Dakar Release (TWiki Release 4.0)

Dakar releases are now available from TWikiRelease04x00 Subscribe to the twiki-announce mailing list to be notified of updates and newer releases.

Introduction

The current production TWikiRelease following CairoRelease is code named Dakar and has been released in early 2006. The release after that will be the EdinburghRelease.

Lesser wanted features (i.e. feature requests where code changes are difficult and the requester has not contributed code) are less likely to be implemented in the near future. Moral: get someone to code your change and make it available in a way that is easily incorporated!

End-user information is being collected in DakarReleaseNotes; programming docs are in progress at DakarDesignPrinciples.

(Please add feedback at the end of the topic)

Major Enhancements and Release Notes

Major Enhancements:

1. Key features:
   • Localization framework
   • Localized to Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Portugese, Spanish
   • WYSIWYG editor (alpha release)
   • Enhanced security model, blocking remote command execution on the server
   • scripted builds of the release packages (TWiki and plugins) - see BuildingARelease
   • UnitTests and TestCases
2. Important new features:
   • mod_perl safe code for better performance
   • Much simpler install and configuration
   • Integrated session support
   • Change edit conflict handling from page locking to conflict detection and resolution
3. Useful new features:
   • Hierarchical sub-webs (label as beta?)
   • Registration with e-mail confirmation
   • Fine grained change notification on page level and parent/child relationship
   • REST interface for plugins.
   • Enhanced application support with:
     • Parameterized includes
     • Sectional includes
     • Direct save feature, which allows:
       • One-click template-based topic creation
       • Fill a twiki-form using an html form without editing the topic.
       • ... (more)?
     • (more)?

Note: Above list is work in progress. There are many more useful features in Dakar. Please help and add more or change the entries. This list will be used for the press release. It is better to compile a short Major Enhancements list for the press release from a long list.

Release Notes

See DakarReleaseNotes

Release Advocacy and Party

• TWikiAdvocacy04x00x00
• DakarReleaseParty

Dakar Release Schedule Meetings

LynnwoodBrown initiated release schedule meetings for Dakar in #twiki_dakar IRC channel.

Change Proposals for DakarRelease still being worked on

Search for topics that still need work:

Change Proposals for DakarRelease Awaiting Merge

Search for topics Proposed for DakarRelease that are waiting for merge to the MAIN branch:

Priority Proposal Summary Outstanding Issues # 100 StopSpaceTabMunging Resolve space-tab legacy issue   0 Total: 147 Proposals 31 Issues   BetterPasswordGeneration A 4-digit new automatically generated password is not strong enough   0   SortOutOopsTemplates Rationalise Oops templates   0   TWikiPreferencesNeedsGardening Remove unwanted settings from TWiki.TWikiPreferences   0   PatternSkinMissingVersionInfoForRawText PatternSkin view template is missing the REVARG param in topicaction   0   HowToMakeATWikiLogoutPage Ideas for a log out mechanism   0   ShowRevisionsAroundVersion Show a window of revisions either side of the one being displayed   0   DeprecateExpensiveHandlers Proposal for changes to the plugins handlers Feedback required from developers - both core and plugins 1   TestWebManagementInDakar Manageing webs documentation may be wrong   0   RenameWeb     0   SimplifyPasswordHandling Clean up password handling   0   SortNumerically Support numerical sorting of field data in search results   0   ItalicsWrong Adjacent underscores don't work   0   DiffsFunctionDoesNotAuthenticateProperly Diffs function did not authenticate properly when ALLOWWEBVIEW is set Incomplete implementation and DocsToDo 1   InvalidHtmlInTOC TOCs are rendered into invalid html   0   HideTWikiEditTextArea add div section of class="twikiEditTextarea"   0   RenamePatternSkinClasses     0   RestructuringWebLeftBarProposal Factor common web left bar stuff to a common topic   0   PluginApiForHandlingMetaData Export meta-data to plugins   0   UserListParserTooGreedy The code that reads TWikiUsers.txt is wrong   0   HiddenTopicSpecificSettings Allow hidden topic specific (and other) settings   0   MakeLinkChangesSilent Filter out renamed link changes from WebChanges   0   ImproveHeaderHandling change the way headers are exposed to plugins   0   BetterHandlingForLabelsInForms     0   MovePluginsIntoSVN Move TWikiStandardPackage plugins out of CVS and into subversion   0   SecurityPatchBreaksSpacesInFilenames spaces in topic names breaks with Florian's security patch.   0   TimeTravellingTopics ci gets save times confused when repRev is used   0   SomeBrowsersLoseInitialNewlineInTextArea Some browsers lose initial \n in textarea   0   TextAreaFieldInFormDoesNotFollowWidth Text area field in form does not follow width setting (CSS error - fix found!)   0   GetRevisionAtTime add a way to find out a rev at a date in the past   0   SearchShouldRespectAccessControlsOnWebs Search should only search webs that the user is allowed to VIEW   0   PersistantGlobalVariablesInPlugins Global variables values persist over SpeedyCGI runs   0   ErrorHandling Adopt Error.pm exception handling.   0   ExportNormalizeWebTopicName Publish normalizeWebTopicName via Func interface   0   TagParameterSpec Clean up attribute parser   0   ExportMoreRegexes Export more existing REs via Func   0   TocDoesNotHonourPermissions     0   RefactorTimeHandling Clean up time handling Should we use a proper time parser module? 1   WebFastIndex %SEARCH causes internal server error   0 001 WhereAreDocsMasters Need to know where the docs are supposed to go! Waiting for Main.PeterThoeny to agree how we are going to do this 1 001 TWikiCodebaseSecurityAudit TWiki codebase security audit   0 003 UpgradeTWiki Script that supports easy upgrades of TWiki data and site configurations Testing 1 003 UpgradeTWikiDoesNotCopyAllPubFiles Bug: UpgradeTWiki script only copies pub files from the default webs Waiting for Main.SvenDowideit 1 005 SearchEngineIndexOnlyPlainView Search Engines Should Index Only Plain View   0 005 TWikiNonRootInstaller TWikiNonRootInstaller Integration, Improvements 2 007 SingleEntryPointForSystemCalls Security: Single entry point for system calls Waiting for Main.RichardDonkin 1 008 RcsLiteDoesNotWorkCorrectly RcsLite does not work correctly Needs opinions from the community to decide what to do 1 010 TWikiTestInfrastructure Add a test infrastructure to TWiki Not enough testcases! Get generating! 1 020 SaveContentWithoutEditContinued Usage modes of save are not clear, or particularly usable   0 020 LogoCopyright Need to resolve the issues with logos   0 020 MultiLevelWikiWebs define and use webs inside webs (WebOne.Step1.Topic2....) Waiting for Main.PeterNixon 1 022 FormFieldsNamedSameAsParameters Form fields named the same as URL parameters cause mucho confusion   0 025 LocationLocationLocation Move methods into the right places within the core code, and adds documentation. Gives a small (5 AthensMarks) Performance boost.   0 025 EditLosesSkin Chosen skin parameter is lost through form changing cycle Waiting for Main.CrawfordCurrie 1 030 ReleaseLocksOnSave Get rid of the nasty lock timeouts, and handle releasing locks at save time.   0 037 PluginConfigFiles A standard config file per plugin need to implement better in Plugins.BuildContrib 1 040 EncodingOfFormValuesBroken Form values are incorrectly encoded   0 070 SupportFormsForSettingPreferences More userfriendly way of setting preferences   0 075 InconsistentHandlingOfPreferences Inconsistent Handling of Preferences   0 075 TopicAlwaysOverrideUserPref Topic preferences should always override user preferences   0 080 BacklinksSearchDoesNotWork Backlinks search fails for several reasons.   0 080 SidebarProblemWithBadDirectories Sidebar is constructed erroneously when non-web directories are present   0 090 IconSets Make file type icons skin dependent   0 095 UseCssInIndexHtml Use Css to make index.html more professional looking   0 095 AwfulWebHomes The default webhomes are awful need similiar updates to the _default web 1 099 ValidateTestenvAndUseCss Validate testenv against w3c and use css for style   0 100 SplitUpTWikiDotPm TWikiDotPm should has rarely-used stuff split out for faster compilation in the average case Needs someone to try it out and give feedback 1 100 TheRightWayToRedirect clean up url redirection calls   0 100 OutdatedFormFieldsNotRemoved Outdated form fields are not removed   0 100 SettingLocalLibPath Allow setting of lib path without having to change a distributed file   0 100 BacklinksTemplate Backlinks template   0 100 MakeRawTextBoxSameSizeAsEditBox The raw text box is tiny...   0 100 ImproveSandboxWebHome some small changes to make the sandbox front page easier to use   0 100 NOFOLLOWNotExpandedInTemplates The %NOFOLLOW% variable is not expanded in view templates   0 100 UploadFilterIncorrect Upload filter is wrong in TWiki.cfg.   0 100 KernelBuildScriptDev Kernel build script   0 100 RemoveNewTopicLinkStyleFromRenderDotPm Remove the link style of the "new topic" link from Render.pm   0 100 EndlessLoopIncludingPageInWebTopicList DOS vulnerability in WEBTOPICLIST Really need a testcase, in case this vulnerability is really something different to recursive includes (which are tested) 2 100 TWikiDotCfgNeedsGardening TWiki.cfg needs a tidy-up Should we move LocalLib.cfg and LocalSite.cfg to a "conf" directory? 1 100 PasswordsAreMangled Password is mangled after user registration (DEVELOP)   0 100 TocNotFoundNoError eliminate %TOC% "error" messages; return blank/empty TOC instead   0 100 ImproveChangeReporting Improve information quality in WebChanges and change notification   0 100 DifferencesBetweenRevisionsBroken Strange behaviour showing revs   0 100 HttpOneDotOneSupport Take more care over HTTP 1.0 compliance when compiling headers Could really do with a full audit of HTTP1.0 compliance. 1 100 RegistrationEntriesWronglyPlacedInTWikiUsers The user entry is added at the bottom, not in the user list   0 100 LockRemovalProblem $cmd var is overloaded in RcsWrap::_ci, leading to lock problems (fixed)   0 100 NTWikiTestCasesChangesBroken ntwiki changes breaks on TestCases web   0 100 PublishCodeUsingPdoc   install CPAN::Pdoc on ntwiki 1 100 InvalidActionInRegister The register script did not accept registrations created with the old form; it needed an action parameter. Now accepts old form too.   0 100 SkinSearchPath Support search paths for templates   0 100 OopsMoreDoesntRenderNullParameters Null parameters (param1=0) don't render correctly   0 100 MissingTWikiGuestLeftBarInTWikiRelease01Sep2004 Fix: Missing TWikiGuestLeftBar topic in TWiki Release 01-Sep-2004   0 100 TestenvRelockIgnoresPubTWiki     0 100 ManyPluginsDoNotLoad TablePlugin does not load   0 100 RenamingProblems     0 100 SummaryLinesOnTablesFromSearches Fully support summary lines on tables derived from searches   0 100 TestsDoNotCompile Tests don't compile   0 100 WriteLogHasIncorrectWebName Fix: Access log has incorrect Web name when Plugin calls TWiki::Func::saveTopicText()   0 100 FormValuesPassedInURLRequireText Cannot pass form values in URL to bin/edit without also passing text REQUIRE TESTCASE(S) 1 100 FormattedSearchSummaryWithExpandVar FormattedSearchSummaryWithExpandVar DocsToDo 1 100 HeaderAnchorNameWrongWhenLinkInHeader The header anchor name is wrong when a link occurs in the header   0 100 TOCnotWorkingForChineseHeadings headings with all non-alphabetic characters generate broken TOC links   0 100 SitemapDoesntValidate Missing / on img tags in TWiki.SiteMap   0 100 UsingTopicToDefineCSS putting css in a topic to enable editing from a browser   0 100 MetaParentOptionalLengthLimit Add a new optional attribute to the META{"parent" ...} variable to limit number of upstream ancestors   0 100 ModPerlize Eliminate dynamic global variables so that mod_perl works Plugins 1 100 SetMultipleDirsInSetlibDotCfg CPAN installs into multiple directories, not into a single one. $localPerlLibPath needs to take an array.   0 100 MakeMailnotifyACgiScript let mailnotify be triggered from a browser   0 100 UseMainTWikiPrefs Upgrades are easier if you use MAINWEB%.TWikiPreferences   0 100 BugInfiniteRecursionInSearch Bug with infinite recursion in search   0 100 ViewScriptPartiallyIgnoresTopicPermissions View sometimes ignores topic access permissions Must be re-verified in DEVELOP 1 100 AttachLinkNotStruckOutInPatternSkin   Deal with the many other ways of changing a topic other than edit link and attach link 1 100 TocOfBaseTopicInIncludedPage Waiting for support for a fix from interested parties   0 100 FilterFormFieldForIllegalCharacters Filter form fields for illegal characters   0 100 XHTMLAuditTests TWiki needs automated XHTML compliance tests   0 100 FinishBinScriptRefactoring Finish refactoring of cgi scripts   0 100 MakeMetaDotPmMoreExtensible Make MetaDotPm more extensible   0 100 SeparateWhiteBoardEditFromFormEdit Separate editing the white board from editing the form   0 100 LogoPerWeb     0 100 DowAndWeekNumberInGmTime Adds $dow and $week (number) vars to the GMTIME var   0 100 MailNotifyTmplUsesWrongMIMEType mailnotify.tmpl uses an incorrect multipart/ mime type   0 100 TWikiFormWithHiddenType Provide option to hide certain TWikiForm fields in rendered view.   0 100 ViewPrevRevShowsIncorrectMetaData Fix: Viewing an old revision using r1.21 format causes incorrect meta data to be retrieved. Must be re-verified on DEVELOP head 1 100 RcsWrapDontUseProperQuote Wrong cmdQuote used in RcsWrap   0 100 WhyDoesWebSearchContainASearchQuery A new SEARCH parameter zeroresults suppresses the "Number of hits:0" message   0 100 ForceNewRevisionCheckBox "Force New Revision" check box on the topic editing page Waiting for Main.WillNorris: need test cases 1 100 RegisterFailureInsecureDependencyCygwin Fix: Register Fails with Insecure Dependency on Cygwin Not yet tested on Windows 1 100 PrintviewOfParameterisedSearch Problem: URL parameterised reports cannot print, because CGI params are lost when calling skin=print ... Solution: Proposed   0 100 HeaderRenderingWithWikiWordsBroken Headers with WikiWords Render Incorrectly in Dakar   0 100 SortOutErrorHandling Refactor response handling in UI scripts   0 100 KeepRcsFilesUnlocked Don't keep RCS locks on data files   0 100 WikiLogoUrlShouldDefaultToLocalInstallation Change where WIKILOGOIMG points   0 100 RenameAllowsDotInPageName Rename topic allows illegal characters in file names.   0 100 TWikiVersion Introduce TWiki::VERSION to make TWiki Perl package compliant How to combine with TWiki release string standard 1 100 OffMeansOnBug Setting option to off means on   0 100 RESTfulPluginInterface RESTful Interface for Plugins   0 100 LoginNamesShouldNotBeWikiNames Login names can now be any string.   0 100 FormattedSearchRegexCountVariable New $count variable in format argument of formatted searches   0 100 DefaultTWikiLibDirectory Provide a working default for $twikiLibPath in bin/setlib.cfg   0 100 SearchInTemplateHangsTWiki TWiki hangs if you add a SEARCH to the WIKIWEBLIST preference setting   0 100 WebChangesCalledFromWebSearchBroken Broken TWiki/WebSearch.txt   0 100 DoubleRegistration Main.TWikiRegistration allows multiple registration for same user none 1 100 RemoveWindRiverCodeFromEditTablePlugin Remove Wind River-specific code from Plugins.EditTablePlugin   0 100 DefaultTemplatesSupportWebNameAsWikiWord     0 100 DelAndInsTagsAfterTopicSave DelAndInsTagsAfterTopicSave   0 100 MakeSaveAvailableOutsideOfUISave Make TWiki::UI::Save::_save available outside of its module   0 100 UserObject Add a User object to simplify user identification and management   0

Change Proposals for DakarRelease Merged to Main SVN Branch

Search for topics Proposed for DakarRelease that have been MergedToCore or ImplementedAsExtension:

Release State Summary

See also DakarReleaseSummary and DakarReleaseUpgradeGuide

There are lots and lots of other ideas floating around; see ThingsToDo. You may not see your favourite idea above because no-one has expressed and intention to do it for DakarRelease. Go and visit ThingsToDo and EdinburghRelease and help set priorities for all those things that are still to do. Please be aware that contribution of the code in a readily incorporatable patch format is most likely to be included in the core.

Discussion

I've switched the dynamic tables in CairoRelease and DakarRelease over to an include of ReleaseFeatureTable. However, the guages in the tables have a double quote after them when they are included. I was thinking it's better to just switch them over and sort the cosmetic bug out later. I remember it happened before on CairoRelease although that wasn't with the include. I'm guessing the include is somehow re-triggering it.

-- SamHasler - 28 Jul 2004

I note that the link to this page from http://twiki.org is broken. I guess that means the page is static HTML rather than a twiki page.

-- MartinCleaver - 07 Sep 2004

There was a proposal to make DakarRelease a slimmer, performance-focused release. However the lists above make it look (again) like a fature-focused release. I for one don't want new features half as much as I want better performance......

-- CrawfordCurrie - 07 Sep 2004

i bumped a lot of feature requests to EdinburghRelease. no doubt i've made some classification errors (especially in NiceToHave), so reclassify topics as necessary.

-- WillNorris - 07 Sep 2004

I've changed the tables in ReleaseFeatureTable to put anything without AssignedToCore in the a nice to have table so that they can be automated. It seems pretty logical from reading ScheduledFor and AssignedToCore.

This has lost the Patch Integrated Into TWiki CVS and Int Tested columns. If these were useful then they will need to be included in the WebForm. If so follow disscution should take place in RestructureCodevWorkFlow or PostCairoDevelopmentModel.

-- SamHasler - 07 Sep 2004

A month ago the stated primary goal for Dakar was to improve performance. However DakarRelease#Overall_goals doesn't mention this at all. Is this because the goal has changed or just an oversight?

In any case, my main question today is how much DakarPerformance can we reasonably expect to achieve? All of the benchmarks and tests surrounding Cairo are focussed on how much worse it is than AthensRelease. However I really want to know is how much better could it be than Athens? I don't think Athens perf was all that hot myself.

-- MattWilkie - 15 Sep 2004

In a flurry of initiative, I have focused the goals above on what we really should be working on - the top priorities, as I see them. The obvious new one is a security audit. We need to be seen to respond to the recent securty problems, in which a reported 13,000 websites got hacked because of TWiki.

To avoid confusion, I have removed the progress tables. They are worse than useless, as they have not been maintained. I kept the known issues, though.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 23 Nov 2004

Removed the inclusion of KnownIssuesOfTWiki01Sep2004 and listed it in Overall goals instead. They become irrelevant once they are fixed, indeed some of them already are.

I've reintroduced the confusing progress tables. I will be replacing it soon (promise) with ReleaseQueuesInsert as part implementing the ProposedNewFormsInCodev.

-- SamHasler - 26 Nov 2004

What about NamedIncludeSections? The functionality was planned to be included in Dakar release... and it could be really big step to the searching within sections.

-- AndrzejGoralczyk - 15 Jan 2005

Where does feedback on dakar go? For example, I have some comments on the new bin/configure script (nice work!). Do I say something on develop.twiki.org/~develop ? Or create a ConfigureCgiScript here in Codev? TWikiIRC?

-- MattWilkie - 23 Jun 2005

please provide feedback on configure at TWikiNonRootInstaller

-- WillNorris - 24 Jun 2005

Dakar BETA release are now available from Plugins.TWiki

-- CrawfordCurrie - 22 Sep 2005

Dakar BETA releases are now available from Plugins.TWiki

-- CrawfordCurrie - 22 Sep 2005

[http://www.wikiwyg.net/] -WYSIWYG WIKI Editor !!! Hope someonw will take care and integrate it into TWiki. Please.

-- DmitryDorofeev - 07 Oct 2005

WysiwygPlugin provides a WYSIWYG editor for Dakar. wikiwyg is being considered for future releases.

-- MartinCleaver - 21 Oct 2005

I'll second WysiwygPlugin (I originally mentioned that weeks ago, but apparently never hit "Add Comment" ). I had started to do my own editor integration because KupuEditorAddOn had too many side effects, but WysiwygPlugin eclipsed my efforts, and is a much better design.

WysiwygPlugin is also editor agnostic, and with some work, you can integrate most any other web-based HTML editor.

-- EricSchwertfeger - 21 Oct 2005

Better than the above tables, the list on http://develop.twiki.org/users/develop/cgi-bin/view/Bugs/AllOutStandingItems?class=Engine%7CDocumentation&amp=&sortcol=3;table=1;up=1#sorted_table gives a better representation on what is holding up this release.

-- MartinCleaver - 27 Nov 2005

I've renamed HttpDates into CacheControlHeaders (which has made it disappear from WebChanges, annoyingly) - it has significant issues that mean it shouldn't go into Dakar without a lot more testing and configurability. Commenting here so people can see a link near top of WebChanges.

-- RichardDonkin - 30 Dec 2005

Please add French to list of languages, in Major Enhancements - 1. Key features - ref: UserInterfaceLocalisation, FrenchTranslation

-- FabianRodriguez - 02 Jan 2006

Stuff on the details of the code changes chopped to DakarDesignPrinciples to keep this topic light(er)