BlueSpice

Last updated
BlueSpice
Original author(s) Markus Glaser, Robert Vogel e.a.
Developer(s) Hallo Welt! GmbH
Initial releaseMarch 2011 (2011-03)
Stable release
4.4  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 2024-02-15 [±]
Written in PHP
Size 107.21  MiB (free edition)
Type Wiki
License GPLv3
Website bluespice.com

BlueSpice is free wiki software based on the MediaWiki engine and licensed with the GNU General Public License. It is especially developed for businesses as an enterprise wiki distribution for MediaWiki and used in over 150 countries.

Contents

The freely available version BlueSpice free is considered one of the most popular wiki computer programs for knowledge management in companies. [1] [2]

History

The German company Hallo Welt! has been working on the development of an open source wiki based on MediaWiki since 2007. The origins of the later BlueSpice software go back to an initiative by the IBM CTO Gunter Dueck, who initiated an internal company wiki for IBM Germany in 2007 under the name "bluepedia". [3] The model for the bluepedia project was Wikipedia and accordingly the platform was based on MediaWiki. However, in daily operation, additional requirements arose for the software used. This led to the founding of a company that would develop and provide the missing functions in the future.

In 2011, Hallo Welt! decided to publish their wiki as free and open-source software. The stable version of BlueSpice for MediaWiki was released July 4, 2011. [4] :28 From this point on, a free download has been available at SourceForge. [5] A key feature of the software was the provision of a WYSIWYG editor, which at the time was based on the TinyMCE editor. [6]

In Autumn 2013, Hallo Welt! released the completely reworked version BlueSpice 2. [7] According to the BlueSpice developers this release aims for opening up BlueSpice for freelance developers in the global MediaWiki community and multiple language versions. [8]

In 2014, BlueSpice for MediaWiki became a project of Translatewiki.net. [9] In January 2015 the developers announced that they will change to a subscription model. [10]

Functionality and technology

Search engine (Elasticsearch) BlueSpice search center version 4-1.png
Search engine (Elasticsearch)
Timeline function for tracking discussions and posts (Pro Edition) BlueSpice Timeline Function 4-1.png
Timeline function for tracking discussions and posts (Pro Edition)
Graphical interface for rights management BlueSpice Permissionmanager 4-1.png
Graphical interface for rights management
Workflow function for quality assurance of articles (Pro Edition) BlueSpice Workflows Function 4-1.jpg
Workflow function for quality assurance of articles (Pro Edition)
Representation of diagrams with DrawioEditor (Pro edition) BlueSpice DrawioEditor 4-1.png
Representation of diagrams with DrawioEditor (Pro edition)
Book feature (Pro Edition) BlueSpice Book Functionality 4-1.png
Book feature (Pro Edition)

BlueSpice is written in the PHP programming language and uses MySQL, Apache/IIS, Tomcat. BlueSpice is released in a free edition and two paid editions. The free edition adds more than 50 extensions to a MediaWiki, [11] mainly in the areas of:

Licensing and distribution

All extensions of the BlueSpice distributions are under open source licenses. The functions written by Hallo Welt! are published under the license GPLv3. [11]

The free version is made available for download as a classic server installation in a tarball or as a Docker image, with BlueSpice free having the widest distribution via the official Docker version (with more than 1 million pulls in three years). [12]

Versions

NameVersionDate of issueNotable changes
BlueSpice 1basic2010-11-17
1.0.12011-09-07
1.12012-03-15Performance improvements, support for postgreSQL and Oracle databases
1.20.02012-12-21
1.20.12013-01-17
1.21.02013-06-12
BlueSpice 22.22.02013-11-27Completely reworked skin, reworked PermissionManager and UserManager, new internationalisation framework, FlexiSkin, Dashboards, Notifications extension, StateBar (with "similar pages")
2.22.12014-02-13
2.22.22014-05-08
2.23.02014-12-09Integrated package installer for MediaWiki and BlueSpice, support of MobileFrontend, rewritten skin, support of memcached caching, translations in more than 40 languages, reworked localisation, context menues
2.23.12015-06-25
2.23.22015-11-30

Improved integration of Semantic MediaWiki and BlueSpice, compatibility with MediaWiki's VisualEditor

2.23.32016-05-31
2.27.02016-11-09

New extensions: e.g. PageAssignments, Showtime and ReadConfirmation. Many functional improvements of the WikiFarm Package. Full compatibility with MediaWiki 1.27

2.27.12017-04-06

ExtendedFileList, CategoryManager, Logged Reviews, Review with semantic properties, Compatibility with PHP7

2.27.22017-07-20

Updated Visual Editor, Insert templates function, filtering of all special pages, revised permission manager with new mouse-over function, daily or weekly combined notifications, inserting signatures, integration and visualization of dynamic maps.

2.27.32018-04-18Patch release
BlueSpice 33.02018-10-17

Social: an activity, communication and interaction layer, Extended Search: based on Elasticsearch, Responsive skin "Calumma" supports mobile view and touch interaction, Graphical list: new interface element for better usability, MediaWiki VisualEditor: native support for wikitext, Role-based permissions: simplifies rights configuration, reworked authentication stack: LDAP and SAML authentication [13]

3.12018-09-19

Revised title bar and navigation (subpages, discussion pages, categories, revision status), UX enhancements, full screen mode, improved search scoring, enhanced table formatting and font colors, improved document embedding, support for NGINX web server, performance enhancements, improved screen reader support, delivery of Semantic MediaWiki 3.0, release of BlueSpice repositories, public docker image for BlueSpice free [14]

BlueSpice 44.12022-01-19Combined major and minor release: New standard Discovery skin, new FlexiSkin feature, new workflow feature, tasks, BPMN diagrams, two-factor authentication, enhanced connectivity, structured data import support. [15]
4.22022-07-28Minor Release:

Word import (BlueSpice Pro) upload, split content, preview, page list; file attachments; improved file upload function; enhanced blog permissions; new dialogue for PDF export; enhanced workflow activities; tag inspectors; editor for navigation menus. [16]

4.32023-06-29Minor Release:

Content droplets, advanced menu editor, startpage templates, filter elements of your page content, embed PDF preview on wiki page and more improvements. [17] [18]

4.42023-12-11Minor Release:

OpenSearch, mentions & tasks, new content droplets and more improvements. [19] [20]

See also

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References

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  9. Muggli, Stephan (9 December 2014). "Translatewiki.net: BlueSpice for MediaWiki project". BlueSpice News. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  10. "New model for BlueSpice". blog.bluespice.com. Archived from the original on 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
  11. 1 2 "BlueSpice Software Catalogue". BlueSpice Helpdesk. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  12. "bluespice/bluespice-free". dockerhub. Docker Inc. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  13. "BlueSpice 3: The successful enterprise wiki just got even better - BlueSpice Blog". BlueSpice Blog. 2018-10-17. Archived from the original on 13 November 2018. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
  14. "Say hi to BlueSpice 3.1!". BlueSpice Blog. 2019-09-25. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 2018-09-30.
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  17. "Setup:Release Notes - BlueSpice Wiki". en.wiki.bluespice.com. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
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