New Features and Enhancements of TWiki Release 4.1
Easier Installation and Upgrade
Plugins can now be installed from the configure script.
The loading of plugin preferences settings has been moved earlier in the preferences evaluation order so that plugin settings can be redefined in Main.TWikiPreferences, WebPreferences and in topics. To make TWiki upgrades easier, it is recommended to set the plugin settings in Main.TWikiPreferences, and not to customize the settings in the plugin topic. For example, to change the TEMPLATES setting of the CommentPlugin, create a new COMMENTPLUGIN_TEMPLATES setting in Main.TWikiPreferences.
Plugin settings can now be defined in configure instead of in the plugin topic (requires that the individual plugin has implemented this). TWiki performs slightly better by not looking for preferences settings in plugin topics.
Configure no longer shows many unnecessary errors when run first time.
The webmaster email address is now defined in configure instead of TWikiPreferences.
Default file access rights in the distribution package have been changed to be more universally defined and in line with the default access rights for new topics.
Usability Enhancements
Redesigned result page when typing incomplete topic name into the Jump box, so that it is possible to quickly navigate to a topic, also in a very large TWiki installation. For example, "I know there is a topic about Ajax somewhere in the Eng web. OK, let my type Eng.ajax into the Jump box... Here we go, the third link is the AjaxCookbook I was looking for."
Many user documentation improvements.
URL parameters maintained in Table of Contents links so you can stay in a temporary skin (e.g. print) and keep URLPARAM values when you click the TOC links
Attachment tables now sorted alphabetically.
Better printing of tables and verbatim text in PatternSkin.
Application Platform Enhancements
Auto-incremented topic name on save with AUTOINC<n> in topic name; used by TWiki applications to create topic based database records.
The edit and save scripts support a redirectto parameter to redirect to a topic or a URL; for security, redirect to URL needs to be enabled with a {AllowRedirectUrl} configure flag.
CommentPlugin supports the redirectto parameter to redirect to a URL or link to TWiki topic after submitting comment.
The topic URL parameter also respects the {AllowRedirectUrl} configure flag so redirects to URLs can be disabled which could be abused for phishing attacks.
The view script supports a section URL parameter to view just a named section within a topic. Useful for simple AJAX type applications.
TablePlugin: Highlight the sorted column with custom colors; includes also a general cosmetic update of default colors.
TablePlugin: Support for initsort on more than one table. A table with the initsort option is initsorted UNLESS it is sorted by clicking on a column header. If you click on a header of another table all other tables goes back to the default sort defined by initsort or not sorted if no initsort, and the new table is sorted based on the user clicking on a table header.
Bugfixes
More than 200 bugs fixed since 4.0.5
Hall of Fame of TWiki Release 4.1
Although many more people have been involved in creating TWiki-4.1, special thanks go to the most active contributors in the following areas:
If you find an omission please fix it at TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. For the full list of contributors see TWikiContributor.
Note: Sequence of contributors under "Spec, code, testing", "Templates and skins" and "Documentation" is based on number of SVN check-ins for core and default extensions from 2006-02 to 2006-12. Sequence of contributors under "TWiki.org wiki champions" and "Customer support" is based on TWiki.org web statistics from 2006-02 to 2006-12.
See more details on the TWiki 4.1 release at TWikiReleaseNotes04x01.
TWiki Release 4.0.0 (Dakar), 01 Feb 2006
Major New Features
Much simpler install and configuration
Integrated session support
Webserver-independent login/logout
Security sandbox blocking exploits for remote command execution on the server
Edit conflict resolution with automatic merge
Multilingual UI
E-mail confirmations for registration
WYSIWYG editor (beta)
Hierarchical sub-webs (beta)
Many, many people worked on TWiki-4.0.0. The credits in the table below only list the people who worked on individual enhancements. If you find an omission please fix it at TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. There were many other contributors; for a full list, visit TWikiContributor.
Most of the redesign, refactoring and new documentation work in Dakar release was done by Crawford Currie. Michael Sparks provided ideas and proof of concept for several improvements. Other people who gave large amounts of their time and patience to less sexy aspects of the work, such as testing, infrastructure and documentation, are AntonAylward, KennethLavrsen, LynnwoodBrown, MichaelDaum, Peter Thoeny, SteffenPoulsen, Sven Dowideit, WillNorris.