Latest News

Release Announcement Mailing List

Posted by Ryan on 17-January-2010

A new jamwiki-announce mailing list has been created to provide notice of new and upcoming JAMWiki releases. To subscribe to this list visit https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/jamwiki-announce. This mailing list is expected to be low-traffic and will be used only to send out notices of new or upcoming releases (note: this may include beta releases).

Status Update

Posted by Ryan on 22-December-2009

JAMWiki 0.8.0 has had surprisingly few bugs reported against it, but the handful of reports that have trickled in will be resolved with the release of JAMWiki 0.8.1 in the coming days/weeks. At present there is one known issue that is holding up release, but once that is resolved the first bug release of the 0.8.x series should follow.

Development on JAMWiki 0.9.0 is well underway, with the trunk branch already having been updated to the latest snapshots of Spring Framework 3.0 and Spring Security 3.0. Significant work has also gone into improving JAMWiki performance, and JAMWiki 0.9.0 will definitely be the fastest and most scalable version of JAMWiki ever released. In benchmarks topic updates are as much as ten times faster, and work is going into improving parse times and database accesses as well.

Other features are currently on the Roadmap for 0.9.0, and anyone interested in helping out is welcome to get involved - developers, testers, translators and those willing to provide Feedback are all very appreciated. In addition, for those who want to help spread the word about JAMWiki, blog posts, reviews, and other promotion will go a long way towards increasing adoption and generating a larger JAMWiki community.

JAMWiki 0.8.0 Beta 3

Posted by Ryan on 27-October-2009

The third beta for JAMWiki 0.8.0 is now available for testing:

There have been a few minor changes since beta2, so this third (and hopefully final) beta release is being made available to gather final comments from testers. Changes since the last beta:

  • The characters_changed column will not be populated for HSQL during upgrades from versions earlier than 0.7.0 due to reports of HSQL hanging on this step.
  • The CSS for list displays has been updated to use an image, as Mediawiki does.
  • Sybase and MS SQL are now marked as "experimental" since there has been no testing feedback for those databases during this release cycle.
  • A bug with non-ASCII characters has been fixed. When deleting, undeleting, or moving a page, if the "delete associated comments page" box was checked a NullPointerException would be generated for topics with non-ASCII topic names.

Feedback is very much appreciated, and of particular value would be any testing from those who can install and upgrade with MS SQL, DB2, or Sybase databases. Barring further issues the final release will probably be made in the next 1-2 weeeks.

JAMWiki 0.8.0 Beta 2

Posted by Ryan on 17-October-2009

The second beta for JAMWiki 0.8.0 is now available for testing:

Changes since 0.8.0-beta1 include:

  • Fix queries that caused failure when reloading recent changes on Oracle and HSQL.
  • Create a new topic version type for uploads to prevent reloading recent changes from creating two entries for file uploads.
  • Fix StringIndexOutOfBoundsException when accessing root URL that does not end with a "/" such as http://example.com/wiki.
  • Fix an issue that caused Resin application server to generate an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException when displaying log messages.
  • Fix typo that caused XML imports to improperly convert "Image:" namespaces to "Image comments:" namespaces.
  • Performance improvement for XML importing.
  • Move the XML migration code from the "jamwiki-web" project to the "jamwiki-core" project to make it possible to create standalone migration tools.
  • Convert JAMWiki namespaces to Mediawiki namespaces in XML exports.

The draft release notes for this release can be found at JAMWiki 0.8.0 and include a list of features, bug fixes, and installation instructions. Feedback is appreciated - I'm going to make this beta release a bit more visible than the first beta in the hope of getting wider testing. I'm not currently aware of any outstanding issues, so the final release will happen very soon unless issues are discovered.

JAMWiki 0.8.0 Beta 1

Posted by Ryan on 04-October-2009

Proving yet again that I should never predict release dates, the first beta release for JAMWiki 0.8.0 is finally available for download:

IMPORTANT: This release requires Java 5 or later and JDBC 3.0 or later. JDK 1.4 is no longer supported, and users may need to update their database drivers to a version that supports JDBC 3.0.

Draft release notes for this release can be found at JAMWiki 0.8.0 and include a list of features, bug fixes, and installation instructions. Feedback (including "works for me") is extremely valuable and can be left on the Feedback page or the Bug Reports page (if a problem is encountered). While the code has been running on jamwiki.org for many months and has been tested with Postgres, HSQL and MySQL all of the normal caveats apply, be sure to back up your database and existing installation prior to installing!!!

JAMWiki 0.8.0 Update

Posted by Ryan on 03-August-2009

Development of JAMWiki 0.8.0 has been fast and furious over the last several months, and the final feature set for this release is mostly set. Unfortunately it looks like integration with the FCKEditor GUI editor will not make this release, but features that will be in this release include:

  • Enhanced XML import / export. Earlier versions of JAMWiki offered basic import functionality for Mediawiki XML files, but JAMWiki 0.8.0 will offer support for importing Mediawiki XML exports with topic history, edit date, and author. Additionally, support for exporting topics to a Mediawiki-compatible XML format is now available.
  • Transition to Java 5. JAMWiki 0.8.0 will require Java 5 or later. Support for JDK 1.4 has been dropped as that version of Java has reached its end-of-life and Java 5 offers some compelling benefits.
  • Special:Logs. Support for Mediawiki-style logs including user creation logs, move logs, import logs, etc.
  • Performance improvements. Daniel Fisla has been doing investigation of JAMWiki performance with millions of records and has suggested some improvements.
  • Usability enhancements. Improvements include an enhanced diff that shows details of what portion of a line changed, a new "Show Changes" button during editing, linkable topic sections in edit summaries, and the ability to specify an alternate filename when uploading images via Special:Upload.
  • Additional Localization. Special:Specialpages and the upgrade process are now fully localized.
  • More. An array of translation updates, bug fixes, minor enhancements, and cleanups. See the CHANGELOG for the most up-to-date list of changes that have been implemented.

Due to an upcoming vacation in September the final release of JAMWiki 0.8.0 probably won't happen before October, but a beta release will be made available as soon as all database schema changes for this release are complete. Individuals interested in contributing, testing or getting involved in other ways are encouraged to contribute - see the How to Help page for details.

New jamwiki.org Server

Posted by Ryan on 16-June-2009

One of the disks on the jamwiki.org server died, and since the server was several years old I figured that was a good enough excuse to upgrade. jamwiki.org is now running on a lovely new machine that should be significantly faster than the old box. I think I've got everything configured properly, but should anyone notice any problems feedback is much appreciated. Also, for what it's worth I got bit by the Debian image library bug again, and can confirm that the same fix that was used for i386 also works for amd64.

JAMWiki 0.7.2 Beta 1

Posted by Ryan on 10-May-2009

JAMWiki 0.7.2 is nearly ready for release, but before that happens I'd like to get some additional testing so here's the first (and hopefully only) beta:

This is a bugfix-only. Fixes include:

  • Fix missing edit toolbar during preview. Reported by hanspeterklapf.
  • Fix MS SQL error when searching for user contributions (hanspeterklapf).
  • Fix "array index '1' is invalid" error during setup with Resin 3.2.1. Reported by James.
  • Fix TOC rendering issue when depth exceeds the configured max depth.
  • Fix double-escaping of non-existent topic names when using URLs such as http://jamwiki.org/wiki/en/TestÜmlaut. Reported by hanspeterklapf.
  • Fix breakage when moving topics containing special characters such as "TestÜmlaut". Reported by hanspeterklapf.
  • Display any editable category topic text above the list of category items. Reported by axcelclk.
  • Fix failures when upgrading from versions earlier than 0.6.0. Reported by Eric.
  • Groups were not being displayed on the Special:Roles page when no roles were assigned to the group. Reported by hanspeterklapf.

Testing and feedback is much appreciated, and with any luck the final release will be ready in the next week or two.

Yet Another Status Update

Posted by Ryan on 12-April-2009

The first bugfix release of the 0.7.x release series, JAMWiki 0.7.1 came out last weekend, and several more fixes are queued for JAMWiki 0.7.2. Meanwhile development on JAMWiki 0.8.0 is proceeding with several nice enhancement already committed and running on jamwiki.org, including:

  • JAMWiki will require Java 5 or later starting with the 0.8.0 release. Java 1.4 has reached its end-of-life, and there are compelling advantages for moving to Java 5.
  • Enhanced diff, so that the portion of a line that changed is now highlighted.
  • New "Show Changes" button during editing to match Mediawiki and provide a diff of the current edit.
  • An alternate filename can now be specified when uploading images via Special:Upload.
  • Edit summaries will now automatically include the name of the topic section being updated, and Special:RecentChanges and topic histories will include links directly to the section, just as Mediawiki does.
  • Numerous cleanups and enhancements.

Work is continuing, and other changes are in various states of readiness, including integration with the FCKEditor GUI editor (contributed by ronin), better integration with the Bliki parser (contributed by Axel) and a host of other changes. Individuals interested in contributing, testing or getting involved in other ways are encouraged to contribute - see the How to Help page for details.

Project Status

Posted by Ryan on 05-March-2009

A week after the release of JAMWiki 0.7.0 things have been relatively quiet, with only one new bug report (a problem while searching for users on the Special:Roles page). I expect that there will probably be a few bugfix releases for the 0.7.x branch, but in the mean time I've started development for JAMWiki 0.8.x on the trunk branch with the hope of completing that release much sooner than the time it took to prepare 0.7.x. Based on the Roadmap the first major task will be upgrading to Java 5, something that is well underway in recent commits. Anyone interested in helping out with the next release is encouraged to get involved. Suggestions for new features can be made on the Feature Requests page, although please be patient as there is much to be done in a limited amount of time.

I'll be leaving for two weeks of vacation starting tomorrow and will have limited internet access, so reponses to questions and bug reports might be a bit delayed. I'll be restricting edits on jamwiki.org to logged-in users only to prevent spam and other issues, but any help in cleaning up questionable edits would be much appreciated. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed code, translations, feedback, bug reports, and everything else to the project over the past months and years - it's gratifying to see this project gaining users and getting used in various corners of the internet.

JAMWiki 0.7.0 Beta 3

Posted by Ryan on 23-February-2009

What will hopefully be the final beta before the final release of JAMWiki 0.7.0 is now available for testing:

Unless any further major bugs are discovered the final version of JAMWiki 0.7.0 will be released by the end of this week, so PLEASE help out by testing this release and updating translations. The latest code is running on jamwiki.org, I've tested on multiple platforms and with several databases, and will be continuing to test through the week, but Feedback about whether this new code works or does not work would be very much appreciated.

The only changes since beta 2 have been bug fixes, most notably some updates to the Spring Security default configuration and some changes to JSTL configuration to fix problems on the Resin application server. The current CHANGELOG has additional details about recent changes. For information about upgrading using this new code see the UPGRADE.txt file that is in the root of the WAR file.

I'll be updating documentation, testing, and otherwise preparing for a final release throughout the rest of this week. Once the actual release goes live I'll be available until March 7, after which I'll be offline for two weeks enjoying my lone vacation of 2009. Those who test will most definitely be sent some positive energy from a Caribbean beach during my time away, so please install this new release and flog it mercilessly in the hope of having a smooth 0.7.0 release.

Server Upgrade

Posted by Ryan on 21-February-2009

In a fit of madness I decided to upgrade the jamwiki.org server to the latest Debian release, and four hours later I think I've got jamwiki.org back online. Image processing is broken at the moment but I'll look at that issue tomorrow - I'm deeply suspicious of SELinux, which is a dastardly and evil piece of software that I suspect is swallowing images whole before they can be resized and presented for display by the JVM.

If anyone notices any other issues please leave a note on the Feedback page.

UPDATE: The image issue is now fixed - the details of the issue are available for the morbidly curious. After many hours of investigation SELinux proved innocent (but it's still evil) and the problem turned out to be beyond my comprehension but solvable with a symlink.

JAMWiki 0.7.0 Beta 2

Posted by Ryan on 01-February-2009

With the final release of JAMWiki 0.7.0 getting closer, the second beta of this cycle is now available for download:

This is a BETA release, and while the code has been running successfully on jamwiki.org for some time please remember that the code might eat your children, steal your car, and set fire to your pets, so backups are highly recommended. See the notes for JAMWiki 0.7.0 Beta 1 for additional useful information.

For those who love magic words and parser functions then this release is for you. Other stupendous changes can be found in the CHANGELOG and include:

  • Initial implementation of Mediawiki parser functions including anchorencode, filepath, fullurl, localurl, lc, lcfirst, uc, ucfirst and urlencode.
  • Add support for the {{SITENAME}} and {{SERVER}} magic words.
  • Allow nesting of templates ("{{template1|content={{template2}}}}").
  • Update CSS / HTML to use semantic code when possible - no visible changes.
  • Support categories on #REDIRECT pages to match Mediawiki.
  • Add "H2" as a database configuration option.
  • Fix incorrect paragraph parsing when there is a blank line containing one or more whitespace characters between the paragraphs. Reported by James Teer.
  • Fix parsing of multiple newlines to match Mediawiki.
  • Fix parsing of links containing parantheses such as http://example.com/page_(page). Reported by Michael Habbert.
  • Fix parsing of nested tags of the form <tt><tt>test</tt></tt> which were producing an extra closing tag.

At this point I'm planning to move focus away from development and towards testing and documentation in order to (hopefully) get a final release out before the end of February. Given my stellar history of predicting release dates I'd highly recommend against planning your IT department's infrastructure plans around that schedule, but it's a goal to shoot for. Testing, translation updates, and any Feedback would be HUGELY appreciated at this point and will earn you both goodwill and karma in this life and the next.

JAMWiki 0.7.0 Beta 1

Posted by Ryan on 13-January-2009

After many great changes, some OK changes, and a few changes that might go unnoticed by all, the first beta release of JAMWiki 0.7.0 is ready for testing. WAR file and source downloads are available below:

This is a major release and the CHANGELOG thus far for 0.7.0 contains an overview of new features and bug fixes. The most significant change in this release is the conversion to Spring Security 2.0, although this release also contains new pages, UI changes, code cleanups, and many bug fixes. Some issues to be aware of when using this beta release include:

  • This code is BETA. Backup your existing installation and database before installing.
  • Existing JAMWiki installations that use LDAP or CAS configuration will need to be reconfigured. Documentation for configuring the /WEB-INF/applicationContext-security.xml file for JAMWiki is not yet available, but the Spring Security web site contains relevant information.
  • The database schema has undergone significant changes. These changes have been tested on Postgres and with the HSQL database, but feedback from users of other databases would be greatly appreciated.
  • The default StyleSheet for this release has changed slightly and will overwrite any custom changes. The old version can be restored by viewing the topic history.

While a final release of JAMWiki 0.7.0 is probably still at least a month away it would be tremendously helpful to hear both success and failure stories from testers, so please take this beta for a spin and provide your Feedback and Bug Reports. In particular, testing across a variety of databases is needed, and testing of the setup and upgrade code would be extremely helpful.

JAMWiki 0.7.0 Status Update

Posted by Ryan on 02-January-2009

After more than six months, development of JAMWiki 0.7.0 is hopefully beginning its final stages. The primary goal of the 0.7.x series is to fully integrate Spring Security 2.0, thus making it easier to use LDAP, OpenID, CAS, and other security frameworks with JAMWiki. Progress towards this goal can be tracked at Tech:Acegi Upgrade. After getting a holiday break from my day job I've finally regained a bit of motivation to sit in front of the computer and write JAMWiki code, so with luck the last major bits of the security upgrade should be completed this weekend or in the coming week, hopefully leading to the release of the first 0.7.0 beta release shortly thereafter.

Prior to the final 0.7.0 release I suspect there will probably be a relatively lengthy beta period to flush out bugs, and while I'm notoriously bad at predicting release schedules I'd suspect that a March release is most likely. Anyone wanting to help speed up that process can get involved by testing the latest code and reporting bugs, particularly with setup, upgrade, and LDAP integration. Instructions on working with the latest code can be found at Building from Source.

In addition to the Spring Security updates, there are a few other major features to expect in the 0.7.0 release:

For a full list of changes see the latest CHANGELOG. Other changes that may be developed for 0.7.0 include:

  • Integration of the FCKeditor tool.
  • Email support.

Following the release of JAMWiki 0.7.0 I'd like to modify the development process slightly so that bugfix releases can be made more frequently. Additionally, I'd like to make efforts to begin growing the JAMWiki community this year, so to help that effort I'll try to post more frequent JAMWiki news and updates, and would encourage those interested in the project to get involved. The How to Help page contains suggestions for getting involved, and the Feedback page is a great place to add comments and suggestions.