XWiki Rendering Framework
Version 44.1 by Thomas Mortagne on 2017/01/30 15:07
Contents
General Architecture
- Parser: Parses some textual input in a given syntax and generate a XDOM object which is an AST representing the input into structured blocks.
- Renderer: Takes a XDOM as input and generates some output.
- Transformation: Takes some XDOM and modifies it to generate a modified XDOM.
See Advanced Architecture for more details.
Features
- Parsers for multiple syntaxes.
- Offers both a streaming API (useful for rendering large content) and an XDOM-based API (generates an intermediary AST on which transformations - such as macros - can be applied)
- Round trip between XWiki Syntax 2.0 and XHTML. This features allows for example to have a strong WYSIWYG editor that doesn't loose information when editing wiki pages. Another use case is the ability to import Office documents in HTML and transform them into XWiki Syntax 2.0 without loosing information.
- Ability to get the result of the parsing as an AST tree (called XDOM) which can then be used to get access to all structured elements from the flat text input.
- Ability to transform the XDOM through a Transformation (list of of available Transformations).
- Macro support (list of available Macros). Note that Macro support is implemented as a Transformation (see Architecture).
- Supports wiki syntax in link labels even for input syntaxes that don't support it.
- Automatic conversion from any of the supported input syntaxes to XWiki Syntax 2.0 or to XHTML.
- Strong Parsers:
- Based on Grammars (JavaCC)
- Fix user mistakes (not closed or overlapping markup elements...).
- Each block element (paragraph, table cells, list items, headers...) can spread over multiply lines.
- Support for groups, i.e. ability to include content inside other content (equivalent of DIV in HTML).
- All elements can have parameters associated to them.
- Been used in XWiki Enteprise for several years and is stable and performant.
- Can be used standalone since it's independent of other XWiki projects such as XWiki Platform, XWiki Enterprise, etc.
The XWiki Rendering modules are all released under the LGPL license.
Supported Syntaxes
- Input Syntax
- It means there's a Parser that can be used to parse this syntax into a XDOM object
- Output Syntax
- It means there's a Renderer that can be used to render an XDOM into this syntax
Name | Id | Input Syntax? | Output Syntax? | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
XWiki 2.0 | xwiki/2.0 | |||
XWiki 2.1 | xwiki/2.1 | Experimental at this stage which means it can still change before it's released as final. | ||
XHTML 1.0 | xhtml/1.0 | |||
HTML 5.0 | html/5.0 | Available in XWiki Rendering 6.4+ only. | ||
HTML 4.01 | html/4.01 | |||
Plain Text | plain/1.0 | Print all than can be rendered in a simple notepad-like editor such as words, special symbols and spaces. It also generates link labels for links that have no labels and print the generated labels. Last it provides very basic formatting (e.g. separates paragraphs with new lines and separates list items with new lines). | ||
DocBook 4.4 | docbook/4.4 | Available in XWiki Rendering 3.2+ only. | ||
XDOM XML Current | xdom+xml/curent | Available in XWiki Rendering 3.3+ only. | ||
XDOM XML 1.0 | xdom+xml/1.0 | Available in XWiki Rendering 3.3+ only. | ||
XWiki 1.0 | xwiki/1.0 | |||
Confluence 1.0 | confluence/1.0 | Moved to contrib in 9.0. See Confluence | ||
Confluence 1.1 | confluence/1.1 | Moved to contrib in 9.0. See Confluence | ||
Confluence XHTML | confluence+xhtml/1.0 | Moved to contrib in 9.0. See Confluence | ||
JSPWiki | jspwiki/1.0 | |||
TWiki | twiki/1.0 | |||
MediaWiki | mediawiki/1.0 | |||
Creole 1.0 | creole/1.0 | |||
Markdown 1.0 | markdown/1.0 | Extracted out of XWiki starting 8.2M1. Output syntax supported starting with version 8.2 of the Markdown module. | ||
Markdown 1.1 | markdown/1.1 | Extracted out of XWiki starting 8.2M1. Adds syntax for macros, superscript and subscript support over Markdown 1.0 syntax. Output syntax supported starting with version 8.2 of the Markdown module. | ||
Markdown 1.2 | markdown/1.2 | Added in version 8.4 of the Markdown module. | ||
APT | apt/1.0 | Available in XWiki Rendering 4.3+ only. |
Demo
Documentation
- Getting started tutorial
- Javadocs
- Advanced Architecture
- Extending XWiki Rendering
- Available Macros
- Available Transformations
Download
Check the getting started tutorial which contains all information to access the XWiki Rendering binaries.
Source files are available here.
Projects using XWiki Rendering
- XWiki Enterprise: of course...
- eXo Platform: Uses both the XWiki Rendering and the XWiki WYSIWYG Editor to provide a simple wiki inside their tools
- Wikbook: Uses XWiki Rendering to generate DocBook from content written using a wiki syntax
- Jahia: Uses XWiki Rendering in its "Jahia Wiki module"
- Grail XWiki Rendering Plugin: Grails plugin that allows to convert text using the XWiki Rendering Framework.
Alternatives
Here are some libraries similar to XWiki Rendering in purpose:
- WikiModel: XWiki Rendering actually uses WikiModel and extends it. Note that since WikiModel wasn't active anymore, the XWiki project has forked it and incorporated it in its own sources.
- Eclipse Mylyn WikiText
- Maven Doxia: Note that XWiki Rendering has a basic bridge to Doxia
- Sweble provides a MediaWiki syntax parser and renderer (see Sweble 2.0 architecture.
- MediaWiki Parsers.