FlexWiki 2.0 Beta 2 Released

I just posted Beta 2 of FlexWiki 2.0 up on SourceForge. Major differences from Beta 1 include:

 

• SQL Server once again supported as a store. 


• Improved SPAM protection via optional CAPTCHA requirements. 


• Added ability to require HTTPS on a namespace-by-namespace basis. 


• Multiple bug fixes.

 

There's other good stuff in there, too - the release notes detail everything.

 

The major remaining issue is performance: 2.0 Beta 2 is significantly slower than the latest released version of FlexWiki 1.8, although still usable. Performance work is ongoing, and significant improvements are expected before 2.0 is released, but for now production deployment is not recommended. That said, we're running it at http://www.pluralsight.com/wiki because for us the new security features outweigh the slowness. And perf aside, I feel good about the stability of the code, and others have echoed that it seems pretty solid.

 

I'm very pleased by how quickly we've moved from Beta 1 to Beta 2, and even more happy about the fact that developer activity has picked up - Beta 2 sports input not just from me, but from Derek Lakin, John Davidson, and Keith Brown (apologies if I've forgotten anyone). I'd also like to thank all the users that gave us feedback on Beta 1 and the interim builds - we fixed a pretty good number of bugs thanks to their input.

 

Beta 2 is likely to be the last Beta before release. I'm currently working on the last major thing that I think needs to go into a full-up 2.0 release: reimplementing caching. My hope is that I can quickly implement a reasonable story there that will bring us back to FlexWiki 1.8 levels of performance. There will be a few cleanup things to do after that, but really, that's the bulk of the work. I won't be so stupid as to give a timeline for when I think that will happen - even if perf work were easy to estimate there's the fact that I've missed every estimate I've given for this project - but I will say that I'm pretty motivated to get this done. Devoting nearly three years of spare time to something will do that. :)

 

Anyway, download and enjoy, and watch for RC1 in the not-too-distant future!