Hello <<First Name>>,
welcome to the DokuWiki Newsletter. In this issue we present:
Enjoy your reading,
DokuWiki Newsletter team
Recent Development Activity
It's feature FREEEEZE! The last bugs are on the list and release candidates for next DokuWiki version are coming soon. Lately we have added support for placeholders in the search intro message that will be replaced with the search term so you can direct your users to Internet wide search queries. Recent commits also added some new interwiki links (skype, callto) and a page version difference viewer selectable between original table style and a new inline mode.
To help plugin and template authors maintain compatibility the official release notes has been supplemented with a devel:changes page containing more details. Some of the things that will change in next release are CSS file names and the COMMON_PAGE_FROMTEMPLATE event.
And while waiting for next generation plugin manager, a little trouble helper has been introduced. If a newly installed plugin shows up in the plugin list but doesn't work, press the INFO button and DokuWiki will check if the directory matches the plugin class name. This one common mistake when doing manual installations.
DokuWiki & Google Summer of Code
DokuWiki has successfully applied as mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code. The Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program by Google to support Open Source projects by paying students for working 12 weeks in the summer. Google wants to support the creation of more Open Source code but also the participation of more people in Open Source development, students that participate in the program are expected to contribute to the project after their participation in the program, too. This year, Google has accepted 175 Open Source projects that have applied during the last weeks and that will again choose over 1000 students in total that will receive 5000 $ each during the whole program. Students should now discuss their ideas that can be based upon a list of ideas each organization has published. From March 28 to April 8 students can then apply by submitting their application at the GSoC site.
 If you are student at an accredited educational institutions (basically all that are allowed to grant university degrees, but have a look at the official FAQ) and want to work for DokuWiki during GSoC you should now have a look at our GSoC page and discuss your ideas that can be based upon the ideas presented there (but that could also be ideas for a nice plugin or something completely different we haven't thought of) with us on our mailing list or in our IRC channel so we can give you some feedback or additional ideas. Then you need to officially apply at the GSoC site, be reachable for further questions and hope you'll be part of the lucky students that are on the list of accepted proposals that will be published on April 25. Good luck with your application!
If you want to spread the word and motivate students to participate at GSoC there is promotional material for GSoC available in the GSoC wiki, we have leaflets that present DokuWiki, too.
Documentation Licensing Change
After some discussions on the mailinglist and the recent hackfests, the DokuWiki core developers agreed to remove the non-commercial restriction used for the contents stored at www.dokuwiki.org. The reason for this change is that we think that the documentation should be free in the same sense as DokuWiki is free. Because the NC clause is not compatible with the Free Software Foundation's definition of Free, DokuWiki documentation currently can not be included in many Linux distributions (eg. Debian).
Previous wiki contributors (as identified by the changelogs) have been informed about the license change by email. We ask all previous contributors to agree, by logging in and signing the licensing change page. However we expect that not all previous contributors can be reached or will sign, but the more people sign, the better. The license will be changed to CC-BY-SA 3.0 starting April 15th 2011.
Note: this does not affect the license of the DokuWiki software, which stays GPL v2 as is.
Featured Plugin: Repository Plugin
Finally a new revamped version of the plugins repository and browser has been introduced. It contains a number of new features, both to users looking for the a suitable plugin as well as to help plugin authors improving the documentation. The repository plugin is written specially for dokuwiki.org, and if you are looking for similar functionality take a look at the more generic structured data plugin.
On the plugins page you will find a new search box conveniently restricted to the plugin namespace left to the standard tag cloud to speed up free text search. Moving over to the template repository you will notice that the same repository code is used for all templates, enabling same features like the search box and download buttons. The repository text is also translated when visiting for example the German plugin page, alas we doesn't have a French translation yet (submits are welcome).
Finally more information about each plugin, like tags and compatibility, is visible already in the repository table view together with a small download button if you are in a hurry. This is how it looks like
Plugin and template authors also have more ways to add information for example about security warnings like "Don't use this in a public wiki" and templates data entries now support "similar", "depends", "source" and other links. The compatibility could now be expressed in release date or name format or both. Take care to update with explicit compatibility information as this affect how users rate your plugin. You can also promote your other contributions on a plugin homepage by adding (see openlayersmap for a live example)
---- pluginnews ----
headline: Plugins by same author
style: sameauthor
----
All this and a little more is described in the repository manual.
Tips & Tricks: Breadcrumb Separator
Have you ever wanted to change the separator character for the breadcrumbs or character between the 'you are here' links? In next DokuWiki version the default breadcrumb separator is a bullet but it is easy to change. Locate your template's main.php file in ../lib/tpl/<current_template>/ and search for the calls to tpl_breadcrumbs() and tpl_youarehere().
To change separator just insert any string argument, for instance tpl_breadcrumbs(' ') will remove the char and tpl_breadcrumbs('♥') will display hearts for Valentine day. Same type of arguments can be used together with
the tpl_youarehere() function.
And while tuning your template don't forget that most templates also support switching between breadcrumbs and 'you are here' navigation with the youarehere/breadcrumbs config settings.
|
New Debian Package
Latest version of Debian operating system, codename “Squeeze” was released in the beginning of February. DokuWiki enthusiast Tanguy Ortolo has improved installation of DokuWiki with the Debian package manager, directly resulting in a working installation, web server installation and configuration included. He has also successfully solved a number of licensing problems ensuring that DokuWiki is now properly free. Thank you, Tanguy!
Zenlike Template
Infrastructure Team member Dennis Ploeger recently released Zenlike, a relaxing template based on CSS from nodethirtythree.com's design. It's a variable width template with serif font and configurable top menu bar for pages of your choice. Drop by Dennis' homepage to see a real world example.
OrphanMedia Plugin
If you like to take part in the early development of a new plugin for identifying orphan and missing media files, check out the orphanmedia plugin by Taggic. This wiki gardening tool has the basics in place but needs some real world users to flourish into the collection of must have plugins.
Template Tips
Vector template author Andreas Haerter recently blogged about how to create a maintainable DokuWiki template. The key idea is to build on DokuWiki's advanced CSS handling and using the style.ini file. It also introduces the new starter template that is a good starting point for new templates.
Social DokuWiki
Get more DokuWiki news by following us on your favorite social network:
 Facebook: 391 fans
 Twitter: 215 followers
 Identi.ca: 68 subscribers
 LinkedIn: 56 members
 Xing: 101 members
![]()  GitHub: 218 watchers
 Ohloh: 172 users
|
