TWiki Reference Manual (TWiki-6.1.0, Mon, 16 Jul 2018, build 30610)
This page contains all documentation topics as one long, complete reference sheet.
Related Topics: TWikiSite,
TWikiHistory,
TWikiEnhancementRequests,
UserDocumentationCategory,
AdminDocumentationCategory
TWiki System Requirements
Server and client requirements
Low client and server base requirements are core features that keep TWiki widely deployable, particularly across a range of browser platforms and versions. Many
Plugins and
contrib modules exist which enhance and expand TWiki's capabilities; they may have additional requirements.
TWiki is written in Perl 5, uses a number of shell commands, and requires
RCS (Revision Control System), a GNU Free Software package. TWiki is developed in a basic Linux/Apache environment. It also works with Microsoft Windows, and should have no problem on any other platform that meets the requirements.
|
|
Resource |
Required Server Environment * |
Perl |
5.8.0 or higher (5.8.4 or higher is recommended) |
RCS |
5.7 or higher (including GNU diff ) Optional, TWiki includes a pure Perl implementation of RCS that can be used instead (although it's slower) |
GNU diff |
GNU diff 2.7 or higher is required when not using the all-Perl RcsLite. Install on PATH if not included with RCS (check version with diff -v ) Must be the version used by RCS, to avoid problems with binary attachments - RCS may have hard-coded path to diff |
GNU df |
Used by the site statistics to record disk usage statistics, optional. The df command is pre-installed on Linux and OS-X. On Windows install the CoreUtils for Windows. |
GNU patch |
For upgrades only: GNU patch is required when using the TWiki:Codev.UpgradeTWiki script |
GNU fgrep , egrep |
Modify command line parameters in configure if you use non-GNU grep programs |
zip |
Zip archive command line utility. Used by the BackupRestorePlugin to create and restore from backups. |
Cron/scheduler |
• Unix: cron • Windows: cron equivalents |
Web server |
Apache is well supported; see TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#OtherWebServers for other servers |
|
|
|
Required CPAN Modules
Most of the CPAN libraries listesd below are part of a standard Perl installation so you most likely have them all!
See
TWiki:TWiki.HowToInstallCpanModules for detailed information on how to install CPAN libraries
The following Perl
CPAN modules are used by TWiki:
|
|
Module |
Preferred version |
Comment |
Algorithm::Diff |
|
Included in TWiki distribution |
CGI |
>=3.18 |
Versions 2.89 and 3.37 must be avoided. Most version from 3.15 and onwards should work. |
CGI::Carp |
>=1.26 |
|
Config |
>=0 |
|
Cwd |
>=3.05 |
|
Data::Dumper |
>=2.121 |
|
Encode |
>=2.1 |
|
Error |
|
Included in TWiki distribution |
File::Copy |
>=2.06 |
|
File::Find |
>=1.05 |
|
File::Spec |
>=3.05 |
|
File::Temp |
>=0.18 |
This version included in Perl 5.9.5. File::Temp needs to be updated on RedHat 5 and CentOS 5. |
FileHandle |
>=2.01 |
|
HTML::Parser |
>=3.28 |
Needed by the WysiwygPlugin for WYSIWYG editing |
HTML::Entities |
>=1.25 |
Needed by the WysiwygPlugin for WYSIWYG editing |
IO::File |
>=1.10 |
|
Net::SMTP |
>=2.29 |
Used for sending mail |
Text::Diff |
|
Included in TWiki distribution |
Time::Local |
>=1.11 |
|
|
|
|
Optional CPAN Modules
The following Perl modules may be used by TWiki:
See
TWiki:TWiki.HowToInstallCpanModules for detailed information on how to install CPAN libraries
|
|
Module |
Preferred version |
Description |
Archive::Tar |
|
May be required by the Extensions Installer in configure if command line tar or unzip is not available |
Authen::SASL |
|
Used for SMTP Authentication |
CGI::Cookie |
>=1.24 |
Used for session support |
CGI::Session |
>=3.95 |
Used for session support |
Crypt::SMIME |
>=0.09 |
Required if S/MIME-signed administrative e-mail is enabled. |
Digest::base |
|
|
Digest::SHA1 |
|
|
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon |
>=0 |
Used for I18N support |
Net::SMTP |
>=2.29 |
Used for sending mail |
URI |
|
Used for configure |
|
|
|
Most of them will probably already be available in your installation. You can check version numbers with the
configure
script, or if you're still trying to get to that point, check from the command line like this:
perl -e 'use FileHandle; print $FileHandle::VERSION."\n"'
The TWiki
standard installation has relatively low browser requirements:
- HTML 3.2 compliant
- Cookies, if persistent sessions are required
CSS and Javascript are used in most skins, although there is a low-fat skin (Classic skin) available that minimizes these requirements. Some skins will require more recent releases of browsers. The default skin (Pattern) is tested on IE 6, Safari, and Mozilla 5.0 based browsers (such as Firefox).
You can easily select a balance of browser capability versus look and feel. Try the installed skins at
TWikiSkinBrowser and more at
TWiki:Plugins.SkinPackage.
- Plugins can require just about anything - browser-specific functions, stylesheets (CSS), Java applets, cookies, specific Perl modules,... - check the individual Plugin specs.
Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory
Back to top
TWiki Installation Guide
The following is installation instructions for the TWiki 5.1 production release on an Apache web server on Linux. Visit
TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki for the latest updates to this guide and supplemental information for installing or upgrading TWiki, including notes on installing TWiki on different platforms, environments and web hosting sites.
If you are upgrading from a previous version of TWiki, you probably want to read
TWikiUpgradeGuide instead.
Before attempting to install TWiki, you are encouraged to review the
AdminSkillsAssumptions. This guide assumes you have, at a minimum, basic knowledge of server administration on the system on which TWiki is to be installed. While it is possible to install TWiki with FTP access alone (for example, on a hosted site), it is tricky and may require additional support from your hosting service (for example, in setting file ownership and installing missing Perl CPAN libraries).
To help setup a correct Apache configuration, you are very much encouraged to use the automatic tool
TWiki:TWiki.ApacheConfigGenerator which generates the contents for an Apache config file for TWiki based on your inputs.
While this installation guide specifically describes installation on an Apache web server on Linux, TWiki should work fine with any web server and OS that meet the system requirements (see below). For additional notes on installing TWiki on other systems, see
TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#OtherPlatforms.
If you are installing TWiki without Unix/Linux root (administrator) privileges (for example, on a hosted domain), see "Notes on Installing TWiki on Non-Root Account" below for supplemental instructions to the basic steps presented below.
If you are upgrading from an earlier major version of TWiki such as Cairo (TWiki-3) or TWiki 4.x you will need the information found at
TWikiUpgradeGuide.
One of the more difficult tasks is installation of additional CPAN libraries. See
TWiki:TWiki.HowToInstallCpanModules for detailed information on how to install CPAN libraries.
If you need help, ask a question in the
TWiki:Support.WebHome web or on
TWiki:Codev.TWikiIRC (irc.freenode.net, channel #twiki).
- Download the TWiki distribution from http://TWiki.org/. (Example - download
TWiki-5.1.2.tgz
for Linux)
- Copy the downloaded package into the directory where you want to install TWiki (Example: /home/httpd ). Unpack the distribution in it (Example: tar xvfz TWiki-5.1.2.tgz). The unpack will create a directory called
twiki
which contains the TWiki package. In the rest of this document we assume this directory is called twiki
.
- Note: TWiki does not allow spaces in directory names. Especially on Windows make sure to use a directory path without spaces.
- Setup access file and directory rights to enable the webserver user (the user Apache runs the CGI scripts as) to read and write inside the twiki directory.
- Warning: Do not just just run a
chmod -R 770 twiki
. The access rules have different meaning for files and directories. This is the most common mistake installers make.
- The distribution tgz has the file and directory access rights setup to work with a reasonable security level that will work for all types of installations including shared hosting.
- The ownership of the twiki directory tree is normally set to the user that unpacked the tgz and will have to be changed to the webserver user using the command
chown -R user:group /path/to/twiki
. The webserver username varies from Distributions. Examples for some major distributions:
- RedHat, Fedora, CentOS, Gentoo, Mandriva :
chown -R apache:apache /path/to/twiki
- debian/Ubuntu/Kubunto :
chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/twiki
- Suse :
chown -R wwwrun:www /path/to/twiki
- If you mistakenly change the access rights in a way that makes TWiki stop working, simply run the script found at TWiki:TWiki.SettingFileAccessRightsLinuxUnix to set the access rights of the entire TWiki tree back to the defaults in the distribution.
- It is possible to define tighter access rules than the ones given by default after the installation is complete. But how tight they should be depends on your distribution and local needs. Typically you may want to limit all access from world if the webserver machine has login access for other users than root and the web server administrator. For a dedicated web server made just for running TWiki with limited login access the default access rights are reasonable.
- Check the Perl installation. Ensure that Perl 5 and the Perl CGI library are installed on your system.
- The default location of Perl is
/usr/bin/perl
. If it's somewhere else, change the path to Perl in the first line of each script in the twiki/bin
directory.
- Some systems require a special extension on perl scripts (e.g.
.cgi
or .pl
). This is normally only needed under Windows and only where perl scripts are only recognized by file extension. Linux and Unix users should normally never need to do this. If necessary, rename all files in twiki/bin
(i.e. rename view
to view.pl
etc). If you do this, make sure you set the ScriptSuffix
option in configure
(Step 6).
- Create the file LocalLib.cfg located as
twiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg
- There is a template for this file in
twiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg.txt
. Simply copy LocalLib.cfg.txt to LocalLib.cfg. Make sure the ownership and access rights of the copy are the same as LocalLib.cfg.txt
- The file
twiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg
must contain a setting for $twikiLibPath
, which must point to the absolute directory path of your twiki/lib
e.g. /var/www/twiki/lib
.
- If you need to install additional CPAN modules, but can't update the main Perl installation files on the server, you can set
$CPANBASE
to point to your personal CPAN install. Don't forget that the webserver user has to be able to read those files as well.
- Choose best configuration method for your webserver. There are two ways to configure Apache: config file included from httpd.conf or .htaccess files.
- Apache config file: The recommended method is using a config file. With a config file you can put the entire TWiki configuration in ONE file (typically named
twiki.conf
). Performance is much better with a config file, and makes setting up a correct and safe installation easier. However using a config file requires that you can restart Apache which again means that you need root or sudo access to stop and start Apache. The TWiki apache config file is included from the main Apache config file httpd.conf. Most distributions have a directory from which any file that ends with .conf
gets included when you restart Apache (Example RedHat/Fedora/Centos: /etc/httpd/conf.d
). If you use a virtual host setup in Apache you should include the twiki.conf file from inside the desired virtual host config in your Apache configuration.
- .htaccess files: This option should only be used when you cannot use a config file. Performance is slowed down because Apache has to look through all directories in search of possible .htaccess files each time someone views a page in TWiki. Normally this is the only way to control Apache in a shared host environment where you have no root or sudo privileges.
- Configure the webserver
- Unless you are an Apache expert setting up the webserver can be quite difficult. But TWiki has three resources that make setting up Apache easier.
- The best and easiest way is to use webpage TWiki:TWiki.ApacheConfigGenerator which contains a tool that can generate a safe and working config file for TWiki on Apache.
- In the root of the twiki installation you find an example config file
twiki_httpd_conf.txt
(nevertheless, it is better to use the generator).
- In case you do not have root priviledges on the server:
- In the root of the twiki installation and in the
twiki/bin
directory you find example .htaccess
files you can copy and modify. The files contains help text explaining how to set them up. In twiki/bin
you find .htaccess.txt
which can be copied to .htaccess
and defined access to the CGI scripts.
- In the root of TWiki you find
pub-htaccess.txt
which you can copy to pub/.htaccess
, subdir-htaccess.txt
which you can copy to all directories as .htaccess
except bin and pub, and you find root-htaccess.txt
which you can copy to .htaccess
in the twiki root directory. But again only use .htaccess files if you do not have root priviledges.
- If you are unsure about how to do this on your system, see TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#OtherPlatforms for links to information about various server setups.
- Note: When you use config files you need to restart Apache each time you change a setting to make the new setting active.
- Run the
configure
script from your browser (enter http://yourdomain/twiki/bin/configure
into your browser address bar)
- Specify and reenter a password. This is your configure password, as well as the
admin
user password once TWiki is running.
- Note: In case you forgot the password, you can reset it by deleting
$TWiki::cfg{Password}
from LocalSite.cfg
file from {TWIKI_ROOT}/lib
directory.
- When you run
configure
for the first time, you can only edit the General Path Settings
section. Save these settings, and then return to configure
to continue configuration.
- Resolve any errors or warnings it tells you about.
- If your webserver can be accessed by more than one domain name make sure to add the additional alternative URLs to
{PermittedRedirectHostUrls}
- When you return to configure you now need to setup Mail and Proxies. Especially the
{WebMasterEmail}
, and {SMTP}{MAILHOST}
must be defined to enable TWiki to send administrative emails, such as for registration and notification of topic changes. Many ISPs have introduced authentication when sending emails to fight spam so you may also have to set {SMTP}{Username}
and {SMTP}{Password}
. If you do not want to enable mailing or want to enable it later you can uncheck {EnableEmail}
.
- If you want administrative e-mails to be signed, see S/MIME setup instructions below.
You now have a basic, unauthenticated installation running. At this point you can just point your web browser at
http://yourdomain.com/twiki/bin/view
and start TWiki-ing away!
Before you continue any further there are some basic and very important security settings you have to make sure are set correctly.
- As already described above, you should protect the configure script from general access. The configure script is designed for use by administrators only and should be restricted to invocation by them only, by using the basic Apache authentication. Because of this there has not been put much effort into hardening the script. The configure script cannot save any settings once the password has been saved the first time, but the script could still be vulnerable to specially crafted field values and the script reveals many details about the webserver that you should not display in public.
- You absolutely must turn off any kind of PHP, Perl, Python, Server Side Includes etc in the
pub
directory. TWiki has some built-in protection which renames files with dangerous filenames by appending .txt to the filename. But this is a secondary security measure. The essential action that you must take is to turn off any possible execution of any of the attached files.
Most Linux distributions have a default Apache installation which has PHP and server side include (SSI) enabled.
- Make sure that you deny access to all other twiki directories than the
bin
and pub
directories. When you have access to the Apache config files the twiki_httpd_conf.txt
file mentioned above also contains protection of these directories.
For those who do not have access to the Apache config files a sample subdir-htaccess.txt
file can be copied as .htaccess
to the data, lib, locale, templates, tools and working directories.
- Attachments are not secured by default to the access control setting of the topic. In other words, anyone can read them if they know the direct URL of the attachment, which includes name of the web, topic and attachment. You can configure TWiki to secure attachments.
The
TWiki:TWiki.ApacheConfigGenerator as well as the example
twiki_httpd_conf.txt
and example
htaccess.txt
files include the needed settings that protect against all 4 security elements.
Once you have TWiki installed and running, you might consider the following optional steps for setting up and customizing your TWiki site. Many of the references below refer to topics within your TWiki installation. For example,
TWiki.TWikiSkins
refers to the
TWikiSkins
topic in your TWiki web. Easy way to jump directly to view the pages is to open your own TWiki in your browser and write
TWiki.TWikiSkins
in the Jump test box to the right in the top bar and hit Enter. You can find these topics in the on-line reference copy at the official TWiki website:
TWiki Release 5.1.
This step provides for site access control and user activity tracking on your TWiki site.
This is particularly important for sites that are publicly accessible on the web. This guide describes only the most common of several possible authentication setups for TWiki and is suitable for public web sites. For information about other setups, see
TWikiUserAuthentication, and
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiUserAuthenticationSupplement.
These are the steps for enabling "Template Login" which asks for a username and password in a web page, and processes them using the Apache 'htpasswd' password manager. Users can log in and log out.
- Under the
Security Settings
pane of configure
:
- Select
TWiki::LoginManager::TemplateLogin
for {LoginManager}
.
- Select
TWiki::Users::HtPasswdUser
for {PasswordManager}
.
- Save your
configure
settings.
- Register yourself using the TWikiRegistration topic.
Check that the password manager recognizes the new user. Check that a new line with the username and encrypted password is added to the data/.htpasswd
file. If not, you probably got a path wrong, or the permissions may not allow the webserver user to write to that file.
- Edit a topic (by clicking on the
Edit
link at beginning or end of topic) to check if authentication works.
You are strongly encouraged to read
TWikiUserAuthentication,
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiUserAuthenticationSupplement, and
TWiki:TWiki.SecuringTWikiSite for further information about managing users and security of your TWiki site.
Note: The other
LoginManager
option
TWiki::LoginManager::ApacheLogin
uses a basic Apache type authentication where the browser itself prompts you for username and password. Most will find the TemplateLogin looking nicer. But ApacheLogin is required when you use Apache authentication methods like mod_ldap where all authentication is handled by an Apache module and not by the TWiki perl code. When you use ApacheLogin the apache configuration must be set up to require authentication of the some but not all the scripts in the bin directory. This section in the Apache config (or .htaccess) controls this
<FilesMatch "(attach|edit|manage|rename|save|upload|mail|logon|rest|.*auth).*">
require valid-user
</FilesMatch>
The
TWiki:TWiki.ApacheConfigGenerator includes this section when you choose
ApacheLogin. In the example
twiki_httpd_conf.txt
and
bin/.htaccess.txt
files this section is commented out with #. Uncomment the section when you use
ApacheLogin. It is important that this section is commented out or removed when you use
TemplateLogin.
Administrators have read and write access to any topic in TWiki, regardless of TWiki access controls. When you install TWiki one of the first things you will want to do is define yourself as an administrator. You become an administrator simply by adding yourself to the TWikiAdminGroup. It is the
WikiName and not the login name you add to the group. Editing the
Main.TWikiAdminGroup topic requires that you are an administrator. So to add the first administrator you need to login using the internal TWiki admin user login and the password you defined in configure.
- Navigate to the Main.TWikiAdminGroup topic
- Follow carefully the steps TWikiAdminGroup of how to become an admin
- Note that if you use ApacheLogin you have to be registered and logged in before you use the internal admin login
Preferences for customizing many aspects of TWiki are set simply by editing a special topic with TWiki.
- TWikiPreferences. Read through it and identify any additional settings or changes you think you might need. You can edit the settings in TWiki.TWikiPreferences but these will be overwritten when you later upgrade to a newer TWiki version. Instead copy any settings or variables that you want to customize from TWiki.TWikiPreferences and paste them into Main.TWikiPreferences. When you later upgrade TWiki simply avoid overwriting the
data/Main/TWikiPreferences.txt
file and all your settings will be kept. Settings in Main.TWikiPreferences overrides settings in both TWiki.TWikiPreferences and any settings defined in plugin topics. See notes at the top of TWiki.TWikiPreferences for more information.
Each TWiki web has an automatic email notification service that sends you an email with links to all of the topics modified since the last alert. To enable this service:
- Confirm the Mail and Proxies settings in the Configure interface.
- Setup a cron job (or equivalent) to call the
tools/mailnotify
script as described in the MailerContrib topic.
TWiki administrative e-mails are an attractive target for SPAM generators and phishing attacks. One good way to protect against this possibility to enable S/MIME signatures on all administrative e-mails. To do this, you need an an X.509 certificate and private key for the the
{WebMasterEmail}
email account. Obtain these as you would for any other S/MIME e-mail user.
To enable TWiki to sign administrative e-mails:
- Enable e-mail as described above
- If necessary, convert your certificate and key files to PEM format ( openssl has all the necessary utilities)
- Place the certificate anyplace convenient that the webserver can read. It should be protected against write. The conventional place under linux is
/etc/pki/tls/certs
- Place the key file in a secure location that only the webserver can read. It must not be readable by anyone else, and must not be served by the webserver.
- Using the
configure
script, change the following settings under Mail and Proxies:
- Follow the directions under
{MailProgram}
to enable an external mail program such as sendmail. Net::SMTP is not supported.
- Enter the full path to the certificate file in the
{SmimeCertificateFile}
configuration variable
- Enter the full path to the private key file in the
{SmimeKeyFile}
configuration variable
- Save the configuration
- Re-run the
configure
script an resolve any errors that it identifies
All out-going administrative e-mails will now be signed.
You can generate a listing manually, or on an automated schedule, of visits to individual pages on a per web basis. For information on setting up this feature, see the
TWikiSiteTools topic.
Per default TWiki cleans out expired session and lease files each time any topic is viewed. This however comes at a cost of lower performance. It is an advantage to define a negative value in
configure
for
{Sessions}{ExpireAfter}
(turn on expert mode to see it), and install a cronjob to run the
tools/tick_twiki.pl
script. Read The topic
TWikiScripts#tick_twiki_pl for details how to do this.
TWiki now supports displaying of national (non-ascii) characters and presentation of basic interface elements in different languages. To enable these features, see the
Localization
section of
configure
. For more information about these features, see
TWiki:TWiki.InternationalizationSupplement.
When a new users registers on your TWiki, a user profile topic is created for them based on the
NewUserTemplate topic (and its
UserForm). It contains additional resources you can use to:
- Localize the user topic.
- Add a default ALLOWTOPICCHANGE so only the user can edit their own home topic. We do not encourage this for Intranet sites as it sends a wrong signal to new users, but it can be necessary on a public TWiki to prevent spam.
- Add and remove fields defined in the UserForm
If you choose to tailor anything you are strongly advised to copy NewUserTemplate and UserForm to the Main web and tailor the Main web copies. TWiki will look for the NewUserTemplate in the Main web first and if it does not exist TWiki uses the default from the TWiki web. By creating a Main.NewUserTemplate and its Main.UserForm you will not loose your customization next time you upgrade TWiki.
If you added or removed fields from the user form you may also need to tailor
TWikiRegistration.
By default the TWiki home is
Main.WebHome. Users tend to create content starting from the homepage. In most cases it is better to
create a new web (workspace) for default content. That way the Main web can be kept clean and used just for users and TWiki groups. For example, you could create an "Intranet" web if TWiki is primarily used as an intranet, or a "KB" web if used as a knowledge base, etc.
If you have a dedicated web as a starting point you obviously want users start at the home of that web. This can be configured in two places: 1. Redirect from site home to web home, and 2. Set the wiki logo URL.
1. Redirect from site home to web home
When a user enters the domain name of your TWiki she expects to see the homepage. You can do that either with an Apache rewrite rule or an HTML meta redirect to redirect from
/
to
/bin/view/Intranet/WebHome
. Here is an example
index.html
containing an HTML meta redirect you can use: Customize it and put it in your HTML document root on your TWiki sever:
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;/do/view/Intranet/WebHome" />
</head>
<body>
Redirecting to <a href="/do/view/Intranet/WebHome">Intranet home</a>...
</body>
</html>
2. Set the wiki logo URL
When a user clicks on the logo in the upper left or on the "Home" link in the top-bar she expects to navigate to the new homepage. You can do that by defining and customizing the following setting in
Main.TWikiPreferences as described in the
Set TWiki Preferences section:
URL of the logo:
* Set WIKILOGOURL = %SCRIPTURLPATH{view}%/Intranet/WebHome
The real power of TWiki lies in its flexibility to be customized to meet your needs. You can easily change the look of the default skins (called
TopMenuSkin and
PatternSkin) by reading the
PatternSkinCustomization.
At the official TWiki website you can find more resources. A good place to start exploring what's possible is
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiAdminCookBook which offers tips and tricks for customizing your TWiki site. Many of these are appropriate to implement immediately after installing TWiki and before adding content so now's a good time to look at these.
Some pages are meant to be customized after choice of authentication. If you do not use the internal TWiki password manager the topics that contains the features for changing and resetting passwords and changing the email address should be changed to a note describing how to perform these tasks in your organization. The topics are:
TWiki:Plugins.WebHome is an extensive library of plugins for TWiki, that enhance functionality in a huge number of ways. A few plugins are pre-installed in the TWiki distribution. For more information on these, see
InstalledPlugins.
You activate installed plugin in the
Plugins section of
configure
. In this section you also find a
Find More Extensions button which opens an application which can install additional plugins from the TWiki.org website. If you are behind a firewall or your server has no access to the Internet it is also possible to install plugins manually. Manual installation instructions for the plugins can be found in the plugin topics on TWiki.org. Additional documentation on TWiki plugins can be found at
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiPluginsSupplement.
Some plugins require that you define their settings in
configure
. You fill find these under the
Extensions section of configure.
From TWiki release 4.2.0 on the WYSIWYG editor has been replaced by a much better and more powerful editor and it was decided that WYSIWYG would be the default edit mode. An Edit Raw link is available for those that have a need or preference for this mode.
However you may prefer to have the same user interface as in TWiki 4.1 where
Edit was the raw text editor and you had a WYSIWYG button. This is possible by adding the following setting in the
Main.TWikiPreferences, WebPreferences or user hompages:
At the bottom of each topic you will find a default copyright message saying "Copyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors." The WEBCOPYRIGHT setting defines this. This is often not adequate.
- If your TWiki is used in a commercial application without public access you should replace this by your normal copyright notice. You should also consider adding classifications (e.g. For Internal Use Only) so people do not have to add this manually to every new topic.
- If your TWiki is public with public access you need to decide which copyright and license the contributions should be covered by. For open source type applications licenses such as the GNU Free Documentation License, FreeBSD Documentation License, and Creative Commons license are possible licenses to consider. Remember that once people have started contributing it is difficult and not correct to change or impose licenses on existing contributions.
You change the copy right statement globally by taking these steps.
- Copy the setting WEBCOPYRIGHT from TWiki.TWikiPreferences to Main.TWikiPreferences and alter the copied text to your need.
- You can create a unique message for each web by adding the WEBCOPYRIGHT setting to WebPreferences in each web. E.g. adding a confidencial classification to a very restricted web.
- The WEBCOPYRIGHT in TWiki.WebPreferences covers the documentation that comes with TWiki and is covered by the original TWiki Copyright and GPL License. You will normally leave this unchanged.
The first step is to re-run the
configure
script and make sure you have resolved all errors, and are satisfied that you understand any warnings.
If, by any chance, you forget the "admin" password, the same used in "configure" script, then please login to the server. Delete
$TWiki::cfg{Password}= ' ...';
. Set the new password using "configure" script.
Failing that, please check
TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki on TWiki.org, the supplemental documentation that help you install TWiki on different platforms, environments and web hosting sites. For example:
It is also advisable to review
TWiki:Codev/KnownIssuesOfTWiki05x00.
If you need help, ask a question in the
TWiki:Support web or on
TWiki:Codev/TWikiIRC (irc.freenode.net, channel #twiki)
Low client and server base requirements are core features that keep TWiki widely deployable, particularly across a range of browser platforms and versions. Many
Plugins and
contrib modules exist which enhance and expand TWiki's capabilities; they may have additional requirements.
Server Requirements
TWiki is written in Perl 5, uses a number of shell commands, and requires
RCS (Revision Control System), a GNU Free Software package. TWiki is developed in a basic Linux/Apache environment. It also works with Microsoft Windows, and should have no problem on any other platform that meets the requirements.
|
|
Resource |
Required Server Environment * |
Perl |
5.8.0 or higher (5.8.4 or higher is recommended) |
RCS |
5.7 or higher (including GNU diff ) Optional, TWiki includes a pure Perl implementation of RCS that can be used instead (although it's slower) |
GNU diff |
GNU diff 2.7 or higher is required when not using the all-Perl RcsLite. Install on PATH if not included with RCS (check version with diff -v ) Must be the version used by RCS, to avoid problems with binary attachments - RCS may have hard-coded path to diff |
GNU df |
Used by the site statistics to record disk usage statistics, optional. The df command is pre-installed on Linux and OS-X. On Windows install the CoreUtils for Windows. |
GNU patch |
For upgrades only: GNU patch is required when using the TWiki:Codev.UpgradeTWiki script |
GNU fgrep , egrep |
Modify command line parameters in configure if you use non-GNU grep programs |
zip |
Zip archive command line utility. Used by the BackupRestorePlugin to create and restore from backups. |
Cron/scheduler |
• Unix: cron • Windows: cron equivalents |
Web server |
Apache is well supported; see TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#OtherWebServers for other servers |
|
|
|
Required CPAN Modules
Most of the CPAN libraries listesd below are part of a standard Perl installation so you most likely have them all!
See
TWiki:TWiki.HowToInstallCpanModules for detailed information on how to install CPAN libraries
The following Perl
CPAN modules are used by TWiki:
|
|
Module |
Preferred version |
Comment |
Algorithm::Diff |
|
Included in TWiki distribution |
CGI |
>=3.18 |
Versions 2.89 and 3.37 must be avoided. Most version from 3.15 and onwards should work. |
CGI::Carp |
>=1.26 |
|
Config |
>=0 |
|
Cwd |
>=3.05 |
|
Data::Dumper |
>=2.121 |
|
Encode |
>=2.1 |
|
Error |
|
Included in TWiki distribution |
File::Copy |
>=2.06 |
|
File::Find |
>=1.05 |
|
File::Spec |
>=3.05 |
|
File::Temp |
>=0.18 |
This version included in Perl 5.9.5. File::Temp needs to be updated on RedHat 5 and CentOS 5. |
FileHandle |
>=2.01 |
|
HTML::Parser |
>=3.28 |
Needed by the WysiwygPlugin for WYSIWYG editing |
HTML::Entities |
>=1.25 |
Needed by the WysiwygPlugin for WYSIWYG editing |
IO::File |
>=1.10 |
|
Net::SMTP |
>=2.29 |
Used for sending mail |
Text::Diff |
|
Included in TWiki distribution |
Time::Local |
>=1.11 |
|
|
|
|
Optional CPAN Modules
The following Perl modules may be used by TWiki:
See
TWiki:TWiki.HowToInstallCpanModules for detailed information on how to install CPAN libraries
|
|
Module |
Preferred version |
Description |
Archive::Tar |
|
May be required by the Extensions Installer in configure if command line tar or unzip is not available |
Authen::SASL |
|
Used for SMTP Authentication |
CGI::Cookie |
>=1.24 |
Used for session support |
CGI::Session |
>=3.95 |
Used for session support |
Crypt::SMIME |
>=0.09 |
Required if S/MIME-signed administrative e-mail is enabled. |
Digest::base |
|
|
Digest::SHA1 |
|
|
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon |
>=0 |
Used for I18N support |
Net::SMTP |
>=2.29 |
Used for sending mail |
URI |
|
Used for configure |
|
|
|
Most of them will probably already be available in your installation. You can check version numbers with the
configure
script, or if you're still trying to get to that point, check from the command line like this:
perl -e 'use FileHandle; print $FileHandle::VERSION."\n"'
Client Requirements
The TWiki
standard installation has relatively low browser requirements:
- HTML 3.2 compliant
- Cookies, if persistent sessions are required
CSS and Javascript are used in most skins, although there is a low-fat skin (Classic skin) available that minimizes these requirements. Some skins will require more recent releases of browsers. The default skin (Pattern) is tested on IE 6, Safari, and Mozilla 5.0 based browsers (such as Firefox).
You can easily select a balance of browser capability versus look and feel. Try the installed skins at
TWikiSkinBrowser and more at
TWiki:Plugins.SkinPackage.
Important note about TWiki Plugins
- Plugins can require just about anything - browser-specific functions, stylesheets (CSS), Java applets, cookies, specific Perl modules,... - check the individual Plugin specs.
The following supplemental notes to the
Basic Installation instructions apply to installing TWiki on a system where you don't have Unix/Linux root (administrator) privileges, for example, on a hosted Web account or an intranet server administered by someone else.
Referring to the
Basic Installation steps presented above:
- Step 2: If you cannot unpack the TWiki distribution directly in your installation directory, you can unpack the distribution on your local PC and then manually create the directory structure on your host server and upload the files as follows:
- Using the table below, create a directory structure on your host server
- Upload the TWiki files by FTP (transfer as text except for the image files in
pub
directory.)
- Note: Don't worry if you are not able to put the twiki/lib directory at the same level as the
twiki/bin
directory (e.g. because CGI bin directories can't be under your home directory and you don't have root access). You can create this directory elsewhere and configure the twiki/bin/setlib.cfg
file (done in Step 2).
|
|
TWiki dir: |
What it is: |
Where to copy: |
Example: |
twiki |
start-up pages |
root TWiki dir |
/home/smith/twiki/ |
twiki/bin |
CGI bin |
CGI-enabled dir |
/home/smith/twiki/bin |
twiki/lib |
library files |
same level as twiki/bin |
/home/smith/twiki/lib |
twiki/locale |
language files |
dir secure from public access |
/home/smith/twiki/locale |
twiki/pub |
public files |
htdoc enabled dir |
/home/smith/twiki/pub |
twiki/data |
topic data |
dir secure from public access |
/home/smith/twiki/data |
twiki/templates |
web templates |
dir secure from public access |
/home/smith/twiki/templates |
twiki/tools |
TWiki utlilities |
dir secure from public access |
/home/smith/twiki/tools |
twiki/working |
Temporary and internal files |
dir secure from public access |
/home/smith/twiki/working |
|
|
|
- Step 3: Files in the pub directory must be readable as a url. This means that directory permissions should be set to
755
(or 775
) and file permissions should be set to 644
(or 664
). If you can run a chmod
command, you can accomplish this in two quick steps by running these commands from the root direct:
-
chmod -R 755 pub
-
chmod 644 `find pub -type f -print`
- In addition, you should create a
.htaccess
file in the pub directory, using the template included in the root level of the distribution entitled pub-htaccess.txt
.
- Note: This setup does not provide for absolute security for TWiki attachments. For more information, see TWiki:Codev.SecuringYourTWiki.
- Step 6: In order to run the configure script, create a file called
.htaccess
in the bin directory that includes the following single line: SetHandler cgi-script
. This informs the server to treat all the perl scripts in the bin directory as scripts.
For additional information about installing TWiki on a hosted accounts, see
TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#WebHostingSites
It is highly recommended to use run configure from the browser when setting up TWiki. Configure does a lot of the hard work for you.
But there may be instances where you do not want to use configure or where configure simply won't run because of a missing dependency.
The manual steps you have to take are:
- Copy the file
lib/TWiki.spec
to lib/LocalSite.cfg
- Remove the comment # in front of
$TWiki::cfg{DefaultUrlHost}
, $TWiki::cfg{ScriptUrlPath}
, $TWiki::cfg{PubUrlPath}
, $TWiki::cfg{PubDir}
, $TWiki::cfg{TemplateDir}
, $TWiki::cfg{DataDir}
, $TWiki::cfg{LocalesDir}
, and $TWiki::cfg{OS}
and make sure these settings have the correct values.
- Make sure to define at least these settings:
$TWiki::cfg{LoginManager}
, $TWiki::cfg{WebMasterEmail}
, $TWiki::cfg{SMTP}{MAILHOST}
, $TWiki::cfg{SMTP}{SENDERHOST}
.
Back to top
TWiki Upgrade Guide
This guide covers upgrading from a previous version of TWiki (such as TWiki-4.3) to TWiki-5.1
TWiki-5.1 is a minor release introducing mostly usability enhancements, feature enhancements, and adds extensions to strengthen TWiki as an enterprise collaboration platform. Use this guide to upgrade a previous TWiki release to TWiki-5.1. Use the
TWikiInstallationGuide if you do not have data to carry forward.
- Please review the AdminSkillsAssumptions before you upgrade TWiki
- Review supplemental document TWiki:TWiki.TWikiUpgradeTo05x01 for latest information and experience notes.
- To upgrade from a release prior to TWiki Release 01-Sep-2004, start with TWiki:TWiki.UpgradingTWiki on TWiki.org
- To upgrade from a standard TWiki Release 01-Sep-2004 to the latest TWiki-5.1 Production Release, follow the instructions below
- Once the upgrade has been applied, an existing earlier installation will still be able to read all the topics, but should not be used to write. Make sure you take a backup!
See
TWikiReleaseNotes04x00,
TWikiReleaseNotes04x01,
TWikiReleaseNotes04x02,
TWikiReleaseNotes04x03,
TWikiReleaseNotes05x00,
TWikiReleaseNotes05x01,
TWikiReleaseNotes06x00
TWiki now has a new solution to backup, restore and upgrade TWiki sites. It can be used via browser and on the command line. The
BackupRestorePlugin is pre-installed in TWiki-5.1 and later releases; it can be installed in older TWiki releases as low as TWiki-2001-09-01 (Athens Release) to easily create a backup that can be restored on a new TWiki release. This offers an easy upgrade path for TWiki. The plugin is currently in Beta, check
TWiki:Plugins.BackupRestorePlugin for updates.
The following steps are a rough guide to upgrading only. It is impossible to give detailed instructions, as what you have to do may depend on whether you can configure the webserver or not, and how much you have changed distributed files in your current TWiki release.
The main steps are:
- Install the new TWiki version, configure it, and get it to work similar to the old version
- Install additional extensions (plugins) -- make sure to use the latest versions
- Copy all the non-default webs from the old installation to the new
- Copy the users from old installation to the new including all their topics from Main
- Apply customizations to your skin (logos, menu bars etc)
- Apply preferences from old installation
- Switch-over
After the extensions are installed (or upgraded) in step 2, take a "golden" backup. That will come in handy for your next patch or upgrade: By checking the differences between the golden copy and your production copy, you will be able to identify all the modifications that you have applied to the core or extensions.
Installation
- Follow the installation instructions at TWiki:TWiki.TWikiInstallationGuide. Install the new release in a new directory. Do not install on top of the old release.
- Use the configure script to configure TWiki.
- If you are upgrading from a 4.x.x release, you can carry over the configure settings from the old release.
- You need to run configure and save the configuration once when you upgrade as this will update the altered and added settings.
- You can also choose to start with a fresh configuration and walk through all the settings using your old
twiki/lib/LocalSite.cfg
as a reference. This way you will not have old obsolete settings in the new LocalSite.cfg
.
- If at any time during the installation you want to start over from fresh, delete the
LocalSite.cfg
file and re-run configure.
- Additional resources
- Make sure you have a working basic TWiki before you continue
Install Extensions
- From TWiki-4.1.0 and on, the configure script which you ran during installation supports installation of additional plugins.
- Manual installation is possible. Follow the instruction on the plugin page at twiki.org.
- Check the plugin topics from your old TWiki installation. There may be plugin settings that you want to transfer to the new TWiki installation.
Hint: For an easier upgrade later on, set the plugin preferences settings in the Main.TWikiPreferences topic, not in the plugin topic. To identify the plugin, prefix the name of the setting with the capitalized name of the plugin. For example, to change the DEFAULT_TYPE
setting of the CommentPlugin, create a COMMENTPLUGIN_DEFAULT_TYPE
setting in Main.TWikiPreferences.
- Typical plugin settings you may have altered.
- CommentPlugin - Set DEFAULT_TYPE
- EditTablePlugin - Set CHANGEROWS, Set QUIETSAVE, and Set EDITBUTTON
- InterwikiPlugin - Set RULESTOPIC
- InterWikis - If you added your own rules you should save this topic and not overwrite it.
- SlideShowPlugin - Make sure you did not change the embedded 'Default Slide Template' If you did you should save it. It is a bad idea to do. It is better to define your own slide show templates as separate topics that do not get overwritten when you upgrade.
- SmiliesPlugin - Did you add your own smileys?
- TablePlugin - Set TABLEATTRIBUTES.
- Remember that a plugin must be activated in configure.
- To avoid having to re-apply plugin settings each time you upgrade a plugin or TWiki itself, define the altered plugin settings in Main.TWikiPreferences instead.
Copy your old webs to new TWiki
- Webs come in pairs, such as
twiki/data/Engineering
(for page content) and twiki/pub/Engineering
(for attachments).
- When upgrading from Cairo or earlier it may be necessary to unlock the rcs files in data and pub directories from the old installation using the following shell commands:
-
find data -name '*,v' -exec rcs -u -M '{}' \;
-
find pub -name '*,v' -exec rcs -u -M '{}' \;
- Copy your local webs over to the data and pub directories of the new install. Do not copy the default webs: TWiki, Main, Trash, Sandbox, _default, and _empty.
- Make sure all data and pub files and directories are owned by the webserver user.
- Note: TWiki's WebChanges topics depend on the file timestamp. If you touch the .txt files make sure to preserve the timestamp, or to change them in the sequence of old file timestamps.
Copy Users And Their Topics From Main Web
- Copy all the topics from the Main web and corresponding pub/Main directories from the old TWiki to the new TWiki but do not overwrite any of the new topics already inside the new Main directory!
- Manually merge all the users from the old
Main.TWikiUsers
topic to the new TWiki. If you upgrade from Cairo you can simply use the old file and add the missing new system users to the list of users. If you upgrade from TWiki-4.0.x simply use the old topic. Starting from 4.2.0 TWiki no longer ships with a Main.TWikiUsers
topic. When you register the first user TWiki now checks for an existing Main.TWikiUsers
and if it does not exist it gets created.
- If you want users to be able to use a login ID other than their WikiName, such as when using LDAP or SSO authentication, set the configure setting
{Register}{AllowLoginName}
to 1
.
- If you use
data/.htpasswd
for authentication copy this file from the old TWiki to the new.
- If you upgrade from Cairo and you are using the Htpasswd login manager, then note that email addresses for users have moved out of user topics and into the password file. There is a script that performs this extra upgrade step for you - see
tools/upgrade_emails.pl
.
- The old Sandbox web may have a lot of useful topic and users may use it actively for drafts. Manually select the topics (remember the corresponding pub directories) from the old Sandbox web and copy them to the one of the new TWiki. Decide if you want to overwrite the sandbox homepage and left menu bar or keep the new.
- If you added or removed fields from the user topic form you may also have tailored
TWiki.TWikiRegistration
. Make sure you either reuse the registration topic from the old installation or apply the same field changes to the new TWiki.TWikiRegistration
topic.
- Starting from 4.2.0 TWiki ships with
NewUserTemplate
and UserForm
in the TWiki web. If you choose to tailor anything you are strongly advised to copy NewUserTemplate
and UserForm
to the Main web and tailor the Main web copies. TWiki will look for the NewUserTemplate
in the Main web first and if it does not exist it uses the default from the TWiki web. By creating a Main.NewUserTemplate
and its Main.UserForm
you will not loose your tailorings next time you upgrade TWiki.
- Make sure all data and pub files and directories are owned by the webserver user.
Apply Customizations To The Skin
- Add Logos, update top bar and left bar as required.
- Apply any desired changes to style sheets and templates. The default TopMenuSkin is based on the PatternSkin.
- Additional resources:
Apply Preferences From Old Installation
- Transfer any customized and local settings from TWiki.TWikiPreferences to the topic pointed at by {LocalSitePreferences} (Main.TWikiPreferences). Per default this is
Main.TWikiPreferences
. This avoids having to write over files in the distribution on a later upgrade.
- If you changed any of the topics in the original TWiki distribution, you will have to transfer your changes to the new install manually. There is no simple way to do this, though a suggestion is to use 'diff' to find changed files in the
data/TWiki
of the old and new TWiki installation, and transfer the changes into the new TWiki install. If you can run a GUI on your server, you may find that using a visual diff tool like WinMerge, meld, kdiff3, xxdiff, etc. is helpful.
- Compare the
WebPreferences
topics in the old TWiki Installation with the default from the new TWiki installation and add any new Preferences that may be relevant.
- Compare the
WebLeftBar
topics in the old TWiki Installation with the default from the new TWiki installation and add any new feature that you desire.
Switch-Over
Once you have tested the new TWiki you can switch over to the new site.
If the same domain and URL is used:
- Update the DNS settings of the TWiki domain with the IP address of the new TWiki server.
- Keep in mind that the updated DNS is not seen immediately by all users at the same time. The DNS propagation can take several hours and depends on the time to live (TTL) setting. Because of this it is recommended to disable content update on the old server. You could simply rename or move all scripts in
twiki/bin
that allow content update, such as attach
, edit
, manage
, rename
, save
, upload
, rest
. Alternatively, if you have a recent TWiki version on the old server you can set a READONLYSKINMODE = 1
setting in Main.TWikiPreferences
to turn the skin into read-only mode.
If the domain or URL changes:
- Add a DNS setting for the new TWiki domain if needed.
- Redirect users visiting the old TWiki to the new TWiki. The TWiki:Plugins.MovedSkin has been designed for that task. Install it on your old TWiki, and configure it with the proper URL of the new TWiki. After that, users on the old TWiki will see a yellow box informing them of the move, with a link to the new URL of the page visited.
Some pages in the TWiki web are meant to be customized after choice of authentication. If you do not use the internal TWiki password manager the topics that contains the features for changing and resetting passwords and changing the email address should be changed to a note describing how to perform these tasks in your organization. If you have made such customizations remember to replace these topics in the TWiki web with the tailored versions from your old installation. The topics are:
-
TWiki.ChangePassword
-
TWiki.ResetPassword
-
TWiki.ChangeEmailAddress
Favicon
TWiki-4's
PatternSkin introduces the use of the favicon feature which most browsers use to show a small icon in front of the URL and for bookmarks.
In TWiki-4 it is assumed that each web has a favicon.ico file attached to the WebPreferences topic. When you upgrade from Cairo to TWiki-4 you do not have this file and you will get flooded with errors the error log of your web server. There are two solutions to this.
- Attach a favicon.ico file to WebPreferences in each web.
- Preferred: Change the setting of the location of favicon.ico in TWikiPreferences so all webs use the favicon.ico from the TWiki web. This is the fastest and easiest solution.
To change the location of favicon.ico in TWikiPreferences to the TWiki web add the following setting to
Main.TWikiPreferences:
* Set FAVICON = %PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/%WEBPREFSTOPIC%/favicon.ico
TWikiUsers topic in Main web
Your old
Main.TWikiUsers topic will work in the new TWiki but you will need to ensure that the following four users from the
TWikiUsersTemplate topic are copied to the existing TWikiUsers topic in proper alphabetical order:
* TWikiContributor - 2005-01-01
* TWikiGuest - guest - 1999-02-10
* TWikiRegistrationAgent - 2005-01-01
* UnknownUser - 2005-01-01
What these users are:
- TWikiContributor - placeholder for a TWiki developer, and is used in TWiki documentation
- TWikiGuest - guest user, used as a fallback if the user can't be identified
- TWikiRegistrationAgent - special user used during the new user registration process
- UnknownUser - used where the author of a previously stored piece of data can't be determined
You additionally need to ensure that TWikiUsers has the
Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = TWikiAdminGroup, TWikiRegistrationAgent
access control setting. Otherwise people will not be able to register.
Supported Perl version
TWiki 4.0.5 worked on Perl version 5.6.X. Reports from users has shown that unfortunately TWiki 4.1.0 does not support Perl versions older then 5.8.0. It is the goal that TWiki should work on at least Perl version 5.6.X but none of the developers have had access to Perl installations older than 5.8.0.
Since TWiki 4.1.0 has some urgent bugs the development team decided to release TWiki 4.1.1 without resolving the issue with Perl 5.6.X. We will however address this and try and resolve it for a planned 4.1.2 release. The TWiki community is very interested in contributions from users that have fixes for the code which will enable TWiki to run on older versions of Perl.
See the
WhatVersionsOfPerlAreSupported topic to keep up to date with the discussion how to get back support for earlier Perl versions.
Template spec changed
Until TWiki 4.0.5
TWikiTemplates the text inside template definition blocks (anything between
%TMPL:DEF{"block"}%
and
%TMPL:END%
was stripped of leading and trailing white space incl new lines.
This caused a lot of problems for skin developers when you wanted a newline before or after the block text.
From TWiki 4.1.0 this has changed so that white space is no longer stripped. Skins like PatternSkin and NatSkin have been updated so that they work with the new behavior. But if you use an older skin or have written your own you will most likely need to make some adjustments.
It is not difficult. The general rule is - if you get mysterious blank lines in your skin, the newline after the
%TMPL:DEF{"block"}%
needs to be removed. Ie. the content of the block must follow on the same line as the TMPL:DEF.
The spec change have the same impact on
CommentPlugin templates where you may have to remove the first line break after the TMPL:DEF. See the
CommentPluginTemplate for examples of how comment template definitions should look like in TWiki-4.1.X
An example: A CommentPlugin template that adds a comment as appending a row to a table. Before the spec change this would work.
<verbatim>
%TMPL:DEF{OUTPUT:tabletest}%%POS:BEFORE%
|%URLPARAM{"comment"}%| -- %WIKIUSERNAME% - %DATE% |
%TMPL:END%
</verbatim>
From Twiki 4.1.0 the old template definition will add an empty line before the new table row. To fix it simply remove the new line before the table.
<verbatim>
%TMPL:DEF{OUTPUT:tabletest}%%POS:BEFORE%|%URLPARAM{"comment"}%| -- %WIKIUSERNAME% - %DATE% |
%TMPL:END%
</verbatim>
The advantage of the spec change is that now you can add leading and trailing white space including new lines. This was not possible before.
New location for session and other temporary files
An upgrader upgrading to 4.1.1 should note the following important change
The directory for passthrough files and session files have been replaced by a common directory for temporary files used by TWiki. Previously the two configure settings
{PassthroughDir}
and
{Sessions}{Dir}
were by default set to
/tmp
. These config settings have been replaced by
{TempfileDir}
with the default setting value
/tmp/twiki
. If the
twiki
directory does not exist twiki will create it first time it needs it.
It is highly recommended no longer to use the tmp directory common to other web applications and the new default will work fine for most. You may want to delete all the old session files in /tmp after the upgrade to 4.1.1. They all start with cgisess_. It is additionally highly recommended to limit write access to the
{TempfileDir}
for security reasons if you have non-admin users with login access to the webserver just like you would do with the other webserver directories.
New WYSIWYG Editor
TWiki now ships with a new WYSIWYG editor based on TinyMCE which replaces the Kupu based editor. TinyMCE is not a perfect Wysiwyg editor but it is magnitudes better than the previously used Kupu editor.
The WysiwygPlugin that drives the engine behind both TinyMCE has additionally been heavily improved so that fewer TWiki Applications are negatively affected by editing in WYSIWYG mode.
When TinyMCEPlugin is enabled, the Edit button by default becomes WYSIWYG editing mode. A new Raw Edit link has been added to enable application developers to edit the good old way.
The WYSIWYG button has been removed.
NEWTOPICLINKSYMBOL removed
The NEWTOPICLINKSYMBOL preference which was deprecated in 4.1 has now been removed from the code. If you want to control the appearance of new links, you can use NEWLINKFORMAT.
UserForm and NewUserTemplate Customization
When a new user registers on TWiki his user topic is created based on the
NewUserTemplate
and
UserForm
.
The
NewUserTemplate
was located in the TWiki web and the
UserForm
in the Main web. When upgrading TWiki these were some of the topics you had to take care not to overwrite.
From 4.2.0 the
UserForm
and
NewUserTemplate
are distributed in the TWiki web. If you create the two in the Main web the Main web version will be used instead. So if you tailor the user topic format or the form then you should always copy the two files to the Main web and modify the ones in the Main web. When you later upgrade TWiki your tailored template and form will not be overwritten.
TWikiUsers no longer distributed
The
Main.TWikiUsers
topic contains all the registered users. It is a topic you do not want to overwrite when you upgrade TWiki.
From 4.2.0 this file is no longer included in the TWiki distribution. When you register the first time TWiki creates the
Main.TWikiUsers
topic in the Main web if it does not exist already. This means that you can now upgrade TWiki without risk of overwriting the important
TWikiUsers
topic.
- For new installers this makes no difference at all
- For upgraders this is one less problem to worry about as your important Main.TWikiUsers topic now no longer gets overwritten when upgrading.
New working
directory
A new
working
directory which by default is located in the twiki root, has been introduced which contains:
- registration_approvals - with 4.2.0 it is moved to here from the data directory.
- tmp - so we now avoid having to fight with special access rights and /tmp directory that gets cleaned out when booting.
- work_areas - with 4.2.0 it is moved to here from the pub directory. Configure automatically moved the directory when you upgrade.
Note: Remember to restrict access to this new directory when you upgrade.
The configure setting
{WorkingDir}
defines the container directory for temporary files, extensions' work areas, and intermediate registration data. The default is
working
under your installation root.
Take care for that change if you run your own routine to delete obsolete session files, which will now be found under
working/tmp/cgisess*
.
New Internal Admin Login
TWiki 4.2 introduces a new
Internal Admin Login feature which uses "admin" (configurable) as username and the password used for configure to become temporary administrator. When you do a new installation you need to use this feature as Main.TWikiAdminGroup is now access restricted by default to avoid security attacks during the hours an installation may take. From configure there is a link to the TWikiAdminGroup topic and on TWikiAdminGroup the step by step instructions are written in a yellow box. Our advice is not to remove this help text in case you need it later.
New TopMenuSkin
The
TopMenuSkin adds pulldown menus for better usability and corporate/modern look&feel. This skin is based on the
PatternSkin, which used the
WebLeftBar in each web for navigation. The
TopMenuSkin has a new
WebTopBar that defines the menu structure in each web. A default menu is shown in case WebTopBar is missing in a web, so you do not need to add a WebTopBar topic to all your existing webs. See
TopMenuSkin#WebSpecific instructions in case you need a customized menu structure in a specific web.
New Page Bookmarks Feature
A new bookmark feature has been introduced that replaces the personal left-bar links. Bookmarking a page is now a simple point and click operation: In the Account pulldown menu, select "Bookmark this page...". Existing bookmarks can be managed with an edit table in Main.<wikiname>Bookmarks topic, accessible via the "----- Bookmarks -----" pulldown menu of the Account pulldown.
The personal left-bar topics such as JohnSmithLeftBar are no longer used. Ask users to select the "----- Bookmarks -----" pulldown menu of the Account pulldown to initially create the bookmarks topic, then to either bookmark pages, or to manually copy & paste old left-bar links to the bookmarks topic.
User Profile Pages Tailored for Workplace
Previous user profile pages had a bare bones look and the form fields were more tailored for public TWiki sites. TWiki-5.1 brings a more visual/modern page layout with profile picture selector, as well as default form fields tailored for the workplace.
Changes to the
TWiki.UserForm:
Renamed:
-
FirstName
to First Name
(no change in %META:FIELD name
)
-
LastName
to Last Name
(no change in %META:FIELD name
)
-
OrganisationName
to Organization
-
OrganisationURL
to URL
-
Profession
to Titles
-
VoIP
to Skype ID
-
State
to Region
Removed:
-
Address
-
InstantMessaging (IM)
-
HomePage
-
Comment
Added:
When upgrading user profile pages pay attention to the renamed and removed fields.
Back to top
TWiki User Authentication
TWiki site access control and user activity tracking options
Authentication, or "loging in", is the process by which a user lets TWiki know who they are.
Authentication isn't just about access control. TWiki uses authentication to identify users so it can keep track of who made changes, and manage a wide range of personal settings. With authentication enabled, users can personalise TWiki and contribute as recognised individuals, instead of ghosts.
TWiki authentication is very flexible, and can either stand alone or integrate with existing authentication schemes. You can set up TWiki to require authentication for every access or only for changes. Authentication is also essential for access control.
Quick Authentication Test - Use the %USERINFO% variable to return your current identity:
TWiki user authentication is split into four categories: Password management, user mapping, user registration, and login management. Password management deals with how users' personal data is stored. Registration deals with how new users are added to the wiki. Login management deals with how users log in.
Once a user is logged in, they can be remembered using a
Client Session stored in a cookie in the browser (or by other less elegant means if the user has cookies disabled). This avoids the need of having to log in again and again.
TWiki user authentication is configured through the Security Settings pane in the
configure interface.
Please note that
FileAttachments are not protected by TWiki user authentication by default. The
TWiki:TWiki.ApacheConfigGenerator has an option to protect file attachments.
Tip: TWiki:TWiki.TWikiUserAuthenticationSupplement on TWiki.org has supplemental documentation on user authentication.
As shipped, TWiki supports the Apache 'htpasswd' password manager. This manager supports the use of
.htpasswd
files on the server. These files can be unique to TWiki, or can be shared with other applications (such as an Apache webserver). A variety of password encodings are supported for flexibility when re-using existing files. See the descriptive comments in the Security Settings section of the
configure interface for more details.
You can easily plug in alternate password management modules to support interfaces to other third-party authentication databases.
Often, when you are using an external authentication method, you want to map from an unfriendly "login name" to a more friendly
WikiName. Also, an external authentication database may well have user information you want to import into TWiki, such as user groups.
By default, TWiki supports mapping of usernames to wikinames, and supports TWiki groups internal to TWiki. If you want, you can plug in an alternate user mapping module to support importing groups and other entities.
New user registration uses the password manager to set and change passwords, and to store email addresses. It is also responsible for the new user verification process. The registration process supports
single user registration via the
TWikiRegistration page, and
bulk user registration via the
BulkRegistration page (for admins only).
The registration process is also responsible for creating user topics and setting up the mapping information used by the User Mapping support.
Note: If you are restricting the entire Main web to TWikiGuest, you are required to add TWikiRegistrationAgent to ALLOWWEBCHANGE in your
Main/WebPreferences
. By doing so, new users are able to register without any errors.
Login management controls how users log in. There are three basic options: No login, login via a TWiki login page, and login using webserver authentication support.
No Login (select none
in configure)
No Login does exactly what it says. Forget about authentication to make your site completely public - anyone can browse and edit freely, in classic Wiki style. All visitors are given the
TWikiGuest default identity so you can't track individual user activity.
Note: This setup is
not recommended on public websites for security reasons; anyone would be able to change system settings and perform tasks usually restricted to administrators.
Template Login (select TWiki::LoginManager::TemplateLogin
in configure)
Template Login asks for a username and password in a web page, and processes them using whatever Password Manager you choose. Users can log in and log out. Client Sessions are used to remember users. Users can choose to have their session remembered so they will automatically be logged in the next time they start their browser.
Enabling Template Login
- Use the configure interface to
- select the
TWiki::LoginManager::TemplateLogin
login manager (on the Security Settings pane).
- select the appropriate password manager for your system, or provide your own.
- there is also an EXPERT configure setting
{TemplateLogin}{PreventBrowserRememberingPassword}
that you can set to prevent browsers from remembering usernames and passwords if you are concerned about public terminal usage.
- Register yourself in the TWikiRegistration topic.
Check that the password manager recognises the new user. If you are using .htpasswd
files, check that a new line with the username and encrypted password is added to the .htpasswd
file. If not, you probably got a path wrong, or the permissions may not allow the webserver user to write to that file.
- Create a new topic to check if authentication works.
- Edit the TWikiAdminGroup topic in the Main web to include users with system administrator status.
This is a very important step, as users in this group can access all topics, independent of TWiki access controls.
TWikiAccessControl has more information on setting up access controls.
At this time
TWikiAccessControls cannot control access to files in the
pub
area, unless they are only accessed through the
viewfile
script. If your
pub
directory is set up in the webserver to allow open access you may want to add
.htaccess
files in there to restrict access.
You can create a custom version of the
TWikiRegistration form by copying the topic, and then deleting or adding input tags in your copy. The
name=""
parameter of the input tags must start with:
"Twk0..."
(if this is an optional entry), or
"Twk1..."
(if this is a required entry). This ensures that the fields are carried over into the user profile page correctly. Do
not modify the version of
TWikiRegistration shipped with TWiki, as your changes will be overwritten next time you upgrade.
The default new user template page is in
TWiki.NewUserTemplate. The same variables get expanded as in the
template topics. You can create a custom new user profile page by creating the
Main.NewUserTemplate topic, which will then override the default.
Apache Login (select TWiki::LoginManager::ApacheLogin
in configure)
Using this method TWiki does not authenticate users internally. Instead it depends on the
REMOTE_USER
environment variable, which is set when you enable authentication in the webserver.
The advantage of this scheme is that if you have an existing website authentication scheme using Apache modules, such as
mod_auth_ldap
or
mod_auth_mysql
, you can just plug in directly to them.
The disadvantage is that because the user identity is cached in the browser, you can log in, but you can't log out again unless you restart the browser.
TWiki maps the
REMOTE_USER
that was used to log in to the webserver to a
WikiName using the table in
TWikiUsers. This table is updated whenever a user registers, so users can choose not to register (in which case their webserver login name is used for their signature) or register (in which case that login name is mapped to their
WikiName).
The same private
.htpasswd
file used in TWiki Template Login can be used to authenticate Apache users, using the Apache Basic Authentication support.
Warning: Do
not use the Apache
htpasswd
program with
.htpasswd
files generated by TWiki!
htpasswd
wipes out email addresses that TWiki plants in the info fields of this file.
Enabling Apache Login using mod_auth
You can use any other Apache authentication module that sets REMOTE_USER.
- Use configure to select the
TWiki::LoginManager::ApacheLogin
login manager.
- Use configure to set up TWiki to create the right kind of
.htpasswd
entries.
- Create a
.htaccess
file in the twiki/bin
directory.
There is an template for this file in twiki/bin/.htaccess.txt
that you can copy and change. The comments in the file explain what needs to be done.
If you got it right, the browser should now ask for a login name and password when you click on Edit. If .htaccess
does not have the desired effect, you may need to "AllowOverride All" for the directory in httpd.conf
(if you have root access; otherwise, e-mail web server support)
At this time TWikiAccessControls do not control access to files in the pub
area, unless they are only accessed through the viewfile
script. If your pub
directory is set up to allow open access you may want to add .htaccess
files in there as well to restrict access
- You can create a custom version of the TWikiRegistration form by copying the default topic, and then deleting or adding input tags in your copy. The
name=""
parameter of the input tags must start with: "Twk0..."
(if this is an optional entry), or "Twk1..."
(if this is a required entry). This ensures that the fields are carried over into the user profile page correctly. Do not modify the version of TWikiRegistration shipped with TWiki, as your changes will be overwritten next time you upgrade.
The default new user template page is in TWiki.NewUserTemplate. The same variables get expanded as in the template topics. You can create a custom new user profile page by creating the Main.NewUserTemplate topic, which will then override the default.
- Register yourself in the TWikiRegistration topic.
Check that a new line with the username and encrypted password is added to the .htpasswd
file. If not, you may have got a path wrong, or the permissions may not allow the webserver user to write to that file.
- Create a new topic to check if authentication works.
- Edit the TWikiAdminGroup topic in the Main web to include users with system administrator status.
This is a very important step, as users in this group can access all topics, independent of TWiki access controls.
TWikiAccessControl has more information on setting up access controls.
Logons via bin/logon
Any time a user requests a page that needs authentication, they will be forced to log on. It may be convenient to have a "login" link as well, to give the system a chance to identify the user and retrieve their personal settings. It may be convenient to force them to log in.
The
bin/logon
script enables this. If you are using Apache Login, the
bin/logon
script must be setup in the
bin/.htaccess
file to be a script which requires a
valid user
. Once authenticated, it will redirect the user to the view URL for the page from which the
logon
script was linked.
TWiki uses the
CPAN:CGI::Session and
CPAN:CGI::Cookie modules to track sessions. These modules are de facto standards for session management among Perl programmers. If you can't use Cookies for any reason,
CPAN:CGI::Session also supports session tracking using the client IP address.
You don't
have to enable sessions to support logins in TWiki. However it is
strongly recommended. TWiki needs some way to remember the fact that you logged in from a particular browser, and it uses sessions to do this. If you don't enable sessions, TWiki will try hard to remember you, but due to limitations in the browsers, it may also forget you (and then suddenly remember you again later!). So for the best user experience, you should enable sessions.
There are a number of
TWikiVariables available that you can use to interrogate your current session. You can even add your own session variables to the TWiki cookie. Session variables are referred to as "sticky" variables.
Getting, Setting, and Clearing Session Variables
You can get, set, and clear session variables from within TWiki web pages or by using script parameters. This allows you to use the session as a personal "persistent memory space" that is not lost until the web browser is closed. Also note that if a session variable has the same name as a TWiki preference, the session variables value takes precedence over the TWiki preference.
This allows for per-session preferences.
To make use of these features, use the variables:
|
|
%SESSION_VARIABLE{ "varName" }% |
Read a session variable |
%SESSION_VARIABLE{ "varName" set="varValue" }% |
Set a session variable |
%SESSION_VARIABLE{ "varName" clear="" }% |
Clear a session variable |
|
|
|
Special read-only session variables:
-
%SESSION_VARIABLE{"AUTHUSER"}%
- user ID, current value:
-
%SESSION_VARIABLE{"SESSION_REQUEST_NUMBER"}%
- number of pages accessed by current user since login, current value:
Notes:
- You cannot override access controls preferences this way.
- You can use the SetGetPlugin to set and get variables that are not user specific. This plugin can store variables persistently if needed.
Cookies and Transparent Session IDs
TWiki normally uses cookies to store session information on a client computer. Cookies are a common way to pass session information from client to server. TWiki cookies simply hold a unique session identifier that is used to look up a database of session information on the TWiki server.
For a number of reasons, it may not be possible to use cookies. In this case, TWiki has a fallback mechanism; it will automatically rewrite every internal URL it sees on pages being generated to one that also passes session information.
This section applies only if you are using authentication with existing login names (i.e. mapping from login names to
WikiNames).
TWiki internally manages two usernames: Login Username and TWiki Username.
- Login Username: When you login to the intranet, you use your existing login username, ex:
pthoeny
. This name is normally passed to TWiki by the REMOTE_USER
environment variable, and used internally. Login Usernames are maintained by your system administrator.
- TWiki Username: Your name in WikiNotation, ex:
PeterThoeny
, is recorded when you register using TWikiRegistration; doing so also generates a user profile page in the Main web.
TWiki can automatically map an Intranet (Login) Username to a TWiki Username if the {AllowLoginName} is enabled in
configure. The default is to use your
WikiName as a login name.
NOTE: To correctly enter a WikiName - your own or someone else's - be sure to include the Main web name in front of the Wiki username, followed by a period, and no spaces, for example Main.WikiUsername
or %USERSWEB%.WikiUsername
.
This points WikiUsername
to the Main web, where user profile pages are located, no matter which web it's entered in. Without the web prefix, the name appears as a NewTopic everywhere but in the Main web.
If your {PasswordManager} supports password changing, you can change and reset passwords using forms on regular pages.
If the active {PasswordManager} supports storage and retrieval of user e-mail addresses, you can change your e-mail using a regular page. As shipped, this is true only for the Apache 'htpasswd' password manager.
You may want to add or remove scripts from the list of scripts that require authentication. The method for doing this is different for Template Login and Apache Login.
- For Template Login, update the {AuthScripts} list using configure
- For Apache Login, add/remove the script from
.htaccess
One of the key features of TWiki is that it is possible to add HTML to topics. No authentication method is 100% secure on a website where end users can add HTML, as there is always a risk that a malicious user can add code to a topic that gathers user information, such as session IDs. TWiki developers have been forced to make certain tradeoffs, in the pursuit of efficiency, that may be exploited by a hacker.
This section discusses some of the known risks. You can be sure that any potential hackers have read this section as well!
At one extreme, the most secure method is to use TWiki via SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), with a login manager installed and Client Sessions turned
off.
Using TWiki with sessions turned off is a pain, though, as with all the login managers there are occasions where TWiki will forget who you are. The best user experience is achieved with sessions turned
on.
As soon as you allow the server to maintain information about a logged-in user, you open a door to potential attacks. There are a variety of ways a malicious user can pervert TWiki to obtain another users session ID, the most common of which is known as a
cross-site scripting attack. Once a hacker has an SID they can pretend to be that user.
To help prevent these sorts of attacks, TWiki supports
IP matching, which ensures that the IP address of the user requesting a specific session is the same as the IP address of the user who created the session. This works well as long as IP addresses are unique to each client, and as long as the IP address of the client can't be faked.
Session IDs are usually stored by TWiki in cookies, which are stored in the client browser. Cookies work well, but not all environments or users permit cookies to be stored in browsers. So TWiki also supports two other methods of determining the session ID. The first method uses the client IP address to determine the session ID. The second uses a rewriting method that rewrites local URLs in TWiki pages to include the session ID in the URL.
The first method works well as long as IP addresses are
unique to each individual client, and client IP addresses can't be faked by a hacker. If IP addresses are unique and can't be faked, it is almost as secure as cookies + IP matching, so it ranks as the
fourth most secure method.
If you have to turn IP matching off, and cookies can't be relied on, then you may have to rely on the second method, URL rewriting. This method exposes the session IDs very publicly, so should be regarded as "rather dodgy".
Most TWiki sites don't use SSL, so, as is the case with
most sites that don't use SSL, there is always a possibility that a password could be picked out of the ether. Browsers do not encrypt passwords sent over non-SSL links, so using Apache Login is no more secure than Template Login.
Of the two shipped login managers, Apache Login is probably the most useful. It lets you do this sort of thing:
wget --http-user=RogerRabbit --http-password=i'mnottelling http://www.example.com/bin/save/Sandbox/StuffAUTOINC0?text=hohoho,%20this%20is%20interesting
i.e. pass in a user and password to a request from the command-line. However it doesn't let you log out.
Template Login degrades to url re-writing when you use a client like dillo that does not support cookies. However, you can log out and back in as a different user.
Finally, it would be really neat if someone was to work out how to use certificates to identify users.....
See
TWiki:TWiki.SecuringTWikiSite for more information.
Back to top
TWiki Access Control
Restricting read and write access to topics and webs, by Users and groups
TWiki Access Control allows you restrict access to single topics and entire webs, by individual user and by user Groups. Access control, combined with
TWikiUserAuthentication, lets you easily create and manage an extremely flexible, fine-grained privilege system.
Tip: TWiki:TWiki.TWikiAccessControlSupplement on TWiki.org has additional documentation on access control.
Your organization will learn that, while fostering an open collaborative environment, soft security (peer review), together with version control (complete audit trail) will take care of any security concern you might have.
Open, free-form editing is the essence of
WikiCulture - what makes TWiki different and often more effective than other collaborative environments. For that reason, it is strongly recommended that decisions to restrict read or write access to a web or a topic are made with great care - the more restrictions, the less wiki in the mix. Experience shows that
unrestricted write access works very well because:
- Peer influence is enough to ensure that only relevant content is posted.
- Peer editing - the ability for anyone to rearrange all content on a page - keeps topics focused.
- In TWiki, content is transparently preserved under revision control:
- Edits can be undone by the administrator (per default a member of TWikiAdminGroup; see #ManagingGroups).
- Users are encouraged to edit and refactor (condense a long topic), since there's a safety net.
As a
collaboration guideline:
- Create broad-based Groups (for more and varied input), and...
- Avoid creating view-only Users (if you can read it, you should be able to contribute to it).
Please Note:
- A blank in the the above table may mean either the corresponding control is absent or commented out or that it has been set to a null value. The two conditions have dramatically different and possibly opposed semantics.
- TWikiGuest is the guest account - used by unauthenticated users.
- The TWiki web must not deny view to TWikiGuest; otherwise, people will not be able to register.
Note: Above table comes from
SitePermissions
Authentication: Identifies who a user is based on a login procedure. See
TWikiUserAuthentication.
Access control: Restrict access to content based on users and groups once a user is identified.
Access control is based on the familiar concept of Users and Groups. Users are defined by their
WikiNames. They can then be organized in unlimited combinations by inclusion in one or more user Groups. For convenience, Groups can also be included in other Groups.
Managing Users
A user can create an account in
TWikiRegistration. The following actions are performed:
- WikiName and encrypted password are recorded using the password manager if authentication is enabled.
- A confirmation e-mail is sent to the user.
- A user profile page with the WikiName of the user is created in the Main web.
- The user is added to the TWikiUsers topic.
The default visitor name is
TWikiGuest. This is the non-authenticated user.
Managing Groups
The following describes the standard TWiki support for groups. Your local TWiki may have an alternate group mapping manager installed. Check with your TWiki administrator if you are in doubt.
Groups are defined by group topics located in the
Main
web. To create a new group, visit
TWikiGroups and enter the name of the new group ending in
Group
into the "new group" form field. This will create a new group topic with two important settings:
-
Set GROUP = < list of Users and/or Groups >
-
Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = < list of Users and/or Groups >
The GROUP setting is a comma-separated list of users and/or other groups. Example:
-
Set GROUP = SomeUser, OtherUser, SomeGroup
The ALLOWTOPICCHANGE setting defines who is allowed to change the group topic; it is a comma delimited list of users and groups. You typically want to restrict that to the members of the group itself, so it should contain the name of the topic. This prevents users not in the group from editing the topic to give themselves or others access. For example, for the MarketingGroup topic write:
-
Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = MarketingGroup
Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you have a real bullet. (In raw edit it is three or six spaces, an asterisk, and an extra space in front of any access control rule.)
The Super Admin Group
A number of TWiki functions (for example, renaming webs) are only available to administrators. Administrators are simply users who belong to the
SuperAdminGroup. This is a standard user group, the name of which is defined by {SuperAdminGroup} setting in
configure. The default name of this group is the
TWikiAdminGroup
. The system administrator may have chosen a different name for this group if your local TWiki uses an alternate group mapping manager but for simplicity we will use the default name TWikiAdminGroup in the rest of this topic.
You can create new administrators simply by adding them to the
TWikiAdminGroup topic. For example,
-
Set GROUP = RobertCailliau, TimBernersLee
A member of the Super Admin Group has unrestricted access throughout the TWiki, so only trusted staff should be added to this group.
You can define who is allowed to read or write to a web or a topic. Note that some plugins may not respect access permissions.
- Restricting VIEW blocks viewing and searching of content. When you restric VIEW to a topic or web, this also restricts INCLUDE and Formatted SEARCH from showing the content of the topics.
- Restricting CHANGE blocks creating new topics, changing topics or attaching files.
- Restricting RENAME prevents renaming of topics within a web.
Note that there is an important distinction between CHANGE access and RENAME access. A user can CHANGE a topic, but thanks to version control their changes cannot be lost (the history of the topic before the change is recorded). However if a topic or web is renamed, that history may be lost. Typically a site will only give RENAME access to administrators and content owners.
Controlling access to a Web
You can define restrictions on who is allowed to view a TWiki web. You can restrict access to certain webs to selected Users and Groups, by:
- authenticating all webs and restricting selected webs: Topic access in all webs is authenticated, and selected webs have restricted access.
- authenticating and restricting selected webs only: Provide unrestricted viewing access to open webs, with authentication and restriction only on selected webs.
- You can define these settings in the WebPreferences topic, preferable towards the end of the topic:
-
Set DENYWEBVIEW = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set DENYWEBCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set DENYWEBRENAME = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWWEBRENAME = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
For example, set this to restrict a web to be viewable only by the MarketingGroup:
-
Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = Main.MarketingGroup
If your site allows hierarchical webs, then access to sub-webs is determined from the access controls of the parent web, plus the access controls in the sub-web. So, if the parent web has
ALLOWWEBVIEW
set, this will also apply to the subweb. Also note that you will need to ensure that the parent web's
FINALPREFERENCES
does not include the access control settings listed above. Otherwise you will not be able override the parent web's access control settings in sub-webs.
Creation and renaming of sub-webs is controlled by the WEBCHANGE setting on the parent web (or ROOTCHANGE for
root webs). Renaming is additionally restricted by the setting of WEBRENAME in the web itself.
Note: If you restrict access to the Main, make sure to add the
TWikiRegistrationAgent
so that users can register. Example:
-
Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = TWikiAdminGroup, TWikiRegistrationAgent
Note: For Web level access rights Setting any of these settings to an empty value has the same effect as not setting them at all. Please note that the documentation of TWiki 4.0 and earlier versions of TWiki 4.1 did not reflect the actual implementation, e.g. an empty ALLOWWEBVIEW does
not prevent anyone from viewing the web, and an an empty DENYWEBVIEW does
not allow all to view the web.
Controlling access to a Topic
- You can define these settings in any topic, preferable towards the end of the topic:
-
Set DENYTOPICVIEW = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set DENYTOPICCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set DENYTOPICRENAME = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWTOPICRENAME = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
For example, set this to restrict a topic to be viewable only by the MarketingExecGroup:
-
Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = Main.MarketingExecGroup
See "How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings" below for more on how ALLOW and DENY interacts.
If the same setting is defined multiple times the last one overrides the previous. They are not OR'ed together.
Allowing public access to specific topics in a restricted web
You may want to completely open up access to a specific topic within a restricted web - allowing access by anybody. There is a special group for that - Main.AllUsersGroup. The following setting allows view access to the topic by anybody even if they are not authenticated.
-
Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = Main.AllUsersGroup
Alternatively, you can grant access only to authenticated users by Main.AllAuthUsersGroup. If an unauthenticated user accesses a topic having the following setting, they are asked to authenticate themself.
-
Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = Main.AllAuthUsersGroup
Remember when opening up access to specific topics within a restricted web that other topics in the web - for example, the
WebLeftBar - may also be accessed when viewing the topics. The message you get when you are denied access should tell you what topic you were not permitted to access.
As mentioned in the following section, meaning of an empty value set to DENYTOPICVIEW, DENYTOPICCHANGE, and DENYTOPICRENAME has been changed in TWiki 6.0.
To keep those TWiki topics having empty DENYTOPIC
OPERAION accessible by everybody, those need to be replaced with
-
Set ALLOWTOPICOPERATION = Main.AllUsersGroup
For that,
tools/eliminate_emptydenytopic
is provided.
After upgrading from pre 6.0 to post 6.0, you need to run it.
Empty values in access control variables
Setting an empty value to an access control variable is the same as not setting at all:
Since TWiki 4.0 and prior to TWiki 6.0 setting DENYTOPICVIEW, DENYTOPICCHANGE, or DENYTOPICRENAME to an empty value meant "do not deny anyone regardless of the corresponding ALLOWTOPICX", which is no longer the case. Back then, setting an empty value to DENYTOPICX was the only way to open up a topic to everybody in a restricted web. Now that we have AllUsersGroup and AllAuthUsersGroup, there is no need for that behaviour, which caused a lot of confusion and debate.
Securing File Attachments
By default, TWiki does not secure file attachments. Without making the following changes to the twiki.conf file, it is possible for anyone who has access to the server to gain access to an attachment if they know the attachment's fully qualified path, even though access to the topic associated with the attachment is secured. This is because attachments are referred to directly by Apache, and are not by default delivered via TWiki scripts. This means that the above instructions for controlling to topics do
not apply to attachments unless you make the changes as described below.
An effective way to secure attachments is to apply the same access control settings to attachments as those applied to topics. This security enhancement can be accomplished by instructing the webserver to redirect accesses to attachments via the TWiki
viewfile
script, which honors the TWiki access controls settings to topics. See the notes below for implications.
The preferred method to secure attachments is by editing the
twiki.conf
file to include:
ScriptAlias /do /filesystem/path/to/twiki/bin
Alias /pub/TWiki /filesystem/path/to/twiki/pub/TWiki
Alias /pub/Sandbox /filesystem/path/to/twiki/pub/Sandbox
ScriptAlias /pub /filesystem/path/to/twiki/bin/viewfile
Notes:
- It is recommended to use TWiki:TWiki/ApacheConfigGenerator to generate the Apache config file for your TWiki.
- You will need to restart your Apache server after this change.
- Images embedded in topics will load slower since attached images will also be delivered by the
viewfile
script. The TWiki web and Sandbox web are excluded for performance reasons.
- The
viewfile
script sets the mime type based upon file name suffix. Unknown types are served as text/plain which can result in corrupt files.
Controlling who can manage top-level webs
Top level webs are a special case, because they don't have a parent web with a
WebPreferences. So there has to be a special control just for the root level.
- You can define these settings in the Main.TWikiPreferences topic, preferable towards the end of the topic:
-
Set DENYROOTCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWROOTCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
Note that you do
not require
ROOTCHANGE
access to rename an existing top-level web. You just need
WEBCHANGE
in the web itself.
How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings
When deciding whether to grant access, TWiki evaluates the following rules in order (read from the top of the list; if the logic arrives at
PERMITTED or
DENIED that applies immediately and no more rules are applied). You need to read the rules bearing in mind that VIEW, CHANGE and RENAME access may be granted/denied separately.
- If the user is an administrator
- If DENYTOPIC is set to a list of wikinames
- people in the list will be DENIED.
- If DENYTOPIC is set to empty ( i.e.
Set DENYTOPIC =
)
- the access control setting is ignored.
Attention: The spec changed in TWiki-6.0; access was permitted in earlier TWiki releases.
- If ALLOWTOPIC is set
- people in the list are PERMITTED
- everyone else is DENIED
- If DENYWEB is set to a list of wikinames
- people in the list are DENIED access
- If ALLOWWEB is set to a list of wikinames
- people in the list will be PERMITTED
- everyone else will be DENIED
- If you got this far, access is PERMITTED
Allowing web creation by user mapping manager
There are cases where DENYROOTCHANGE, ALLOWROOTCHANGE, DENYWEBCHANGE, and ALLOWWEBCHANGE, and DENYWEBCHANGE are not capable enough to implement web creation permission you want.
To cope with such cases, when a new web is created, the
canCreateWeb($cUID, $web)
method of the user mapping manager is called if the method exists.
If it returns true, TWiki goes ahead and create the web without checking access control variables.
Please read
AllowWebCreateByUserMappingManager for more details.
There are cases where it's handy to access TWiki on behalf of somebody else retaining a trace of your real identity rather than completely becoming a different user.
We call it user masquerading.
TWiki provides a framework to implement that.
Please read
UserMasquerading for more information.
This is an advanced feature and not many TWiki sites are using, but there is a part in the following section mentioning it, it's mentioned here.
This feature is regarded experimental.
There are pitfalls and
vulnerability.
Before using this feature, please read this entire section through carefully.
You may want to restrict access dynamically -- based on topic name, a form field value, or some combination of factors.
To cope with such situations, the dynamic access control mechanism is provided.
If you set
DYNAMIC_ACCESS_CONTROL
'on' at WebPreferences of the web,
TWiki variables in access control variables mentioned above are expanded.
Example 1 - restriction based on topic name
Let's assume you need to restrict changes only to the CroniesGroup members excep with topics whose name ends with Public, which need be changed by anybody. That is achieve by the following settings on WebPrefences.
* Set DYNAMIC_ACCESS_CONTROL = on
* Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = %IF{"'%CALCULATE{$SUBSTRING(%TOPIC%, -6, 6)}%' = 'Public'" then="%WIKINAME%" else="CroniesGroup"}%
Example 2 - restriction based on form field
Let's assume:
- a web storing requests on topics whose name starts with ReqEnt
- Each request topic has a form field "Requstor", which has the wiki name of the requestor
- Users can view only requests they created
- The members of the SupportGroup mail group can view all requests
That is achieve by the following settings on WebPrefences.
* Set DYNAMIC_ACCESS_CONTROL = on
* Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = %IF{"'%CALCULATE{$SUBSTRING(%TOPIC%, 1, 6)}%' = 'ReqEnt' and '%FORMFIELD{Requestor}%' != '%WIKINAME%'" then="SupportGroup" else="%WIKINAME%"}%
Specifically the following access control variables are subject to TWiki variable expansion in their values.
- DENYTOPIC* (e.g. DENYTOPICVIEW, DENYTOPICCHANGE)
- ALLOWTOIPC*
- DENYWEB*
- ALLOWWEB*
DENYROOT* and ALLOWROOT* are not subject to variable expansion.
Because there has been no good use cases presented.
Dynamic access control in accessing a different web's topic
Let's assume WebA has the following lines on WebPreferences.
* Set DYNAMIC_ACCESS_CONTROL = on
* Set MEMBERS = JaneSmith, JoeSchmoe
* Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = %MEMBERS%
This is not a good way to use dynamic access control but it does restrict accessonly to those listed in MEMBERS.
However, access control doesn't work as expected when WebA.TopicB is accessed from WebC.TopicD by
%INCLUDE{WebA.TopicB}%
or other variables.
This is because
%MEMBERS%
is defined in WebA and may have a different value in other webs.
You may think the following lines cheat the access control on WebA but actually not.
* Set MEMBERS = %WIKINAME%
%INCLUDE{WebA.TopicB}%
This is because when a topic (e.g. WebC.TopicD) is accessed from browser and the topic refers to another topic in a different web (e.g. WebA.TopicB) and the different web employs dynamic access control, access to another topic is defined being on the safer side.
Topic level dynamic access control
On a topic, it's possible to use a variable defined on the topic for topic level access restriction. E.g.
* Set MEMBERS = JaneSmith, JoeSchmoe
* Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = %MEMBERS%
[This is not a good way to use dynamic access control
Dynamic access control and user masquerading
Your user mapping handler may be providing the
UserMasquerading feature.
In that case, you expect dynamic access control to just work when user masquerading is in effect.
Otherwise, you cannot test if your dynamic access control configuration is working as expected on your own.
Dynamic access control does work as expected even if user masquerading is in effect. For that, the following things are happening under the hood.
Let's think about Example 2 mentioned above.
When you masquerading as SomebodyElse, you need to be able to see SomebodyElse's requests only.
In the access control setting, a form field value is compared with %WIKINAME%.
While user masquerading is in effect, your wiki name is YourNameOnBehalfOfSomebodyElse. It cannot match the form field value.
To make dynamic access control work under these circumstances, variable expansion for dynamic access control is skewed as follows.
Specifically, the following variables are expanded to the value of SomeboyElse's rather than YourNameOnBehalfOfSomebodyElse's.
- WIKINAME
- USERNAME
- WIKIUSERNAME
Vulnerability
It's possible to redefine function tags such as %IF{...}% in your personal preferences.
In a future release of TWiki, a way to prevent function tags from being overridden by personal preferences will be provied.
But until then, you need to be well aware of this vulnerability.
Disabling dynamic access control
You may not be comfortable with dynamic access control because it may slow things down. Or you may not want to be bothered by questions raised by users about it. If so, you can disable it by setting DYNAMIC_ACCESS_CONTROL 'off' and then finalizing at the local site level. (cf.
TWikiVariables#Setting_Preferences_Variables)
ALLOWTOPICVIEW and ALLOWTOPICCHANGE only applies to the topic in which the settings are defined. If a topic A includes another topic B, topic A does not inherit the access rights of the included topic B.
Examples: Topic A includes topic B
- If the included topic B has ALLOWTOPICCHANGE set to block editing for a user, it does not prevent editing the including topic A.
- If the included topic B has ALLOWTOPICVIEW set to block view for a user, the user can still view topic A but he cannot see the included topic B. He will see a message No permission to view B
When access is denied, a page as follows is displayed:
You may want to customize the passage annotated in the red rectangle.
For example, with a web restricting access, you may want to show the link to an access request form.
You can achieve that by setting
TOPIC_ACCESS_CONTACT
varialbe on WebPreferences. e.g.
* Set TOPIC_ACCESS_CONTACT = If you need to access this site, please apply [[Main.AccessForm][here]]
Please note that setting it on a topic other than WebPreferences does not take effect.
This is a limitation of the current implementation.
You can have
custom user/group notations such as
USER:userid
and
LDAPGROUP:group-name
and use them for access control. For example:
* Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = UID:buzz, LDAPGROUP:foo-bar
In a large organization, TWiki may need to depend on user and group data provided by its infrastructure.
Custom user/group notations are handy in such situations though it's not trivial to implement.
Please read
here for details.
Restrict Access to Whole TWiki Site
In a firewalled TWiki, e.g. an intranet wiki or extranet wiki, you want to allow only invited people to access your TWiki. There are three options:
1. Install TWiki Behind Firewall:
The firewall takes care of giving access to TWiki to authorized people only. This is a typical setup for a company wiki. As for TWiki configuration, no special setup is needed.
2. Extranet TWiki Using Template Login:
All TWiki content (pages and attachments) need to be access controlled. The Template Login allows users to login and logout. Only logged in users can access TWiki content.
Configuration: Follow the default setup, then change these configure settings:
- Secure attachments as documented. The TWiki:TWiki.ApacheConfigGenerator is useful to get the setting right.
- Require authentication for all TWiki scripts except
backuprestore
, configure
, login
, logon
and resetpasswd
with the following configure setting:
$TWiki::cfg{AuthScripts} = 'attach, changes, edit, manage, oops, preview, rdiff, rdiffauth, register, rename, rest, save, search, twiki_cgi, upload, statistics, view, viewauth, viewfile';
- When you install additional plugins make sure to add scripts they might introduce also to
twiki/bin
also to the {AuthScripts}
configure setting.
Attention: Some scripts of additional plugins might not be aware of TWiki's template login. Test all new scripts with a non-authenticated user!
3. Extranet TWiki Using Apache Login:
All TWiki content (pages and attachments) need to be access controlled. The Apache Login does not offer a logout; typically the browser needs to be restarted to logout. Only logged in users can access TWiki content.
Configuration: Enable
user authentication with ApacheLogin and lock down access to the whole
twiki/bin
and
twiki/pub
directories to all but valid users. In the Apache config file for TWiki (
twiki.conf
or
.htaccess
), replace the
<FilesMatch "(attach|edit|...
section with this:
<FilesMatch ".*">
require valid-user
</FilesMatch>
Notes:
- In all three options, content can be restricted selectively with ALLOWWEBVIEW and other access control settings documented above. See also the next quick recipe.
- In the extranet setup, someone with access to the site needs to register new users. If you still want public users to be able to register automatically follow TWiki:TWiki.RegisterOnViewRestrictedSite.
Authenticate and Restrict Selected Webs Only
Use the following setup to provide unrestricted viewing access to open webs, with authentication only on selected webs. Requires
TWikiUserAuthentication to be enabled.
- Restrict view access to selected Users and Groups. Set one or both of these variables in its WebPreferences topic:
-
Set DENYWEBVIEW = < list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = < list of Users and Groups >
- Note:
DENYWEBVIEW
is evaluated before ALLOWWEBVIEW
. Access is denied if the authenticated person is in the DENYWEBVIEW
list, or not in the ALLOWWEBVIEW
list. Access is granted if DENYWEBVIEW
and ALLOWWEBVIEW
are not defined.
Hide Control Settings
Tip: To hide access control settings from normal browser viewing, you can put them into the
topic preference settings by clicking the link
Edit topic preference settings
under
More topic actions
menu. Preferences set in this manner are not visible in the topic text, but take effect nevertheless. Access control settings added as topic preference settings are stored in the topic meta data and they override settings defined in the topic text.
Alternatively, place them in HTML comment markers, but this exposes the access setting during ordinary editing.
<!--
* Set DENYTOPICCHANGE = Main.SomeGroup
-->
Obfuscating Webs
Another way of hiding webs is to keep them hidden by not publishing the URL and by preventing the
all webs
search option from accessing obfuscated webs. Do so by enabling the
NOSEARCHALL
variable in
WebPreferences:
This setup can be useful to hide a new web until content its ready for deployment, or to hide view access restricted webs.
Note: Obfuscating a web without view access control is
very insecure, as anyone who knows the URL can access the web.
Read-only Skin Mode
It is possible to turn the
PatternSkin and
TopMenuSkin into read-only mode by removing the edit and attach controls (links and buttons). This is mainly useful if you have TWiki application pages or dashboards where you do not want regular users to change content. The read-only skin mode is not a replacement for access control; you can use it in addition to access control. Details at
PatternSkinCustomization#ReadOnlySkinMode.
Back to top
TWiki Text Formatting
These instructions are for contributors who prefer to use the Raw Edit over the default WYSIWYG editor. Working in TWiki is as easy as typing in text. You don't need to know HTML, though you can use it if you prefer. Links to topics are created automatically when you enter
WikiWords. And TWiki shorthand gives you all the power of HTML with a simple coding system that takes no time to learn. It's all laid out below.
Formatting Command:
|
You write:
|
You get:
|
Paragraphs:
Blank lines will create new paragraphs.
|
1st paragraph
2nd paragraph
|
1st paragraph
2nd paragraph
|
Headings:
Three or more dashes at the beginning of a line, followed by plus signs and the heading text. One plus creates a top level heading, two pluses a second level heading, etc. The maximum heading depth is 6.
You can create a table of contents with the %TOC% variable.
If you want to exclude a heading from the TOC, put !! after the ---+ .
Empty headings are allowed and won't appear in the table of contents.
|
---++ Sushi
---+++ Maguro
---+++!! Not in TOC
|
Maguro
Not in TOC
|
Bold Text:
Words get shown in bold by enclosing them in * asterisks.
|
*Bold*
|
Bold
|
Italic Text:
Words get shown in italic by enclosing them in _ underscores.
|
_Italic_
|
Italic
|
Bold Italic:
Words get shown in bold italic by enclosing them in __ double-underscores.
|
__Bold italic__
|
Bold italic
|
Fixed Font:
Words get shown in fixed font by enclosing them in = equal signs.
|
=Fixed font=
|
Fixed font
|
Bold Fixed Font:
Words get shown in bold fixed font by enclosing them in double equal signs.
|
==Bold fixed==
|
Bold fixed
|
You can follow the closing bold, italic, or other (* _ __ = == ) indicator
with normal punctuation, such as commas and full stops.
Make sure there is no space between the text and the indicators.
All words enclosed by the indicators need to be on the same line.
|
_This works_,
_this does not _
_this fails
too_
|
This works,
_this does not _
_this fails
too_
|
Separator (Horizontal Rule):
Three or more three dashes at the beginning of a line..
|
-------
|
|
Bulleted List:
Multiple of three spaces, an asterisk, and another space.
For all the list types, you can break a list item over several lines by indenting lines after the first one by at least 3 spaces.
|
* level 1
* level 2
* back on 1
* A bullet
broken over
three lines
* last bullet
|
- level 1
- back on 1
- A bullet broken over three lines
- last bullet
|
Icon List:
Multiple of three spaces, an asterisk, text icon:name and another space.
Use the name of any TWikiDocGraphics icon.
|
* icon:tip Icon list
* icon:led-red Full
* icon:led-green OK
* icon:unchecked Item 1
* icon:checked Item 2
* icon:empty No bullet
|
- Icon list
- Item 1
- Item 2
- No bullet
|
Numbered List:
Multiple of three spaces, a type character, a dot, and another space. Several types are available besides a number:
|
|
Type |
Generated Style |
Sample Sequence |
1. |
Arabic numerals |
1, 2, 3, 4... |
A. |
Uppercase letters |
A, B, C, D... |
a. |
Lowercase letters |
a, b, c, d... |
I. |
Uppercase Roman Numerals |
I, II, III, IV... |
i. |
Lowercase Roman Numerals |
i, ii, iii, iv... |
|
|
|
|
1. Sushi
1. Dim Sum
1. Fondue
A. Sushi
A. Dim Sum
A. Fondue
i. Sushi
i. Dim Sum
i. Fondue
|
- Sushi
- Dim Sum
- Fondue
- Sushi
- Dim Sum
- Fondue
- Sushi
- Dim Sum
- Fondue
|
Definition List:
Three spaces, a dollar sign, the term, a colon, a space, followed by the definition.
Deprecated syntax: Three spaces, the term with no spaces, a colon, a space, followed by the definition.
|
$ Sushi: Japan
$ Dim Sum: S.F.
|
- Sushi
- Japan
- Dim Sum
- S.F.
|
Table:
Each row of the table is a line containing of one or more cells. Each cell starts and ends with a vertical bar '|'. Any spaces at the beginning of a line are ignored.
-
| *bold* | header cell with text in asterisks
-
| center-aligned | cell with at least two, and equal number of spaces on either side
-
| right-aligned | cell with more spaces on the left
-
| 2 colspan || and multi-span columns with multiple |'s right next to each other
-
|^| cell with caret indicating follow-up row of multi-span rows
- You can split rows over multiple lines by putting a backslash
'\' at the end of each line
- Contents of table cells wrap automatically as determined by the browser
- Use
%VBAR% or | to add | characters in tables.
- Use
%CARET% or ^ to add ^ characters in tables.
The TablePlugin provides the |^| multiple-span row functionality and additional rendering features
|
| *L* | *C* | *R* |
| A2 | B2 | C2 |
| A3 | B3 | C3 |
| multi span |||
| A5-7 | 5 | 5 |
|^| six | six |
|^| seven | seven |
| split\
| over\
| 3 lines |
| A9 | B9 | C9 |
|
|
|
L |
C |
R |
A2 |
B2 |
C2 |
A3 |
B3 |
C3 |
multi span |
A5-7 |
5 |
5 |
six |
six |
seven |
seven |
split |
over |
3 lines |
A9 |
B9 |
C9 |
|
|
|
|
WikiWord Links:
CapitalizedWordsStuckTogether (or WikiWords) will produce a link automatically if preceded by whitespace or parenthesis.
If you want to link to a topic in a different web write Otherweb.TopicName .
To link to a topic in a subweb write Otherweb.Subweb.TopicName .
The link label excludes the name of the web, e.g. only the topic name is shown. As an exception, the name of the web is shown for the WebHome topic.
Dots '.' are used to separate webs and subwebs from topic names and therefore cannot be used in topic names.
It's generally a good idea to use the TWikiVariables %SYSTEMWEB% and %USERSWEB% instead of TWiki and Main.
|
WebStatistics
Sandbox.WebNotify
Sandbox.WebHome
Sandbox.Subweb.TopicName
|
WebStatistics
WebNotify
Sandbox
TopicName
|
Anchors:
You can define a reference inside a TWiki topic (called an anchor name) and link to that. To define an anchor write #AnchorName at the beginning of a line. The anchor name must be a WikiWord of no more than 32 characters. To link to an anchor name use the [[MyTopic#MyAnchor]] syntax. You can omit the topic name if you want to link within the same topic.
|
[[WikiWord#NotThere]]
[[#MyAnchor][Jump]]
#MyAnchor
To here
|
WikiWord#NotThere
Jump
To here
|
External Links:
URLs starting with file , ftp , gopher , http , https , irc , mailto , news , nntp and telnet are linked automatically if preceded by whitespace or parenthesis. External links are indicated with a trailing icon, and open up in a new browser tab or window; the behavior of both can be set in configure or preferences variables (see TWikiExternalLinks for details). Links can be prevented with an ! exclamation point prefix.
|
http://twiki.org
https://google.com
!http://escaped-link
|
http://twiki.org
https://google.com
http://escaped-link
|
Forced Links:
Use double square brackets to create forced links: Write [[link]] or [[link][label]] to force a link. Use the former for singleton words and if automatic linking is disabled. Use the latter one to specify a link label other than the link. For the link, you can use internal link references (e.g. WikiWords) and URLs (e.g. http://TWiki.org/).
Anchor names can be added to create a link to a specific place in a document.
To "escape" double square brackets that would otherwise make a link, prefix the leading left square bracket with an exclamation point.
The topic title instead of the topic name is shown for [[WikiWord]] links if the SHOWTOPICTITLELINK preferences setting is enabled.
|
[[WikiWord]]
[[WikiWord#TheSyntax]]
[[WikiSyntax][wiki syntax]]
[[http://gnu.org/][GNU]]
[[Singleton]]
escaped:
![[WikiSyntax]]
|
WikiWord
WikiWord#TheSyntax
wiki syntax
GNU
Singleton
escaped:
[[WikiSyntax]]
|
Topic Title Links:
Use double square brackets and a plus sign to create links with topic title: Write [[+TopicName]] or [[+Web.TopicName]] to show the topic title instead of the topic name. The topic title is defined by the form field named "Title", the topic preferences setting named TITLE, or the topic name if neither exists.
An alternative syntax is [[TopicName][$topictitle]] or [[Web.TopicName][$topictitle]] .
|
[[+BugN1234]]
[[+Bugs.BugN1234]]
[[BugN1234][$topictitle]]
|
The sky is falling
The sky is falling
The sky is falling
|
Prevent a Link:
Prevent a WikiWord from being linked by prepending it with an exclamation point.
|
!SunOS
|
SunOS
|
Disable Links:
You can disable automatic linking of WikiWords by surrounding text with <noautolink> and </noautolink> tags.
It is possible to turn off all auto-linking with a NOAUTOLINK preferences setting.
|
<noautolink>
RedHat & SuSE
</noautolink>
|
RedHat & SuSE
|
Mailto Links:
E-mail addresses are linked automatically. To create e-mail links that have more descriptive link text, specify subject lines or message bodies, or omit the e-mail address, you can write [[mailto:user@domain][descriptive text]] .
|
a@b.com
[[mailto:a@b.com]\
[Mail]]
[[mailto:?subject=\
Hi][Hi]]
|
a@b.com
Mail
Hi
|
Twitter Links:
@twitter IDs are linked automatically. The link rule is defined by the {Links}{TwitterUrlPattern} configure setting.
|
@twiki
|
@twiki
|
Verbatim Text:
Surround code excerpts and other formatted text with <verbatim> and </verbatim> tags.
The verbatim tag disables HTML code. Use <pre> and </pre> tags instead if you want the HTML code within the tags to be interpreted.
Preferences variables (* Set NAME = value) are set within verbatim tags.
|
<verbatim>
class CatAnimal {
void purr() {
<code here>
}
}
</verbatim>
|
class CatAnimal {
void purr() {
<code here>
}
}
|
Literal Text:
TWiki generates HTML code from TWiki shorthand.
Experts surround anything that must be output literally in the HTML code, without the application of
TWiki shorthand rules, with <literal>..</literal> tags.
Any HTML within literal tags must be well formed i.e. all tags must be properly closed before the end of the literal block.
TWiki Variables are expanded within literal blocks.
|
<literal>
| Not | A | Table |
<literal>
|
| Not | A | Table |
|
Protected Text:
Experts protect text from mangling by WYSIWYG editors using
<sticky>..</sticky> tags. Sticky tags don't have any effect on normal
topic display; they are only relevant when content has to be
protected from a WYSIWYG editor (usually because it isn't well-formed HTML, or because it
is HTML that WYSIWYG would normally filter out or modify). Protected
content appears as plain text in the WYSIWYG editor.
|
<sticky>
<div>
This div is required
</div>
</sticky>
|
This div is required
|
You can use most HTML tags in TWiki topics without a problem. This is useful where you want to add some content that is formatted in a way that is not supported using
TWiki shorthand, for example, you can write
<strike>deleted text</strike>
to get
deleted text.
There are a few usability and technical considerations to keep in mind:
- On collaboration pages, it's better not to use HTML, but to use TWiki shorthand instead - this keeps the text uncluttered and easy to edit using the plaintext editor.
- If you must use HTML, use XHTML 1.0 Transitional syntax.
- Use
<literal>..</literal>
tags around blocks of HTML to avoid accidental interpretation of TWiki shorthand within the HTML.
- Script tags may be filtered out, at the discretion of your TWiki administrator.
Recommendations when pasting HTML from other sources (using the plain-text editor):
- Copy only text between
<body>
and </body>
tags.
- Remove all empty lines. TWiki inserts
<p />
paragraph tags on empty lines, which causes problems if done between HTML tags that do not allow paragraph tags, like for example between table tags.
- Remove leading spaces. TWiki might interpret some text as lists.
- Do not span a tag over more than one line. TWiki requires that the opening and closing angle brackets -
<...>
- of a HTML tag are on the same line, or the tag will be broken.
- In your HTML editing program, save without hard line breaks on text wrap.
When using a WYSIWYG editor, you can just copy-paste directly into the editor, and the content will be converted to TWiki shorthand automatically when you save.
It is also possible to add Cascading Style Sheets (
CSS) and
JavaScript code to TWiki pages, which can be used to make TWiki application more interactive. To prevent TWiki from interpreting some text as markup, it can be enclosed in HTML-escaped
<pre>-tags.
JavaScript Example:
|
CSS Example:
|
---|
<!-- <pre> -->
<script language="javascript">
<!--
// put your JavaScript code here
//-->
</script>
<!-- </pre> -->
|
<!-- <pre> -->
<style type="text/css">
/* put your CSS code here */
</style>
<!-- </pre> -->
|
Being able to create links without any special formatting is a core TWiki feature, made possible with
WikiWords and inline URLs.
Internal Links
- GoodStyle is a WikiWord that links to the GoodStyle topic located in the current web.
- NotExistingYet is a topic waiting to be written because it is a red-link. Create the topic by clicking on the link. (Try clicking, but then, Cancel - creating the topic would wreck this example!)
External Links
-
http://...
, https://...
, ftp://...
, gopher://...
, news://...
, file://...
, telnet://...
and mailto:...@...
are linked automatically.
- Write
[[URL][label]]
to get an external link with a descriptive text for the link, such as [[http://google.com/][Google home page]]
to get Google home page.
- E-mail addresses like
name@domain.com
are linked automatically.
TWiki Variables are names enclosed in percent signs that are that are expanded to some other text when the topic is displayed. For example,
%TOPIC%
is expanded to
TWikiVariablesQuickStart. Some variables can take arguments in curly braces - for example,
%INCLUDE{"OtherTopic" arg="value"}%
.
Many TWiki variables are built-in, and others are predefined for your convenience.
TWikiVariables describes how you can also define your own TWiki Variables at the entire site, individual web, or individual topic level. Variables are fully expanded
before any of the TWiki text formatting rules are applied.
Commonly used variables:
-
%TOC%
: Automatically generates a table of contents based on headings in a topic - see the top of this page for an example.
-
%WEB%
: The current web, is TWiki.
-
%TOPIC%
: The current topic name, is TWikiVariablesQuickStart.
-
%ATTACHURL%
: The attachment URL of the current topic. Example usage: If you attach a file to a topic you can refer to it as %ATTACHURL%/image.gif
to show the URL of the file or the image in your text.
-
%INCLUDE{"SomeTopic"}%
: Server side include, includes another topic. The current web is the default web. Example: %INCLUDE{"TWiki.SiteMap"}%
-
%SEARCH{"sushi"}%
: Inline search showing the search result embedded in a topic. FormattedSearch gives you control over formatting, used to create web-based applications.
- Documentation Graphics: There are many graphics available to use in your topics. Use
%ICON{"help"}%
, %ICON{"tip"}%
, and %ICON{"warning"}%
to get: , , and , respectively.
- Use the TWiki Variables Wizard to build your variables.
- See all TWiki Variables.
To "escape" a variable, prefix it with an exclamation mark. Write:
!%SOMEVARIABLE%
to get: %SOMEVARIABLE%.
Plugins can extend the functionality of TWiki into many other areas. There are a huge number of TWiki plugins available from the
Plugins web on TWiki.org.
Currently enabled plugins on this TWiki installation, as listed by
%PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%
:
- SpreadSheetPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30478 (2018-07-16) $): Add spreadsheet calculation like
"$SUM( $ABOVE() )"
to TWiki tables or anywhere in topic text - AliasPlugin (2.32, $Rev: 18536 (2010-04-26) $): Define aliases which will be replaced with arbitrary strings automatically
- BackupRestorePlugin (2018-07-10, $Rev: 30551 (2018-07-16) $): Administrator utility to backup, restore and upgrade a TWiki site
- BreadCrumbsPlugin (2010-08-01, $Rev: 19303 (2010-08-01) $): A flexible way to display breadcrumbs navigation
- ColorPickerPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30442 (2018-07-16) $): Color picker, packaged for use in TWiki forms and TWiki applications
- CommentPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30530 (2018-07-16) $): Quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle
- ConnectByRestPlugin (TWiki-5.1, $Rev: 1 (05 May 2010) $): ConnectByRestPlugin
- DatePickerPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30446 (2018-07-16) $): Pop-up calendar with date picker, for use in TWiki forms, HTML forms and TWiki plugins
- EditTablePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30448 (2018-07-16) $): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
- EmptyPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30450 (2018-07-16) $): Empty Plugin used as a template for new Plugins
- FilterPlugin (2010-07-25, $Rev: 19240 (2010-07-25) $): Substitute and extract information from content by using regular expressions
- FlexWebListPlugin (2010-07-25, $Rev: 19261 (2010-07-26) $): Flexible way to display hierarchical weblists
- FootNotePlugin (2.008): Footnotes are notes placed at the end of a topic.
- FormPlugin (2015-02-25, $Rev: 28764 (2015-02-25) $): Create simple and advanced web forms using TWiki forms
- GluePlugin (2.1, $Rev: 18553 (2010-04-30) $): Enable markup to span multiple lines
- HeadlinesPlugin (2018-07-13, $Rev: 30560 (2018-07-16) $): Show headline news in TWiki pages based on RSS and ATOM news feeds from external sites
- IfDefinedPlugin (v1.1, $Rev: 18548 (2010-04-29) $): Render content conditionally
- InterwikiPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30454 (2018-07-16) $): Write
ExternalSite:Page
to link to a page on an external site based on aliases defined in a rules topic - JQueryPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30456 (2018-07-16) $): jQuery JavaScript library for TWiki
- PreferencesPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30528 (2018-07-16) $): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
- RedDotPlugin (2010-07-27, $Rev: 21402 (2011-06-04) $): Renders edit-links as little red dots
- RenderListPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30468 (2018-07-16) $): Render bullet lists in a variety of formats
- SetGetPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30472 (2018-07-16) $): Set and get variables and JSON objects in topics, optionally persistently across topic views
- SlideShowPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30474 (2018-07-16) $): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
- SmiliesPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30476 (2018-07-16) $): Render smilies as icons, like
:-)
as or :eek:
as - TWikiNetSkinPlugin (2015-02-16, $Rev: 28729 (2015-02-17) $): Helps formatting TWikiNetSkin design. Enable by setting the skin to "twikinet"
- TWikiSheetPlugin (2018-07-15, $Rev: 30604 (2018-07-16) $): Add TWiki Sheet spreadsheet functionality to TWiki tables
- TablePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30480 (2018-07-16) $): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
- TagMePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30482 (2018-07-16) $): Tag wiki content collectively or authoritatively to find content by keywords
- TwistyPlugin (2018-07-06, $Rev: 30497 (2018-07-16) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
- WatchlistPlugin (2018-07-10, $Rev: 30536 (2018-07-16) $): Watch topics of interest and get notified of changes by e-mail
- WysiwygPlugin (2018-07-06, $Rev: 30528 (2018-07-16) $): Translator framework for WYSIWYG editors
Check on current Plugin status and settings for this site in
TWikiPreferences.
TWiki formatting rules are fairly simple to use and quick to type. However, there are some things to watch out for, taken from the
TextFormattingFAQ:
- Q: Text enclosed in angle brackets like
<filename>
is not displayed. How can I show it as it is?
- A: The
'<'
and '>'
characters have a special meaning in HTML, they define HTML tags. You need to escape them, so write '<'
instead of '<'
, and '>'
instead of '>'
.
Example: Type 'prog <filename>'
to get 'prog <filename>'
.
- Q: Why is the
'&'
character sometimes not displayed?
- A: The
'&'
character has a special meaning in HTML, it starts a so-called character entity, e.g. '©'
is the ©
copyright character. You need to escape '&'
to see it as it is, so write '&'
instead of '&'
.
Example: Type 'This & that'
to get 'This & that'
.
Related topics: WikiSyntax,
WikiWord,
WikiNotation,
TextFormattingRules,
TWikiEditingShorthand,
TWikiRenderingShortcut,
TWikiShorthand,
TWikiVariablesQuickStart
Back to top
TWiki Variables
Special text strings expand on the fly to display dynamic content, such as user data or system info
TWikiVariables are text strings -
%VARIABLE%
or
%VARIABLE{ parameter="value" }%
- that expand into content whenever a topic is rendered for viewing. There are two types of variables:
- Preferences variables: Can be defined and changed by the user.
Example: %T%
renders as
- Predefined variables: Defined by the TWiki system or by extensions.
Example: %CALCULATE{}%
is handled by the SpreadSheetPlugin
See list of
all TWiki Variables currently defined in this TWiki installation.
Pre-load image:
To use a variable type its name. For example,
- type
%T%
to get (a preferences variable)
- type
%TOPIC%
to get TWikiVariables
(a predefined variable)
- type
%CALCULATE{ "$UPPER(Text)" }%
to get TEXT
(a variable defined by a plugin)
Note:
- To leave a variable unexpanded, precede it with an exclamation point, e.g. type
!%TOPIC%
to get %TOPIC%
- Variables are expanded relative to the topic they are used in, not the topic they are defined in
- Type
%ALLVARIABLES%
to get a full listing of all variables defined for a particular topic
Variable Names
Variable names must start with a letter, optionally followed by letters, numbers and underscore '_' characters. Both upper-case and lower-case characters can be used,
%MYVAR%
,
%MyVar%
,
%My2ndVar%
, and
%My_Var%
are valid names. Variables are case sensitive, e.g.
%MyVAR%
and
%MYVAR%
are not the same.
By convention all settings, predefined variables and variables handled by extensions are always UPPER-CASE.
Unlike predefined variables, preferences variables can be defined by the user in various places.
Setting Preferences Variables
You can set variables in all the following places:
- system level in TWiki.TWikiPreferences
- plugin topics (see TWikiPlugins)
- local site level in Main.TWikiPreferences
- user level in individual user topics in Main web
- web level in WebPreferences of each web
- If
EXTRAPREFERENCES
is defined at this point, it's regarded as having comma separated list of topics. Those topics are read in the listed order as if they were WebPreferences
- topic level in topics in webs
- session variables (if sessions are enabled)
Settings at higher-numbered levels override settings of the same variable at lower numbered levels, unless the variable was included in the setting of FINALPREFERENCES at a lower-numbered level, in which case it is locked at the value it has at that level.
If you are setting a variable and using it in the same topic, note that TWiki reads all the variable settings from the saved version of the topic before it displays anything. This means you can use a variable anywhere in the topic, even if you set it somewhere inconspicuous near the end.
But beware: it also means that if you change the setting of a variable you are using in the same topic,
preview
will show the wrong thing, and you must
save
the topic to see it correctly.
The syntax for setting variables is the same anywhere in TWiki (on its own TWiki bullet line, including nested bullets):
[multiple of 3 spaces] * [space] Set [space] VARIABLENAME [space] = [space] value
Examples:
* Set VARIABLENAME1 = value
* Set VARIABLENAME2 = value
Spaces between the = sign and the value will be ignored. You can split a value over several lines by indenting following lines with spaces - as long as you don't try to use * as the first character on the following line.
Example:
* Set VARIABLENAME = value starts here
and continues here
Whatever you include in your variable will be expanded on display, exactly as if it had been entered directly.
Example: Create a custom logo variable
- To place a logo anywhere in a web by typing
%MYLOGO%
, define the Variable on the web's WebPreferences topic, and upload a logo file, ex: mylogo.gif
. You can upload by attaching the file to WebPreferences, or, to avoid clutter, to any other topic in the same web, e.g. LogoTopic
. Sample variable setting in WebPreferences:
* Set MYLOGO = %PUBURL%/%WEB%/LogoTopic/mylogo.gif
You can also set preferences variables on a topic by clicking the link
Edit topic preference settings
under
More topic actions
. Use the same
* Set VARIABLENAME = value
syntax. Preferences set in this manner are not visible in the topic text, but take effect nevertheless.
Parameterized Variables (Macros)
It is possible to pass parameters to TWiki variables. This is called a macro in a programming language.
To define a parameterized variable, set a variable that contains other variables, such as:
* Set EXAMPLE = Example variable using %DEFAULT%, %PARAM1% and %PARAM2%
* Set DEMO = Demo using %DEFAULT{ default="(undefined)" }%,
%PARAM1{ default="(undefined)" }% and %PARAM2{ default="(undefined)" }%
A special
%DEFAULT%
variable denotes the default (nameless) parameter of the calling variable. Variables optionally may list a
default="..."
parameter that gets used in case the calling variable does not specify that parameter.
To use a parameterized variable (or call a macro), add parameters within the curly brackets, such as:
* %EXAMPLE{ "foo" PARAM1="bar" PARAM2="baz" }%
* %DEMO{ "demo" PARAM2="parameter 2" }% -- note that PARAM1 is missing
which resolves to:
- %EXAMPLE{ "foo" PARAM1="bar" PARAM2="baz" }%
- %DEMO{ "demo" PARAM2="parameter 2" }% -- note that PARAM1 is missing
Parameters in the variable definition are expanded using the following sequence:
- Parameter from variable call. In above example,
%PARAM1%
gets expanded to bar
.
- Session variable and preferences settings
Define variables:
* Set DRINK = red wine
* Set FAVORITE = My %DEFAULT{default="favorite"}% dish is %DISH{default="steak"}%,
my %DEFAULT{default="favorite"}% drink is %DRINK%.
The default can be defined with a default parameter (
%DISH{default="steak"}%
), or as a preferences setting (
Set DRINK = ...
).
Use Variables:
%FAVORITE{ DISH="Sushi" DRINK="Sake" }%
Returns:
%FAVORITE{ DISH="Sushi" DRINK="Sake" }%
%FAVORITE{}%
Returns:
%FAVORITE{}%
%FAVORITE{ "preferred" }%
Returns:
%FAVORITE{ "preferred" }%
Access Control Variables
These are special types of preferences variables to control access to content.
TWikiAccessControl explains these security settings in detail.
Local values for variables
Certain topics (a users home topic, web site and default preferences topics) have a problem; variables defined in those topics can have two meanings. For example, consider a user topic. A user may want to use a double-height edit box when they are editing their home topic - but
only when editing their home topic. The rest of the time, they want to have a normal edit box. This separation is achieved using
Local
in place of
Set
in the variable definition. For example, if the user sets the following in their home topic:
* Set EDITBOXHEIGHT = 10
* Local EDITBOXHEIGHT = 20
Then when they are editing any other topic, they will get a 10 high edit box. However when they are editing their home topic, they will get a 20 high edit box.
Local
can be used wherever a preference needs to take a different value depending on where the current operation is being performed.
Use this powerful feature with great care!
%ALLVARIABLES%
can be used to get a listing of the values of all variables in their evaluation order, so you can see variable scope if you get confused.
Frequently Used Preferences Variables
The following preferences variables are frequently used. They are defined in
TWikiPreferences#Miscellaneous_Settings:
-
%BB%
- line break and bullet combined
-
%BB2%
- level 2 bullet with line break
-
%BB3%
- level 3 bullet with line break
-
%BB4%
- level 4 bullet with line break
-
%BR%
- line break
-
%BULLET%
- bullet sign
-
%CARET%
- caret symbol
-
%VBAR%
- vertical bar
-
%H%
- Help icon
-
%I%
- Idea icon
-
%M%
- Moved to icon
-
%N%
- New icon
-
%P%
- Refactor icon
-
%Q%
- Question icon
-
%S%
- Pick icon
-
%T%
- Tip icon
-
%U%
- Updated icon
-
%X%
- Alert icon
-
%Y%
- Done icon
-
%RED% text %ENDCOLOR%
- colored text (also %YELLOW%
, %ORANGE%
, %PINK%
, %PURPLE%
, %TEAL%
, %NAVY%
, %BLUE%
, %AQUA%
, %LIME%
, %GREEN%
, %OLIVE%
, %MAROON%
, %BROWN%
, %BLACK%
, %GRAY%
, %SILVER%
, %WHITE%
)
-
%REDBG% text %ENDBG%
- colored background (also %YELLOWBG%
, %ORANGEBG%
, %PINKBG%
, %PURPLEBG%
, %TEALBG%
, %NAVYBG%
, %BLUEBG%
, %AQUABG%
, %LIMEBG%
, %GREENBG%
, %OLIVEBG%
, %MAROONBG%
, %BROWNBG%
, %BLACKBG%
, %GRAYBG%
, %SILVERBG%
, %WHITEBG%
)
There are additional useful preferences variables defined in
TWikiPreferences, in
Main.TWikiPreferences, and in
WebPreferences of every web.
Most predefined variables return values that were either set in the configuration when TWiki was installed, or taken from server info (such as current username, or date and time). Some, like
%SEARCH%
, are powerful and general tools.
- Show all TWiki Variables
- Predefined variables can be overridden by preferences variables (except a few such as TOPIC and WEB)
- Extensions may extend the set of predefined variables (see individual extension topics for details)
- Take the time to thoroughly read through ALL preference variables. If you actively configure your site, review variables periodically. They cover a wide range of functions, and it can be easy to miss the one perfect variable for something you have in mind. For example, see
%INCLUDINGTOPIC%
, %INCLUDE%
, and the mighty %SEARCH%
.
Search or List Variables by Category
All TWiki Variables:
ACTIVATEDPLUGINS,
ADDTOHEAD,
ALLVARIABLES,
AQUA,
ATTACHURL,
ATTACHURLPATH,
AUTHREALM,
BASETOPIC,
BASEWEB,
BB,
BB2,
BB3,
BB4,
BLACK,
BLUE,
BR,
BROWN,
BUBBLESIG,
BULLET,
CALC,
CALCULATE,
CARET,
COLORPICKER,
COMMENT,
CONTENTMODE,
COPY,
DASHBOARD,
DATE,
DATEPICKER,
DISPLAYTIME,
DISPLAYTIME2,
EDITACTION,
EDITFORMFIELD,
EDITTABLE,
ENCODE,
ENDBG,
ENDCOLOR,
ENDSECTION,
ENTITY,
ENV,
EXAMPLEVAR,
FAILEDPLUGINS,
FORMFIELD,
GET,
GMTIME,
GMTIME2,
GRAY,
GREEN,
GROUPS,
H,
HEADLINES,
HIDE,
HIDEINPRINT,
HOMETOPIC,
HTTP,
HTTPHOST,
HTTPS,
I,
ICON,
ICONURL,
ICONURLPATH,
IF,
INCLUDE,
INCLUDINGTOPIC,
INCLUDINGWEB,
JQENDTAB,
JQENDTABPANE,
JQTAB,
JQTABPANE,
LANGUAGE,
LANGUAGES,
LAQUO,
LIME,
LOCALSITEPREFS,
LOGIN,
LOGINURL,
LOGOUT,
LOGOUTURL,
M,
MAINWEB,
MAKETEXT,
MAROON,
MDREPO,
META,
METASEARCH,
N,
NAVY,
NBSP,
NOP,
NOTIFYTOPIC,
OLIVE,
ORANGE,
P,
PARENTBC,
PARENTTOPIC,
PINK,
PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS,
PLUGINVERSION,
PUBURL,
PUBURLPATH,
PURPLE,
Q,
QUERYPARAMS,
QUERYSTRING,
RAQUO,
RED,
REDBG,
REG,
REMOTEADDR,
REMOTEPORT,
REMOTEUSER,
RENDERLIST,
REVINFO,
REVINFO2,
S,
SCRIPTNAME,
SCRIPTSUFFIX,
SCRIPTURL,
SCRIPTURL2,
SCRIPTURLPATH,
SCRIPTURLPATH2,
SEARCH,
SERVERTIME,
SERVERTIME2,
SESSIONID,
SESSIONVAR,
SESSIONVARIABLE,
SET,
SETGETDUMP,
SILVER,
SITENAME,
SITESTATISTICSTOPIC,
SLIDESHOWEND,
SLIDESHOWSTART,
SPACEDTOPIC,
SPACEOUT,
STARTINCLUDE,
STARTSECTION,
STATISTICSTOPIC,
STOPINCLUDE,
SYSTEMWEB,
T,
TABLE,
TEAL,
TM,
TOC,
TOC2,
TOPIC,
TOPICLIST,
TOPICTITLE,
TOPICURL,
TWIKIWEB,
TWISTY,
U,
URLPARAM,
USERINFO,
USERNAME,
USERREPORT,
USERSIG,
USERSWEB,
VAR,
VBAR,
WEB,
WEBLIST,
WEBPREFSTOPIC,
WHITE,
WIKIHOMEURL,
WIKILOGOALT,
WIKILOGOIMG,
WIKILOGOURL,
WIKINAME,
WIKIPREFSTOPIC,
WIKITOOLNAME,
WIKIUSERNAME,
WIKIUSERSTOPIC,
WIKIVERSION,
WIP,
X,
Y,
YELLOW, total 180 variables
This section is for people documenting TWiki variables of the TWiki core and TWiki extensions.
Each variable is documented in a topic named
Var<name>
in the TWiki web. For example, a
%LIGHTSABER%
variable has a documentation topic called VarLIGHTSABER. The topic is expected to have a specific format so that reports in this TWikiVariables topic, in
TWikiVariablesSearch and in category topics work as expected.
Basic structure of a variable documentation topic:
- Parent set to TWikiVariables
- An anchor named the same like the topic, such as
#VarLIGHTSABER
- A
---+++
(level 3) heading with variable name, --
, short description
- A bullet with description of the variable (optional)
- A
Syntax:
bullet with example syntax
- A
Parameters:
bullet with a table explaining the parameters (optional)
- An
Example:
bullet or two with examples
- An
Expands to:
bullet with expanded variable (optional)
- A
Note:
bullet with notes (optional)
- A
Category:
bullet with one or more of the TWiki variables categories:
AdministrationVariables, ApplicationsAndComponentsVariables, AttachmentsAndFilesVariables, ChartingAndDrawingVariables, DatabaseAndFormsVariables, DateAndTimeVariables, DevelopmentVariables, EditingAndContentUpdateVariables, EmailAndNotificationVariables, ExportAndPublishingVariables, FormattingAndRenderingVariables, ImportVariables, LinkingAndNavigationVariables, SearchingAndListingVariables, SecurityAndAccessControlVariables, SkinsAndTemplatesVariables, SystemInformationVariables, TablesAndSpreadsheetsVariables, UIAndVisualizationVariables, UsersAndAuthenticationVariables, WorkflowAndAutomationVariables - A
Related:
bullet with related links. Links have conditional IF so that links work properly locally in variable documentation topics and in the TWikiVariables topic
Example content of a
VarLIGHTSABER
topic:
#VarLIGHTSABER
---+++ LIGHTSABER -- laser sword to fend of unethical competition
* The =%<nop>LIGHTSABER{}%= variable is handled by the LightsaberPlugin.
* Syntax: =%<nop>LIGHTSABER{ _parameters_ }%=
* Parameters:
| *Parameter* | *Description* | *Default* |
| =color="..."= | Color: =red=, =glue=, =green= | =white= |
| =sound="..."= | Sound: =none=, =standard=, =loud= | =none= |
* Example: =%<nop>LIGHTSABER{ color="red" }%= shows a red Lightsaber
* Expands to: =%LIGHTSABER{ color="red" }%=
* Note: The Lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword."
* Category: FormattingAndRenderingVariables, UIAndVisualizationVariables
* Related: [[%IF{"'%INCLUDINGTOPIC%'='TWikiVariables'" then="#"}%VarPLASMA][PLASMA]], LightsaberPlugin
Back to top
TWiki Formatted Search
Inline search feature allows flexible formatting of search result
The default output format of a
%SEARCH{...}%
is a table consisting of topic names and topic summaries. Use the
format="..."
parameter to customize the search result. The format parameter typically defines a bullet or a table row containing variables, such as
%SEARCH{ "food" format="| $topic | $summary |" }%
. See
%SEARCH{...}%
for other search parameters, such as
separator=""
.
Three parameters can be used to customize a search result:
1. header="..."
parameter
Use the header parameter to specify the header of a search result. It should correspond to the format of the format parameter. This parameter is optional.
Example:
header="| *Topic:* | *Summary:* |"
Variables that can be used in the header string:
|
|
Name: |
Expands To: |
$web |
Name of the web |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". This variable gets removed; useful for nested search |
$quot or \" |
Double quote (" ) |
$aquot |
Apostrophe quote (' ) |
$percnt |
Percent sign (% ) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
|
|
|
2. format="..."
parameter
Use the format parameter to specify the format of one search hit.
Example:
format="| $topic | $summary |"
Variables that can be used in the format string:
|
|
Name: |
Expands To: |
$web |
Name of the web |
$topic |
Topic name |
$topic(20) |
Topic name, "- " hyphenated each 20 characters |
$topic(30, -<br />) |
Topic name, hyphenated each 30 characters with separator "-<br />" |
$topic(40, ...) |
Topic name, shortened to 40 characters with "..." indication |
$topictitle |
Topic title, in order of sequence defined by: Form field named "Title", topic preference setting named TITLE, topic name |
$parent |
Name of parent topic; empty if not set |
$parent(20) |
Name of parent topic, same hyphenation/shortening like $topic() |
$text |
Formatted topic text. In case of a multiple="on" search, it is the line found for each search hit. |
$text(encode:type) |
Same as above, but encoded in the specified type. Possible types are the same as ENCODE. Though ENCODE can take the extra parameter, $text(encode:type) cannot. e.g. $text(encode:html) |
$locked |
LOCKED flag (if any) |
$date |
Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 31 Oct 2024 - 23:46 |
$isodate |
Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 2024-10-31T23:46Z |
$rev |
Number of last topic revision, e.g. 4 |
$username |
Login name of last topic update, e.g. jsmith |
$wikiname |
Wiki user name of last topic update, e.g. JohnSmith |
$wikiusername |
Wiki user name of last topic update, like Main.JohnSmith |
$createdate |
Time stamp of topic revision 1 |
$createusername |
Login name of topic revision 1, e.g. jsmith |
$createwikiname |
Wiki user name of topic revision 1, e.g. JohnSmith |
$createwikiusername |
Wiki user name of topic revision 1, e.g. Main.JohnSmith |
$summary |
Topic summary, just the plain text, all TWiki variables, formatting and line breaks removed; up to 162 characters |
$summary(50) |
Topic summary, up to 50 characters shown |
$summary(showvarnames) |
Topic summary, with %ALLTWIKI{...}% variables shown as ALLTWIKI{...} |
$summary(expandvar) |
Topic summary, with %ALLTWIKI{...}% variables expanded |
$summary(noheader) |
Topic summary, with leading ---+ headers removed Note: The tokens can be combined, for example $summary(100, showvarnames, noheader) |
$changes |
Summary of changes between latest rev and previous rev |
$changes(n) |
Summary of changes between latest rev and rev n |
$formname |
The name of the form attached to the topic; empty if none |
$formfield(name) |
The field value of a form field; for example, $formfield(TopicClassification) would get expanded to PublicFAQ . This applies only to topics that have a TWikiForm |
$formfield(name, encode:type) |
Form field value, encoded in the specified type. This is in parallel to $text(encode:type) shown above. Comma followed by encode:type can be added to the $formfield(...) syntax below as well. But it needs to be the last paramer. e.g. $formfield(Description, 20, encode:html) |
$formfield(name, 10) |
Form field value, "- " hyphenated each 10 characters |
$formfield(name, 20, -<br />) |
Form field value, hyphenated each 20 characters with separator "-<br />" |
$formfield(name, 30, ...) |
Form field value, shortened to 30 characters with "..." indication |
$query(query-syntax) |
Access topic meta data using SQL-like QuerySearch syntax. Example: • $query(attachments.arraysize) returns the number of files attached to the current topic • $query(attachments[name~'*.gif'].size) returns an array with size of all .gif attachments, such as 848, 1425, 923 • $query(parent.name) is equivalent to $parent |
$query(query-syntax, encode:type) |
QuerySearch result is encoded in the specified type. This is in parallel to $text(encode:type) mentioned above |
$pattern(reg-exp) |
A regular expression pattern to extract some text from a topic (does not search meta data; use $formfield instead). In case of a multiple="on" search, the pattern is applied to the line found in each search hit. • Specify a RegularExpression that covers the whole text (topic or line), which typically starts with .* , and must end in .* • Put text you want to keep in parenthesis, like $pattern(.*?(from here.*?to here).*) • Example: $pattern(.*?\*.*?Email\:\s*([^\n\r]+).*) extracts the e-mail address from a bullet of format * Email: ... • This example has non-greedy .*? patterns to scan for the first occurance of the Email bullet; use greedy .* patterns to scan for the last occurance • Limitation: Do not use .*) inside the pattern, e.g. $pattern(.*foo(.*)bar.*) does not work, but $pattern(.*foo(.*?)bar.*) does • Note: Make sure that the integrity of a web page is not compromised; for example, if you include an HTML table make sure to include everything including the table end tag |
$pattern(reg-exp, encode:type) |
A text extracted by reg-exp is encoded in the specified type. This is in parallel to $text(encode:type) mentioned above |
$count(reg-exp) |
Count of number of times a regular expression pattern appears in the text of a topic (does not search meta data). Follows guidelines for use and limitations outlined above under $pattern(reg-exp) . Example: $count(.*?(---[+][+][+][+]) .*) counts the number of <H4> headers in a page. |
$ntopics |
Number of topics found in current web. This is the current topic count, not the total number of topics |
$tntopics |
The total number of topics matched |
$nwebs |
The number of webs searched |
$nhits |
Number of hits if multiple="on" . Cumulative across all topics in current web. Identical to $ntopics unless multiple="on" |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". This variable gets removed; useful for nested search |
$quot or \" |
Double quote (" ) |
$aquot |
Apostrophe quote (' ) |
$percnt |
Percent sign (% ) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
|
|
|
3. footer="..."
parameter
Use the footer parameter to specify the footer of a search result. It should correspond to the format of the format parameter. This parameter is optional.
Example:
footer="| *Topic* | *Summary* |"
Variables that can be used in the footer string:
|
|
Name: |
Expands To: |
$web |
Name of the web |
$ntopics |
Number of topics found in current web |
$tntopics |
The total number of topics matched |
$nwebs |
The number of webs searched |
$nhits |
Number of hits if multiple="on" . Cumulative across all topics in current web. Identical to $ntopics unless multiple="on" |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". This variable gets removed; useful for nested search |
$quot or \" |
Double quote (" ) |
$aquot |
Apostrophe quote (' ) |
$percnt |
Percent sign (% ) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
|
|
|
4. default="..."
parameter
Use the default parameter to specify a default message if there are no hits in a web. This parameter is optional.
Example:
default="| *Note* | Nothing found in the [[$web.WebHome][$web]] web |"
Variables that can be used in the default string:
|
|
Name: |
Expands To: |
$web |
Name of the web |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". This variable gets removed; useful for nested search |
$quot or \" |
Double quote (" ) |
$aquot |
Apostrophe quote (' ) |
$percnt |
Percent sign (% ) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
|
|
|
When a search return many results, you may want to paginate them having the following line below the results.
«Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next»
SearchResultsPagination describes how to do it.
By default, variables embedded in the format parameter of
%SEARCH{}%
are evaluated once
before the search. This is OK for variables that do not change, such as
%SCRIPTURLPATH%
. Variables that should be evaluated once per search hit
must be escaped. For example, to escape a conditional:
%IF{ "..." then="..." else="..." }%
write this:
format="$percntIF{ \"...\" then=\"...\" else=\"...\" }$percnt"
Here are some samples of formatted searches. The
SearchPatternCookbook has other examples, such as
creating a picklist of usernames,
searching for topic children and more.
Bullet list showing topic name and summary
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"FAQ"
scope="topic"
nosearch="on"
nototal="on"
header=" * *Topic: Summary:*"
format=" * [[$topic]]: $summary"
footer=" * *Topic: Summary*"
}%
To get this:
- Topic: Summary:
- TWikiFAQ: Frequently Asked Questions About TWiki This is a real FAQ, and also a demo of an easily implemented knowledge base solution. To see how it`s done, view the source...
- TWikiFaqTemplate: FAQ: Answer: Back to: TWikiFAQ Contributors:
- TextFormattingFAQ: Text Formatting FAQ This topics lists frequently asked questions on text formatting. Text formatting applies to people who edit TWiki pages in raw edit mode. TextFormattingRules...
- Topic: Summary
Table showing form field values of topics with a form
In a web where there is a form that contains a
TopicClassification
field, an
OperatingSystem
field and an
OsVersion
field we could write:
| *Topic:* | *OperatingSystem:* | *OsVersion:* |
%SEARCH{ "[T]opicClassification.*?value=\"[P]ublicFAQ\"" scope="text" type="regex" nosearch="on" nototal="on" format="| [[$topic]] | $formfield(OperatingSystem) | $formfield(OsVersion) |" }%
To get this:
Extract some text from a topic using regular expression
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"__Back to\:__ TWikiFAQ"
scope="text"
type="regex"
nosearch="on"
nototal="on"
header="TWiki FAQs:"
format=" * $pattern(.*?FAQ\:[\n\r]*([^\n\r]+).*) [[$topic][Answer...]]"
}%
To get this:
TWiki FAQs:
- How can I create a simple TWiki Forms based application? Answer...
- How do I delete or rename a topic? Answer...
- How do I delete or rename a file attachment? Answer...
- Why does the topic revision not increase when I edit a topic? Answer...
- TWiki is distributed under the GPL (GNU General Public License). What is GPL? Answer...
- I've problems with the WebSearch. There is no Search Result on any inquiry. By clicking the Index topic it's the same problem. Answer...
- What happens if two of us try to edit the same topic simultaneously? Answer...
- I would like to install TWiki on my server. Can I get the source? Answer...
- What does the "T" in TWiki stand for? Answer...
- So what is this WikiWiki thing exactly? Answer...
- Everybody can edit any page, this is scary. Doesn't that lead to chaos? Answer...
Nested Search
Search can be nested. For example, search for some topics, then form a new search for each topic found in the first search. The idea is to build the nested search string using a formatted search in the first search.
Here is an example. Let's search for all topics that contain the word "culture" (first search), and let's find out where each topic found is linked from (second search).
- First search:
-
%SEARCH{ "culture" format=" * $topic is referenced by: (list all references)" nosearch="on" nototal="on" }%
- Second search. For each hit we want this search:
-
%SEARCH{ "(topic found in first search)" format="$topic" nosearch="on" nototal="on" separator=", " }%
- Now let's nest the two. We need to escape the second search, e.g. the first search will build a valid second search string. Note that we escape the second search so that it does not get evaluated prematurely by the first search:
- Use
$percnt
to escape the leading percent of the second search
- Use
\"
to escape the double quotes
- Use
$dollar
to escape the $
of $topic
- Use
$nop
to escape the }%
sequence
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"culture"
format=" * $topic is referenced by:$n * $percntSEARCH{ \"$topic\" format=\"$dollartopic\" nosearch=\"on\" nototal=\"on\" separator=\", \" }$nop%"
nosearch="on"
nototal="on"
}%
To get this:
- ATasteOfTWiki is referenced by:
- FormattedSearch is referenced by:
- AnApplicationWithWikiForm, BackupRestorePlugin, BreadCrumbsPlugin, ConnectByRestPlugin, EditTablePlugin, EmptyPlugin, FilterPlugin, FlexWebListPlugin, FootNotePlugin, FormatTokens, GluePlugin, HeadlinesPlugin, IfDefinedPlugin, IfStatements, InterwikiPlugin, ManagingWebs, PreferencesPlugin, QuerySearch, RedDotPlugin, RegularExpression, RenderListPlugin, SearchHelp, SearchPatternCookbook, SearchResultsPagination, SetGetPlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin, TWikiAccessControl, TWikiDocumentation, TWikiForms, TWikiHistory, TWikiMetaData, TWikiNetSkinPlugin, TWikiReferenceManual, TWikiReleaseNotes04x00, TWikiReleaseNotes04x01, TWikiScripts, TWikiSearchDotPm, TWikiSiteTools, TWikiTip018, TWikiTopics, TWikiUISearchDotPm, TWikiVariablesQuickStart, TagMePlugin, TwistyPlugin, VarEDITFORMFIELD, VarFORMFIELD, VarMETA, VarMETASEARCH, VarSEARCH, VarURLPARAM, WatchlistPlugin, WebHome, WebLeftBar, WebTopMenu, WelcomeGuest
- TWikiAccessControl is referenced by:
- AllowWebCreateByUserMappingManager, AutonomousWebs, CopyingTopics, CustomUserGroupNotations, EditTablePlugin, FileAttachment, MainFeatures, ManagingTopics, ManagingUsers, ManagingWebs, PatternSkinCustomization, SitePermissions, SourceCode, TWikiAccessControl, TWikiDocumentation, TWikiForms, TWikiFuncDotPm, TWikiHistory, TWikiInstallationGuide, TWikiPreferences, TWikiReferenceManual, TWikiReleaseNotes04x01, TWikiReleaseNotes04x02, TWikiReleaseNotes06x00, TWikiScripts, TWikiSiteTools, TWikiTopics, TWikiTutorial, TWikiUserAuthentication, TWikiVariables, TagMePlugin, UserMasquerading, VarHIDE, VarSEARCH, WebPreferences, WebPreferencesHelp, WikiCulture, WikiWord
- TWikiSite is referenced by:
- AdminToolsCategory, InstantEnhancements, InterwikiPlugin, ManagingWebs, SiteMap, SiteStatisticsFooter, StartingPoints, TWikiAccessControl, TWikiDocumentation, TWikiGlossary, TWikiI18NDotPm, TWikiInstallationGuide, TWikiPreferences, TWikiReferenceManual, TWikiRegistration, TWikiReleaseNotes04x02, TWikiReleaseNotes05x00, TWikiReleaseNotes05x01, TWikiReleaseNotes06x00, TWikiScripts, TWikiSite, TWikiTopics, TWikiTutorial, TWikiUserAuthentication, TWikiUsersGuide, WabiSabi, WebHome, WebLeftBar, WebSiteTools, WebStatisticsFooter, WebTopMenu, WelcomeGuest, WhatDoesTWikiStandFor, WhatIsWikiWiki, WikiCulture, WikiReferences
- WabiSabi is referenced by:
- WhatIsWikiWiki is referenced by:
- WikiCulture is referenced by:
- WikiReferences is referenced by:
Note: Nested search can be slow, especially if you nest more then 3 times. Nesting is limited to 16 levels. For each new nesting level you need to "escape the escapes", e.g. write
$dollarpercntSEARCH{
for level three,
$dollardollarpercntSEARCH{
for level four, etc.
Most recently changed pages
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"\.*"
scope="topic"
type="regex"
nosearch="on"
nototal="on"
sort="modified"
reverse="on"
format="| [[$topic]] | $wikiusername | $date |"
limit="7"
}%=
To get this:
Search with conditional output
A regular expression search is flexible, but there are limitations. For example, you cannot show all topics that are up to exactly one week old, or create a report that shows all records with invalid form fields or fields within a certain range, etc. You need some additional logic to format output based on a condition:
- Specify a search which returns more hits then you need
- For each search hit apply a spreadsheet formula to determine if the hit is needed
- If needed, format and output the result
- Else supress the search hit
This requires the
TWiki:Plugins.SpreadSheetPlugin. The following example shows all topics in the Main web that have been updated in the last 7 days.
Write this:
%CALCULATE{$SET(weekold, $TIMEADD($TIME(), -7, day))}%
%SEARCH{ "." scope="topic" type="regex" web="Main" nonoise="on" sort="modified" reverse="on" format="$percntCALCULATE{$IF($TIME($date) < $GET(weekold), <nop>, | [[$web.$topic][$topic]] | $wikiusername | $date | $rev |)}$percnt" limit="100" }%
- The first line sets the
weekold
variable to the serialized date of exactly one week ago
- The SEARCH has a deferred CALCULATE. The
$percnt
makes sure that the CALCULATE gets executed once for each search hit
- The CALCULATE compares the date of the topic with the
weekold
date
- If topic is older, a
<nop>
is returned, which gets removed at the end of the TWiki rendering process
- Otherwise, the search hit is formatted and returned
- This example is for illustration only, it is easier to use the
date="..."
paramter in SEARCH to restrict the date.
To get this:
The condition can be anything you like. To restrict search based on a date range it is easier to use the
date=""
parameter as shown in the next example.
Restrict search based on a date range
A search can be restricted based on a
date range. The following example is identical to the previous one, showing all topics in the Main web that have been updated in the last 7 days.
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"."
scope="topic"
type="regex"
web="%USERSWEB%"
nonoise="on"
sort="modified"
reverse="on"
format="| [[$web.$topic][$topic]] | $wikiusername | $date | $rev |"
limit="100"
date="P1w/$today"
}%=
To get this:
Embedding search forms to return a formatted result
Use an HTML form and an embedded formatted search on the same topic. You can link them together with an
%URLPARAM{"..."}%
variable. Example:
Write this:
<form action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%">
Find Topics:
<input type="text" name="q" size="32" value="%URLPARAM{"q" encode="entity"}%" /> <input type="submit" class="twikiSubmit" value="Search" />
</form>
Result:
%SEARCH{
search="%URLPARAM{"q" encode="quote"}%"
type="keyword"
format=" * $web.$topic: %BR% $summary"
nosearch="on"
}%
To get this:
Result:
Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory,
SearchHelp,
VarSEARCH,
VarENCODE,
SearchResultsPagination,
SearchPatternCookbook,
RegularExpression,
QuerySearch
--
Contributors: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny,
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie,
TWiki:Main.SopanShewale
Back to top
File Attachments
Each topic can have one or more files of any type attached to it by using the Attach screen to upload (or download) files from your local PC. Attachments are stored under revision control: uploads are automatically backed up; all previous versions of a modified file can be retrieved.
File Attachments can be used to archive data, or to create powerful customized groupware solutions, like file sharing and document management systems, and quick Web page authoring.
Document Management System
- You can use Attachments to store and retrieve documents (in any format, with associated graphics, and other media files); attach documents to specific TWiki topics; collaborate on documents with full revision control; distribute documents on a need-to-know basis using web and topic-level access control; create a central reference library that's easy to share with an user group spread around the world.
File Sharing
- For file sharing, FileAttachments on a series of topics can be used to quickly create a well-documented, categorized digital download center for all types of files: documents; graphics and other media; drivers and patches; applications; anything you can safely upload!
Web Authoring
- Through your Web browser, you can easily upload graphics (or sound files, or anything else you want to link to on a page) and place them on a single page, or use them across a web, or site-wide.
- NOTE: You can also add graphics - any files - directly, typically by FTP upload. This requires FTP access, and may be more convenient if you have a large number of files to load. FTP-ed files can't be managed using browser-based Attachment controls. You can use your browser to create TWikiVariables shortcuts, like this %H% = .
- Click on the
Attach
link at the bottom of the page. The Attach
screen lets you browse for a file, add a comment, and upload it. The uploaded file will show up in the File Attachment table.
- NOTE: The topic must already exist. It is a two step process if you want to attach a file to a non-existing topic; first create the topic, then add the file attachment.
- Any type of file can be uploaded. Some files that might pose a security risk are renamed, ex:
*.php
files are renamed to *.php.txt
so that no one can place code that would be read in a .php file.
- The previous upload path is retained for convenience. In case you make some changes to the local file and want to upload it, again you can copy the previous upload path into the Local file field.
- TWiki can limit the file size. This is defined by the
%ATTACHFILESIZELIMIT%
variable of the TWikiPreferences, currently set at 10000 KB.
- It's not recommended to upload files greater than a few hundred K through a browser. Large files can be extremely slow-loading, and often time out. Use an FTP site for large file uploads.
- Automatic attachments:
- When enabled, all files in a topic's attachment directory are shown as attachments to the topic - even if they were directly copied to the directory and never attached by using an 'Attach' link. This is a convenient way to quickly "attach" files to a topic without uploading them one by one; although at the cost of losing audit trail and version control.
- To enable this feature, set the {AutoAttachPubFiles} configuration option.
- NOTE: The automatic attachment feature can only be used by an administrator who has access to the server's file system.
- NOTE: There is no access control on individual attachments. If you need control over single files, create a separate topic per file and set topic-level access restrictions for each.
An attachment can be moved between topics.
- Click
Manage
on the Attachment to be moved.
- On the control screen, select the new web and/or topic.
- Click
Move
. The attachment and its version history are moved. The original location is stored as topic Meta Data.
Move unwanted Attachments to web
Trash
, topic
TrashAttachment
.
- Once a file is attached it can be referenced in the topic. Example:
-
Attach
file: Sample.txt
-
Edit
topic and enter: %ATTACHURL%/Sample.txt
-
Preview
: %ATTACHURL%/Sample.txt
text appears as: /pub/TWiki/FileAttachment/Sample.txt, a link to the text file.
- To reference an attachment located in another topic, enter:
-
%PUBURLPATH%/%WEB%/OtherTopic/Sample.txt
(if it's within the same web)
-
%PUBURLPATH%/Otherweb/OtherTopic/Sample.txt
(if it's in a different web)
- Attached HTML files and text files can be inlined in a topic. Example:
-
Attach
file: Sample.txt
-
Edit
topic and write text: %INCLUDE{"%ATTACHURL%/Sample.txt"}%
- Content of attached file is shown inlined.
- Read more about INCLUDE in TWikiVariables
- GIF, JPG and PNG images can be attached and shown embedded in a topic. Example:
-
Attach
file: Smile.gif
-
Edit
topic and write text: %ATTACHURL%/Smile.gif
-
Preview
: text appears as /pub/TWiki/FileAttachment/Smile.gif, an image.
Files attached to a topic are displayed in a directory table, displayed at the bottom of the page, or optionally, hidden and accessed when you click
Attach.
Clicking on a
Manage
link takes you to a new page that looks a bit like this (depending on what
skin is selected):
- The first table is a list of all attachments, including their attributes. An
h
means the attachment is hidden, it isn't listed when viewing a topic.
- The second table is all the versions of the attachment. Click on View to see that version. If it's the most recent version, you'll be taken to an URL that always displays the latest version, which is usually what you want.
- To change the comment on an attachment, enter a new comment and then click Change properties. Note that the comment listed against the specific version will not change, however the comment displayed when viewing the topic does change.
- To hide/unhide an attachment, enable the
Hide file
checkbox, then click Change properties
.
- Unlike topics, attachments are not locked during editing. As a workaround, you can change the comment to indicate an attachment file is being worked on - the comment on the specific version isn't lost, it's there when you list all versions of the attachment.
- Attachments are not secured by default. Anyone can read them if they know the name of the web, topic and attachment. Ask your TWiki administrator if TWiki is configured to secure attachments.
Back to top
TWiki Forms - Foundation of TWiki Applications
Add structure to content with forms attached to twiki topics. TWiki forms (with form fields) and formatted search are the base for building database applications.
By adding form-based input to free form content, you can structure topics with unlimited, easily searchable categories. A form is enabled for a web and can be added to a topic. The form data is shown in tabular format when the topic is viewed, and can be changed in edit mode using edit fields, radio buttons, check boxes and list boxes. Many different form types can be defined in a web, though a topic can only have one form attached to it at a time.
Typical steps to build an application based on TWiki forms:
- Define a form template
- Enable the form for a web
- Add the form to a template topic
- Build an HTML form to create new topics based on that template topic
- Build a FormattedSearch to list topics that share the same form
Tip: The blog
How to Create a TWiki Application on TWiki.org is a good tutorial to get started with TWiki forms based applications.
A Form Template specifies the fields in a form. A Form Template is simply a page containing a TWiki table, where each row of the table specifies one form field.
- Create a new topic with your form name:
YourForm
, ExpenseReportForm
, InfoCategoryForm
, RecordReviewForm
, whatever you need.
The name of a Form Template topic must end in Form.
- Create a TWiki table, with each column representing one element of an entry field:
Name
, Type
, Size
, Values
, Tooltip message
, and Attributes
(see sample below).
- For each field, fill in a new line; for the type of field, select from the list.
- Save the topic
Example:
| *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
| TopicClassification | select | 1 | NoDisclosure, PublicSupported, PublicFAQ | blah blah... | |
| OperatingSystem | checkbox | 3 | OsHPUX, OsLinux, OsSolaris, OsWin | blah blah... | |
| OsVersion | text | 16 | | blah blah... | |
See
structure of a form for full details of what types are available and what all the columns mean.
You can also retrieve possible values for
select
,
checkbox
or
radio
types from other topics:
Example:
- In the WebForm topic, define the form:
Leave the Values
field blank.
- Then in the TopicClassification topic, define the possible values:
| *Name* |
| NoDisclosure |
| Public Supported |
| Public FAQ |
Name |
NoDisclosure |
Public Supported |
Public FAQ |
Field values can also be set using the result of expanding other TWiki variables. For example,
%SEARCH{"Office$" scope="topic" web="%USERSWEB%" nonoise="on" type="regex" format="$web.$topic" separator=", " }%
When used in the value field of the form definition, this will find all topic names in the Main web which end in "Office" and use them as the legal field values.
- To add a Form, follow the "More topic actions" link at the bottom of a topic, select "Add or Replace Form".
- Select a Form Template topic. These are topics with names ending in Form that contain a Form Template table.
- A Form is typically added to a template topic, either to the
WebTopicEditTemplate
topic in a web, or a new topic that serves as an application specific template topic.
- Modify the template topic to set the initial Form values.
- Note: Initial values will not be set in the form of a new topic if you only use the formtemplate parameter.
- To change a Form, follow the "More topic actions" link at the bottom of a topic, select "Add or Replace Form", and select a new Form.
- You can change a form definition, and TWiki will try to make sure you don't lose any data from the topics that use that form.
- If you add a new field to the form, then it will appear next time you edit a topic that uses the form.
- If you delete a field from the form, or change a field name, then the data will not be visible when you edit the topic (the changed form definition will be used). If you save the topic, the old data will be lost (though thanks to revision control, you can always see it in older versions of the topic)
- If two people edit the same topic containing a form at exactly the same time, and both change fields in the form, TWiki will try to merge the changes so that no data is lost.
A Form Template specifies the fields in a form. A Form Template is simply a page containing a TWiki table, where each row of the table specifies one form field.
Each
row of the table defines one element of an input field:
|
|
Name |
Type |
Size |
Values |
Tooltip message |
Attributes |
|
|
|
The
Name
,
Type
and
Size
columns are required. Other columns are optional. The form template
must have a header row, e.g. at least
| *Name* | *Type* | *Size* |
is required. Columns:
- Name column:
Name
is the name of the form field.
- Type, Size, Value columns:
Type
, Size
and Value
describe the type, size and initial value of this form field. Type text
, checkbox
, select
and more are described in the Form Field Types section below.
- Tooltip message column: The
Tooltip message
will be displayed when the cursor is hovered over the field in edit
view.
- Attributes column:
Attributes
specifies special attributes for the field. Multiple attributes can be entered, separated by spaces.
- An attribute
H
indicates that this field is hidden, e.g. not shown in view mode. However, the field is available for editing and storing information.
Tip: The TWiki form header is suppressed in view mode if all fields of the form are hidden. For better usability it is good to hide the whole form if the display and interaction of all form fields is done externally. For example, the display and modification of form field values can be done in a header topic that is included in each page.
- An attribute
M
indicates that this field is mandatory. The topic cannot be saved unless a value is provided for this field. If the field is found empty during topic save, an error is raised and the user is redirected to an oops
page. Mandatory fields are indicated by an asterisks next to the field name.
For example, a simple form just supporting entry of a name and a date would look as follows:
| *Name* | *Type* | *Size* |
| Name | text | 80 |
| Date | date | 30 |
Field Name Notes:
- Field names have to be unique.
- A very few field names are reserved. If you try to use one of these names, TWiki will automatically append an underscore to the name when the form is used.
- You can space out the title of the field, and it will still find the topic e.g.
Aeroplane Manufacturers
is equivalent to AeroplaneManufacturers
.
- If a
label
field has no name, it will not be shown when the form is viewed, only when it is edited.
- Field names can in theory include any text, but you should stick to alphanumeric characters. If you want to use a non-wikiname for a
select
, checkbox
or radio
field, and want to get the values from another topic, you can use [[...]]
links. This notation can also be used when referencing another topic to obtain field values, but a name other than the topic name is required as the name of the field.
- Leading and trailing spaces are not significant.
Field Value Notes:
- The field value will be used to initialize a field when a form is created, unless specific values are given by the topic template or query parameters. The first item in the list for a select or radio type is the default item. For
label
, text
, and textarea
fields the value may also contain commas. checkbox
fields cannot be initialized through the form template.
- Leading and trailing spaces are not significant.
- Field values can also be generated through a FormattedSearch, which must yield a suitable table as the result.
- Variables in the initial values of a form definition get expanded when the form definition is loaded.
- If you want to use a
|
character in the initial values field, you have to precede it with a backslash, thus: \|
.
- You can use
<nop>
to prevent TWiki variables from being expanded.
- The FormatTokens can be used to prevent expansion of other characters.
General Notes:
- The topic definition is not read when a topic is viewed.
- Form definition topics can be protected in the usual manner, using TWikiAccessControl, to limit who can change the form template and/or individual value lists. Note that view access is required to be able to edit topics that use the form definition, though view access to the form definition is not required to view a topic where the form has been used.
Each table row of a form template defines one element of an input field:
|
|
Name |
Type |
Size |
Values |
Tooltip message |
Attributes |
|
|
|
Many types of form fields are available. Some are TWiki internal, some are provided by extensions.
Find more TWiki form field extensions on TWiki.org. The
Size
and
Value
depend on the
Type
used. Form field types:
|
|
Type |
Description |
Size |
Value |
text |
One-line text field |
Text box width in number of characters |
Initial (default) content |
textarea |
Multi-line text box |
Columns x rows, such as 80x6 ; default is 40x5 |
Initial (default) content |
label |
Read-only text label |
|
Text of the label |
checkbox |
One or more checkboxes that can be toggled individually |
Number of checkboxes shown per line |
Comma-space-separated list of item labels - can be a dynamic SEARCH |
checkbox+buttons |
Like checkbox , adding [Set] and [Clear] buttons |
radio |
Radio buttons, mutually exclusive; only one can be selected |
Number of radio buttons shown per line |
Comma-space-separated list of item labels - can be a dynamic SEARCH |
combobox |
Text field & select combination box, rendered as a text input field and a button to open up a selector box |
Text box width in number of characters |
Comma-space-separated list of options of the select box - can be a dynamic SEARCH |
select |
Select box, rendered as a picklist or a multi-row selector box depending on the size value |
• 1 : Show a picklist • Number > 1: Multi-row selector box of specified size • Range e.g. 3..10 : Multi-row selector box with variable size - the box will never be smaller than 3 items, never larger than 10, and will be 5 high if there are only 5 options |
Comma-space-separated list of options of the select box - can be a dynamic SEARCH |
select+multi |
Like select , turning multi-select on, to allow Shift+Click and Ctrl+Click to select (or deselect) multiple items |
select+values |
Like select , allowing definition of values that are different to the displayed text. For example: | Field 9 | select+values | 3 | One, Two=2, Three=III | Various values formats | shows but the values of options Two and Three are 2 and III , respectively. |
select+multi+values |
Combination of select+multi and select+values |
color |
Single-line text box and a color picker to pick a color. The color can also be typed into the text box, such as #123456 . |
Text box width in number of characters |
Initial (default) color |
date |
Text input field and a button next to it to pick a date from a pop-up calendar. The date can also be typed into the text box. |
Text box width in number of characters |
Initial (default) date |
|
|
|
Values in Other Topics
As described above, you can also retrieve possible values for select, checkbox or radio types from other topics. For example, if you have a rows defined like this:
| *Name* | *Type* | *Size* |
| AeroplaneManufacturers | select | |
the TWiki will look for the topic AeroplaneManufacturers to get the possible values for the
select
.
The AeroplaneManufacturers topic must contain a table, where each row of the table describes a possible value. The table only requires one column,
Name
. Other columns may be present, but are ignored.
For example:
| *Name* |
| Routan |
| Focke-Wulf |
| De Havilland |
Notes:
- The
Values
column must be empty in the referring form definition.
You can use a form template on a different web by specifying a form template in the WEB.TOPIC format.
In addition, you can put a comma separated list of webs in the
TWIKIFORMPATH
variable.
It's referred to only when a form template is spcified without a web (TOPIC instead of WEB.TOPIC).
The webs in
TWIKIFORMPATH
are examined in the listed order until the specified template is found.
TWIKIFORMPATH
may contain TWiki variables. For example:
* Set TWIKIFORMPATH = %APPLICATION_WEB%, %WEB%
If
TWIKIFORMPATH
is defined, the current web is examined only if all the webs listed in it don't have the form template.
You can extend the range of data types accepted by forms by using
TWikiPlugins. All such extended data types are single-valued (can only have one value) with the following exceptions:
- any type name starting with
checkbox
- any type name with
+multi
anywhere in the name
Types with names like this can both take multiple values.
Editing Just Form Data, Without Topic Text
In some cases you want to change only the form data. You have the option of hiding the topic text with two methods:
- To display only the form whenever you edit a topic, set the preference variable EDITACTION to value
form
(see details).
- To change the edit action in a URL, add a
action=form
parameter to the edit URL string, such as
%SCRIPTURL{edit}%/%BASEWEB%/%BASETOPIC%?t=%SERVERTIME{$epoch}%;action=form
(see details).
Build an HTML Form to Create New Form-based Topics
New topics with a form are created by simple HTML forms asking for a topic name. For example, you can have a
SubmitExpenseReport
topic where you can create new expense reports, a
SubmitVacationRequest
topic, and so on. These can specify the required template topic with its associated form.
Template topics has more.
A Form Template specifies the fields in a form. A Form Template is simply a page containing a TWiki table, where each row of the table specifies one form field.
Update Specific Form Fields
All the form fields are shown and can be updated when editing a topic that has a form. It is possible to have more control over the layout of a form, or update just a subset of the form fields by using a custom HTML form. For example, in a bug tracker, each topic would include a header topic that shows a form with some fields to update specific form fields of the bug item. Use the
EDITFORMFIELD variable to easily create this form in the header topic. Example:
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "form" type="start" action="save" topic="%BASETOPIC%" }%
| Priority: | %EDITFORMFIELD{ "Priority" topic="%BASETOPIC%" }% |
| Status: | %EDITFORMFIELD{ "Status" topic="%BASETOPIC%" }% |
| | %EDITFORMFIELD{ "form" type="submit" value="Update" }% |
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "LastUpdate" type="hidden" value="%SERVERTIME{$year-$mo-$day}%" }%
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "form" type="end" }%
Assuming the base topic has a BugForm with Priority and Status fields of type select, a LastUpdate field of type text, and some other fields. Above form shows a table with selectors for Priority and Status, and an Update button. On form submit, the Priority, Status and LastUpdate fields are updated in the base topic.
Searching for Form Data
TWiki Forms accept user-input data, stored as
TWikiMetaData. Meta data also contains program-generated info about changes, attachments, etc. To find, format and display form and other meta data, see
TWikiMetaData,
EDITFORMFIELD,
FORMFIELD,
SEARCH and
METASEARCH variables in
TWikiVariables, and
TWiki Formatted Search.
Example
TWiki users often want to have an overview of topics they contributed to. With the $formfield
parameter it is easy to display the value of a classification field next to the topic link:
| *Topic* | *Classification* |
%SEARCH{"%USERSWEB%.UserName" scope="text" nosearch="on" nototal="on" sort="modified" reverse="on"
format="|<b>[[$web.$topic][$topic]]</b> |<nop>$formfield(TopicClassification) |" web="Sandbox"}%
Searching forms this way is obviously pretty inefficient, but it's easy to do. If you want better performance, take a look at some of the structured wiki extensions that support higher performance searching e.g.
TWiki:Plugins.DBCachePlugin.
Gotcha!
- Some browsers may strip linefeeds from
text
fields when a topic is saved. If you need linefeeds in a field, make sure it is a textarea
.
Back to top
TWiki Templates
Definition of the templates used to render all HTML pages displayed in TWiki
Templates are plain text with embedded
template directives that tell TWiki how to compose blocks of text together, to create something new.
There are two types of template:
- Master Templates: Define the HTML used to display TWiki pages.
- Template Topics: Define default text when you create a new topic
Tip: TWiki:TWiki.TWikiTemplatesSupplement on TWiki.org has supplemental documentation on TWiki templates.
TWiki uses master templates when composing the output from all actions, like topic view, edit, and preview.
This allows you to change the look and feel of all pages by editing just a few template files.
Master templates are also used in the definition of
TWikiSkins.
Master templates are stored as text files with the extension
.tmpl
.
They are usually HTML with embedded
template directives.
The directives are expanded when TWiki wants to generate a user interface screen.
How Template Directives Work
- Directives are of the form
%TMPL:<key>%
and %TMPL:<key>{"attr"}%
.
- Directives:
-
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"file"}%
: Includes a template file. The file is found as described below.
-
%TMPL:DEF{"block"}%
: Define a block. All text between this and the next %TMPL:END%
directive is removed and saved for later use with %TMPL:P
.
-
%TMPL:END%
: Ends a block definition.
-
%TMPL:P{"var"}%
: Includes a previously defined block.
-
%{...}%
: is a comment.
- Two-pass processing lets you use a variable before or after declaring it.
- Templates and TWikiSkins work transparently and interchangeably. For example, you can create a skin that overloads only the
twiki.tmpl
master template, like twiki.print.tmpl
, that redefines the header and footer.
- Use of template directives is optional: templates work without them.
- NOTE: Template directives work only for templates: they do not get processed in normal topic text.
TMPL:P also supports simple parameters. For example, given the definition
%TMPL:DEF{"x"}% x%P%z%TMPL:END%
then
%TMPL:P{"x" P="y"}%
will expand to
xyz
.
Note that parameters can simply be ignored; for example,
%TMPL:P{"x"}%
will expand to x%P%z.
Any alphanumeric characters can be used in parameter names.
You are highly recommended to use parameter names that cannot be confused with
TWikiVariables.
Note that three parameter names,
context
,
then
and
else
are
reserved.
They are used to support a limited form of "if" condition that you can use to select which of two templates to use, based on a
context identifier:
%TMPL:DEF{"link_inactive"}%<input type="button" disabled value="Link>%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"link_active"}%<input type="button" onclick="link()" value="Link" />%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:P{context="inactive" then="inactive_link" else="active_link"}% for %CONTEXT%
When the "inactive" context is set, then this will expand the "link_inactive" template; otherwise it will expand the "link_active" template.
See
IfStatements for details of supported context identifiers.
Finding Templates
The master templates shipped with a twiki release are stored in the twiki/templates directory.
As an example,
twiki/templates/view.tmpl
is the default template file for the
twiki/bin/view
script.
You can save templates in other directories as long as they are listed in the
{TemplatePath}
configuration setting.
The
{TemplatePath}
is defined in the Miscellaneous section of the
configure page.
You can also save templates in user topics (
IF there is no possible template match in the
templates
directory).
The
{TemplatePath}
configuration setting defines which topics will be accepted as templates.
Templates that are included with an explicit
'.tmpl'
extension are looked for only in the
templates/
directory.
For instance
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"example.tmpl"}%
will only return
templates/example.tmpl
, regardless of
{TemplatePath}
and SKIN settings.
The out-of-the-box setting of
{TemplatePath}
supports the following search order to determine which template file or topic to use for a particular script or
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"script"}%
statement.
The
skin path is set as described in
TWikiSkins.
- templates/web/script.skin.tmpl for each skin on the skin path
- this usage is supported for compatibility only and is deprecated. Store web-specific templates in TWiki topics instead.
- templates/script.skin.tmpl for each skin on the skin path
- templates/web/script.tmpl
- this usage is supported for compatibility only and is deprecated. Store web-specific templates in TWiki topics instead.
- templates/script.tmpl
- The TWiki topic aweb.atopic if the template name can be parsed into aweb.atopic
- The TWiki topic web.SkinSkinScriptTemplate for each skin on the skin path
- The TWiki topic web.ScriptTemplate
- The TWiki topic %SYSTEMWEB%.SkinSkinScriptTemplate for each skin on the skin path
- The TWiki topic %SYSTEMWEB%.ScriptTemplate
Legend:
- script refers to the script name, e.g
view
, edit
- Script refers to the same, but with the first character capitalized, e.g
View
- skin refers to a skin name, e.g
dragon
, pattern
. All skins are checked at each stage, in the order they appear in the skin path.
- Skin refers to the same, but with the first character capitalized, e.g
Dragon
- web refers to the current web
For example, the
example
template file will be searched for in the following places, when the current web is
Thisweb
and the skin path is
print,pattern
:
-
templates/Thisweb/example.print.tmpl
deprecated; don't rely on it
-
templates/Thisweb/example.pattern.tmpl
deprecated; don't rely on it
-
templates/example.print.tmpl
-
templates/example.pattern.tmpl
-
templates/Thisweb/example.tmpl
deprecated; don't rely on it
-
templates/example.tmpl
-
Thisweb.PrintSkinExampleTemplate
-
Thisweb.PatternSkinExampleTemplate
-
Thisweb.ExampleTemplate
-
TWiki.PrintSkinExampleTemplate
-
TWiki.PatternSkinExampleTemplate
-
TWiki.ExampleTemplate
Template names are usually derived from the name of the currently executing script; however it is also possible to override these settings in the
view
and
edit
scripts, for example when a topic-specific template is required. Two preference variables can be used to override the templates used:
-
VIEW_TEMPLATE
sets the template to be used for viewing a topic
-
EDIT_TEMPLATE
sets the template for editing a topic.
If these preferences are set locally (using
Local instead of
Set) for a topic, in
WebPreferences, in
Main.TWikiPreferences, or
TWiki.TWikiPreferences (using
Set), the indicated templates will be chosen for
view
and
edit
respectively. The template search order is as specified above.
Tip: If you want to override existing templates, without having to worry that your changes will get overwritten by the next TWiki update, change the
{TemplatePath}
so that another directory, such as the
%USERSWEB%
appears at the front. You can then put your own templates into that directory or web and these will override the standard templates. (Note that such will increase the lookup time for templates by searching your directory first.)
TMPL:INCLUDE recursion for piecewise customization, or mixing in new features
If there is recursion in the TMPL:INCLUDE chain (eg twiki.classic.tmpl contains
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"twiki"}%
, the templating system will include the next twiki.SKIN in the skin path.
For example, to create a customization of pattern skin, where you
only want to over-ride the breadcrumbs for the view script, you can create only a view.yourlocal.tmpl:
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%
%TMPL:DEF{"breadcrumb"}% We don't want any crumbs %TMPL:END%
and then set SKIN=yourlocal,pattern
The default
{TemplatePath}
will not give you the desired result if you put these statements in the topic
Thisweb.YourlocalSkinViewTemplate
. The default
{TemplatePath}
will resolve the request to the
template/view.pattern.tmpl
, before it gets to the
Thisweb.YourlocalSkinViewTemplate
resolution. You can make it work by prefixing the
{TemplatePath}
with:
$web.YourlocalSkin$nameTemplate
.
Default master template
twiki.tmpl
is the default master template. It defines the following sections.
|
|
Template variable: |
Defines: |
%TMPL:DEF{"sep"}% |
"|" separator |
%TMPL:DEF{"htmldoctype"}% |
Start of all HTML pages |
%TMPL:DEF{"standardheader"}% |
Standard header (ex: view, index, search) |
%TMPL:DEF{"simpleheader"}% |
Simple header with reduced links (ex: edit, attach, oops) |
%TMPL:DEF{"standardfooter"}% |
Footer, excluding revision and copyright parts |
|
|
|
The second type of template in TWiki are template topics. Template topics define the default text for new topics. There are four types of template topic:
|
|
Topic Name: |
What it is: |
WebTopicViewTemplate |
Alert page shown when you try to view a nonexistent topic. This page is usually used as a prompt to help you create a new topic. |
WebTopicNonWikiTemplate |
Alert page shown when you try to view a nonexistent topic with a non-WikiName. Again, this page is used as a prompt to help you create the new topic. |
WebTopicEditTemplate |
Default text used in a new topic. |
<MyCustomNamed>Template |
Whenever you create a topic ending in the word "Template", it is automatically added to the list of available templates in the "Use Template" drop down field on the WebCreateNewTopic page. |
|
|
|
When you create a new topic using the
edit
script, TWiki locates a topic to use as a content template according to the following search order:
- A topic name specified by the
templatetopic
CGI parameter
- if no web is specified, the current web is searched first and then the TWiki web
- WebTopicEditTemplate in the current web
- WebTopicEditTemplate in the Main web
- WebTopicEditTemplate in the TWiki web
Variable Expansion
TWikiVariables located in template topics get expanded as follows when a new topic is created.
1. Default variable expansion
The following variables used in a template topic automatically get expanded when new topic is created based on it:
|
|
Variable: |
Description: |
%DATE% |
Signature format date. See VarDATE |
%GMTIME% |
Date/time. See VarGMTIME |
%GMTIME{...}% |
Formatted date/time. See VarGMTIME2 |
%NOP% |
A no-operation variable that gets removed. Useful to prevent a SEARCH from hitting an edit template topic; also useful to escape a variable, such as %URLPA%NOP%RAM{...}% escaping URLPARAM |
%STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}% ... %ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}% |
Text that gets removed when a new topic based on the template is created. See notes below. |
%SERVERTIME% |
Date/time. See VarSERVERTIME |
%SERVERTIME{...}% |
Formatted date/time. See VarSERVERTIME2 |
%USERNAME% |
Login name of user who is instantiating the new topic, e.g. guest |
%URLPARAM{"name"}% |
Value of a named URL parameter. See VarURLPARAM. |
%WIKINAME% |
WikiName of user who is instantiating the new topic, e.g. TWikiGuest |
%WIKIUSERNAME% |
User name of user who is instantiating the new tpoic, e.g. Main.TWikiGuest |
|
|
|
2. Preventing variable expansion
In a template topic, embed text that you
do not want expanded inside a
%STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}% ... %ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
section. For example, you might want to write this in the template topic:
%STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
This template can only be changed by:
* Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = Main.TWikiAdminGroup
%ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
This will restrict who can edit the template topic, but will be removed when a new topic based on that template topic is created.
%NOP%
can be used to prevent expansion of TWiki variables that would otherwise be expanded during topic creation. For example, escape
%SERVERTIME%
with
%SER%NOP%VERTIME%
.
3. Causing variable expansion in a section
You can forcefully expand
TWikiVariables by placing them inside a
type="expandvariables"
section in the template topic, such as:
...
Example:
If you have the following content in a template topic:
* %SYSTEMWEB%.ATasteOfTWiki - view a short introductory presentation on TWiki for beginners
* %SYSTEMWEB%.WelcomeGuest - starting points on TWiki
* %SYSTEMWEB%.TWikiUsersGuide - complete TWiki documentation
* Sandbox.%HOMETOPIC% - try out TWiki on your own
* Sandbox.%TOPIC%Sandbox - just for me
you will get this raw text in new topics based on that template topic:
* TWiki.ATasteOfTWiki - view a short introductory presentation on TWiki for beginners
* TWiki.WelcomeGuest - starting points on TWiki
* TWiki.TWikiUsersGuide - complete TWiki documentation
* Sandbox.WebHome - try out TWiki on your own
* Sandbox.JimmyNeutronSandbox - just for me
4. Specifying variables to be expanded individually
You may want to mix variables to be expanded and variables not to be.
By prepending a variable name with
EOTC__
(EOTC followed by two underscores; EOTC stands for Expand On Topic Creation), you can have the variable expanded.
Here's an example.
%EOTC__SEARCH{"."
topic="%URLPARAM{prefix}%*"
nonoise="on"
format="$percntINCLUDE{$topic}$percnt" separator="$n"
}%
This yields a series of
%INCLUDE{...}%
s, which are not expanded.
This is not achievable by an
expandvariables
section.
Specifying a Form
When you create a new topic based on a template, you often want the new topic to have a form attached to it. You can attach a form to the template topic, in which case it will be copied into the new topic.
Sometimes this isn't quite what you want, as it copies all the existing data from the template topic into the new topic. To avoid this and use the default values specified in the form definition instead, you can use the
formtemplate
CGI parameter to the
edit
script to specify the name of a form to attach.
See
TWikiScripts for information about all the other parameters to
edit
.
Automatically Generated Topic Names
For TWiki applications it is useful to be able to automatically generate unique topic names, such as BugID0001, BugID0002, etc. You can add
AUTOINC<n>
to the topic name in the edit and save scripts, and it will be replaced with an auto-incremented number on topic save.
<n>
is a number starting from 0, and may include leading zeros. Leading zeros are used to zero-pad numbers so that auto-incremented topic names can sort properly. Deleted topics are not re-used to ensure uniqueness of topic names. That is, the auto-incremented number is always higher than the existing ones, even if there are gaps in the number sequence.
Examples:
-
BugAUTOINC0
- creates topic names Bug0
, Bug1
, Bug2
, ... (does not sort properly)
-
ItemAUTOINC0000
- creates topic names Item0000
, Item0001
, Item0002
, ... (sorts properly up to 9999)
-
DocIDAUTOINC10001
- start with DocID10001
, DocID10002
, ... (sorts properly up to 99999; auto-links)
Characters after
AUTOINC<n>
are preserved, but are not taken into account when calculating the next increment. Use this to create topic names that have a unique identifier (serial number) and a descriptive text.
Example:
-
BlogAUTOINC0001-my-first-blog
- creates topic name Blog0001-my-first-blog
-
BlogAUTOINC0001-my-crazy-cats
- creates topic name Blog0002-my-crazy-cats
-
BlogAUTOINC0001-fondue-recipe
- creates topic name Blog0003-fondue-recipe
Example link to create a new topic:
[[%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/%WEB%/BugIDAUTOINC00001?templatetopic=BugTemplate;topicparent=%TOPIC%;t=%SERVERTIME{"$day$hour$min$sec"}%][Create new item]]
Template Topics in Action
Here is an example for creating new topics (in the Sandbox web) based on a specific template topic and form:
The above form asks for a topic name. A hidden input tag named
templatetopic
specifies
ExampleTopicTemplate as the template topic to use. Here is the raw text of the form:
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "new" type="start" action="edit" topic="Sandbox.%TOPIC%" }%
* New example topic:
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "topic" type="text" value="ExampleTopicAUTOINC0001" size="30" }%
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "templatetopic" type="hidden" value="%SYSTEMWEB%.ExampleTopicTemplate" }%
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "topicparent" type="hidden" value="%HOMETOPIC%" }%
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "onlywikiname" type="hidden" value="on" }%
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "onlynewtopic" type="hidden" value="on" }%
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "form" type="submit" value="Create" }%
%EDITFORMFIELD{ "form" type="end" }%
Here is the equivalent form using a hand-crafted HTML form:
<form name="new" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/Sandbox/%HOMETOPIC%">
* New example topic:
<input type="text" name="topic" value="ExampleTopicAUTOINC0001" size="30" />
<input type="hidden" name="templatetopic" value="%SYSTEMWEB%.ExampleTopicTemplate" />
<input type="hidden" name="topicparent" value="%HOMETOPIC%" />
<input type="hidden" name="onlywikiname" value="on" />
<input type="hidden" name="onlynewtopic" value="on" />
<input type="submit" class="twikiSubmit" value="Create" />
</form>
Note: You can create a topic in one step, without going through the edit screen. To do that, specify the
save
script instead of the
edit
script in the form action. When you specify the save script in an HTML form tag you
have to use the "post" method. This is done automatically when using the EDITFORMFIELD variable. Example when using the HTML form tag:
<form name="new" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{save}%/Sandbox/" method="post">
...
</form>
The
edit
and
save
scripts understand many more parameters, see
TWikiScripts#edit and
TWikiScripts#save for details.
TIP: You can use the
%WIKIUSERNAME%
and
%DATE%
variables in your topic templates to include the signature of the person creating a new topic. The variables are expanded into fixed text when a new topic is created. The standard signature is:
-- %WIKIUSERNAME% - %DATE%
Using Absolute vs Relative URLs in Templates
When you use
TWikiVariables such as %PUBURL% and %PUBURLPATH% in templates you should be aware that using %PUBURL% instead of %PUBURLPATH% puts absolute URLs in the produced HTML. This means that when a user saves a TWiki page in HTML and emails the file to someone outside a company firewall, the receiver has a severe problem viewing it. It is therefore recommended always to use the %PUBURLPATH% to refer to images, CSS, Javascript files etc so links become relative. This way browsers just give up right away and show a usable html file.
Related Topics: TWikiSkins,
TWikiForms,
TWikiScripts,
DeveloperDocumentationCategory,
AdminDocumentationCategory
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TWiki Skins
A skin overlays regular templates to provide specific look and feel to TWiki screens.
TWiki uses
TWikiTemplates files as the basis of all the screens it uses to interact with users. Each screen has an associated template file that contains the basic layout of the screen. This is then filled in by the code to generate what you see in the browser.
TWiki ships with a default set of template files that give a very basic, CSS-themable, look-and-feel. TWiki also includes support for
skins that can be selected to give different, more sophisticated, look and feel. A default TWiki installation will usually start up with the
PatternSkin already selected. Skins may also be defined by third parties and loaded into a TWiki installation to give more options. To see how TWiki looks when
no skin is selected,
view the current page with a non-existing skin.
TWiki topic content is not affected by the choice of skin, however a skin can be defined to use a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) which can provide a radically different appearance to the text layout.
Relevant links on TWiki.org:
See other types of extensions: TWikiAddOns,
TWikiContribs,
TWikiPlugins
TWiki ships with the
TopMenuSkin activated by default. You can set a skin for the whole site, a single web, a single topic, or for each user individually. This is done by setting the SKIN preferences setting to the name of a skin. If the skin you select doesn't exist, then TWiki will pick up the default templates. For example, to make the SKIN setting work across all topics and webs, put it in
TWikiPreferences.
Skins can cascade using a
skin path explained below. One skin can be based on another one, and extensions can introduce additional screen elements. For example, the
TagMePlugin adds tag elements to the
TopMenuSkin, and the
TopMenuSkin is based on the
PatternSkin, resulting in this skin path:
* Set SKIN = tagme, topmenu, pattern
You may want to define your own skin, for example to comply with corporate web guidelines, or because you have a aesthetic vision that you want to share. There are a couple of places you can start doing this.
The
TWikiTemplates files used for skins are located in the
twiki/templates
directory and are named according to the skin:
<scriptname>.<skin>.tmpl
. Skin files may also be defined in TWiki topics - see
TWikiTemplates for details.
To start creating a new skin, copy the default
TWikiTemplates (like
view.tmpl
), or copy an existing skin to use as a base for your own skin. You should only need to copy the files you intend to customize, as TWiki can be configured to fall back to another skin if a template is not defined in your skin. Name the files as described above (for example
view.myskin.tmpl
).
If you use
PatternSkin as your starting point, and you want to modify the layout, colors or even the templates to suit your own needs, have a look first at the topics
PatternSkinCustomization and
PatternSkinCssCookbook.
For your own TWiki skin you are encouraged to show a small 80x31 pixel
logo at the bottom of your skin:
<a href="http://twiki.org/"><img src="%PUBURL%/%SYSTEMWEB%/TWikiLogos/T-logo-80x15.gif" alt="This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform" width="80" height="15" title="This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform" border="0" /></a>
The standard TWiki skins show the logo in the
%WEBCOPYRIGHT%
variable.
Note: Two skin names have
reserved meanings;
text
skin, and skin names starting with
rss
have
hard-coded meanings.
The following template files are used for TWiki screens, and are referenced in the TWiki core code. If a skin doesn't define its own version of a template file, then TWiki will fall back to the next skin in the skin path, or finally, to the default version of the template file.
(Certain template files are expected to provide certain TMPL:DEFs - these are listed in sub-bullets)
-
addform
- used to select a new form for a topic
-
attachagain
- used when refreshing an existing attachment
-
attachnew
- used when attaching a new file to a topic
-
attachtables
- defines the format of attachments at the bottom of the standard topic view
-
ATTACH:files:footer
, ATTACH:files:header
, ATTACH:files:row
, ATTACH:versions:footer
, ATTACH:versions:header
, ATTACH:versions:row
-
changeform
- used to change the form in a topic
-
changes
- used by the changes
script
-
edit
- used for the edit screen
-
form
-
formtables
- used to defined the format of forms
-
FORM:display:footer
, FORM:display:header
, FORM:display:row
-
login
- used for loggin in when using the TemplateLoginManager
-
LOG_IN
, LOG_IN_BANNER
, LOG_OUT
, LOGGED_IN_BANNER
, NEW_USER_NOTE
, UNRECOGNISED_USER
-
moveattachment
- used when moving an attachment
-
oopsaccessdenied
- used to format Access Denied messages
-
no_such_topic
, no_such_web
, only_group
, topic_access
-
oopsattention
- used to format Attention messages
-
already_exists
, bad_email
, bad_ver_code
, bad_wikiname
, base_web_missing
, confirm
, created_web
, delete_err
, invalid_web_color
, invalid_web_name
, in_a_group
, mandatory_field
, merge_notice
, missing_action
, missing_fields
, move_err
, missing_action
, no_form_def
, no_users_to_reset
, notwikiuser
, oversized_upload
, password_changed
, password_mismatch
, problem_adding
, remove_user_done
, rename_err
, rename_not_wikiword
, rename_topic_exists
, rename_web_err
, rename_web_exists
, rename_web_prerequisites
, reset_bad
, reset_ok
, save_error
, send_mail_error
, thanks
, topic_exists
, unrecognized_action
, upload_name_changed
, web_creation_error
, web_exists
, web_missing
, wrong_password
, zero_size_upload
-
oopschangelanguage
- used to prompt for a new language when internationalisation is enabled
-
oopsgeneric
- a basic dialog for user information; provides "ok" button only
-
oopslanguagechanged
- used to confirm a new language when internationalisation is enabled
-
oopsleaseconflict
- used to format lease Conflict messages
-
preview
- used for previewing edited topics before saving
-
rdiff
- used for viewing topic differences
-
registernotify
- used by the user registration system
-
registernotifyadmin
- used by the user registration system
-
rename
- used when renaming a topic
-
renameconfirm
- used when renaming a topic
-
renamedelete
- used when renaming a topic
-
renameweb
- used when renaming a web
-
renamewebconfirm
- used when renaming a web
-
renamewebdelete
- used when renaming a web
-
searchbookview
- used to format inline search results in book view
-
searchformat
- used to format inline search results
-
search
- used by the search
CGI script
-
settings
-
view
- used by the view
CGI script
-
viewprint
- used to create the printable view
twiki.tmpl
is a master template conventionally used by other templates, but not used directly by code.
Note: Make sure templates do not end with a newline. Any newline will expand to an empty
<p />
in the generated html. It will produce invalid html, and may break the page layout.
Partial customization, or adding in new features to an existing skin
You can use recursion in the TMPL:INCLUDE chain (e.g.
twiki.pattern.tmpl
contains
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"twiki"}%
, the templating system will include the next twiki.SKIN in the
skin path (which is explained below). For example, to create a customization of pattern skin, where you
only want to remove the edit & WYSIWYG buttons from view page, you create only a
view.yourlocal.tmpl
:
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%
%TMPL:DEF{"edit_topic_link"}%%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"edit_wysiwyg_link"}%%TMPL:END%
and then set
SKIN=yourlocal,pattern
.
You can use
template variables,
TWikiVariables, and other predefined variables to compose your skins. Some commonly used variables in skins:
|
|
Variable: |
Expanded to: |
%WEBLOGONAME% |
Filename of web logo |
%WEBLOGOIMG% |
Image URL of web logo |
%WEBLOGOURL% |
Link of web logo |
%WEBLOGOALT% |
Alt text of web logo |
%WIKILOGOURL% |
Link of page logo |
%WIKILOGOIMG% |
Image URL of page logo |
%WIKILOGOALT% |
Alt text of page logo |
%WEBBGCOLOR% |
Web-specific background color, defined in the WebPreferences |
%WIKITOOLNAME% |
The name of your TWiki site |
%SCRIPTURL% |
The script URL of TWiki |
%SCRIPTURLPATH% |
The script URL path |
%SCRIPTSUFFIX% |
The script suffix, ex: .pl , .cgi |
%WEB% |
The name of the current web. |
%TOPIC% |
The name of the current topic. |
%WEBTOPICLIST% |
Common links of current web, defined in the WebPreferences. It includes a Jump box |
%TEXT% |
The topic text, e.g. the content that can be edited |
%META{"form"}% |
TWikiForm, if any |
%META{"attachments"}% |
FileAttachment table |
%META{"parent"}% |
The topic parent |
%EDITTOPIC% |
Edit link |
%REVTITLE% |
The revision title, if any, ex: (r1.6) |
%REVINFO% |
Revision info, ex: r1.6 - 24 Dec 2002 - 08:12 GMT - TWikiGuest |
%WEBCOPYRIGHT% |
Copyright notice, defined in the WebPreferences |
%BROADCASTMESSAGE% |
Broadcast message at the beginning of your view template, can be used to alert users of scheduled downtimes; can be set in TWikiPreferences |
|
|
|
The default skins include a
Jump Box, to jump to a topic.
The box also understands URLs, e.g. you can type
http://www.google.com/
to jump to an external web site. The feature is handy if you build a skin that has a select box of frequently used links, like Intranet home, employee database, sales database and such. A little JavaScript gets into action on the
onchange
method of the select tag to fill the selected URL into the "Go" box field, then submits the form.
Here is an example form that has a select box and the Jump Box for illustration purposes. You need to have JavaScript enabled for this to work:
Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in
configure
(Miscellaneous,
{AllowRedirectUrl}
).
CSS files are gererally attachments to the skin topic that are included in the the skin templates - in the case of
PatternSkin in the template
styles.pattern.tmpl
.
- To see how CSS is used in the default TWiki skin, see: PatternSkin
- If you write a complete new skin, this is the syntax to use in a template file:
<style type='text/css' media='all'>@import url('%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/MySkin/mystyle.css');</style>
Controlling the look and feel of attachment tables is a little bit more complex than for the rest of a skin. By default, the attachment table is a standard TWiki table, and the look is controlled in the same way as other tables. In a very few cases you may want to change the
content of the table as well.
The format of standard attachment tables is defined through the use of special
TWiki template macros which by default, are defined in the
attachtables.tmpl
template using the
%TMPL:DEF
macro syntax described in
TWikiTemplates. These macros are:
|
|
Macro |
Description |
ATTACH:files:header |
Standard title bar |
ATTACH:files:row |
Standard row |
ATTACH:files:footer |
Footer for all screens |
ATTACH:files:header:A |
Title bar for upload screens, with attributes column |
ATTACH:files:row:A |
Row for upload screen |
ATTACH:files:footer:A |
Footer for all screens |
|
|
|
The format of tables of file versions in the Upload screen can also be changed, using the macros:
|
|
Macro |
Description |
ATTACH:versions:header |
Header for versions table on upload screen |
ATTACH:versions:row |
Row format for versions table on upload screen |
ATTACH:versions:footer |
Footer for versions table on upload screen |
|
|
|
The
ATTACH:row
macros are expanded for each file in the attachment table, using the following special tags:
|
|
Tag |
Description |
%A_URL% |
viewfile URL that will recover the file |
%A_REV% |
Revision of this file |
%A_ICON% |
A file icon suitable for representing the attachment content |
%A_FILE% |
The name of the file. To get the 'pub' url of the file, use %PUBURL%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%/%A_FILE% |
%A_SIZE% |
The size of the file |
%A_DATE% |
The date the file was uploaded |
%A_USER% |
The user who uploaded it |
%A_COMMENT% |
The comment they put in when uploading it |
%A_ATTRS% |
The attributes of the file as seen on the upload screen e.g "h" for a hidden file |
|
|
|
See
TWiki:Plugins/SkinPackagingHowTo and
TWiki:Plugins/SkinDeveloperFAQ
You can try out all installed skins in the
TWikiSkinBrowser.
TWiki uses a
skin search path, which lets you combine skins additively. The skin path is defined using a combination of
TWikiVariables and URL parameters.
TWiki works by asking for a template for a particular function - for example, 'view'. The detail of how templates are searched for is described in
TWikiTemplates, but in summary, the templates directory is searched for a file called
view.
skin.tmpl
, where
skin is the name of the skin e.g.
pattern
. If no template is found, then the fallback is to use
view.tmpl
. Each skin on the path is searched for in turn. For example, if you have set the skin path to
local,pattern
then
view.local.tmpl
will be searched for first, then
view.pattern.tmpl
and finally
view.tmpl
.
The basic skin is defined by a
SKIN
setting:
-
Set SKIN = catskin, bearskin
You can also add a parameter to the URL, such as
?skin=catskin,bearskin
:
Setting
SKIN
(or the
?skin
parameter in the URL) replaces the existing skin path setting, for the current page only. You can also
extend the existing skin path as well, using
covers.
This pushes a different skin to the front of the skin search path (so for our example above, that final skin path will be
ruskin, catskin, bearskin
). There is also an equivalent
cover
URL parameter. The difference between setting
SKIN
vs.
COVER
is that if the chosen template is not found (e.g., for included templates),
SKIN
will fall back onto the next skin in line, or the default skin, if only one skin was present, while
COVER
will always fall back onto the current skin.
An example would be invoking the printable mode, which is achieved by applying
?cover=print
. The
view.print.tmpl
simply invokes the
viewprint
template for the current skin which then can appropriately include all other used templates for the current skin. Where the printable mode be applied by using
SKIN
, all skins would have the same printable appearance.
The full skin path is built up as follows:
SKIN
setting (or
?skin
if it is set), then
COVER
setting is added, then
?cover
.
TWiki skins can be activated conditionally using
IfStatements. For example, you might want to use a mobile skin for iPhone and Android user agents, and the default skin otherwise. This example uses the print skin on iPhone and Android:
* Set SKIN = %IF{
"'%HTTP{"User-Agent"}%'~'*iPhone*' OR '%HTTP{"User-Agent"}%'~'*Android*'"
then="print, pattern"
else="topmenu, pattern"
}%
The
text
skin is reserved for TWiki internal use.
Skin names starting with
rss
also have a special meaning; if one or more of the skins in the skin path starts with 'rss' then 8-bit characters will be encoded as XML entities in the output, and the
content-type
header will be forced to
text/xml
.
Related Topics: TWikiSkinBrowser,
AdminDocumentationCategory,
DeveloperDocumentationCategory,
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiSkinsSupplement
--
Contributors: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny,
TWiki:Main.MikeMannix,
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie
Back to top
TWiki Meta Data
Additional topic data, program-generated or from TWikiForms, is stored embedded in the topic text using META:
tags
By default, TWiki stores topics in files on disk, in a really simple and obvious directory structure. The big advantage of this approach is that it makes it really easy to manipulate topics from outside TWiki, and is also very safe; there are no complex binary indexes to maintain, and moving a topic from one TWiki to another is as simple as copying a couple of text files.
To keep everything together in one place, TWiki uses a simple method for embedding additional data (program-generated or from
TWikiForms) in topics. It does this using
META:
tags.
META:
data includes program-generated info like
FileAttachment and topic movement data, and user-defined
TWikiForms info.
- Format is the same as in TWikiVariables, except all fields have a key.
-
%META:<type>{key1="value1" key2="value2" ...}%
- Order of fields within the meta variables is not defined, except that if there is a field with key
name
, this appears first for easier searching (note the order of the variables themselves is defined).
- Each meta variable is on one line.
- Values in meta-data are URL encoded so that characters such as \n can be stored.
Example of Format
%META:TOPICINFO{version="1.6" date="976762663" author="LastEditorWikiName" format="1.0"}%
text of the topic
%META:TOPICMOVED{from="Codev.OldName" to="Codev.NewName"
by="TopicMoverWikiName" date="976762680"}%
%META:TOPICPARENT{name="NavigationByTopicContext"}%
%META:FILEATTACHMENT{name="Sample.txt" version="1.3" ... }%
%META:FILEATTACHMENT{name="Smile.gif" version="1.1" ... }%
%META:FORM{name="WebFormTemplate"}%
%META:FIELD{name="OperatingSystem" value="OsWin"}%
%META:FIELD{name="TopicClassification" value="PublicFAQ"}%
The current version of Meta Data is 1.0, with support for the following variables.
META:TOPICINFO
|
|
Key |
Comment |
version |
Same as RCS version |
date |
integer, unix time, seconds since start 1970 |
author |
last to change topic, is the REMOTE_USER |
format |
Format of this topic, will be used for automatic format conversion |
|
|
|
META:TOPICMOVED
This is optional, exists if topic has ever been moved. If a topic is moved more than once, only the most recent META:TOPICMOVED meta variable exists in the topic, older ones are to be found in the rcs history.
%META:TOPICMOVED{from="Codev.OldName" to="Codev.NewName" by="talintj" date="976762680"}%
|
|
Key |
Comment |
from |
Full name, i.e., web.topic |
to |
Full name, i.e., web.topic |
by |
Who did it, is the REMOTE_USER, not WikiName |
date |
integer, unix time, seconds since start 1970 |
|
|
|
Notes:
- at present version number is not supported directly, it can be inferred from the RCS history.
- there is only one META:TOPICMOVED in a topic, older move information can be found in the RCS history.
META:TOPICPARENT
|
|
Key |
Comment |
name |
The topic from which this was created, typically when clicking on a red-link, or by filling out a form. Normally just TopicName , but it can be a full Web.TopicName format if the parent is in a different Web. |
|
|
|
META:FILEATTACHMENT
|
|
Key |
Comment |
name |
Name of file, no path. Must be unique within topic |
version |
Same as RCS revision |
path |
Full path file was loaded from |
size |
In bytes |
date |
integer, unix time, seconds since start 1970 |
user |
the REMOTE_USER, not WikiName |
comment |
As supplied when file uploaded |
attr |
h if hidden, optional |
|
|
|
Extra fields that are added if an attachment is moved:
|
|
Key |
Comment |
movedfrom |
full topic name - web.topic |
movedby |
the REMOTE_USER, not WikiName |
movedto |
full topic name - web.topic |
moveddate |
integer, unix time, seconds since start 1970 |
|
|
|
META:FORM
|
|
Key |
Comment |
name |
A topic name - the topic represents one of the TWikiForms. Can optionally include the web name (i.e., web.topic), but doesn't normally |
|
|
|
META:FIELD
Should only be present if there is a META:FORM entry. Note that this data is used when viewing a topic, the form template definition is not read.
|
|
Key |
Name |
name |
Ties to entry in TWikiForms template, is title with all bar alphanumerics and . removed |
title |
Full text from TWikiForms template |
value |
Value user has supplied via form |
|
|
|
Recommended Sequence
There is no absolute need for Meta Data variables to be listed in a specific order within a topic, but it makes sense to do so a couple of good reasons:
- form fields remain in the order they are defined
- the
diff
function output appears in a logical order
The recommended sequence is:
-
META:TOPICINFO
-
META:TOPICPARENT
(optional)
- text of topic
-
META:TOPICMOVED
(optional)
-
META:FILEATTACHMENT
(0 or more entries)
-
META:FORM
(optional)
-
META:FIELD
(0 or more entries; FORM required)
When viewing a topic the
Raw Text
link can be clicked to show the text of a topic (i.e., as seen when editing). This is done by adding
raw=on
to URL.
raw=debug
shows the meta data as well as the topic data, ex:
debug view for this topic
Meta Data is rendered with the %META% variable. This is mostly used in the
view
,
preview
and
edit
scripts.
You can render form fields in topic text by using the FORMFIELD variable. Example:
%FORMFIELD{"TopicClassification"}%
For details, see
VarFORMFIELD.
Current support covers:
|
|
Variable usage: |
Comment: |
%META{"form"}% |
Show form data, see TWikiForms. |
%META{"formfield"}% |
Show form field value. Parameter: name="field_name" . Example: %META{ "formfield" name="TopicClassification" }% |
%META{"attachments"}% |
Show attachments, except for hidden ones. Options: all="on" : Show all attachments, including hidden ones. |
%META{"moved"}% |
Details of any topic moves. |
%META{"parent"}% |
Show topic parent. Options: dontrecurse="on" : By default recurses up tree, at some cost. nowebhome="on" : Suppress WebHome. prefix="..." : Prefix for parents, only if there are parents, default "" . suffix="..." : Suffix, only appears if there are parents, default "" . separator="..." : Separator between parents, default is " > " . |
|
|
|
Note: SEARCH can also be used to render meta data, see examples in
FormattedSearch and
SearchPatternCookbook.
Related Topics: DeveloperDocumentationCategory,
UserDocumentationCategory
Back to top
TWiki Add-Ons
Add functionality to TWiki with extensions not based on the TWiki scripts.
An add-on runs separately from the TWiki scripts, e.g. for data import, export to static HTML, etc. Add-Ons normally do not call any TWiki code directly, though may invoke TWiki scripts. There are different types of add-ons, they may be stand alone scripts, browser plugins, office tool extensions, or even a set of TWiki topics that form a TWiki application.
Relevant links on TWiki.org:
See other types of extensions: TWikiContribs,
TWikiPlugins,
TWikiSkins
Number of topics: 2
Back to top
TWiki Contribs
Reusable code that may be used over several plugins and add-ons.
TWiki contribs extend the functionality of TWiki, typically used by plugins and add-ons. They may also provide alternative implementations for sections of the TWiki core e.g. user management, or when an extension just can't be implemented as a plugin because it requires very close access to TWiki internals.
Relevant links on TWiki.org:
See other types of extensions: TWikiAddOns,
TWikiPlugins,
TWikiSkins
Number of topics: 7
Back to top
TWiki Plugins
Add functionality to TWiki with readily available plugins; create plugins based on APIs
You can add plugins to extend TWiki functionality, without altering the core code. A plug-in approach lets you:
- add virtually unlimited features while keeping the main TWiki code compact and efficient;
- heavily customize an installation and still do clean updates to new versions of TWiki;
- rapidly develop new TWiki functions in Perl using the plugin API.
Everything to do with TWiki plugins - demos, new releases, downloads, development, general discussion - is available at TWiki.org, in the
TWiki:Plugins web.
TWiki plugins are developed and contributed by interested members of the community. Plugins are provided on an 'as is' basis; they are not a part of TWiki, but are independently developed and maintained.
Relevant links on TWiki.org:
See other types of extensions: TWikiAddOns,
TWikiContribs,
TWikiSkins
The
TWiki:Plugins web on TWiki.org is the repository for TWiki plugins. Each plugin such as the
TWiki:Plugins.ChartPlugin has a topic with user guide, step-by-step installation instructions, a detailed description of any special requirements, version details, and a working example for testing. There's usually a number of other related topics, such as a developers page, and an appraisal page.
Most TWiki plugins are packaged so that they can be installed and upgraded using the
configure script. To install a plugin, open up the Extensions tab, follow the "Find More Extensions" link, and follow the instructions. A plugin
needs to be enabled after installation.
Plugins can also be installed manually: Download the zip or tgz package of a TWiki plugin from the TWiki.org repository, upload it to the TWiki server, unpack it, and follow the installation instructions found in the plugin topic on TWiki.org.
Special Requirements: Some plugins need certain Perl modules to be pre-installed on the host system. Plugins may also use other resources, like graphics, other modules, applications, and templates. You should be able to find detailed instructions in the plugin's documentation. Use the package manager of the server OS (
yum
,
apt-get
,
rpm
, etc) to install dependent libraries.
If available, install CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) libraries with the OS package manager. For example, to install
IO::Socket::SSL
on Fedora/RedHat/CentOS, run
yum install perl-IO-Socket-SSL
. CPAN modules can also be installed natively, see
TWiki:TWiki.HowToInstallCpanModules.
On-Site Pretesting
If you have a mission critical TWiki installation and you are concerned about installing new plugins, you can test new plugins before making them available by creating a second test TWiki installation, and test the plugin there. It is also possible to configure this test TWiki to use the live data. You can allow selected users access to the test area. Once you are satisfied that it won't compromise your primary installation, you can install it there as well.
InstalledPlugins shows which plugins are: 1) installed, 2) loading properly, and 3) what
TWiki:Codev.PluginHandlers they invoke. Any failures are shown in the Errors section. The
%FAILEDPLUGINS%
variable can be used to debug failures. You may also want to check your webserver error log and the various TWiki log files.
Some Notes on Plugin Performance
The performance of the system depends to some extent on the number of plugins installed and on the plugin implementation. Some plugins impose no measurable performance decrease, some do. For example, a Plugin might use many Perl libraries that need to be initialized with each page view (unless you run mod_perl). You can only really tell the performance impact by installing the plugin and by measuring the performance with and without the new plugin. Use the
TWiki:Plugins.PluginBenchmarkAddOn, or test manually with the Apache
ab
utility. Example on Unix:
time wget -qO /dev/null /bin/view/TWiki/AbcPlugin
If you need to install an "expensive" plugin, but you only need its functionality only in a subset of your data, you can disable it elsewhere by defining the %DISABLEDPLUGINS% TWiki variable.
Define
DISABLEDPLUGINS
to be a comma-separated list of names of plugins to disable. Define it in Main.TWikiPreferences to disable those plugins everywhere, in the WebPreferences topic to disable them in an individual web, or in a topic to disable them in that topic. For example,
* Set DISABLEDPLUGINS = SpreadSheetPlugin, EditTablePlugin
Some plugins require additional settings or offer extra options that you have to select. Also, you may want to make a plugin available only in certain webs, or temporarily disable it. And may want to list all available plugins in certain topics. You can handle all of these management tasks with simple procedures:
Enabling/Disabling Plugins
Plugins can be enabled and disabled with the
configure script in the
Plugins section. An installed plugin needs to be enabled before it can be used.
Plugin Evaluation Order
By default, TWiki executes plugins in alphabetical order on plugin name. It is possible to change the order, for example to evaluate database variables before the spreadsheet CALCs. This can be done with
{PluginsOrder}
in the plugins section of
configure.
Plugin-Specific Settings
Plugins can be configured with 1. preferences settings and/or 2. with configure settings. Older plugins use plugin preferences settings defined in the plugin topic, which is no longer recommended.
1. Use preferences settings:
Adinistrators can set plugin-specific settings in the local site preferences at Main.TWikiPreferences and users can overload them at the web level and page level. This approach is recommended if users should be able to overload settings. For security this is
not recommended for system settings, such as a path to an executable. By convention, preferences setting names start with the plugin name in all caps, and an underscore. For example, to set the cache refresh period of the
TWiki:Plugins.VarCachePlugin, add this bullet in Main.TWikiPreferences
-
Set VARCACHEPLUGIN_REFRESH = 24
Preferences settings that have been defined in Main.TWikiPreferences can be retrieved anywhere in TWiki with
%<pluginname>_<setting>%
, such as
%VARCACHEPLUGIN_REFRESH%
.
To learn how this is done, use the
TWiki:Plugins.VarCachePlugin documentation and Perl plugin code as a reference.
2. Use configure settings:
The administrator can set plugin settings in the
configure interface. Recommended if only site administrators should be able to change settings. Chose this option to set sensitive or dangerous system settings, such as passwords or path to executables. To define plugin-specific configure settings,
- Create a Config.spec file in
lib/TWiki/Plugins/YourPlugin/
with variables, such as
$TWiki::cfg{Plugins}{RecentVisitorPlugin}{ShowIP} = 0;
- In the plugin, use those those variables, such as
$showIP = $TWiki::cfg{Plugins}{RecentVisitorPlugin}{ShowIP} || 0;
To learn how this is done, use the
TWiki:Plugins.RecentVisitorPlugin documentation and Perl plugin code as a reference.
In either case, define a SHORTDESCRIPTION setting in two places:
- As a setting in the plugin documentation, which is needed for the extension reports on twiki.org. Example:
-
Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Show recent visitors to a TWiki site
- As a global Perl package variable in the plugin package, which is needed by TWiki to show info on installed plugins. Example:
our $SHORTDESCRIPTION = 'Show recent visitors to a TWiki site';
For better performance, make sure you define this in the plugin package:
our $NO_PREFS_IN_TOPIC = 1;
Listing Active Plugins
Plugin status variables let you list all active plugins wherever needed.
This site is running TWiki version
TWiki-6.1.0, Mon, 16 Jul 2018, build 30610, plugin API version
6.10
%ACTIVATEDPLUGINS%
On this TWiki site, the enabled plugins are:
SpreadSheetPlugin,
AliasPlugin,
BackupRestorePlugin,
BreadCrumbsPlugin,
ColorPickerPlugin,
CommentPlugin,
ConnectByRestPlugin,
DatePickerPlugin,
EditTablePlugin,
EmptyPlugin,
FilterPlugin,
FlexWebListPlugin,
FootNotePlugin,
FormPlugin,
GluePlugin,
HeadlinesPlugin,
IfDefinedPlugin,
InterwikiPlugin,
JQueryPlugin,
PreferencesPlugin,
RedDotPlugin,
RenderListPlugin,
SetGetPlugin,
SlideShowPlugin,
SmiliesPlugin,
TWikiNetSkinPlugin,
TWikiSheetPlugin,
TablePlugin,
TagMePlugin,
TwistyPlugin,
WatchlistPlugin,
WysiwygPlugin.
%PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%
- SpreadSheetPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30478 (2018-07-16) $): Add spreadsheet calculation like
"$SUM( $ABOVE() )"
to TWiki tables or anywhere in topic text - AliasPlugin (2.32, $Rev: 18536 (2010-04-26) $): Define aliases which will be replaced with arbitrary strings automatically
- BackupRestorePlugin (2018-07-10, $Rev: 30551 (2018-07-16) $): Administrator utility to backup, restore and upgrade a TWiki site
- BreadCrumbsPlugin (2010-08-01, $Rev: 19303 (2010-08-01) $): A flexible way to display breadcrumbs navigation
- ColorPickerPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30442 (2018-07-16) $): Color picker, packaged for use in TWiki forms and TWiki applications
- CommentPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30530 (2018-07-16) $): Quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle
- ConnectByRestPlugin (TWiki-5.1, $Rev: 1 (05 May 2010) $): ConnectByRestPlugin
- DatePickerPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30446 (2018-07-16) $): Pop-up calendar with date picker, for use in TWiki forms, HTML forms and TWiki plugins
- EditTablePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30448 (2018-07-16) $): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
- EmptyPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30450 (2018-07-16) $): Empty Plugin used as a template for new Plugins
- FilterPlugin (2010-07-25, $Rev: 19240 (2010-07-25) $): Substitute and extract information from content by using regular expressions
- FlexWebListPlugin (2010-07-25, $Rev: 19261 (2010-07-26) $): Flexible way to display hierarchical weblists
- FootNotePlugin (2.008): Footnotes are notes placed at the end of a topic.
- FormPlugin (2015-02-25, $Rev: 28764 (2015-02-25) $): Create simple and advanced web forms using TWiki forms
- GluePlugin (2.1, $Rev: 18553 (2010-04-30) $): Enable markup to span multiple lines
- HeadlinesPlugin (2018-07-13, $Rev: 30560 (2018-07-16) $): Show headline news in TWiki pages based on RSS and ATOM news feeds from external sites
- IfDefinedPlugin (v1.1, $Rev: 18548 (2010-04-29) $): Render content conditionally
- InterwikiPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30454 (2018-07-16) $): Write
ExternalSite:Page
to link to a page on an external site based on aliases defined in a rules topic - JQueryPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30456 (2018-07-16) $): jQuery JavaScript library for TWiki
- PreferencesPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30528 (2018-07-16) $): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
- RedDotPlugin (2010-07-27, $Rev: 21402 (2011-06-04) $): Renders edit-links as little red dots
- RenderListPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30468 (2018-07-16) $): Render bullet lists in a variety of formats
- SetGetPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30472 (2018-07-16) $): Set and get variables and JSON objects in topics, optionally persistently across topic views
- SlideShowPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30474 (2018-07-16) $): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
- SmiliesPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30476 (2018-07-16) $): Render smilies as icons, like
:-)
as or :eek:
as - TWikiNetSkinPlugin (2015-02-16, $Rev: 28729 (2015-02-17) $): Helps formatting TWikiNetSkin design. Enable by setting the skin to "twikinet"
- TWikiSheetPlugin (2018-07-15, $Rev: 30604 (2018-07-16) $): Add TWiki Sheet spreadsheet functionality to TWiki tables
- TablePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30480 (2018-07-16) $): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
- TagMePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30482 (2018-07-16) $): Tag wiki content collectively or authoritatively to find content by keywords
- TwistyPlugin (2018-07-06, $Rev: 30497 (2018-07-16) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
- WatchlistPlugin (2018-07-10, $Rev: 30536 (2018-07-16) $): Watch topics of interest and get notified of changes by e-mail
- WysiwygPlugin (2018-07-06, $Rev: 30528 (2018-07-16) $): Translator framework for WYSIWYG editors
%FAILEDPLUGINS%
Handler | Plugins |
---|
afterEditHandler | WysiwygPlugin |
afterRenameHandler | TagMePlugin WatchlistPlugin |
afterSaveHandler | TagMePlugin WatchlistPlugin |
beforeCommonTagsHandler | EditTablePlugin FormPlugin PreferencesPlugin TWikiSheetPlugin TwistyPlugin WysiwygPlugin |
beforeEditHandler | WysiwygPlugin |
beforeMergeHandler | WysiwygPlugin |
beforeSaveHandler | CommentPlugin WatchlistPlugin WysiwygPlugin |
commonTagsHandler | SpreadSheetPlugin AliasPlugin BackupRestorePlugin CommentPlugin EditTablePlugin FilterPlugin FootNotePlugin GluePlugin IfDefinedPlugin JQueryPlugin RedDotPlugin SlideShowPlugin SmiliesPlugin TWikiSheetPlugin |
initPlugin | SpreadSheetPlugin AliasPlugin BackupRestorePlugin BreadCrumbsPlugin ColorPickerPlugin CommentPlugin ConnectByRestPlugin DatePickerPlugin EditTablePlugin EmptyPlugin FilterPlugin FlexWebListPlugin FootNotePlugin FormPlugin GluePlugin HeadlinesPlugin IfDefinedPlugin InterwikiPlugin JQueryPlugin PreferencesPlugin RedDotPlugin RenderListPlugin SetGetPlugin SlideShowPlugin SmiliesPlugin TWikiNetSkinPlugin TWikiSheetPlugin TablePlugin TagMePlugin TwistyPlugin WatchlistPlugin WysiwygPlugin |
modifyHeaderHandler | WysiwygPlugin |
postRenderingHandler | AliasPlugin FootNotePlugin PreferencesPlugin RedDotPlugin TWikiNetSkinPlugin WysiwygPlugin |
preRenderingHandler | AliasPlugin InterwikiPlugin SmiliesPlugin TWikiNetSkinPlugin TablePlugin |
redirectCgiQueryHandler | RedDotPlugin |
startRenderingHandler | RenderListPlugin This handler is deprecated - please check for updated versions of the plugins that use it! |
32 plugins
The Application Programming Interface (API) for TWiki plugins provides the specifications for hooking into the core TWiki code from your external Perl plugin module.
Available Core Functions
The
TWikiFuncDotPm module (
lib/TWiki/Func.pm
) describes
all the interfaces available to plugins. Plugins should
only use the interfaces described in this module.
Note: If you use other core functions not described in
Func.pm
, you run the risk of creating security holes. Also, your plugin will likely break and require updating when you upgrade to a new version of TWiki.
Predefined Hooks
In addition to TWiki core functions, plugins can use
predefined hooks, or
callbacks, as described in the
lib/TWiki/Plugins/EmptyPlugin.pm
module.
- All but the initPlugin are commented out. To enable a callback, remove the leading
#
from all lines of the callback.
TWiki:Codev.StepByStepRenderingOrder helps you decide which rendering handler to use.
Hints on Writing Fast Plugins
- Delay initialization as late as possible. For example, if your plugin is a simple syntax processor, you might delay loading extra Perl modules until you actually see the syntax in the text.
- For example, use an
eval
block like this:
eval { require IPC::Run }
return "<font color=\"red\">SamplePlugin: Can't load required modules ($@)</font>" if $@;
- Keep the main plugin package as small as possible; create other packages that are loaded if and only if they are used. For example, create sub-packages of BathPlugin in
lib/TWiki/Plugins/BathPlugin/
.
- Avoid using preferences in the plugin topic; Define
$NO_PREFS_IN_TOPIC
in your plugin package as that will stop TWiki from reading the plugin topic for every page. Use Config.spec or preferences settings instead. (See details).
- Use registered tag handlers.
- Measure the performance to see the difference.
Version Detection
To eliminate the incompatibility problems that are bound to arise from active open plugin development, a plugin versioning system is provided for automatic compatibility checking.
- All plugin packages require a
$VERSION
variable. This should be an integer, or a subversion version id.
- The
initPlugin
handler should check all dependencies and return 1 if the initialization is OK or 0 if something went wrong.
- The plugin initialization code does not register a plugin that returns 0 (or that has no
initPlugin
handler).
-
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION
in the TWiki::Plugins
module contains the TWiki plugin API version, currently 6.10.
- You can also use the
%PLUGINVERSION{}%
variable to query the plugin API version or the version of installed plugins.
Security
- Badly written plugins can open huge security holes in TWiki. This is especially true if care isn't taken to prevent execution of arbitrary commands on the server.
- Don't allow sensitive configuration data to be edited by users. it is better to add sensitive configuration options to the
%TWiki::cfg
hash than adding it as preferences in the plugin topic.
- Always use the TWiki::Sandbox to execute commands.
- Always audit the plugins you install, and make sure you are happy with the level of security provided. While every effort is made to monitor plugin authors activities, at the end of the day they are uncontrolled user contributions.
With a reasonable knowledge of the Perl scripting language, you can create new plugins or modify and extend existing ones. Basic plug-in architecture uses an Application Programming Interface (API), a set of software instructions that allow external code to interact with the main program. The
TWiki Plugin API provides the programming interface for TWiki. Understanding
how TWiki is working at high level is beneficial for plugin development.
Anatomy of a Plugin
A (very) basic TWiki plugin consists of two files:
- a Perl module, e.g.
MyFirstPlugin.pm
- a documentation topic, e.g.
MyFirstPlugin.txt
The Perl module can be a block of code that talks to with TWiki alone, or it can include other elements, like other Perl modules (including other plugins), graphics, TWiki templates, external applications (ex: a Java applet), or just about anything else it can call.
In particular, files that should be web-accessible (graphics, Java applets ...) are best placed as attachments of the
MyFirstPlugin
topic. Other needed Perl code is best placed in a
lib/TWiki/Plugins/MyFirstPlugin/
directory.
The plugin API handles the details of connecting your Perl module with main TWiki code. When you're familiar with the
Plugin API, you're ready to develop plugins.
The TWiki:Plugins.BuildContrib module provides a lot of support for plugins development, including a plugin creator, automatic publishing support, and automatic installation script writer. If you plan on writing more than one plugin, you probably need it.
Creating the Perl Module
Copy file
lib/TWiki/Plugins/EmptyPlugin.pm
to
<name>Plugin.pm
. The
EmptyPlugin.pm
module contains mostly empty functions, so it does nothing, but it's ready to be used. Customize it. Refer to the
Plugin API specs for more information.
If your plugin uses its own modules and objects, you must include the name of the plugin in the package name. For example, write
Package MyFirstPlugin::Attrs;
instead of just
Package Attrs;
. Then call it using:
use TWiki::Plugins::MyFirstPlugin::Attrs;
$var = MyFirstPlugin::Attrs->new();
Writing the Documentation Topic
The plugin documentation topic contains usage instructions and version details. It serves the plugin files as
FileAttachments for downloading. (The doc topic is also included
in the
distribution package.) To create a documentation topic:
- Copy the plugin topic template from TWiki.org. To copy the text, go to TWiki:Plugins/PluginPackage and:
- enter the plugin name in the "How to Create a Plugin" section
- click Create
- select all in the Edit box & copy
- Cancel the edit
- go back to your site to the TWiki web
- In the JumpBox enter your plugin name, for example
MyFirstPlugin
, press enter and create the new topic
- paste & save new plugin topic on your site
- Customize your plugin topic.
- Important: In case you plan to publish your plugin on TWiki.org, use Interwiki names for author names and links to TWiki.org topics, such as TWiki:Main/TWikiGuest. This is important because links should work properly in a plugin topic installed on any TWiki, not just on TWiki.org.
- Document the performance data you gathered while measuring the performance
- Save your topic, for use in packaging and publishing your plugin.
OUTLINE: Doc Topic Contents
Check the plugins web on TWiki.org for the latest plugin doc topic template. Here's a quick overview of what's covered:
Syntax Rules: <Describe any special text formatting that will be rendered.>"
Example: <Include an example of the plugin in action. Possibly include a static HTML version of the example to compare if the installation was a success!>"
Plugin Settings: <Description and settings for custom plugin %VARIABLES%, and those required by TWiki.>"
Plugin Installation Instructions: <Step-by-step set-up guide, user help, whatever it takes to install and run, goes here.>"
Plugin Info: <Version, credits, history, requirements - entered in a form, displayed as a table. Both are automatically generated when you create or edit a page in the TWiki:Plugins web.>"
Packaging for Distribution
The
TWiki:Plugins.BuildContrib is a powerful build environment that is used by the TWiki project to build TWiki itself, as well as many of the plugins. You don't
have to use it, but it is highly recommended!
If you don't want (or can't) use the BuildContrib, then a minimum plugin release consists of a Perl module with a
WikiName that ends in
Plugin
, ex:
MyFirstPlugin.pm
, and a documentation page with the same name(
MyFirstPlugin.txt
).
- Distribute the plugin files in a directory structure that mirrors TWiki. If your plugin uses additional files, include them all:
-
lib/TWiki/Plugins/MyFirstPlugin.pm
-
data/TWiki/MyFirstPlugin.txt
-
pub/TWiki/MyFirstPlugin/uparrow.gif
[a required graphic]
- Create a zip archive with the plugin name (
MyFirstPlugin.zip
) and add the entire directory structure from Step 1. The archive should look like this:
-
lib/TWiki/Plugins/MyFirstPlugin.pm
-
data/TWiki/MyFirstPlugin.txt
-
pub/TWiki/MyFirstPlugin/uparrow.gif
Measuring and Improving the Plugin Performance
A high quality plugin performs well. You can use the
TWiki:Plugins.PluginBenchmarkAddOn to measure your
TWiki:Plugins.PluginBenchmarks. The data is needed as part of the Documentation Topic.
See also
Hints on Writing Fast Plugins.
Publishing for Public Use
You can release your tested, packaged plugin to the TWiki community through the
TWiki:Plugins web. All plugins submitted to TWiki.org are available for download and further development in
TWiki:Plugins/PluginPackage.
Publish your plugin by following these steps:
- Post the plugin documentation topic in the TWiki:Plugins/PluginPackage:
- enter the plugin name in the "How to Create a Plugin" section, for example
MyFirstPlugin
- paste in the topic text from Writing the Documentation Topic and save
- Attach the distribution zip file to the topic, ex:
MyFirstPlugin.zip
- Link from the doc page to a new, blank page named after the plugin, and ending in
Dev
, ex: MyFirstPluginDev
. This is the discussion page for future development. (User support for plugins is handled in TWiki:Support.)
- Put the plugin into the SVN repository, see TWiki:Plugins/ReadmeFirst (optional)
Once you have done the above steps once, you can use the BuildContrib to upload updates to your plugin.
Thank you very much for sharing your plugin with the TWiki community
Plugins sometimes need to store data. This can be plugin internal data such as cache data, or data generated for browser consumption such as images. Plugins should store data using
TWikiFuncDotPm functions that support saving and loading of topics and attachments.
Plugin Internal Data
You can create a plugin "work area" using the
TWiki::Func::getWorkArea()
function, which gives you a persistent directory where you can store data files. By default they will not be web accessible. The directory is guaranteed to exist, and to be writable by the webserver user. For convenience,
TWiki::Func::storeFile()
and
TWiki::Func::readFile()
are provided to persistently store and retrieve simple data in this area.
Web Accessible Data
Topic-specific data such as generated images can be stored in the topic's attachment area, which is web accessible. Use the
TWiki::Func::saveAttachment()
function to store the data.
Recommendation for file name:
- Prefix the filename with an underscore (the leading underscore avoids a name clash with files attached to the same topic)
- Identify where the attachment originated from, typically by including the plugin name in the file name
- Use only alphanumeric characters, underscores, dashes and periods to avoid platform dependency issues and URL issues
- Example:
_GaugePlugin_img123.gif
Web specific data can be stored in the plugin's attachment area, which is web accessible. Use the
TWiki::Func::saveAttachment()
function to store the data.
Recommendation for file names in plugin attachment area:
- Prefix the filename with an underscore
- Include the name of the web in the filename
- Use only alphanumeric characters, underscores, dashes and periods to avoid platform dependency issues and URL issues
- Example:
_Main_roundedge-ul.gif
Some TWiki extensions have setup requirements that are best integrated into
configure
rather than trying to use TWiki preferences variables. These extensions use
Config.spec
files to publish their configuration requirements.
Config.spec
files are read during TWiki configuration. Once a
Config.spec
has defined a configuration item, it is available for edit through the standard
configure
interface.
Config.spec
files are stored in the 'plugin directory' e.g.
lib/TWiki/Plugins/BathPlugin/Config.spec
.
Structure of a Config.spec
file
The
Config.spec
file for an extension starts with the extension announcing what it is:
# ---+ Extensions
# ---++ BathPlugin
# This plugin senses the level of water in your bath, and ensures the plug
# is not removed while the water is still warm.
This is followed by one or more configuration items. Each configuration item has a
type, a
description and a
default. For example:
# **SELECT Plastic,Rubber,Metal**
# Select the plug type
$TWiki::cfg{BathPlugin}{PlugType} = 'Plastic';
# **NUMBER**
# Enter the chain length in cm
$TWiki::cfg{BathPlugin}{ChainLength} = 30;
# **BOOLEAN EXPERT**
# Set this option to 0 to disable the water temperature alarm
$TWiki::cfg{BathPlugin}{TempSensorEnabled} = 1;
The type (e.g.
**SELECT**
) tells
configure
to how to prompt for the value. It also tells
configure
how to do some basic checking on the value you actually enter. All the comments between the type and the configuration item are taken as part of the description. The configuration item itself defines the default value for the configuration item. The above spec defines the configuration items
$TWiki::cfg{BathPlugin}{PlugType}
,
$TWiki::cfg{BathPlugin}{ChainLength}
, and
$TWiki::cfg{BathPlugin}{TempSensorEnabled}
for use in your plugin. For example,
if( $TWiki::cfg{BathPlugin}{TempSensorEnabled} && $curTemperature > 50 ) {
die "The bathwater is too hot for comfort";
}
The Config.spec file is read by
configure
, which then writes
LocalSite.cfg
with the values chosen by the local site admin.
A range of types are available for use in
Config.spec
files:
|
|
BOOLEAN |
A true/false value, represented as a checkbox |
COMMAND length |
A shell command |
LANGUAGE |
A language (selected from {LocalesDir} |
NUMBER |
A number |
OCTAL |
An octal number |
PASSWORD length |
A password (input is hidden) |
PATH length |
A file path |
PERL |
A perl structure, consisting of arrays and hashes |
REGEX length |
A perl regular expression |
SELECT choices |
Pick one of a range of choices |
SELECTCLASS root |
Select a perl package (class) |
STRING length |
A string |
URL length |
A url |
URLPATH length |
A relative URL path |
|
|
|
All types can be followed by a comma-separated list of
attributes.
|
|
EXPERT |
means this an expert option |
M |
means the setting is mandatory (may not be empty) |
H |
means the option is not visible in configure |
|
|
|
See
lib/TWiki.spec
for many more examples.
Config.spec
files for non-plugin extensions are stored under the
Contrib
directory instead of the
Plugins
directory.
Note that from TWiki 5.0 onwards, CGI scripts (in the TWiki
bin
directory) provided by extensions must also have an entry in the
Config.spec
file. This entry looks like this (example taken from PublishContrib)
# **PERL H**
# Bin script registration - do not modify
$TWiki::cfg{SwitchBoard}{publish} = [ "TWiki::Contrib::Publish", "publish", { publishing => 1 } ];
PERL
specifies a perl data structure, and
H
a hidden setting (it won't appear in
configure
). The first field of the data value specifies the class where the function that implements the script can be found. The second field specifies the name of the function, which must be the same as the name of the script. The third parameter is a hash of initial context settings for the script.
TWiki:TWiki/SpecifyingConfigurationItemsForExtensions has supplemental documentation on configure settings.
Discussions and Feedback on Plugins
Each published plugin has a plugin development topic on TWiki.org. Plugin development topics are named after your plugin and end in
Dev
, such as
MyFirstPluginDev
. The plugin development topic is a great resource to discuss feature enhancements and to get feedback from the TWiki community.
Maintaining Compatibility with Earlier TWiki Versions
The plugin interface (
TWikiFuncDotPm functions and plugin handlers) evolve over time. TWiki introduces new API functions to address the needs of plugin authors. Plugins using unofficial TWiki internal functions may no longer work on a TWiki upgrade.
Organizations typically do not upgrade to the latest TWiki for many months. However, many administrators still would like to install the latest versions of a plugin on their older TWiki installation. This need is fulfilled if plugins are maintained in a compatible manner.
Tip: Plugins can be written to be compatible with older and newer TWiki releases. This can be done also for plugins using unofficial TWiki internal functions of an earlier release that no longer work on the latest TWiki codebase.
Here is an example; the
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiPluginsSupplement#MaintainPlugins has more details.
if( $TWiki::Plugins::VERSION >= 1.1 ) {
@webs = TWiki::Func::getListOfWebs( 'user,public' );
} else {
@webs = TWiki::Func::getPublicWebList( );
}
Handling deprecated functions
From time-to-time, the TWiki developers will add new functions to the interface (either to
TWikiFuncDotPm, or new handlers). Sometimes these improvements mean that old functions have to be deprecated to keep the code manageable. When this happens, the deprecated functions will be supported in the interface for at least one more TWiki release, and probably longer, though this cannot be guaranteed.
When a plugin defines deprecated handlers, a warning will be shown in the list generated by %FAILEDPLUGINS%. Admins who see these warnings should check TWiki.org and if necessary, contact the plugin author, for an updated version of the plugin.
Updated plugins may still need to define deprecated handlers for compatibility with old TWiki versions. In this case, the plugin package that defines old handlers can suppress the warnings in %FAILEDPLUGINS%.
This is done by defining a map from the handler name to the
TWiki::Plugins
version
in which the handler was first deprecated. For example, if we need to define the
endRenderingHandler
for compatibility with
TWiki::Plugins
versions before 1.1, we would add this to the plugin:
package TWiki::Plugins::SinkPlugin;
use vars qw( %TWikiCompatibility );
$TWikiCompatibility{endRenderingHandler} = 1.1;
If the currently-running TWiki version is 1.1
or later, then the
handler will not be called and
the warning will not be issued. TWiki with versions of
TWiki::Plugins
before 1.1 will still call the handler as required.
Back to top
Official list of stable TWiki functions for Plugin developers
This module defines official functions that
TWiki plugins
can use to interact with the TWiki engine and content.
Refer to
EmptyPlugin and lib/TWiki/Plugins/EmptyPlugin.pm for a template
plugin and documentation on how to write a plugin.
Plugins should
only use functions published in this module. If you use
functions in other TWiki libraries you might create a security hole and
you will probably need to change your plugin when you upgrade TWiki.
Deprecated functions will still work in older code, though they should
not be called in new plugins and should be replaced in older plugins
as soon as possible.
The version of the TWiki::Func module is defined by the VERSION number of the
TWiki::Plugins module, currently 6.10. This can be shown
by the
%PLUGINVERSION%
TWiki variable, and accessed in code using
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION
. The 'Since' field in the function
documentation refers to
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION
.
Notes on use of
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION
6.00 and later:
- The version number is now aligned with the TWiki release version.
- A TWiki-6.7.8 release will have a
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION = 6.78
.
- In an unlikely case where the patch number is 10 or larger, the patch number is added to the previous patch number. For example, TWiki-6.7.9 will have version
6.79
, TWiki-6.7.10 will have 6.7910
, and TWiki-6.7.11 will have 6.7911
. This ensures that the version number can sort properly.
-
TWiki::Plugins::VERSION
also applies to the plugin handlers. The handlers are documented in the EmptyPlugin, and that module indicates what version of TWiki::Plugins::VERSION
it relates to.
A full history of the changes to this API can be found at the end of this
topic.
getSkin( ) -> $skin
Get the skin path, set by the
SKIN
and
COVER
preferences variables or the
skin
and
cover
CGI parameters
Return:
$skin
Comma-separated list of skins, e.g.
'gnu,tartan'
. Empty string if none.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (29 Jul 2001)
getUrlHost( ) -> $host
Get protocol, domain and optional port of script URL
Return:
$host
URL host, e.g.
"http://example.com:80"
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
getScriptUrl( $web, $topic, $script, ... ) -> $url
Compose fully qualified URL
-
$web
- Web name, e.g. 'Main'
-
$topic
- Topic name, e.g. 'WebNotify'
-
$script
- Script name, e.g. 'view'
-
...
- an arbitrary number of name=>value parameter pairs that will be url-encoded and added to the url. The special parameter name '#' is reserved for specifying an anchor. e.g. getScriptUrl('x','y','view','#'=>'XXX',a=>1,b=>2) will give .../view/x/y?a=1&b=2#XXX
Return:
$url
URL, e.g.
"http://example.com:80/cgi-bin/view.pl/Main/WebNotify"
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
getViewUrl( $web, $topic ) -> $url
Compose fully qualified view URL
-
$web
- Web name, e.g. 'Main'
. The current web is taken if empty
-
$topic
- Topic name, e.g. 'WebNotify'
Return:
$url
URL, e.g.
"http://example.com:80/cgi-bin/view.pl/Main/WebNotify"
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
getPubUrlPath( ) -> $path
Get pub URL path
Return:
$path
URL path of pub directory, e.g.
"/pub"
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (14 Jul 2001)
getExternalResource( $url, \@headers, \%params ) -> $response
Get whatever is at the other end of a URL (using an HTTP GET request). Will
only work for encrypted protocols such as
https
if the
LWP
CPAN module is
installed.
Note that the
$url
may have an optional user and password, as specified by
the relevant RFC. Any proxy set in
configure
is honored.
Optional parameters may be supplied:
-
\@headers
(an array ref): Additional HTTP headers of form 'name1', 'value1', 'name2', 'value2'. User-Agent header is set to "TWiki::Net/### libwww-perl/#.##" by default, where ### is the revision number of TWiki::Net and #.## is the version of LWP.
-
\%params
(a hash ref): Additional options.
Below is the list of available
%params
. See
CPAN:LWP::UserAgent for more
details.
|
|
Name |
Usage |
agent |
=> $useragent ("User-Agent:" header) |
cookie_jar |
=> $cookies |
credentials |
=> [$netloc, $realm, $uname, $pass] |
handlers |
=> {$phase => \&cb, ...} Note: %matchspec is not available. |
local_address |
=> $address |
max_redirect |
=> $n |
max_size |
=> $bytes |
method * |
=> $method E.g. 'HEAD' |
parse_head |
=> $boolean |
requests_redirectable |
=> \@requests |
ssl_opts |
=> {$key => $value, ...} |
timeout * |
=> $secs |
|
|
|
The parameters with * do not require
LWP
.
Example:
my $response = getExternalResource($url,
['Cache-Control' => 'max-age=0'], {timeout => 10});
The
$response
is an object that is known to implement the following subset of
the methods of
HTTP::Response
. It may in fact be an
HTTP::Response
object,
but it may also not be if
LWP
is not available, so callers may only assume
the following subset of methods is available:
|
|
code() |
message() |
header($field) |
content() |
is_error() |
is_redirect() |
|
|
|
Note that if LWP is
not available, this function:
- can only really be trusted for HTTP/1.0 urls. If HTTP/1.1 or another protocol is required, you are strongly recommended to
require LWP
.
- Will not parse multipart content
In the event of the server returning an error, then
is_error()
will return
true,
code()
will return a valid HTTP status code
as specified in RFC 2616 and RFC 2518, and
message()
will return the
message that was received from
the server. In the event of a client-side error (e.g. an unparseable URL)
then
is_error()
will return true and
message()
will return an explanatory
message.
code()
will return 400 (BAD REQUEST).
Note: Callers can easily check the availability of other HTTP::Response methods
as follows:
my $response = TWiki::Func::getExternalResource($url);
if (!$response->is_error() && $response->isa('HTTP::Response')) {
$text = $response->content();
# ... other methods of HTTP::Response may be called
} else {
# ... only the methods listed above may be called
}
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
Note: The optional parameters \@headers and \%params were added in
TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
postExternalResource( $url, $text, \@headers, \%params ) -> $response
This method is essentially the same as
getExternalResource()
except that it uses
an HTTP POST method and that the additional
$text
parameter is required.
The
$text
is sent to the server as the body content of the HTTP request.
See
getExternalResource()
for more details.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
getCgiQuery( ) -> $query
Get CGI query object. Important: Plugins cannot assume that scripts run under CGI, Plugins must always test if the CGI query object is set
Return:
$query
CGI query object; or 0 if script is called as a shell script
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
getSessionKeys() -> @keys
Get a list of all the names of session variables. The list is unsorted.
Session keys are stored and retrieved using
setSessionValue
and
getSessionValue
.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
getSessionValue( $key ) -> $value
Get a session value from the client session module
Return:
$value
Value associated with key; empty string if not set
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (27 Feb 200)
setSessionValue( $key, $value ) -> $boolean
Set a session value.
-
$key
- Session key
-
$value
- Value associated with key
Return: true if function succeeded
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (17 Aug 2001)
clearSessionValue( $key ) -> $boolean
Clear a session value that was set using
setSessionValue
.
-
$key
- name of value stored in session to be cleared. Note that you cannot clear AUTHUSER
.
Return: true if the session value was cleared
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
getContext() -> \%hash
Get a hash of context identifiers representing the currently active
context.
The context is a set of identifiers that are set
during specific phases of TWiki processing. For example, each of
the standard scripts in the 'bin' directory each has a context
identifier - the view script has 'view', the edit script has 'edit'
etc. So you can easily tell what 'type' of script your Plugin is
being called within. The core context identifiers are listed
in the
IfStatements topic. Please be careful not to
overwrite any of these identifiers!
Context identifiers can be used to communicate between Plugins, and between
Plugins and templates. For example, in
FirstPlugin.pm, you might write:
sub initPlugin {
TWiki::Func::getContext()->{'MyID'} = 1;
...
This can be used in SecondPlugin.pm like this:
sub initPlugin {
if( TWiki::Func::getContext()->{'MyID'} ) {
...
}
...
or in a template, like this:
%TMPL:DEF{"ON"}% Not off %TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"OFF"}% Not on %TMPL:END%
%TMPL:P{context="MyID" then="ON" else="OFF"}%
or in a topic:
%IF{"context MyID" then="MyID is ON" else="MyID is OFF"}%
Note:
all plugins have an
automatically generated context identifier
if they are installed and initialised. For example, if the
FirstPlugin is
working, the context ID 'FirstPlugin' will be set.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
pushTopicContext($web, $topic)
-
$web
- new web
-
$topic
- new topic
Change the TWiki context so it behaves as if it was processing
$web.$topic
from now on. All the preferences will be reset to those of the new topic.
Note that if the new topic is not readable by the logged in user due to
access control considerations, there will
not be an exception. It is the
duty of the caller to check access permissions before changing the topic.
It is the duty of the caller to restore the original context by calling
popTopicContext
.
Note that this call does
not re-initialise plugins, so if you have used
global variables to remember the web and topic in
initPlugin
, then those
values will be unchanged.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
popTopicContext()
Returns the TWiki context to the state it was in before the
pushTopicContext
was called.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
getPreferencesValue( $key, $web ) -> $value
Get a preferences value from TWiki or from a Plugin
-
$key
- Preferences key
-
$web
- Name of web, optional. Current web if not specified; does not apply to settings of Plugin topics
Return:
$value
Preferences value; empty string if not set
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
- Example for Plugin setting:
- MyPlugin topic has:
* Set COLOR = red
- Use
"MYPLUGIN_COLOR"
for $key
-
my $color = TWiki::Func::getPreferencesValue( "MYPLUGIN_COLOR" );
- Example for preferences setting:
- WebPreferences topic has:
* Set WEBBGCOLOR = #FFFFC0
-
my $webColor = TWiki::Func::getPreferencesValue( 'WEBBGCOLOR', 'Sandbox' );
NOTE: As of TWiki-4.1, if
$NO_PREFS_IN_TOPIC
is enabled in the plugin, then
preferences set in the plugin topic will be ignored.
getPluginPreferencesValue( $key ) -> $value
Get a preferences value from your Plugin
-
$key
- Plugin Preferences key w/o PLUGINNAME_ prefix.
Return:
$value
Preferences value; empty string if not set
Note: This function will will
only work when called from the Plugin.pm file itself. it
will not work if called from a sub-package (e.g. TWiki::Plugins::MyPlugin::MyModule)
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.021 (27 Mar 2004)
NOTE: As of TWiki-4.1, if
$NO_PREFS_IN_TOPIC
is enabled in the plugin, then
preferences set in the plugin topic will be ignored.
getPreferencesFlag( $key, $web ) -> $value
Get a preferences flag from TWiki or from a Plugin
-
$key
- Preferences key
-
$web
- Name of web, optional. Current web if not specified; does not apply to settings of Plugin topics
Return:
$value
Preferences flag
'1'
(if set), or
"0"
(for preferences values
"off"
,
"no"
and
"0"
)
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
- Example for Plugin setting:
- MyPlugin topic has:
* Set SHOWHELP = off
- Use
"MYPLUGIN_SHOWHELP"
for $key
-
my $showHelp = TWiki::Func::getPreferencesFlag( "MYPLUGIN_SHOWHELP" );
NOTE: As of TWiki-4.1, if
$NO_PREFS_IN_TOPIC
is enabled in the plugin, then
preferences set in the plugin topic will be ignored.
getPluginPreferencesFlag( $key ) -> $boolean
Get a preferences flag from your Plugin
-
$key
- Plugin Preferences key w/o PLUGINNAME_ prefix.
Return: false for preferences values
"off"
,
"no"
and
"0"
, or values not set at all. True otherwise.
Note: This function will will
only work when called from the Plugin.pm file itself. it
will not work if called from a sub-package (e.g. TWiki::Plugins::MyPlugin::MyModule)
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.021 (27 Mar 2004)
NOTE: As of TWiki-4.1, if
$NO_PREFS_IN_TOPIC
is enabled in the plugin, then
preferences set in the plugin topic will be ignored.
setPreferencesValue($name, $val)
Set the preferences value so that future calls to getPreferencesValue will
return this value, and
%$name%
will expand to the preference when used in
future variable expansions.
The preference only persists for the rest of this request. Finalised
preferences cannot be redefined using this function.
Returns 1 if the preference was defined, and 0 otherwise.
getWikiToolName( ) -> $name
Get toolname as defined in TWiki.cfg
Return:
$name
Name of tool, e.g.
'TWiki'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (27 Feb 2001)
getMainWebname( ) -> $name
Get name of Main web as defined in TWiki.cfg
Return:
$name
Name, e.g.
'Main'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (27 Feb 2001)
getTwikiWebname( ) -> $name
Get name of TWiki documentation web as defined in TWiki.cfg
Return:
$name
Name, e.g.
'TWiki'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (27 Feb 2001)
getDefaultUserName( ) -> $loginName
Get default user name as defined in the configuration as
DefaultUserLogin
Return:
$loginName
Default user name, e.g.
'guest'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
getCanonicalUserID( $user ) -> $cUID
-
$user
can be a login, wikiname or web.wikiname
Return the cUID of the specified user. A cUID is a unique identifier which
is assigned by TWiki for each user.
BEWARE: While the default
TWikiUserMapping uses a cUID that looks like a user's
LoginName, some characters are modified to make them compatible with rcs.
Other usermappings may use other conventions - the JoomlaUserMapping
for example, has cUIDs like 'JoomlaeUserMapping_1234'.
If $user is undefined, it assumes the currently logged-in user.
Return:
$cUID
, an internal unique and portable escaped identifier for
registered users. This may be autogenerated for an authenticated but
unregistered user.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
getWikiName( $user ) -> $wikiName
return the
WikiName of the specified user
if $user is undefined Get Wiki name of logged in user
- $user can be a cUID, login, wikiname or web.wikiname
Return:
$wikiName
Wiki Name, e.g.
'JohnDoe'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
getWikiUserName( $user ) -> $wikiName
return the userWeb.WikiName of the specified user
if $user is undefined Get Wiki name of logged in user
- $user can be a cUID, login, wikiname or web.wikiname
Return:
$wikiName
Wiki Name, e.g.
"Main.JohnDoe"
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
wikiToUserName( $id ) -> $loginName
Translate a Wiki name to a login name.
-
$id
- Wiki name, e.g. 'Main.JohnDoe'
or 'JohnDoe'
. Since TWiki 4.2.1, $id may also be a login name. This will normally be transparent, but should be borne in mind if you have login names that are also legal wiki names.
Return:
$loginName
Login name of user, e.g.
'jdoe'
, or undef if not
matched.
Note that it is possible for several login names to map to the same wikiname.
This function will only return the
first login name that maps to the
wikiname.
returns undef if the
WikiName is not found.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
userToWikiName( $loginName, $dontAddWeb ) -> $wikiName
Translate a login name to a Wiki name
-
$loginName
- Login name, e.g. 'jdoe'
. Since TWiki 4.2.1 this may also be a wiki name. This will normally be transparent, but may be relevant if you have login names that are also valid wiki names.
-
$dontAddWeb
- Do not add web prefix if "1"
Return:
$wikiName
Wiki name of user, e.g.
'Main.JohnDoe'
or
'JohnDoe'
userToWikiName will always return a name. If the user does not
exist in the mapping, the $loginName parameter is returned. (backward compatibility)
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
emailToWikiNames( $email, $dontAddWeb ) -> @wikiNames
-
$email
- email address to look up
-
$dontAddWeb
- Do not add web prefix if "1"
Find the wikinames of all users who have the given email address as their
registered address. Since several users could register with the same email
address, this returns a list of wikinames rather than a single wikiname.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
wikinameToEmails( $user ) -> @emails
-
$user
- wikiname of user to look up
Returns the registered email addresses of the named user. If $user is
undef, returns the registered email addresses for the logged-in user.
Since TWiki 4.2.1, $user may also be a login name, or the name of a group.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
isGuest( ) -> $boolean
Test if logged in user is a guest (TWikiGuest)
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
isAnAdmin( $user, $topic, $web ) -> $boolean
Find out if the user is an admin or not. If the user is not given,
the currently logged-in user is assumed.
- $user can be either a login name or a WikiName
- a user mapping handler's isAdmin() may take $topic and $web arguments. That's why this function takes them too. For a user mapping handler whose isAdmin() doesn't care $topic and $web (e.g. TWikiUserMapping), $topic and $web are irrelevant, needless to say.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
Note: The parameters $topic and $web were added in
TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
isGroupMember( $group, $id ) -> $boolean
Find out if $id is in the named group. e.g.
if( TWiki::Func::isGroupMember( "HesperionXXGroup", "jordi" )) {
...
}
If
$user
is
undef
, it defaults to the currently logged-in user.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
eachUser() -> $iterator
Get an iterator over the list of all the registered users
not including
groups. The iterator will return each wiki name in turn (e.g. 'FredBloggs').
Use it as follows:
my $iterator = TWiki::Func::eachUser();
while ($it->hasNext()) {
my $user = $it->next();
# $user is a wikiname
}
WARNING on large sites, this could be a long list!
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
eachMembership($id) -> $iterator
-
$id
- WikiName or login name of the user. If $id
is undef
, defaults to the currently logged-in user.
Get an iterator over the names of all groups that the user is a member of.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
eachGroup() -> $iterator
Get an iterator over all groups.
Use it as follows:
my $iterator = TWiki::Func::eachGroup();
while ($it->hasNext()) {
my $group = $it->next();
# $group is a group name e.g. TWikiAdminGroup
}
WARNING on large sites, this could be a long list!
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
isGroup( $group ) -> $boolean
Checks if
$group
is the name of a group known to TWiki.
eachGroupMember($group) -> $iterator
Get an iterator over all the members of the named group. Returns undef if
$group is not a valid group.
Use it as follows:
my $iterator = TWiki::Func::eachGroupMember('RadioheadGroup');
while ($it->hasNext()) {
my $user = $it->next();
# $user is a wiki name e.g. 'TomYorke', 'PhilSelway'
}
WARNING on large sites, this could be a long list!
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
checkAccessPermission( $type, $id, $text, $topic, $web, $meta ) -> $boolean
Check access permission for a topic based on the
TWiki.TWikiAccessControl rules
-
$type
- Access type, required, e.g. 'VIEW'
, 'CHANGE'
.
-
$id
- WikiName of remote user, required, e.g. "PeterThoeny"
. From TWiki 4.2.1, $id may also be a login name. If $id
is '', 0 or undef
then access is always permitted.
-
$text
- Topic text, optional. If 'perl false' (undef, 0 or ''), topic $web.$topic
is consulted. $text
may optionally contain embedded %META:PREFERENCE
tags. Provide this parameter if:
- You are setting different access controls in the text to those defined in the stored topic,
- You already have the topic text in hand, and want to help TWiki avoid having to read it again,
- You are providing a
$meta
parameter.
-
$topic
- Topic name, required, e.g. 'PrivateStuff'
-
$web
- Web name, required, e.g. 'Sandbox'
-
$meta
- Meta-data object, as returned by readTopic
. Optional. If undef
, but $text
is defined, then access controls will be parsed from $text
. If defined, then metadata embedded in $text
will be ignored. This parameter is always ignored if $text
is undefined. Settings in $meta
override Set
settings in $text.
A perl true result indicates that access is permitted.
Note the weird parameter order is due to compatibility constraints with
earlier TWiki releases.
Tip if you want, you can use this method to check your own access control types. For example, if you:
- Set ALLOWTOPICSPIN = IncyWincy
in
ThatWeb.ThisTopic
, then a call to
checkAccessPermission('SPIN', 'IncyWincy', undef, 'ThisTopic', 'ThatWeb', undef)
will return
true
.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (27 Feb 2001)
getListOfWebs( $filter ) -> @webs
-
$filter
- spec of web types to recover
Gets a list of webs, filtered according to the spec in the $filter,
which may include one of:
- 'user' (for only user webs)
- 'template' (for only template webs i.e. those starting with "_")
$filter
may also contain the word 'public' which will further filter
out webs that have NOSEARCHALL set on them.
'allowed' filters out webs the current user can't read.
For example, the deprecated getPublicWebList function can be duplicated
as follows:
my @webs = TWiki::Func::getListOfWebs( "user,public" );
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
webExists( $web ) -> $boolean
Test if web exists
-
$web
- Web name, required, e.g. 'Sandbox'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (14 Jul 2001)
isValidWebName( $name, $templateWeb ) -> $boolean
Check for a valid web name.
-
$name
- web name
-
$templateWeb
- flag, optional. If true, then template web names (starting with _) are considered valid, otherwise only user web names are valid.
Return: true if web name is valid
If $TWiki::cfg{EnableHierarchicalWebs} is off, it will also return false when a nested
web name is passed to it.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.4
createWeb( $newWeb, $baseWeb, $opts )
-
$newWeb
is the name of the new web.
-
$baseWeb
is the name of an existing web (a template web). If the base web is a system web, all topics in it will be copied into the new web. If it is a normal web, only topics starting with 'Web' will be copied. If no base web is specified, an empty web (with no topics) will be created. If it is specified but does not exist, an error will be thrown.
-
$opts
is a ref to a hash that contains settings to be modified in
the web preferences topic in the new web.
use Error qw( :try );
use TWiki::AccessControlException;
try {
TWiki::Func::createWeb( "Newweb" );
} catch Error::Simple with {
my $e = shift;
# see documentation on Error::Simple
} catch TWiki::AccessControlException with {
my $e = shift;
# see documentation on TWiki::AccessControlException
} otherwise {
...
};
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
moveWeb( $oldName, $newName )
Move (rename) a web.
use Error qw( :try );
use TWiki::AccessControlException;
try {
TWiki::Func::moveWeb( "Oldweb", "Newweb" );
} catch Error::Simple with {
my $e = shift;
# see documentation on Error::Simple
} catch TWiki::AccessControlException with {
my $e = shift;
# see documentation on TWiki::AccessControlException
} otherwise {
...
};
To delete a web, move it to a subweb of
Trash
TWiki::Func::moveWeb( "Deadweb", "Trash.Deadweb" );
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
eachChangeSince($web, $time) -> $iterator
Get an iterator over the list of all the changes in the given web between
$time
and now. $time is a time in seconds since 1st Jan 1970, and is not
guaranteed to return any changes that occurred before (now -
{Store}{RememberChangesFor}). {Store}{RememberChangesFor}) is a
setting in
configure
. Changes are returned in
most-recent-first
order.
Use it as follows:
my $iterator = TWiki::Func::eachChangeSince(
$web, time() - 7 * 24 * 60 * 60); # the last 7 days
while ($iterator->hasNext()) {
my $change = $iterator->next();
# $change is a perl hash that contains the following fields:
# topic => topic name
# user => wikiname - wikiname of user who made the change
# time => time of the change
# revision => revision number *after* the change
# more => more info about the change (e.g. 'minor')
}
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
getTopicList( $web ) -> @topics
Get list of all topics in a web
-
$web
- Web name, required, e.g. 'Sandbox'
Return:
@topics
Topic list, e.g.
( 'WebChanges', 'WebHome', 'WebIndex', 'WebNotify' )
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
topicExists( $web, $topic ) -> $boolean
Test if topic exists.
-
$web
- Web name, optional, e.g. 'Main'
.
-
$topic
- Topic name, required, e.g. 'TokyoOffice'
, or "Main.TokyoOffice"
$web and $topic are parsed as described in the documentation for
normalizeWebTopicName
.
Specifically, the Main is used if $web is not specified and $topic has no web specifier.
To get an expected behaviour it is recommened to specify the current web for $web; don't leave it empty.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (14 Jul 2001)
isValidTopicName( $name ) -> $boolean
Check for a valid topic name. Names considerd valid for autolinking are
WikiWords (such as 'SanFrancisco') and acronym (such as 'SWMBO').
Return: true if topic name is valid
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.4
checkTopicEditLock( $web, $topic, $script ) -> ( $oopsUrl, $loginName, $unlockTime )
Check if a lease has been taken by some other user.
-
$web
Web name, e.g. "Main"
, or empty
-
$topic
Topic name, e.g. "MyTopic"
, or "Main.MyTopic"
Return:
( $oopsUrl, $loginName, $unlockTime )
- The
$oopsUrl
for calling redirectCgiQuery(), user's
$loginName
, and estimated
$unlockTime
in minutes, or ( '', '', 0 ) if no lease exists.
-
$script
The script to invoke when continuing with the edit
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.010 (31 Dec 2002)
setTopicEditLock( $web, $topic, $lock )
-
$web
Web name, e.g. "Main"
, or empty
-
$topic
Topic name, e.g. "MyTopic"
, or "Main.MyTopic"
-
$lock
1 to lease the topic, 0 to clear an existing lease
Takes out a "lease" on the topic. The lease doesn't prevent
anyone from editing and changing the topic, but it does redirect them
to a warning screen, so this provides some protection. The
edit
script
always takes out a lease.
It is
impossible to fully lock a topic. Concurrent changes will be
merged.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.010 (31 Dec 2002)
saveTopic( $web, $topic, $meta, $text, $options ) -> $error
-
$web
- web for the topic
-
$topic
- topic name
-
$meta
- reference to TWiki::Meta object
-
$text
- text of the topic (without embedded meta-data!!!
-
\%options
- ref to hash of save options \%options
may include:
|
|
dontlog |
don't log this change in twiki log |
forcenewrevision |
force the save to increment the revision counter |
minor |
True if this is a minor change, and is not to be notified |
|
|
|
Return: error message or undef.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (29 Jul 2001)
Example:
# read topic:
my( $topicMeta, $topicText ) = TWiki::Func::readTopic( $web, $topic )
# example to change topic text:
$topicText =~ s/APPLE/ORANGE/g;
# example to change TWiki form field:
my $field = $topicMeta->get( 'FIELD', 'Title' );
if( $field ) {
$field->{value} = $newTitle;
$topicMeta->putKeyed( 'FIELD', $field );
}
# save updated topic:
TWiki::Func::saveTopic( $web, $topic, $topicMeta, $topicText, { forcenewrevision => 1 } );
Note: Plugins handlers ( e.g.
beforeSaveHandler
) will be called as
appropriate.
saveTopicText( $web, $topic, $text, $ignorePermissions, $dontNotify ) -> $oopsUrl
Save topic text, typically obtained by readTopicText(). Topic data usually includes meta data; the file attachment meta data is replaced by the meta data from the topic file if it exists.
-
$web
- Web name, e.g. 'Main'
, or empty
-
$topic
- Topic name, e.g. 'MyTopic'
, or "Main.MyTopic"
-
$text
- Topic text to save, assumed to include meta data
-
$ignorePermissions
- Set to "1"
if checkAccessPermission() is already performed and OK
-
$dontNotify
- Set to "1"
if not to notify users of the change
Return:
$oopsUrl
Empty string if OK; the
$oopsUrl
for calling redirectCgiQuery() in case of error
This method is a lot less efficient and much more dangerous than
saveTopic
.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.010 (31 Dec 2002)
my $text = TWiki::Func::readTopicText( $web, $topic );
# check for oops URL in case of error:
if( $text =~ /^http.*?\/oops/ ) {
TWiki::Func::redirectCgiQuery( $query, $text );
return;
}
# do topic text manipulation like:
$text =~ s/old/new/g;
# do meta data manipulation like:
$text =~ s/(META\:FIELD.*?name\=\"TopicClassification\".*?value\=\")[^\"]*/$1BugResolved/;
$oopsUrl = TWiki::Func::saveTopicText( $web, $topic, $text ); # save topic text
moveTopic( $web, $topic, $newWeb, $newTopic )
-
$web
source web - required
-
$topic
source topic - required
-
$newWeb
dest web
-
$newTopic
dest topic
Renames the topic. Throws an exception if something went wrong.
If $newWeb is undef, it defaults to $web. If $newTopic is undef, it defaults
to $topic.
The destination topic must not already exist.
Rename a topic to the $TWiki::cfg{TrashWebName} to delete it.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
use Error qw( :try );
try {
moveTopic( "Work", "TokyoOffice", "Trash", "ClosedOffice" );
} catch Error::Simple with {
my $e = shift;
# see documentation on Error::Simple
} catch TWiki::AccessControlException with {
my $e = shift;
# see documentation on TWiki::AccessControlException
} otherwise {
...
};
getRevisionInfo($web, $topic, $rev, $attachment ) -> ( $date, $user, $rev, $comment )
Get revision info of a topic or attachment
-
$web
- Web name, optional, e.g. 'Main'
-
$topic
- Topic name, required, e.g. 'TokyoOffice'
-
$rev
- revsion number, or tag name (can be in the format 1.2, or just the minor number)
-
$attachment
-attachment filename
Return:
( $date, $user, $rev, $comment )
List with: ( last update date, login name of last user, minor part of top revision number ), e.g.
( 1234561, 'phoeny', "5" )
|
|
$date |
in epochSec |
$user |
Wiki name of the author (not login name) |
$rev |
actual rev number |
$comment |
WHAT COMMENT? |
|
|
|
NOTE: if you are trying to get revision info for a topic, use
$meta->getRevisionInfo
instead if you can - it is significantly
more efficient.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (29 Jul 2001)
getRevisionAtTime( $web, $topic, $time ) -> $rev
Get the revision number of a topic at a specific time.
-
$web
- web for topic
-
$topic
- topic
-
$time
- time (in epoch secs) for the rev
Return: Single-digit revision number, or undef if it couldn't be determined
(either because the topic isn't that old, or there was a problem)
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
readTopic( $web, $topic, $rev ) -> ( $meta, $text )
Read topic text and meta data, regardless of access permissions.
-
$web
- Web name, required, e.g. 'Main'
-
$topic
- Topic name, required, e.g. 'TokyoOffice'
-
$rev
- revision to read (default latest)
Return:
( $meta, $text )
Meta data object and topic text
$meta
is a perl 'object' of class
TWiki::Meta
. This class is
fully documented in the source code documentation shipped with the
release, or can be inspected in the
lib/TWiki/Meta.pm
file.
This method
ignores topic access permissions. You should be careful to use
checkAccessPermission
to ensure the current user has read access to the
topic.
See usage example at
TWiki::Func::saveTopic.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
readTopicText( $web, $topic, $rev, $ignorePermissions ) -> $text
Read topic text, including meta data
-
$web
- Web name, e.g. 'Main'
, or empty
-
$topic
- Topic name, e.g. 'MyTopic'
, or "Main.MyTopic"
-
$rev
- Topic revision to read, optional. Specify the minor part of the revision, e.g. "5"
, not "1.5"
; the top revision is returned if omitted or empty.
-
$ignorePermissions
- Set to "1"
if checkAccessPermission() is already performed and OK; an oops URL is returned if user has no permission
Return:
$text
Topic text with embedded meta data; an oops URL for calling redirectCgiQuery() is returned in case of an error
This method is more efficient than
readTopic
, but returns meta-data embedded in the text. Plugins authors must be very careful to avoid damaging meta-data. You are recommended to use readTopic instead, which is a lot safer.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.010 (31 Dec 2002)
attachmentExists( $web, $topic, $attachment ) -> $boolean
Test if attachment exists
-
$web
- Web name, optional, e.g. Main
.
-
$topic
- Topic name, required, e.g. TokyoOffice
, or Main.TokyoOffice
-
$attachment
- attachment name, e.g. logo.gif
$web and $topic are parsed as described in the documentation for
normalizeWebTopicName
.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
readAttachment( $web, $topic, $name, $rev ) -> $data
-
$web
- web for topic
-
$topic
- topic
-
$name
- attachment name
-
$rev
- revision to read (default latest)
Read an attachment from the store for a topic, and return it as a string. The
names of attachments on a topic can be recovered from the meta-data returned
by
readTopic
. If the attachment does not exist, or cannot be read, undef
will be returned. If the revision is not specified, the latest version will
be returned.
View permission on the topic is required for the
read to be successful. Access control violations are flagged by a
TWiki::AccessControlException. Permissions are checked for the current user.
my( $meta, $text ) = TWiki::Func::readTopic( $web, $topic );
my @attachments = $meta->find( 'FILEATTACHMENT' );
foreach my $a ( @attachments ) {
try {
my $data = TWiki::Func::readAttachment( $web, $topic, $a->{name} );
...
} catch TWiki::AccessControlException with {
};
}
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
saveAttachment( $web, $topic, $attachment, $opts )
-
$web
- web for topic
-
$topic
- topic to atach to
-
$attachment
- name of the attachment
-
$opts
- Ref to hash of options
-
$ignorePermissions
- Set to "1"
if checkAccessPermission() is already performed and OK.
$opts
may include:
|
|
dontlog |
don't log this change in twiki log |
comment |
comment for save |
hide |
if the attachment is to be hidden in normal topic view |
stream |
Stream of file to upload |
file |
Name of a file to use for the attachment data. ignored if stream is set. Local file on the server. |
filepath |
Client path to file |
filesize |
Size of uploaded data |
filedate |
Date |
|
|
|
Save an attachment to the store for a topic. On success, returns undef. If there is an error, an exception will be thrown.
try {
TWiki::Func::saveAttachment( $web, $topic, 'image.gif',
{ file => 'image.gif',
comment => 'Picture of Health',
hide => 1 } );
} catch Error::Simple with {
# see documentation on Error
} otherwise {
...
};
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
moveAttachment( $web, $topic, $attachment, $newWeb, $newTopic, $newAttachment )
-
$web
source web - required
-
$topic
source topic - required
-
$attachment
source attachment - required
-
$newWeb
dest web
-
$newTopic
dest topic
-
$newAttachment
dest attachment
Renames the topic. Throws an exception on error or access violation.
If $newWeb is undef, it defaults to $web. If $newTopic is undef, it defaults
to $topic. If $newAttachment is undef, it defaults to $attachment. If all of $newWeb, $newTopic and $newAttachment are undef, it is an error.
The destination topic must already exist, but the destination attachment must
not exist.
Rename an attachment to $TWiki::cfg{TrashWebName}.TrashAttament to delete it.
use Error qw( :try );
try {
# move attachment between topics
moveAttachment( "Countries", "Germany", "AlsaceLorraine.dat",
"Countries", "France" );
# Note destination attachment name is defaulted to the same as source
} catch TWiki::AccessControlException with {
my $e = shift;
# see documentation on TWiki::AccessControlException
} catch Error::Simple with {
my $e = shift;
# see documentation on Error::Simple
};
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
readTemplate( $name, $skin ) -> $text
Read a template or skin. Embedded
template directives get expanded
-
$name
- Template name, e.g. 'view'
-
$skin
- Comma-separated list of skin names, optional, e.g. 'print'
Return:
$text
Template text
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
loadTemplate ( $name, $skin, $web ) -> $text
-
$name
- template file name
-
$skin
- comma-separated list of skins to use (default: current skin)
-
$web
- the web to look in for topics that contain templates (default: current web)
Return: expanded template text (what's left after removal of all %TMPL:DEF% statements)
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
Reads a template and extracts template definitions, adding them to the
list of loaded templates, overwriting any previous definition.
How TWiki searches for templates is described in
TWikiTemplates.
If template text is found, extracts include statements and fully expands them.
expandTemplate( $def ) -> $string
Do a %TMPL:P{$def}%, only expanding the template (not expanding any variables other than %TMPL)
Return: the text of the expanded template
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
A template is defined using a %TMPL:DEF% statement in a template
file. See the documentation on TWiki templates for more information.
writeHeader( )
Print a basic content-type HTML header for text/html to standard out. No return value.
Note: In TWiki versions earlier than TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.3, this function used to have
$query
and
$contentLength
parameters. Both were marked "you should
not pass this parameter".
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
redirectCgiQuery( $query, $url, $passthru, $viaCache )
Redirect to URL
-
$query
- CGI query object. Ignored, only there for compatibility. The session CGI query object is used instead.
-
$url
- URL to redirect to
-
$passthru
- enable passthrough.
-
$viaCache
- forcibly cache a redirect CGI query. It cuts off all the params in a GET url and replace with a "?$cache=..." param. "$viaCache" is meaningful only if "$passthru" is true.
Return: none
Print output to STDOUT that will cause a 302 redirect to a new URL.
Nothing more should be printed to STDOUT after this method has been called.
The
$passthru
parameter allows you to pass the parameters that were passed
to the current query on to the target URL, as long as it is another URL on the
same TWiki installation. If
$passthru
is set to a true value, then TWiki
will save the current URL parameters, and then try to restore them on the
other side of the redirect. Parameters are stored on the server in a cache
file.
Note that if
$passthru
is set, then any parameters in
$url
will be lost
when the old parameters are restored. if you want to change any parameter
values, you will need to do that in the current CGI query before redirecting
e.g.
my $query = TWiki::Func::getCgiQuery();
$query->param(-name => 'text', -value => 'Different text');
TWiki::Func::redirectCgiQuery(
undef, TWiki::Func::getScriptUrl($web, $topic, 'edit'), 1);
$passthru
does nothing if
$url
does not point to a script in the current
TWiki installation.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
addToHEAD( $id, $header, $requires )
Adds
$header
to the HTML header (the tag).
This is useful for Plugins that want to include some javascript and custom css.
-
$id
- Unique ID to prevent the same HTML from being duplicated. Plugins should use a prefix to prevent name clashes (e.g EDITTABLEPLUGIN_JSCALENDAR)
-
$header
- the HTML to be added to the section. The HTML must be valid in a HEAD tag - no checks are performed.
-
requires
optional, comma-separated list of id's of other head blocks this one depends on. Those blocks will be loaded first.
All TWiki variables present in
$header
will be expanded before being inserted into the
section.
Note that this is
not the same as the HTTP header, which is modified through the Plugins
modifyHeaderHandler
.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
example:
TWiki::Func::addToHEAD('PATTERN_STYLE','<link id="twikiLayoutCss" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="%PUBURL%/TWiki/PatternSkin/layout.css" media="all" />');
expandCommonVariables( $text, $topic, $web, $meta ) -> $text
Expand all common
%VARIABLES%
-
$text
- Text with variables to expand, e.g. 'Current user is %WIKIUSER%'
-
$topic
- Current topic name, e.g. 'WebNotify'
-
$web
- Web name, optional, e.g. 'Main'
. The current web is taken if missing
-
$meta
- topic meta-data to use while expanding (Since TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2)
Return:
$text
Expanded text, e.g.
'Current user is TWikiGuest'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
See also: expandVariablesOnTopicCreation
renderText( $text, $web ) -> $text
Render text from TWiki markup into XHTML as defined in
TWiki.TextFormattingRules
-
$text
- Text to render, e.g. '*bold* text and =fixed font='
-
$web
- Web name, optional, e.g. 'Main'
. The current web is taken if missing
Return:
$text
XHTML text, e.g.
'<b>bold</b> and <code>fixed font</code>'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
internalLink( $pre, $web, $topic, $label, $anchor, $createLink ) -> $text
Render topic name and link label into an XHTML link. Normally you do not need to call this funtion, it is called internally by
renderText()
-
$pre
- Text occuring before the TWiki link syntax, optional
-
$web
- Web name, required, e.g. 'Main'
-
$topic
- Topic name to link to, required, e.g. 'WebNotify'
-
$label
- Link label, required. Usually the same as $topic
, e.g. 'notify'
-
$anchor
- Anchor, optional, e.g. '#Jump'
-
$createLink
- Set to '1'
to add question linked mark after topic name if topic does not exist;
set to '0'
to suppress link for non-existing topics
Return:
$text
XHTML anchor, e.g.
'<a href='/cgi-bin/view/Main/WebNotify#Jump'>notify</a>'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
sendEmail ( $text, $retries ) -> $error
-
$text
- text of the mail, including MIME headers
-
$retries
- number of times to retry the send (default 1)
Send an e-mail specified as MIME format content. To specify MIME
format mails, you create a string that contains a set of header
lines that contain field definitions and a message body such as:
To: liz@windsor.gov.uk
From: serf@hovel.net
CC: george@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Revolution
Dear Liz,
Please abolish the monarchy (with King George's permission, of course)
Thanks,
A. Peasant
Leave a blank line between the last header field and the message body.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
wikiToEmail( $wikiName ) -> $email
-
$wikiname
- wiki name of the user
Get the e-mail address(es) of the named user. If the user has multiple
e-mail addresses (for example, the user is a group), then the list will
be comma-separated.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
Deprecated in favour of wikinameToEmails, because this function only
returns a single email address, where a user may in fact have several.
Since TWiki 4.2.1, $wikiName may also be a login name.
expandVariablesOnTopicCreation ( $text, $web, $topic ) -> $text
Expand the limited set of variables that are always expanded during topic creation
-
$text
- the text to process
-
$web
- name of web, optional
-
$topic
- name of topic, optional
Return: text with variables expanded
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
Expands only the variables expected in templates that must be statically
expanded in new content.
The expanded variables are:
-
%DATE%
Signature-format date
-
%SERVERTIME%
See TWikiVariables
-
%GMTIME%
See TWikiVariables
-
%USERNAME%
Base login name
-
%WIKINAME%
Wiki name
-
%WIKIUSERNAME%
Wiki name with prepended web
-
%URLPARAM{...}%
- Parameters to the current CGI query
-
%NOP%
No-op
See also: expandVariables
Special handlers can be defined to make functions in plugins behave as if they were built-in to TWiki.
registerTagHandler( $var, \&fn, $syntax )
Should only be called from initPlugin.
Register a function to handle a simple variable. Handles both %VAR% and %VAR{...}%. Registered variables are treated the same as TWiki internal variables, and are expanded at the same time. This is a
lot more efficient than using the
commonTagsHandler
.
-
$var
- The name of the variable, i.e. the 'MYVAR' part of %MYVAR%. The variable name must match /^[A-Z][A-Z0-9_]*$/ or it won't work.
-
\&fn
- Reference to the handler function.
-
$syntax
can be 'classic' (the default) or 'context-free'. 'classic' syntax is appropriate where you want the variable to support classic TWiki syntax i.e. to accept the standard %MYVAR{ "unnamed" param1="value1" param2="value2" }%
syntax, as well as an unquoted default parameter, such as %MYVAR{unquoted parameter}%
. If your variable will only use named parameters, you can use 'context-free' syntax, which supports a more relaxed syntax. For example, %MYVAR{param1=value1, value 2, param3="value 3", param4='value 5"}%
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
The variable handler function must be of the form:
sub handler(\%session, \%params, $topic, $web)
where:
-
\%session
- a reference to the TWiki session object (may be ignored)
-
\%params
- a reference to a TWiki::Attrs object containing parameters. This can be used as a simple hash that maps parameter names to values, with _DEFAULT being the name for the default parameter.
-
$topic
- name of the topic in the query
-
$web
- name of the web in the query
-
$meta
- topic meta-data to use while expanding, can be undef (Since TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.4)
-
$textRef
- reference to unexpanded topic text, can be undef (Since TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.4)
for example, to execute an arbitrary command on the server, you might do this:
sub initPlugin{
TWiki::Func::registerTagHandler('EXEC', \&boo);
}
sub boo {
my( $session, $params, $topic, $web ) = @_;
my $cmd = $params->{_DEFAULT};
return "NO COMMAND SPECIFIED" unless $cmd;
my $result = `$cmd 2>&1`;
return $params->{silent} ? '' : $result;
}
would let you do this:
%EXEC{"ps -Af" silent="on"}%
Registered tags differ from tags implemented using the old TWiki approach (text substitution in
commonTagsHandler
) in the following ways:
- registered tags are evaluated at the same time as system tags, such as %SERVERTIME.
commonTagsHandler
is only called later, when all system tags have already been expanded (though they are expanded again after commonTagsHandler
returns).
- registered tag names can only contain alphanumerics and _ (underscore)
- registering a tag
FRED
defines both %FRED{...}%
and also %FRED%
.
- registered tag handlers cannot return another tag as their only result (e.g.
return '%SERVERTIME%';
). It won't work.
registerRESTHandler( $alias, \&fn, )
Should only be called from initPlugin.
Adds a function to the dispatch table of the REST interface
-
$alias
- The name .
-
\&fn
- Reference to the function.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
The handler function must be of the form:
sub handler(\%session)
where:
-
\%session
- a reference to the TWiki session object (may be ignored)
From the REST interface, the name of the plugin must be used
as the subject of the invokation.
Example
The
EmptyPlugin has the following call in the initPlugin handler:
TWiki::Func::registerRESTHandler('example', \&restExample);
This adds the
restExample
function to the REST dispatch table
for the
EmptyPlugin under the 'example' alias, and allows it
to be invoked using the URL
http://server:port/bin/rest/EmptyPlugin/example
note that the URL
http://server:port/bin/rest/EmptyPlugin/restExample
(ie, with the name of the function instead of the alias) will not work.
registerExternalHTTPHandler( \&fn )
Should only be called from initPlugin.
Adds a function to modify all the HTTP requests to any external resources.
-
\&fn
- Reference to the function.
The handler function must be of the form:
sub handler(\%session, $url) -> (\@headers, \%params)
where:
-
\%session
- a reference to the TWiki session object (may be ignored)
-
$url
- a URL being requested
The returned
\@headers
and
\%params
are added to the request in the same
manner as
getExternalResource
, except that
\%params
will not override any
entries that have been set earlier.
All the params explicitly given by the caller of
getExternalResource
or
postExternalResource
will have the highest precedence.
Example:
sub initPlugin {
TWiki::Func::registerExternalHTTPHandler( \&handleExternalHTTPRequest );
}
sub handleExternalHTTPRequest {
my ($session, $url) = @_;
my @headers;
my %params;
# Add any necessary @headers and %params
push @headers, 'X-Example-Header' => 'Value';
$params{timeout} = 5;
# Return refs to both
return (\@headers, \%params);
}
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
decodeFormatTokens($str) -> $unencodedString
TWiki has an informal standard set of tokens used in
format
parameters that are used to block evaluation of paramater strings.
For example, if you were to write
%MYTAG{format="%WURBLE%"}%
then %WURBLE would be expanded
before %MYTAG is evaluated. To avoid
this TWiki uses escapes in the format string. For example:
%MYTAG{format="$percntWURBLE$percnt"}%
This lets you enter arbitrary strings into parameters without worrying that
TWiki will expand them before your plugin gets a chance to deal with them
properly. Once you have processed your tag, you will want to expand these
tokens to their proper value. That's what this function does.
|
|
Escape: |
Expands To: |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". |
$quot |
Double quote (" ) |
$aquot |
Apostrophe quote (' ) |
$percnt |
Percent sign (% ) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
|
|
|
Note that $quot, $aquot, $percnt and $dollar all work *even if they are followed by
alphanumeric characters*. You have been warned!
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
searchInWebContent($searchString, $web, \@topics, \%options ) -> \%map
Search for a string in the content of a web. The search is over all content, including meta-data. Meta-data matches will be returned as formatted lines within the topic content (meta-data matches are returned as lines of the format %META:\w+{.*}%)
-
$searchString
- the search string, in egrep format
-
$web
- The web to search in
-
\@topics
- reference to a list of topics to search
-
\%option
- reference to an options hash
The
\%options
hash may contain the following options:
-
type
- if regex
will perform a egrep-syntax RE search (default '')
-
casesensitive
- false to ignore case (default true)
-
files_without_match
- true to return files only (default false). If files_without_match
is specified, it will return on the first match in each topic (i.e. it will return only one match per topic, and will not return matching lines).
The return value is a reference to a hash which maps each matching topic
name to a list of the lines in that topic that matched the search,
as would be returned by 'grep'.
To iterate over the returned topics use:
my $result = TWiki::Func::searchInWebContent( "Slimy Toad", $web, \@topics,
{ casesensitive => 0, files_without_match => 0 } );
foreach my $topic (keys %$result ) {
foreach my $matching_line ( @{$result->{$topic}} ) {
...etc
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
getWorkArea( $pluginName ) -> $directorypath
Gets a private directory for Plugin use. The Plugin is entirely responsible
for managing this directory; TWiki will not read from it, or write to it.
The directory is guaranteed to exist, and to be writable by the webserver
user. By default it will
not be web accessible.
The directory and it's contents are permanent, so Plugins must be careful
to keep their areas tidy.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1 (Dec 2005)
readFile( $filename ) -> $text
Read file, low level. Used for Plugin workarea.
-
$filename
- Full path name of file
Return:
$text
Content of file, empty if not found
NOTE: Use this function only for the Plugin workarea,
not for topics and attachments. Use the appropriate functions to manipulate topics and attachments.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (07 Dec 2002)
saveFile( $filename, $text )
Save file, low level. Used for Plugin workarea.
-
$filename
- Full path name of file
-
$text
- Text to save
Return: none
NOTE: Use this function only for the Plugin workarea,
not for topics and attachments. Use the appropriate functions to manipulate topics and attachments.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (07 Dec 2002)
The following functions are for
ReadOnlyAndMirrorWebs.
getSiteName() -> $siteName
Returns the current site name if it's defined. Otherwise returns the null
string.
getContentMode( $web ) -> $contentMode
Returns the content mode of the specified $web.
Please read
ReadOnlyAndMirrorWebs about content mode.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
webWritable( $web ) -> $boolean
Checks if the web is wriable on this site - if it's master or local.
Returns true if it's writable. Returns false otherwise.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
The following functions are for
UsingMultipleDisks.
getDiskList() -> @diskIDs
Returns IDs of disks used by TWiki. An disk ID is "" (a null string) or a decimal number without leading 0.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
getDiskInfo($web, [$diskID]) -> ($dataDir, $pubDir, $diskID)
Returns the relevant paths and the disk ID of the specified web on the specified site.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
trashWebName(web => $web | disk => $diskID) -> $trashWebName
Returns the name of the trash web to which topics of the
$web
web are moved.
Or returns the name of the trash web of the specified disk.
Each disk (file system) TWiki uses needs to have a trash web since a topic deletion may entail an attachment directory move, which is possible only within the same disk/file system.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
getRegularExpression( $name ) -> $expr
Retrieves a TWiki predefined regular expression or character class.
-
$name
- Name of the expression to retrieve. See notes below
Return: String or precompiled regular expression matching as described below.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.020 (9 Feb 2004)
Note: TWiki internally precompiles several regular expressions to
represent various string entities in an I18N-compatible manner. Plugins
authors are encouraged to use these in matching where appropriate. The
following are guaranteed to be present. Others may exist, but their use
is unsupported and they may be removed in future TWiki versions.
In the table below, the expression marked type 'String' are intended for
use within character classes (i.e. for use within square brackets inside
a regular expression), for example:
my $upper = TWiki::Func::getRegularExpression('upperAlpha');
my $alpha = TWiki::Func::getRegularExpression('mixedAlpha');
my $capitalized = qr/[$upper][$alpha]+/;
Those expressions marked type 'RE' are precompiled regular expressions that can be used outside square brackets. For example:
my $webRE = TWiki::Func::getRegularExpression('webNameRegex');
my $isWebName = ( $s =~ m/$webRE/ );
|
|
Name |
Matches |
Type |
upperAlpha |
Upper case characters |
String |
upperAlphaNum |
Upper case characters and digits |
String |
lowerAlpha |
Lower case characters |
String |
lowerAlphaNum |
Lower case characters and digits |
String |
numeric |
Digits |
String |
mixedAlpha |
Alphabetic characters |
String |
mixedAlphaNum |
Alphanumeric characters |
String |
wikiWordRegex |
WikiWords |
RE |
webNameRegex |
User web names |
RE |
anchorRegex |
#AnchorNames |
RE |
abbrevRegex |
Abbreviations e.g. GOV, IRS |
RE |
emailAddrRegex |
email@address.com |
RE |
tagNameRegex |
Standard variable names e.g. %THIS_BIT% (THIS_BIT only) |
RE |
|
|
|
normalizeWebTopicName($web, $topic) -> ($web, $topic)
Parse a web and topic name, supplying defaults as appropriate.
-
$web
- Web name, identifying variable, or empty string
-
$topic
- Topic name, may be a web.topic string, required.
Return: the parsed Web/Topic pair
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
|
|
Input |
Return |
( 'Web', 'Topic' ) |
( 'Web', 'Topic' ) |
( '', 'Topic' ) |
( 'Main', 'Topic' ) |
( '', '' ) |
( 'Main', 'WebHome' ) |
( '', 'Web/Topic' ) |
( 'Web', 'Topic' ) |
( '', 'Web/Subweb/Topic' ) |
( 'Web/Subweb', 'Topic' ) |
( '', 'Web.Topic' ) |
( 'Web', 'Topic' ) |
( '', 'Web.Subweb.Topic' ) |
( 'Web/Subweb', 'Topic' ) |
( 'Web1', 'Web2.Topic' ) |
( 'Web2', 'Topic' ) |
|
|
|
Note that hierarchical web names (Web.SubWeb) are only available if hierarchical webs are enabled in
configure
.
The symbols %USERSWEB%, %SYSTEMWEB% and %DOCWEB% can be used in the input to represent the web names set in $cfg{UsersWebName} and $cfg{SystemWebName}. For example:
|
|
Input |
Return |
( '%USERSWEB%', 'Topic' ) |
( 'Main', 'Topic' ) |
( '%SYSTEMWEB%', 'Topic' ) |
( 'TWiki', 'Topic' ) |
( '', '%DOCWEB%.Topic' ) |
( 'TWiki', 'Topic' ) |
|
|
|
sanitizeAttachmentName($fname) -> ($fileName, $origName)
Given a file namer, sanitise it according to the rules for transforming
attachment names. Returns
the sanitised name together with the basename before sanitisation.
Sanitation includes filtering illegal characters and mapping client
file names to legal server names.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
buildWikiWord( $text ) -> $text
Converts arbitrary text to a
WikiWord.
Return:
$text
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.3 (18 Jan 2010)
spaceOutWikiWord( $word, $sep ) -> $text
Spaces out a wiki word by inserting a string (default: one space) between each word component.
With parameter $sep any string may be used as separator between the word components; if $sep is undefined it defaults to a space.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
writeWarning( $text )
Log Warning that may require admin intervention to data/warning.txt
-
$text
- Text to write; timestamp gets added
Return: none
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.020 (16 Feb 2004)
writeDebug( $text )
Log debug message to data/debug.txt
-
$text
- Text to write; timestamp gets added
Return: none
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.020 (16 Feb 2004)
writeLog( $action, $extra, $web, $topic, $user )
Write the log for an event to the logfile.
-
$action
- name of the event, such as 'blacklist'
.
-
$extra
- arbitrary extra information to add to the event.
-
$web
- web name, optional. Base web is taken if empty. Ignored if web is specified in $topic
.
-
$topic
- topic name, optional. Can be Topic
or Web.Topic
. Base topic is taken if empty.
-
$user
- WikiName, login name or cUID of user, optional. Name of logged-in user is taken if not specified.
Return: none
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.4
Example: Calling
TWiki::Func::writeLog( 'blacklist', 'Magic number is missing' )
will add a log entry like this:
| 2011-01-19 - 01:13 | guest | blacklist | TWiki.TWikiRegistration | Magic number is missing | 1.2.3.4 |
Note: Older plugins that use
$TWiki::cfg{LogFileName}
or call the internal TWiki
function directly should be fixed to use
writeLog
.
To maintain compatibility with older TWiki releases, you can write conditional code as follows:
if( defined &TWiki::Func::writeLog ) {
# use writeLog
TWiki::Func::writeLog( 'myevent', $extra, $web, $topic );
} else {
# deprecated code if plugin is used in older TWiki releases
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION > 1.1
? $TWiki::Plugins::SESSION->writeLog( 'myevent', "$web.$topic", $extra )
: TWiki::Store::writeLog( 'myevent', "$web.$topic", $extra );
}
formatTime( $time, $format, $timezone ) -> $text
Format the time in seconds into the desired time string
-
$time
- Time in epoc seconds
-
$format
- Format type, optional. Default e.g. '2013-12-31 - 19:30'
. Can be '$iso'
(e.g. '2013-12-31T19:30Z'
), '$rcs'
(e.g. '2013/12/31 23:59:59'
, '$http'
for HTTP header format (e.g. 'The, 2013-07-23 07:21:56 GMT'
), or any string with tokens '$seconds, $minutes, $hours, $day, $wday, $month, $mo, $year, $ye, $tz'
for seconds, minutes, hours, day of month, day of week, 3 letter month, 2 digit month, 4 digit year, 2 digit year, timezone string, respectively
-
$timezone
- either not defined (uses the displaytime setting), 'gmtime', or 'servertime'
Return:
$text
Formatted time string
Note: If you used the removed formatGmTime, add a third parameter 'gmtime'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.020 (26 Feb 2004)
isTrue( $value, $default ) -> $boolean
Returns 1 if
$value
is true, and 0 otherwise. "true" means set to
something with a Perl true value, with the special cases that "off",
"false" and "no" (case insensitive) are forced to false. Leading and
trailing spaces in
$value
are ignored.
If the value is undef, then
$default
is returned. If
$default
is
not specified it is taken as 0.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
isValidWikiWord ( $text ) -> $boolean
Check for a valid
WikiWord or
WikiName
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.100 (Dec 2005)
extractParameters($attr ) -> %params
Extract all parameters from a variable string and returns a hash of parameters
Return:
%params
Hash containing all parameters. The nameless parameter is stored in key
_DEFAULT
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.025 (26 Aug 2004)
- Example:
- Variable:
%TEST{ 'nameless' name1="val1" name2="val2" }%
- First extract text between
{...}
to get: 'nameless' name1="val1" name2="val2"
- Then call this on the text:
- params = TWiki::Func::extractParameters( $text );=
- The
%params
hash contains now:
_DEFAULT => 'nameless'
name1 => "val1"
name2 => "val2"
extractNameValuePair( $attr, $name ) -> $value
Extract a named or unnamed value from a variable parameter string.
-
$attr
- Attribute string
-
$name
- Name, optional
Return:
$value
Extracted value
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
- Example:
- Variable:
%TEST{ 'nameless' name1="val1" name2="val2" }%
- First extract text between
{...}
to get: 'nameless' name1="val1" name2="val2"
- Then call this on the text:
my $noname = TWiki::Func::extractNameValuePair( $text );
my $val1 = TWiki::Func::extractNameValuePair( $text, "name1" );
my $val2 = TWiki::Func::extractNameValuePair( $text, "name2" );
Note: Function TWiki::Func::extractParameters is more efficient for extracting several parameters
entityEncode( $text, $extra ) -> $text
Entity encode text.
-
$text
- Text to encode, may be empty
-
$extra
- Additional characters to include in the set of encoded characters, optional
Return:
$text
Entity encoded text
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
Escape special characters to HTML numeric entities. This is
not a generic
encoding, it is tuned specifically for use in TWiki.
HTML4.0 spec:
"Certain characters in HTML are reserved for use as markup and must be
escaped to appear literally. The "<" character may be represented with
an
entity,
<. Similarly, ">"
is escaped as
>, and "&" is escaped
as
&. If an attribute value contains a
double quotation mark and is delimited by double quotation marks, then the
quote should be escaped as
".
Other entities exist for special characters that cannot easily be entered
with some keyboards..."
This method encodes HTML special and any non-printable ASCII
characters (except for \n and \r) using numeric entities.
FURTHER this method also encodes characters that are special in TWiki
meta-language.
$extras is an optional param that may be used to include
additional
characters in the set of encoded characters. It should be a string
containing the additional chars.
entityDecode( $text ) -> $text
Decode all numeric entities (e.g. {).
Does not decode
named entities such as & (use HTML::Entities for that)
-
$text
- Text to decode, may be empty
Return:
$text
Entity decoded text
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
urlEncode( $text ) -> $text
URL encode text, mainly used to encode URL parameters.
-
$text
- Text to encode, may be empty
Return:
$text
URL encoded text
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
Encoding is done by converting characters that are illegal in
URLs to their %NN equivalents. This method is used for encoding
strings that must be embedded
verbatim in URLs; it cannot
be applied to URLs themselves, as it escapes reserved
characters such as = and ?.
RFC 1738, Dec. '94:
...Only alphanumerics [0-9a-zA-Z], the special
characters $-_.+!*'(), and reserved characters used for their
reserved purposes may be used unencoded within a URL.
Reserved characters are $&+,/:;=?@ - these are
also encoded by
this method.
This URL-encoding handles all character encodings including ISO-8859-*,
KOI8-R, EUC-* and UTF-8.
This may not handle EBCDIC properly, as it generates an EBCDIC URL-encoded
URL, but mainframe web servers seem to translate this outbound before it hits browser
- see CGI::Util::escape for another approach.
urlDecode( $text ) -> $text
URL decode text, mainly used to decode URL parameters.
-
$text
- Text to decode, may be empty
Return:
$text
URL decoded text
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
From time-to-time, the TWiki developers will add new functions to the interface (either to
TWikiFuncDotPm, or new handlers). Sometimes these improvements mean that old functions have to be deprecated to keep the code manageable. When this happens, the deprecated functions will be supported in the interface for at least one more TWiki release, and probably longer, though this cannot be guaranteed.
Updated plugins may still need to define deprecated handlers for compatibility with old TWiki versions. In this case, the plugin package that defines old handlers can suppress the warnings in %FAILEDPLUGINS%.
This is done by defining a map from the handler name to the
TWiki::Plugins
version
in which the handler was first deprecated. For example, if we need to define the
endRenderingHandler
for compatibility with
TWiki::Plugins
versions before 1.1, we would add this to the plugin:
package TWiki::Plugins::SinkPlugin;
use vars qw( %TWikiCompatibility );
$TWikiCompatibility{endRenderingHandler} = 1.1;
If the currently-running TWiki version is 1.1
or later, then the
handler will not be called and
the warning will not be issued. TWiki with versions of
TWiki::Plugins
before 1.1 will still call the handler as required.
The following functions are retained for compatibility only. You should
stop using them as soon as possible.
getScriptUrlPath( ) -> $path
Get script URL path
DEPRECATED since 1.1 - use
getScriptUrl
instead.
Return:
$path
URL path of TWiki scripts, e.g.
"/cgi-bin"
WARNING: you are strongly recommended
not to use this function, as the
{ScriptUrlPaths} URL rewriting rules will not apply to urls generated
using it.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
getOopsUrl( $web, $topic, $template, $param1, $param2, $param3, $param4 ) -> $url
Compose fully qualified 'oops' dialog URL
-
$web
- Web name, e.g. 'Main'
. The current web is taken if empty
-
$topic
- Topic name, e.g. 'WebNotify'
-
$template
- Oops template name, e.g. 'oopsmistake'
. The 'oops' is optional; 'mistake' will translate to 'oopsmistake'.
-
$param1
... $param4
- Parameter values for %PARAM1% ... %PARAMn% variables in template, optional
Return:
$url
URL, e.g.
"http://example.com:80/cgi-bin/oops.pl/ Main/WebNotify?template=oopslocked¶m1=joe"
DEPRECATED since 1.1, the recommended approach is to throw an
oops exception.
use Error qw( :try );
throw TWiki::OopsException(
'toestuckerror',
web => $web,
topic => $topic,
params => [ 'I got my toe stuck' ]);
(this example will use the
oopstoestuckerror
template.)
If this is not possible (e.g. in a REST handler that does not trap the exception)
then you can use
getScriptUrl
instead:
my $url = TWiki::Func::getScriptUrl($web, $topic, 'oops',
template => 'oopstoestuckerror',
param1 => 'I got my toe stuck');
TWiki::Func::redirectCgiQuery( undef, $url );
return 0;
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
permissionsSet( $web ) -> $boolean
Test if any access restrictions are set for this web, ignoring settings on
individual pages
-
$web
- Web name, required, e.g. 'Sandbox'
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (27 Feb 2001)
DEPRECATED since 1.2 - use
getPreferencesValue
instead to determine
what permissions are set on the web, for example:
foreach my $type ( 'ALLOW', 'DENY' ) {
foreach my $action ( 'CHANGE', 'VIEW' ) {
my $pref = $type . 'WEB' . $action;
my $val = getPreferencesValue( $pref, $web ) || '';
if( $val =~ /\S/ ) {
print "$pref is set to $val on $web\n";
}
}
}
getPublicWebList( ) -> @webs
DEPRECATED since 1.1 - use
getListOfWebs
instead.
Get list of all public webs, e.g. all webs that do not have the
NOSEARCHALL
flag set in the
WebPreferences
Return:
@webs
List of all public webs, e.g.
( 'Main', 'Know', 'TWiki' )
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (07 Dec 2002)
formatGmTime( $time, $format ) -> $text
DEPRECATED since 1.1 - use
formatTime
instead.
Format the time to GM time
-
$time
- Time in epoc seconds
-
$format
- Format type, optional. Default e.g. '31 Dec 2002 - 19:30'
, can be 'iso'
(e.g. '2002-12-31T19:30Z'
), 'rcs'
(e.g. '2001/12/31 23:59:59'
, 'http'
for HTTP header format (e.g. 'Thu, 23 Jul 1998 07:21:56 GMT'
)
Return:
$text
Formatted time string
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (7 Dec 2002)
getDataDir( ) -> $dir
DEPRECATED since 1.1 - use the "Webs, Topics and Attachments" functions to manipulate topics instead
Get data directory (topic file root)
Return:
$dir
Data directory, e.g.
'/twiki/data'
This function violates store encapsulation and is therefore
deprecated.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (07 Dec 2002)
getPubDir( ) -> $dir
DEPRECATED since 1.1 - use the "Webs, Topics and Attachments" functions to manipulateattachments instead
Get pub directory (file attachment root). Attachments are in
$dir/Web/TopicName
Return:
$dir
Pub directory, e.g.
'/htdocs/twiki/pub'
This function violates store encapsulation and is therefore
deprecated.
Use
readAttachment
and
saveAttachment
instead.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000 (07 Dec 2002)
checkDependencies( $moduleName, $dependenciesRef ) -> $error
DEPRECATED since 1.1 - use
TWiki:Plugins.BuildContrib and define DEPENDENCIES that can be statically
evaluated at install time instead. It is a lot more efficient.
Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.025 (01 Aug 2004)
TWiki-2001-09-01 (Athens Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000
-
commonTagsHandler($text, $topic, $web)
-
endRenderingHandler($text)
-
outsidePREHandler($text)
-
insidePREHandler($text)
-
startRenderingHandler($text, $web)
Func.pm
-
checkAccessPermission($type, $login, $topicText, $topicName, $webName) -> $boolean
-
expandCommonVariables($text, $topic, $web) -> $text
-
extractNameValuePair($attrs, $name) -> $value
-
formatGmTime($time) -> $text
-
getCgiQuery() -> $query
-
getDataDir() -> $dir
-
getDefaultUserName() -> $loginName
-
getMainWebname() -> $name
-
getOopsUrl($web, $topic, $template, @theParams) -> $url
-
getPreferencesFlag($key) -> $boolean
-
getPreferencesValue($key, $web) -> $value
-
getPublicWebList() -> @webs
-
getPubDir() -> $dir
-
getPubUrlPath() -> $path
-
getRevisionInfo($webName, $topic, $rev, $attachment) -> ($date, $user, $rev, $comment)
-
getScriptUrl($web, $topic, $script) -> $url
-
getScriptUrlPath() -> $path
-
getSessionValue($key) -> $value
-
getSkin() -> $skin
-
getTopicList($web) -> @topics
-
getTwikiWebname() -> $name
-
getUrlHost() -> $host
-
getViewUrl($web, $topic) -> $url
-
getWikiName() -> $wikiName
-
getWikiUserName($text) -> $wikiName
-
getWikiToolName() -> $name
-
internalLink($preamble, $web, $topic, $linkText, $anchor, $createLink) -> $text
-
isGuest() -> $boolean
-
permissionsSet($web) -> $boolean
-
readFile($filename) -> $text
-
readTemplate($name, $skin) -> $text
-
readTopic($webName, $topic) -> ($meta, $text)
-
redirectCgiQuery($query, $url)
-
renderText($text, $web) -> $text
-
saveFile($filename, $text)
-
setSessionValue($key, $value)
-
topicExists($web, $topic) -> $boolean
-
userToWikiName($user, $dontAddWeb) -> $wikiName
-
webExists($web) -> $boolean
-
wikiToUserName($wiki) -> $loginName
-
writeDebug($text)
-
writeHeader()
-
writeWarning($text)
TWiki-2003-02-01 (Beijing Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.010
-
afterEditHandler($text, $topic, $web)
-
beforeEditHandler($text, $topic, $web)
-
beforeSaveHandler($text, $topic, $web)
-
initializeUserHandler($loginName, $url, $pathInfo)
-
redirectCgiQueryHandler($query, $url)
-
registrationHandler($web, $wikiName, $loginName)
-
writeHeaderHandler($query)
Func.pm
-
checkTopicEditLock($web, $topic) ->($oopsUrl, $loginName, $unlockTime)
-
readTopicText($web, $topic, $rev, $ignorePermissions) -> $text
-
saveTopicText($web, $topic, $text, $ignorePermissions, $dontNotify) -> $oopsUrl
-
setTopicEditLock($web, $topic, $lock) -> $oopsUrl
TWiki-2004-09-02 (Cairo Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.025
-
afterCommonTagsHandler($text, $topic, $web)
-
afterSaveHandler($text, $topic, $web, $error)
-
beforeCommonTagsHandler($text, $topic, $web)
-
earlyInitPlugin()
Func.pm
-
afterAttachmentSaveHandler(\%attrHash, $topic, $web, $error, $meta)
-
beforeAttachmentSaveHandler(\%attrHash, $topic, $web, $meta)
-
checkDependencies($moduleName, $dependenciesRef) -> $error
-
extractParameters($attr) -> %params
-
formatTime($time, $format, $timezone) -> $text
-
getPluginPreferencesFlag($key) -> $boolean
-
getPluginPreferencesValue($key) -> $value
-
getRegularExpression($regexName) -> $pattern
TWiki-4.0.0 (Dakar Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
-
mergeHandler($diff, $old, $new, \%info) -> $text
-
modifyHeaderHandler(\%headers, $query)
-
postRenderingHandler($text)
-
preRenderingHandler($text, \%map)
-
renderFormFieldForEditHandler($name, $type, $size, $value, $attributes, $possibleValues) -> $html
-
renderWikiWordHandler($linkText, $hasExplicitLinkLabel, $web, $topic) -> $linkText
-
endRenderingHandler($text)
-
startRenderingHandler($text, $web)
Func.pm
-
addToHEAD($id, $header)
-
attachmentExists($web, $topic, $attachment) -> $boolean
-
clearSessionValue($key) -> $boolean
-
checkDependencies($moduleName, $dependenciesRef) -> $error
-
createWeb($newWeb, $baseWeb, $opts)
-
expandTemplate($def ) -> $string
-
expandVariablesOnTopicCreation($text) -> $text
-
getContext() -> \%hash
-
getListOfWebs($filter) -> @webs
-
getScriptUrl($web, $topic, $script, @params) -> $url
-
getRevisionAtTime($web, $topic, $time) -> $rev
-
getWorkArea($pluginName) -> $directorypath
-
isValidWikiWord($text) -> $boolean
-
loadTemplate($name, $skin, $web) -> $text
-
moveAttachment($web, $topic, $attachment, $newWeb, $newTopic, $newAttachment)
-
moveTopic($web, $topic, $newWeb, $newTopic)
-
moveWeb($oldName, $newName)
-
normalizeWebTopicName($web, $topic) ->($web, $topic)
-
readAttachment($web, $topic, $name, $rev) -> $data
-
registerRESTHandler($alias, \&fn,)
-
registerTagHandler($var, \&fn, $syntax)
-
saveAttachment($web, $topic, $attachment, $opts)
-
saveTopic($web, $topic, $meta, $text, $options) -> $error
-
searchInWebContent($searchString, $web, \@topics, \%options) -> \%map
-
sendEmail($text, $retries) -> $error
-
wikiToEmail($wikiName) -> $email
-
writeHeader($query, $contentLength)
-
checkDependencies($moduleName, $dependenciesRef) -> $error
-
formatGmTime($time, $format) -> $text
-
getDataDir() -> $dir
-
getOopsUrl( $web, $topic, $template, @params ) -> $url
-
getPubDir() -> $dir
-
getPublicWebList() -> @webs
-
getScriptUrlPath() -> $path
TWiki-4.0.1 (Dakar Patch Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
-
afterSaveHandler($text, $topic, $web, $error, $meta)
-
beforeSaveHandler($text, $topic, $web, $meta)
Func.pm
TWiki-4.1 (Edinburgh Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.11
-
afterRenameHandler($oldWeb, $oldTopic, $oldAttachment, $newWeb, $newTopic, $newAttachment)
Func.pm
No changes
TWiki-4.2 (Freetown Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
-
afterCommonTagsHandler($text, $topic, $web, $meta)
-
beforeCommonTagsHandler($text, $topic, $web, $meta)
-
commonTagsHandler($text, $topic, $web, $included, $meta)
Func.pm
-
decodeFormatTokens($str) -> $unencodedString
-
eachChangeSince($web, $time) -> $iterator
-
eachGroup() -> $iterator
-
eachGroupMember($group) -> $iterator
-
eachMembership($wikiname) -> $iterator
-
eachUser() -> $iterator
-
emailToWikiNames($email, $dontAddWeb) -> @wikiNames
-
expandCommonVariables($text, $topic, $web, $meta) -> $text
-
getCanonicalUserID( $user ) -> $cUID
-
getExternalResource($url) -> $response
-
getSessionKeys() -> @keys
-
isAnAdmin($login) -> $boolean
-
isGroup($group) -> $boolean
-
isGroupMember($group, $login) -> $boolean
-
isTrue($value, $default) -> $boolean
-
popTopicContext()
-
pushTopicContext($web, $topic)
-
sanitizeAttachmentName($fname) -> ($fileName, $origName)
-
setPreferencesValue($name, $val)
-
spaceOutWikiWord($word, $sep) -> $text
-
wikiNameToEmails($wikiname) -> @emails
-
permissionsSet($web) -> $boolean
-
getOopsUrl( $web, $topic, $template, $param1, $param2, $param3, $param4 ) -> $url
TWiki-4.3 (Georgetown Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2
No changes
Func.pm
No changes
TWiki-5.0 (Helsinki Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.3
No changes
Func.pm
-
buildWikiWord( $text ) -> $text
TWiki-5.1 (Istanbul Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.4
- Callback function registered by
registerTagHandler
has two new parameters $meta
and $textRef
Func.pm
-
afterAttachmentSaveHandler(\%attrHash, $topic, $web, $error, $meta)
-- added $meta
-
beforeAttachmentSaveHandler(\%attrHash, $topic, $web, $meta)
= added =$meta
-
writeLog( $action, $extra, $web, $topic, $user )
TWiki-6.0 (Jerusalem Release)
$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.00
No changes
Func.pm
-
isAnAdmin( $user, $topic, $web ) -> $boolean
-- added $topic
and $web
-
expandVariablesOnTopicCreation( $text, $web, $topic ) -> $text
-- added $web
and $topic
-
postExternalResource( $url, $text, \@headers, \%params ) -> $response
-
registerExternalHTTPHandler( \&fn )
-
getContentMode( $web ) -> $contentMode
-
webWritable( $web ) -> $boolean
-
getDiskList() -> @diskIDs
-
getDiskInfo($web, $siteName) -> ($dataDir, $pubDir, $diskID)
-
trashWebName(web => $web | disk => $diskID) -> $trashWebName
-
entityEncode( $text, $extra ) -> $text
-
entityDecode( $text ) -> $text
-
urlEncode( $text ) -> $text
-
urlDecode( $text ) -> $text
Back to top
TWiki CGI and Command Line Scripts
Programs on the TWiki server performing actions such as rendering, saving and renaming topics.
The TWiki scripts are located in the
twiki/bin
and
twiki/tools
directories. This topic describes the interfaces to some of those scripts. All scripts in the
twiki/bin
directory can be called from the CGI (
Common Gateway Interface) environment or from the command line. The scripts in the
twiki/tools
directory can only be called from the command line.
Details on CGI scripts located in the
twiki/bin
directory.
General Information
CGI environment
In the CGI environment parameters are passed to the scripts via the URL and URL parameters. Environment variables are also used to determine the user performing the action. If the environment is not set up, the default TWiki user is used (usually
guest
).
Command-line
You
must have the
twiki/bin
directory on the perl path to run the scripts from the command line. To avoid issues with file permissions, run the scripts as the web server user such as
nobody
or
www
.
Parameters are passed on the command line using '-name' - for example,
$ cd /usr/local/twiki/bin
$ save -topic MyWeb.MyTopic -user admin -action save -text "New text of the topic"
All parameters require a value, even if that is the empty string.
Common parameters
All the scripts accept a number of common parameters. The first two components of the URL after the script name are taken as the web and the topic, respectively. Standard URL parameters are:
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
topic |
If this is set to a URL, TWiki will immediately redirect to that URL. Otherwise it overrides the URL and is taken as the topic name (you can pass Web.TopicName) |
|
user |
Command-line only; set the name of the user performing the action. Note: this usage is inherently insecure, as it bypasses webserver login constraints. For this reason only authorized users should be allowed to execute scripts from the command line. |
|
skin |
Overrides the default skin path (see TWikiSkins) |
|
cover |
Specifies temporary skin path to prepend to the skin path for this script only (see TWikiSkins) |
|
|
|
|
attach
Despite the name, this script doesn't actually attach a file to a topic - for that, use
upload
. This script is part of the transactions sequence executed when a file is uploaded from the browser. it just generates the "new attachment" page for a topic.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
filename |
Name of existing attachment (if provided, this is a "manage attachment" action) |
none (in which case this is a "new attachment" action) |
|
|
|
changes
Shows all the changes in the given web.
The
changes
script can receive one parameter:
The main difference between invoking this script and using
WebChanges is that
WebChanges is based on a
%SEARCH%
, while this script reads the
changes
file in each web, making it much faster.
Note: The result from
changes
script and the topic
WebChanges can be different, if the
changes
file is deleted from a web. In particular, in new installations the
changes
script will return no results while the
WebChanges topic will.
configure
configure
is the browser script used for inspection and configuration of the TWiki configuration. None of the parameters to this script are useable for any purpose except
configure
. See
configure.
edit
The
edit
script understands the following parameters, typically supplied by HTML input fields:
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
action |
Optional. Use the editaction template instead of the standard edit. If action=text, then hide the form. If action=form hide the normal text area and only edit the form. You can change the Edit/Edit Raw buttons to always append the action parameter in skins like Pattern and Classic by setting the topic or preference variable EDITACTION to the value text or form . To edit the topic once the EDITACTION is defined as form simply remove the action=form from the browser URL of the edit script and reload the edit window |
|
onlynewtopic |
If set, error if topic already exists |
|
onlywikiname |
If set, error if topic name is not a WikiWord |
|
templatetopic |
The name of the template topic, copied to get the initial content (new topic only) |
|
text |
Initial text for the topic |
|
topicparent |
The parent topic |
|
formtemplate |
Name of the form to instantiate in the topic. Overrides the form set in the templatetopic if defined. (will remove the form is set to 'none') |
|
contenttype |
Optional parameter that defines the application type to write into the CGI header. Defaults to text/html . May be used to invoke alternative client applications |
|
anyname |
Any parameter can passed to the new topic; if the template topic contains %URLPARAM{"anyname"}% , it will be replaced by its value |
|
breaklock |
If set, any lease conflicts will be ignored, and the edit will proceed even if someone is already editing the topic. |
|
redirectto |
If the user continues from edit to save, and if the save (or cancels the edit) process is successful, save will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName , a Web.TopicName , or a URL. Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Security setup > Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl} ). |
|
t |
Provide a unique URL each time a topic is edited, typically specifying parameter t=%SERVERTIME{$epoch}% in an edit link. This is done to prevent browsers from caching an edit session, which could result in editing outdated content. The parameter name and value is arbitrary, but must be unique each time. |
|
|
|
|
Form field values are passed in parameters named 'field' - for example, if I have a field
Status
the parameter name is
Status
.
- The first sequence of ten or more
X
characters in the topic name will be converted on save to a number such that the resulting topic name is unique in the target web.
Note: Most skins support the definition of
EDIT_SKIN
, which is used as the value of the
cover
parameter in
edit
URLs. This allows you to override the default edit skin on a web, topic or user basis.
login
Used for logging in when TWiki login is being used (e.g TemplateLoginManager).
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
origurl |
URL that was being accessed when an access violation occurred. the login process will redirect to this URL if it is successful |
none |
username |
username of user logging in |
none |
password |
password of user logging in |
none |
|
|
|
logon
Used for logging in when Web Server authentication is being used (e.g. ApacheLoginManager). The script does nothing; it is purely a placeholder for triggering the login process. The webserver will be set up to require a valid user to access this script, thus triggering the webserver login process.
manage
Performs a range of management functions.
Note: The
manage
script can only be called via http POST method for
createweb
renameweb
, and
deleteUserAccount
.
action=createweb
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
newweb |
Name of the new web |
'' |
baseweb |
Name of the web to copy to create the new web |
'' |
webbgcolor |
value for WEBBGCOLOR |
'' |
sitemapwhat |
Value for SITEMAPWHAT |
'' |
nosearchall |
Value for NOSEARCHALL |
'' |
|
|
|
action=renameweb
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
newsubweb |
Name of the web after move |
'' |
newparentweb |
New parent web name |
'' |
confirm |
If defined, requires a second level of confirmation. Supported values are "getlock", "continue", and "cancel" |
'' |
|
|
|
action=editSettings
No parameters
action=saveSettings
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
text |
Text of the topic |
'' |
originalrev |
Revision that the edit started on |
Most recent revision |
redirectto |
If the savesettings process is successful, save will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName , a Web.TopicName , or a URL. Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Security setup > Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl} ). |
|
|
|
All other parameters may be interpreted as form fields, depending on the current form definition in the topic.
action=bulkRegister
See
BulkRegistration.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
OverwriteHomeTopics |
Whether to overwrite existing home topics or not |
false |
EmailUsersWithDetails |
Whether to mail registered users or not |
false |
LogTopic |
Topic to save the log in |
Same as topic name, with 'Result' appended. |
|
|
|
action=changePassword
Change password, email address, or both, of a user.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
username |
god alone knows |
none |
oldpassword |
current password |
none |
password |
new password |
none |
passwordA |
new password confirmation |
none |
email |
new email address |
none |
|
|
|
password, =passwordA
and
email
are optional. If neither or
password
and
passwordA
is set, then the user password is left unchanged. If
email
is unset, their email is left unchanged.
action=resetPassword
Reset the password for a single or multiple users
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
LoginName |
list of usernames to reset |
none - error if not set |
Introduction |
message to be sent alongside the reset, most often used to announce to the user that they have been given an account. |
'' |
|
|
|
This is used by
BulkResetPassword and
ResetPassword. Only administrators can provide a list of
LoginNames, non-admins can only provide a single
LoginName.
BulkRegistration provides the means to create multiple accounts but it does not announce those accounts to the users who own them.
BulkResetPassword is used to assign the passwords, the Introduction is used to explain why they are receiving the mail.
action=deleteUserAccount
Unregisters (removes) the currently logged-in user.
oops
This script is mainly used for rendering pages containing error messages, though it is also used for some functional actions such as manage pages (move topic etc).
oops
templates are used with the
oops
script to generate system messages. This is done to make internationalization or other local customizations simple.
The
oops
script supports the following parameters:
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
template |
Name of the template file to display |
|
def |
Optional, can be set to the name of a single definition within template . This definition will be instantiated in the template wherever %INSTANTIATE% is seen. This lets you use a single template file for many messages. For an example, see oopsmanagebad.tmpl . |
|
paramN |
Where N is an integer from 1 upwards. These values will be substituted into template for %PARAM1% etc. |
|
|
|
|
preview
This script is
deprecated. Its functions are covered by the
save
script.
rdiff
Renders the differences between version of a TWiki topic
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
rev1 |
the higher revision |
|
rev2 |
the lower revision |
|
render |
the rendering style {sequential, sidebyside, raw, debug} |
DIFFRENDERSTYLE, sequential |
type |
{history, diff, last} history diff, version to version, last version to previous |
diff |
context |
number of lines of context |
|
|
|
|
TODO:
- add a {word} render style
register
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
action |
register or verify or resetPassword or approve |
|
topicparent |
The parent topic of the new user profile page |
{UsersTopicName} configure setting |
|
|
|
Note: The
register
script can only be called via http POST method, not GET. Make sure to specify the
"post"
method if you call the
register
script via a form action.
rename
Used for renaming topics and attachments.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
skin |
skin(s) to use |
|
newweb |
new web name |
|
newtopic |
new topic name |
|
breaklock |
|
|
attachment |
|
|
confirm |
if defined, requires a second level of confirmation |
|
currentwebonly |
if defined, searches current web only for links to this topic |
|
nonwikiword |
if defined, a non-wikiword is acceptable for the new topic name |
|
redirectto |
If the rename process is successful, rename will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName , a Web.TopicName , or a URL. Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Security setup > Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl} ). |
|
disablefixlinks |
Bypass fixing WikiWord links in the rename destination topic if rename is done across webs. Fixing links in the renamed topic such as from SomeLink to Otherweb.SomeLink is usually desirable so that links in the copied topic still point to the same target |
off (links are fixed) |
|
|
|
Note: The
rename
script can only be called via http POST method, not GET. Make sure you specify
method="post"
if you call the
rename
script via a form action.
copy
Used for copying the current topic in its entirety including its history and attachments.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
newweb |
destination web name |
current web |
newtopic |
destination topic name |
current topic |
nonwikiword |
if defined, a non-wikiword is acceptable for the destination topic name |
|
redirectto |
If the copy process is successful, copy will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName , a Web.TopicName , or a URL. Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Security setup > Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl} ). |
|
overwrite |
By default, copy does not happen if the destination topic already exists. If this parameter is 'on' , the destination topic is deleted if exists before copying takes place |
off (no overwrite) |
disablefixlinks |
Bypass fixing WikiWord links in the copy destination topic if copy is done across webs. Fixing links in the copied topic such as from SomeLink to Otherweb.SomeLink is usually desirable so that links in the copied topic still point to the same target |
off (links are fixed) |
|
|
|
mdrepo
Used to retrieve and update data in
MetadataRepository.
Please read
MetadataRepository#mdrepo_script_from_command_line and
MetadataRepository#mdrepo_script_from_browser.
rest
This REST (
Representational State Transfer) script can be invoked via http in the same way as the other TWiki scripts (see
Invocation Examples, below) to execute a function that is associated to a "subject" and a "verb" (see below). These functions are usually registered by plugins using the
TWiki::Func::registerRESTHandler
method. The
rest
script will print the result directly to the browser unless the
endPoint
parameter is specified, in which case it will output a redirect to the given topic.
The
rest
script supports the following parameters:
|
|
username |
If TemplateLogin , or a similar login manager not embedded in the web server, is used, then you need to pass a username and password to the server. The username and password parameters are used for this purpose. |
password |
See username |
topic |
If defined as the full name (including web) of a topic, then when the script starts up plugins will be passed this as the "current" topic. If not defined, then Main.WebHome will be passed to plugins. |
endPoint |
Where to redirect the response once the request is served, in the form "Web.Topic" |
|
|
|
The function is free to use any other query parameters for its own purposes.
Note: The
rest
script should
always require authentication in any TWiki that has logins. Otherwise there is a risk of opening up major security holes. So make sure you add it to the list of authenticated scripts if you are using
ApacheLogin
.
Invocation Examples
The
rest
script assumes that it will be called with URL in the form:
http://my.host/bin/rest/<subject>/<verb>
where
<subject>
must be the
WikiWord name of one of the installed
TWikiPlugins, and the
<verb>
is the alias for the function registered using the
TWiki::Func::registerRESTHandler
method. The
<subject>
and
<verb>
are then used to lookup and call the registered function.
<subject>
and
<verb>
are checked for illegal characters exactly in the same way as the web and topic names.
As an example, the
EmptyPlugin has registered a function to be used with the
rest
script under the subject
EmptyPlugin and the verb
example. Click below to see the
rest
script in action (run as
TWikiGuest).
Call the Plugin
Note that for Plugins to register REST handlers, they must be enabled in
configure
.
save
The
save
script performs a range of save-related functions, as selected by the
action
parameter.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
action_save=1 |
default; save, return to view, dontnotify is off |
|
action_quietsave=1 |
save, and return to view, dontnotify is on |
|
action_checkpoint |
save and redirect to the edit script, dontnotify is on |
|
action_cancel |
exit without save, return to view |
|
action_preview |
preview edited text |
|
action_addform |
Redirect to the "change form" page. |
|
action_replaceform... |
Redirect to the "change form" page. |
|
action_delRev |
Administrators only delete the most recent revision of the topic - all other parameters are ignored. You have to be an administrator to use this, and not all store implementations will support it. |
|
action_repRev |
Administrators only replace the text of the most recent revision of the topic with the text in the text parameter. text must included embedded meta-data tags. All other parameters are ignored. You have to be an administrator to use this, and not all store implementations will support it. |
|
onlynewtopic |
If set, error if topic already exists |
|
onlywikiname |
If set, error if topic name is not a WikiWord |
|
dontnotify |
if defined, suppress change notification |
|
templatetopic |
Name of a topic to use as a template for the text and form (new topic only) |
|
text |
New text of the topic |
|
forcenewrevision |
if set, forces a revision even if TWiki thinks one isn't needed |
|
topicparent |
If 'none' remove any current topic parent. If the name of a topic, set the topic parent to this. |
|
formtemplate |
if defined, use the named template for the form (will remove the form is set to 'none') |
|
editaction |
When action is checkpoint , add form or replace form... , this is used as the action parameter to the edit script that is redirected to after the save is complete. |
|
originalrev |
Revision on which the edit started. |
|
edit |
The script to use to edit the topic when action is checkpoint |
edit |
editparams |
The parameter string to use to edit the topic |
|
redirectto |
The save process will redirect to this topic or URL if it is successful. (Typically this would be the URL that was being viewed when edit was invoked). The parameter value can be a TopicName , a Web.TopicName , or a URL. Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Security setup > Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl} ). |
view topic being edited |
|
|
|
Any errors will cause a redirect to an
oops
page.
The parameters are interpreted in according to the following rules.
- The first sequence of ten or more
X
characters in the topic name will be converted to a number such that the resulting topic name is unique in the target web.
- When the action is
save
, checkpoint
, quietsave
, or preview
:
- The new text is taken from the
text
parameter, if it is defined,
- otherwise it is taken from the
templatetopic
, if it is defined, (new topic only)
- otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if any,
- The name of the new form is taken from the
formtemplate
, if defined
- otherwise it is taken from the
templatetopic
, if defined, (new topic only)
- otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if any,
- otherwise no form is attached.
- The value for each field in the form is taken from the query, if it is defined
- otherwise it is taken from the
templatetopic
, if defined, (new topic only)
- otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if any,
- otherwise it defaults to the empty string.
Merging is only enabled if the topic text comes from
text
and
originalrev
is > 0 and is not the same as the revision number of the most recent revision. If merging is enabled both the topic and the meta-data are merged.
Form field values are passed in parameters named 'field' - for example, if I have a field
Status
the parameter name is
Status
.
Note: The
save
script can only be called via http POST method, not GET. Make sure to specify the
"post"
method if you call the
save
script via a form action. Example:
<form name="new" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{save}%/Sandbox/" method="post">
...
</form>
It is not possible to call
save
from an
<a href="">
link.
search
CGI gateway to the
%SEARCH%
functionality driven by the following CGI parameters:
|
|
Parameter: |
Description: |
Default: |
"text" |
Search term. Is a keyword search, literal search or regular expression search, depending on the type parameter. SearchHelp has more |
required |
search="text" |
(Alternative to above) |
N/A |
web="Name" web="Main, Know" web="all" |
Comma-separated list of webs to search. See TWikiVariables#VarSEARCH for more details. |
Current web |
topic="WebPreferences" topic="*Bug" |
Limit search to topics: A topic, a topic with asterisk wildcards, or a list of topics separated by comma. |
All topics in a web |
excludetopic="Web*" excludetopic="WebHome, WebChanges" |
Exclude topics from search: A topic, a topic with asterisk wildcards, or a list of topics separated by comma. |
None |
type="keyword" type="literal" type="regex" |
Do a keyword search like soap "web service" -shampoo ; a literal search like web service ; or RegularExpression search like soap;web service;!shampoo |
%SEARCHVAR- DEFAULTTYPE% preferences setting (literal) |
scope="topic" scope="text" scope="all" |
Search topic name (title); the text (body) of topic; or all (both) |
"text" |
sort="topic" sort="created" sort="modified" sort="editby" sort="parent" sort= "formfield(name)" |
Sort the results of search by the topic names, topic creation time, last modified time, last editor, parent topic name, or named field of TWikiForms. The sorting is done web by web; in case you want to sort across webs, create a formatted table and sort it with TablePlugin's initsort |
Sort by topic name |
limit="all" limit="16" |
Limit the number of results returned. This is done after sorting if sort is specified |
All results |
date="..." |
limits the results to those pages with latest edit time in the given time interval. |
All results |
reverse="on" |
Reverse the direction of the search |
Ascending search |
casesensitive="on" |
Case sensitive search |
Ignore case |
bookview="on" |
BookView search, e.g. show complete topic text |
Show topic summary |
nonoise="on" |
Shorthand for nosummary="on" nosearch="on" nototal="on" zeroresults="off" noheader="on" noempty="on" |
Off |
nosummary="on" |
Show topic title only |
Show topic summary |
nosearch="on" |
Suppress search string |
Show search string |
noheader="on" |
Suppress search header Topics: Changed: By: |
Show search header |
nototal="on" |
Do not show number of topics found |
Show number |
zeroresults="off" |
Suppress all output if there are no hits |
zeroresults="on" , displays: "Number of topics: 0" |
noempty="on" |
Suppress results for webs that have no hits. |
Show webs with no hits |
header="..." format="..." |
Custom format results: see FormattedSearch for usage, variables & examples |
Results in table |
expandvariables="on" |
Expand variables before applying a FormattedSearch on a search hit. Useful to show the expanded text, e.g. to show the result of a SpreadSheetPlugin %CALC{}% instead of the formula |
Raw text |
multiple="on" |
Multiple hits per topic. Each hit can be formatted. The last token is used in case of a regular expression ";" and search |
Only one hit per topic |
nofinalnewline="on" |
If on , the search variable does not end in a line by itself. Any text continuing immediately after the search tag on the same line will be rendered as part of the table generated by the search, if appropriate. |
off |
separator=", " |
Line separator between hits |
Newline "$n" |
|
|
|
statistics
Refresh the
WebStatistics topics in range of webs.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
webs |
comma-separated list of webs to run stats on |
all accessible webs |
logdate |
YYYYMM to generate statistics for |
current month |
|
|
|
For example:
- from browser https://www.linux4sam.org/bin/statistics updates all user webs
- from browser https://www.linux4sam.org/bin/statistics?webs=TWiki,Main,Sandbox updates TWiki,Main,Sandbox
- from browser https://www.linux4sam.org/bin/statistics/TWiki updates TWiki
- from command line twiki/bin/statistics updates all user webs
- from command line twiki/bin/statistics -webs=TWiki,Main,Sandbox updates TWiki,Main,Sandbox
- from command line twiki/bin/statistics TWiki.WebHome updates TWiki
See
TWikiSiteTools#WebStatistics_site_statistics for updating statistics using cron.
upload
Uploads an attachment to a topic. The HTTP request is expected to be in
multipart/form-data
format.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
hidefile |
if defined, will not show file in attachment table |
|
filepath |
local (client) path name of the file being uploaded. This is used to look up the data for the file in the HTTP query. |
|
filename |
deprecated, do not use |
|
filecomment |
Comment to associate with file in attachment table |
|
createlink |
if defined, will create a link to file at end of topic |
|
changeproperties |
if defined, this is a property change operation only - no file will be uploaded. |
null |
updatefield |
If defined and if the value matches the name of a form field, it will update that form field with the name of the uploaded file. |
|
|
|
|
You can use a tool like
curl
to upload files from the command line using this script.
Note: The
upload
script can only be called via http POST method, not GET.
view
Used for viewing topics.
|
|
Parameter |
Description |
Default |
raw=on |
Shows the text of the topic in a scrollable textarea |
|
raw=debug |
As raw=on , but also shows the metadata (forms etc) associated with the topic. |
|
raw=text |
Shows only the source of the topic, as plain text (Content-type: text/plain). Only shows the body text, not the form or other meta-data. |
raw=expandvariables |
Similar to raw=text but TWiki variables are expanded. |
|
raw=all |
Shows only the source of the topic, as plain text (Content-type: text/plain), with embedded meta-data. This may be useful if you want to extract the source of a topic to a local file on disc. |
|
section |
Allows to view only a part of the topic delimited by a named section (see VarSTARTSECTION). If the given section is not present, no topic content is displayed. |
|
contenttype |
Allows you to specify a different Content-Type: (e.g. contenttype=text/plain ) |
|
rev |
Revision to view (e.g. rev=45 ) |
|
template |
Allows you to specify a different skin template, overriding the 'view' template the view script would normally use. The default template is view . For example, you could specify /bin/view/TWiki/TWikiScripts?template=edit. This is mainly useful when you have specialized templates for a TWiki Application. |
|
topic |
redirects to show the specified Web.Topic, or, redirects to a URL, if allowed by {AllowRedirectUrl} and {PermittedRedirectHostUrls} configure settings |
|
createifnotexist |
If createifnotexist is set to 1 and in case the topic does not exist, it is created automatically on view. Useful to create topics automatically based on a specific template (see example below). Behind the scene, the view script redirects first to the save script, passing along all URL parameters. Thus all URL parameters of the save script can be used, such as templatetopic , topicparent and redirectto . Next, the save script creates the topic and redirects back to the view script (or displays an error in case there were any issues creating the topic). |
|
extralog |
Add additional text to TWiki log, next to the user agent string. Useful to log actions by cache scripts and crawlers. |
|
|
|
|
Example use of
createifnotexist
to link to the bookmark page of a user, and to create the page on the fly if needed:
[[%SCRIPTURL{view}%/%USERSWEB%/%WIKINAME%Bookmarks?createifnotexist=1&templatetopic=%SYSTEMWEB%.UserBookmarksTemplate&topicparent=%WIKINAME%][Bookmarks]]
For historical reasons, the
view
script has a special interpretation of the
text
skin. In earlier TWiki versions the
skin=text
parameter was used like this:
http://.../view/MyWeb/MyTopic?skin=text&contenttype=text/plain&raw=on
which shows the topic as plain text; useful for those who want to download plain text for the topic.
Using
skin=text
this way is
DEPRECATED, use
raw=text
instead.
viewfile
Used for viewing attachments. Normally, a site will publish the attachments (
pub
) directory using a URL. However if it contains sensitive information, you will want to protect attachments using
TWikiAccessControls. In this case, you can use the
viewfile
script to give access to attachments while still checking access controls.
Instead of using the
filename
parameter, you can append the attachment name
to the end of the URL path (after the topic) e.g.
https://www.linux4sam.org/bin/viewfile/Webname/TopicName/Attachment.gif
Details on command line scripts located in the
twiki/tools
directory.
geturl.pl
This is a very simple script to get the content of a web site. It is marked as
deprecated and might be removed (or enhanced) in a future TWiki release. Its functions are covered by the standard
wget
and
curl
commands.
- Usage:
geturl.pl <host> <path> [<port> [<header>]]
- Example:
geturl.pl some.domain /some/dir/file.html 80
- Will get:
http://some.domain:80/some/dir/file.html
rewriteshebang.pl
Simple script to rewrite the
#!/usr/bin/perl
shebang lines specific to your local Perl installation. It will rewrite the first line of all your TWiki cgi scripts so they use a different shebang line. Use it if your perl is in a non-standard location, or you want to use a different interpreter (such as 'speedy').
tick_twiki.pl
This script executes a number of non-essential regular administration tasks that will help keep your TWiki healthy and happy, such as removing expired sessions and lease files.
It is intended to be run as a cron job or a scheduled task once a week. Example crontab entry:
0 0 * * 0 cd /usr/twiki/bin && perl ../tools/tick_twiki.pl
Note: The script has to be run by a user who can write files created by the webserver user.
Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory,
DeveloperDocumentationCategory
--
Contributors: TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens,
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie,
TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum,
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny,
TWiki:Main.RafaelAlvarez,
TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit,
TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert,
TWiki:Main.WillNorris
Back to top
Page Rendering Process
Overview of how TWiki works
To achieve a goal in TWiki either by making use of existing features or implementing new features, good understanding of how TWiki works is crucial.
That said, this topic explains how TWiki processes various TWiki operations - view, edit, save, attach, upload, etc.
Here's the basic steps of the page rendering by TWiki.
- Preferences variables are read. TWikiVariables#PreferencesVariables describes what exactly happens in this step. This step is taken regardless of script (view, edit, etc.) while the steps below may not happen. For example, the save script saves the topic text and then redirects to the corresponding view URL hence the script doesn't take the following steps
- The page template for the script is read and expanded. TWikiTemplates explains this step
- TWiki variables in the template are expanded. A view and edit templates have
%TEXT%
, which is expanded to the raw text of the page
- TWiki markup is converted into HTML
Preferences variables are read
Preferences variables are defined at an early stage of TWiki processing.
After this step, no preferences variables are set.
Please note that topics INCLUDE'd by the current topic are not read for preferences variables.
%SET{"VARIABLE" value="VALUE"}%
and
%CALCULATE{"$SET(VARIABLE, VALUE)"}%
in an INCLUDE'd topic take effect since
%INCLUDE{...}%
,
%SET{...}%
, and
%CALCULATE{...}%
are variables expanded in a later stage.
But
" * Set VARIABLE = VALUE"
in an INCLUDE'd topic doesn't have a chance to be read.
Template is read and expanded
As mentioned above,
TWikiTemplates describes how a template is selected and read.
It's worth mentioning that template expansion happens before variable expansion.
At the end of step, all template directives are resolved,
hence there aren't any
%TMPL:XXX{...}%
or
%TMPL:XXX%
.
Variable expansion
Variables may be nested - a variable may be a parameter of another variable and there is no limitation of nesting level.
If variables are nested, they are processed from the inner-most to the outer-most.
A topic may have any number of variables. Variables at the same nesting level are processed from top to bottom.
You can see it from the example below.
Raw text:
%SET{"foo" value="abc"}%
%GET{"foo"}%
%SET{"foo" value="def"}%
%GET{"foo"}%
Result:
abc
def
TWiki markup to HTML
At this point, all variables are expanded.
Markup described on
TextFormattingRules are converted into HTML
You may want to suppress this step to see the result of variable expansion not converted into HTML.
You can do that by supplying raw=expandvariables URL parameter to a view URL:
e.g.
https://www.linux4sam.org/bin/view/Main/?raw=expandvariables
So far, how plugins are involved with page rendering hasn't been discused. Here's how.
In many cases, plugins introduce predefined variables such as
%CALCULATE{...}%
and
%GET{...}%
.
Those don't make structural difference to how a TWiki topic is written.
Those variables are introduced by calling e.g.
TWiki::Func::registerTagHandler('CALCULATE', \&_CALCULATE)
in
initPlugin()
in the plugin code file.
Some plugins extend TWiki markup.
For example, the table notation in TWiki (an example shown below) is provided by the
TablePlugin. Though the table notation is regarded as an integral part of TWiki markup, it is implemented by a plugin rather than the TWiki core.
| One One | One Two | One Three |
| ^ | Two Two | Two Three |
| Three One | ^ | Three Three |
There are various places in the TWiki core where functions provided by plugins are called.
For example,
TablePlugin has a function named
preRenderingHandler()
defined.
It's called before the TWiki markup to HTML conversion takes place.
As you can imagine, if a plugin has
postRenderingHandler()
defined, it's called after the core TWiki markup to HTML processing.
A plugin may have
commonTagsHandler()
defined, which is called immediately after normal TWiki variables are expanded.
Since a
commonTagsHandler()
may yield TWiki variables, normal TWiki variable expansion is conducted again after that.
SpreadSheetPlugin has
commonTagsHandler()
defined to process
%CALC{...}%
. You may think
%CALC{...}%
can be implemented simply by
TWiki::Func::registerTagHandler()
but it cannot be since
%CALC{...}%
needs to look outside its parameters to do things such as
%CALC{"$SUM($ABOVE())"}%
.
In addition to
preRenderingHandler()
,
postRenderingHandler()
, and
commonTagsHandler()
, there are other functions called from TWiki core as well.
You can see the complete list of such functions on EmptyPlugin.pm in the EmptyPlugin.
Back to top
TWiki Site Tools
Utilities for searching, navigation, and monitoring site activity
TWiki Site Tools include utilities for navigating, searching and keeping up with site activity. Preferences can be configured by web or site-wide. You are currently in the
TWiki web. In particular, TWiki provides two highly configurable, automated site monitoring tools,
WebNotify, to e-mail alerts when topics are edited, and
WebStatistics, to generate detailed activity reports.
Each TWiki web has an automatic e-mail alert service that sends a list of recent changes on a preset schedule, like once a day. Users can subscribe and unsubscribe using
WebNotify in each web. The Perl script
mailnotify
is called by a background process at regular intervals. The script sends an automated e-mail to subscribed users if topics were changed in a web since the script was last run.
Web Changes Notification Service
Each TWiki web has an automatic e-mail notification service that sends you an e-mail with links to all of the topics modified since the last alert.
Users subscribe to email notifications using their
WikiName or an alternative email address, and can specify the webs/topics they wish to track, Whole groups of users can also be subscribed for notification.
The general format of a subscription is:
three spaces *
subscriber [
:
topics ]
Where
subscriber can be a
WikiName, an E-mail address, or a
group name. If
subscriber contains any characters that are not legal in
an email address, then it must be enclosed in 'single' or "double" quotes. Please note that the guest user TWikiGuest does not have an email address mapped to it, and will never receive email regardless of the configuration of that user.
topics is an optional space-separated list of topics:
- ... without a Web. prefix
- ...that exist in this web.
Users may further customize the specific content they will receive using the following controls:
- Using wild-card character in topic names - You can use
*
in a topic name, where it is treated as a wildcard character. A *
will match zero or more other characters - so, for example, Fred*
will match all topic names starting with Fred
, *Fred
will match all topic names ending with Fred
, and *
will match all topic names.
- Unsubscribing to specific topics - Each topic may optionally be preceded by a '+' or '-' sign. The '+' sign means "subscribe to this topic". The '-' sign means "unsubscribe" or "don't send notifications regarding this particular topic". This allows users to elect to filter out certain topics. Topic filters ('-') take precedence over topic includes ('+') i.e. if you unsubscribe from a topic it will cancel out any subscriptions to that topic.
- Including child-topics in subscription - Each topic may optionally be followed by an integer in parentheses, indicating the depth of the tree of children below that topic. Changes in all these children will be detected and reported along with changes to the topic itself. Note This uses the TWiki "Topic parent" feature.
- Subscribing to entire topic ("news mode") - Each topic may optionally be immediately followed by an exclamation mark ! and/or a question mark ? with no intervening spaces, indicating that the topic (and children if there is a tree depth specifier as well) should be mailed out as complete topics instead of change summaries. ! causes the full topic to be mailed every time even if there have been no changes, and ? will mail the full topic only if there have been changes. One can limit the content of the subscribed topic to send out by inserting %STARTPUBLISH% and %STOPPUBLISH% markers within the topic. Note that "news mode" subscriptions require a corresponding cron job that includes the "-news" option (see details).
Examples:
Subscribe Daisy to all changes to topics in this web.
* daisy.cutter@flowers.com
Subscribe Daisy to all changes to topics that start with
Web
.
* daisy.cutter@flowers.com : Web*
Subscribe Daisy to changes to topics starting with
Petal
, and their immediate children, WeedKillers and children to a depth of 3, and all topics that match start with
Pretty
and end with
Flowers
e.g.
PrettyPinkFlowers
* DaisyCutter: Petal* (1) WeedKillers (3) Pretty*Flowers
Subscribe StarTrekFan to changes to all topics that start with
Star
except those that end in
Wars
,
sInTheirEyes
or
shipTroopers
.
* StarTrekFan: Star* - *Wars - *sInTheirEyes - *shipTroopers
Subscribe Daisy to the full content of NewsLetter whenever it has changed
* daisy@flowers.com: NewsLetter?
Subscribe buttercup to NewsLetter and its immediate children, even if it hasn't changed.
* buttercup@flowers.com: NewsLetter! (1)
Subscribe GardenGroup (which includes Petunia) to all changed topics under AllnewsLetters to a depth of 3. Then unsubscribe Petunia from the ManureNewsLetter, which she would normally get as a member of
GardenGroup:
* GardenGroup: AllNewsLetters? (3)
* petunia@flowers.com: - ManureNewsLetter
Subscribe
IT:admins
(a non-TWiki group defined by
a custom user mapping) to all changes to Web* topics.
* 'IT:admins' : Web*
In addition to single quotes ('), double quotes (") do the same job for a non-TWiki group.
A user may be listed many times in the WebNotify topic. Where a user has several lines in WebNotify that all match the same topic, they will only be notified about
changes that topic
once (though they will still receive individual mails for news topics).
If a
group is listed for notification, the group will be recursively expanded to the e-mail addresses of all members.
Warning: Because an email address is not linked to a user name, there is no way for TWiki to check access controls for subscribers identified by email addresses. A subscriber identified by an email address alone will only be sent change notifications if the topic they are subscribed to is readable by guest users. You can limit what email addresses can be used in WebNotify, or even block use of emails altogether, using the
{MailerContrib}{EmailFilterIn} setting in =configure
.
Tip: List names in alphabetical order to make it easier to find the names.
Note for System Administrators: Notification is supported by an add-on to the TWiki kernel called the MailerContrib. See the
MailerContrib topic for details of how to set up this service.
Note: If you prefer a news feed, point your reader to
WebRss (for RSS 1.0 feeds) or
WebAtom (for ATOM 1.0 feeds). Learn more at
WebRssBase and
WebAtomBase, respectively.
You can also use
%USERSWEB%
instead of
Main
, but this is not necessary even if you have renamed the main web by configuring
{MainWebName}
in
configure.
WebSearch is an extremely fast and flexible search facility, part of the core TWiki feature set.
WebSearchAdvanced offers more options, including:
- topic title or full-text search
- regular expressions
- search within web or site-wide
- index-style A-Z alphabetical listing sorted topic title
- many more
See also:
SearchHelp for help;
TWikiVariables and
FormattedSearch for including hard-coded searches in text.
To check for the most recently edited topics while on-site, use the
WebChanges link, usually located in the toolbar. It lists the most recently modified topics, newest first, along with the first couple of lines of the page content.
This is simply a preset
SEARCH
. The number of topics listed by the
limit
parameter.:
%SEARCH{
".*"
web="TWiki"
type="regex"
nosearch="on"
sort="modified"
reverse="on"
limit="50"
}%
You can point your news reader at
WebRss and
WebAtom to find out what is new in a TWiki web.
WebRssBase and
WebAtomBase have the details. Like
WebChanges, this is based on a
%SEARCH{}%
.
WebIndex lists all web topics in alphabetical order, with the first couple of lines of text. This is simply a preset
SEARCH
:
%SEARCH{
"\.*"
scope="topic"
type="regex"
nosearch="on"
}%
You can generate a listing manually, or on an automated schedule, of visits to individual pages, on a per web basis. Compiled as a running total on a monthly basis. Includes totals for Topic Views, Topic Saves, Attachment Uploads, Most Popular Topics with number of views, and Top Contributors showing total of saves and attachment uploads. Previous months are saved.
You can create a
WebStatistics link using
TWikiVariables with
%STATISTICSTOPIC%
TWiki also generates overall site usage statistics in
Main.SiteStatistics (do not create that page, it is created automatically based on
SiteStatisticsTemplate). On a monthly basis, the following items are recorded using system data and TWiki log data across all webs: Number of webs, number of topics, number of attachments, number of topic views, number of topic updates, number of files uploads, data size, pub size, disk use, number of users, number of groups, number of plugins installed compared to total number of plugins available, and the 10 top contributors.
Configuring for automatic operation
- You can automatically generate usage statistics for the whole site and all webs. To enable this:
- Make sure variable
{Log}{view}
, {Log}{save}
and {Log}{upload}
are set in configure. This will generate log file entries (see below).
- Call the
twiki/bin/statistics
script from a cron job - once a day is recommended. This will update the SiteStatistics and the WebStatistics topics in all webs.
- Attention: The script must run as the same user as the CGI scripts are running, such as user
nobody
or www-data
. Example crontab entry:
0 0 * * * (cd /path/to/twiki/bin; ./statistics >/dev/null 2>&1)
- There is a workaround in case you can't run the script as user
nobody
: Run the utility twiki/tools/geturl.pl
in your cron job and specify the URL of the twiki/bin/statistics
script as a parameter. Example:
0 0 * * * (cd /path/to/twiki/tools; ./geturl.pl mydomain.com /urlpath/to/twiki/bin/statistics >/dev/null 2>&1)
- NOTE:
geturl.pl
will do a TWiki CGI request as the TWikiGuest user, so if you use this workaround, the WebStatistics topics you are updating will have to be writable by TWikiGuest.
When running from the command line or a cron job, you can pass parameters to the script like this:
cd twiki/bin; ./statistics -logdate 2011-05 -webs TWiki,Sandbox
Generating statistics manually by URL
- If
{Stats}{DisableInvocationFromBrowser}
config parameter is false (it's false in this installation), the twiki/bin/statistics
script can also be executed as a CGI script - just enter the URL in your browser. Examples:
- Update current month for all webs you have access to:
/bin/statistics
- Update current month for Main web only:
/bin/statistics/Main
- Update Oct 2024 for Main web:
/bin/statistics/Main?logdate=2024-10
- Update Oct 2024 for the ProjectX, ProjectY and ProjectZ webs:
/bin/statistics?logdate=2024-10;webs=ProjectX,ProjectY,ProjectZ
The maximum number of items in columns
There are columns having a list of items.
The maximum number of items listed in a column is specified as follows.
|
|
Topic |
Column and part |
Configuration parameter |
Default |
WebStatistics of webs |
Affiliation breakdown in "Topic views", "Topic saves", and "File uploads" columns |
{Stats}{TopAffiliation} |
10 |
"Most popular topic views" column |
{Stats}{TopViews} |
10 |
"Top viewers" column |
{Stats}{TopViewers} |
10 |
"Top contributors for tpoic save and uploads" column |
{Stats}{TopContrib} |
10 |
Main.SiteStatistics |
The list of webs viewed the most number of times in the "Webs Viewed" column |
{Stats}{SiteTopViews} |
0 |
The list of webs updated the most number of times in the "Webs Updated" column |
{Stats}{SiteTopUpdates} |
0 |
Affiliation breakdown in "Topic Views", "Topic Saves", and "File Uploads" columns |
{Stats}{SiteTopAffiliation} |
10 |
"Top Viewers" column |
{Stats}{SiteTopViewers} |
10 |
"Top Contributors" column |
{Stats}{SiteTopContrib} |
10 |
|
|
|
Affiliation breakdown of views, saves, and uploads
If you run TWiki in an orgaization, you may want to see division breakdown of topic views, topic saves, and file uploads - in a month, how many topic views are there from the R&D division, the Sales division, etc.
You can have affiliation breakdown at the Topic views, Topic saves, and File uploads columns of WebStatistics and SiteStatistics as follows.
Affiliation breakdown is turned off by default.
To turn it on, you need to do two things.
- Provide
getAffiliation($cUID)
object method in the current user mapping handler. It's supposed return the affiliation (division, department, etc.) of the $cUID
. If the affiliation is unknown, it returns undef
.
- Set
{Stats}{Breakdown}
configuration papameter true by putting the following line in lib/LocalSite.cfg
.
$TWiki::cfg{Stats}{Breakdown} = 1;
Excluding some webs from WebStatistics update
You can exclude webs from WebStatistics update by specifying
{Stats}{ExcludedWebRegex}
config parameter as follows.
$TWiki::cfg{Stats}{ExcludedWebRegex} = '^(Trash(x\d+x)?\d*|Sandbox\d*)\b';
You may wonder when this is needed.
There are webs not worth updating WebStatistics such as the Trash web. When a web is deleted, it becomes a subweb of the Trash web. By default, not only the Trash web but also subwebs of the Trash web are subject to WebStatistics update.
On a large TWiki site, you may have dozens of Trash webs - you may
rotate Trash webs and you may be
UsingMultipleDisks (each disk requires its own Trash - e.g. Trashx1x and Trashx2x). If you have Trash, Trash1, ..., Trash10 for rotation and if you use 3 disks for TWiki, you end up having 33 Trashes.
Preventing WebStatistics and SiteStatistics from growing big
WebStatistics topics grow in size every month. By default you have only 10 lines per month, but you may have a lot more. If so, in 5 years, WebStatistics gets really big. Besides, if you run the
statistics
script every day, you increase the revision of each WebStatistics by one every day. If a topic has hundreds of revision, some operations such as getting the original creator of the topic takes long.
There is an option to prevent the boundless growth of WebStatistics.
If you set
$TWiki::cfg{Stats}{TopicPerYear}
true, the
statistics
script writes the result to WebStatisticsYYYY where YYYY is the current year (e.g. WebStatistics2024) instead of WebStatistics. The parameter is false by default.
- If TWiki:Plugins/RedirectPlugin is installed, viewing WebStatistics causes redirection to the WebStatisticsYYYY of the year. Otherwise, WebStatistics shows links to WebStatisticsYYYY topics.
- After you change
{Stats}{TopicPerYear}
to true but before you run the statistics
script, you should run twiki/tools/switch2yearlystats
to rename WebStatistics of all webs to WebStatisticsYYYY of the year. In case WebStatistics is not in the same format as its current template, it's renamed to WebStatistics0000.
The description above is applied to Main.SiteStatistics as well.
If
{Stats}{TopicPerYear}
is true:
- The site-wide statistics are written to Main.SiteStatisticsYYYY of the year instead of Main.SiteStatistics
- Main.SiteStatistics shows the list of Main.SiteStatisticsYYYY topics or redirects to the latest one depending on the availability of RedirectPlugin.
-
twiki/tools/switch2yearlystats
renames Main.SiteStatistics to Main.SiteStatisticsYYYY of the year or Main.SiteStatistics0000.
Upgrade from pre 6.0
Statistics topic conversion
There are several changes made to WebStatistics and SiteStatistics.
If existing statistics topics are kept as they are, topic update by the
statistics
script doesn't work well.
By running
tools/convert_stats_twiki6
after upgrade, all statistics topics are converted for the current version of
statistics
.
Top Contributors on SiteStatistics
The number of contributors listed on the "Top Contributors" column on SiteStatistics is specified by
{Stats}{SiteTopContrib}
.
Prior to TWiki 6.0, it was specified by
{Stats}{TopContrib}
.
If you have a custom
{Stats}{TopContrib}
value, you need to set
{Stats}{SiteTopContrib}
as well. Otherwise, the number of "Top Contributors" on SiteStatistics becomes the default value, which is 10.
TWiki generates monthly log files which are used by the statistics script
- The log file is defined by the {LogFileName} setting in configure
- The file name is
log<year><month>.txt
- Example path name:
twiki/logs/log202410.txt
- Each access gets logged as:
| <time in GMT> | <wikiusername> | <action> | <web>.<topic> | <extra info> | <IP address> |
- Example log entry:
| 31 Oct 2024 - 16:46 | Main.TWikiGuest | view | TWiki.WebRss | | 66.124.232.02 |
- Actions are logged if enabled in configure by the {Log}{action} flags
- Logged actions:
|
|
Script |
Action name |
Extra info |
attach |
attach |
when viewing attach screen of previous uploaded attachment: filename |
changes |
changes |
|
edit |
edit |
when editing non-existing topic: (not exist) |
login, logon, attach, edit, register, rest, view, vewfile |
sudologin , sudologout |
Login name of administrator user who is logging in or out |
manage |
changepasswd |
Login name of user who's password is changed |
mdrepo |
mdrepo |
operation and its arguments |
rdiff |
rdiff |
higher and lower revision numbers: 4 3 |
register |
regstart |
WikiUserName, e-Mail address, LoginName: user attempts to register |
register |
register |
E-mail address: user successfully registers |
register |
bulkregister |
WikiUserName of new, e-mail address, admin ID |
rename |
rename |
when moving topic: moved to Newweb.NewTopic |
rename |
renameweb |
when renaming a web: moved to Newweb |
rename |
move |
when moving attachment: Attachment filename moved to Newweb.NewTopic |
resetpasswd |
resetpasswd |
Login name of user who's password is reset |
save |
save |
when replacing existing revision: repRev 3 when user checks the minor changes box: dontNotify when user changes attributes to an exising attachment: filename.ext |
save |
cmd |
special admin parameter used when saving |
search |
search |
search string |
upload |
upload |
filename |
view |
view |
when viewing non-existing topic: (not exist) when viewing previous topic revision: r3 |
viewfile |
viewfile |
Attachment name and revision: File.txt, r3 |
|
|
|
Configuring outgoing mail
Outgoing mail is required for
TWikiRegistration and for
recent changes alert.
TWiki will use the
Net::SMTP
module if it is installed on your system. Set this with the
{SMTP}{MAILHOST}
setting in
configure.
- You can define a separate
{SMTP}{SENDERHOST}
configure setting to set the mail sender host - some SMTP installations require this.
- If you are using SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) you might need to configure it to allow TWiki to send e-mails:
$ sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail on
$ sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on
You can use an external mail program, such as
sendmail
, if the
Net::SMTP
module is not installed or not functioning properly. Set the program path in
{MailProgram}
and set
{SMTP}{MAILHOST}
to an empty value in
configure.
The notify e-mail uses the default
changes.tmpl
template, or a skin if activated in the
TWikiPreferences.
mailnotify also relies on two hidden files in each
twiki/data/Web
directory:
.changes
and
.mailnotify.
Make sure both are writable by your web server process.
.changes
contains a list of changes; go ahead and make this empty.
.mailnotify
contains a timestamp of the last time notification was done.
Setting the automatic e-mail schedule
For Unix platforms: Edit the
cron
table so that
mailnotify
is called in an interval of your choice. Please consult
man crontab
of how to modify the table that schedules program execution at certain intervals. Example:
% crontab -e
0 1 * * * (cd /path/to/twiki; perl -I bin tools/mailnotify -q)
The above line will run mailnotify nightly at 01:00. The
-q
switch suppresses all normal output. Details at
MailerContrib.
For ISP installations: Many ISPs don't allow hosted accounts direct cron access, as it's often used for things that can heavily load the server. Workaround scripts are available.
On Windows: You can use a scheduled task if you have administrative privileges.
TWiki:Codev/CronTabWin is a free scheduler for Windows.
- TWikiAccessControl describes how to restrict read and write access to topics and webs, by users and groups
- SitePermissions lists the permissions settings of the webs on this TWiki site
TWiki has a solution to backup, restore and upgrade TWiki sites. It can be used via browser and on the command line. The
BackupRestorePlugin is pre-installed in TWiki-5.1 and later releases; it can be installed in older TWiki releases as low as TWiki-2001-09-01 (Athens Release) to easily create a backup that can be restored on a new TWiki release. This offers an easy upgrade path for TWiki. See also
TWikiUpgradeGuide.
The crontab command is used to schedule commands to be executed periodically.
- Wikipedia.org:Crontab - crontab documentation
- pycron - crontab for Windows
Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory,
AdminToolsCategory
Back to top
Managing Topics
Browser-based rename, move, and delete for individual topics
You can use browser-based controls to change a topic's name, move it to another TWiki web, or delete it to a hidden
Trash
web.
- Click on
[More topic actions]
(bottom right of page) on the topic to be changed, then, in the new screen, on [Delete topic]
or [Rename/move topic]
. You can now rename and/or move/delete in one operation:
- To web: Select the target web if other than the current web.
- To topic: Enter the new topic name - default is current name
NOTE: You'll be warned if any of the topics to be affected are locked (being edited), or if there is a name conflict.
- Update links: Prevent updates by unchecking individual items on the list of referring links - these topics will NOT to be updated with the new name (by default, all referring links will be updated).
- Click on
[Rename/Move]
: the topic will be renamed and links to the topic updated as requested.
- If any of the referring pages are locked then they will be listed: you can correct these later by again pressing
[Rename/Move]
.
- There is a Put back feature that allows you to undo a
Rename/Move/Delete
- an instruction line and undo link will appear at the bottom of the modified topic. This allows you to revert from the last modification only.
Deleted topics are moved to a special
Trash
web - they are NOT physically erased from the server. All webs share
Trash
- in case of a name conflict with a topic already
Trash
, the user is alerted and asked to choose a new name.
The
Trash
web should be be cleared periodically, by archiving (saving) the text and RCS files if required (recommended), then deleting them from the
Trash
directory.
- This can only be done from on the server, not through the browser.
- Since simple FTP access to the
Trash
directory is all that's required for maintenance, it's possible to grant Trash
admin privileges to multiple users, while strictly limiting server access.
You can use
TWikiMetaData to place a command in the
WebTopicViewTemplate and
WebTopicNonWikiTemplate that will indicate that a topic has been moved by searching for
%META:TOPICMOVED{...}%
. Customize something like this:
%METASEARCH{type="topicmoved" web="%WEB%" topic="%TOPIC%"
title="This topic used to exist and was moved to: "}%
Note: Do not modify the
TWiki.WebTopicViewTemplate - modifications would be lost on the next TWiki upgrade. Instead, create a WebTopicViewTemplate in the Main web with the same content and modify it to your needs.
-
%SEARCH%
, with a special template, finds and displays all occurrences of the topic name in other topics, site-wide. These referring links are by default automatically changed to the new topic and/or web name. This includes relevant TWikiMetaData definitions.
- User can omit one or more topics from the update list by unchecking them.
-
<pre>
and <verbatim>
are honored - no changes are made to text within these areas.
- The topic is moved (if locks allow).
- References are changed (locks and permissions permitting).
- Any referring topics that can't be changed due to locks are listed - user can take note and change them at another time.
How Referring Topics Are Found
First, matching topics in the current web are listed - matches are to
topic
. Next, all webs (including the current one) are listed that match
web.topic
.
All webs will be searched during rename, even if
NOSEARCHALL
is defined on a web, though access permissions will of course be honored.
Changed references are kept are as short as possible, ex:
topic
is used in preference to
web.topic
.
Effect of User Access Settings
User permissions affect the 'rename' functions in various ways. To rename a topic, you need all of
VIEW
,
CHANGE
and
RENAME
access to that topic. To alter referring topics, you need
CHANGE
access. See
TWikiAccessControl for information on setting up access permissions.
Consider carefully whether to make browser-based
Rename/Move/Delete widely available, or to restrict it to an administrator/moderator group. Allowing all users to easily manipulate topics can be extremely useful in refactoring a busy web or site. However, there are at least two significant potential drawbacks to take into account:
- When referring links are updated, the modified topics appear in WebChanges, creating the impression that editorial changes were made. This can undermine the usefulness of WebChanges.
- Due to current limitations, fairly heavy use of Rename/Move/Delete functions can lead to an accumulation of minor technical problems (ex: broken links) and usability issues (ex: user confusion). If Rename... is used heavily, these negatives will obviously increase, in number and effect.
Ultimately, the size, objectives, and policies of your TWiki site, the real-world behavior of your user group, and most importantly, the initial TWiki site management leadership, will determine the most effective implementation of this feature, and the success of the site overall.
Rename/Move is fairly complicated due to the dynamic generation of links. Ideally, it would be possible to run the required part of rendering in a way that would allow identification of the text to be changed. Unfortunately, these hooks don't exist in TWiki at present. Instead, %SEARCH% is used with a special template to show the text to be changed, and the selected topics are then altered. One drawback is that
search
can show matches that will not be updated due to case differences. Other mismatches with actual rendered output are also possible as the approaches are so different.
The following shows some limitations of square bracket processing.
[[Old Topic]] => [[NewTopic][Old Topic]]
[[old topic]] => [[NewTopic][old topic]]
[[old t opic]] => not changed
[[OldTopic]] => [[NewTopic]]
Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory,
AdminDocumentationCategory
Back to top
Managing Webs
Adding, renaming and deleting webs are all web-based operations.
A
TWikiSite is divided into webs; each one represents one workspace, one area of collaboration. Each web is a container for topics. Each topic is a container for page content and attachments. Administrators can add/rename/delete webs.
The name of the web and topic is represented in the page URL. For example,
http://twiki.example.com/do/view/Sandbox/WebNotify
tells us that we
view topic
WebNotify located in the
Sandbox web.
Tip: The URL of a web's homepage ends in
/WebHome
by default. The name of the homepage topic can safely be omitted to make for shorter and more legible links. For example,
http://twiki.example.com/do/view/Sandbox
links to the homepage of the Sandbox web.
New webs are based on a web you specify. There are two types of webs you can use to create a new web:
- Use a specially designed TemplateWeb. This is an invisible web that begins with an underscore "_" character (for example
_default
).
- Use an existing web as a template web. This may be useful if you already have a web that you would like to use as a starting point.
In either case all topics in the template web will be copied into the new web. Make sure to verify that your new web has all the custom modifications that you desire. Any settings defined in the form below will automatically be set in the WebPreferences of the new web.
Notes:
- You must have
ROOTCHANGE
access to create a top-level web (one with no parent)
- Only the person who created it has permission to change the WebPreferences in the new web
You can only create hierarchical webs (webs within webs) if the
{EnableHierarchicalWebs}
setting in
configure is enabled. Hierarchical webs are currently enabled.
Note: You might not need hierarchical webs. TWiki topics already have a parent/child relationship within a web, which is shown in the breadcrumb. Try to keep the number of webs to a minimum in order to keep search and cross-referencing simple. TWiki runs faster if hierarchical webs are disabled.
You can create hierarchical webs via the
Adding a New Web form above, by using a slash- or dot-separated path name which is based on an existing web name in the
Name of new web: field.
Example:
To create a sub-web named
Bar
inside a web named
Foo
, use
Foo/Bar
or
Foo.Bar
as the new web name in the form above.
Sub-web Preferences are Inherited
The preferences of a sub-web are inherited from the parent web and overridden locally. Preferences are ultimately inherited from the
TWiki.TWikiPreferences topic.
Example Preference Inheritance for Sandbox/TestWeb/SubWeb.SubWebTopic
topic:
-
TWiki.TWikiPreferences
site-wide preferences
-
Sandbox.WebPreferences
inherits from and overrides settings in TWiki.TWikiPreferences
-
Sandbox/TestWeb.WebPreferences
inherits from and overrides settings in Sandbox.WebPreferences
-
Sandbox/TestWeb/SubWeb.WebPreferences
inherits from and overrides settings in Sandbox/TestWeb.WebPreferences
-
Sandbox/TestWeb/SubWeb.SubWebTopic
inherits from and overrides settings in Sandbox/TestWeb/SubWeb.WebPreferences
Navigation
The
PatternSkin indicates sub-webs by indenting them in the sidebar relative to their level in the hierarchy. The
SiteMap shows a list of webs; sub-webs are separated by dots, such as
Web.SubWeb.SubSubWeb
.
Rename a web via the Tools section in each web's
WebPreferences topic. You may delete a web by moving it into a Trash web.
Permissions
You may only rename a web if you have the following permissions
- You must be allowed to rename and changes topics in the web you want to rename
- You must be allowed to rename topics in the parent web of the web you want to rename
- If the web is a root web (i.e. it has no parent web) then you must have permission to both create and rename root webs. These permissions are controlled by the ALLOWROOTCHANGE preference, which can be set in Main.TWikiPreferences.
- If you move the web to another parent web you must be allowed to create and change topics in the new parent web.
When you rename a web TWiki will try and update all links that refer to the old web. You should note that links only get updated in topics that you are allowed to edit. If you use access rights in the TWiki installation it is generally best to let an administrator rename webs to avoid too many broken links.
Edit Conflicts
If anyone is editing a topic which requires updating, or which lives in the web being renamed, a second confirmation screen will come up which will indicate which topics are still locked for edit. You may continue to hit the refresh button until an edit lease is obtained for each topic which requires updating (the "Refresh" button will change to "Submit"), or hit "Cancel", which will cancel your edit lease on all affected topics.
Renaming the TWiki or Main webs
Although technically possible, it is strongly advised
not to rename the TWiki and Main webs. It complicates upgrades, and some extensions may make assumptions on the names of those system webs. For this reason, the rename web link is disabled in the WebPreferences topic in those webs.
Suggestion: Create a web that is the entry point for your TWiki, and change the link of the upper left site logo to that web. Do that with a WIKILOGOURL setting in
Main.TWikiPreferences.
If you want to rename the TWiki or Main webs anyway:
- Physically move the webs below
twiki/data
and twiki/pub
on the shell level.
- Change the
{SystemWebName}
, {UsersWebName}
and/or {LocalSitePreferences}
settings in the configuration using the configure interface.
Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory,
AdminToolsCategory
--
Contributors: TWiki:Main/MikeMannix,
TWiki:Main/PeterThoeny,
TWiki:Main/GrantBow
Back to top
Manage Users
Register users on your TWiki site; change/reset/install passwords; remove user accounts
Some of the features below may be disabled, depending on your TWiki configuration.
You don't have to have user profile pages in TWiki for Authentication to work - see
TWikiUserAuthentication for details.
- TWikiRegistration is used when you want new users to individually register with TWiki by filling out a form
For administrators only:
- BulkRegistration to register multiple users at the same time
- Default user profile page form definition and template:
- UserForm in TWiki web - form definition (do not change)
- NewUserTemplate in TWiki web - template page (do not change)
- Customized user profile page form definition and template:
- UserForm in Main web - form definition (clone from the one in the TWiki web and customize)
- NewUserTemplate in Main web - template page (clone from the one in the TWiki web and customize)
Note that the below features are only relevant when you use an internal password manager where TWiki can set and reset passwords.
- ChangePassword is for users who can remember their password and want to change it
- ResetPassword is for users who cannot remember their password; a system generated password is e-mailed to them
- ChangeEmailAddress changes the hidden email address stored in the password file
For administrators only:
To change the user's
WikiName:
- Rename the user profile page in the Main web, such as from
JaneSmith
to JaneMiller
.
- Fix backlinks in the Main web only
- Make sure the group topics are updated (if any.)
- Edit the Main.TWikiUsers topic and move the user's entry so that the list is in proper alphabetical order.
- Recreate the old topic with a pointer to the new topic, so that links in other webs work properly. Example content:
%M% Jane Smith is now known as JaneMiller
If external authentication is used and you want to change the login name:
- The login name needs to be changed in the authentication server (e.g. Active Directory)
- In TWiki's Main.TWikiUsers topic, fix the mapping from login name to WikiName:
* JaneSmith - jsmith - 13 Sep 2006
to:
* JaneMiller - jmiller - 13 Sep 2006
To remove a user account (FredQuimby, who logs in as "fred"):
- If you are using a
.htpasswd
file, edit the .htpasswd
file to delete the line starting fred:
- Warning: Do not use the Apache
htpasswd
program with .htpasswd
files generated by TWiki! htpasswd
wipes out email addresses that TWiki plants in the info fields of this file.
- Remove the
FredQuimby - fred
line from the Main.TWikiUsers topic
- Remove
FredQuimby
from all groups and from all the ALLOWWEB/ALLOWTOPIC...
declarations, if any.
Note: If you fail to do this you risk creating a security hole, as the next user to register with the wikiname FredQuimby will inherit the old FredQuimby's permissions.
- [optional] Delete their user topic Main.FredQuimby (including attachments, if any.)
Note: Consider leaving the user topic file in place so their past signatures and revision author entries don't end up looking like
AnUncreatedTopic. If you want to make it clear the user is no longer around, replace the topic content with a note to that effect. The existence of the UserName topic should also prevent that user name from being re-used, sealing the potential security hole regarding inherited permissions..
TWiki's Registration can send 3 emails who's output is governed by templates:
- User registration confirmation -
templates/registerconfirm.tmpl
- User registration notification -
templates/registernotify.tmpl
- Email to notify the TWiki admin of registration -
templates/registernotifyadmin.tmpl
As these are
TWikiTemplates, they can be customized and selected using the SKIN path setting. Because there are default tmpl files in the
templates
dir, this cannot use Template topics.
These template files have a specific format that matches the raw format of emails sent via SMTP, so be careful and test your changes. It is easiest to start by copying the default templates:
cd twiki/templates
cp registernotify.tmpl registernotify.myskin.tmpl
cp registerconfirm.tmpl registerconfirm.myskin.tmpl
cp registernotifyadmin.tmpl registernotifyadmin.myskin.tmpl
then add
myskin
to the beginning of the
SKIN
setting in
TWikiPreferences.
From this point on, your myskin templates will be used for the registration emails.
To make it possible for
TWikiUsers to modify the email contents, you could use a parameterized
%INCLUDE%
statement in your customized version. e.g.:
From: %WIKIWEBMASTERNAME% <%WIKIWEBMASTER%>
To: %FIRSTLASTNAME% <%EMAILADDRESS%>
Subject: %MAKETEXT{"[_1] - Registration for [_2] ([_3])" args="%WIKITOOLNAME%, %WIKINAME%, %EMAILADDRESS%"}%
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=%CHARSET%
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
%INCLUDE{
"Main.RegistrationNotification"
WIKINAME="%WIKINAME%"
FIRSTLASTNAME="%FIRSTLASTNAME%"
EMAILADDRESS="%EMAILADDRESS%"
}%
Note: The use of %WIKINAME%, %FIRSTLASTNAME%, %EMAILADDRESS% passed in from the INCLUDE so that the topic below is similar to the original template.
And then create a topic Main.RegisterNotifyEmail:
Welcome to %WIKITOOLNAME%.
%MAKETEXT{"Your personal [_1] topic is located at [_2]. You can customize it as you like:" args="%WIKITOOLNAME%, %SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%USERSWEB%/%WIKINAME%"}%
* %MAKETEXT{"Some people turn it into a personal portal with favorite links, what they work on, what help they'd like, etc."}%
* %MAKETEXT{"Some add schedule information and vacation notice."}%
Regards
%WIKIWEBMASTERNAME%
Your TWiki Admin
%MAKETEXT{"Note:"}%
2 %MAKETEXT{"You can change your password at via [_1]" args="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ChangePassword"}%
3 %MAKETEXT{"If you haven't set a password yet or you want to reset it, go to: [_1]" args="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ResetPassword"}%
%MAKETEXT{"Submitted content:"}%
%FORMDATA%
Note: Remember to secure the topic appropriately to prevent attackers from getting emailed sensitive passwords.
Related topics: UserToolsCategory,
AdminToolsCategory
Back to top
Appendix A: TWiki Development Time-line
New Features and Enhancements of TWiki Release 6.0
- Usability Enhancements
- Add dashboards to Web home topics
- Categorize TWiki variables & add TWiki Variables wizard
- Upgrade to TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor to version 3.5.8
- New TOPICTITLE variable for non-WikiWord topic titles
- Show topic title in square bracket links using
[[+TopicName]]
syntax
- Icon bullet lists: Specify any TWiki doc graphics icon as a bullet
- WebSearch and WebChanges has now search result pagination
- WebChanges shows topic age instead of topic date
- Auto-discover TWikiForms, e.g. no need to set in WEBFORMS preferences setting
- Move change TWiki Form from edit screen to "more" screen
- Show link to older versions of attachments in attachment table
- Automatically link @Twitter handles
- Add comment section to new topic template
- Copy/clone topic function in more topic action screen
- Configurable signatures with profile pictures
- Open external links in new browser window or tab; show external link icon
- Scalability Enhancements
- Read-only and mirror web support for distributed TWiki sites
- MetadataRepository for site metadata and web metadata to speed up operations across many webs
- Rename topic operation with option to not replace web internal references
- Rename web operation can cope with a large site and read-only/mirror webs
- Introducing web-level administrator for higher web autonomy; web specific WIKIWEBMASTER
- Support for multiple disk drives for data and pub directories
- TWiki Application Platform Enhancements
- New EDITFORMFIELD variable to easily create custom forms to create/change topics with TWiki Forms
- Add rev parameter to FORMFIELD variable
- New combobox TWiki Form field type
- New ENTITY variable to entity encode content
- Add createdate, default, encode parameters to SEARCH variable
- SEARCH variable with sort by parent feature
- SEARCH variable extended to make results pagination possible
- Add encode, newline, nofinalnewline, allowanytype to INCLUDE variable
- Add subwebs and depth parameters to WEBLIST variable
- Add section parameter to ADDTOHEAD variable
- Add encode and decode functions to TWiki::Func
- Add LWP parameters to TWiki::Func::getExternalResource
- Conditional Skin based on group membership and other criteria
- Finer-control variable expansion in topic creation
- Add topic parameter to VAR variable to get settings defined in another topic
- Add raw parameter to INCLUDE variable to include a topic in the raw mode
- Security Enhancements
- Support for an implicit "all users" group
- Empty DENY setting means undefined setting
- Dynamic access control (experimental)
- Upgrade support for secure email notification
- Restrict HTTP variable to not reveal certain header fields
- User masquerading to check if access restriction is working as expected for another user
- Disable XSS Protection for JavaScript
- Extensions Enhancements
- Add new WatchlistPlugin to core and deprecate MailerContrib
- Add new TWikiDashboardAddOn to core distribution
- Add new ScrollBoxAddOn to core distribution
- Add new DatePickerPlugin to core and deprecate JSCalendarContrib
- Add new MovedSkin to core distribution
- SpreadSheetPlugin supports hash variables with new functions GETHASH(), HASH2LIST(), HASHCOPY(), HASHEACH(), HASHEXISTS(), HASHREVERSE(), LIST2HASH(), SETHASH(), SETMHASH()
- SpreadSheetPlugin adds new functions BIN2DEC(), DEC2BIN(), DEC2HEX(), DEC2OCT(), HEX2DEC(), OCT2DEC()
- SpreadSheetPlugin supports quoted parameters with '''triple quotes'''
- InterwikiPlugin to observe the links configuration parameter
- TagMePlugin with support for multiple tag namespaces
- Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
- CGI Engine to be made Fast CGI compatible
- Empty IF condition to be regarded valid and false
- Add seconds to the timestamp in debug/log/warn
- Viewing topic text with variables expanded
- WEBLIST canmoveto and cancopyto
- Add viewRedirectHandler callback to plugins API
- No such topic, no such web, access denied are done right
- Return "404 Not Found" status for topic not found instead of 200 OK status
- Return "404 Not Found" status and show "No Such Web" page title for no such web without redirecting to an oops URL titled "Access Denied"
- Return "403 Access Denied" status for access denied without redirecting to an oops URL whose status code is "200 OK"
- Statistics enhancements to show most viewed webs, most updated webs, most popular webs, top viewers, # of unique users who viewed, saved, and uploaded on the web/site, affiliation breakdown
- Specifying webs to be excluded from WebStatistics update
- Statistics topics can be annualized to e.g. WebStatistics2013, WebStatistics2014. This prevents statistics topics from growing indefinitely
- For paragraphs generate <p>...</p> instead of <p/>
- 20 new TWikiDocGraphics icons
- Bug Fixes
- 99 bugs fixed in TWiki-6.0.0
See the full list of new features and bug fixes in
TWikiReleaseNotes06x00.
Hall of Fame of TWiki Release 6.0
Many people have been involved in creating TWiki 6.0. Special thanks go to the most active contributors in the following areas:
- Sponsor and facilitator: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Spec and code: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu, TWiki:Main.MahiroAndo, TWiki:Main.YaojunFei, TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.DipuDeshmukh, TWiki:Main.AaronLWalker, TWiki:Main.TaitCyrus, TWiki:Main.MichaelGulitz, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt, TWiki:Main.PeterJones, TWiki:Main.IanBerdei, TWiki:Main.MikeDoherty, TWiki:Main.IanKluft, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.MateuszPles, TWiki:Main.MichaelBerger2012
- Testing and bug fixing: TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu, TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky, TWiki:Main.MahiroAndo, TWiki:Main.YaojunFei, TWiki:Main.VickyBrown, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewaley, TWiki:Main.GeorgeClark, TWiki:Main.TomCrane, TWiki:Main.AaronLWalker, TWiki:Main.JosephZamzow, TWiki:Main.JulianCollins, TWiki:Main.RolandOldenburg, TWiki:Main.SteveKelem, TWiki:Main.WillemEngen, TWiki:Main.StefanScherer, TWiki:Main.GertjanVanOosten, TWiki:Main.LisaTanguay, TWiki:Main.GuangyuShi, TWiki:Main.PhillipHuang, TWiki:Main.MauritzHansen, TWiki:Main.JohnWorsley, TWiki:Main.PaulMerchantJr
- Documentation: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu, TWiki:Main.MahiroAndo, TWiki:Main.TerjeAndersen, TWiki:Main.JonForrest, TWiki:Main.VickyBrown, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.TaitCyrus, TWiki:Main.EricRiebling, TWiki:Main.UweWahser, TWiki:Main.ScottFredericksen, TWiki:Main.StephenCarville, TWiki:Main.MarkBloore, TWiki:Main.WillemEngen, TWiki:Main.AlanDuan, TWiki:Main.TreyFore, TWiki:Main.GuyKroizman, TWiki:Main.RobRobason, TWiki:Main.LouisAh, TWiki:Main.StephanHennig, TWiki:Main.LonnieSandersIII
- Release package builds: TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Usability: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Translations: Coordinated by TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Bulgarian: TWiki:Main.KrassimirBerov
- Chinese (simplified and traditional): TWiki:Main.CheDong
- Czech: TWiki:Main.VladimirMarek, TWiki:Main.JaromirHoudek
- Danish: TWiki:Main.ChristianOtkjaer, TWiki:Main.PeterLorenzen, TWiki:Main.ErikJohansen
- Dutch: TWiki:Main.WoutMertens, TWiki:Main.TomArnst
- Finnish: TWiki:Main.HeikkiToivonen
- French: TWiki:Main.JeanbDupont, TWiki:Main.JeanFruitet, TWiki:Main.RodolpheVidal
- German: TWiki:Main.MartinRaabe
- Italian: TWiki:Main.MassimoMancini
- Japanese: TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu, TWiki:Main.KenYuminaga
- Korean: TWiki:Main.JeremySuk, TWiki:Main.JustinKim
- Polish: TWiki:Main.ZbigniewKulesza
- Portuguese: TWiki:Main.CarlinhosCecconi
- Russian: TWiki:Main.AndreyTkachenko, TWiki:Main.SergejZnamenskij, TWiki:Main.SergeyJSinx
- Spanish: TWiki:Main.EnriqueMelendez, TWiki:Main.SebastianKlus, TWiki:Main.MiguelABayona
- Swedish: TWiki:Main.TorstenEriksson, TWiki:Main.ErikAman
- Ukrainian: TWiki:Main.SerhijDubyk
- Marketing: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.VickyBrown
- Meetups: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- TWiki.org wiki champions: TWiki:Main.BrianMartinUK, TWiki:Main.DarrenLichty, TWiki:Main.DavidAllen, TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky, TWiki:Main.HeatherStern, TWiki:Main.JitendraKavathekar, TWiki:Main.JohnRouillard, TWiki:Main.JonForrest, TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu, TWiki:Main.MadhuriYevale, TWiki:Main.MichaelGulitz, TWiki:Main.MichaelSprague, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.RichMorin, TWiki:Main.RuedigerPlantiko, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.SteveKelem, TWiki:Main.TaitCyrus, TWiki:Main.TerjeAndersen, TWiki:Main.ThomasGutzmann, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt, TWiki:Main.VickyBrown
- Customer support: TWiki:Main.CarlaReitzenstein, TWiki:Main.ChengappaCB, TWiki:Main.EnriqueCadalso, TWiki:Main.JonForrest, TWiki:Main.JoshuaTharp, TWiki:Main.MichaelSevero, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.VickyBrown
- System administration: TWiki:Main.ChrisLahti, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale
If you find an omission please fix it at
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. For the full list of contributors see
TWikiContributor.
See more details on the TWiki 6.0 release at
TWikiReleaseNotes06x00.
New Features and Enhancements of TWiki Release 5.1
- Usability Enhancements
- API and GUI for point and click user data management
- Support disabled users in password manager
- More visual user profile pages with in-place editing of form fields and picture selector
- In-place editing of TWiki group settings using PreferencesPlugin
- Point and click bookmarks for better usability
- Improved statistics showing overall site usage over time, such as total number of webs, topics, users, etc
- TopMenuSkin: Option for auto-hidden or fixed top menu-bar; in auto-hidden mode, menu is always accessible with stub - added in TWiki-5.1.2
- TWiki Application Platform Enhancements
- Macro language with parameterized variables
- Ability to auto-create page on view if it does not exist
- Relative heading levels for INCLUDE
- Relative heading levels for SEARCH
- Security Enhancements
- Set a flag to force password change on next login
- S/Mime support for notification e-mails
- Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
- TWikiDocGraphics: Added 2 new icons, and updated 1 icon - added in TWiki-5.1.1
- TWikiDocGraphics: Added 25 new icons, and updated 2 icons - added in TWiki-5.1.2
- TWikiDocGraphics: Added 5 new icons - added in TWiki-5.1.3
- TWikiDocGraphics: Added 5 new icons - added in TWiki-5.1.4
- User profile pages with CSS based box shadow and rounded corners - added in TWiki-5.1.3
- TWiki logs: Log user agent for all users; log additional info via extralog URL parameter - added in TWiki-5.1.4
- Plugin Enhancements
- New BackupRestorePlugin to easily backup, restore and upgrade TWiki installations
- BackupRestorePlugin: Add restore from backup feature - added in TWiki-5.1.1
- CommentPlugin: Send comment to multiple e-mail addresses; better layout & nicer look of default comment box - added in TWiki-5.1.3
- New ColorPickerPlugin to pick a color in form fields
- New SetGetPlugin that can store variables persistently
- SetGetPlugin: Add REST interface - added in TWiki-5.1.2
- SetGetPlugin: GET variable with format parameter - added in TWiki-5.1.3
- SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions BITXOR(), HEXENCODE(), HEXDECODE(), XOR()
- SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions FLOOR() and CEILING() - added in TWiki-5.1.1
- SpreadSheetPlugin: New CALCULATE variable using the register tag handler for variable evaluation with proper inside-out, left-to-right eval order; new functions $ISDIGIT(), $ISLOWER(), $ISUPPER(), $ISWIKIWORD() and $FILTER() - added in TWiki-5.1.2
- SpreadSheetPlugin: New function $STDEV(), $STDEVP(), $VAR(), $VARP() - added in TWiki-5.1.3
- Bug Fixes
- 21 bugs fixed in TWiki-5.1.0
- 17 bugs fixed in TWiki-5.1.1
- 29 bugs fixed in TWiki-5.1.2
- 19 bugs fixed in TWiki-5.1.3
- 11 bugs fixed in TWiki-5.1.4
See the full list of new features and bug fixes in
TWikiReleaseNotes05x01.
Hall of Fame of TWiki Release 5.1
Many people have been involved in creating TWiki 5.1. Special thanks go to the most active contributors in the following areas:
- Sponsor and facilitator: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Spec and code: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky, TWiki:Main.PeterJones, TWiki:Main.ChrisLahti, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.IanKluft, TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu
- Testing and bug fixing: TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky, TWiki:Main.GertjanVanOosten, TWiki:Main.JohnWorsley, TWiki:Main.JosephZamzow, TWiki:Main.JulianCollins, Wiki:Main.PhillipHuang, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.PaulMerchantJr, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.RolandOldenburg, TWiki:Main.StefanScherer, TWiki:Main.StefanWalter, TWiki:Main.SpirosDenaxas, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt, TWiki:Main.WillemEngen, TWiki:Main.MahiroAndo, TWiki:Main.YaojunFei
- Documentation: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.ScottGutman, TWiki:Main.SebastianKlus, TWiki:Main.DavidWTucker, TWiki:Main.JonasThomsen, TWiki:Main.MichaelRoberts, TWiki:Main.TaitCyrus, TWiki:Main.TorstenEriksson
- Release package builds: TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky
- Usability: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Translations: Coordinated by TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Bulgarian: TWiki:Main.KrassimirBerov
- Chinese (simplified and traditional): TWiki:Main.CheDong
- Czech: TWiki:Main.JaromirHoudek, TWiki:Main.VladimirMarek
- Danish: TWiki:Main.ChristianOtkjaer, TWiki:Main.PeterLorenzen, TWiki:Main.ErikJohansen
- Dutch: TWiki:Main.WoutMertens, TWiki:Main.TomArnst
- Finnish: TWiki:Main.HeikkiToivonen
- French: TWiki:Main.JeanbDupont, TWiki:Main.JeanFruitet, TWiki:Main.RodolpheVidal
- German: TWiki:Main.MartinRaabe
- Italian: TWiki:Main.MassimoMancini
- Japanese: TWiki:Main.KenYuminaga
- Korean: TWiki:Main.JeremySuk, TWiki:Main.JustinKim
- Polish: TWiki:Main.ZbigniewKulesza
- Portuguese: TWiki:Main.CarlinhosCecconi
- Russian: TWiki:Main.AndreyTkachenko, TWiki:Main.SergejZnamenskij, TWiki:Main.SergeyJSinx
- Spanish: TWiki:Main.EnriqueMelendez, TWiki:Main.SebastianKlus, TWiki:Main.MiguelABayona
- Swedish: TWiki:Main.TorstenEriksson, TWiki:Main.ErikAman
- Ukrainian: TWiki:Main.SerhijDubyk
- Marketing: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.BrianMellea
- Public relations: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.BrianMellea
- Meetups: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- TWiki.org wiki champions: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt, TWiki:Main.TaitCyrus, TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.DanielRohde, TWiki:Main.DipuDeshmukh, TWiki:Main.IanKluft
- Customer support: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.EnriqueCadalso, TWiki:Main.CarlaReitzenstein, TWiki:Main.ScottGutman, TWiki:Main.AaronLWalker, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt
- System administration: TWiki:Main.ChrisLahti, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale
If you find an omission please fix it at
TWiki:TWiki/TWikiHistory. For the full list of contributors see
TWikiContributor.
See more details on the TWiki 5.1 release at
TWikiReleaseNotes05x01.
New Features and Enhancements of TWiki Release 5.0
- Security Enhancements
- Configure script requires authentication to reduce exposure of internal system settings.
- The twiki root directory is no longer HTML doc enabled, reducing the odds of exposing data due to webserver misconfiguration.
- Usability Enhancements
- New TopMenuSkin with pulldown menus for better usability and corporate/modern look&feel.
- Attach multiple files at once, useful when attaching many files.
- Pre-installed TagMePlugin, useful to tag topics to quickly access content in a large TWiki.
- Upgraded TinyMCEPlugin to latest TinyMCE 3.2.4.1 for better WYSIWYG editing experience.
- Better indication of breadcrumb in top menu of TopMenuSkin - added in TWiki-5.0.1
- Better display of topic diffs in debug mode - added in TWiki-5.0.1
- The SlideShowPlugin now supports keystrokes to navigate the slides - added in TWiki-5.0.2
- TWiki Application Platform Enhancements
- Pre-installed JQueryPlugin, adding a lightweight cross-browser JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.
- Improvements to ENCODE, IF, URLPARAM, WEB and WEBLIST variables.
- The JQueryPlugin has now jquery-1.5.1 and jquery-ui-1.8.10 - updated in TWiki-5.0.2
- Search Enhancements
- Query syntax with array size, useful to query TWiki forms and attachments.
- Query syntax can be used in format parameter of search, giving more control over formatting.
- Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
- Adding 51 new TWikiDocGraphics icons, and 11 updated icons.
- Adding 3 new TWikiDocGraphics icons, and 1 updated icon - added in TWiki-5.0.1
- Adding 8 new TWikiDocGraphics icons, and 2 updated icons - added in TWiki-5.0.2
- The TWiki doc graphics library is now aware of image size and is cached for speed.
- Support authenticated proxy - added in TWiki-5.0.1
- TopMenuSkin: Customizable web-specific top bar - added in TWiki-5.0.2
- In TWikiForms' type table, automatically list form field types that are defined in plugins and contribs
- Plugin Enhancements
- API: New TWiki::Func::buildWikiWord function
- HeadlinesPlugin: New touch parameter in HEADLINES variable to alert users via e-mail notification of news updates
- SpreadSheetPlugin: Improvements to $TIME() and $NOP() functions.
- SpreadSheetPlugin: Add ISO 8601 week number to FORMATTIME - added in TWiki-5.0.1
- SpreadSheetPlugin: New $LISTNONEMPTY(), $SPLIT() and $WHILE() functions - added in TWiki-5.0.2
- Bug Fixes
- 70 bug fixes since TWiki-4.3.2
Hall of Fame of TWiki Release 5.0
Many people have been involved in creating TWiki 5.0. Special thanks go to the most active contributors in the following areas:
- Sponsor and facilitator: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Testing and bug fixing: TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt, TWiki:Main.BarryLake, TWiki:Main.BryanKitts, TWiki:Main.JoenioCosta
- Spec and code: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.PeterJones, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt
- Documentation: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.EaCohen
- Release package builds: TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.GeorgeTrubisky
- Usability: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Translations: Coordinated by TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Marketing: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.WillThomas
- Public relations: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.WillThomas
- Meetups: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- TWiki.org wiki champions: TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.PeterJones, TWiki:Main.IanKluft, TWiki:Main.AaronLWalker, TWiki:Main.DanielRohde
- Customer support: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SeanCMorgan, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.AaronLWalker
- System administration: TWiki:Main.ChrisLahti, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale
If you find an omission please fix it at
TWiki:TWiki/TWikiHistory. For the full list of contributors see
TWikiContributor.
See more details on the TWiki 5.0 release at
TWikiReleaseNotes05x00.
New Features and Enhancements of TWiki Release 4.3
- Usability Enhancements
- Replace question mark links with red-links to point to non-existing topics
- Use ISO date format by default
- Enterprise Collaboration Enhancements
- Search Enhancements
- Add footer parameter to Formatted Search
- Add number of topics to Formatted Search
- Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
- Control over variable expansion at topic creation time
- 17 new TWikiDocGraphics images
- Include URL supports list of domains to exclude from proxy
- Adding Korean language
- Bug Fixes
- More than 30 bug fixes since 4.2.4
Hall of Fame of TWiki Release 4.3
Many people have been involved in creating TWiki 4.3. Special thanks go to the most active contributors in the following areas:
- Sponsor and facilitator: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Testing and bug fixing: TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.FengZhaolin, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt, TWiki:Main.SteveMilner
- Spec and code: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt
- Documentation: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.TimotheLitt, TWiki:Main.StephenHallett, TWiki:Main.JefferyMartin, TWiki:Main.ThomasErskine
- Release package builds: TWiki:Main.SopanShewale
- Usability: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Translations: Coordinated by TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen
- Marketing: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.WillThomas, TWiki:Main.VickiBrown
- Public relations: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.WillThomas
- Meetups: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- TWiki.org wiki champions: TWiki:Main.SopanShewale, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.FengZhaolin, TWiki:Main.AndrewRJones, TWiki:Main.DanielRohde
- Customer support: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SeanCMorgan, TWiki:Main.EnriqueCadalso, TWiki:Main.ScottFreeman, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale
- System administration: TWiki:Main.ChrisLahti, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale
If you find an omission please fix it at
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. For the full list of contributors see
TWikiContributor.
See more details on the TWiki 4.3 release at
TWikiReleaseNotes04x03.
New Features and Enhancements of TWiki Release 4.2
- Easier Installation and Upgrade
- New Internal Admin Login feature
- The Main.TWikiUsers topic is no longer distributed as a default topic in Main web
- A new directory
working
which per default is located in the TWiki root which contains registration_approvals, tmp, and work_areas
- Configure can now authenticate when connecting to local plugins repository.
- Usability Enhancements
- New WYSIWYG editor based on TinyMCE replaces the Kupu based editor
- New "Restore topic" feature has been added to the More Topic Actions menu to easily restore an older version of a topic
- Application Platform Enhancements
- Enhancements to IF: allows, ingroup, istopic, and isweb
- Search Enhancements
- New
query
search mode supports SQL-style queries over form fields and other meta-data
- Skins and Templates Enhancements
- The PatternSkin which is the default skin for TWiki has got a face lift
- The default templates have been heavily refactored to make it easier to create skins reusing the default skin.
- Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
- Many new functions in the API for plugin developers
- Table of Content (TOC) feature enhanced
- re-architected Pluggable user mapping (between login name and WikiName) to integrate with alternative authentication and Management schemes
- Topic based User management has been extracted into a separately update-able package (TWikiUsersContrib)
- Enhancements of Pre-installed Plugins
- Bug Fixes
- More than 300 bugs fixes since 4.1.2
Hall of Fame of TWiki Release 4.2
Many people have been involved in creating TWiki 4.2. Special thanks go to the most active contributors in the following areas:
Many thanks also to the contributors in the following areas:
- Sponsor and facilitator: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Testing and bug fixing: TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
- Spec and code: TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie (2323), TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens (566), TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit (507), TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny (83), TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen (73), TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen (72), TWiki:Main.AntonioTerceiro (63) - ( 3857 changes by 20 authors )
- Templates and skins: TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens (587), TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie (130), TWiki:Main.AndreUlrich (73), TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit (44) - ( 869 changes by 12 authors )
- Documentation: TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens (460), TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie (377), TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny (233), TWiki:Main.AndreUlrich (157), TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit (118), TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen (68) - ( 1450 changes by 14 authors )
- Release package builds: TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
- Usability: TWiki:Main.CarloSchulz, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens
- Translations: Coordinated by TWiki:Main.AntonioTerceiro
- Marketing: TWiki:Main.RodBeckstrom, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.MichaelCorbett, TWiki:Main.KoenMartens
- Public relations: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.MichaelCorbett
- Meetups: TWiki:Main.AmirShobeiri
- TWiki.org wiki champions: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum, TWiki:Main.CarloSchulz, TWiki:Main.StephaneLenclud, TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin, TWiki:Main.KoenMartens
- Customer support: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit, TWiki:Main.HaraldJoerg
- System administration: TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie
If you find an omission please fix it at
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. For the full list of contributors see
TWikiContributor.
Note: Order of contributors under "Spec and code", "Templates and skins" and "Documentation" is based on number of SVN file changes for core and default extensions from March 2007 (svn rev:13046) to Jan 2008 (svn rev:16210). (Details at
TWikibug:TWiki420SvnLog). Order of contributors under "Testing and bug fixing" is based on Bugs web statistics from 2007-03 to 2007-12. Order of contributors under "TWiki.org wiki champions" and "Customer support" is based on TWiki.org web statistics from 2007-02 to 2007-12.
See more details on the TWiki 4.2 release at
TWikiReleaseNotes04x02.
New Features and Enhancements of TWiki Release 4.1
- Easier Installation and Upgrade
- Plugins can now be installed from the configure script.
- The loading of plugin preferences settings has been moved earlier in the preferences evaluation order so that plugin settings can be redefined in Main.TWikiPreferences, WebPreferences and in topics. To make TWiki upgrades easier, it is recommended to set the plugin settings in Main.TWikiPreferences, and not to customize the settings in the plugin topic. For example, to change the TEMPLATES setting of the CommentPlugin, create a new COMMENTPLUGIN_TEMPLATES setting in Main.TWikiPreferences.
- Plugin settings can now be defined in configure instead of in the plugin topic (requires that the individual plugin has implemented this). TWiki performs slightly better by not looking for preferences settings in plugin topics.
- Configure no longer shows many unnecessary errors when run first time.
- The webmaster email address is now defined in configure instead of TWikiPreferences.
- Default file access rights in the distribution package have been changed to be more universally defined and in line with the default access rights for new topics.
- Usability Enhancements
- Redesigned result page when typing incomplete topic name into the Jump box, so that it is possible to quickly navigate to a topic, also in a very large TWiki installation. For example, "I know there is a topic about Ajax somewhere in the Eng web. OK, let my type
Eng.ajax
into the Jump box... Here we go, the third link is the AjaxCookbook I was looking for."
- Many user documentation improvements.
- URL parameters maintained in Table of Contents links so you can stay in a temporary skin (e.g. print) and keep URLPARAM values when you click the TOC links
- Attachment tables now sorted alphabetically.
- Better printing of tables and verbatim text in PatternSkin.
- Application Platform Enhancements
- Auto-incremented topic name on save with AUTOINC<n> in topic name; used by TWiki applications to create topic based database records.
- The edit and save scripts support a
redirectto
parameter to redirect to a topic or a URL; for security, redirect to URL needs to be enabled with a {AllowRedirectUrl}
configure flag.
- CommentPlugin supports the
redirectto
parameter to redirect to a URL or link to TWiki topic after submitting comment.
- The
topic
URL parameter also respects the {AllowRedirectUrl}
configure flag so redirects to URLs can be disabled which could be abused for phishing attacks.
- The view script supports a
section
URL parameter to view just a named section within a topic. Useful for simple AJAX type applications.
- New plugin handler for content move.
- Enhancements for Ajax based applications with TWiki:Plugins/YahooUserInterfaceContrib and TWiki:Plugins.TWikiAjaxContrib (available at twiki.org).
- Search Enhancements
- METASEARCH handles a format parameter like SEARCH.
- Topic not found / WebTopicViewTemplate search now case insensitive.
- FormattedSearch header supporting
$nop
, $quot
, $percnt
, $dollar
.
- Add search by createdate option to SEARCH.
- New newline option for SEARCH to protect e.g. formfields from being altered during rendering in SEARCH.
- Skins and Templates Enhancements
- Support for templates to have text rendering affecting aspect outside of textarea.
- Pattern skin dependence on TwistyPlugin instead of TwistyContrib (performance improvement.)
- Don't strip newlines from the front of TMPL:DEFs.
- Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
- Change in WikiWord definition: Numbers are treated as lower case letters, e.g. Y2K is now a WikiWord.
- Configurable template load path. Advanced feature for those that work with customized templates.
- Added %VBAR% to TWikiPreferences for vertical bar symbol.
- On topic creation, force initial letter of topic name to be upper case.
- Allow date format in form fields.
- Enhance REVINFO{} variable with same date qualifiers as GMTIME{}.
- WebTopicCreator - adding ability to select a template from any topic name ending in ...Template
- Functionality of TWiki:Plugins.DateFieldPlugin merged into core
- Enhancements of Pre-installed Plugins
- CommentPlugin: Supports removal of comment prompt after a comment is made.
- EditTablePlugin: Default date format based on JSCalendarContrib instead of plugin topic.
- InterwikiPlugin: Supports custom link formats.
- SlideShowPlugin: Preserves URL parameters in slideshow
- SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions
$LISTRAND()
, $LISTSHUFFLE()
, $LISTTRUNCATE()
.
- TablePlugin: New attribute
cellborder
.
- TablePlugin: Highlight the sorted column with custom colors; includes also a general cosmetic update of default colors.
- TablePlugin: Support for initsort on more than one table. A table with the initsort option is initsorted UNLESS it is sorted by clicking on a column header. If you click on a header of another table all other tables goes back to the default sort defined by initsort or not sorted if no initsort, and the new table is sorted based on the user clicking on a table header.
- Bugfixes
- More than 200 bugs fixed since 4.0.5
Hall of Fame of TWiki Release 4.1
Although many more people have been involved in creating TWiki-4.1, special thanks go to the most active contributors in the following areas:
- Sponsor and facilitator: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Process improvement: TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie
- Release management: TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen
- Spec, code, testing: TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit, TWiki:Main.HaraldJoerg, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum, TWiki:Main.MeredithLesly, TWiki:Main.WillNorris, TWiki:Main.RafaelAlvarez, TWiki:Main.AntonioTerceiro
- Templates and skins: TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum, TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
- Documentation: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen
- Translations: Coordinated by TWiki:Main.AntonioTerceiro
- Public relations: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.TomTansy
- TWiki.org wiki champions: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum
- Customer support: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens, TWiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen, TWiki:Main.SteveStark, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum
- System administration: TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie
If you find an omission please fix it at
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. For the full list of contributors see
TWikiContributor.
Note: Sequence of contributors under "Spec, code, testing", "Templates and skins" and "Documentation" is based on number of SVN check-ins for core and default extensions from 2006-02 to 2006-12. Sequence of contributors under "TWiki.org wiki champions" and "Customer support" is based on TWiki.org web statistics from 2006-02 to 2006-12.
See more details on the TWiki 4.1 release at
TWikiReleaseNotes04x01.
Major New Features
- Much simpler install and configuration
- Integrated session support
- Webserver-independent login/logout
- Security sandbox blocking exploits for remote command execution on the server
- Edit conflict resolution with automatic merge
- Multilingual UI
- E-mail confirmations for registration
- WYSIWYG editor (beta)
- Hierarchical sub-webs (beta)
Many, many people worked on TWiki-4.0.0. The credits in the table below only list the people who worked on individual enhancements. If you find an omission please fix it at
TWiki:TWiki.TWikiHistory. There were many other contributors; for a full list, visit
TWikiContributor.
Most of the redesign, refactoring and new documentation work in Dakar release was done by
Crawford Currie.
Michael Sparks provided ideas and proof of concept for several improvements. Other people who gave
large amounts of their time and patience to less sexy aspects of the work, such as testing, infrastructure and documentation, are
AntonAylward,
KennethLavrsen,
LynnwoodBrown,
MichaelDaum,
Peter Thoeny,
SteffenPoulsen,
Sven Dowideit,
WillNorris.
|
|
Installation & configuration |
Contributor |
Much simpler install and configuration |
Crawford Currie, LynnwoodBrown, ArthurClemens |
mod_perl safe code for better performance |
Crawford Currie |
Security |
Security sandbox blocking exploits for remote command execution on the server |
Florian Weimer, Crawford Currie, Sven Dowideit |
Reworked access permission model |
Crawford Currie |
Internationalization & localization |
User Interface Internationalisation |
AntonioTerceiro |
Chinese translation |
CheDong |
Danish translation |
SteffenPoulsen |
Dutch translation |
ArthurClemens |
French translation |
BenVoui |
German translation |
AndreUlrich |
Italian translation |
MassimoMancini |
Polish translation |
ZbigniewKulesza |
Portuguese translation |
AntonioTerceiro, CarlinhosCecconi |
Spanish translation |
WillNorris, MiguelABayona |
Swedish translation |
Erik Åman |
New features for users |
Edit conflict resolution with automatic merge |
Crawford Currie |
Fine grained change notification on page level and parent/child relationship |
Crawford Currie |
WYSIWYG editor |
Crawford Currie, ColasNahaboo, DamienMandrioli, RomainRaugi |
Integrated session support |
GregAbbas, Crawford Currie |
Webserver-independent login/logout |
Crawford Currie |
Registration process with e-mail confirmation |
MartinCleaver |
Tip of the Day box in TWiki Home |
PaulineCheung, Peter Thoeny, AntonAylward |
ATOM feeds |
Peter Thoeny |
"Force New Revision" check box for topic save |
WillNorris |
New features for TWiki administrators and wiki application developers |
Improved preferences handling |
ThomasWeigert, Crawford Currie |
Named include sections |
RafaelAlvarez |
Create topic names with consecutive numbers |
Sven Dowideit |
Parameterized includes |
Crawford Currie |
Dynamic form option definitions of TWikiForms with FormattedSearch |
MartinCleaver |
SEARCH enhancements with new parameters excludeweb , newline , noempty , nofinalnewline , nonoise , recurse , zeroresults |
Crawford Currie, ArthurClemens, Peter Thoeny, ThomasWeigert |
FormattedSearch enhancements with $changes , $count , $formfield(name, 30, ...) , $summary(expandvar) , $summary(noheaders) , $summary(showvarnames) |
ColasNahaboo, Crawford Currie, Peter Thoeny, Sven Dowideit |
New TWikiVariables ACTIVATEDPLUGINS, ALLVARIABLES, AUTHREALM, EMAILS, FAILEDPLUGINS, HTTP, HTTPS, ICONURL, ICONURLPATH, IF, LANGUAGES, LOCALSITEPREFS, LOGIN, LOGOUT, MAKETEXT, META, PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS, QUERYSTRING, STARTSECTION/ENDSECTION, SESSION_VARIABLE, SESSIONID, SESSIONVAR, SPACEOUT, USERLANGUAGE, WIKIHOMEURL |
ArthurClemens, AntonioTerceiro, Crawford Currie, GregAbbas, Peter Thoeny, Sven Dowideit, WillNorris and many more |
TWiki form with hidden type and other form enhancements |
LynnwoodBrown, ThomasWeigert |
Support topic-specific templates for TWiki applications |
ThomasWeigert |
Direct save feature for one-click template-based topic creation |
LynnwoodBrown, Crawford Currie, ThomasWeigert |
Automatic Attachments showing all files in the attachment directory |
MartinCleaver |
Rename, move or delete webs |
PeterNixon |
Hierarchical subwebs (beta) |
PeterNixon |
New features for Plugin developers |
REST (representational state transfer) interface for Plugins |
RafaelAlvarez, TWiki:Main.MartinCleaver, Sven Dowideit |
New and improved Plugins APIs |
Crawford Currie, ThomasWeigert |
Improvements in the TWiki engine room |
Major OO redesign and refactoring of codebase |
Crawford Currie |
Automatic build system |
Crawford Currie |
Extensive test suite, unit tests and testcases |
Crawford Currie |
TWiki:Codev.DevelopBranch , DEVELOP branch Bugs system |
Sven Dowideit |
Documentation, logo artwork, skins: |
Documentation |
Crawford Currie, LynnwoodBrown, Peter Thoeny, Sven Dowideit and others |
Design of TWikiLogos with big "T" in a speech bubble |
ArthurClemens, Peter Thoeny |
Improved templates and PatternSkin |
ArthurClemens |
|
|
|
See more details at
TWikiReleaseNotes04x00
Major New Features
- Automatic upgrade script, and easier first-time installation
- Attractive new skins, using a standard set of CSS classes, and a skin browser to help you choose
- New easier-to-use save options
- Many improvements to SEARCH
- Improved support for internationalisation
- Better topic management screens
- More pre-installed Plugins: CommentPlugin, EditTablePlugin, RenderListPlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin, TablePlugin
- Improved Plugins API and more Plugin callbacks
- Better support for different authentication methods
- Many user interface and usability improvements
- And many, many more enhancements
|
|
Details of New Features and Enhancements of 01-Sep-2004 Release |
Developer, Sponsor |
Install: Ship with an automatic upgrade script to facilitate TWiki upgrades. Details |
TWiki:Main.MartinGregory TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Install: New testenv function to change the locks in the TWiki database to the web server user id (automates installation step). Details |
TWiki:Main.MattWilkie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Install: The shipped .htaccess.txt now needs to be edited before it is valid, to help reduce chances of error. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Install: Configurable password file handling for different types of encryption. Details |
TWiki:Main.PavelGoran TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Install: Remove office locations from registration. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Install: Changes to support shorter URLs with Apache Rewrite rules. Details |
TWiki:Main.AntonioBellezza TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Install: Remove the Know web from the distribution. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Internationalization: Support use of UTF-8 URLs for I18N characters in TWiki page and attachment names. Details |
TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin |
Authentication: Authenticate users when creating new topic in view restricted web. Details |
TWiki:Main.JonathanGraehl TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Preferences: TWiki Preferences need to be secured properly. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Preferences: Use TWiki Forms to set user preferences. Details |
TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre |
Skins: New pre-installed skins PatternSkin and DragonSkin. Details |
TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Skins: New skin browser to choose from installed skins. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Skins: Documented set of CSS classes that are used in standard skins. Details |
TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Skins: Added CSS class names to Diff output. Details |
TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Skins: Templates can now be read from user topics, as well as from files in the templates diretcory. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Skins: Ensure that the default template gets overridden by a template passed in. Details |
TWiki:Main.MartinCleaver TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Skin: Convey an important broadcast message to all users, e.g. scheduled server downtime. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Skin: Balanced pastel colors for TWiki webs. Details |
TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
Rendering: Use exclamation point prefix to escape TWiki markup rendering. Details |
TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
Rendering: Ordered lists with uppercase & lowercase letters, uppercase & lowercase Roman numerals. Details |
TWiki:Main.DanBoitnott TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Rendering: Allow custom styles for the "?" of uncreated topics. Details |
TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Rendering: Render IRC and NNTP as a URL. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Rendering: Make acronym linking more strict by requiring a trailing boundary, e.g. excluding TLAfoobar. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Rendering: TWiki Form with Label type. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Rendering: Web names can now be WikiWords. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Rendering: New syntax for definition list with dollar sign and colon. Details |
TWiki:Main.AdamTheo TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Rendering: Table with multi-span rows, functionality provided by Table Plugin. Details |
TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Variables: New title parameter for TOC variable. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
Variables: New REVINFO variable in templates supports flexible display of revision information. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Variables: Set times to be displayed as gmtime or servertime. Details |
TWiki:Main.SueBlake TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Variables: Properly encode parameters for form fields with ENCODE variable. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: Expand USERNAME and WIKINAME in Template Topics. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: Expand same variables in new user template as in template topics. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: Optionally warn when included topic does not exist; with the option to create the included topic. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: In topic text show file-types of attached files as icons. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: New variable FORMFIELD returns the value of a field in the form attached to a topic.. Details |
TWiki:Main.DavidSachitano TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Variables: Meta data rendering for form fields with META{"formfield"}. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: New PLUGINVERSION variable. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: URLPARAM now has a default="..." argument, for when no value has been given. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: URLPARAM variable with newline parameter. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Variables: URLPARAM variable with new multiple=on parameter. Details |
TWiki:Main.PaulineCheung TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: New switch for search to perform an AND NOT search. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Keyword search to search with implicit AND. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Multiple searches in same topic with new multiple="on" paramter. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Remove limitation on number of topics to search in a web. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Exclude topics from search with an excludetopic parameter. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Expand Variables on Formatted Search with expandvariables Flag. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Formatted Search with Web Form variable to retrieve the name of the form attached to a topic. Details |
TWiki:Main.FrankSmith TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Formatted Search with Conditional Output. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Formatted Search with $parent token to get the parent topic. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: New separator parameter to SEARCH supports better SEARCH embedding. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Improved search performance when sorting result by topic name. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: New scope=all search parameter to search in topic name and topic text at the same time. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: New topic parameter for AND search on topic text and topic name. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search modules uses Perl-style keyword parameters (code cleanup). Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: New $wikiname variable in format parameter of formatted search. Details |
TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
Search: Sort search by topic creation date. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Search: Topic creation date and user in Formatted Search. Details |
TWiki:Main.CoreyFruitman TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Search: Increase levels of nested search from 2 to 16. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Plugins: New pre-installed Plugins CommentPlugin, EditTablePlugin, RenderListPlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin, TablePlugin. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Plugins: New callback afterSaveHandler , called after a topic is saved. Details |
TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Plugins: New callbacks beforeAttachmentSaveHandler and afterAttachmentSaveHandler , used to intervene on attachment save event. Details |
TWiki:Main.MartinCleaver TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Plugins: New callbacks beforeCommonTagsHandler and afterCommonTagsHandler . Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Plugins: New callback renderFormFieldForEditHandler to render form field for edit. Details |
TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre |
Plugins: New callback renderWikiWordHandler to custom render links. Details |
TWiki:Main.MartinCleaver TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Plugins: New function TWiki::Func::formatTime to format time into a string. Details |
TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Plugins: New function TWiki::Func::getRegularExpression to get predefined regular expressions. Details |
TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin |
Plugins: New functions TWiki::Func::getPluginPreferences* to get Plugin preferences. Details |
TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Plugins: New function TWiki::Func::extractParameters to extract all parameters from a variable string. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Plugins: New function TWiki::Func::checkDependencies to check for module dependency. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Plugins: A recommendation for where a Plugin can store its data. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
UI: Show tool-tip topic info on WikiWord links. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
UI: Save topic and continue edit feature. Details |
TWiki:Main.ColasNahaboo |
UI: Change topic with direct save (without edit/preview/save cycle) and checkpoint save. Details |
TWiki:Main.MattWilkie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
UI: In attachment table, change 'action' to 'manage'. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
UI: Smaller usability enhancements on the file attachment table. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
UI: Removes anchor links from header content and places them before the text to fix 'header becomes link'. Details |
TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
UI: Improved functionality of the More screen. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
UI: Quick reference chart of most used markup is now listed on the edit screen. Details |
TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
UI: Flag for edit script to avoid overwrite of existing topic text and form data. Details |
TWiki:Main.NielsKoldso TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
UI: Disable Escape key in IE textarea to prevent it cancelling work. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
UI: Improved warning message on unsaved topic. Details |
TWiki:Main.MartinGregory TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
UI: Reverse order of words in page title for better multi-window/tab navigation. Details |
TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens |
UI: Provides a framework to create and modify a topic without going through edit->preview->save sequence. Details |
TWiki:Main.AndreUlrich TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
UI: Set the topic parent to none in More screen, e.g. remove the current topic parent. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
UI: Use templates to define how file attachments are displayed. Was previously hard-coded. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
UI: Topic diff shows unified diff with unchanged context. Details |
TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
UI: Diff feature shows TWiki form changes in nice tables. Details |
TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Code refactoring: The log entry for a save now has a dontNotify flag in the extra field if the user checked the minor changes flag. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Code refactoring: Server-side include of attachments accelerates INCLUDE. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Code refactoring: Move functionality out of bin scripts and into included modules. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Code refactoring: Move bin script functionality into TWiki::UI modules. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Code refactoring: Optimize preferences handling for better performance. Details |
TWiki:Main.PavelGoran TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
Code refactoring: Refactor variable expansion for edit and register. Details |
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Code refactoring: Move savemulti script into TWiki::UI::Save. Details |
TWiki:Main.MattWilkie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit |
Code refactoring: Topic search is done natively in Perl, it does not depend anymore on system calls with pipes. Details |
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny |
Code refactoring: Fix logical error in upload script which prevented MIME filename from being used. Details |
TWiki:Main.WalterMundt |
|
|
|
- 18 Jan 2003 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 31 Dec 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Enhanced Plugin API to manipulate topic data with new functions in Func.pm:
readTopicText
, saveTopicText
, setTopicEditLock
, checkTopicEditLock
- 31 Dec 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 29 Dec 2002 - TWiki:Main.AndreaSterbini, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin, TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
- New Plugin hooks
registrationHandler
, beforeEditHandler
, afterEditHandler
, beforeSaveHandler
, writeHeaderHandler
, redirectCgiQueryHandler
, getSessionValueHandler
, setSessionValueHandler
- 30 Nov 2002 - TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
- Internationalization ('I18N') support for international characters in WikiWords, such as ISO-8859-15, KOI8-R - also supports Chinese, Japanese, etc.
- 25 Nov 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Include previous topic revision with
%INCLUDE{ "OtherTopic" rev="1.2" }%
- 15 Nov 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- The Jump box understands also URLs, useful for special TWikiSkins handling
- 08 Nov 2002 - TWiki:Main.ColasNahaboo, TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
- In WebNotify, if only the WikiName is specified, the e-mail is taken from the user profile page; if the WikiName is a group name, a notification is sent to all members of the group
- 30 Oct 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
%NOP{}%
variable in TWikiTemplates topic gets removed at topic creation time; useful to write protect template topics
- 28 Sep 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- The
%URLPARAM{}%
variable in TWikiTemplates topic gets expanded at topic creation time; useful for dynamic content creation
- 28 Sep 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
$logDir
introduced in TWiki.cfg to set the log directory
- 13 Sep 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Renamed the Test web to Sandbox
- 03 Aug 2002 - TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
- New
setlib.cfg
file in the bin directory to set the TWiki library path
- 02 Aug 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.RyanFreebern
- Support for outbound HTTP proxy when including URLs based on new
%PROXYHOST
and %PROXYPORT%
settings in the TWikiPreferences
- 12 Jul 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- The page logo is configurable with new
%WIKILOGOIMG%
, %TWIKILOGOURL%
and %WIKILOGOALT%
variables in TWikiPreferences; replacing $wikiHomeUrl
in TWiki.cfg
- 12 Jun 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
%WIKITOOLNAME%
variable in TWikiPreferences; replacing $wikiToolName
in TWiki.cfg
- 31 May 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
%EDITBOXSTYLE%
preferences variable which sets the edit box width automatically to the window width
- 17 May 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
%URLENCODE{}%
variable to encodes a string for using in a URL parameter, e.g. %URLENCODE{"spaced name"}%
returns spaced%20name
- 17 May 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 05 May 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New user profile pages are now based on the NewUserTemplate, replacing the
/twiki/templates/register.tmpl
template file
- 26 Apr 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New markup to exclude heading from a
%TOC%
table of content, e.g. ---+!! This heading
is not shown in a TOC
- 13 Apr 2002 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 01 Apr 2002 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- New data storage framework that lets you use external RCS commands for revision control, or a new native Perl implementation that does not depend on the external RCS commands
- 28 Mar 2002 - TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
- Fixed IE5/IE6-specific problem whereby going back from preview sometimes removes all edit changes
- 23 Mar 2002 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- New AND search; with regular expression enabled, use the semicolon ";" as the AND operator in
%SEARCH{}%
variable, FormattedSearch and WebSearch
- 21 Mar 2002 - TWiki:Main.ColasNahaboo, TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
- Fixed cache issue where the edit page showed outdated content
- 06 Mar 2002 - TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
- Improved statistics script which uses less memory to process large log files
- 09 Jan 2002 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- Variables inside
<verbatim>
tags are no longer expanded
- 30 Aug 2001 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- Easier install for Windows, including auto detection in
TWiki.cfg
- 30 Aug 2001 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- 21 Aug 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Convert to XHTML 1.0 function: first step to XHTML-ifying TWiki
- 26 Jun 2001 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- 07 Jun 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New topic templates as topics instead of templates. Customize by editing the topic. Retired
notedited.tmpl
, notext.tmpl
and notwiki.tmpl
templates. More in TWikiTemplates.
- 07 Jun 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
%TOPICLIST{"format"}%
and %WEBLIST{"format"}%
variables to get a formatted topic index and web index, respectively. More in TWikiVariables.
- 01 Jun 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
%URLPARAM{"name"}%
variable to query URL parameters. More in TWikiVariables.
- 01 Jun 2001 - TWiki:Main.AndreaSterbini
- 01 Jun 2001 - TWiki:Main.KlausWriessnegger, TWiki:Main.AndreaSterbini
- 01 May 2001 - TWiki:Main.AndreaSterbini
- 01 May 2001 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- 01 May 2001 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- 01 May 2001 - TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
- 27 Mar 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- The table syntax has been enhanced to (i) render
| *bold* |
cells as table headers, (ii) render space padded cells | center aligned |
and | right aligned |
, (iii) span multiple columns using | empty cells |||
. More in TextFormattingRules.
- 25 Mar 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 28 Feb 2001 - TWiki:Main.AndreaSterbini, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New Wiki rule for headings, i.e.
---++ My Title
; and new %TOC%
variable to build a table of content from headings in a topic. More in TWikiVariables.
- 28 Feb 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New Wiki rule to specify arbitrary text for external links (i.e.
[[http://TWki.org][TWiki]]
) and internal links (i.e [[WikiSyntax][syntax]]
). More in TWikiVariables.
- 28 Feb 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New Wiki rule for named anchors, e.g. links within a topic. Define a named anchor with
#MyAnchor
at the beginning of a line, and link to it with [[#MyAnchor]]
. More in TWikiVariables.
- 25 Feb 2001 - TWiki:Main.NicholasLee, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Use
Net::SMTP
module instead of sendmail
if installed.
- 01 Feb 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added
<verbatim>
... </verbatim>
tags to show source code "as is". Unlike the <pre>
... </pre>
tags, it also shows <
, >
, &
characters "as is".
- 01 Feb 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 21 Jan 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added a "Minor change, don't notify" checkbox in preview. More in DontNotify.
- 21 Jan 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added Bold Fixed formatting using double-equal signs, e.g. write
==Bold Fixed==
to get Bold Fixed
.
- 20 Jan 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Format changed of
%GMTIME{"..."}%
and %SERVERTIME{"..."}%
variables. Format is now "$hour:$min"
instead of "hour:min"
. More in TWikiVariables. Attention: Check your existing topics when you upgrade TWiki!
- 18 Jan 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- WebChanges, WebSearch and e-mail notification indicate also the revision number of a topic (i.e. 18 Jan 2001 16:43 r1.5), or NEW for a new topic (i.e. i.e. 18 Jan 2001 16:43 NEW).
- 16 Jan 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New variable
%STARTINCLUDE%
and %STOPINCLUDE%
variables to control what gets included of a topic. More in TWikiVariables.
- 16 Jan 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- TWiki skins Define a different page layout with a customized header and footer layout, i.e. a
print
skin for a printable view of a topic. More in TWikiSkins and TWiki:Codev/TWikiSkins.
- 07 Jan 2001 - TWiki:Main.StanleyKnutson
- Better error handling when saving a topic.
- 05 Jan 2001 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 05 Dec 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 03 Dec 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
noheader="on"
switch in %SEARCH{...}%
to suppress table header. More in TWikiVariables.
- 03 Nov 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Flag
$doHidePasswdInRegistration
in wikicfg.pm
to hide plain text password in registration e-mail.
- 01 Nov 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New variable
%VAR{"NAME" web="Web"}%
to get web-specific preferences. More in TWikiVariables.
- 01 Nov 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added a "Cancel" link in edit that releases the edit lock.
- 23 Oct 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 05 Oct 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Remember user by IP address so that
view
"knows" the user once authenticated in edit
. More in TWikiUserAuthentication.
- 26 Sep 2000 - TWiki:Main.AlWilliams, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 26 Sep 2000 - TWiki:Main.HaroldGottschalk, TWiki:Main.AndreaSterbini, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 20 Sep 2000 - TWiki:Main.ManpreetSingh
- New -q switch in
mailnotify
to suppress all normal output.
- 19 Sep 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 18 Sep 2000 - TWiki:Main.ManpreetSingh, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 19 Aug 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Ref-By link searches all webs (not just the current web.)
- 16 Aug 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New TWikiPreferences variables
%HTTP_EQUIV_ON_VIEW%
, %HTTP_EQUIV_ON_EDIT%
and %HTTP_EQUIV_ON_PREVIEW%
that define the <meta http-equiv="...">
meta tags for the TWiki templates. This can be used for example to set a document expiration time.
- 29 Jul 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New variables
%GMTIME{"..."}%
and %SERVERTIME{"..."}%
. More in TWikiVariables.
- 23 Jul 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Changed include syntax from
%INCLUDE{"Web/TopicName.txt"}%
to %INCLUDE{"Web.TopicName"}%
. Legacy syntax still supported.
- 23 Jul 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- BookView search allows you show a set of topics for easy printing.
- 22 Jul 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- More forgiving syntax for
*bold*, italic, __bold italic__
and fixed
, where it is not necessary anymore to have a trailing space before .,;:?!
characters.
- 22 Jul 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Split the TWiki.Main web into TWiki.Main (users, company data) and TWiki.TWiki (TWiki related documentation, registration)
- 07 Jul 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added an "Release edit lock" checkbox in preview to let other people edit the topic immediately without the one hour lock.
- 07 Jul 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Fixed problem of losing carriage returns when editing topics with KDE KFM browser or W3M browser.
- 21 Jun 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Fixed problem that a page redirect on some server environments is not working (host name is needed in URL).
- 21 Jun 2000 - TWiki:Main.CrisBailiff, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Fixed security issue to prevent a server side
%INCLUDE%
of arbitrary files.
- 29 May 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New
%GMTIME%
variable that shows the current GM time.
- 28 May 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Lock warning shows remaining lock time in minutes.
- 15 May 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterFokkinga
- 02 May 2000 - TWiki:Main.KevinKinnell, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Advanced search features like search multiple webs; sort by topic name / modified time / author; limit the number of results returned. More in TWikiVariables.
- 21 Apr 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New TWikiVariables
%HTTP_HOST%
, %REMOTE_ADDR%
, %REMOTE_PORT%
and %REMOTE_USER%
.
- 21 Apr 2000 - TWiki:Main.JohnAltstadt, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- TWikiRegistration is done separately for Intranet use (depends on remote_user) or Internet use (depends on .htpasswd file).
- 20 Mar 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Uploading a file (topic file attachment) will optionally create a link to the uploaded file at the end of the topic. The preference variable
%ATTACHLINKBOX%
controls the default state of the link check box in the attach file page.
- 11 Mar 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Better security with taint checking (
Perl -T
option )
- 25 Feb 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New preference variables
%EDITBOXWIDTH%
and %EDITBOXHEIGHT%
to specify the edit box size.
- 25 Feb 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Edit preferences topics to set TWiki variables. There are three level of preferences Site-level (TWikiPreferences), web-level (WebPreferences in each web) and user-level preferences (for each of the TWikiUsers). With this, discontinue use of server side include of
wikiwebs.inc
, wikiwebtable.inc
, weblist.inc
, webcopyright.inc
and webcolors.inc
files.
- 11 Feb 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New variable
%SCRIPTSUFFIX%
/ $scriptSuffix containing an optional file extension of the TWiki Perl script. Templates have been changed to use this variable. This allows you to rename the Perl script files to have a file extension like for example ".cgi".
- 11 Feb 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New variable
%SCRIPTURLPATH%
/ $scriptUrlPath containing the script URL without the domain name. Templates have been changed to use this variable instead of %SCRIPTURL%
. This is for performance reasons.
- 07 Feb 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Changed the syntax for server side include variable from
%INCLUDE:"filename.ext"%
to %INCLUDE{"filename.ext"}%
. (Previous syntax still supported. Change was done because of inline search syntax)
- 07 Feb 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Inline search. New variable
%SEARCH{"str" ...}%
to show a search result embedded in a topic text. TWikiVariables has more on the syntax. Inline search combined with the category table feature can be used for example to create a simple bug tracking system.
- 04 Feb 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Access statistics. Each web has a WebStatistics topic that shows monthy statistics with number of topic views and changes, most popular topics, and top contributors. (It needs to be enabled, TWikiDocumentation has more.)
- 29 Jan 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Fixed bug where TWiki would not initialize correctly under certain circumstances, i.e. when running it under mod_perl. Sub
initialize
in wiki.pm
did not handle $thePathInfo
correctly.
- 24 Jan 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 10 Jan 2000 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- No more escaping for '%' percent characters. (Number of consecutive '%' entered and displayed is identical.)
- 03 Oct 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Limit the number of revisions shown at the bottom of the topic. Example
Topic TWikiHistory . { ..... Diffs r1.10 > r1.9 > r1.8 > r1.7 >... }
Additional revisions can be selected by pressing the >...
link.
- 31 Aug 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Fixed Y2K bug. (Date in year 2000 had wrong format.)
- 08 Aug 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New text formatting rule for creating tables. Text gets rendered as a table if enclosed in " " vertical bars. Example line as it is written and how it shows up
- 03 Aug 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Online registration of new user using web form in TWikiRegistration. Authentication of users.
- 22 Jul 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Flags
$doLogTopic*
in wikicfg.pm to selectively log topic view, edit, save, rdiff, attach, search and changes to monthly log file.
- 21 Jul 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Flag
$doRemovePortNumber
in wikicfg.pm to optionally remove the port number from the TWiki URL. Example www.some.domain:1234/twiki
gets www.some.domain/twiki
.
- 15 Jul 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Search path for include files in
%INCLUDE:"file.inc"%
variable. Search first in the current web, then in parent data directory. Useful to overload default include text in the data directory by web-specific text, like for example webcopyright.inc
text.
- 07 Jul 1999 - TWiki:Main.ChristopheVermeulen
- Link a plural topic to a singular topic in case the plural topic does not exist. Example
TestVersion
/ TestVersions
, TestPolicy
/ TestPolicies
, TestAddress
/ TestAddresses
, TestBox
/ TestBoxes
.
- 23 Jun 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New TextFormattingRules to write bold italic text by enclosing words with double underline characters.
- 23 Jun 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Separate wiki.pm into configuration (wikicfg.pm) and TWiki core (wiki.pm) . This is to ease the upgrade of TWiki installations, it also allows customized extensions to TWiki without affecting the TWiki core.
- 21 May 1999 - TWiki:Main.DavidWarman
- Externalize copyright text at the bottom of every page into a web-specific
webcopyright.inc
file. This is to easily customize the copyright text.
- 20 May 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added meta tag so that robots index only /view/ of topics, not /edit/, /attach/ e.t.c. Tag <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX">
- 20 May 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New variables
%WIKIHOMEURL%
(link when pressing the icon on the upper left corner) and %WIKITOOLNAME%
(the name of the wiki tool TWiki
).
- 15 Apr 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Topic locking Warn user if a topic has been edited by an other person within one hour. This is to prevent contention, e.g. simultaneous topic updates.
- 26 Mar 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- File attachments Upload and download any file as a topic attachment by using the browser. FileAttachment has more.
- 26 Mar 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New variables
%PUBURL%
(Public directory URL) and %ATTACHURL%
(URL of topic file attachment).
- 09 Feb 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- New text formatting rule for creating
fixed font text
. Words get showns in fixed font
by enclosing them in "=" equal signs. Example Writing =fixed font= will show up as fixed font
.
- 09 Feb 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- No new topic revision is created if the same person saves a topic again within one hour.
- 03 Feb 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Possible to view complete revision history of a topic on one page. Access at the linked date in the Changes page, or the
Diffs
link at the bottom of each topic, e.g.
Topic TWikiHistory . { Edit Ref-By Diffs r1.3 > r1.2 > r1.1 }
Revision r1.3 1998/11/10 01:34 by PeterThoeny
- 04 Jan 1999 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Fixed bug when viewing differences between topic revisions that include HTML table tags like <table>, <tr>, <td>.
- 08 Dec 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Signature is shown below the text area when editing a topic. Use this to easily copy & paste your signature into the text.
- 07 Dec 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Possible to add a category table to a TWiki topic. This permits storing and searching for more structured information. Editing a topic shows a HTML form with the usual text area and a table with selectors, checkboxes, radio buttons and text fields. TWikiDocumentation has more on setup. The TWiki.Know web uses this category table to set classification, platform and OS version.
- 18 Nov 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Internal log of topic save actions to the file
data/logYYYYMM.txt
, where YYYYMM
the year and month in numeric format is. Intended for auditing only, not accessible from the web.
- 10 Nov 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- The e-mail notification and the Changes topic have now a topic date that is linked. Clicking on the link will show the difference between the two most recent topic revisions.
- 10 Nov 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- View differences between topic revisions. Each topic has a list of revisions (e.g.
r1.3
) and differences thereof (e.g. >
) at the bottom
Topic TWikiHistory . { Edit Ref-By r1.3 > r1.2 > r1.1 }
Revision r1.3 1998/11/10 01:34 by TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 26 Oct 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added preview of topic changes before saving the topic. This was necessary to prevent unneeded revisions.
- 26 Oct 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added revision control using RCS. Each topic has now a list of revisions at the bottom and a revision info, e.g.
Topic TWikiHistory . { Edit Ref-By r1.3 r1.2 r1.1 }
Revision r1.3 1998/10/26 01:34:00 by TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 14 Oct 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Refered-By Find out which topics have a link to the current topic. Each topic has a Ref-By link for that. Note Only references from the current web are shown, not references from other webs.
- 13 Oct 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 24 Sep 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Corrected templates for automatic e-mail notification so that MS Outlook can display attachment as an HTML file.
- 13 Aug 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- 07 Aug 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Automatic e-mail notification when something has changed in a TWiki web. Each web has a topic WebNotify where one can subscribe and unsubscribe.
- 06 Aug 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added server side include of files. Syntax is
%INCLUDE:"filename.ext"%
- 05 Aug 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Signature and date is inserted automatically when creating a new topic.
- 04 Aug 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Separate templates for text of non existing topic and default text of new topic. (template file templates/Web/notedited.tmpl)
- 04 Aug 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Warn user if new topic name is not a valid Wiki name. (template file templates/Web/notwiki.tmpl)
- 31 Jul 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Support for quoted text with a '>' at the beginning of the line.
- 28 Jul 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added TWiki variables, enclosed in % signs
%TOPIC%
(Topic name), %WEB%
(web name), %SCRIPTURL%
(script URL), %DATE%
(current date), %WIKIWEBMASTER%
(Wiki webmaster address), %WIKIVERSION%
(Wiki version), %USERNAME%
(user name), %WIKIUSERNAME%
(Wiki user name).
- 28 Jul 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Topic WebChanges shows Wiki username instead of Intranet username, e.g.
PeterThoeny
instead of thoeny
in case the Wiki username exists. Implementation Automatic lookup of Wiki username in topic TWikiUsers.
- 28 Jul 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Topic index. (Technically speaking a simple '.*' search on topic names.)
- 28 Jul 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Topic WebSearch allows full text search and and topic search with/without regular expressions.
- 27 Jul 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Added automatic links to topics in other TWiki webs by specifying <web name>.<topic name>, e.g.
Know.WebSeach
.
- 23 Jul 1998 - TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
- Installed initial version, based on the JOS Wiki.
The typical TWiki development flow...
Related Topics: DeveloperDocumentationCategory
Back to top
Appendix B: Encode URLs With UTF8
Use internationalised characters within WikiWords and attachment names
This topic addresses implemented UTF-8 support for URLs only. The overall plan for UTF-8 support for TWiki is described in
TWiki:Codev.ProposedUTF8SupportForI18N.
To simplify use of internationalised characters within
WikiWords and attachment names, TWiki now supports UTF-8 URLs, converting on-the-fly to virtually any character set, including ISO-8859-*, KOI8-R, EUC-JP, and so on.
Support for UTF-8 URL encoding avoids having to configure the browser to turn off this encoding in URLs (the default in Internet Explorer, Opera Browser and some Mozilla Browser URLs) and enables support of browsers where only this mode is supported (e.g. Opera Browser for Symbian smartphones). A non-UTF-8 site character set (e.g. ISO-8859-*) is still used within TWiki, and in fact pages are stored and viewed entirely in the site character set - the browser dynamically converts URLs from the site character set into UTF-8, and TWiki converts them back again.
System requirements are updated as follows:
- ASCII or ISO-8859-1-only sites do not require any additional CPAN modules to be installed.
- Perl 5.8 sites using any character set do not require additional modules, since CPAN:Encode is installed as part of Perl.
- This feature still works on Perl 5.005_03 as per TWikiSystemRequirements, or Perl 5.6, as long as CPAN:Unicode::MapUTF8 is installed.
The following 'non-ASCII-safe' character encodings are now excluded from use as the site character set, since they interfere with TWiki markup: ISO-2022-*, HZ-*, Shift-JIS, MS-Kanji, GB2312, GBK, GB18030, Johab and UHC. However, many multi-byte character sets work fine, e.g. EUC-JP, EUC-KR, EUC-TW, and EUC-CN. In addition, UTF-8 can already be used, with some limitations, for East Asian languages where EUC character encodings are not acceptable - see
TWiki:Codev.ProposedUTF8SupportForI18N.
It's now possible to override the site character set defined in the
{SiteLocale}
setting in
configure - this enables you to have a slightly different spelling of the character set in the server locale (e.g. 'eucjp') and the HTTP header sent to the browser (e.g. 'euc-jp').
This feature should also support use of Mozilla Browser with
TWiki:Codev.TWikiOnMainframe (as long as mainframe web server can convert or pass through UTF-8 URLs) - however, this specific combination is not tested. Other browser-server combinations should not have any problems.
Please note that use of UTF-8 as the site character set is not yet supported - see Phase 2 of
TWiki:Codev.ProposedUTF8SupportForI18N for plans and work to date in this area.
This feature is complete in TWiki releases newer than February 2004.
Note for skin developers: is no longer required (
TWiki:Plugins.InternationalisingYourSkin).
URLs are not allowed to contain non-ASCII (8th bit set) characters:
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/appendix/notes.html#non-ascii-chars
The overall plan for UTF-8 support for TWiki is described in two phases in
TWiki:/Codev.ProposedUTF8SupportForI18N - this page addresses the first phase, in which UTF-8 is supported for URLs only.
UTF-8 URL translation to virtually any character set is supported as of TWiki Release 01 Sep 2004, but full UTF-8 support (e.g. pages in UTF-8) is not supported yet - this will be phase 2.
The code automatically detects whether a URL is UTF-8 or not, taking care to avoid over-long and illegal UTF-8 encodings that could introduce
TWiki:Codev.MajorSecurityProblemWithIncludeFileProcessing (tested against a comprehensive
UTF-8 test file, which IE 5.5 fails quite dangerously, and Opera Browser passes). Any non-ASCII URLs that are
not valid UTF-8 are then assumed to be directly URL-encoded as a single-byte or multi-byte character set (as now), e.g. EUC-JP.
The main point is that you can use TWiki with international characters in
WikiWords without changing your browser setup from the default, and you can also still use TWiki using non-UTF-8 URLs. This works on any Perl version from 5.005_03 onwards and corresponds to Phase 1 of
TWiki:Codev.ProposedUTF8SupportForI18N. You can have different users using different URL formats transparently on the same server.
UTF-8 URLs are automatically converted to the current
{Site}{Charset}, using modules such as
CPAN:Encode if needed.
TWiki generates the whole page in the site charset, e.g. ISO-8859-1 or EUC-JP, but the browser dynamically UTF-8 encodes the attachment's URL when it's used. Since Apache serves attachment downloads without TWiki being involved, TWiki's code can't do its UTF-8 decoding trick, so TWiki URL-encodes such URLs in ISO-8859-1 or whatever when generating the page, to bypass this URL encoding, ensuring that the URLs and filenames seen by Apache remain in the site charset.
TWiki:Codev.TWikiOnMainframe uses EBCDIC web servers that typically translate their output to ASCII, UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1 (and URLs in the other direction) since there are so few EBCDIC web browsers. Such web servers don't work with even ISO-8859-1 URLs if they are URL encoded, since the automated translation is bypassed for URL-encoded characters. For TWiki on Mainframe, TWiki assumes that the web server will automatically translate UTF-8 URLs into EBCDIC URLs, as long as URL encoding is turned off in TWiki pages.
It should work with
TWiki:Codev.TWikiOnMainframe. Tested with IE 5.5, Opera 7.11 and Mozilla (Firebird 0.7).
Opera Browser on the P800 smartphone is working for page viewing but leads to corrupt page names when editing pages.
For up to date information see
TWiki:Codev.EncodeURLsWithUTF8
Back to top
Appendix C: TWiki CSS
Listing of CSS class names emitted from TWiki core code and standard plugins.
Most HTML elements generated by TWiki core code now have Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) tags.
Skin builders and others who want to change the appearance of the default TWiki installation or any of the skins can use this document to see what styles can be created for these HTML elements.
- All TWiki class names have the prefix
twiki
. So: twikiAlert, twikiToc, etc. Remember that CSS class names are case sensitive - TWiki CSS uses lowercase tw
.
- If you define your own CSS classes, it is preferable that you do not use the
twiki
prefix to prevent undesired overriding effects.
A wide range of standard styles are used in the TWiki core code and topics, and more are used in plugins. The following is an exhaustive list of all styles defined by the
PatternSkin. For the most part, the names are the only documentation of the purpose of the style. For more information on how these styles are used, read the code (sorry!)
TWiki styles in core code
|
|
.twikiAlert |
Client.pm, Form.pm, Statistics.pm |
.twikiAnchorLink |
Render.pm |
.twikiCheckBox |
Manage.pm |
.twikiCurrentTopicLink |
Render.pm |
.twikiCurrentWebHomeLink |
Render.pm |
.twikiDiffAddedHeader |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffAddedMarker |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffAddedText |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffChangedHeader |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffChangedText |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffDebug |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffDebugLeft |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffDebugRight |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffDeletedHeader |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffDeletedMarker |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffDeletedText |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffLineNumberHeader |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffTable |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffUnchangedText |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiDiffUnchangedTextContents |
RDiff.pm |
.twikiEditFormCheckboxButton |
Form.pm |
.twikiEditFormCheckboxField |
Form.pm |
.twikiEditFormDateField |
Form.pm |
.twikiEditFormError |
Form.pm |
.twikiEditFormLabelField |
Form.pm |
.twikiEditFormRadioField |
Form.pm |
.twikiEditFormTextAreaField |
Form.pm |
.twikiEditFormTextField |
Form.pm |
.twikiEmulatedLink |
Preview.pm |
.twikiFirstCol |
Render.pm |
.twikiForm |
Render.pm |
.twikiGrayText |
Manage.pm |
.twikiHelp |
Changes.pm |
.twikiLink |
Render.pm |
.twikiNew |
Changes.pm, Search.pm |
.twikiNewLink |
Render.pm |
.twikiRadioButton |
Form.pm |
.twikiSummary |
Manage.pm |
.twikiToc |
TWiki.pm |
.twikiTocTitle |
TWiki.pm |
.twikiTopRow |
Manage.pm |
.twikiWebIndent |
TWiki.pm |
|
|
|
TWiki Styles in Plugins
|
|
.twikiTable |
The table |
.twikiSortedCol |
A sorted column |
.twikiSortedAscendingCol |
Sorted column, ascending |
.twikiSortedDescendingCol |
Sorted column, descending |
.tableSortIcon |
The sort icon holder (span) |
.twikiFirstCol |
The first column |
.twikiTableEven |
Even numbered rows |
.twikiTableOdd |
Odd numbered rows |
.twikiTableCol + column number |
Unique column identifier, for instance: .twikiTableCol0 |
.twikiTableRow + type + row number |
Unique row identifier, for instance: .twikiTableRowdataBg0 |
|
|
|
TWiki Styles in Templates
|
|
.twikiPage |
twiki.tmpl |
.twikiMiddleContainer |
twiki.tmpl |
.twikiMain |
twiki.tmpl |
.twikiFormTable |
formtables.tmpl, form.tmpl |
.twikiFormTableHRow |
formtables.tmpl, form.tmpl |
.twikiFormTableRow |
formtables.tmpl |
.twikiFormTableFooter |
formtables.tmpl |
.twikiAttachments |
attachtables.tmpl |
.twikiEditForm |
form.tmpl |
.twikiSubmit |
Submit button |
.twikiSubmitDisabled |
Disabled submit button |
.twikiInputField |
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.twikiInputFieldDisabled |
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.twikiInputFieldReadOnly |
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.twikiInputFieldFocus |
For Internet Explorer that does not recognize the :focus pseudo class selector |
.twikiInputFieldBeforeFocus |
for use with Javascript: the color of the input text when not clicked in the field |
.twikiSelect |
Select dropdown menu |
.twikiTextarea |
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.twikiTextareaRawView |
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.twikiButton |
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.twikiFocus |
Behavior marker so a field can be given input focus |
.twikiLeft |
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.twikiRight |
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.twikiClear |
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.twikiHidden |
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.twikiSmall |
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.twikiBottomRow |
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.twikiSRAuthor |
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.twikiSRRev |
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.twikiPageForm |
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.twikiSeparator |
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.twikiAccessKey |
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.twikiLinkLabel |
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.twikiFormSteps |
container around a form, such as the attach form: attach.tmpl |
.twikiFormStep |
form row |
.twikiNoBreak |
no break on whitespace |
.twikiMakeVisible |
For elements that should only be visible with javascript on: default set to hidden, is made visible by javascript. Defaults to inline. |
.twikiMakeVisibleInline |
For span elements that should only be visible with javascript on: default set to hidden, is made visible by javascript. |
.twikiMakeVisibleBlock |
For div elements that should only be visible with javascript on: default set to hidden, is made visible by javascript. |
.twikiMakeHidden |
For elements that should be hidden with javascript on: no default style, is made hidden by javascript. |
.twikiFooterNote |
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.twikiPopUp |
Behavior marker so a popup-window can be invoked |
.twikiContentHeader |
container around optional html placed before topic text |
.twikiContentFooter |
container around optional html placed after topic text |
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TWiki Styles used in configure
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#twikiLogin |
CSS.pm |
.twikiFormSteps |
CSS.pm |
.twikiFormStep |
CSS.pm |
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TWiki Styles in topics
TWiki Styles in Skins
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#twikiLogin |
login.pattern.tmpl |
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Reserved Styles
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.twikiImage |
defined in PatternSkin |
div creates border around enclosed image |
.twikiNotification |
defined in PatternSkin |
temporary alert, lighter than broadcast message |
.twikiUnvisited |
defined in PatternSkin |
link style that ignores the visited link state; useful for form links |
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PatternSkin makes extensive use of CSS in its templates. Read the
PatternSkin topic and
PatternSkinCss to learn more about creating your own CSS-based skin.
Practical introduction to CSS:
http://www.w3.org/Style/LieBos2e/enter/
Related Topics: TWikiSkins,
PatternSkin,
DeveloperDocumentationCategory,
AdminDocumentationCategory
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