Version 4

bitweaverOverview

A list of differences between bitweaver and TikiWiki

Created by: xing, Last modification: 05 Jun 2005 (08:29 UTC) by xing
Some background information on why bitweaver exists and what we'd like to achieve can be found here: TikiWiki_and_bitweaver

the differences between bitweaver and tikiwiki are numerous to say the least. here are some important differences:

Database

We have made it a top priority to keep database access numbers to a complete minimum as these can usually be seen as the bottlneck in this type of application. we have reduced the database access number from a whopping 250 to a mere 40 or so for an average page load - and there is still room for improvement!

Code

bitweaver has experienced an immense amount of code rewrites and code updates. probably the most notable feature however, is the fact that bitweaver is now completely modular! this means that you can simply install a new package (formerly called feature) and customise the functionality of your bitweaver install. it is equally possible to uninstall, or even delete an entire folder from your server without any consequences (save the required folders of course).

Features

Since bitweaver is still very young, it doesn't provide as many bells and whistles as TikiWiki does. we don't have as many 'features'. however, we anticipate that this will change quickly and dramatically as our user and developer base grows, which is innevitable. more information can be found at bitweaverFeatures

Templates

CSS

the main changes include sophisticated css class selectors which make styling easy, flexible and incredibly powerful. as a comparison, our css files in general are about 10 - 15 kb compared to the the overwhelming 50 - 65 kb in tikiwiki.
for more information see CssSchema.

we have also removed a ton of useless css classes and replaced the with the appropriate HTML tags. e.g.: is now

we have also made it one of our aims to avoid tables where possible, thus we use tables only where browser compatability issues make it absolutely necessary, such as data listings. however, even some of these have been replaced with unordered lists due to the gain in styling freedom using CSS.

XHTML Compliancy

additionally we check virtually all pages on w3c for XHTML 1.0 Strict compliancy and don't commit before all errors and warnings have been dealt with. we must admit, this is a lot of work, but our templates are now easy to read and work with. despite the indenting and easy to read templates, our output is smaller than that of tikiwiki since we strip all our templates of excess white space, making download times shorter. if you are interested, you can view the source code of this page. i have put up instructions here on how to clean up the source code while you are developing to simplify bug hunting (view the source code section).

Interface

Usability

We have introduced a number of changes improving usability and user friendliness of bitweaver:
inline help
the most important usability update is the fact that we provide inline help next to virtually every form input, which gives a short description of what a given setting does.
tabs
throughout the administration section we use javascript degradable tabs, which reduces clutter considerably and allows us to hide non essential settings and make the administration screens a more pleasant and powerful area to work with.
icons
we are currently using icons derived from gnome for most of our icons, which gives the entire application a common feel and provides a comfortable environment.
Page History
Date/CommentUserIPVersion
22 Jun 2005 (03:59 UTC)
professionalize and change name to bitweaverOverview
spiderr66.93.240.2045
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xing194.152.164.454
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xing194.152.164.453
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