Customizations

The wiki software (Atlassian Confluence) allows administrators to add plugins and user macros.

Plugins

Many capabilities can be added to the wiki software via plugins. Right now, we only have the plugins that shipped with the software.

Check out the vendor's plugin page to see some of the other plugins on offer. If you see one you'd like to have installed, drop us a note or leave a comment on this page.

Note that some of the available plugins are outdated or otherwise broken. Others present security risks, a few require licensing fees, and all come with an additional support burden (that is, one more thing that might break ).

While we can't promise to install any particular plugin, we'll happily take a look at any plugin that's requested to see if it's a good fit for the wiki pilot.

Some of the plugins we're mulling over include:

Let us know what you think!

User macros

Despite the name, these can only be installed by admins; once installed, they can be used by anyone with editing rights. User macros are similar to the built-in macros that ship with the wiki software, in that they enable new features in the content area of a wiki page or news item.

Macros are distinguished by curly braces. In editing mode, they look like this:

{macroname} // a macro with no body or parameters
{macroname}content{macroname} // a macro with a body
{macroname:width=100|height=120}content{macroname} // a macro with optional parameters

When you view a page, macros are normally invisible, having been translated into whatever content they represent.

Thus far, the wiki admins have added a single user macro, called {youtube}, which allows users to embed videos from YouTube. See an example at Embed a YouTube video.

Do you need to do something with your content that the wiki doesn't support? A user macro might be just the ticket. Drop us a line (by clicking the "Contact Administrators" link at the bottom of the page) or leave a comment below.

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  1. May 29, 2007

    Mary White says:

    I think a calendar function would be nice.  Thanks.

    I think a calendar function would be nice.  Thanks.

  2. Jun 29, 2008

    Marlynne Ingram says:

    It would make my life immensely easier if we could get the LaTex plugin so that ...

    It would make my life immensely easier if we could get the LaTex plugin so that I could type math directly into the wiki. Thanks!

    1. Sep 19, 2008

      Jack Pinette says:

      For anyone stumbling on this thread: LaTeX support has now been added. Look for ...

      For anyone stumbling on this thread: LaTeX support has now been added. Look for the sigma button () when editing a page.

  3. Jun 30, 2008

    Matthew Yohe says:

    I've seen a WebDav plugin also available. This (or similar solution) would make...

    I've seen a WebDav plugin also available. This (or similar solution) would make it easier to put a bunch of PDFs etc out on the wiki.

  4. Jul 30

    Benjamin Barreras says:

    It might be nice to be have the Office Connector plugin or something that would ...

    It might be nice to be have the Office Connector plugin or something that would allow easier importing/embeeding of excel files?  And a definite vote for the Content Formatting macro.

    1. Jul 31

      Jack Pinette says:

      I think so too! Unfortunately the Office Connector has a couple of major problem...

      I think so too! Unfortunately the Office Connector has a couple of major problems that, to me, argue against its inclusion in our system:

      • it gives everyone a "click here to edit" button for embedded Office files, but the button only works properly for people with Windows/IE
      • it does not support new office documents (.xlsx, .docx, .pptx), only the older kind

      I think this is reason enough not to include it. What do you think?

  5. Aug 13

    Paul Cox says:

    I would find it very helpful to have links to sites external to the wiki open in...

    I would find it very helpful to have links to sites external to the wiki open in new windows.  I don't want my users navigating away from our wiki space when they click on links to other pages.  The Confluence documentation seems to indicate that this isn't a core feature of the software, but can be added through the Linking Plugin:  http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFEXT/Linking+Plugin

    Please consider adding this feature. Thanks.

    Also wanted to let you know that I appreciate the widget macro, and make regular use of it.