Web 2.0 concepts (such as web-based collaboration and community contributions within organizations) are being increasingly embraced by enterprises. Wikis are a key factor in these web 2.0 concepts. SAP will provide a wiki application - that is based on the a third-party vendor wiki application - as a standard component of SAP NetWeaver Portal.
By including wikis in the SAP NetWeaver Portal offering, SAP will enable customers to collaborate across the network in the context of business processes and events.
With wikis, SAP customers will be able to create communities of practice that allow their employees and customers to create collaborative websites and to organize, identify, create, capture, acquire, share and leverage knowledge.
Some key capabilitis of wikis at a glance:
- Advanced document and content management through open and simple editing, encouraging participation by many users
- Access control to wiki content and document creation
- Easy-to-manage versioning control and version comparison
- Easy self-publishing by contributors
- Enhanced knowledge buildilng, sharing and searching possibilities
Roadmap and Availability
The wiki application can be installed toghether with the Portal on a single system (J2EE engine). The wikis are integrated into the portal navigation via iViews and portal roles. Wikis are running stand-alone, they are not integrated into collaboration rooms or other collaboration objects.
SAP delivered wikis as a pilot shipment to selected customers and partners in Q3/2008. The pilot shipment was based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Enhancement Package 1.
The ramp-up was originally planned for SAP NetWeaver 7.2 end of 2009, but it will be postponed to the next major SAP NetWeaver release in 2010. Before ramp-up a beta shipment is planned from May until July 2010.
Wikis are included in the SAP NetWeaver license. There is no extra pricing.
Key Features
End User Experience
The end user experience includes:
- E-mail notification: users are notified when information on wiki pages is updated.
- Version comparison: versions of wiki pages can be compared. Older versions (archived versions) can be restored.
- Easy text creation by a rich text editor and/or by a wiki markup language editor for the power user.
Wiki pages can be saved as PDF documents.
Wiki pages can be sent by email.
Users can work on draft versions of documents and publish them later.
Content control: authors of wiki pages can define other users to review a page before it is published. Wiki administrators can also define single users or a group of users to review wiki content before it is published to all other users.
Administration Experience
Content is organized in spaces where users can create, find and organize wiki content. An administration tool makes it easy to create the hierarchical structure of spaces and to make it available for the wikis users.
There is also a permission concept including permissions for administrators and users. For example: users can be granted either read permissions or write permissions. When write permissions are granted, users can create pages or comments, and insert images. When only read permissions are granted, users can access wiki pages but not create their own pages.
More Information
For more information refer to the wiki presentation.
