XWiki has for a long time had the ability to export wiki pages as PDF files. Since we shipped our new rendering module, the quality of their output is better than ever.
However, until earlier tonight some of the advanced PDF export features still lacked an UI. Following-up on a discussion I had with Ludovic (@ldubost) earlier today, I decided to go ahead and try writing a simple application that would expose XWiki's advanced PDF export features in an easy-to-use UI.
I chose to go for a panel since they provide a great and easy way to extend XWiki's feature set in a flexible manner. Taking advantage of XWiki's ability to script right into wiki pages, I used some velocity & HTML code to create a panel that would let users define which options to select when performing an export. Here's what it looks like:
Once I was done coding and testing my application on my local version of XWiki Enterprise, I exported it as a XAR (XWiki Archive) and published it on code.xwiki.org, XWiki's repository for community-contributed applications. It's very easy and my panel joined the dozen of other applications available for XWiki.
Coding and deploying XWiki applications is really fun, you should give it a go!