What is Banana Dance?
Here's a riddle for you: What do you get when you add web CMS features to a Wiki? Did you guess Banana Dance? Well you are correct. Gold star for you!
Banana Dance is a free, open source, PHP/MySQL program that takes the best of wiki software and combines it with the best of web content management systems (CMS).
Overview of Features
The Basics
- Create categories to classify pages.
- Easily create pages using an inline editor with a syntax toolbar and a page options.
- Use full HTML or a simplified wiki syntax to compose pages.
- Option to use plain text or WYSIWYG editor.
- Widgets make displaying dynamic menus and recurring code snippets a snap!
- Page locking to avoid editing conflicts.
- Keyboard Shortcuts make creating and editing pages more natural.
- Auto-save to avoid lost work when editing pages.
- Easy page searches.
- Easily tag topics using the #hashtag syntax!
- Sharing features built-in!
Media Library
- Easily manage media through an inline Media Library.
- Easy uploading and management of images, including smart re-sizing.
- Instantly create image galleries based on image tags.
- Easy uploading and sharing of files and attachments.
- Track and limit download activity.
Community Features
- Easy user registration with customizable fields and profile management.
- Use the @username syntax for mentioning users in comments and pages!
- Commenting:
- Use either tree-style or forum-style comments on any page!
- Allow the community to upvote/downvote comments.
- Logically classify comments in an unlimited number of comment types.
- Option to require approval before comments go live.
- Award users with points that result in badges for participating!
- Integrated with Facebook Connect for easier login and registration.
- Allow users to follow/favorite pages.
Security
- Smart CAPTCHA to prevent brute-force login attempts.
- Highly encrypted passwords with one-way encryption.
SEO Friendly
- Smart page URLs that search engines love.
- Automatic page title shortening to fit search engine specifications.
Mobile Device Ready
- Mobile Themes means that your site will look as good on a mobile device as on a computer!
- Auto-detection of mobile devices.
- Ability to switch between mobile and standard websites.
Speed
- Ability to cache anything and everything!
- Minify page code.
- Auto-cache headers.
- One-click updating.
Access Controls
- Make entire categories and/or individual pages public, private, or accessible by specific users/user types only.
- Establish user types each with their own privileges.
- Ban users and IPs.
Customizable & Flexible
- Layout customization through an extremely flexibly template system that allows for unlimited combinations of headers, footers, and templates.
- Each category and page can have its own settings, including default settings by category.
- Themes for instant re-skinning.
- Plugins open up endless possibilities for the program!
- Customizable e-mail notifications and templates.
- Language files for easy translation of the program.
Other
- Heavy use of jQuery for less reloading and a more immersive user experience.
- Community involvement and support options.
Requirements
- PHP 5+
- MySQL 5+
- We recommend an Apache server, but it should work on any server that supports PHP.





