Presentation held at Softshake 2017. When developing a web application, the traditional way is to develop the application from scratch using a general purpose language such as PHP, Grails, Play, Java/JSP, etc. This presentation shows that a next generation wiki (examples based on XWiki: http://xwiki.org) can be used as a web development platform to develop applications on top of it, providing a strong infrastructure scaffolding to building web applications. The advantages are similar to those of using an application sever. However whereas an application server offers technical services only, a wiki platform offers higher level services such as content management, rendering, storage, WYSIWYGeditor, user management, and a lot more. Not only are these services offered, you can develop using them in your traditional IDE or in the runtime, directly in wiki pages. This allows developing web applications extremely quickly, collaboratively and with a fast turnaround time, which is perfect for adhoc web application development.

1. XWiki
The web’s Swiss Army Knife
Vincent Massol, October 2017

2. Agenda
•Why XWiki?
•Developing on XWiki
•A runtime development platform
•Usages
•QA

3. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Why XWiki?
• Traditional: wiki concepts applied to
content
• XWiki: wiki concepts applied also
to application development
• Wiki concepts
• Edit, Save,View results
• Versioning and ability to rollback
• Work together easily on a topic
• In wiki pages

4. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Developing on XWiki

5. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Metadata!
• Ability to associate arbitrary
data to any wiki page
• 1: Create metadata definition in a wiki page
(a.k.a xclass)
• 2: Use it in wiki pages (a.k.a xobjects)
• 3: Use scripting in wiki pages to access it
• Allows application development
• Application Within Minutes app to help out
Demo

6. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Skinning & Theming

7. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Skin Extensions
CSS JS
== Grease Monkey

8. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
UI Extensions
{{velocity}}
...
#foreach($uix in $services.uix.getExtensions(
'org.xwiki.platform.panels.Applications'))
#set($params = $uix.getParameters())
* [[image:$params.icon $params.label>>$params.target]]
#end
...
{{/velocity}}
Extension Point
Extension
Result

9. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Scripting in Pages
{{groovy}}
import groovy.json.*
def url = "https://api.github.com/users/xwiki/repos".toURL().text
def root = new JsonSlurper().parseText(url)
println "|=Project|=Description|=Use Wiki?|=Use Issues?"
root.each() { repo ->
println "|[[${repo.name}>>http://github.com/xwiki/$
{repo.name}]]|${repo.description}|${repo.has_wiki}|$
{repo.has_issues}"
}
{{/groovy}}

10. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Scripting in Pages
{{velocity}}
#set ($xwql = "where doc.content like '%welcome%'")
#foreach ($item in $services.query.xwql($xwql).execute())
#if ($request.confirm == "1")
#set ($itemDoc = $xwiki.getDocument($item))
$itemDoc.setContent($itemDoc.getContent().replaceAll(
"welcome", "bienvenue"))
$itemDoc.save("Replaced bienvenue")
* [[$item>>$item]] replaced!
#else
* [[$item>>$item]]
#end
#end
[[Replace "welcome" by "bienvenue">>?confirm=1]]
{{/velocity}}

11. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Components in Java
@Role
public interface Macro
{
List<Block> execute();
}
@Component
@Named("message")
@Singleton
public class MessageMacro implements Macro
{
@Inject
private Execution execution;
@Inject
@Named("box")
private Macro boxMacro;
public List<Block> execute()
{
...
}
}
org.xwiki.rendering.internal.macro.message.MessageMacro
META-INF/components.txt
+ Wiki Components!

12. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Extensions

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A runtime platform

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Building an Application
Traditional way
Runtime

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Building an Application
XWiki way - Morphing!
RuntimeRuntime

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XWiki Platform
... for developing (collaborative) web applications

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Usages

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Multiple Usages

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http://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/Screenshots

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Long tail of Apps
Excel of the
Web
Web’s Swiss
Army Knife

21. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Pros
• Iterative, Need-based development
• Continuous Delivery
• Work collaboratively on creating applications
• Designers can style while devs create logic
• Works from day one, immediate feedbacks
• Open source and community-based

22. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Q&A
Me

23. Copyright (c)Vincent Massol - 2017
Vincent Massol
vincent@xwiki.com
skype: vmassol
http://about.me/vmassol
http://xwiki.org
http://xwiki.com