Skip to Content

Second Generation Wiki

Version 2.2 by Eleni Cojocariu on 2025/11/06 11:11
Warning
For security reasons, the document is displayed in restricted mode as it is not the current version. There may be differences and errors due to this.
Content

Explanation

Failed to execute the [velocity] macro. Cause: [The execution of the [velocity] script macro is not allowed in [xwiki:documentation.xs.user.get-started.second-generation-wiki.WebHome]. Check the rights of its last author or the parameters if it's rendered from another script.]. Click on this message for details.

First generation wikis

InformationFocused on content creation. Some example of features:

  • Page editing

    Use simple wiki syntax to format text, create tables, create links, display images, etc. Alternatively use a powerful WYSIWYG editor to edit the content of pages.

  • Version Control

    Any change made in XWiki is saved under version control, meaning you can view any previous version of a page, compare different versions or rollback to any past version.

  • Rights

    Control who can view, edit or delete pages in a flexible manner. Apply rights to a page, its children or an entire wiki.

  • Search

    Allows searching on the full wiki using wildcards, faceting search results, getting search result RSS feeds and more.

  • Exports

    Export wiki pages to PDF, ODT, RTF, XML or HTML.

Second generation wikis

InformationFocused on structure and application creation (by editing wiki pages). Some examples of what can be created:

  • Blog

    Host one or multiple blogs to communicate information or organize it using categories and tags.

  • File Manager

    Manage your folders and files, having viewers for many supported file types (such as office and PDF), displaying a tag cloud and allowing filtering.

  • Meetings

    Organize meetings (create, view and modify meetings to come) and send invitations.

  • Forums

    Discuss important topics using multiple forums that support answers, comments and votes.

  • Tasks

    Create and assign tasks for designated projects, with associated assignees and due dates.

Today most of user's needs are not satisfied because it takes too long and it's too costly to develop small applications. On the other hand, a second generation wiki like XWiki is a perfect platform for this. XWiki is the toolkit for the web!

Did you know?

Chris Anderson introduced the concept of Long Tail.

xwiki-long-tail.png Applying it to XWiki gives the above diagram.

What it means is that there are thousands and thousands of applications required by users that are not built today because of prohibitive complexity and costs (the yellow area is larger than the red area on the diagram).

They would also take too long to build and their value would decrease as more and more time passes for their implementation.

They need to be created here and now to have the highest possible value.

XWiki is a cost-effective solution that allows non-developers to create those required applications quickly and in an organic manner.

Related

About

About

Support

Platform

User Guide

Admin Guide

Developer Guide

Projects

XWiki

Extensions

Other

Contribute

Status

Practices

Under the Hood

Get Involved

Get Connected