Features of PmWiki

  • Option : Parameter(s) defined in the configuration file
  • Addon : File(s) to be loaded separately

SYSTEM

Page storage
Flat files; no need for a database. Can handle thousands of pages. See Flat File Advantages.
Server Requirements
PHP 4.3.x minimum; can run in safe mode. See Web Hosts and the Standalone Cookbook recipe.
Upgrades
By simply copying new version files or export from the Subversion repository
There are more than 200 Cookbook recipes.

SECURITY

SPAM protection
By blocking words, IP addresses (addon), and by limiting the quantity of non-approved URLs (option), by encrypting the email address (addon)
Passwords
Page, group or site based, see also PasswordsAdmin
User authentication
Available as an option (AuthUser) or an addon (UserAuth).

FEATURES

Page editing
Similar to others Wikis, has a button bar (PmWiki 2.0.beta16+) and preview. Handles simultaneous edits. Addon for spell checking
Page history
History pages include Restore links. Configurable number of days of history.
Free links and WikiWords
WikiWord links are an option in version 2.1. In previous releases they were enabled by default.
Intersites links (InterMap)
Configurable by the administrator or defined in the Site.InterMap page.
Groups and hierarchy
One level only, handles menus and styling by groups, see Wiki architecture
Categories
Organise and find related pages with special Category markup.
Navigation trails
Allow wiki authors to create "trails" through sequences of pages in the wiki.
Search tools
Search the entire site or the current group. Administrator may exclude pages from appearing in search results. Pre-defined searches are also available.
Email-notification of revised pages
Option, by admin, site based
Web Feeds
Optional RSS, Atom, and Dublin Core syndication feeds as well as feed links to enable autodiscovery of the feeds
Podcasting
Web feed enclosures are supported.
International versions
See Other languages. Handles accented characters and UTF-8.
Page renaming
addon
Forms
Forms may be embedded in wiki pages.
Site Map
Available via the pagelists? directive.
Backlinks
Available since version 2.0.beta33

LAYOUT

Skins
By admin, can be table or CSS based, addon for switching by users and interactive configuration
Layout modifications
By admin and by user, see group headers
Printable layout
Suppress menu, make link list and miscellaneous reformatting
Style and custom markup
Tables
Tables and Table Directives
Page table of contents
Addon - see also numbered headers
Inclusion? in page
Of others page (part or complete)
Anchors?
In same or other page
User uploaded attachments
Option to set

:'''Images resizing and galleries''' : By addons, see also the category images

In browser drawing edit
By addon, need java enabled on browser.
User preferences
Option. See also the SkinChange add-on.

HTML DETAILS

Handles HTML meta informations
Keywords? (site, group or page based), automatic noindex, nofollow for utility pages
HTML compatibility
XHTML 1.0 transitional, may differ for miscellaneous skins
allow embedding of html in wiki pages
Cookbook:enable HTML
Browser caching
Option
See also $EnablePathInfo in LayoutVariables
Hide e-mail addresses
Addon

MISCELLANEOUS ADDONS

Calendar
Each date becomes a wiki page. There are two possible implementations: and
Publish trails
Forum
There are 2 addons: Forum and SimpleForum
Guestbook
For the full list ...
See the Cookbook recipes.

ADMINISTRATION DETAILS

Wiki farms
To have multiple wikis with a single installation of the wiki engine
Missing and orphan pages search
Option - You can also list orphan and missing attachments (addon)

LACKING (YET)

allow php scripts inside wiki
like gunther.sf.net does - nah, too much of a security issue. A recipe for that is easy to implement... but who would be crazy enough to do it? ;)
Publish as static pages
Could be done, once we figure out how to control the caching; probably a set of recipes for specific types of wikis
E-mail notification by page
Easy: just enable Notify in the local/config of the page(s) you want to monitor.
Interactive table editor
If that means WYSIWYG-style editors, pmwiki's not the answer. At least currently.

Elements which are not listed as features and are a strength of PmWiki :

  • Small code base (under 1 MB)
  • A lot of parameters are handled by pages, without having the need to open system files, which greatly helps the Wiki administration.
  • While there is only one major developer, there is a very active community and most addons are from independent people.

Add a new feature you would like to see in PmWiki as a new PITS entry marked Feature Request, or use one of the mailing lists to brainstorm new features.


This page may have a more recent version on pmwiki.org: PmWiki:PmWikiFeaturesAlt, and a talk page: PmWiki:PmWikiFeaturesAlt-Talk?.