Document Lifecycle (XWiki.org)

XWiki offers to perform several actions on a document (a.k.a a page).

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= Create =

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There are three ways to create new pages.

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== By adding a wanted link ==

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You can **edit an existing page and create a link to your new page** (either in Wiki mode or in WYSIWYG mode). The resulting link will show up with a question mark next to it, showing it as a non-existent page. Simply click on the link to create the page as a child of the current page.

This will take you directly to the edit mode for the missing page. **This is the recommended approach** as it'll allow you to create a hierarchy while you create new pages.

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Starting with XWiki Enterprise 2.4 users and applications can provide documents that can be used as [[templates>>extensions:Extension.Administration Application#HTemplates]] when creating new pages. The new document content (content, objects and other meta data) will be replicated from the template. When clicking on a "wanted link", if there are available templates, you will be asked to select one:

Then you will be taken to the Inline Form edit mode corresponding to the selected page template.

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== By using the Add Page action ==

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You can create a new child page for the current page by using the plus icon located to the right of the page title.

This will open the Create Page wizard where you can specify the title of the new page.

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By default, the new page will be created as a child of the current page. If you don't want that, then you can change the location of the target page using the document picker (by selecting an existing parent).

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Note: When creating a new page from the wiki's homepage (i.e. clicking the plus icon from the wiki's homepage), there is an exception to the above behavior. In this case, the default is to create a top level document instead of a child of the current page (homepage). If your intention was really to create a child of the homepage (which is not usually the case for homepages), then you can use the document picker and select the homepage as parent of the new page.

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You can also select a [[template>>extensions:Extension.Administration Application#HTemplatesCreationandAdministration]] for the new page.

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Once you're done click the "Create" button and you will be able to edit your newly created page right away.

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This is what you'll see if you're a [[simple user>>Features.PageEditing#HSimpleandAdvancededitingmodes]]:

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And if you're an [[advanced user>>Features.PageEditing#HSimpleandAdvancededitingmodes]] you'll be able to control whether the page created will be a Terminal page (i.e. a page that cannot have children, see also [[Terminology>>Features.ContentOrganization.WebHome#HTerminology]]) or not:

== By entering directly the URL of the new page ==

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You can also **enter the new page name (and its path) directly in the URL of your browser**. For example ##http:~/~/localhost:8080/xwiki/bin/view/Movies/Thriller/Rear Window##. If the target page doesn't exist then you'll get an empty page with a message saying that the page doesn't exist and there'll be a link to create it:

= Edit =

This allows the editing of a page. See the [[page editing>>Features.PageEditing]] tutorial for more details.

= Show =

Whenever you click on a link to a page XWiki automatically shows the page in view mode. This is the default mode. XWiki also supports displaying the page in other formats that may be more adapted to specific circumstances:

== Code ==

You can view the content of a page without having to edit it (and thus you don't need edit rights). This option is shown only for users in [[Advanced Mode>>Features.PageEditing#HAdvancedMode]].

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To see the code when using the Flamingo skin, you have to go to the More Actions menu, and click on View Source.

== XML ==

XWiki allows exposing a page in XML. This is not ordinarily useful, but it can prove useful for example if you want to write a tool that automatically parses the content of a page. As the XML format is well-defined for all pages, this is much easier than doing screen-scrapping for example. In addition this XML format is used internally by XWiki for performing imports/exports of pages and whole wikis.

== Comments ==

Users with the comment right can leave comments on pages. This allows them to provide feedback without requiring edit rights.

On the Flamingo skin

== Attachments ==

A page can contain attachments. See [[Attachments>>Features.Attachments]] for more details.

== History ==

Displays the version history of the page. See [[Version Control>>Features.VersionControl]] for more details.

= Print =

There are several possible printing options (what you see may vary depending on the Skin used).

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When using the Flamingo Skin, you will find the Print Preview by clicking on More Actions:

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* Print Preview: Generates a page which is formatted so that it can be easily printed using your browser's Print feature.(((

)))

= Export =

There are several possible exporting formats that XWiki supports: PDF, RTF, XAR, HTML. See the [[Export feature>>Features.Exports]] for more information.

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On the Flamingo skin:

= Delete =

Removes a page and puts it in the trash.

A confirmation is asked before the removal is done. Here, you can decide either or not to delete the children along with the current document.

Note: When deleting a non-terminal page and the only child of that page is the 'WebPreferences' terminal page, the 'Affect children' checkbox will be checked by default. Normally, it would be unchecked, but in this case we`ve noticed that it`s very easy to forget about that document (since it's hidden and automatically created when going into 'Page Administration') and your deleted page might still show up in some places because of that leftover. You can still uncheck it if you know what you are doing.

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Then, you have to wait during the deletion of the page:

And finally, you have the success message:

= Restore =

To restore a deleted document or remove it from the trash (you'll need to have Admin permissions), check the documentation for the [[Index Application>>extensions:Extension.Index Application]].

= Copy =

If you want to create a copy of an existing page then you have to navigate to that page (access that page in view mode) and then select the Copy entry from the page menu (that is located to the right of the page title).

This will take you to the Copy Page Wizard where you can specify the title of the copy and its new location.

If the page is translated in multiple languages then you can select which translation to copy, or you can copy all the translations. If the page has child pages then you can choose to copy them as well (this way you can replicate a hierarchy of pages).

Once you click the Copy button you are taken to the Copy Status page where you can see the options that you have selected and the progress of the copy operation. The copy is performed asynchronously. The progress bar is replaced with the operation status at the end in order to let you know if the operation succeeded or failed. You can use the breadcrumbs to navigate to the new page or the old one.

= Move/Rename =

If you want to rename or move an existing page then you have to navigate to that page (access that page in view mode) and then select the Rename entry from the page menu (that is located to the right of the page title).

This will take you to the Rename Page Wizard where you can specify the new page title (if you want to rename) and/or the new page location (if you want to move the page to a different location).

If the page has child pages then you can choose to move them to the new location as well. This way the hierarchy under the renamed page is going to be preserved. Otherwise, if you choose to preserve the current path of the child pages (keep the children in place) then they will become "orphans": they will still be accessible with the same URLs (bookmarks are not broken) but they will have a missing parent (which you can fix by creating the parent page later).

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You can also select whether to update the wiki pages that have links pointing to the affected pages.

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In case there are external links (e.g. bookmarks) to the renamed page (or its child pages) they will be broken after the rename unless you choose to create an automatic redirect from the old location to the new one.

Once you click the Rename button you are taken to the Rename Status page where you can see the options that you have selected and the progress of the rename operation. The rename, like the copy, is performed asynchronously. The progress bar is replaced with the operation status at the end in order to let you know if the operation succeeded or failed. You can use the breadcrumbs to navigate to the new page or the old one.

== Limitations ==

There are still some limitations on renaming:

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* backlinks have to be turned on (they are turned on by default but if you have turned them off, rename will not rename backlinks and you'll have to turn them on again to benefit from this feature)

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* backlinks located in XObjects and translated content are not currently renamed. You can track this issue [[XWIKI-981>>http://jira.xwiki.org/jira/browse/XWIKI-981]] to follow the progress.

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* backlinks are saved when a page is saved thus it may happen with a clean XWiki database that backlinks are not saved. In this special case, you can call the following in a page to refresh all links (you'll need to be admin to do this):(((

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$xwiki.refreshLinks()

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)))

Wiki source code of Document Lifecycle

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author	version	line-number	content
		1	{{box cssClass="floatinginfobox" title="Contents"}}
		2	{{toc/}}
		3	{{/box}}
		4
		5	XWiki offers to perform several actions on a document (a.k.a a page).
		6
		7	= Create =
		8
		9	There are three ways to create new pages.
		10
		11	== By adding a wanted link ==
		12
		13	You can edit an existing page and create a link to your new page (either in Wiki mode or in WYSIWYG mode). The resulting link will show up with a question mark next to it, showing it as a non-existent page. Simply click on the link to create the page as a child of the current page.
		14
		15	{{image reference="CreateInWYSIWYG.PNG"/}}
		16
		17	This will take you directly to the edit mode for the missing page. This is the recommended approach as it'll allow you to create a hierarchy while you create new pages.
		18
		19	Starting with XWiki Enterprise 2.4 users and applications can provide documents that can be used as [[templates>>extensions:Extension.Administration Application#HTemplates]] when creating new pages. The new document content (content, objects and other meta data) will be replicated from the template. When clicking on a "wanted link", if there are available templates, you will be asked to select one:
		20
		21	{{image reference="templateSelectorForWantedLink.png"/}}
		22
		23	Then you will be taken to the Inline Form edit mode corresponding to the selected page template.
		24
		25	== By using the Add Page action ==
		26
		27	You can create a new child page for the current page by using the plus icon located to the right of the page title.
		28
		29	{{image reference="AddPage.png"/}}
		30
		31	This will open the Create Page wizard where you can specify the title of the new page.
		32
		33	By default, the new page will be created as a child of the current page. If you don't want that, then you can change the location of the target page using the document picker (by selecting an existing parent).
		34
		35	Note: When creating a new page from the wiki's homepage (i.e. clicking the plus icon from the wiki's homepage), there is an exception to the above behavior. In this case, the default is to create a top level document instead of a child of the current page (homepage). If your intention was really to create a child of the homepage (which is not usually the case for homepages), then you can use the document picker and select the homepage as parent of the new page.
		36
		37	You can also select a [[template>>extensions:Extension.Administration Application#HTemplatesCreationandAdministration]] for the new page.
		38
		39	Once you're done click the "Create" button and you will be able to edit your newly created page right away.
		40
		41	This is what you'll see if you're a [[simple user>>Features.PageEditing#HSimpleandAdvancededitingmodes]]:
		42	{{image reference="CreatePageSimple.png"/}}
		43
		44	And if you're an [[advanced user>>Features.PageEditing#HSimpleandAdvancededitingmodes]] you'll be able to control whether the page created will be a Terminal page (i.e. a page that cannot have children, see also [[Terminology>>Features.ContentOrganization.WebHome#HTerminology]]) or not:
		45
		46	{{image reference="CreatePageAdvanced.png"/}}
		47
		48	== By entering directly the URL of the new page ==
		49
		50	You can also enter the new page name (and its path) directly in the URL of your browser. For example ##http:~/~/localhost:8080/xwiki/bin/view/Movies/Thriller/Rear Window##. If the target page doesn't exist then you'll get an empty page with a message saying that the page doesn't exist and there'll be a link to create it:
		51
		52	{{image reference="CreateInURL.PNG"/}}
		53
		54	= Edit =
		55
		56	This allows the editing of a page. See the [[page editing>>Features.PageEditing]] tutorial for more details.
		57
		58	= Show =
		59
		60	Whenever you click on a link to a page XWiki automatically shows the page in view mode. This is the default mode. XWiki also supports displaying the page in other formats that may be more adapted to specific circumstances:
		61
		62	{{toc start="2" depth="2" numbered="false" scope="local"/}}
		63
		64	== Code ==
		65
		66	You can view the content of a page without having to edit it (and thus you don't need edit rights). This option is shown only for users in [[Advanced Mode>>Features.PageEditing#HAdvancedMode]].
		67
		68	To see the code when using the Flamingo skin, you have to go to the More Actions menu, and click on View Source.
		69
		70	{{image reference="ViewSourceFlamingo.png"/}}
		71
		72	{{image reference="WikiCodeResultFlamingo.png"/}}
		73
		74	== XML ==
		75
		76	XWiki allows exposing a page in XML. This is not ordinarily useful, but it can prove useful for example if you want to write a tool that automatically parses the content of a page. As the XML format is well-defined for all pages, this is much easier than doing screen-scrapping for example. In addition this XML format is used internally by XWiki for performing imports/exports of pages and whole wikis.
		77
		78	== Comments ==
		79
		80	Users with the comment right can leave comments on pages. This allows them to provide feedback without requiring edit rights.
		81
		82	{{image reference="AddComment.png"/}}
		83
		84	On the Flamingo skin
		85	{{image reference="CommentsFlamingo.png"/}}
		86
		87	== Attachments ==
		88
		89	A page can contain attachments. See [[Attachments>>Features.Attachments]] for more details.
		90
		91	== History ==
		92
		93	Displays the version history of the page. See [[Version Control>>Features.VersionControl]] for more details.
		94
		95	= Print =
		96
		97	There are several possible printing options (what you see may vary depending on the Skin used).
		98
		99	When using the Flamingo Skin, you will find the Print Preview by clicking on More Actions:
		100
		101	* Print Preview: Generates a page which is formatted so that it can be easily printed using your browser's Print feature.(((
		102	{{image reference="ViewSourceFlamingo.png"/}}
		103	)))
		104
		105	= Export =
		106
		107	There are several possible exporting formats that XWiki supports: PDF, RTF, XAR, HTML. See the [[Export feature>>Features.Exports]] for more information.
		108
		109	On the Flamingo skin:
		110	{{image reference="ExportFlamingo.png"/}}
		111
		112	{{image reference="ExportFlamingoPDF.png"/}}
		113
		114	= Delete =
		115
		116	Removes a page and puts it in the trash.
		117
		118	{{image reference="DeletePageFlamingo.png"/}}
		119
		120	A confirmation is asked before the removal is done. Here, you can decide either or not to delete the children along with the current document.
		121
		122	{{image reference="DeleteConfirmFlamingo.png"/}}
		123
		124	Note: When deleting a non-terminal page and the only child of that page is the 'WebPreferences' terminal page, the 'Affect children' checkbox will be checked by default. Normally, it would be unchecked, but in this case we`ve noticed that it`s very easy to forget about that document (since it's hidden and automatically created when going into 'Page Administration') and your deleted page might still show up in some places because of that leftover. You can still uncheck it if you know what you are doing.
		125
		126	Then, you have to wait during the deletion of the page:
		127
		128	{{image reference="Deleting.png"/}}
		129
		130	And finally, you have the success message:
		131
		132	{{image reference="DeleteFlamingoConfirm.png"/}}
		133
		134	= Restore =
		135
		136	To restore a deleted document or remove it from the trash (you'll need to have Admin permissions), check the documentation for the [[Index Application>>extensions:Extension.Index Application]].
		137
		138	= Copy =
		139
		140	If you want to create a copy of an existing page then you have to navigate to that page (access that page in view mode) and then select the Copy entry from the page menu (that is located to the right of the page title).
		141
		142	{{image reference="CopyPageFlamingo.png"/}}
		143
		144	This will take you to the Copy Page Wizard where you can specify the title of the copy and its new location.
		145
		146	{{image reference="CopyPageConfirmFlamingo.png"/}}
		147
		148	If the page is translated in multiple languages then you can select which translation to copy, or you can copy all the translations. If the page has child pages then you can choose to copy them as well (this way you can replicate a hierarchy of pages).
		149
		150	{{image reference="copyStatus.png"/}}
		151
		152	Once you click the Copy button you are taken to the Copy Status page where you can see the options that you have selected and the progress of the copy operation. The copy is performed asynchronously. The progress bar is replaced with the operation status at the end in order to let you know if the operation succeeded or failed. You can use the breadcrumbs to navigate to the new page or the old one.
		153
		154	= Move/Rename =
		155
		156	If you want to rename or move an existing page then you have to navigate to that page (access that page in view mode) and then select the Rename entry from the page menu (that is located to the right of the page title).
		157
		158	{{image reference="RenameFlamingo.png"/}}
		159
		160	This will take you to the Rename Page Wizard where you can specify the new page title (if you want to rename) and/or the new page location (if you want to move the page to a different location).
		161
		162	{{image reference="RenameConfirmFlamingo.png"/}}
		163
		164	If the page has child pages then you can choose to move them to the new location as well. This way the hierarchy under the renamed page is going to be preserved. Otherwise, if you choose to preserve the current path of the child pages (keep the children in place) then they will become "orphans": they will still be accessible with the same URLs (bookmarks are not broken) but they will have a missing parent (which you can fix by creating the parent page later).
		165
		166	You can also select whether to update the wiki pages that have links pointing to the affected pages.
		167
		168	In case there are external links (e.g. bookmarks) to the renamed page (or its child pages) they will be broken after the rename unless you choose to create an automatic redirect from the old location to the new one.
		169
		170	{{image reference="renameProgress.png"/}}
		171
		172	Once you click the Rename button you are taken to the Rename Status page where you can see the options that you have selected and the progress of the rename operation. The rename, like the copy, is performed asynchronously. The progress bar is replaced with the operation status at the end in order to let you know if the operation succeeded or failed. You can use the breadcrumbs to navigate to the new page or the old one.
		173
		174	== Limitations ==
		175
		176	There are still some limitations on renaming:
		177
		178	* backlinks have to be turned on (they are turned on by default but if you have turned them off, rename will not rename backlinks and you'll have to turn them on again to benefit from this feature)
		179	* backlinks located in XObjects and translated content are not currently renamed. You can track this issue [[XWIKI-981>>http://jira.xwiki.org/jira/browse/XWIKI-981]] to follow the progress.
		180	* backlinks are saved when a page is saved thus it may happen with a clean XWiki database that backlinks are not saved. In this special case, you can call the following in a page to refresh all links (you'll need to be admin to do this):(((
		181	{{code language="none"}}
		182	$xwiki.refreshLinks()
		183	{{/code}}
		184	)))