XWiki Syntax 2.1

XWiki Syntax 2.1: All

General

Introduction

2.1 Introduction

The XWiki Syntax 2.0 has proven to be quite useful and robust in general; however since its introduction a few shortcomings have been found. The corresponding improvements have been consolidated in XWiki Syntax 2.1. Some new features of this syntax are:

  • Homogenize the link and image syntax for better clarity, consistency and extensibility.
  • Added ability to display icons, to embed images via the Data URI scheme, to link to files using the UNC notation and to link to relative URLs.
Since XWiki Syntax 2.1 is based on XWiki Syntax 2.0 all syntax from XWiki Syntax 2.0 is valid unless the 2.1 specifications suggest differently.

In addition to these XWiki-specific syntaxes we've also changed our underlying rendering engine in XWiki Enterprise version 1.7 (was Radeox previously) in favor of our own engine which is superset wrapper around Wikimodel and Doxia (and possibly others in the future).  This has allowed us to provide other syntaxes in the wiki: MediaWiki, Confluence, JSPWiki, Creole, TWiki and more.

General Remarks

2.0 General Remarks

XWiki Syntax 2.1 corrects some errors or ambiguous syntax entered by the user as shown in the examples in the table below.

DescriptionExample of invalid or ambiguous syntaxFixed XWiki Syntax 2.1
Unclosed text styles**bold**bold**
Two standalone elements not separated by 2 new lines| table cell
* list item
| table cell

* list item
Two standalone elements not separated by 2 new linesparagraph
----
paragraph
paragraph

----

paragraph
Ignored new line at beginning of document<new line at beginning of document>
paragraph
paragraph
Not closed heading syntax=== heading=== heading ===

Other Syntaxes

1.0 Other Syntaxes

The following other syntaxes are implemented in XWiki Enterprise 1.6 and later:

The implementation for these syntaxes is not fully finished yet. For example support for links is not working perfectly yet. We also need to define if we want to extend the original syntaxes to support XWiki-specific features like ability to link to another sub-wiki.

Editing

Paragraphs

2.0 Paragraphs

Paragraphs are text elements separated by 2 or more new lines.

In XWiki Syntax 2.1 new lines are honored which is not the case in XWiki Syntax 1.0 and in Creole Syntax.
FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Simple paragraphThis is a paragraphThis is a paragraph
Paragraph on multiple linesParagraph on
multiple lines
Paragraph on
multiple lines
Two paragraphsParagraph one

Paragraph two
Paragraph one

Paragraph two
Parametrized paragraph(% style="text-align:center;color:blue" %)
Centered and blue paragraph

Centered and blue paragraph

Headings

2.0 Headings

FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Standard headings
= level 1 = 
== level 2 ==
=== level 3 ===
==== level 4 ====
===== level 5 =====
====== level 6 ======

level 1

 

level 2

level 3

level 4

level 5
level 6
Parameterized headings(% style="color:blue" %)
= heading =

heading

Headings with XWiki Syntax=== Heading with **bold** ===

Heading with bold

Text Formatting

2.0 Text Formatting

New in XWiki Syntax 2.1 over XWiki Syntax 1.0:

  • Spaces are allowed just after the syntax symbols (for example in XWiki Syntax 1.0, this was not possible: * bold *).
  • Use double symbols when there was only a single symbol in XWiki Syntax 1.0 so that it's less likely that the user will mistakenly use them in text.
  • Ability to span several lines (wasn't possible in XWiki Syntax 1.0).
FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Bold**bold**bold
Underline__underline__underline
Italics//italic//italic
Striked out--strike--strike
Monospace##monospace##monospace
Superscriptsome ^^superscript^^some superscript
Subscriptsome ,,subscript,,some subscript

Horizontal Line

2.0 Horizontal Line

There must be 4 or more dashes.
Note that this is different from Creole where exactly 4 dashes are required.
FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Simple horizontal line----

Parametrized horizontal line
(% style="color:blue" %)
----

Lists

2.0 Lists

Some of the mentioned styles do not work on all browsers. For a comprehensive list follow this link.
FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Bulleted list
* item 1
** item 2
*** item 3
* item 4
  • item 1
    • item 2
      • item 3
  • item 4
Numbered list
1. item 1
11. item 2
111. item 3
1. item 4
  1. item 1
    1. item 2
      1. item 3
  2. item 4
Mixed list
1. item 1
1*. item 2
1*. item 3
1. item 4
  1. item 1
    • item 2
    • item 3
  2. item 4
Square list
(% style="list-style-type: square" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Disc list
(% style="list-style-type: disc" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Lowercase Alphabetical list
(% style="list-style-type: lower-alpha" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Uppercase Alphabetical list
(% style="list-style-type: upper-alpha" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Lowercase Roman list
(% style="list-style-type: lower-roman" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Uppercase Roman list
(% style="list-style-type: upper-roman" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Lowercase Greek list
(% style="list-style-type: lower-greek" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Uppercase Greek list
(% style="list-style-type: upper-greek" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Hiragana list
(% style="list-style-type: hiragana" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Hiragana Iroah list
(% style="list-style-type: hiragana-iroha" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Katakana list
(% style="list-style-type: katakana" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Katakana Iroha list
(% style="list-style-type: katakana-iroha" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Armenian list
(% style="list-style-type: armenian" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Hebrew list
(% style="list-style-type: hebrew" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Georgian list
(% style="list-style-type: georgian" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
CJK ideographic list
(% style="list-style-type: cjk-ideographic" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2

Definition Lists

2.0 Definition Lists

FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Standard definition
; term
: definition
term
definition
Nested definitions
; term 1
: definition 1
:; term 2
:: definition 2
term 1
definition 1
term 2
definition 2
Parametrized definition
(% style="color:blue" %)
; term
: definition
term
definition

New Line/Line Breaks

2.0 New Line Line Breaks

A new line is a carriage return. A line break is a forced new line that can appear anywhere in the text.

In XWiki Syntax 2.1 new lines are honored which is not the case in XWiki Syntax 1.0 and in Creole Syntax.
FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Line breakLine\\New lineLine
New line
New lineLine
New line
Line
New line
FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Link to a page in the current Space[[WebHome]]WebHome
Link with a label

[[label>>WebHome]]
XWiki Syntax is supported inside link labels.

label
Link with XWiki Syntax in the label[[**bold label**>>WebHome]]bold label
Link to a page with the space specified[[Main.WebHome]]WebHome
Link to a subwiki[[subwiki:Main.WebHome]]WebHome
Link that opens in a new window[[label>>WebHome||rel="__blank"]]label
Link to a URL directly in the textThis is a URL: http://xwiki.orgThis is a URL: http://xwiki.org
Link to a URL[[http://xwiki.org]]http://xwiki.org
Link to a URL with a label[[XWiki>>http://xwiki.org]]XWiki
Link to an email address[[john@smith.net>>mailto:john@smith.net]]john@smith.net
Image Link[[image:Space2.Page2@img.png>>Space1.Page1]]img.png
Image Link with image parameters[[[[image:Space2.Page2@img.png||width="26" height="26"]]>>Space1.Page1]]img.png
Link to an attachment on the current page[[text>>attach:img.png]]text
Link to an attachment in a different page[[text>>attach:Space.Page@img.png]]text
Link to an Anchor in a page[[label>>Space.Page||anchor="anchor"]]label
Link to a Heading in a page[[label>>XWiki.XWikiSyntax||anchor="HMyheading"]]label
Link to an Anchor in the current page[[label>>||anchor="anchor"]]label
When you add a Heading, an anchor named "H" followed by the heading title with only alpha characters is created. For example, for a Heading named "My heading", the generated anchor will be "HMyheading".

XWiki Syntax 2.1 Link Specification

The part in ( ) is required, while the parts in [ ] are optional.

The full format of a link is [label>>] (resource) [||parameters]

  • label: An optional string which will be displayed to the user as the link name when rendered. The label may contain XWiki Syntax. If no label is specified a default label will be generated. The generation pattern can be changed, see the Admin Guide. Example: My Page
  • resource: A required string with the link reference in one of the following forms
    • URL: Any URL in the form of [url:] (protocol://path). Examples: http://xwiki.org, url:https://svn.xwiki.org/
      • url: An optional string identifying the resource as an URL.
    • Wiki page name reference in the form [doc:] [[wikiName:] space.] (page). Examples: WebHome, Main.WebHome, mywiki:Main.WebHome
      • doc: An optional string identifying the resource as an XWiki document.
      • wikiName: An optional string containing the name of a virtual wiki. The link will point to a page inside that virtual wiki. Example: mywiki
      • space: An optional wiki Space name. If no space is specified the current space is used. Example: Main
      • page: A required string containing the name of the linked wiki page. Example: WebHome
    • InterWiki page name reference in the form interwiki: (interWikiAlias:) (page). Example: interwiki:wikipedia:XWiki
      • interwiki: A required string identifying the resource as an InterWiki link.
      • interWikiAlias: An optional Inter Wiki alias as defined in the InterWiki Map (see the Admin Guide). Example: wikipedia
      • page: A required string containing the name of the linked page. Example: XWiki
    • Attachment reference in the form attach: [wikiPageName@] (attachmentName). Examples: attach:img.png, attach:mywiki:Main.WebHome@img.png
      • attach:: A required string identifying the resource as attachment.
      • wikiPageName: An optional string referencing the document that holds the attachment, see "Wiki page name" above.
      • attachmentName: Name of the attachment as it is stored in the wiki.
    • Email address in the form mailto: (emailAddress) (#anchor is not valid). Example: mailto:john@smith.com
      • mailto:: A required string identifying the resource as email.
      • emailAddress: Targeted email address. Example: john@smith.com
    • Relative path reference on the server in the form path: (relPath). Example: path:$doc.getURL('reset') produces target address http://server.domain.com/xwiki/bin/reset/Space/Page where /xwiki/bin/reset/Space/Page is produced by $doc.getURL('reset').
      • path: A required string identifying the resource as a relative path.
      • relPath: A required string containing the relative path of the resource on the server that shall be linked.
    • UNC (Windows Explorer) reference in the form unc: (path). The link is rendered as a file:// link. Examples: unc:C:\Windows\, unc:\\myserver\path\img.png, unc:home/user/somefile
      • unc: A required string identifying the resource as a UNC (Windows Explorer) path.
      • path: A required string containing the local path of resource accessible by the user. Examples: C:\Windows\, \\myserver\path\img.png, home/user/somefile
  • parameters: An optional list of space-separated parameters passed to the link. Example: queryString="mydata1=5&mydata2=Hello" anchor="HTableOfContents" rel="__blank"
    • queryString: An optional query string for specifying parameters that will be appended to the link target address and used in the rendered URL. Example: url:http://domain.com/path||queryString="mydata1=5&mydata2=Hello" produces target address http://domain.com/path?mydata1=5&mydata2=Hello
    • anchor: An optional anchor name pointing to an anchor defined in the referenced link. Note that in XWiki anchors are automatically created for headings. Example: url:http://domain.com/path||anchor="HTableOfContents" produces target address http://domain.com/path#HTableOfContents
    • rel: An optional parameter that allows to open link target in new window. Example: rel="__blank"

Tables

2.0 Tables

Allows to easily create content in table format. Parameters for table, row or cell are also supported in XWiki Syntax 2.1.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Standard table
|=Title 1|=Title 2
|Word 1|Word 2
or
!=Title 1!=Title 2
!!Word 1!!Word 2
Title 1Title 2
Word 1Word 2
Parametrized table
(% style="background-color:red;align=center" %)
|=Title 1|=(% style="background-color:yellow" %)Title 2
|Word 1|Word 2
Title 1Title 2
Word 1Word 2
Filterable Sortable table
{{velocity}}
$xwiki.ssfx.use("js/xwiki/table/table.css")
$xwiki.jsfx.use("js/xwiki/table/tablefilterNsort.js", true)
{{/velocity}}

(% class="grid sortable filterable doOddEven" id="tableid" %)
(% class="sortHeader" %)|=Title 1|=Title 2
|Cell 11|Cell 12
|Cell 21|Cell 22
For improved features see the Livetable Macro.
Title 1Title 2
Cell 11Cell 12
Cell 21Cell 22

Images

2.1 Images

FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Image from attachment on current pageimage:img.pngimg.png
Image from attachment on another pageimage:Space.Page@img.pngimg.png
Image with parameters[[image:img.png||width="25" height="25"]]img.png
Images located at URLimage:http://some/url/img.pngimg.png
Prepackaged Iconsimage:icon:acceptaccept

XWiki Syntax 2.1 Image Specification

The part in ( ) is required, while the parts in { } are optional.

The full format of an image is either image: (reference) or [[image: (reference) {||parameters}]]

  • image: A required string identifying the resource as image.
  • reference: The reference to the image that shall be displayed in one of the following forms:
    • URL: Any URL to an image in the form of protocol://path/imageName. Example: http://domain.org/path/img.png
    • Attachment reference in the form {{{wikiName:} space.} page@} (imageName)
      • wikiName: An optional string containing the name of a virtual wiki. The image reference will point to an image attached to a page inside that virtual wiki. Example: mywiki
      • space: An optional wiki Space name. If no space is specified the current space is used. Example: Main
      • page: An optional string containing the name of the wiki page to which the referenced image is attached. Example: WebHome
      • imageName: A required string containing the name of the image attached to a page as it is stored in the wiki.
    • Icon reference in the form (icon:) (iconName). Example: icon:accept
      • icon: A required string identifying the image reference as an icon from the XWiki Icon Set.
      • iconName: A required string identifying the icon referenced. Example: accept
    • Data URI in the form (data:) (content). Example: data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAAFCAYAAACNbyblAAAAHElEQVQI12P4//8/w38GIAXDIBKE0DHxgljNBAAO9TXL0Y4OHwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==
      • data: A required string identifying the image as being specified inline using the Data URI scheme.
      • content: The encoded image. Example: image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAAFCAYAAACNbyblAAAAHElEQVQI12P4//8/w38GIAXDIBKE0DHxgljNBAAO9TXL0Y4OHwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==
  • parameters: An optional list of space-separated parameters passed to the image. Example: width="800" height="600" alt="img.png" title="My nice image"
    • HTML attributes: All attributes defined by the HTML standard will be added to the rendered HTML <img> tag.
      • style: CSS style information that should be applied to the image. Examples: style="float:right;height:50" (image on right side, height 50 px), style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:80%" (image centered, width 80% of block width), style="vertical-align:bottom" (text starts at bottom of picture)
      • height: A parameter that defines the height of the displayed image. The value should be presented either in pixel (example: height="80") or in pixel related to the height of the block containing the image (example: height="40%").
      • width: A parameter that defines the width of the displayed image. The value should be presented either in pixel (example: width="80") or in pixel related to the width of the block containing the image (example: width="40%").
      • title: A parameter that defines the title the displayed image which will be visible when hovering the mouse trigger over the image, for instance. Example: title="My nice image"
      • alt: A parameter that defines which text should be displayed if the browser is not able to display the image. Since this is a required HTML attribute XWiki will use the file name instead if the alt parameter is not defined. Example: alt="img.png"
      • More: A more in depth explanation on the HTML <img> tag including more attributes can be reviewed on w3.org.
    • queryString: Allows queries to be passed to the server when creating the download link for the referenced image. Example: queryString="width=100&height=800&keepAspectRatio=true" (keepAspectRatio=true will fail if the width and height parameters are specified in addition to queryString!)

Advanced

Verbatim

2.0 Verbatim

Allow to enter content that will not be formatted (in other words the XWiki Syntax will not be taken into account).

FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Verbatim inlineSome verbatim {{{**[[not rendered]]**}}} contentSome verbatim **[[not rendered]]** content
Verbatim block
{{{
multi line
**verbatim**
content
}}}
multi line
**verbatim**
content

Quotations

2.0 Quotations

Allows to quote some text.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Simple quote
> john said this
I said ok

 john said this

I said ok

Nested quotes
> john said this
>> marie answered that
I said ok

 john said this

 marie answered that

I said ok

Groups

2.0 Groups

Groups can be used to insert another document inline directly into the current document. This allows for example to insert complex elements inside a list item or inside a table cell. Groups are delimited by the following syntactic elements: (((...))). One Group can contain another Group and there is no limit of imbrication.

XWiki Syntax 2.1Result
|=Header 1|=Header 2|=Header 3
|Cell One|(((
= Embedded document =

Some embedded paragraph.

* list item one
* list item two
  ** sub-item 1
  ** sub-item 2
))) | Cell Three

Next paragraph in the top-level document
Header 1Header 2Header 3
Cell One

Embedded document

Some embedded paragraph.

  • list item one
  • list item two
    • sub-item 1
    • sub-item 2
 Cell Three

Next paragraph in the top-level document

Escapes

2.0 Escapes

Allows to escape XWiki Syntax.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Escape a character

This is not a ~[~[link~]~]
To enter a ~ character use a double escape: ~~

This is not a [[link]]
Escape longer text
(also see "Verbatim")
{{{ some **longer** text //without// formatting}}} some **longer** text //without// formatting

Parameters

2.0 Parameters

With XWiki Syntax 2.1 it's possible to pass parameters to the different syntax elements and also to blocks of text. This is used for example to style them. You can set any parameter key/value pair you want. The XHTML renderer will pass these parameters as XHTML attributes to the underlying XHTML representation of the different syntax elements.

XWiki Syntax 2.1Generated XHTML
(% class="myClass" style="myStyle" id="myId" %)
= heading =
<h1 class="myClass" style="myStyle" id="myId">heading</h1>

Programming

Macros

2.0 Macros

There is only one kind of macro in XWiki Syntax 2.1, which is called by the syntax: {{macroname param1="value1" ... paramN="valueN"}}...{{/macroname}}. For macros without content there's a short notation: {{macroname param1="value1" ... paramN="valueN"/}}

FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1Result
Rendering Macro with a content
{{code language="java"}}
System.out.println("Hello World!");
{{/code}
System.out.println("Hello World!");
Rendering Macro without content

{{include reference="Space.Page"/}}

The referenced page is included in the current page
Radeox macros cannot be used in XWiki Syntax 2.1. Thus they have been rewritten as Rendering macros.
For the full list of available macros check the Extensions wiki.

HTML

2.0 HTML

In XWiki Syntax 2.1 HTML or XHTML must be entered by using the HTML macro.
XWiki Syntax 2.1Result
{{html}}<b>bold</b>{{/html}} bold
In XWiki Syntax 2.1, by default the HTML macro does not understands XWiki Syntax (other macros included since it's XWiki Syntax too). To enable it, use {{html wiki="true"}} .

Scripts

2.0 Scripts

In XWiki Syntax 1.0 it was possible to enter Velocity scripts anywhere directly in the page. This lead to issues for example when the user was involuntarily entering Velocity content. It was also performance hungry for pages not requiring Velocity content. There were several other technical limitations. Thus in XWiki Syntax 2.1 Velocity scripts must be entered using the velocity macro. Same goes for entering Groovy scripts.
FeatureXWiki Syntax 2.1
Velocity script
{{velocity}}
#set ($var = "whatever")
{{/velocity}}
Groovy script
{{groovy}}
def var = "whatever"
{{/groovy}}
Tags:
Created by Ricardo Rodríguez Fernández on 2014/08/04 10:08
    
This wiki is licensed under a Creative Commons 2.0 license
XWiki Enterprise 7.3 - Documentation