TWikiReleaseNotes04x01.

TWiki Release 4.0.0 (Dakar), 01 Feb 2006

Major New Features

• Much simpler install and configuration
• Integrated session support
• Webserver-independent login/logout
• Security sandbox blocking exploits for remote command execution on the server
• Edit conflict resolution with automatic merge
• Multilingual UI
• E-mail confirmations for registration
• WYSIWYG editor (beta)
• Hierarchical sub-webs (beta)

Many, many people worked on TWiki-4.0.0. The credits in the table below only list the people who worked on individual enhancements. If you find an omission please fix it at TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. There were many other contributors; for a full list, visit TWikiContributor.

Most of the redesign, refactoring and new documentation work in Dakar release was done by Crawford Currie. Michael Sparks provided ideas and proof of concept for several improvements. Other people who gave large amounts of their time and patience to less sexy aspects of the work, such as testing, infrastructure and documentation, are AntonAylward, KennethLavrsen, LynnwoodBrown, MichaelDaum, Peter Thoeny, SteffenPoulsen, Sven Dowideit, WillNorris.

See more details at TWikiReleaseNotes04x00

01-Sep-2004 Release (Cairo)

Major New Features

• Automatic upgrade script, and easier first-time installation
• Attractive new skins, using a standard set of CSS classes, and a skin browser to help you choose
• New easier-to-use save options
• Many improvements to SEARCH
• Improved support for internationalisation
• Better topic management screens
• More pre-installed Plugins: CommentPlugin, EditTablePlugin, RenderListPlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin, TablePlugin
• Improved Plugins API and more Plugin callbacks
• Better support for different authentication methods
• Many user interface and usability improvements
• And many, many more enhancements