XWIki:
A template has been prepared by Pablo on Openshift-dev
We have a new instance for CDA https://xwiki-cda.web.cern.ch/ for testing using the Demo template, which comes with several pre-installed applications and extensions (Blog, Calendar, FAQ, Polls etc).
Authentication is with Openid SSO. Please try it.
Some documents have been imported on the CDA instance using script conversions and the XWiki import functionality.
Most of the applications are global to the current instance (wiki). So for the CDA example the Calendars and Polls remain visible to all users. Some apps can be installed in several locations, like the FAQ within the same wiki. However if we want different groups of people to use different instances of the applications then the option is to either create sub-wikis or to have a completely different instance.
The editors recognizes Markdown and other Markup (e.g. TWiki, MediaWiki). Importing many documents from other platforms requires some conversion. Importing extension features from other platforms is non-trivial.
The site delivered with the demo theme offers many useful pre-installed applications as well as powerful page editing features. The default navigation tree provides a constant hierarchy and location of your documents. The default search uses Solr, one of the most widely deployed search plaforms
Because of the way XWiki organizes the application data, an XWiki site is best suited to individuals or a specific group rather than having one site for many different groups, unless sub-wikis are used.
Foswiki:
A template has been prepared by Pete and will be soon available on Openshift-dev
We have a new instance for CDA https://foswiki-cda.web.cern.ch/ for testing.
The installations comes with many extensions. Authentication is with Openid SSO. Access control with egroups and uses ldap for this. Some documents have been imported onto the CDA instance
The Nat skin is default theme and is configurable (https://foswiki-cda.web.cern.ch/Sandbox/NatSkinTestLookAndFeel). the Nat skin add some nice point & click features for preference settings. This theme can also be changed to one similar to the TWIki one if the user prefers.
Importing from individual TWiki pages is easy as they use the same Markup. Bulk copies of large amounts of topics can be imported using rsync. An extension allows the use of Markdown.
Many extensions are similar to TWiki and can be used seamlessly. However there are a few differnences -
Foswiki does not have all the TWIki features and vice-versa. In the Foswiki case the application and extensions are linked to individual pages so several groups could share the same site without accessing each others data - as with TWiki. However it can also be used by individuals and small groups. Foswiki would be an easy choice
for a user or group who want to continue working in a TWiki way.