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
Detailed Feature Status (@ 2012/01/19)
Below is the status of all listed features.
| Feature | Status as of 2012/01/19 |
|---|---|
| Multipage Export (export multiple pages as a single PDF / HTML document) |  Some Mockups were done but not implemented. |
| Search (better user interface, use the Lucene plugin to make results more relevant) |  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) | 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) | 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) | |
| User Guide (a detailed guide explaining how to use XWiki for users) | First version done. Could be improved even more. |
| Table of Content between pages (generate a table of contents spanning multiple pages) | 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) | Typing of pages is still not there |
| Offline XWiki (use your wiki while offline and synchronize it when you get back online) | Was implemented as part of XEclipse (not well maintained at the moment) but not XE |
| Form Builder (easily create forms in XWiki) | Done in the new App Within Minutes feature |
| Real Time Edition (multiple users editing the same page at the same time) | Work in progress in the Wiki 3.0 Research project. |
| Refactoring Tool (drag & drop wiki pages to move them around) | |
| Development Guide (a detailed guide explaining how applications can be developed in XWiki) | Documentation has been improved but still lacking for developers |
| Contextual Help (add helpers throughout the wiki) | 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) | |
| Workflow (simple workflow capabilities integrated in the wiki: page publishing...) | |
| Annotations (add annotations to content on a wiki page) | |
| Skin Wizard (change your skin colors and logo easily, select a skin) | Added with Color Themes |
| Wiki Importer (import other wiki formats in XWiki - MediaWiki, Confluence, MindTouch) | 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) | |
| Getting Started Help (a guide included in the default wiki install to help new users use it) | Mockups done and a getting started guide was created. |
| Tasks management (create tasks related to wiki pages and follow their status from dedicated dashboards) | Exists as an extension but not part of XWiki Platform |
| Skin (create a new, nicer, easier-to-change skin for XWiki) | Done with Colibri but work still needed to make an even easier to extend/adapt skin |
| Administration (improve the administration user interface) | |
| History + Diff (improve the user interface of the version comparison tool) | Object diff was improved. Still possible to do better |
| Dev Model (make it easier to develop applications in XWiki) | First step done with App Within Minutes |
| Office Formats Macros (display the contents of an attached office file into a wiki page) | |
| Glossary (built-in application to create words and their definitions) | |
| Forum (create a default forum application bundled with the product) | An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform |
| Rights (improve the access rights management user interface) | Mockups and discussions have happened but not implemented yet |
| Calendar (built-in calendar application) | 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) | 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) | 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) | |
| User Directory (list of all your wiki's users with their picture, name, contact information...) | First basic version done. Need improvements |
| Install Wizard (make it easy to install XWiki on your server, whatever the configuration - OS, DB, webserver...) | |
| XWiki Model (continue the work on making XWiki component-based) | |
| WebServices APIs (add new APIs to make XWiki data available as web services) | REST support added |
| Visualization Tool (show wiki pages as nodes in a mindmap) | |
| FAQ (create a default Frequently Asked Questions application) | |
| SVN Integration (make it possible to store and edit wiki pages in SVN) | An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform |
| Mindmap (generate a wiki out of a mindmap and a mindmap out of a wiki) | |
| Anti Vandalism (better spam filtering for comments and user registration) | Added Captcha support |
| No Locking (let multiple users edit the same page at the same time and reconcile their edits) | |
| Large Exports (make it possible to export files larger than 500MB by writing on disk) | 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) | Still need improvement to customize it |
| Large Imports (make it possible to import files larger than 500MB by writing on disk) | 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) | We need syntax coloring and auto completion for example |
| WatchList (improve the way the watchlist work and its User Interface) | |
| Email to Friend (email the content of the current page to someone) | |
| SSO Support (CAS, NTLM) | 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) | |
| Drawing Tools (create drawings online and share them within your wiki) | 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) | Mockups have been done but not coded yet |
| Google Docs (online documents, presentations and spreadsheets) | An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform and there's room for improvements |
| Alternative Storage (JCR storage, storage on the filesystem...) | FS storage done for attachments |
| User Profile (improve the user profile to make it more relevant for wiki users) | 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) | |
| Open ID (support OpenID as an authentication protocol for XWiki) | Patch provided but not committed in XWiki platform yet |
| XEM (improve XWiki Enterprise Manager's UI, integrate groups & invitations in the product) | New Workspace feature |
| Web Site Publishing (use your wiki to create and publish to a website) | |
| Google Wave (use Google Wave for comments and discussion features within the wiki) | |
| Time Tracking (an application that lets users log their time and their current work) | |
| EditGrid (online spreadsheets) | |
| Newsletter (use XWiki to compose and publish email newsletters) | |
| Latex Integration (display LaTeX equations in wiki pages) | |
| Chat (let wiki users chat together when they're connected) | An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform |
| Documentation Solution (build your product documentation or your help center easily) | |
| Intranet Solution (full-fledged intranet solution with meeting notes manager, paper documents to wiki pages conversion) | |
| Mailing List Archiving (archive mailing lists threads & messages as wiki pages) | |
| Discussion Solution (use the wiki to favorize discussions between coworkers within a company) | |
| Doodle (online event scheduler) | Meeting Manager extension. Not in XWiki platform |
| XWiki.com Package (a package certified by the XWiki SAS company, with a specific release cycle) | |
| Gadgets (integrate gadgets such as Google Gadgets in your wiki) | |
| Video (google video, windows video server) | An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform |
| Wiki / Dictionary Tool (use the wiki to create a dictionary or an index of terms) | |
| Social Features (friends, followers, messaging...) | |
| Polyglot Wiki (use the wiki syntax of your choice in your wiki - MediaWiki, Confluence, DekiWiki, Creole...) | |
| Development Solution (wiki + issue tracker + code repository) | |
| Socialcalc (create spreadsheets right into your wiki) | |
| Wiki Portlet (use XWiki as a JSR 168 portlet in a portal) | 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) | 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) | |
| Photo Album (built-in photo album application) | Photo album retired and a poor man replacement has been added with the Gallery macro |
| Gliffy (online diagram software) | |
| P2P Wiki Servers (let wikis communicate together without the need for a central server) | 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) | |
| Jabber (chat client in the wiki) | An extension exists for this. Not in XWiki Platform |
| Application Store (buy and sell XWiki applications from a central marketplace) | Getting closer with the Extension Manager and XWiki Repository application |
| More Dev Languages (add more scripting languages to the XWiki development environment) | Ruby, Python, PHP, Groovy, Velocity and all JSR 223 |
| Profile Photo resizing (resize your profile picture through a web interface) | |
| Sharepoint (create a XWiki part for Microsoft Sharepoint) | |
| Xambox | |
| Social Network Solution (turn your wiki into an internal social / collaborative network) | Partly done with the addition of user network, microblogging, user directory... |
| UML Tool (create UML diagrams out of your wiki) | |
| Expense Report (an application that let users create and store expense reports right on their wiki - used on XWiki's intranet) | |
| DimDim (web conferencing tool) | |
| SAAS Platform (online wiki creation & hosting, no need to install the wiki on a server, managed by XWiki SAS) | XWiki Cloud |
| HR Solution (manage employee-related items in your wiki - holiday requests, expense reports, evaluations...) | |
| More Translations (additional languages) | |
| 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) | Done on l10n.xwiki.org. Needs to be added as part of XWiki Platform |
| Twitter (push notifications to twitter from wiki pages) | |
| EC2 Distribution (a distribution meant to be easily deployed on the Amazon platform) | |
| Employee Evaluation (an application that allows running and storing employee evaluations - used on XWiki's intranet) | |
