XWiki Syntax 2.1

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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.

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.

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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.

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1.0 Other Syntaxes

Other syntaxes are also available (bundled or through extensions):

• JSPWiki (Bundled)
• MediaWiki (Extension)
• Confluence (Bundled)
• TWiki (Bundled)
• Creole 1.0 (Bundled)
• XHTML 1.0 (Bundled)
• Markdown (Extension)
• DokuWiki (Extension)

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2.0 Paragraphs

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

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2.0 Headings

= level 1 = 
== level 2 ==
=== level 3 ===
==== level 4 ====
===== level 5 =====
====== level 6 ======

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2.0 Text Formatting

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2.0 Horizontal Line

(% style="color:blue" %)
----

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2.0 Lists

* item 1
** item 2
*** item 3
* item 4

1. item 1
11. item 2
111. item 3
1. item 4

1. item 1
1*. item 2
1*. item 3
1. item 4

(% style="list-style-type: square" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: disc" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: lower-alpha" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: upper-alpha" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: lower-roman" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: upper-roman" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: lower-greek" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: upper-greek" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: hiragana" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: hiragana-iroha" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: katakana" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: katakana-iroha" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: armenian" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: hebrew" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: georgian" %)
* item 1
* item 2

(% style="list-style-type: cjk-ideographic" %)
* item 1
* item 2

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2.0 Definition Lists

; term
: definition

; term 1
: definition 1
:; term 2
:: definition 2

(% style="color:blue" %)
; term
: definition

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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.

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2.1 Links

Feature	XWiki Syntax 2.1	Result
Absolute link to page PageB located in PageA	[[PageA.PageB]]	PageB
Relative link to page PageA from the current page	[[PageA]] or [[.PageA]]	PageA
Relative link to page PageB in PageA from the current page	[[.PageA.PageB]]	PageB
Link with a label	[[label>>PageA]] Information XWiki Syntax is supported inside link labels.	label
Link with wiki syntax in the label	[[**bold label**>>PageA]]	bold label
Link on an image	[[image:PageA@img.png>>PageA]]
Absolute link to page PageB located in PageA in wiki WikiA	[[WikiA:PageA.PageB]]	PageB
Link that opens in a new window	[[PageA||target="_blank"]]	PageA
Implicit link to a URL	This is a URL: http://xwiki.org	This is a URL: http://xwiki.org
Explicit link to a URL	[[http://xwiki.org]]	http://xwiki.org
Explicit 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
Link to an attachment on the current page	[[attach:img.png]]	img.png
Link to an attachment in a different page	[[attach:PageA.PageB@img.png]]	img.png
Link to an Anchor in a page	[[PageA.PageB||anchor="anchor"]]	PageB
Link to a Heading in a page	[[PageA.PageB||anchor="HMyheading"]] Information 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".	PageB
Link to an anchor in the current page	[[label>>||anchor="anchor"]]	label
Link to a page with a query string	[[PageA.PageB||queryString="param1=value1&param2=value2"]]	PageB
Link to the current page with a query string	[[label>>||queryString="param1=value1&param2=value2"]]	label

XWiki Syntax 2.1 Link Specification

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 InformationSince 10.6 reference in the form (page: ) [wikiName:] (pageNameList). Examples: page:Page, page:myxwiki:Page, page:ParentPage.ChildPage.SubChildPage, page:../SiblingPage, page:./ChildPage
    • page: A required string identifying the resource as an XWiki page. The same reference can be use for either a terminal or non-terminal page, both both exist it will lead to the non-terminal page.
    • wikiName: An optional string containing the name of a virtual wiki. The link will point to a page inside that virtual wiki. If no wiki is specified, the current wiki is used. Example: mywiki
    • pageNameList: A required list of slash-separated wiki Pages names pointing to the final linked wiki Page syntax. It's also possible to us . and .. to indicate current or parent page/wiki. Examples: Main, A/B, A/B/C, ../Sibling, ./Child
  • Wiki document reference in the form (doc: ) [[wikiName:] spaceNameList.] (documentName). Examples: doc:Welcome, doc:Main.Welcome, doc:mywiki:Main.Welcome
    • doc: A required string identifying the resource as an XWiki terminal page. A non-terminal page can also be referenced this way, but it must append its .WebHome part (e.g. doc:Sandbox.WebHome).
    • wikiName: An optional string containing the name of a virtual wiki. The link will point to a page inside that virtual wiki. If no wiki is specified, the current wiki is used. Example: mywiki.
    • spaceNameList: An optional dot-separated list of wiki Space names. If no space is specified the current space is used. Examples: Main, A.B, A.B.C
    • documentName: A required string containing the name of the linked wiki page. Example: Welcome
  • Wiki space InformationSince 7.4.1 reference in the form (space: ) [wikiName:] (spaceNameList). Examples: space:Main, space:mywiki:Main, space:A.B.C
    • space: A required string identifying the resource as an XWiki non-terminal page (i.e. a space).
    • wikiName: An optional string containing the name of a virtual wiki. The link will point to a page inside that virtual wiki. If no wiki is specified, the current wiki is used. Example: mywiki
    • spaceNameList: A required list of dot-separated wiki Space names pointing to the final linked wiki Space (or non-terminal page). Examples: Main, A.B, A.B.C
  • InterWiki page reference in the form interwiki: (interWikiAlias: ) (pageName). 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
    • pageName: 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:mywiki:Main@img.png
    • attach: A required string identifying the resource as attachment.
    • wikiPageName: An optional string referencing the (terminal or non-terminal) page that holds the attachment. This is resolved identically to "Untyped", below.
    • attachmentName: Name of the attachment as it is stored in the wiki. Example: photo.png
  • 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
  • Untyped: If none of the above mentioned resource types are specified (i.e. no type: resource prefix was specified in the link), then the link will be treated as a link to an XWiki terminal or non-terminal page using the following algorithm:
    • Terminal page in the current space, only if it exists. Example: [[A]] is resolved to the equivalent of [[doc:currentSpace.A]]
    • Non-terminal page InformationSince 7.4.1 in the current space. Example: [[A]] is resolved to the equivalent of [[space:currentSpace.A]], which is the equivalent of [[doc:currentSpace.A.WebHome]]
    • If the current page is non-terminal and the previous 2 checks above did not find an existing page, 2 additional checks are made:
      • Terminal page InformationSince 7.4.1 as sibling in the parent space, only if it exists. Example: The [[B]] link inside the non-terminal page A.C is resolved to the equivalent of [[doc:A.B]]
      • Non-terminal page InformationSince 7.4.1 as sibling in the parent space, regardless if it exists or not. Example: The [[B]] link inside the non-terminal page A.C is resolved to the equivalent of [[space:A.B]], which is the equivalent of [[doc:A.B.WebHome]]
    • Note1 - Absolute links: InformationSince 7.4.1 If the untyped link has 2 or more dot-separated components specified (i.e. that look like a space name and a page name), the above algorithm will resolve the page relative to the current wiki, and not the current space. Example: [[A.B]] can be resolved to either [[doc:currentWiki:A.B]] (if it exists) or to [[space:currentWiki:A.B]] (equivalent of [[doc:currentWiki:A.B.WebHome]]) and not to [[doc:currentWiki:currentSpace.A.B]] or [[doc:currentWiki:currentSpace.A.B.WebHome]].
    • Note2 - Special handling of .WebHome: InformationSince 7.4.1 If the untyped link ends in .WebHome, it will always be handled as a terminal page. Example: [[A.WebHome]] will always be resolved to the equivalent of [[doc:A.WebHome]] and not to [[doc:A.WebHome.WebHome]].
• parameters: An optional list of space-separated parameters passed to the link. Example: queryString="mydata1=5&mydata2=Hello" anchor="HTableOfContents" target="_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
  • target: An optional parameter that allows to open link target in new window. Example: target="_blank"

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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.

|=Title 1|=Title 2
|Word 1|Word 2

!=Title 1!=Title 2
!!Word 1!!Word 2

(% style="background-color:red;align:center" %)
|=Title 1|=(% style="background-color:yellow" %)Title 2
|Word 1|Word 2

{{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

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2.1 Images

Feature	XWiki Syntax 2.1	Result
Image from attachment on current page	image:img.png
Image from attachment on another page	image:PageA.PageB@img.png
Image with parameters	[[image:img.png||width="25" height="25"]]
Images located at URL	image:http://some/url/img.png
Prepackaged Icons	image:icon:accept

XWiki Syntax 2.1 Image Specification

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:} spaceNameList.} pageName@} (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. If no wiki is specified, the current wiki is used. Example: mywiki.
    • spaceNameList: An optional dot-separated list of wiki Space names. If no space is specified the current space is used. Examples: Main, A.B, A.B.C
    • pageName: An optional string containing the name of the wiki page to which the referenced image is attached. Example: Welcome
    • imageName: A required string containing the name of the image attached to a page as it is stored in the wiki. Example: myImage.png
  • 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!)

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2.0 Verbatim

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

{{{
multi line
**verbatim**
content
}}}

multi line
**verbatim**
content

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2.0 Quotations

Allows to quote some text.

> john said this
I said ok

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

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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 or style inside a list item, inside a table cell or a paragraph. Groups are delimited by the following syntactic elements: (((...))). One Group can contain another Group and there is no limit of imbrication.

|=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

(% class="myClass" style="color:blue" %)(((blue paragraphs

inside myClass)))

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2.0 Escapes

Allows to escape XWiki Syntax.

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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.

(% class="myClass" style="myStyle" id="myId" %)
= heading =

<h1 class="myClass" style="myStyle" id="myId">heading</h1>

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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"/}}

{{code language="java"}}
System.out.println("Hello World!");
{{/code}}

Macros in this wiki

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2.0 HTML

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2.0 Scripts

{{velocity}}
#set ($var = "whatever")
{{/velocity}}

{{groovy}}
def var = "whatever"
{{/groovy}}