JotLib is the JotSpot's library that enable collaborative web apps in a JotSpot wiki. JotLib consists of functions like search, table, calendar, and include, control flow statements like if and loop, all bound together using XPath expressions.

Using JotLib and CSS, you can build themes, plugins or complete applications.

What is JotLib?

• JotLib is a library of functions used to create collaborative web applications in a JotSpot wiki

• JotLib functions can be accessed in a number of ways:
  1. using an HTML-like tag syntax called JotScript
  2. with the standard programming language Javascript (server-side Javascript that is)
  3. from any HTTP-capable client using REST?

• JotLib can be added to any JotSpot wiki page by editing the page in script markup or XML mode

What Can You do with JotLib?

• Build a theme, wiki plugin or wiki application

• JotLib gives structure to wiki information. Instead of adding all information to a page as normal text, you can define properties for a page so page information can be entered and edited using a user-friendly web form

• JotLib can search and sort wiki information. For example, using the <wiki:search> JotLib tag, you can create custom queries to search your entire wiki and display the results on a single page

What Does JotLib Look Like?

Expressions using XPath:

Hello ${req/user}, the current page is ${page/name} ${concat('and the full path is: ', req/path)}

JotScript uses an HTML-like tag syntax:

<wiki:search forChildren="MyTasksApp" set="myResultSet" />
<wiki:table contents="myResultSet"/>

<wiki:if test="${page/revision > 10}">
  <wiki:then>
     *Wow, this page has more than 10 revisions.*
  </wiki:then>
</wiki:if>

Where's all my app data stored?

In wiki pages! Seriously, in JotSpot everything is wiki page, and pages are just XML. But don't worry about that yet. There's plenty of time to explain exactly how this simplifies your life later.

What You Should Already Know

Basic understanding of the following is very helpful:

• Bare-bones HTML basics
• XPath basics
• Basic programming concepts like variables, conditionals, and looping