Support/BenefitsOfUpgradingToTiki4
Started : 2009-08-30
This page is to list examples about David's question: "How much better things will be once we’re there?"
PDO
Now default in 4.0
Database Upgrade revamped
Now easy to manage local database configuration patches http://dev.tikiwiki.org/Database+Schema+Upgrade
Profiles
Profiles permit to store and share different configurations, feature sets, permissions schemes and pre-made examples of some of the more complicated features. Profiles was released in Tiki3.
Similar to database patches above, they could be used for SUMO to make sure a configuration change on Staging is not forgotten on production.
We can make a SUMO profile which is an adaption of the Software Project profile.
Plugin Alias
http://doc.tikiwiki.org/Plugin+Alias
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Style+Guide
So : {TAG(tag=kbd)}text{TAG} becomes {KBD()}text{KBD} {DIV(class=button,type=>span)}text{DIV} becomes {BUTTON()}text{BUTTON}
i18n
Massive improvements, over this period. Here are some that come to mind.
- Changing the language of a page is still possible, but somewhat hidden because it was causing User issues (users accidentally changing the language of the page, when trying to translate)
- Users can set all (1 to n) the languages they understand in their user preferences.
- Architecture document (pdf)
- Cross Lingual Wiki Engine Paper (pdf)
- http://doc.tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=TikiWiki+4.0#Machine_Translation
Plugin UI
There is a pop-up helper, started in Tiki3, better in Tiki4
Theme system totally revamped
In version 3, whole theme organization was revamped. (Tableless, etc). The good news is that new themes are easier to make, more accessible, etc.
Site identity has also progressed (Site title, subtitle, footer, etc.) that make it easy to put things as part of site preferences.
The only negative point is that the old themes do not survive the upgrade http://themes.tikiwiki.org/Theme+Issues+when+Updating+to+Tiki3.0
For SUMO, luci & Gary have volunteered to port the theme. You can see their progress here: http://sumo.ourwiki.net
Theme options
Useful to have small adaptations to a theme without duplicating the whole css.
jQuery
jQuery has been added as optional javascript framework, which allows many nice effects on several parts of Tiki. It is an experimental, optional feature of Tiki 3.0, and in 4.0 it will be the default, always on Javascript framework.
http://doc.tikiwiki.org/jQuery
Workspaces
Ease of making sub-sections within a single instance of Tiki and make it easier to share information. If Fennec and Firefox have a lot of documentation in common, it would be easier to share. So perhaps Fennec support site could be a workspace within SUMO. Fennec may or may not be the appropriate use of Workspaces, but it will be useful for sure. Ex.: a workspace for documentor, a workspace for localizers. And each wiki page can be shared amongst many workspaces.
Please see http://dev.tikiwiki.org/Workspace+Roadmap
Text Area editor improvements
Collaboration on initiatives such as: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Support/Editor:PRD http://ui.tikiwiki.org/Text+area+editing+helper
More stability
1.10 was never released. It was renamed 2.0 and then released. Before each release, there are hundreds of bug fixes and minor tweaks.
SUMO should rather stay in stable zone. For example, start using 4.1 and upgrading to 5.1
Once a release goes .0, all future commits are reviewed by our http://dev.tikiwiki.org/Quality+Team, with 3 of our most experienced developers. We would like to invite a SUMO developer to the quality team and this insure that there will be no regressions for SUMO (and thus making keeping in sync easier).
Tons of new features
Surely there are many things that SUMO could use :-)
- http://doc.tikiwiki.org/Tiki2
- http://doc.tikiwiki.org/Tiki3
- http://doc.tikiwiki.org/Tiki4
- http://dev.tikiwiki.org/Roadmap
Zend Framework
Starting in 3.0, Tiki bundles Zend Framework and uses some of it.
http://dev.tikiwiki.org/Zend+Framework
Other changes
Perhaps use inclusion of wiki pages, instead of dynamic content (need to make sure they are excluded from search results)