The Apache Geronimo project used cwiki.apache.org as it's wiki and primary documentation. This wiki is based on Confluence.
Geronimo's wiki is organized in multiple Confluence spaces to facilitate the administration and enhance the user experience and response time.
In addition, we use an autoexport plugin that automatically converts Confluence's native, and dynamically generated content into a static HTML version. Given that the documentation can be considered as static content, the use of the HTML version allow us to serve the content even faster.
cwiki organization
The entry point to Geronimo's wiki is http://cwiki.apache.org/geronimo , this is the first and most importance space. Although it has just a very few documents there it is the backbone of all the other spaces, from there you can navigate throughout all the documentation, no matter what space that document is in.
The remaining spaces are created based on the topics they are addressing. That is one space for each of the Geronimo releases or Geronimo Project Management or Knowledge Base just to mention a few. The following table shows all the Geronimo spaces available and purpose.
Space name |
Space Key |
Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Apache Geronimo Documentation |
geronimo |
Backbone of the entire Geronimo wiki. It provides navigational organization to the remaining spaces. |
Apache Geronimo v2.2 |
GMOxDOC22 |
Home for the Apache Geronimo v2.2 documentation. |
Apache Geronimo v2.1 |
GMOxDOC21 |
Home for the Apache Geronimo v2.1 documentation. |
Apache Geronimo v2.0 |
GMOxDOC20 |
Home for the Apache Geronimo v2.0 documentation. |
Apache Geronimo v1.2 |
GMOxDOC12 |
Home for the Apache Geronimo v1.2 documentation. |
Apache Geronimo v1.1 |
GMOxDOC11 |
Home for the Apache Geronimo v1.1 and v1.1.1 documentation. |
Apache Geronimo v1.0 |
GMOxDOC10 |
Home for the Apache Geronimo v1.0 documentation. |
Apache Geronimo Development |
GMOxDEV |
All the information about how to develop Apache Geronimo goes here. In this space you will find details on Geronimo's architecture, how to build from the source, integration testing, problems reporting and tracking, etc. |
Apache Geronimo Project Management |
GMOxPMGT |
Here you will find ASF Board reports, details on the project development process such as contributor process and release management. You will also find here the project status, what is the level of integration in Geronimo from the other components, specs, other projects and subprojects. |
Apache Geronimo Knowledge Base |
GMOxKB |
Common Questions & Answers |
Apache Geronimo Samples |
GMOxSAMPLES |
This space is still under development, however it will soon have consolidated the sample applications for all the Geronimo releases. Currently most Geronimo release space has it's own set of sample applications and configurations. |
Apache Geronimo SandBox |
GMOxSBOX |
Have you ever played in a sand box when a kid? Well, same story here. Feel free to test your documentation here, you can use it for pointing to your "on going" document and request for feedback and comments, then you can move your document to it's final place. You can also use this space to become familiar with the markup in Confluence. This space also contains some very-out-of-date documents from the previous wiki (these docs have been updated and integrated within the current documentation). |
Apache Geronimo TCK |
GMOxTCK |
PRIVATE. Some of the TCK certification communication is kept in this space. |
Apache Geronimo |
GMOxSITE |
Accessible only to Geronimo committers, see User groups below. This is the space we use to generate the project main web site http://geronimo.apache.org |
Apache Geronimo v2.0 - ES |
GMOxDOC20es |
Home for the Apache Geronimo v2.0 documentation in Spanish. |
Apache Geronimo v2.0 - JA |
GMOxDOC20ja |
Home for the Apache Geronimo v2.0 documentation in Japanese. |
Autoexport plugin
As mentioned earlier, in the Geronimo project we are using an autoexport plugin that runs in Confluence. This plugin generates an HTML version of the Confluence native content every time a user makes a change to any document. This plugin also allow us to massage the presentation of the content via templates so the Geronimo wiki has some resemblance to the Web site. Basically there are two templates in use, one for the documentation in general (geronimo_template.vs) and one for the Website (website_template.vs).
When you navigate the wiki (http://cwiki.apache.org/geronimo) you will actually be navigating through the HTML static version. Look at the URL in the following screenshot for instance.
The template used provides, among other things, the very cool Apache Geronimo top banner, navigational breadcrumbs where Home always point to http://cwiki.apache.org/geronimo, search capabilities, Confluence content editing links.
When making a reference to any document in the wiki you should point to this autoexported HTML content, avoid pointing directly to Confluence content. If the page you are browsing does not have the Geronimo banner on top then you are not looking at the HTML version.
Good:
http://cwiki.apache.org/geronimo/geronimo-cwiki-documentation-architecture.html
Bad:
http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/geronimo/Tips+for+writing+and+formatting+documentation
Tip:
One way to get back to the HTML version of the page you just edited is to navigate to that particular page from http://cwiki.apache.org/geronimo .
Editing content
The HTML exported pages still hold the links for editing the content. By clicking on Edit Page or Add Page for instance you will be automatically redirected to Confluence. If you are not already logged in you will be prompted to enter user name and password and then you will get to the editing page. From there it is just like any other Confluence installation, add/edit the content and Save it.
The only thing with this plugin is that once you have been redirected from the autoexported HTML version to Confluence there is no automatic way to get back from editing to the HTML version. However, every time you save a Confluence page the plugin will re-export the corresponding HTML version.
Rules for formatting the content can be found in the Tips for writing and formatting documentation section.
For comments and/or concern, please join our mailing list and post your inquires there.
User groups
We are basically managing the following spaces
Confluence user groups |
Description |
|---|---|
geronimo-committers |
All Geronimo committers, full administrative access to all Geronimo related spaces |
geronimo-contributors |
Anybody wanting to contribute to the project's documentation. This is a restricted group and access to it depends on having a CLA filed with the ASF. |
geronimo-admins |
This space is about to be replaced with the geronimo-committers group. |
geronimo-tck |
Mostly Geronimo committers but there are committers from other Apache projects also. |
confluence-users |
Just about everybody that signs up for a new account. Everybody is invited to contribute to the project. |
confluence-administrators |
Confluence server administrators, these folks can solve some of the problems you may encounter from the daily use of Confluence. |