Features
Tiki is the FLOSS Web Application with the most built-in features. And for even more features, please see: WikiSuite.
Unlike other projects that include a small set of features and then encourage users to install 3rd party add-ons, the Tiki community includes a large number of features in the main code base. This helps to ensure that when you upgrade, your existing features will not break. This also permits tight integration of the various features and makes it easier for you to re-use content across different features. For example, you can use the Wiki Syntax throughout the application: in wiki pages, forum posts, trackers, and more. You can read more about the Tiki Model.
Because Tiki is in a state of continual development by the community, not all features are fully developed. This page provides a rating system for each feature to help you judge if Tiki is the right tool for you.
The ratings below are for the latest stable version. The next major version will continue to add improvements to these features and will provide new functionality, too.
You can also see the details of every single preference in Tiki: All Preferences
Rating System
A: Excellent - B: Very Good - C: Good - D: Adequate - E: Further development needed
Subjective self-evaluation by the Tiki community
- Setup/admin UI: How easy / intuitive is to setup this feature?
- UI end user : Once setup, how easy / intuitive is it for the end-user? (was it worth it?)
- Stability: How many bugs left?
- Feature-set / power: How does this feature compare to other FLOSS apps? This field is the default sort order
Content features
| Feature name and link | Description | Dev (Bug reports & Feature requests) | Setup and admin UI | UI end user | Stability | Feature-set and power | Admin icon |
|---|
| File Gallery | Storage and sharing via download or display in pages, of images, videos, and other file types . Supports check-in and check-out (lock), versions, etc. |
| A | B | A | A | |
| Calendar | Events calendar with public, private and group channels |
| B | B | B | A | |
| File Gallery | File Galleries enable secure and efficient uploading, storage, downloading and other serving of all types of files including images, videos, podcasts, text and PDF documents and more. | | B | C | B | A | |
| Trackers | Facts and figures storage and retrieval. A forms and database generator, with reporting. Can be used for a bug tracker, item database, issue tracker, etc | | B | A | B | A | |
| Wiki | Collaboratively authored documents with history of changes. Tiki's wiki has all the features you could want from a first-rate wiki. Ex.: attach files, comments, history, images, warn on edit, page locking, powerful wiki syntax, alternative WYSIWYG editor, etc. | | A | A | A | A | |
| Maps | Maps can be created and displayed using OpenLayers and OpenStreetMap. | | B | B | B | A | |
| Kaltura Video | Video management | | C | B | B | A | |
| My Account | Provide content organization and communication tools for registered users
Bookmark, User Preferences, Watch, User Menu, Task, Inter-User Messages, User Files, Notepad and Mini Calendar
| | A | A | C | B | |
| Articles | Articles can be used for date-specific news and announcements. You can configure articles to automatically publish and expire at specific times or to require that submissions be approved before becoming "live." In addition to categories and tags, articles include their own unique classification system of Topics and Types. | | B | B | B | B | |
| FAQ | Create pages of frequently asked questions and answers. | | B | B | B | B | |
| Surveys | Create questionnaires with multiple-choice or open-ended questions. | | A | A | B | B | |
| Quizzes | Create timed quizzes with recorded scores. | | D | C | C | B | |
| Blogs | Multiple blogs can be created with various author and display configurations, etc. | | A | A | A | B | |
| Featured Links | Simple menu system which can optionally add an external web page in an iframe | | B | A | A | B | |
| Tasks | A site user's to-do list. Tasks can be sent to other users. Also, there can be shared group tasks. |
| B | B | B | B | |
| Slideshows | Turn a wiki page into slideshow (each slide is the wiki content only, without "chrome") by using more than one title bar in the page, or make a multi-page slideshow from a structure. | | C | B | B | B | |
| BigBlueButton | Open source instruction-focused real-time collaboration tool. (Audio/Video/Screensharing/Chat) | | C | A | B | B | |
| Screencasts (Feature removed in Tiki 17) | This permits capturing the device screen and uploading to Tiki. An image is produced (that you can then draw on), or short video with sound. The jCapture applet is used. | | A | A | C | B | |
| Messages | Internal (within the site) messages from one site user to another. | | A | A | A | B | |
| Webmail | Provides a webmail interface for site users' own IMAP or SMTP accounts. The Webmail tool has been massively improved since in Tiki20. Please see Email as a first-class citizen | | C | B | C | B | |
| MiniChat | Real-time group text chatting | | A | C | B | C | |
| Inter-User Messages | Enable users to send internal messages to each other (like email but internal to the Tiki site). A message can be broadcast to multiple users in a Tiki group or to all site users if the appropriate permissions are granted. | | B | B | A | C | |
| Spreadsheet | Spreadsheets supporting calculations and charts, import/export, etc. | | A | A | C | C | |
| Directory (links) | User-submitted Web links | | A | A | A | C | |
| Newsletters | Create and send email newsletters (plain text and HTML) to subscribed site users and other individuals. | | A | A | B | C | |
| Forums | Forums are online discussions organized by topic (or thread). Tiki forums feature threaded or flat views, file attachments, moderation and queuing, monitoring (subscription) of particular forums or topics, and full usage of wiki syntax. | | B | C | B | C | |
| Live Support | One-on-one chat with customer or other individual | | C | B | C | C | |
| HTML Pages | Static and dynamic HTML content. Note: HTML can be used in wiki pages. This is a separate feature. | | B | A | | C | |
| User Files | Users upload files and store them in their Tiki personal space; they can then download the files. | | C | C | B | C | |
| Notepad | Users can write, upload, download and read notes. Notes can be read as raw text files or as wiki pages interpreting the wiki markup syntax. The user-quota that admin can control is used to set the maximum size that user notes can take. | | B | B | B | C | |
| User Pages | This provides each user with a personal wiki page that only he/she can edit. All User Pages have a similar, configurable name that includes the user name. | | A | B | A | C | |
| Shoutbox | Quick comment (graffiti) box. Like a group chat, but not in real time. | | A | A | A | D | |
Contact us
| Basic form for site visitors to send a message to the site admin. |
| E | A | A | D | |
| Friendship Network | Users can designate other users as "friends" using either the "follow" or "like" method. | | C | B | B | D | |
| Shopping Cart | A simple shopping cart feature - Information on products or services can be maintained in wiki pages or trackers with display via Pretty Tracker ) and purchases added to Module Cart through the PluginAddToCart and sent to the payment page. | | B | B | B | D | |
Navigation features
| Feature name and link | Description | Dev (Bug reports & Feature requests) | Setup and admin UI | UI end user | Stability | Feature-set and power | Admin icon |
|---|
| Categories | Global category system. Items of different types (wiki pages, articles, tracker items, etc) can be added to one or many categories. Categories can have permissions. | | B | B | B | A | |
| Menus | Menu items are filtered by permission, by group or activation of relevant feature. Both Bootstrap and Superfish CSS/jQuery menus are supported. | | C | A | B | A | |
| Look and Feel | The site can be customized or personalized using the admin interface, to set the site title, logo and so on. No need for editing PHP or Smarty TPL files. |
| B | A | B | A | |
| Modules | Boxes for content, typically on the left or right of a portal-style site but can be placed anywhere, even in page content, with or without a visual frame. Very useful for navigation and content re-use. Over 100 built-in modules are available, and site admins can create their own. |
| A | A | B | A | |
| Structure | In Tiki terminology, a structure is a hierarchy for wiki pages. Structures have navigational features such as breadcrumb links and menus; also enabled is printing all pages in the structure and in order. |
| B | B | A | A | |
| Semantic Links | Going beyond Backlinks, allows to define some semantic relationships between wiki pages | | C | C | B | B | |
| Bookmarks | User bookmarks let users bookmark internal or external pages, create folders and organize their personal bookmarks in folders. Bookmarks can be cached if that option is enabled. A module is provided to let the users see their bookmarks, navigate through them, and add new bookmarks. | | C | C | C | C | |
Custom Home
(Removed in Tiki 15) | This feature was made redundant by the ability, via PluginLayout, etc., to fully customize a standard wiki page to use as the Homepage. |
| B | | A | C | |
| Meta Elements | Administer your meta tags via the admin panel (no FTP transfers necessary). |
| B | | A | C | |
| Search Engine Optimization | Tiki is search engine friendly. For a Tiki site running on Apache web server, the .htaccess file enables short, meaningful URLs. |
| | | | C | |
| User Menu | Add personal items to the User Menu section in the application menu. |
| | | | unrated | |
Transversal features
These are features that can apply to multiple content areas.
| Feature name and link | Description | Dev (Bug reports & Feature requests) | Setup and admin UI | UI end user | Stability | Feature-set and power | Admin icon |
|---|
| Workflow | Workflow is provided by means of category transitions and other configuration settings. |
| C | | B | A | |
| i18n | i18n (or internationalization) - Tiki is translated in 20 languages. Handles multilingual navigation & content. Can keep track of translation (de)synchronization. http://wiki-translation.com |
| C | B | B | A | |
| Compression | Transparently compress your pages on-the-fly. |
| A | A | B | A | |
| Themes | Thirty-three visual themes are included and several have theme options (color variants). And, with Bootstrap compatibility, it is straightforward to create your own. Tiki themes are visual layers only and so avoid the possibility of introducing a security vulnerability. |
| A | A | A | A | |
| News Feeds | Outgoing RSS feeds can be generated, and external RSS feeds can be subscribed to. | | B | B | B | A | |
| Search | Configurable site search engine that indexes content of many features | | B | B | B | A | |
| Interaction with popular external software, services or websites | For example: Google video, Google Maps, YouTube, Skype, Google AdSense, Mindmap and many more! | | | | | A | |
| Workspaces | Workspaces permit you to segment a Tiki instance into smaller restricted-access sections with unique preferences, themes, etc. | | D | B | B | A | |
| Comments | Comment posting available for many features (wiki pages, articles, blogs, forums, etc) | | B | B | B | B | |
| Mobile | Tiki uses the Bootstrap CSS framework by default for responsive web design - pages conform to the display size of all desktop and mobile devices. |
| B | B | B | B | |
| Watch | Site users can mark a page or other object to be notified by email when it is updated. | | B | B | C | B | |
| Mail-In | Submit wiki pages or articles via e-mail. | | C | C | C | B | |
| Tags | Wiki pages, articles, and so on can be given tags (aka freetags or folksonomy tags) for quick ad hoc content categorization. | | A | B | C | B | |
| Social Networks | Integrates popular social networks (such as Facebook,Twitter, Linkedin or Google+ ) into Tiki. | | B | B | B | B | |
| Print | Includes printing pages, groups of pages, and PDF documents. | | B | B | B | B | |
| Statistics | Site-wide statistics for many features. Referrer stats and search stats also available. | | B | B | C | C | |
| Banners | Insert, track, and manage advertising banners. | | B | A | B | C | |
| Rating | Lets users vote on wiki pages & tracker items | | D | B | D | C | |
| Contribution | Allow selecting, reporting and exporting the type of contributions made by site users. | | A | A | B | C | |
| Score | If appropriate for the site, this feature implements a game approach to motivate people to participate in the online community. Users are given points for things they do in the site, like writing or reading an article, starting a new topic in a forum, voting in a poll, etc. They also earn points by having his/her blogs and articles read and commented on. Then the users will be able to see their position in a ranking. | | | | | C | |
| Accessibility | Not so much a feature as a value, web accessibility is prioritized in Tiki. | | | | | C | |
| Tell a Friend | With this feature activated, to share pages, a link "Email this page" is added at the top of all pages. | | B | B | B | C | |
| Community | Configure site community settings such as user identity and participation details, and social interaction settings. | | B | B | B | C | |
| Color Modes | Color modes enable website users to select an alternative color scheme. Initially in Tiki 26, users can switch between light, dark, and auto (auto mode means following the preference set in the user's browser). In Tiki 26.1, the ability to add custom color modes via Look and Feel admin controls will be added. | | C | B | C | C | |
Content-editing features
These are features that you can use in all text content areas, such as wiki pages, blogs, articles, and forum.
| Feature name and link | Description | Dev (Bug reports & Feature requests) | Setup and admin UI | UI end user | Stability | Feature-set and power | Admin icon |
|---|
| Wiki Plugins | Over 100 built-in plugins extend the function of wiki syntax with more specialized commands. It is very easy to create your own plugins with plugin alias or from scratch. | | B | B | B | A | |
| Wiki Syntax | Apply formatting and styling to text directly or via editor toolbar buttons; no need for HTML. Strong help feature and usable throughout various features such as blogs and articles, not just in the wiki! | | B | B | B | A | |
| Toolbars | The edit page toolbar enables styling text, adding an image, Makes using wiki syntax easy. Custom buttons can be added, and toolbars can be customized for the various sections of the site. | | C | C | B | A | |
| PluginModule | Insert a content or functionality module in any editable-text area of the site, such as a wiki page, article, etc. | | B | C | B | B | |
| External Wikis | Create links easily with other wikis. | | B | B | A | C | |
| Automatic Table of Contents | Automatically generate and display a table of contents based on page titles within a structure (toc), or from the headings on a page (maketoc). | | A | C | A | C | |
| Random Taglines | Taglines (aka "cookies" or "fortune cookies") drawn randomly and displayed. |
| B | B | A | C | |
| Hotwords | If enabled, wiki pages are parsed and some words are automatically converted to HTML links. |
| | | | C | |
| Cache | External URLs can be cached inside Tiki - this is possible for links from the Wiki as well as for the User Bookmarks | | B | B | A | C | |
| Content Template | Create and select reusable text or layout code when editing a wiki page, article, or newsletter to have a consistent look and feel and/or content. |
| B | B | B | C | |
| Polls | Make and manage lists of options to be voted on; polls are displayed in a module (in left or right column or other module zone, in wiki pages, etc.). |
| B | A | C | C | |
| Dynamic Variable | Snippets of text which can be reused throughout Tiki. |
| C | | | C | |
| Copyright | The Copyright Management System (or ©MS) is a way of licensing your content and displaying that license information, such as under an open or free content license. By switching this feature on, you can define a content license for all your wiki content, associate copyright notices with individual pages and display a full license for printing. |
| D | | | C | |
Administration features
| Feature name and link | Description | Dev (Bug reports & Feature requests) | Setup and admin UI | UI end user | Stability | Feature-set and power | Admin icon |
|---|
| Permissions | Different rights can be assigned to groups. (ACLs) | | C | | A | A | |
| Theme Control | Visual themes can be flexibly assigned per user group, site section, content category, and so on. | | A | A | A | A | |
| Cache | Tiki uses the built-in cache of the Smarty template engine. | | A | A | B | A | |
| External Authentication | Can use LDAP (Active Directory), PAM, Auth, Http web server, CAS or Shibboleth. |
| B | A | B | A | |
| Installation | Tiki site installation is a simple process of going through the steps of a wizard, and post-install configuration also offers wizard options. |
| A | | A | A | |
| User Administration | Great flexibility in handling user registration, logging in, and banning of users, should that be necessary. | | A | A | A | A | |
| Groups | The three default groups (anonymous, registered, and admin) can be added to freely as needed for the site. Groups can inherit other groups' permissions, to simplify access management. | | A | A | A | A | |
| Manager | A combination of shell and PHP scripts to install, update, backup and monitor (check security of) a large number of Tiki installations (instances). | | D | | C | A | |
| Profiles | In Tiki terminology, a "profile" is a set of site configuration preferences and website item creation instructions that are applied as a group. | | A | A | B | A | |
| Communication Center | Send/receive objects to and from other Tiki-powered sites |
| B | A | A | B | |
| Intertiki | Authenticate users and grant them appropriate permissions at a "slave" Tiki site based on user data from an external "master" Tiki site. (This is used at the Tiki project sites, for example.) |
| D | C | D | B | |
| Banning | Block access from individual IPs or ranges of IPs. |
| A | A | A | B | |
| Edit Template | Edit the Smarty template files that Tiki is built with via the admin control panel. |
| B | | C | B | |
| Connect | Various tools for communication with the Tiki Community, developers, other Tiki site admins and users. | | B | B | B | B | |
| Edit CSS | Existing stylesheets can be edited (via the browser), with the new stylesheet suffixed with the editor's user name.
|
| B | B | E | C | |
| Action Log | Track user activity on the basis of a single user or multiple users, groups or categories. | | B | B | B | C | |
| Payments | Enables the requesting and management of payments (invoicing), and connects payments to other features. | | C | B | B | C | |
| Packages | External software packages installation and management via Composer. | | B | B | C | C | |
Advanced features for programmers
Other
| Feature name and link | Description | Dev (Bug reports & Feature requests) | Admin icon |
|---|
| We eat our own DogFood | Tiki is a community. Tiki is a software. The Tiki community is recursively using and improving the Tiki software, which is used to support the community as well as to make available to the general public.
| | |
| Open Development | Written and maintained by an active and international community of volunteer contributors. While many developers offer consulting services, no company controls the development.
Think of Tiki as applying the wiki way not just to content but also to software development. YOU are invited to participate!"
Please read more about the Tiki Model | | |
| Open standards and protocols | Tiki developers are Tiki users too and prefer open protocols and standards -
http://tiki.org/TikiStandards. | | |
| Platform independence | Tiki runs wherever PHP runs, on Linux, Mac, Windows and many more other operating systems. | | |
| Browser Compatibility | On the client side, all you need is a Web browser running on a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. | | |
| Documentation | Tiki's documentation is a wiki (of course!). So you can participate! The are links from your installed Tiki application directly to the corresponding documentation wiki page. As the documentationis constantly being updated and organized, broken links may sometimes occur. Please bear with us and feel free to participate! | | |
External Libraries
| Tiki makes good use of existing and active open source projects such as Zend Framework, Smarty, MySQL, PHP, jQuery, Bootstrap, CKeditor, etc.
| | |
In Tiki terminology, a "profile" is a set of site configuration preferences and website item creation instructions that are applied as a group. The website profiles.tiki.org is the main repository for these.
Some profiles are simple, like a contact form, and some are more complex, to the point of being a new feature, in effect. These are crafted packages of wiki page content, site feature preference and other configuration settings and so on that can be imported to a Tiki site from a profiles server, and activated to implement new functionality at the site.
So Tiki Profiles aren't listed as pre-made features, but can be installed to, in effect, create a new feature at the site.
For more information, please visit Profiles.tiki.org .
General notes:
About Tiki Features
Because Tiki offers such a large number of features "out-of-the-box", it can be overwhelming, even to an experienced user or administrator. Tiki has all the classic CMS and portal features of other applications, but also includes features not available anywhere else. Tiki is highly configurable and modular; all features are optional and can be administered through Tiki's browser-based interface.
What makes Tiki different? Its tight integration of all the features.
The whole Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware is a very active project. You can monitor activity at https://openhub.net/p/tikiwiki Over 400 people have contributed to the source code. With such a large number of contributors, the features continue to evolve and get better. Because Tiki is a FLOSS project, you can participate and help make it better!
Using this evaluation
This self-evaluation of features will help you know what to expect after installing Tiki. Many features are widely used and quite stable. Others are new and experimental. While others are no longer maintained and may have limited functionality. For beginners, we recommend using features that have been rated as A or B; they are the most stable. The features and ratings are based on the latest stable version of Tiki.
Updating this evaluation
To update and improve this self-evaluation, please login, then click the name of the feature. You can then complete any of the missing information or change items that you feel are incorrect. For example, if you think a feature deserves a B rating instead of a D, you can change it. You can also add comments about the features.
Note: All changes will be reviewed by a project admin and may be edited or modified if needed.
To report a bug or request a new feature or enhancement, please use our bugs & wishlist tracker.
Missing features
This page may not list all features. For example, many plugins are missing from this self-evaluation.
By now (if you read this far!), you must be thinking "Wow, what does this thing not do?". Please see "Major Features Missing In Tiki" for a list of features that are not a part of Tiki.
Standards, and interaction with other services & application
Please see: Interoperability for dozens of examples
Community organization and priorities
Please see: SWOT