Written by
The XWiki Team
If you've experienced the power of XWiki and resonate with its vibrant community spirit and our open-source values, we have great news for you! By combining your passion for the XWiki software with the intuitive App Within Minutes (AWM), you can create your own application and publish it on the XWiki's Extensions Repository so that anyone in the world can use it.
This tutorial will show you how to upload the said application to extensions.xwiki.org and what makes an extension a qualitative one.
- Step 1: Create your application
- Step 2: Download the XAR file
- Step 3: Create the extension page
- How to make sure your application meets quality standards?
- Extra open-source resources
Step 1: Create your application
In your XWiki instance, create your application with App Within Minutes.
Step 2: Download the XAR file
On the main application home page, select "Export" from the "More actions" button and select the "XAR" format. By default, all the application pages, nested under the application home page, are included in the export. In this case, the main Application page is "Quarterly reporting".
Step 3: Create the extension page
The downloaded XAR file needs to be uploaded to the Extensions Wiki. In case you don't have an account, you first need to register.
After creating an account, write the name of your new application and click "Contribute". A new page with information about the extension will open.
On the new page fill in the fields:
- Name of the application
- Type (XAR)
- Category (Application)
- Summary (1 line of text about what the app can be used for)
- Description (explain the purpose, how to use the new app, and upload screenshots)
Next, click "Save & View" and go to the new extension page. On the bottom, you will upload your XAR file in the Attachments section.
Finally, the last thing you have to do to make sure your application works is click "Edit" and add:
- Download URL (in Attachments, click right on the XAR file to get the link address then paste it in the Download URL field)
- Version: 1.0 (since it's the first one)
After saving you should see "Installable with the Extension Manager" and a button with "Download v1.0" like below.
How to make sure your application meets quality standards?
Although we encourage open-source enthusiasts to contribute to the XWiki open-source project, the XWiki development team also needs to make sure that the released applications are useful and also usable. Therefore, here are a few things to keep in mind when contributing with an application made with App Within Minutes:
- The application needs to be generic enough so that as many users as possible find it useful. This is something that you get the gist of it with time and practice. Additionally, you can validate your idea in our XWiki Forum.
- Providing a qualitative description when creating the new extension is essential! This means that the description should contain:
- What the extension does and what features it has;
- An overall clear screenshot of the application;
- How users should use it;
- Document each feature (what can be done with it) and provide a clear screenshot or video.
Here are a few other guidelines for creating good documentation for your extension.
You can check out the documentation of existing extensions and try to emulate what you see. We also encourage you to bring your own improvements if you think this can enhance the user experience.
