TWiki-5.1.3 Released: Usable. Fun. Powerful.

We just released TWiki-5.1.3, it can be downloaded immediately from TWiki.org and SourceForge.net. The TWiki-VM, a VMware based virtual machine has been updated as well. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to this release. In all, 50 people are listed in the Istanbul Hall of Fame. Thank you!

This release supersedes earlier TWiki-5.1 releases, which introduced many usability enhancements, such as point and click user data management, more visual user profile pages with picture selector, and a backup feature to help upgrade TWiki sites. TWiki-5.1 also strengthens TWiki as an application platform to more easily build custom wiki applications.

What's New?

The latest TWiki-5.1.3 patch release fixes a number of bugs and has some incremental enhancements. Most importantly, it incorporates a fix for the Security Alert CVE-2012-6329, where the MAKETEXT variable allowed arbitrary shell command execution. Feature highlights of the TWiki-5.1 Release:

• For Users: Better Usability
  • More visual user profile pages with in-place editing of form fields and picture selector
  • In-place editing of TWiki group settings using PreferencesPlugin
  • Point and click bookmarks
  • The TopMenuSkin has an option for auto-hidden or fixed top menu-bar. In auto-hidden mode, the menu is always accessible with a stub on the upper left, as seen here on TWiki.org. - added in TWiki-5.1.2
  • New ColorPickerPlugin to pick a color in form fields
  • User profile pages with CSS based box shadow and rounded corners - added in TWiki-5.1.3

• For Power Users: More Power
  • New SetGetPlugin that can store variables persistently
  • SetGetPlugin: GET variable with format parameter - added in TWiki-5.1.3
  • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions BITXOR(), HEXENCODE(), HEXDECODE(), XOR()
  • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions FLOOR() and CEILING() - added in TWiki-5.1.1
  • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions $ISDIGIT(), $ISLOWER(), $ISUPPER(), $ISWIKIWORD() and $FILTER() - added in TWiki-5.1.2
  • SpreadSheetPlugin: New function $STDEV(), $STDEVP(), $VAR(), $VARP() - added in TWiki-5.1.3
  • CommentPlugin: Send comment to multiple e-mail addresses; better layout & nicer look of default comment box - added in TWiki-5.1.3

• For Administrators: More Control
  • API and GUI for point and click user data management
  • Improved statistics showing overall site usage over time, such as total number of webs, topics, users, etc
  • New BackupRestorePlugin to easily backup, restore and upgrade TWiki installations
  • BackupRestorePlugin: Add restore from backup feature - added in TWiki-5.1.1
  • Security: Set a flag to force password change on next login
  • Security: Support disabled users in password manager
  • S/Mime support for notification e-mails

• For Programmers: TWiki Application Platform Enhancements
  • The SetGetPlugin adds a REST interface to set and query variables - useful for TWiki applications that need to store variables persistently via Ajax calls. - added in TWiki-5.1.2
  • Macro language with parameterized variables
  • The SpreadSheetPlugin has a new CALCULATE variable that gets evaluated in the proper inside-out, left-to-right order among other TWikiVariables. In contrast, the older CALC variable gets evaluated with some delay, which can result in some surprises. - added in TWiki-5.1.2
  • Ability to auto-create page on view if it does not exist
  • Relative heading levels for INCLUDE
  • Relative heading levels for SEARCH

Read the latest release notes, and see more details on the TWiki-5.1 release. Curious how the latest TWiki looks like? See some TWikiScreenshots.

How do You Use TWiki?

It is good to learn from each other how TWiki is being used at the workplace. I invite you to share your story. How about writing a case study as a blog here on TWiki.org? Many new and existing users would appreciate that. For inspiration see these three case studies:

• Case Study: Morgan Stanley has Globally Replicated Intranet TWiki With 30,000 Users, 500,000 Pages
• Case Study: How 10,000 Researchers at CERN Collaborate Using TWiki
• Case Study: TWiki at Consultancy Aseaco AG

We invite you to share your story!

What's Happening With the Community?

We have lots of activity on TWiki.org, with 300-400 monthly commits. The open source community is working hard on the next major TWiki release, code named Jerusalem Release. As for the last 4 years, the main focus of the Jerusalem Release is usability - stay tuned for lots of things that will make your teamwork easier and more fun! Developers are also working on many features enhancements, two of which are worth highlighting:

1. Make TWiki scalable to thousands of webs and a million+ pages, across multiple sites with data replication - thank you Hideyo Imazu-san for working on the ReadOnlyAndMirrorWebs feature!
   
   
2. New TWiki application installer that will make it easy for developers to package components and applications, and for users to install those apps with a point and click operation. Now is a good time to provide feedback. What needs do you have? Please comment at TWikiAppInstaller.

We invite you to get involved with our community! As a contributor you can help steer the ship.

How You Can Help: Spread the Word!

Word of mouth is an effective way to spread TWiki - we appreciate your help tremendously! More exposure means more contributions, and a better system! Please spread the word in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs etc. You can point your connections to this blog post (at http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201212x1) - short link is http://bit.ly/twRel513.

Sample tweet you could use:

New TWiki-5.1.3 release available: Enterprise Collaboration. Usable. Fun. Powerful: http://bit.ly/twRel513 #e20 #enterprise #wiki

Let us know what you think of this new release!

-- PeterThoeny - founder of TWiki.org

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