Skip to Content

XWiki Syntaxes

Last modified by Administrator on 2010/08/19 12:49
Contents

Starting with XWiki Enterprise version 1.7 and above we've introduced a new wiki syntax. So we're now naming the current syntax the XWiki Syntax v1.0 and the new syntax is logically called the XWiki Syntax v2.0. The main reasons for introducing the new syntax were:

  • Fix the limitations and ambiguities of the XWiki 1.0 syntax (which was inspired by both Radeox - the underlying rendering engine - and TWiki).
    • Not optimal symbols. For example the symbol for bold was single stars. This was causing trouble when users were entering text containing stars since that text was mistakenly considered to be bold when it wasn't. Hence we've rationalized the syntax by using at least double characters everywhere. 
    • Ambiguities. For example there was an ambiguity between a bold item starting a line and a bulletted list. Resolving the ambiguities was required in order to rewrite the WYSIWYG editor so that it could be deterministic.
  • Be closer to the Creole 1.0 syntax which is becoming a standard for wiki syntax. In addition the Creole community has taken the time to analyze all the existing wiki syntaxes before deciding on symbols. The choices made are thus very good.

In addition to these 2 XWiki syntaxes we've also changed our underlying rendering engine (was Radeox previously) in favor of our own engine which is superset wrapper around Wikimodel and Doxia (and possibly others in the future). This has allowed us to provide other syntaxes in the wiki: MediaWiki, Confluence, JSPWiki, Creole, TWiki and more

General Remarks

XWiki Syntax v2.0 corrects some errors or ambiguous syntax entered by the user as shown in the examples in the table below.

DescriptionExample of invalid or ambiguous syntaxFixed XWiki Syntax 2.0
Not closed tet styles**bold**bold**
Two standalone elements not separated by 2 new lines| table cell
* list item		| table cell

* list item
Two standalone elements not separated by 2 new linesparagraph
----
paragraph		paragraph

----

paragraph
Ignored new line at beginning of document<new line at beginning of document>
paragraph		paragraph
Not closed heading syntax=== heading=== heading ===

Paragraphs

Paragraphs are text elements separated by 2 or more new lines.

IconInformation

In XWiki Syntax 2.0 new lines are honored which is not the case in XWiki Syntax 1.0 and in Creole syntax.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result XWiki Syntax 1.0Result XWiki Syntax 1.2
Simple paragraphThis is a paragraphThis is a paragraphThis is a paragraphThis is a paragraph
Paragraph on multiple linesParagraph on\\
multiple lines		Paragraph on
multiple lines		Paragraph on
multiple lines		Paragraph on
multiple lines
Two paragraphsParagraph one

Paragraph two		Paragraph one

Paragraph two		Paragraph one

Paragraph two		Paragraph one

Paragraph two
Parametrized paragraph<p style="text-align:center;color:blue">Centered and blue paragraph</p>(% style="text-align:center;color:blue" %)
Centered and blue paragraph
Centered and blue paragraph
Centered and blue paragraph

Headings

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
Standard headings

1 level 1
1.1 level 2
1.1.1 level 3
1.1.1.1 level 4
1.1.1.1.1 level 5
1.1.1.1.1.1 level 6

= level 1 = 
== level 2 ==
=== level 3 ===
==== level 4 ====
===== level 5 =====
====== level 6 ======

level 1

 

level 2

level 3

level 4

level 5
level 6
Parametrized headings<h1><span style="color:blue">heading</span></h1>(% style="color:blue" %)
= heading =

heading

Headings with wiki syntax1.1.1 Heading with *bold*=== Heading with **bold** ===

Heading with bold

Text Formatting

IconInformation

New in XWiki Syntax 2.0 over XWiki Syntax 1.0:

  • Spaces are allowed just after the syntax symbols (for example in XWiki Syntax 1.0, this was not * bold *).
  • Use double symbols when there was only a single symbol in XWiki Syntax 1.0 so that it's less likely that the user will mistakenly use them in text.
  • Ability to span several lines (wasn't the case in XWiki Syntax 1.0).
FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
Bold*bold***bold**bold
Underline__underline_____underline__underline
Italics~~italic~~//italic//~italic~
Striked out--strike----strike--strike
Monospace<tt>monospace</tt>##monospace##monospace
Superscriptsome <sup>superscript</sup>some ^^superscript^^some superscript
Subscriptsome <sub>subscript</sub>some ,,subscript,,some subscript

Horizontal Line

IconInformation

There must be 4 or more dashes.

IconInformation

Note that this is different from Creole where exactly 4 dashes are required.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
Simple Horizontal Line--------
Parametrized Horizontal Line<hr style="color:blue"/>
(% style="color:blue" %)
----

Lists

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
Bulleted list
* item 1
** item 2
*** item 3
* item 4

* item 1
** item 2
*** item 3
* item 4
  • item 1
    • item 2
      • item 3
  • item 4
Numbered list
1. item 1
11. item 2
111. item 3
1. item 4

1. item 1
11. item 2
111. item 3
1. item 4
  1. item 1
    1. item 2
      1. item 3
  2. item 4
Mixed list
1. item 1
1*. item 2
1*. item 3
1. item 4

1. item 1
1*. item 2
1*. item 3
1. item 4
  1. item 1
    • item 2
    • item 3
  2. item 4
Square list
- item 1
- item 2

(% style="list-style-type: square" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Disc list

<ul style="list-style-type: disc">
  <li>item1</li>
  <li>item2</li>
</ul>

(% style="list-style-type: disc" %)
* item 1
* item 2
  • item 1
  • item 2
Lowercase Alphabetical list
a. item 1
a. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: lower-alpha" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Uppercase Alphabetical list
A. item 1
A. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: upper-alpha" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Lowercase Roman list
i. item 1
i. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: lower-roman" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Uppercase Roman list
I. item 1
I. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: upper-roman" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Lowercase Greek list
g. item 1
g. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: lower-greek" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Uppercase Greek list
G. item 1
G. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: upper-greek" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Hiragana list
h. item 1
h. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: hiragana" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Hiragana Iroah list
H. item 1
H. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: hiragana-iroha" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Katakana list
k. item 1
k. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: katakana" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Katakana Iroha list
K. item 1
K. item 2

(% style="list-style-type: katakana-iroha" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Armenian list
<ul style="list-style-type: armenian">
  <li>item1</li>
  <li>item2</li>
</ul>

(% style="list-style-type: armenian" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Hebrew list
j. item1
j. item2

(% style="list-style-type: hebrew" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
Georgian list
<ul style="list-style-type: georgian">
  <li>item1</li>
  <li>item2</li>
</ul>

(% style="list-style-type: georgian" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2
CJK ideographic list
<ul style="list-style-type: cjk-ideographic">
  <li>item1</li>
  <li>item2</li>
</ul>

(% style="list-style-type: cjk-ideographic" %)
* item1
* item2
  • item1
  • item2

Definition Lists

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
Standard definition
<dl>
  <dt>term</dt>
  <dd>definition</dd>
</dl>

; term
: definition
term
definition
Nested definitions
<dl>
  <dt>term1</dt>
  <dd>definition1
    <dl>
      <dt>term2</dt>
      <dd>definition2</dd>
    </dl>
  </dd>
</dl>

; term1
: definition1
:; term2
:: definition2
term1
definition1
term2
definition2
Parametrized definition
<dl style="color:blue">
  <dt>term</dt>
  <dd>definition</dd>
</dl>

(% style="color:blue" %)
; term
: definition
term
definition

New Line/Line breaks

A new line is a carriage return. A line break is a forced new line that can appear anywhere in the text.

IconInformation

In XWiki Syntax 2.0 new lines are honored which is not the case in XWiki Syntax 1.0 and in Creole syntax.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result XWiki Syntax 1.0Result XWiki Syntax 2.0
Line breakLine\\New lineLine\\New lineLine
New line		Line
New line
New lineLine
New line		Line
New line		Line New lineLine
New line

Links

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result XWiki Syntax 1.0Result XWiki Syntax 2.0
Link to a page in the current Space[WebHome][[WebHome]]Web HomeXWiki
Link with a label[label>WebHome][[label>>WebHome]]labellabel
Link to a page with the space specified[Main.WebHome][[Main.WebHome]]Web HomeMain
Link to a subwiki[subwiki:Main.WebHome][[subwiki:Main.WebHome]]Web HomeMain
Link that opens in a new page[label>WebHome>_blank][[label>>WebHome||rel="__blank"]]labellabel
Link to a URL directly in the textThis is a URL: http://xwiki.orgThis is a URL: http://xwiki.orgThis is a URL: http://xwiki.orgThis is a URL: http://xwiki.org
Link to a URL[http://xwiki.org][[http://xwiki.org]]http://xwiki.orghttp://xwiki.org
Link to a URL with a label[XWiki>http://xwiki.org][[XWiki>>http://xwiki.org]]XWikiXWiki
Link to an email[john@smith.net>mailto:john@smith.net][[john@smith.net>>mailto:john@smith.net]]john@smith.netjohn@smith.net
Image Link<a href="$xwiki.getURL("Space1.Page1")">{image:img.png|document=Space2.Page2}</a>

[[image:Space2.Page2@img.png>>Space1.Page1]]
IconInformationWiki syntax is supported inside link labels

img.pngimg.png
Link to an attachment in the current page

IconInformationSee Attach Macro for details
{attach:text|file=img.png}

[[text>>attach:img.png]]texttext
Link to an attachment in a different page

IconInformationSee Attach Macro for details
{attach:text|document=Space.Page|file=img.png}

[[text>>attach:Space.Page@img.png]]texttext

XWiki Syntax 1.0 Link Specification

The full format of a link is (alias[|&gt;])+(link)(@interWikiAlias)+([|&gt;]target)+

  • alias: An optional string which will be displayed to the user as the link name when rendered. Example: "My Page".
  • link: The full link reference using the following syntax: (virtualWikiAliasemoticon_smile+(space.)+(reference)(?queryString)+(#anchor)+
  • Note that either the link or the alias must be specified.
    • virtualWikiAlias: An optional string containing the name of a virtual wiki. The link will point to a page inside that virtual wiki. Example: "mywiki".
    • space: An optional Wiki Space name. If not space is specified the current space is used. Example: "Main".
    • reference: The link reference. This can be either a URI in the form protocol:path (example: "http://xwiki.org", "mailto:john@smith.com") or a wiki page name (example: "WebHome").
    • queryString: An optional query string for specifying parameters that will be used in the rendered URL. Example: "mydata1=5&amp;mydata2=Hello".
    • anchor: An optional anchor name pointing to an anchor defined in the referenced link. Note that in XWiki anchors are automatically created for titles. Example: "TableOfContentAnchor".
  • interWikiAlias: An optional Inter Wiki alias as defined in the InterWiki Map (see the Admin Guide). Example: "wikipedia"
  • target: An optional string corresponding to the HTML target attribute for a HTML A link element. This element is used when rendering the link. It defaults to opening the link in the current page. Examples: "_self", "_blank"

XWiki Syntax 2.0 Link Specification

The full format of a link is (label>>)?(link)(||parameters)*

  • label: the link label, can contain wiki syntax
  • link: the link target, i.e. where to go when the link is clicked. It has a similar format than in the XWiki 1.0 syntax and it can also contain 2 types of URIs: mailto: and ## for linking to an email and linking to an attachment respectively.
  • parameters: An optional list of parameters passed to the link.

Tables

Allows to easily create content in table format. It also support parameters for table, row or cell in XWiki Syntax 2.0.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
Standard table((( {table} Title 1 | Title 2 Word 1 | Word 2 {table} )))
|=Title 1|=Title 2
|Word 1|Word 2
or
!=Title 1!=Title 2
!!Word 1!!Word 2
Title 1Title 2
Word 1Word 2
Parametrized table

<table style="background-color:red;align:center">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Title 1</td>
      <td style="background-color:yellow">Title 2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Word 1</td>
      <td>Word 2</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

(% style="background-color:red;align=center" %)
|=Title 1|=(% style="background-color:yellow" %)Title 2
|Word 1|Word 2
Title 1Title 2
Word 1Word 2
Filterable Sortable table
$xwiki.ssfx.use("js/xwiki/table/table.css")
$xwiki.jsfx.use("js/xwiki/table/tablefilterNsort.js", true)
<table id="tableid" class="grid sortable filterable doOddEven">
  <tr class="sortHeader">
    <th>Title1</th>
    <th>Title2</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>Cell11</td>
   <td>Cell12</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>Cell21</td>
   <td>Cell22</td>
  </tr>
</table>

{{velocity}} $xwiki.ssfx.use("js/xwiki/table/table.css") $xwiki.jsfx.use("js/xwiki/table/tablefilterNsort.js", true) {{/velocity}} {{html}} <table id="tableid" class="grid sortable filterable doOddEven"> <tr class="sortHeader"> <th>Title1</th> <th>Title2</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Cell11</td> <td>Cell12</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cell21</td> <td>Cell22</td> </tr> </table> {{/html}}

Title1 Title2
Cell11 Cell12
Cell21 Cell22

Images

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
Image from attachment in current page

IconInformationSee Image Macro for details
{image:img.png}

image:img.pngimg.png
Image from attachment in another document{image:img.png|document=Space.Page}image:Space.Page@img.pngimg.png
Image with parameters{image:img.png|width=25|height=25}[[image:img.png||width="25" height="25"]]img.png
Images located at URLhttp://some/url/img.pngimage:http://some/url/img.pngimg.png

Verbatim

Allow to enter content that will not be formatted (in other words the wiki syntax will not be taken into account).

IconInformation

In XWiki Syntax 1.0 the Pre macro only preserves wiki syntax and Radeox macros. However HTML snippets and Groovy/Velocity scripts are still executed.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result XWiki Syntax 1.0Result XWiki Syntax 2.0
Verbatim inlineSome verbatim {pre}*[not rendered]*{/pre} contentSome verbatim {{{**[[not rendered]]**}}} contentSome verbatim *[not rendered]* contentSome verbatim **[[not rendered]]** content
Verbatim block

{pre} multi line *verbatim* content {/pre}
IconInformationIt's also possible to use the Code macro but it displays its content in a box by default.

{{{
multi line
**verbatim**
content
}}}

multi line
*verbatim*
content

multi line
**verbatim**
content

Quotations

Allows to quote some text.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
Simple quote

<blockquote><p>john said this</p></blockquote>
I said ok

> john said this
I said ok

 john said this

I said ok

Nested quotes

<blockquote><p>john said this</p>
  <blockquote><p>marie answered that</p></blockquote>
</blockquote>
I said ok 

> john said this
>> marie answered that
I said ok

 john said this

 marie answered that

I said ok

Groups

Groups can be used to insert another document inline directly into the current document. This allows for example to insert complex elements inside a list item or inside a table cell. Groups are delimited by the following syntactic elements: (((...))). One Group can contain another Group and there is no limit of imbrication.

XWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
IconInformationThis feature doesn't exist in XWiki syntax 1.0. You'd have to use pure HTML to achieve the result.
|=Header 1|=Header 2|=Header 3
|Cell One|(((
= Embedded document

Some embedded paragraph.

* list item one
* list item two
  ** sub-item 1
  ** sub-item 2
))) | Cell Three

Next paragraph in the top-level document
Header 1Header 2Header 3
Cell One

Embedded document

Some embedded paragraph.

  • list item one
  • list item two
    • sub-item 1
    • sub-item 2
 Cell Three

Next paragraph in the top-level document

Escapes

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result XWiki Syntax 1.0Result XWiki Syntax 2.0
Escape a characterThis is not a \[link\]

This is not a ~[~[link~]~]
IconInformationTo enter a ~ character use a double escape: ~~

This is not a [link]This is not a [[link]]

Macros

There are 2 kinds of macros in XWiki syntax 1.0:

  • Velocity macros (called using the #macroname(param1 ... paramN) syntax)
  • Radeox macros (called using the {macroname:param1=value1|...|paramN=valueN} syntax)

There are also 2 kinds of macros in XWiki Syntax 2.0:

  • Velocity macros (called using the #macroname(param1 ... paramN) syntax inside the Velocity Macro)
  • XWiki macros (called using the {{macroname param1="value1" ... paramN="valueN"}} syntax)
IconInformation

The Radeox macros cannot be used in XWiki Syntax 2.0. Thus they have been rewritten as XWiki macros.

IconInformation

For the full list of available macros check the Macro Reference page.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0
Velocity Macro
#info("Some text")

{{velocity}}{{html}} #info("some text") {{/html}}{{/velocity}}
IconInformationWe're using the HTML macro in the example since the #info macro returns HTML content.

IconInformation

Starting with XE 2.0 you should use the Message Macro to implement this example.

Radeox Macro/XWiki Macros
{code:java}
java content
{code}

{{code language="java"}}
java content
{{/code}}

HTML

IconInformation

In XWiki Syntax 2.0 HTML or XHTML must be entered by using the HTML macro whereas in XWiki Syntax 1.0 it's possible to enter HTML directly in the text.

XWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Result
<b>bold</b>{{html}}<b>bold</b>{{/html}}bold
IconInformation

In XWiki Syntax 2.0, by default the HTML macro does not understands wiki syntax (other macros included since it's wiki syntax too). To enable it, use {{html wiki="true"}}.

Velocity/Groovy Scripts

IconInformation

In XWiki Syntax 1.0 it was possible to enter Velocity scripts anywhere directly in the page. This lead to issues for example when the user was involuntarily entering Velocity content. It was also performance hungry for pages not requiring Velocity content. There were several other technical limitations. Thus in XWiki Syntax 2.0 Velocity scripts must be entered using the velocity macro. Same goes for entering Groovy scripts.

FeatureXWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0
Velocity script
#set ($var = "whatever")

{{velocity}}
#set ($var = "whatever")
{{/velocity}}
Groovy script
<%
def var = "whatever"
%>

{{groovy}}
def var = "whatever"
{{/groovy}}

Parameters

With XWiki Syntax 2.0 it's possible to pass parameters to the different syntax elements and also to blocks of text. This is used for example to style them. You can set any parameter key/value pair you want. The XHTML renderer will pass these parameters as XHTML attributes to the underlying XHTML representation of the different syntax elements. In XWiki Syntax 1.0 there was no syntax for passing parameters and the only way to do it was to write XHTML directly in the content as shown in the table below.

XWiki Syntax 1.0XWiki Syntax 2.0Generated XHTML
<h1 class="myClass" style="myStyle" id="myId">heading</h1>

(% class="myClass" style="myStyle" id="myId" %)
= heading =

<h1 class="myClass" style="myStyle" id="myId">heading</h1>

Other syntaxes

The following other syntaxes are implemented in XWiki Enterprise 1.6 and later:

IconWarning

The implementation for these syntaxes is not fully finished yet. For example support for links is not working perfectly yet. We also need to define if we want to extend the original syntaxes to support XWiki-specific features like ability to link to another sub-wiki.