MindTouch Core

MindTouch Core

A sample instance of MindTouch Deki using the Fiesta theme.
Developer(s)	MindTouch, Inc Community contributors
Initial release	25 July 2006
Stable release	10.0.4 / November 15, 2010; 11 months ago (2010-11-15)
Written in	PHP, C#
Operating system	Cross-platform
Available in	Many, translatable online
Type	Wiki
License	GNU General Public License, Apache License
Website	http://developer.mindtouch.com/en (Open source edition) http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Products (Commercial edition)

Free software portal

MindTouch Core (also known as MindTouch, and formerly known as MindTouch DekiWiki and MindTouch Deki) is a web-based collaboration, wiki software and mashup platform, developed by MindTouch, Inc. It is divided into a front-end (written in PHP) and an API, written in C#. The Deki front-end and API are distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License while the Dream services layer is released under the Apache License, making it free and open source software.

MindTouch packages some proprietary connectors on top of the open source edition to provide a commercial version of their software, currently branded 'MindTouch TCS', which is commercially supported.^[1]

Before 2009, MindTouch Core was known as MindTouch Deki. Deki was hosted on the open-source hosting site SourceForge, where it was Project of the Month in May 2008.^[2] In February 2009, Deki was the 2nd-ranked project on SourceForge.^[3]

History

The application was originally known as DekiWiki, and was first released by MindTouch, Inc. in June 2006 as a fork of MediaWiki. Various changes were made to the MediaWiki software: wikitext was replaced with XHTML, a WYSIWYG editor, Lucene-based search and page hierarchies were all added, and a new user interface was created for the software.^[4]

For the "Hayes" release in July 2007, the backend was completely reimplemented in C#, resulting in an API built as web services on top of the new Dream server and toolset.^[4]

The name of the software was shortened from "DekiWiki to "Deki" in May 2008.^[5]

The "Lyons" release in March 2009^[6] and the associated commercial version MindTouch 2009,^[7] introduced push notifications on content change,^[6] key/value properties on page, user and file objects,^[6] and the "JEM" (Javascript Events & Messages) framework, which provides event coordination and message passing. JEM integrates with the jQuery library and PageBus,^[8] a JavaScript event and message bus, to build rich internet applications.^[9]

Later in 2009, the name of the application was changed again, to "MindTouch Core" or just "MindTouch".

Architecture

API

MindTouch differs from other wiki software by decoupling the frontend and the business logic. The web frontend interacts with the services via a REST API. This separation means that users can easily interact with the wiki in any language of their choice, using a web services architecture. The API is commonly deployed, and fully supported on Linux using Mono, as well as Windows on the .NET framework.^[4]

Each wiki page is automatically exposed as an XML Web Service, which can be operated on using standard HTTP verbs.

Dream Technology

The API is built on a service layer called Dream (Distributed REST Application Manager),^[4] a REST framework for building web services on the .NET platform.^[10]

Web front-end

The most common interface to the API is its PHP frontend. This frontend provides users with a full-featured wiki, built using a WYSIWYG editor.^[11]

Other front-ends

Other frontends to the API available in the form of "connectors"; a Desktop Connector^[12] allows publishing from Microsoft Windows, while an Outlook Connector ^[13] allows publishing of documents from Microsoft Outlook.

An open-source iPhone interface named DekiMobile^[14] was released in November 2008. It was later renamed "MindTouch Mobile".

Key features

Content authoring

All information in MindTouch Core pages is stored as XML, rather than wikitext. Pages are edited using a GUI editor, and can be manipulated as an XML web service. The frontend supports embedding rich media and has a built-in image gallery.

The software supports internal and external authentications.^[15] Permissions can be applied to individual pages or page hierarchies.

DekiScript

MindTouch Core includes a complete scripting language, called DekiScript.^[16] DekiScript, a light-weight, interpreted programming language, allows users to add dynamic content to wiki pages. It can be embedded directly into wiki pages or used in XML extensions.

Example

DekiScript is inserted using double curly braces. A simple print command would be written as:

{{ 'Hello World' }}

Dynamic content can be added using DekiScript functions.^[16] this example will display the name of the current user, and the text of the current day (e.g. Wednesday):

Hi {{ User.Name }}, it's {{ Date.DayName(Date.Now) }}.

Web 2.0 & mashups

A primary benefit of MindTouch Core is the ability to use DekiScript to perform mashups. MindTouch Core ships with extensions allowing connection to over 100 web services,^[17] including systems such as Dapper, Flickr, Google Maps, Windows Live and Yahoo.^[18]

A commercial license enables features such as connectors to SugarCRM, Salesforce, LinkedIn, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access.^[17]

LinuxInsider describes this feature as "let[ting] site admins rope in applications -- legacy systems, CRM and ERP apps, databases and Web 2.0 tools -- and hand them over to business users to create mashups, templates, dynamic reports and dashboards."^[19]

Multi-language

Multi-language support (named polyglot by MindTouch) allows hosting content in multiple languages on a single site. Language can be specified by user, site, section and pages, adapting the UI to the specified language. Search is available across all languages and results are prioritized by the user’s default language.^[20] MindTouch cite the 8.05 release of Deki as the first polyglot application on the web.^[21]

Deployment

MindTouch is available as a package for Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, CentOS, and SUSE, in both open source and commercial editions. The source code is available for each release on Sourceforge, and a public SVN repository is available.

Users of the Commercial edition are also offered a Windows Installer (.MSI) package.

A popular deployment option is a VMware virtual machine; the VMware appliance is certified.^[22]

Public deployments

One of the highest-profile deployments of MindTouch is at Mozilla's developer wiki, where over 25,000 pages were migrated from MediaWiki to Deki.^[23] The software also powers WhoRunsGov.com,^[24] a community site launched in January 2009 by the Washington Post.

References

1. ^ "MindTouch TCS". MindTouch. http://www.mindtouch.com/products/mindtouch_tcs. Retrieved 2011-11-04. 
2. ^ "SourceForge.net community blog". SourceForge.net. http://sourceforge.net/community/index.php/potm-200805/. Retrieved 2008-11-18. 
3. ^ BROKEN"SourceForge.net rankings". SourceForge.net. http://sourceforge.net/project/stats/rank_calc.php?group_id=173074&ugn=dekiwiki&day=20090204. Retrieved 2009-02-05. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} "Technology". http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Technology. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
5. ^ "MindTouch Newsletter, May 16". MindTouch website. http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Press_Room/Newsletters/2008-05-16. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} "Lyons (9.02)". http://developer.mindtouch.com/Deki/Release/Lyons. Retrieved 2009-04-10. 
7. ^ "MindTouch Announces MindTouch 2009, an Enhanced Development Platform for Rich Collaborative Applications". http://www.mindtouch.com/Newsroom/Social_Media_Press_Release/2009-04-02. Retrieved 2009-04-10. 
8. ^ "TIBCO PageBus". http://www.tibco.com/devnet/pagebus/default.jsp. Retrieved 2009-04-10. 
9. ^ "JavaScript Events & Messages". http://developer.mindtouch.com/DekiScript/JEM. Retrieved 2009-04-10. 
10. ^ "MindTouch Dream". http://wiki.developer.mindtouch.com/Dream. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
11. ^ "Wiki collaboration". http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Products/Features/Wiki_Collaboration. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
12. ^ "Desktop connector". http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Products/Desktop_Connector. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
13. ^ "Outlook connector". http://wiki.mindtouch.com/MindTouch_Deki/Outlook_Connector. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
14. ^ "Optimizing the iPhone browsing experience with DekiMobile". http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2008/11/14/optimizing-the-iphone-browsing-experience-with-dekimobile/. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
15. ^ "Users and Privacy". http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Products/Features/Users_Privacy. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
16. ^ ^{a b} "DekiScript". http://wiki.developer.mindtouch.com/DekiScript. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
17. ^ ^{a b} "8.08 release announcement". http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Press_Room/Press_Releases/2008-07-23. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
18. ^ "Extensions". http://wiki.developer.mindtouch.com/Deki_Wiki/Extensions. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
19. ^ "MindTouch Sharpens Its Deki App Masher". LinuxInsider. http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/63910.html. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
20. ^ "Jay Cooke release post". http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2008/05/07/mindtouch-releases-deki-wiki-jay-cooke-v805/. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
21. ^ "The first polyglot app on the web". Viddler. http://www.viddler.com/explore/MindTouch/videos/16/. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
22. ^ "VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace". VMware. http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/705. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
23. ^ Fulkerson, Aaron (2008-03-11). "Mediawiki to Deki Wiki Converter". MindTouch. http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2008/03/11/mediawiki-to-deki-wiki-converter/. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
24. ^ "WhoRunsGov.com". MindTouch. 2009-01-22. http://www.mindtouch.com/Press_Room/Press_Releases/Whorunsgov.com. Retrieved 2009-04-10.