Customizations for this Foswiki installation

This topic contains a documentation of the Foswiki installation and describes all customizations of the content and visual changes to the Foswiki system. The Wiki system was migrated from TWiki to Foswiki in march 2013 (see TWikiLocalCustomizations for old documentation).

Changelog

To do

Maintenance

Installation of Foswiki 1.1.6

Server Requirements

The following modules need to be checked before installing Foswiki:

Installation Steps

The following steps must be performed to install the Foswiki software (perform as webserver user):
  1. Download the Foswiki software
    wget /web/apache.imp.fu-berlin.de/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/foswiki/files/foswiki/1.1.6/Foswiki-1.1.6.tgz
  2. Unzip the compressed folder
    tar xvfz Foswiki-1.1.6.tgz
  3. Set symbolic link to the uncompressed Foswiki folder
    ln –s Foswiki-1.1.6 wiki
  4. [Optional] Set file and directory permissions
    chown –R www-data:www-data /web/apache.imp.fu-berlin.de/Foswiki-1.1.6

Configuration

Webserver

The Foswiki system is provided by a configuration file for the Apache webserver. Only three points are given for safety reasons:

Foswiki 1.1.6

The Foswiki system can be configured via the comfortable configuration script or manually by editing the file "Localsite.cfg". Only a few points are listed here for security reasons: URL shortening For more information about both aspects, please contact Mr. Bodo Riediger-Klaus.

Macros

The old TWiki installation included 22 plug-ins. Except for the "Object" and "EasyMacro" plug-ins, all other expansion are supported in Foswiki.

For a complete list of all installed plug-ins see InstalledPlugins.

Content and layout of the Foswiki-Websites

General

The understanding of the hierarchically arranged settings in the Foswiki system are very important for the following customizations. Settings in the Foswiki system can be set essentially in the following topics:

(For more information see Foswiki Preference Settings.) All necessary customizations are made at the settings page in the Main Web!

Another important point is the subdivision of the Wiki pages. Essentially, a Wiki page is divided into five sections:

  1. Header
  2. Footer
  3. Menue on the left side
  4. Menue on the right side
  5. Topic area

Custom Skin

To provide the complete functionality of the old TWiki system, a skin template had to be created. The new file (view.fuskin.tmpl) is located at /templates and includes the following points: The new skin will be set by the macro "COVER" on SitePreferences. In addition, the new skin is not overwritten during an update.

Layout (CSS)

The design of the Wiki websites is implemented by default over three CSS files. These three files are located after the installation in the directory pub/System/PatternSkinTheme/. However, the default path will be overwritten during an update. So the files are copied to a different directory for the necessary customizations:

  1. /pub/System/FuBerlinSkin/layout.css: This file sets the height, width and position of the main elements of a Wiki page
  2. /pub/System/FuBerlinSkin/style.css: In this design template distances, sizes and fonts are defined
  3. /pub/System/FuBerlinSkin/colors.css: With the help of the layout instructions from this file, the colors for frames, fonts, and backgrounds are set

All new paths to the custom CSS files must be assigned to the macros "FOSWIKI_LAYOUT_URL", "FOSWIKI_STYLE_URL" and "FOSWIKI_COLORS_URL" in SitePreferences In order to design the header and the font based on the FU Berlin website, two more CSS files are required:

The CSS rules for the navigation bar and the quick search are based on the FU Berlin website. Each custom CSS rule is appropriately commented.

The original file WebTopBarExample is copied (WebTopBar) and customized according to the FU Berlin website:

All design instructions are located in the mentioned CSS files.

The original file WebBottomBarExample is copied (WebBottomBar) and customized according to the FU Berlin website:

All design instructions are located in the mentioned CSS files.

LeftBar

The System Web uses the WebLeftBarExample as default. Every other Web uses the WebLeftBar. In order to standardize the information and to provide assistance for the users, a custom FubLeftBar has been created according to the TWiki system. The use of FubLeftBar is specified by an include command in the WebLeftBar. The FubLeftBar includes the following points:

All design instructions are located in the mentioned CSS files.

RightBar

The WebRightBar is not supported by default from the PatternSkin theme. In order to realize this function, the author created a new skin (see Custom Skin). Each Web or topic that wants to display this section must define the macro "NEWSTOPIC" and can link this to a new topic. Depending on the definition of the macro, the topic width is reduced and the rightbar is displayed.

All design instructions are located in the mentioned CSS files.

Special Topic Templates

Special Macros

Pages and CSS-Files that need to be saved before updating Foswiki

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