An overview of some of ikiwiki's features:
-[[toc ]]
+[[!toc ]]
## Uses a real RCS
Rather than implement its own system for storing page histories etc,
-ikiwiki uses a real Revision Control System. This isn't because we're
+ikiwiki uses a real Revision Control System. This isn't (just) because we're
lazy, it's because a real RCS is a good thing to have, and there are
advantages to using one that are not possible with a standard wiki.
Instead of editing pages in a stupid web form, you can use vim and commit
-changes via [[Subversion]]. Or work disconnected using svk and push your
-changes out when you come online. Or use [[git]], [[tla]], or [[mercurial]]
-to work in a distributed fashion all the time. (It's also possible to
-[[plugins/write]] a plugin to support other systems.)
+changes via [[Subversion|rcs/svn]], [[rcs/git]], or any of a number of other
+[[Revision_Control_Systems|rcs]].
ikiwiki can be run from a [[post-commit]] hook to update your wiki
immediately whenever you commit a change using the RCS.
## A wiki compiler
-ikiwiki is a wiki compiler; it builds static website for your wiki, and
+ikiwiki is a wiki compiler; it builds a static website for your wiki, and
updates it as pages are edited. It is fast and smart about updating a wiki,
it only builds pages that have changed (and tracks things like creation of
new pages and links that can indirectly cause a page to need a rebuild)
## Supports many markup languages
-By default, pages in the wiki are written using the [[MarkDown]] format.
+By default, pages in the wiki are written using the [[ikiwiki/MarkDown]] format.
Any page with a filename ending in ".mdwn" is converted from markdown to html
by ikiwiki. Markdown understands text formatted as it would be in an email,
and is quite smart about converting it to html. The only additional markup
-provided by ikiwiki on top of regular markdown is the [[WikiLink]] and
-[[PreprocessorDirective]].
+provided by ikiwiki on top of regular markdown is the [[ikiwiki/WikiLink]] and
+[[ikiwiki/PreprocessorDirective]].
If you prefer to use some other markup language, ikiwiki allows others to
easily be added by [[plugins]]. For example it also supports traditional
[[plugins/WikiText]] formatted pages, pages written as pure
-[[plugins/HTML]], or pages written in [[reStructuredText|plugins/rst]].
+[[plugins/HTML]], or pages written in [[reStructuredText|plugins/rst]]
+or [[Textile|plugins/textile]].
ikiwiki also supports files of any other type, including plain text,
images, etc. These are not converted to wiki pages, they are just copied
unchanged by ikiwiki as it builds your wiki. So you can check in an image,
program, or other special file and link to it from your wiki pages.
-## [[Blogging|blog]]
+## Blogging
-You can turn any page in the wiki into a [[blog]]. Pages matching a
-specified [[PageSpec]] will be displayed as a weblog within the blog
-page. And an RSS feed can be generated to follow the blog.
+You can turn any page in the wiki into a [[ikiwiki/blog]]. Pages matching a
+specified [[ikiwiki/PageSpec]] will be displayed as a weblog within the blog
+page. And RSS or Atom feeds can be generated to follow the blog.
Ikiwiki's own [[TODO]], [[news]], and [[plugins]] pages are good examples
-of some of the flexible ways that this can be used.
+of some of the flexible ways that this can be used. There is also an
+[[example_blog|examples/blog]] set up that you can copy into your own wiki.
Ikiwiki can also [[plugins/aggregate]] external blogs, feeding them into
the wiki. This can be used to create a Planet type site that aggregates
interesting feeds.
-## Valid html and css
+You can also mix blogging with podcasting by dropping audio files where
+they will be picked up like blog posts. This will work for any files that
+you would care to syndicate.
+
+## Valid html and [[css]]
ikiwiki aims to produce
-[valid XHTML 1.0](http://validator.w3.org/check?url=referer).
-ikiwiki generates html using [[templates]], and uses css, so you can
-change the look and layout of all pages in any way you would like.
+[valid XHTML 1.0](http://validator.w3.org/check?url=referer). ikiwiki
+generates html using [[templates|wikitemplates]], and uses [[css]], so you
+can change the look and layout of all pages in any way you would like.
## [[Plugins]]
Plugins can be used to add additional features to ikiwiki. The interface
is quite flexible, allowing plugins to implement additional markup
-languages, register [[PreProcessorDirective]]s, hook into [[CGI]] mode,
+languages, register [[ikiwiki/PreProcessorDirective]]s, hook into [[CGI]] mode,
and more. Most of ikiwiki's features are actually provided by plugins.
Ikiwiki's backend RCS support is also pluggable, so support for new
revision control systems can be added to ikiwiki.
+The standard language for ikiwiki plugins is perl, but ikiwiki also supports
+[[plugins/write/external]] plugins: Standalone programs that can be written in
+any language and communicate with ikiwiki using XML RPC.
+
## [[todo/utf8]]
After rather a lot of fiddling, we think that ikiwiki correctly and fully
You can tag pages and use these tags in various ways. Tags will show
up in the ways you'd expect, like at the bottom of pages, in blogs, and
-in rss feeds.
+in RSS and Atom feeds.
-### [[SubPages|SubPage]]
+### [[SubPages|ikiwiki/SubPage]]
Arbitrarily deep hierarchies of pages with fairly simple and useful
-[[SubPage/LinkingRules]]
+[[ikiwiki/SubPage/LinkingRules]]
### [[BackLinks]]
Nearly the definition of a wiki, although perhaps ikiwiki challenges how
much of that web gunk a wiki really needs. These features are optional
-and can be enabled by enabling [[CGI]].
+and can be enabled by enabling [[CGI]] and a [[Revision_Control_System|rcs]].
### User registration
-Can optionally be configured to allow only registered users to post
-pages; online user registration form, etc.
+Can optionally be configured to allow only registered users to edit
+pages.
+
+User registration can be done using a web form, or ikiwiki can be
+configured to accept users authenticated with OpenID, or HTTP basic
+authentication, or other methods implemented via plugins.
### Discussion pages
/Discussion subpage. By default, these links are included in the
[[templates]] for each page.
-### Page locking
+### Edit controls
-Wiki admins can lock pages so that only other admins can edit them.
+Wiki admins can [[lock_pages|page_locking]] so that only other admins can
+edit them. Or a wiki can be set up to allow anyone to edit Discussion
+pages, but only registered users to edit other pages. These are just two
+possibilities, since page edit controls can be changed via plugins.
### [[PageHistory]]
Well, sorta. Rather than implementing YA history browser, it can link to
-[[ViewCVS]] or the like to browse the history of a wiki page.
+[[ViewVC]] or the like to browse the history of a wiki page.
### Full text search
-ikiwiki can use the [[HyperEstraier]] search engine to add powerful
-full text search capabilities to your wiki.
-
-### Commit mails
-
-ikiwiki can be configured to send you commit mails with diffs of changes
-to selected pages.
+ikiwiki can use the xapian search engine to add powerful
+full text [[plugins/search]] capabilities to your wiki.
### [[w3mmode]]