TWiki^TM - Enterprise Wiki & Collaboration Platform

What is TWiki?

Welcome to TWiki, a flexible, powerful, and easy to use enterprise wiki, enterprise collaboration platform and knowledge management system. It is a Structured Wiki, typically used to run a project development space, a document management system, a knowledge base, or any other groupware tool, on an intranet or on the internet. Web content can be created collaboratively by using just a browser. Users without programming skills can create web applications. Developers can extend the functionality of TWiki with Plugins.       Tell a Friend

We have almost 200 employees. said Arthur Clemens, wiki champion at Lost Boys, when interviewed by Hill & Knowlton for their masterclass New media and internal communication in Amsterdam. We all get them to use TWiki daily because of one killer application: the telephone quick search. People that use it come across our second killer application on the homepage: the internal weblog. They see new postings and new reactions. Anyone can start a new post or add comments. This functions as a gentle introduction to wiki-ness: to add and to change contents. Read the success story of Lost Boys.

We use TWiki internally to manage documentation and project planning for our products. said Eric Baldeschwieler, Director of Software Development of Yahoo! Our development team includes hundreds of people in various locations all over the world, so web collaboration is VERY important to us. TWiki has changed the way we run meetings, plan releases, document our product and generally communicate with each other. We're great fans of your work!

Looking for the best wiki?
The TWiki community is inviting Socialtext customers as well as JotSpot customers to upgrade to TWiki.
Compare TWiki, Confluence and Socialtext, and see TWiki details on the WikiMatrix web site.

What does it look like?

TWiki looks and feels like a normal Intranet or Internet web site. However it also has a Edit link at the bottom of every topic (web page), everybody can change a topic or add content by just using a browser.

TWiki is hosted and developed here at the TWiki.org web site. You can surf and add/change content to get an idea of how TWiki works. Start surfing at the WebHome topic, or learn about the platform in the Welcome Guest.

Who is using TWiki?

TWiki is installed on many web sites, mainly behind corporate firewalls. Many major companies use TWiki because it is very user friendly compared to some well established commercial groupware systems like Lotus Notes. Read some TWikiSuccessStories to get an idea of how companies such as Motorola (story) or SAP (story) use the TWiki platform.

Read also the testimonials to see what other people say about the platform. TWikiInstallations has a small list of TWiki installations and clones. (Note: In case you installed TWiki on your server, please add it to the TWikiInstallation directory.)

How is TWiki being deployed?

A wiki is a Web 2.0 platform to create, share and remix content. TWiki as a structured wiki goes a step further; it enables users to automate their workflow by creating custom tailored wiki applications.

Companies are deploying TWiki in different ways, and TWiki is quite flexible to adapt to different needs. Here is a non- comprehensive list of how TWiki is being used:

• To replace a static intranet. Content is maintained by the employees, thus eliminating the "one webmaster syndrome" of outdated and insufficient intranet content.
• As a knowledge base and FAQ system. The TWikiSuccessStoryOfTakeFive tells you more about that.
• To design and document software projects.
• To track issues (i.e. bugs) and features. TWiki itself is managed this way; more on that in the Codev web.
• As a document management tool.
• To collaborate on common goals, such as the Javapedia online encyclopedia for Java developers on java.net, or the Biowiki for computational biology projects of UC Berkeley.
• As a software archive, i.e. the TWiki Plugins archive.
• As a company internal message board, i.e. for job listings.

What are the Main Features of TWiki?

TWiki is a mature, full featured web based collaboration system:

• Any web browser: Edit existing pages or create new pages by using any web browser. There is no need for ftp or http put to upload pages.
• Edit link: To edit a page, simply click on the Edit link at the bottom of every page.
• Auto links: Web pages are linked automatically. You do not need to learn HTML commands to link pages.
• Text formatting: Simple, powerful and easy to learn text formatting rules. Basically you write text like you would write an e-mail.
• Webs: Pages are grouped into TWiki webs (or collections). This allows you to set up separate collaboration groups.
• Search: Full text search with/without regular expressions. See a sample search result.
• E-mail notification: Get automatically notified when something has changed in a TWiki web. Subscribe in WebNotify.
• Structured content: Use TWiki Forms to classify and categorize unstructured web pages and to create simple workflow systems.
• File attachments: Upload and download any file as an attachment to a page by using your browser. This is similar to file attachments in an e-mail, but it happens on web pages.
• Revision control: All changes to pages and attachments are tracked. Retrieve previous page revisions and differences thereof. Find out who changed what and when.
• Access control: Define groups and impose fine grained read and write access restrictions based on groups and users.
• Variables: Use variables to dynamically compose your pages. This allows you for example to dynamically build a table of contents: include other pages; or show a search result embedded in a page.
• TWiki Plugins: Enhance the TWiki functionality with server side Plugin modules. Developers can create Perl Plugins using the TWiki Plugin API. Some example Plugins:
  • ActionTrackerPlugin: Keep track of action items in meeting minutes and notify assignees by e-mail.
  • CalendarPlugin: Show a monthly calendar with highlighted events.
  • ChartPlugin: Create charts to visualize TWiki tables.
  • DatabasePlugin: Get access to data in a database.
  • HeadlinesPlugin: Build news portals that show headline news based on RSS news feeds from news sites.
  • TWikiDrawPlugin: Use the TWikiDraw Java Applet to create editable drawings embedded in topics.
  • SlideShowPlugin: Turn TWiki pages into web-based presentations.
  • SpreadSheetPlugin: Add spreadsheet formulae like $SUM($ABOVE()) to TWiki tables.
  • XpTrackerPlugin: Track Extreme Programming (XP) projects.
  • more...
• Application Wiki: Contributors use the TWiki platform to create web applications. The TWiki Variables, Plugins and sample applications offer a rich environment where domain-specific applications can be built efficiently by contributors with moderate skill sets. Developers can create new Plugins to enhance the functionality of TWiki even further. Some example applications:
  • Call Center Status Board: Simple status board where time and person can be picked from a list.
  • Change Request: Generic change request application.
  • Meeting Minutes: Keep track of meeting minutes with action items.
  • Search Book Titles: Simple application to search a library of books.
  • Simple FAQ: FAQ with all questions on one page and an automatic TOC.
• Templates and skins: A flexible templating system separates program logic and presentation. Skins overwrite template headers and footers; page content is unaffected.
• Managing pages: Individual pages can be renamed, moved and deleted through the browser.
• Managing users: Web based user registration and change of password.
• What's new: See recent changes of TWiki webs. The change log can also be exported in XML RSS format for news syndication.
• Statistics: Create Statistics of TWiki webs. Find out most popular pages and top contributors.
• Preferences: Four levels of preferences: TWikiPreferences for site-level; WebPreferences for each web; user level preferences; and page level preferences.
• Conflict resolution: Content is merged automatically if more than one user is edit a page at the same time. In rare cases where a conflict cannot be resolved automatically, users are warned and guided to resolve the conflict manually.
• Referred-By: Find out back-links to a page.
• ... plus many more features not listed here.

How does it work?

TWiki is a cgi-bin script written in Perl. It reads a text file, hyperlinks it and converts it to HTML on the fly.

Can I get the source code of TWiki for my own web site?

TWiki is GPLed software. The Perl CGI source code, templates and documentation is available for free.

• Download the source code.
• Tell a friend or hire a consultant in case you need assistance in installing TWiki (web server administration skills are assumed).
• Learn about the platform in the TWikiTutorial.
• Read the documentation of TWiki (all you need to know to install TWiki).
• See the implementation history (change log of TWiki).
• List topics that recently changed in the TWiki web.
• Search the TWiki web.
• Get notified by email when topics change in the TWiki web.
• Report a bug.

What about Tech Support?

TWiki is free software and does not include support, so please do not contact the developers directly if you have installation questions.

• TWikiDocumentation is all about installing and configuring TWiki.
• TWikiFAQ has frequently asked questions around the TWiki platform.
• TextFormattingRules and TextFormattingFAQ shows how to edit text.
• In case you can't find an answer you can ask a question in the Support web. This is a forum by TWiki users for TWiki users.
• Support the TWiki community by answering questions. You can subscribe to be notified of changes in the Support web.
• You can also visit the #twiki IRC channel to ask questions.
• If inclined, hire a consultant to get you up to speed, or a programmer to customize your TWiki installation.

Can I contribute as a developer?

TWiki is open source collaboration software, contributions are very much appreciated. TWiki is further developed here at TWiki.org, and guess what, the Codev web serves as the platform for collaborating on that.

• Join the team of TWiki developers.
• Go to the Codev web, the home of TWiki developers.
• List topics that recently changed in the Codev web.
• Search the Codev web.
• Suggest an enhancement.
• Get notified by email when topics change in the Codev web.
• Fix a bug that has been reported.
• Peek at the planned features.

Acknowledgments

In addition to the contributors listed on the TWikiHistory page, the following parties are to be acknowledged for their contributions.

• TWiki is a Wiki system and has its root in JosWiki that was in use at the JOS (Free Java OS) web site.
• TWiki is inspired by the brilliant idea of the original Wiki Wiki Web by Ward Cunningham.
• Sun Microsystems for use of a V240 server for TWiki.org.
• Fastmetrics, a managed IT services company, for hosting TWiki.org free of charge.
• FastServers.net, an ISP offering managed dedicated servers, for hosting develop.twiki.org free of charge.