[Pmwiki-users] pmwiki-0.6.21 released with experimental WikiFarm support

[Patrick R. Michaud]

I've just released version 0.6.21 of PmWiki, which contains some experimental
changes to support rudimentary WikiFarms (see below for a description).  
I'm calling this release experimental because (1) the WikiFarm capability
still needs some testing and may change, and (2) although I don't think
upgrading to this version will pose a problem for existing installations,
there's a chance I've missed something.

I should also note in advance that this implementation takes a different
approach to building WikiFarms (especially fields) than the one
developed by John Rankin and Donald Gordon (see
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/WikiFarms).  However, I don't 
believe that the features introduced in this version will pose any 
conflicts with the WikiFarm code that they've developed.  Because
they had their implementation available first, I'm quite willing
to rename this WikiFarm implementation to something else if someone
can propose a good alternate name for them.

A WikiFarm is a way of running multiple independent wikis ("fields") 
from a single PmWiki installation.  Each field in the WikiFarm is able 
to have its own set of pages, wiki groups, local customizations, uploads, 
and other items -- almost exactly as if a new copy of PmWiki had been
installed.  However, since it uses a shared copy of the code, upgrading
the farm installation automatically upgrades all of the fields in the
farm.  In addition, customizations can be made at the farm-level, to
be applied and used by all fields in the farm.

More details on WikiFarming are available from 
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/WikiFarms.  Details about moving
existing PmWiki installations to become fields in a WikiFarm 
will be coming soon.

Any comments, suggestions, and bug reports are greatly appreciated.

Pm