UserPress: A New Wiki Plugin for WordPress, BuddyPress and bbPress

UserPress is a new free plugin that aims to be the ultimate wiki solution for WordPress. It provides a comprehensive set of user-friendly features that will transform your site into a collaborative hub for creating wiki content.

Richard Smith, the plugin’s author, created UserPress to provide functionality that he believes is often missing from existing wiki plugins. “Over the years, I have been frustrated by the lack of a proper wiki plugin for WordPress,” he said. “So I decided to build one.”

Front-end Editing for Wiki Content

UserPress allows wiki users to create and edit content on the frontend of the site. Wiki participation privileges are based on user capabilities and can be manually set for each wiki.

When creating new content, users will see a list of similar existing pages, which helps to prevent collaborators from overlapping on content. If a user accesses a non-existent wiki page, the plugin will prompt him to create a new page.

UserPress includes multiple options for sorting and managing wiki articles, including recently added, recently edited, recently discussed and alphabetical order. The plugin also offers an array of wiki-related widgets: search, new wikis, popular wikis, recent wikis, categories and tags, a tag cloud, and a subscription button.

Wiki Version Control and Moderation

One of UserPress’ more useful features is the built-in basic version control. The plugin allows users to compare changes to documents (diff) and gives the option for editors to attach a note with each revision.

UserPress allows wiki participants to moderate content using a set of customizable flags. For example, one might flag an article for poor attribution, readability or spam.

Subscription for bbPress and BuddyPress

The subscription feature allows users to monitor articles to keep track of comments and updates. However, subscription is only available for users on sites where bbPress and/or BuddyPress are activated. It fits in seamlessly with the user profile menu.

Subscription management

Members can navigate to the subscriptions panel to find out what’s new and to manage current active subscriptions.

Default Wiki Theme

The design for the default wiki theme is based on Zurb’s Foundation Framework. UserPress includes a responsive default theme (“UserTheme”) that is automatically installed and activated once the plugin has been activated. However, the plugin will work with any WordPress theme. The automatic activation of the theme upon installation of the plugin helps users to discover that there is a theme available, but it might be disturbing if the administrator is not expecting it.

If you’re looking for a wiki plugin that works well on its own and integrates nicely with bbPress and BuddyPress, UserPress is a solid option. Its feature set is geared towards making collaboration more efficient and productive for wiki participants. Download the plugin from WordPress.org or grab the latest from the UserPress homepage.