Installation Improvement Ideas (11.x)
Last modified by Ecaterina Moraru (Valica) on 2019/02/28 17:40
- [Brainstorming] Improving XWiki installation - Increase Active Installs https://markmail.org/thread/fo7xribgeznvx2ly (Jan 29, 2019)
Description
Installation is a crucial step in adoption for XWiki. It's the first interaction of users with the software and it'll drive whether they like it or not. Thus it's important that installation be as flawless as possible.
Some ideas to improve our installation process:
- Remove the need to manually create DB indexes, as indicated on https://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Documentation/AdminGuide/Installation/#HInstallationMethods
- If we don't find ways to do this in Hibernate we absolutely need DB-specific code (SQL code) inside XWiki to create those indexes if they're not set for the DBs we support.
- Explain better how to choose a package for your need.
- Refactor the installation page to let the user select 2 combo boxes: one for the OS the user is on and another one for whether the user wants a test installation or a production one. Based on these 2 fields, show only the relevant distributions.
- One first run, run an installation Wizard (could be new steps in the existing Distribution Wizard - but then the name is a bit awkward) to let the user do the following:
- Define the location of the permanent directory (i.e. where to store that XWiki data not stored in the database)
- Connect XWiki to a Database (i.e. generate the correct hibernate.cfg.xml content). Allow the user to skip this test and use the setup defined in hibernate.cfg.xml
- Define broad Rights configuration for the wiki: open wiki, private wiki.
- Allow the user to upload a XIP file to perform an offline installation (and provide a link to download the XIP fileà.
- Simplify specific doc pages with the goal of presenting the minimal information useful for the user (e.g. if the user is not on Ubuntu there's no need to display a warning box that says that on Ubuntu you need to do this and this):
