DewayneVanHoozer @ Foswiki

Update 30 Aug 2011

Still running tw4.2.2. No new wiki-based application development has been done. Maybe as few as 50 new topics have been added. New projects have adopted Trak. There is one project that went with Wordpress.

twiki.org's site look nice. I still have problems with this site. My high contrast selections in the browser do not allow me to see some of the side bar content. Within my browser I have specified a black background with yellow text. In the side bars I see foswiki putting white text on a yellow background. That is not nice. I have attached a screen shapshot.

Update 03 Feb 2010

I have continued to run tw4.2.2 for the last year. Use of wiki has fallen off as new corporate sharepoint sites have come online. Application development around wiki capabilities was stopped. Now installing foswiki 1.0.9 to see what last year's efforts have produced.

I have toyed with the idea of a tw/foswiki port to Ruby for the last 24 months. TML markup is not far from markup available in existing Ruby libraries; but, I have no time available.

The majority of the complaints I have received on the wiki involve how slow it is... guess one of these days I ought to install mod_perl or fastcgi and fix that ... or maybe even get it off of my workstation onto a dedicated server.

Update 14 Jan 2009

Release 1.0.0 installed. Content ported for testing. The TWikiCompatibilityPlugin is a genius-level idea. Problem areas are the ActionTrackerPlugin, TagMePlugin (too scared to attempt an install until I see someone else do it first), TreeBrowserPlugin and the GenPDFAddOn.

Here is what I have operational:

Addons/Contribs:

* BehaviourContrib * JSCalendarContrib * MailerContrib * TipsContrib * TopicUserMappingContrib * GenPDFAddOn (does not work)

Plugin:

• TWikiCompatibilityPlugin
• SpreadSheetPlugin
• ActionTrackerPlugin (JSCalandarContrib interaction causes a crash)
• AliasPlugin
• AttachContentPlugin
• AttachLinkPlugin
• AttachmentUrlShortcutPlugin
• CalendarPlugin
• CommentPlugin
• DirectedGraphPlugin
• DpSyntaxHighlighterPlugin
• EditTablePlugin
• FilterPlugin
• FindElsewherePlugin
• FootNotePlugin
• ForEachPlugin
• HeadlinesPlugin
• ImageGalleryPlugin
• ImagePlugin
• InterwikiPlugin
• PreferencesPlugin
• RedirectPlugin
• RenderListPlugin
• SlideShowPlugin
• SmiliesPlugin
• SubscribePlugin
• SvnPlugin
• TablePlugin
• TinyMCEPlugin
• ToolTipPlugin
• TreeBrowserPlugin (not working well with TreePlugin; same problem under TWiki 4.2.2)
• TreePlugin
• TwistyPlugin
• WysiwygPlugin

Interesting behavior change with VarINCLUDE. Under TWiki 4.2.2 this was okay:

%INCLUDE{%TOPIC%"SomeText"}%

Under Foswiki the double quotes are made part of the topic name trying to be included. To fix it, I just removed the double quotes.

So far its been 27 hours of install, porting, testing and conversion. My applications are about 95% done. I need those three plugins and the GenPDFAddOn to complete the other 5%.

w/r/t GenPDFAddOn, I did a global search on all TWiki:: and replaced with Foswiki:: It was not enought. There is an error generated out of Foswiki Engine CGI function remoteaddress not found.

FYI, I am now following a new risk item on my Integrated Systems Environment (ISE) project.

TWiki Risk

ISE has dependencies upon the continued development and enhancement of key FOSS products. The TWiki platform has become a key component of the ISE project in that it is the repository for technical documentation as well as an application development platform from which interactive documentation is built.

This risk was first documented as a concern in the ManageWikiTask status entry of 07/10/2008. It first appeared in the weekly StatusReport published 07/14/2008; however, this concern has never been raised as part of the executive summary.

Specific Manifestation of Risk

During calendar year 2008 the developer community around TWiki has become unstable. This instability began with the formation of a "for profit" development and maintenance company (http://twiki.net) created by the originator of TWiki, Peter Thoeny.

As of the end of October 2008 a new governance for TWiki.org was put in place which insured that the progenitor of TWiki would also maintain control of the FOSS community. This new governance was met with significant opposition by key community developers. These developers have chosen to disassociate themselves from TWiki.org to form a new "fork" of the TWiki software.

The TWiki name and trademark are owned by Peter Thoeny. The new fork was initially formed at http://nextwiki.org. This name being close to the original may have legal entanglements. A change in branding of the new fork is anticipated.

Impact to Schedule Risk

The impact to ScheduleRisk is minimum. Technical documentation and collaboration is a parallel effort to the key software development efforts. New tasks may be added to schedule to support new trade studies for the selection of a new technical documentation and development platform. Additional tasks may be needed for the conversion of the existing technical documentation to a new platform.

Impact to Performance Risk

There is no impact to PerformanceRisk. The use of the TWiki is totally within the ColdIse framework. No impact to HotIse services is expected.

Impact to Budget Risk

Potential new tasks associated with a platform change imply a potential reallocation of funds. This reallocation is expected to be small.

Informal Mitigation Plan

The ISEwiki and the "document as we go" process remains the same. In the worst case a parallel ramp-up ramp-down with an automated conversion process should precluded major impact to on going technical documentation efforts.

1. application development
   1. new interactive applications created as CGI
   2. or develop no new interactive applications within TWiki
2. wait and see
   1. developer communities reach an equilibrium
      1. stay with TWiki.org product
      2. or switch to nextwiki.org product
   2. instability remains
      1. trade the next best products
         1. wiki platforms with easy integration to the IsePortal given preference
         2. wiki platforms using formatting styles consistent with those available in Ruby given preference
            1. RedCloth
            2. BlueCloth
      2. choose new platform
      3. migrate docs to new platform
      4. migrate applications to new platform
      5. retrain wiki editors in new documentation script language

---

FYI, from my status report:

07/10/2008 - becoming concerned about some political squabling going on with the original founders of TWiki.org; no impact to ISE. However, within the context of technology ecosystems, it may be wise over the next 12 months to ensure that ISE specific applications with the ISEwiki are developed in such a way to be transportable to other wiki platforms.

• Screen Snapshot of FOSWIKI's bad UI in my browser configuration.: