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TWiki Reference Manual (TWiki-6.0.2, Sun, 29 Nov 2015, build 29687)

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Using Variables

To use a variable type its name. For example,

  • type %T% to get TIP (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.

Preferences Variables

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:

  1. system level in TWiki.TWikiPreferences
  2. plugin topics (see TWikiPlugins)
  3. local site level in Main.TWikiPreferences
  4. user level in individual user topics in Main web
    • If UserSubwebs is in effect, the topic specified by %USERPREFSTOPIC% in the user's subweb is read instead
    • If $TWiki::cfg{DemoteUserPreferences} is true, this step is deferred to a later step. On this TWiki installation, $TWiki::cfg{DemoteUserPreferences} is false
  5. web level in WebPreferences of each web
  6. 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
  7. topic level in topics in webs
  8. session variables (if sessions are enabled)
  9. user level preferences are set at this point if $TWiki::cfg{DemoteUserPreferences} is true as mentioned at the step 4

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.

Controlling User Level Preferences Override

By default, user level variables are set at the step 4 as stated in the previous section. That means a user can finalise some preferences variables so that web level or topic level setting cannot override it. This may result in a situation the web or page owner doesn't expect. $TWiki::cfg{DemoteUserPreferences} has been introduced to avoid it. If it's set to true, user level variables are set at the last step instead of the step 4.

But this is not enough. To guarantee a certain result, you need to finalise critical preferences variables set at the web or topic level, which is cumbersome. So preferences variables DENYUSERPREFEENCES and ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES have been introduced.

  • DENYUSERPREFEENCES and ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES may have comma separated list of variable names
  • If a preferences variable is listed in DENYUSERPREFEENCES, the variable cannot be overridden at the user level. There is a special value "all", which means no preferences variables can be overridden at the user level
  • If ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES is set and not empty, only the listed preferences variables can be overridden. There is a special value "all", which means any preferences variable can be overridden at the user level. But actually, "all" is not necessary since a blank value or not setting ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES has the same effect
  • DENYUSERPREFEENCES takes precedence over ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES. If a variable is listed on both, it cannot be overridden. If DENYUSERPREFEENCES is "all", the value of ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES doesn't matter.
For example, if you don't allow overriding at the user level at all:
   * Set DENYUSERPREFERENCES = all
If you allow INYMCEPLUGIN_DISABLE and SKIN to be set at the user level:
   * Set ALLOWUSERPREFERENCES = TINYMCEPLUGIN_DISABLE, SKIN
If you allow user preferences to set anything other than TINYMCEPLUGIN_DISABLE or SKIN:
   * Set DENYUSERPREFERENCES = TINYMCEPLUGIN_DISABLE, SKIN
Please note DENYUSERPREFEENCES and ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES affect user preferences regardless of $TWiki::cfg{DemoteUserPreferences}. You can set those variables at the site level while $TWiki::cfg{DemoteUserPreferences} setting to false. If you do so, you should finalise DENYUSERPREFEENCES and ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES. Otherwise, they might be overridden by user preferences.

You will get the most benefit of DENYUSERPREFEENCES and ALLOWUSERPREFEENCES by setting $TWiki::cfg{DemoteUserPreferences} to true. That way, each web can specify how much user level preferences overriding is allowed.

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:

  1. Parameter from variable call. In above example, %PARAM1% gets expanded to bar.
  2. Session variable and preferences settings

Example

Define variables:

   * Set DRINK = red wine
   * Set FAVORITE = My %DEFAULT{default="favorite"}% dish is %DISH{default="steak"}%,
                    my %DEFAULT{default="favorite"}% drink is %DRINK%.
TIP 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" }%

<--
Redefine what is defined in INCLUDE: 
  • Set EXAMPLE = Example variable using favorite, (undefined) and (undefined)
  • Set DEMO = Demo using favorite, (undefined) and (undefined)
  • Set DRINK = red wine
  • Set FAVORITE = My favorite dish is steak, my favorite drink is %DRINK%.
-->

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 Help icon
  • %I% - IDEA! Idea icon
  • %M% - MOVED TO... Moved to icon
  • %N% - NEW New icon
  • %P% - REFACTOR Refactor icon
  • %Q% - QUESTION? Question icon
  • %S% - PICK Pick icon
  • %T% - TIP Tip icon
  • %U% - UPDATED Updated icon
  • %X% - ALERT! Alert icon
  • %Y% - DONE 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.

Predefined Variables

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)
    • This has long been the case but may not be desirable since even something as fundamental as %IF{...}%, %SCRIPT{...}%, and %INCLUDE{...}% can be overridden
    • So TWiki-6.0.1 has introduced a way to protect predefined variables from being overridden by preferences variables
    • The preferences variable OVERRIDABLEPREDEFINEDVARIABLES having a comma separated list of predefined variables specifies which predefined variables are overridable
    • By default, it's set to "all" (set at TWiki.TWikiPreferences), which means any predefined variable can be overridden, which is for compatibility with prior releases. You can set it to a different value in Main.TWikiPreferences and you may finalise it
    • If it's set as below, all predefined variables are protected
         * Set OVERRIDABLEPREDEFINEDVARIABLES =
      
    • If it's set as below, DATE and LANGUAGE predefined variables can be overridden but all the other predefined variables cannot
         * Set OVERRIDABLEPREDEFINEDVARIABLES = DATE, LANGUAGE
      
  • 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

   Clear    Show all
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, CALENDAR, CARET, CHILDREN, COLORPICKER, COMMENT, CONTENTMODE, COPY, DASHBOARD, DATE, DATEPICKER, DISPLAYTIME, DISPLAYTIME2, EDITACTION, EDITFORMFIELD, EDITTABLE, ENCODE, ENDBG, ENDCOLOR, ENDCOLUMNS, ENDSECTION, ENTITY, ENV, EXAMPLEVAR, FAILEDPLUGINS, FORMFIELD, FOURCOLUMNS, 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, THREECOLUMNS, TM, TOC, TOC2, TOPIC, TOPICLIST, TOPICTITLE, TOPICURL, TWIKIWEB, TWISTY, TWOCOLUMNS, 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 186 variables

Documenting TWiki 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


Added:
>
>

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="".

Syntax

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 in ENCODE. Though ENCODE can take the extra parameter, $text(encode:type) cannot. Example: $text(encode:html)
$locked LOCKED flag (if any)
$date Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 2024-04-25 - 04:23
$isodate Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 2024-04-25T04:23Z
$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. Possible types are the same as in ENCODE: quote, moderate, safe, entity, html, url and csv. The encode:type parameter can be combined with other parameters described below, but it needs to be the last parameter. Example: $formfield(Description, 20, encode:html)
$formfield(name, render:display) Form field value, rendered for display. For example, a form field of type color will render as a colored box. If not specified, the raw value is returned, such as a color value #336699. The render:display parameter can be combined with other parameters, but must be used after the parameters described below.
$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, quote:") Strings in QuerySearch result are quoted with the specified quote. Useful to triple-quote strings for use in SpreadSheetPlugin's CALCULATE, such as $query(attachments.comment, quote:''') which returns a list of triple-quoted attachment comment strings -- the spreadhseet funcions will work properly even if comment strings contain commas and parenthesis
$query(query-syntax, encode:type) QuerySearch result is encoded in the specified type. This is in parallel to $formfield(name, 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 $formfield(name, 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 (>)

Results pagination

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.

Evaluation order of variables

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"

Examples

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:

Topic: OperatingSystem OsVersion
IncorrectDllVersionW32PTH10DLL OsWin 95/98
WinDoze95Crash OsWin 95

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:

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:

LatexModePlugin AndreaBaldassarri 2019-03-18 - 14:59
LatexIntro TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols2 TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols3 TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols4 TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols5 TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43

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:

  1. Specify a search which returns more hits then you need
  2. For each search hit apply a spreadsheet formula to determine if the hit is needed
  3. If needed, format and output the result
  4. 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"}%" />&nbsp;<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:

Find Topics:  
Result:

Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory, SearchHelp, VarSEARCH, VarENCODE, SearchResultsPagination, SearchPatternCookbook, RegularExpression, QuerySearch

-- Contributors: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale


 

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.

What Are Attachments Good For?

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% = HELP.

Uploading Files

  • 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.
    • TWiki is capable of getting up to 10 files per upload session. Whether you can actually upload multiple files in one go from web user interface depends on skin.
    • 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.
      • ALERT! 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.

Downloading Files

  • ALERT! 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.

Moving Attachment Files

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.

Deleting Attachments

Move unwanted Attachments to web Trash, topic TrashAttachment.

Linking to Attached Files

  • Once a file is attached it can be referenced in the topic. Example:
    1. Attach file: Sample.txt
    2. Edit topic and enter: %ATTACHURL%/Sample.txt
    3. Preview: %ATTACHURL%/Sample.txt text appears as: /twiki/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:
    1. Attach file: Sample.txt
    2. 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:
    1. Attach file: Smile.gif
    2. Edit topic and write text: %ATTACHURL%/Smile.gif
    3. Preview: text appears as /twiki/pub/TWiki/FileAttachment/Smile.gif, an image.

File Attachment Contents Table

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.

Topic attachments
I Attachment History Action Size Date Who Comment
Texttxt Sample.txt   manage 0.1 K 2000-07-22 - 19:37 TWikiContributor Just a sample
GIFgif Smile.gif   manage 0.1 K 2000-07-22 - 19:38 TWikiContributor Smiley face
<--//twikiAttachments-->

File Attachment Controls

Clicking on a Manage link takes you to a new page that looks a bit like this (depending on what skin is selected):

Attach new file

Select a new local file to update attachment Sample.txt (UploadingUser)
Upload up to 10000 KB.

<-- /twikiFormStep-->

Comment

Describe the file so other people know what it is.

<-- /twikiFormStep-->

Properties

Images will be displayed, for other attachments a link will be created.

Attachments will not be shown in topic view page.

<-- /twikiFormStep-->
<-- /twikiFormStep-->
<-- /twikiFormSteps-->
or Cancel
<--/patternTopicActions-->

  • 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.

File names

File systems tend to be liberal about characters used in file names. But there are characters which may cause problems if they are used in a file name of a TWiki attachment. As such, when TWiki saves an uploaded file attachment, it's saved as a file whose name is cleansed to avoid problems. Specifically:

  • Space are replaed by underscores
  • The .txt extension is appended to some filenames for security reasons
  • Characters such as ~, $, @, % are removed
  • Non-ASCII characters are deleted
When an attachment file name is altered by the process above, you are notified

Known Issues

  • 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.


Line: 57 to 52
 

TWiki Skins

A skin overlays regular templates to provide specific look and feel to TWiki screens.

Overview

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

Changing the default TWiki skin

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

Defining Skins

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 we encourage you to show a small TWiki logo at the bottom of your skin:

<a href="http://twiki.org/"><img src="%PUBURL%/%SYSTEMWEB%/TWikiLogos/T-badge-88x31.gif" alt="This site is powered by the TWiki Enterprise Collaboration Platform" width="88" height="31" title="This site is powered by the TWiki Enterprise Collaboration Platform" border="0" /></a> Renders as:
This site is powered by the TWiki Enterprise Collaboration Platform

TIP Note: TWiki.org has no marketing budget, e.g. we rely on TWiki users to spread the word of TWiki. You can support the open source project by adding logos that point back to TWiki.org, and by mentioning TWiki in social media.

The standard TWiki skins show the logo in the %WEBCOPYRIGHT% variable.

ALERT! 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
    • lease_active, lease_old
  • 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.

ALERT! 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.

Variables in Skins

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 Jump Box and Navigation Box

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:

Bare bones header, for demo only
Navigate:
Jump:

Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Miscellaneous, {AllowRedirectUrl}).

Using Cascading Style Sheets

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>

Attachment Tables

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

Packaging and Publishing Skins

See TWiki:Plugins/SkinPackagingHowTo and TWiki:Plugins/SkinDeveloperFAQ

Browsing Installed Skins

You can try out all installed skins in the TWikiSkinBrowser.

Activating Skins

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.

  • Set COVER = ruskin

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.

Conditional Skin Activation

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"
     }%

Hard-Coded Skins

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

Deleted:
<
<

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="".

Syntax

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 in ENCODE. Though ENCODE can take the extra parameter, $text(encode:type) cannot. Example: $text(encode:html)
$locked LOCKED flag (if any)
$date Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 2024-04-25 - 04:23
$isodate Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 2024-04-25T04:23Z
$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. Possible types are the same as in ENCODE: quote, moderate, safe, entity, html, url and csv. The encode:type parameter can be combined with other parameters described below, but it needs to be the last parameter. Example: $formfield(Description, 20, encode:html)
$formfield(name, render:display) Form field value, rendered for display. For example, a form field of type color will render as a colored box. If not specified, the raw value is returned, such as a color value #336699. The render:display parameter can be combined with other parameters, but must be used after the parameters described below.
$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, quote:") Strings in QuerySearch result are quoted with the specified quote. Useful to triple-quote strings for use in SpreadSheetPlugin's CALCULATE, such as $query(attachments.comment, quote:''') which returns a list of triple-quoted attachment comment strings -- the spreadhseet funcions will work properly even if comment strings contain commas and parenthesis
$query(query-syntax, encode:type) QuerySearch result is encoded in the specified type. This is in parallel to $formfield(name, 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 $formfield(name, 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 (>)

Results pagination

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.

Evaluation order of variables

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"

Examples

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:

Topic: OperatingSystem OsVersion
IncorrectDllVersionW32PTH10DLL OsWin 95/98
WinDoze95Crash OsWin 95

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:

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:

LatexModePlugin AndreaBaldassarri 2019-03-18 - 14:59
LatexIntro TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols2 TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols3 TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols4 TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43
LatexSymbols5 TWikiAdminUser 2018-03-22 - 10:43

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:

  1. Specify a search which returns more hits then you need
  2. For each search hit apply a spreadsheet formula to determine if the hit is needed
  3. If needed, format and output the result
  4. 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"}%" />&nbsp;<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:

Find Topics:  
Result:

Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory, SearchHelp, VarSEARCH, VarENCODE, SearchResultsPagination, SearchPatternCookbook, RegularExpression, QuerySearch

-- Contributors: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie, TWiki:Main.SopanShewale

 

TWiki Meta Data

Additional topic data, program-generated or from TWikiForms, is stored embedded in the topic text using META: tags

Overview

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.

Meta Data Syntax

  • 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"}%

Meta Data Specifications

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)

Viewing Meta Data in Page Source

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

Rendering Meta Data

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

Line: 67 to 59
 

TWiki Plugins

Add functionality to TWiki with readily available plugins; create plugins based on APIs

Overview

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

Installing Plugins

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 /twiki/bin/view/TWiki/AbcPlugin

TIP 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

Managing Installed Plugins

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-6.0.2, Sun, 29 Nov 2015, build 29687, plugin API version 6.02

%ACTIVATEDPLUGINS%

On this TWiki site, the enabled plugins are: SpreadSheetPlugin, BackupRestorePlugin, CalendarPlugin, ColorPickerPlugin, CommentPlugin, DatePickerPlugin, EditTablePlugin, HeadlinesPlugin, InterwikiPlugin, JQueryPlugin, LatexModePlugin, PreferencesPlugin, SetGetPlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, TablePlugin, TagMePlugin, TinyMCEPlugin, TwistyPlugin, WatchlistPlugin, WysiwygPlugin.

%PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%

  • SpreadSheetPlugin (2015-06-07, $Rev: 29570 (2015-11-29) $): Add spreadsheet calculation like "$SUM( $ABOVE() )" to TWiki tables or anywhere in topic text
  • BackupRestorePlugin (2015-01-09, $Rev: 28636 (2015-11-29) $): Administrator utility to backup, restore and upgrade a TWiki site
  • CalendarPlugin (2012-12-03, $Rev: 24315 (2012-12-04) $): Show a monthly calendar with highlighted events
  • ColorPickerPlugin (2015-01-10, $Rev: 29507 (2015-11-29) $): Color picker, packaged for use in TWiki forms and TWiki applications
  • CommentPlugin (2015-01-10, $Rev: 28648 (2015-11-29) $): Quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle
  • DatePickerPlugin (2015-01-10, $Rev: 29510 (2015-11-29) $): Pop-up calendar with date picker, for use in TWiki forms, HTML forms and TWiki plugins
  • EditTablePlugin (2015-01-10, $Rev: 29516 (2015-11-29) $): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
  • HeadlinesPlugin (2015-11-06, $Rev: 29650 (2015-11-29) $): Show headline news in TWiki pages based on RSS and ATOM news feeds from external sites
  • InterwikiPlugin (2015-06-18, $Rev: 29526 (2015-11-29) $): Write ExternalSite:Page to link to a page on an external site based on aliases defined in a rules topic
  • JQueryPlugin (2015-01-10, $Rev: 29532 (2015-11-29) $): jQuery JavaScript library for TWiki
  • LatexModePlugin (3.71, $Rev: 16926 (12 Dec 2008) $): Enables LaTeX markup (mathematics and more) in TWiki topics
  • PreferencesPlugin (2015-01-14, $Rev: 29550 (2015-11-29) $): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
  • SetGetPlugin (2015-07-09, $Rev: 29564 (2015-11-29) $): Set and get variables and JSON objects in topics, optionally persistently across topic views
  • SlideShowPlugin (2015-01-14, $Rev: 29566 (2015-11-29) $): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
  • SmiliesPlugin (2015-02-16, $Rev: 29568 (2015-11-29) $): Render smilies as icons, like  :-)  as smile or  :eek:  as eek!
  • TablePlugin (2015-02-16, $Rev: 29580 (2015-11-29) $): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
  • TagMePlugin (2015-02-16, $Rev: 29582 (2015-11-29) $): Tag wiki content collectively or authoritatively to find content by keywords
  • TinyMCEPlugin (2015-02-16, $Rev: 29584 (2015-11-29) $): Integration of the Tiny MCE WYSIWYG Editor
  • TwistyPlugin (2015-04-28, $Rev: 29600 (2015-11-29) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
  • WatchlistPlugin (2015-01-15, $Rev: 28820 (2015-11-29) $): Watch topics of interest and get notified of changes by e-mail
  • WysiwygPlugin (2015-02-16, $Rev: 29604 (2015-11-29) $): Translator framework for WYSIWYG editors

%FAILEDPLUGINS%

PluginErrors
SpreadSheetPlugin none
BackupRestorePlugin none
CalendarPlugin none
ColorPickerPlugin none
CommentPlugin none
DatePickerPlugin none
EditTablePlugin none
HeadlinesPlugin none
InterwikiPlugin none
JQueryPlugin none
LatexModePlugin none
PreferencesPlugin none
SetGetPlugin none
SlideShowPlugin none
SmiliesPlugin none
TablePlugin none
TagMePlugin none
TinyMCEPlugin none
TwistyPlugin none
WatchlistPlugin none
WysiwygPlugin none
HandlerPlugins
afterCommonTagsHandlerLatexModePlugin
afterEditHandlerWysiwygPlugin
afterRenameHandlerTagMePlugin
WatchlistPlugin
afterSaveHandlerTagMePlugin
WatchlistPlugin
beforeCommonTagsHandlerEditTablePlugin
PreferencesPlugin
TwistyPlugin
WysiwygPlugin
beforeEditHandlerTinyMCEPlugin
WysiwygPlugin
beforeMergeHandlerWysiwygPlugin
beforeSaveHandlerCommentPlugin
WatchlistPlugin
WysiwygPlugin
commonTagsHandlerSpreadSheetPlugin
BackupRestorePlugin
CalendarPlugin
CommentPlugin
EditTablePlugin
JQueryPlugin
LatexModePlugin
SlideShowPlugin
SmiliesPlugin
initPluginSpreadSheetPlugin
BackupRestorePlugin
CalendarPlugin
ColorPickerPlugin
CommentPlugin
DatePickerPlugin
EditTablePlugin
HeadlinesPlugin
InterwikiPlugin
JQueryPlugin
LatexModePlugin
PreferencesPlugin
SetGetPlugin
SlideShowPlugin
SmiliesPlugin
TablePlugin
TagMePlugin
TinyMCEPlugin
TwistyPlugin
WatchlistPlugin
WysiwygPlugin
modifyHeaderHandlerWysiwygPlugin
postRenderingHandlerPreferencesPlugin
WysiwygPlugin
preRenderingHandlerInterwikiPlugin
SmiliesPlugin
TablePlugin
21 plugins

The TWiki Plugin API

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.

ALERT! 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 6.02.
    • 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.

Creating Plugins

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:

  1. 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
  2. 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.
  3. Document the performance data you gathered while measuring the performance
  4. 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).

  1. 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]
  2. 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:

  1. 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
  2. Attach the distribution zip file to the topic, ex: MyFirstPlugin.zip
  3. 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.)
  4. Put the plugin into the SVN repository, see TWiki:Plugins/ReadmeFirst (optional)

NEW 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 smile

Recommended Storage of Plugin Specific Data

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

Integrating with configure

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.

Maintaining Plugins

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 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.


Changed:
<
<
Warning: Can't find topic TWiki.TWikiFuncModule
>
>

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 6.02. 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.

Environment

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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

  • $key - Session key
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 'FirstPluginEnabled' 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

Preferences

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)

User Handling and Access Control

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, required, 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.

To get the login name of the currently logged in user use:

    my $user = TWiki::Func::wikiToUserName( TWiki::Func::getWikiName() );

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:
    1. You are setting different access controls in the text to those defined in the stored topic,
    2. You already have the topic text in hand, and want to help TWiki avoid having to read it again,
    3. 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)

Webs, Topics and Attachments

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:
  1. 'user' (for only user webs)
  2. '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').

  • $name - topic name
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

Assembling Pages

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)

  • $def - template name
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)

E-mail

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.

Creating New Topics

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: expandCommonVariables

Special Handlers

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

Searching

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

Plugin-specific File Handling

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)

Read-only and Mirror Webs

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

Using multiple disks

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

General Utilities

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.

  • $pre - Arbitrary Text
Return: $text

Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.3 (18 Jan 2010)

spaceOutWikiWord( $word, $sep ) -> $text

Spaces out a wiki word by inserting a string between each word component. Word component boundaries are transitions from lowercase to uppercase or numeric, from numeric to uppercase or lowercase, and from uppercase to numeric characters.

Parameter $sep defines the separator between the word components, the default is a space.

Example: "ABC2015ProjectCharter" results in "ABC 2015 Project Charter"

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
  • $format - Format type, optional. Default e.g. '2014-12-31 - 19:30'. Can be '$iso' (e.g. '2014-12-31T19:30Z'), '$rcs' (e.g. '2014/12/31 23:59:59', '$http' for HTTP header format (e.g. 'The, 2014-07-23 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

  • $text - Word to test

Since: TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.100 (Dec 2005)

extractParameters($attr ) -> %params

Extract all parameters from a variable string and returns a hash of parameters

  • $attr - Attribute string
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, &lt;. Similarly, ">" is escaped as &gt;, and "&" is escaped as &amp;. If an attribute value contains a double quotation mark and is delimited by double quotation marks, then the quote should be escaped as &quot;.

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. &#123;). Does not decode named entities such as &amp; (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

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.

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&param1=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 API History

TWiki-2001-09-01 (Athens Release)

$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.000

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • 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

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • 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

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • 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

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • 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

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • afterSaveHandler($text, $topic, $web, $error, $meta)
  • beforeSaveHandler($text, $topic, $web, $meta)

Func.pm

TWiki-4.1 (Edinburgh Release)

$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.11

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • afterRenameHandler($oldWeb, $oldTopic, $oldAttachment, $newWeb, $newTopic, $newAttachment)

Func.pm

No changes

TWiki-4.2 (Freetown Release)

$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.2

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • 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

EmptyPlugin.pm

No changes

Func.pm

No changes

TWiki-5.0 (Helsinki Release)

$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.3

EmptyPlugin.pm

No changes

Func.pm

  • buildWikiWord( $text ) -> $text

TWiki-5.1 (Istanbul Release)

$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.4

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • 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

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • viewRedirectHandler( $session, $web, $topic )

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

TWiki-6.02 (Kampala Release)

$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 6.02

EmptyPlugin.pm

  • viewFileRedirectHandler( $session, $web, $topic )
  • topicTitleHandler( $session, $web, $topic, $titleRef )


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.

CGI Scripts

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 -method POST -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. TWikiAdminGroup
method Commad-line only; set the HTTP request method. Some scripts requires the POST method under certain circumstances. In such a case, you need to specify the POST method to run the script from a command line. GET
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:

Parameter Description Default
minor If 0, show only major changes. If 1, show all the changes (both minor and major) 0

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')  
template Specify a different skin template, overriding the 'edit' template the edit script would normally use. Use this for specialized templates in a TWiki Application. This parameter is not commonly used.  
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.

  1. 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.

Parameter Description Default
action One of createweb, renameweb, deleteUserAccount, editSettings or saveSettings none

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.

Parameter Description Default
password Users' password none

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.

ALERT! 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.

  1. 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.
  2. When the action is save, checkpoint, quietsave, or preview:
    1. 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,
    2. 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.
    3. 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.

ALERT! 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 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:

  1. from browser http://tnt.phys.uniroma1.it/twiki/bin/statistics updates all user webs
  2. from browser http://tnt.phys.uniroma1.it/twiki/bin/statistics?webs=TWiki,Main,Sandbox updates TWiki,Main,Sandbox
  3. from browser http://tnt.phys.uniroma1.it/twiki/bin/statistics/TWiki updates TWiki
  4. from command line twiki/bin/statistics updates all user webs
  5. from command line twiki/bin/statistics -webs=TWiki,Main,Sandbox updates TWiki,Main,Sandbox
  6. 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 format defined by the updateformat parameter.  
updateformat Format of the value of the form field indicated by the updatefield parameter. The default is the name of the attached file, but can be set to include more, such as the path to the image, %PUBURL%/%BASEWEB%/%BASETOPIC%/$filename. $filename

You can use a tool like curl to upload files from the command line using this script.

ALERT! 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 /twiki/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.  

TIP 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&amp;templatetopic=%SYSTEMWEB%.UserBookmarksTemplate&amp;topicparent=%WIKINAME%][Bookmarks]]

ALERT! 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.

Parameter Description Default
filename name of attachment  
rev Revision to view  
debug Put debug info to the debug log  

Instead of using the filename parameter, you can append the attachment name to the end of the URL path (after the topic) e.g. http://tnt.phys.uniroma1.it/twiki/bin/viewfile/Webname/TopicName/Attachment.gif In that case, determining the attachment file name is non-trivial -- please consider a file name having multiple dots and a file name having no dots. As such, the process of determining the file name is put on the debug log if debug=1 URL parameter is supplied.

Command Line Scripts

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

 

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.

WebNotify - recent changes alert

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.

TIP Tip: Instead of subscribing here, it is easier to "watch" topics of interest. Watching topics gives you the choice of immediate notification or digest notification.

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.

ALERT! 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 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 - search TWiki site

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.

WebChanges - what's new

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"
}%

WebRss and WebAtom - news feeds on recent changes

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 - list of topics

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"
}%

WebStatistics - site statistics

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.

TIP 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:
      /twiki/bin/statistics
    • Update current month for Main web only:
      /twiki/bin/statistics/Main
    • Update Apr 2024 for Main web:
      /twiki/bin/statistics/Main?logdate=2024-04
    • Update Apr 2024 for the ProjectX, ProjectY and ProjectZ webs:
      /twiki/bin/statistics?logdate=2024-04;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.

Month: Topic
views:
Topic
saves:
File
uploads:
Most popular
topic views:
Top viewerss: Top contributors for
topic save and uploads:
<--statDate-->
<--statViews-->
<--statSaves-->
<--statUploads-->
<--statTopViews-->
<--statTopViewers-->
<--statTopContributors-->
2013-08 10325
(150 unique users)
6921 R&D
1736 Operation
  927 Sales
  623 Management
    98 Unknown
7
(3 unique users)
7 R&D
3
(1 unique users)
3 R&D
6941 WebHome
  872 WebSearch
  848 ToolSiteMap
  376 ToolDashboard
  223 WebSearchAdvanced
  185 ContRequests
  127 WebTopicList
    89 ToolPersonalWebs
    72 ToolMasquerading
    70 TWikiAdminUser
525 PeterThoeny
  49 MahiroAndo
    9 HdeyoImazu
5 HdeyoImazu
1 MahiroAndo
1 PeterThoeny

Affiliation breakdown is turned off by default. To turn it on, you need to do two things.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

Log Files

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/log202404.txt
  • Each access gets logged as:
    | <time in GMT> | <wikiusername> | <action> | <web>.<topic> | <extra info> | <IP address> |
  • Example log entry:
    | 25 Apr 2024 - 04:23 | 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

E-mail

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.

  • TIP You can define a separate {SMTP}{SENDERHOST} configure setting to set the mail sender host - some SMTP installations require this.
  • ALERT! 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.

Site Permissions

  • 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

Backup and Restore

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.

Help with crontab

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

Line: 81 to 76
 

Manage Users

Register users on your TWiki site; change/reset/install passwords; remove user accounts

ALERT! Some of the features below may be disabled, depending on your TWiki configuration.

Authentication and Access Control

List Users

Register Users

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)

Query and Edit User Account Data (Passwords, E-mails)

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:

Changing User Account Names

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

Removing User Accounts

To remove a user account (FredQuimby, who logs in as "fred"):

  1. 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.
  2. Remove the FredQuimby - fred line from the Main.TWikiUsers topic
  3. 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.
  4. [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..

Customizing registration Emails.

TWiki's Registration can send 3 emails who's output is governed by templates:

  1. User registration confirmation - templates/registerconfirm.tmpl
  2. User registration notification - templates/registernotify.tmpl
  3. 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

Changed:
<
<

Warning: Can't find topic TWiki.AppendixFileSystem
>
>

Appendix A: TWiki Development Time-line

TWiki Release 6.0 (Jerusalem) released on 2013-10-14 — 2015-11-29

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
    • Drag and drop file attachments - PatternSkin to integrate DropzoneJSSkin - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • Add drag and drop to change profile picture screen - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • Responsive multi-column page layout using CSS using TWOCOLUMNS...ENDCOLUMNS - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • Search attachments in a web with new WebSearchAttachments topic to all webs - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • Easier TWiki installation by adding Perl CGI module to TWiki core distribution - added in TWiki-6.0.2

  • 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
    • New CHILDREN variable to show topic children added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • Add createdate, default, encode parameters to SEARCH variable
    • SEARCH variable with sort by parent feature
    • SEARCH variable extended to make results pagination possible
    • SEARCH: Search with sort by multiple fields - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SEARCH: Sort by parent breadcrumb - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SEARCH: Control over formfield rendering in a formatted SEARCH - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • 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
    • New csv encode type for ENCODE variable - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • ENCODE variable with new type="json" parameter to escape a string for JSON use - added in TWiki-6.0.2

  • 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'''
    • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions ADDLIST(), GETLIST(), SETLIST() - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SpreadSheetPlugin: FORMAT(CURRENY, ...) with support for currency symbol - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SpreadSheetPlugin: Allow newlines and indent around functions and function parameters; allow newlines in triple-quoted strings - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions EQUAL(), NOTE(), RANDSTRING() - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • InterwikiPlugin to observe the links configuration parameter
    • TablePlugin: Possible to add TML (TWiki markup) with newlines in TWiki table cells
    • TagMePlugin with support for multiple tag namespaces
    • PatternSkin: New hideInPrint CSS class to hide specific content from printing - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • PatternSkin: Show history and other topic actions in read-only skin mode - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SetGetPlugin: SET and GET with support for JSON objects and JSON path - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • SetGetPlugin: Ability to specify store name to persistently store variables - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • SetGetPlugin: SetGetPlugin: Use file locking on persistent store to prevent corrupting the store - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • JQueryPlugin: JQTAB enhancements: Show blue link instead of red on hover over tab; make tab css overridable; remove dotted underline below tab; active tabs with gray gradient - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • JQueryPlugin: Option to load tab content asynchronously; select specific tab in jQuery tab pane; allow tab panes in bullet lists & TWiki table cells; allow HTML in tab title - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • WatchlistPlugin: Don't notify oneself when watching topics; set minor change when updating watchlist topic - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • WatchlistPlugin: Watch all topics in web and watch new topics in web; fix for mod_perl - added in TWiki-6.0.1

  • 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 Analyze Control panel Counter Factory Transparent LED Minus node graph Minus node graph right Minus node graph up-down-right Minus node graph up-right Plus node graph Plus node graph right Plus node graph up-down-right Plus node graph up-right Opportunity Pick Phone extension Toll-free Phone Switch off Switch on Watchlist
    • 16 new TWikiDocGraphics icons Clipboard Delegate Microsoft Word file Gray close LED Gray minus LED Gray plus LED Mobile carrier XPS PowerPoint SMS Visio document Visio document Visio document Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet XMind XPS - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • 5 new TWikiDocGraphics icons First class Help open Help close Request See also - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • New COPY, REG, TM variables for copyright, registered trademark and trademark symbols, respectively - added in TWiki-6.0.1

  • Bug Fixes
    • 99 bugs fixed in TWiki-6.0.0
    • 66 bugs fixed in TWiki-6.0.1
    • 53 bugs fixed in TWiki-6.0.2

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:

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.

TWiki Release 5.1 (Istanbul) released on 2011-08-20 — 2013-02-16

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:

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.

TWiki Release 5.0 (Helsinki) released on 2010-05-29 — 2011-04-21

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:

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.

TWiki Release 4.3 (Georgetown) released on 2009-04-29

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

  • 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:

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.

TWiki Release 4.2 (Freetown), 2008-01-22

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)

  • 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:

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.

TWiki Release 4.1 (Edinburgh), 2007-01-16

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:

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.

TWiki Release 4.0 (Dakar), 2006-02-01

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

01-Sep-2004 Release (Cairo)

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

Bug Fixes of 01-Sep-2004 Release Developer, Sponsor
Fix: Consistently create headings with empty anchor tags. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: TOC does not work for headings containing & without spaces surrounding it. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Backslash line break breaks TWiki form definitions. Details TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Rename fixes unrelated topic references. Details TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
Fix: Bug with infinite recursion in search. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Can't send mail with full 'From' address. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: All scripts change to $bin before execute (for mod_perl2). Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Several RSS readers do not show all entries seen in the WebChanges list; repeated updates to the same topics get lost. Details TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens
Fix: TWiki::Access::checkAccessPermission function improperly handles Main and TWiki webs. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Topic save returns error CI Date precedes date in revision. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Double quotes got replaced by " in TWiki forms. Details TWiki:Main.MichaelSparks TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Duplicated Wiki name in .htpasswd entry for sha1 encoding. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: When viewing a previous version of a topic, the view script substitutes only one occurrence of the variable EDITTOPIC. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Form default values are not working for text fields. Details TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Formatted searches using a $pattern which unbalanced parenthesis crash TWiki. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Formatted Search uses title but should use name for formfield parameter. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: GMTIME variable returns unwanted GMT text. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Include from other Web links ACRONYMS. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Including an HTML file is very slow. Details TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: includeUrl() mess up absolute URLs. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Filter out fixed font rendering in TOC to avoid unrendered = equal signs in TOC. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: The initializeUserHandler is broken for session Plugins. Details TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: SEARCH fails with very large webs. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Security alert: User could gain view access rights of another user. Details TWiki:Main.KimCovil TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: 'print to closed file handle' error of log files are not writable. Details TWiki:Main.MartinGregory TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Meta data handler can't process CR-LF line endings. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: METAFIELD meta data is not shown in view raw=on mode. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Minor XHTML non-compliance in templates and code. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Getting pages from virtual hosts fails. Details TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: Create new web fails if RCS files do not exist. Details TWiki:Main.ClausBrunzema TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Metacharacters can be passed through to the shell in File Attach. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Ability to delete non-WikiWord topics without confirmation. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: + symbol in password reset fails. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Pathinfo cleanup for hosted sites. Details TWiki:Main.MikeSalisbury TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Software error in SEARCH if regular expression pattern has unmached parenthesis. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Pipe chars in the comment field of the attachment table are not escaped. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Link escaping in preview fails for not quoted hrefs. Details TWiki:Main.TedPavlic TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Preview expands variables twice. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Using a proxy with TWiki fails; no proxy-HTTP request, minimal request not HTTP 1.0, requests marked 1.1 are at best 1.0. Details TWiki:Main.MichaelSparks TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: Runaway view processes with TWiki::Sore::RcsLite. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Regex Error in WebTopicList with topics that have meta characters in the name. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Rename script misses some ref-by topics. Details TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: Links to self within the page being renamed are not changed. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Rename topic does 'Main.Main.UserName' for attachments. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Revision date is set to Jan 1970 when using RCS Lite. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: The new dynamically-created SiteMap is very nice, but somewhat slow. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: The makeAnchorName function did not produce the same results if called iteratively, resulting in problems trying to link to headers.. Details TWiki:Main.WalterMundt
Fix: Statistics page does not provide links to non-wikiword topics. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Make TOC link URI references relative. Details TWiki:Main.MartinGregory TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: TWiki hangs when used on Apache 2.0. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: TOC incorrectly strips out links in headers. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: The HTML tags that are generated by TOC do not close properly. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: TOC on INCLUDEd topic ignores STOPINCLUDE. Details TWiki:Main.WillNorris TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Quotes in tooltip message can break a TWiki form. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Better error message if the file attachment directory is not writable. Details TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Image size of PNG files. Details TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens
Fix: The testenv script distinguishes between real user ID and effective user ID. Details TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
Fix: Variables in square bracket links dont work in form fields. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Variable with Parameters in Form Fields Disappear. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Verbatim tag should escape HTML entities. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Field names of TWiki Forms can be WikiWords, this is used to link to a help topic. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Clean up the WebRssBase INCLUDES to use VARIABLES set in TWikiPreferences. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Resolving variables in included topics. Details TWiki:Main.OliverKrueger TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit

01-Feb-2003 Release (Beijing)

01-Dec-2001 Release (Athens)

01-Sep-2001 Release

01-Dec-2000 Release

01-May-2000 Release

  • 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.

01-Sep-1999 Release

  • 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 .

01-Jul-1999 Release

  • 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>.

1998 Releases

  • 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.

Dev Flow

The typical TWiki development flow...

Related Topics: DeveloperDocumentationCategory


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.

Current Status

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).

Details of Implementation

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.

Testing and Limitation

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

 

Appendix C: TWiki CSS

Listing of CSS class names emitted from TWiki core code and standard plugins.

Who should read this document?

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.

Naming conventions

  1. 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.
  2. 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

TablePlugin

.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  
.twikiInputFieldDisabled  
.twikiInputFieldReadOnly  
.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  
.twikiTextareaRawView  
.twikiButton  
.twikiFocus Behavior marker so a field can be given input focus
.twikiLeft  
.twikiRight  
.twikiClear  
.twikiHidden  
.twikiSmall  
.twikiBottomRow  
.twikiSRAuthor  
.twikiSRRev  
.twikiPageForm  
.twikiSeparator  
.twikiAccessKey  
.twikiLinkLabel  
.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  
.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

TWiki Styles used in configure

#twikiLogin CSS.pm
.twikiFormSteps CSS.pm
.twikiFormStep CSS.pm

TWiki Styles in topics

.twikiBroadcastMessage TWikiPreferences
#twikiSearchTable WebSearch, WebSearchAdvanced

TWiki Styles in Skins

#twikiLogin login.pattern.tmpl  

Reserved Styles

.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

Tips

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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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.

Current Status

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).

Details of Implementation

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.

Testing and Limitation

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

 
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Appendix A: TWiki Development Time-line

TWiki Release 6.0 (Jerusalem) released on 2013-10-14 — 2015-11-29

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
    • Drag and drop file attachments - PatternSkin to integrate DropzoneJSSkin - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • Add drag and drop to change profile picture screen - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • Responsive multi-column page layout using CSS using TWOCOLUMNS...ENDCOLUMNS - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • Search attachments in a web with new WebSearchAttachments topic to all webs - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • Easier TWiki installation by adding Perl CGI module to TWiki core distribution - added in TWiki-6.0.2

  • 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
    • New CHILDREN variable to show topic children added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • Add createdate, default, encode parameters to SEARCH variable
    • SEARCH variable with sort by parent feature
    • SEARCH variable extended to make results pagination possible
    • SEARCH: Search with sort by multiple fields - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SEARCH: Sort by parent breadcrumb - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SEARCH: Control over formfield rendering in a formatted SEARCH - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • 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
    • New csv encode type for ENCODE variable - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • ENCODE variable with new type="json" parameter to escape a string for JSON use - added in TWiki-6.0.2

  • 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'''
    • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions ADDLIST(), GETLIST(), SETLIST() - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SpreadSheetPlugin: FORMAT(CURRENY, ...) with support for currency symbol - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SpreadSheetPlugin: Allow newlines and indent around functions and function parameters; allow newlines in triple-quoted strings - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions EQUAL(), NOTE(), RANDSTRING() - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • InterwikiPlugin to observe the links configuration parameter
    • TablePlugin: Possible to add TML (TWiki markup) with newlines in TWiki table cells
    • TagMePlugin with support for multiple tag namespaces
    • PatternSkin: New hideInPrint CSS class to hide specific content from printing - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • PatternSkin: Show history and other topic actions in read-only skin mode - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • SetGetPlugin: SET and GET with support for JSON objects and JSON path - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • SetGetPlugin: Ability to specify store name to persistently store variables - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • SetGetPlugin: SetGetPlugin: Use file locking on persistent store to prevent corrupting the store - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • JQueryPlugin: JQTAB enhancements: Show blue link instead of red on hover over tab; make tab css overridable; remove dotted underline below tab; active tabs with gray gradient - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • JQueryPlugin: Option to load tab content asynchronously; select specific tab in jQuery tab pane; allow tab panes in bullet lists & TWiki table cells; allow HTML in tab title - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • WatchlistPlugin: Don't notify oneself when watching topics; set minor change when updating watchlist topic - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • WatchlistPlugin: Watch all topics in web and watch new topics in web; fix for mod_perl - added in TWiki-6.0.1

  • 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 Analyze Control panel Counter Factory Transparent LED Minus node graph Minus node graph right Minus node graph up-down-right Minus node graph up-right Plus node graph Plus node graph right Plus node graph up-down-right Plus node graph up-right Opportunity Pick Phone extension Toll-free Phone Switch off Switch on Watchlist
    • 16 new TWikiDocGraphics icons Clipboard Delegate Microsoft Word file Gray close LED Gray minus LED Gray plus LED Mobile carrier XPS PowerPoint SMS Visio document Visio document Visio document Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet XMind XPS - added in TWiki-6.0.1
    • 5 new TWikiDocGraphics icons First class Help open Help close Request See also - added in TWiki-6.0.2
    • New COPY, REG, TM variables for copyright, registered trademark and trademark symbols, respectively - added in TWiki-6.0.1

  • Bug Fixes
    • 99 bugs fixed in TWiki-6.0.0
    • 66 bugs fixed in TWiki-6.0.1
    • 53 bugs fixed in TWiki-6.0.2

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:

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.

TWiki Release 5.1 (Istanbul) released on 2011-08-20 — 2013-02-16

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:

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.

TWiki Release 5.0 (Helsinki) released on 2010-05-29 — 2011-04-21

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:

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.

TWiki Release 4.3 (Georgetown) released on 2009-04-29

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

  • 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:

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.

TWiki Release 4.2 (Freetown), 2008-01-22

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)

  • 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:

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.

TWiki Release 4.1 (Edinburgh), 2007-01-16

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:

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.

TWiki Release 4.0 (Dakar), 2006-02-01

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

01-Sep-2004 Release (Cairo)

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

Bug Fixes of 01-Sep-2004 Release Developer, Sponsor
Fix: Consistently create headings with empty anchor tags. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: TOC does not work for headings containing & without spaces surrounding it. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Backslash line break breaks TWiki form definitions. Details TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Rename fixes unrelated topic references. Details TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
Fix: Bug with infinite recursion in search. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Can't send mail with full 'From' address. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: All scripts change to $bin before execute (for mod_perl2). Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Several RSS readers do not show all entries seen in the WebChanges list; repeated updates to the same topics get lost. Details TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens
Fix: TWiki::Access::checkAccessPermission function improperly handles Main and TWiki webs. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Topic save returns error CI Date precedes date in revision. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Double quotes got replaced by " in TWiki forms. Details TWiki:Main.MichaelSparks TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Duplicated Wiki name in .htpasswd entry for sha1 encoding. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: When viewing a previous version of a topic, the view script substitutes only one occurrence of the variable EDITTOPIC. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Form default values are not working for text fields. Details TWiki:Main.ThomasWeigert TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Formatted searches using a $pattern which unbalanced parenthesis crash TWiki. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Formatted Search uses title but should use name for formfield parameter. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: GMTIME variable returns unwanted GMT text. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Include from other Web links ACRONYMS. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Including an HTML file is very slow. Details TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: includeUrl() mess up absolute URLs. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Filter out fixed font rendering in TOC to avoid unrendered = equal signs in TOC. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: The initializeUserHandler is broken for session Plugins. Details TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: SEARCH fails with very large webs. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Security alert: User could gain view access rights of another user. Details TWiki:Main.KimCovil TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: 'print to closed file handle' error of log files are not writable. Details TWiki:Main.MartinGregory TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Meta data handler can't process CR-LF line endings. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: METAFIELD meta data is not shown in view raw=on mode. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Minor XHTML non-compliance in templates and code. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Getting pages from virtual hosts fails. Details TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: Create new web fails if RCS files do not exist. Details TWiki:Main.ClausBrunzema TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Metacharacters can be passed through to the shell in File Attach. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Ability to delete non-WikiWord topics without confirmation. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: + symbol in password reset fails. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Pathinfo cleanup for hosted sites. Details TWiki:Main.MikeSalisbury TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Software error in SEARCH if regular expression pattern has unmached parenthesis. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Pipe chars in the comment field of the attachment table are not escaped. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Link escaping in preview fails for not quoted hrefs. Details TWiki:Main.TedPavlic TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Preview expands variables twice. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Using a proxy with TWiki fails; no proxy-HTTP request, minimal request not HTTP 1.0, requests marked 1.1 are at best 1.0. Details TWiki:Main.MichaelSparks TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: Runaway view processes with TWiki::Sore::RcsLite. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Regex Error in WebTopicList with topics that have meta characters in the name. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Rename script misses some ref-by topics. Details TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre
Fix: Links to self within the page being renamed are not changed. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Rename topic does 'Main.Main.UserName' for attachments. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Revision date is set to Jan 1970 when using RCS Lite. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: The new dynamically-created SiteMap is very nice, but somewhat slow. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: The makeAnchorName function did not produce the same results if called iteratively, resulting in problems trying to link to headers.. Details TWiki:Main.WalterMundt
Fix: Statistics page does not provide links to non-wikiword topics. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Make TOC link URI references relative. Details TWiki:Main.MartinGregory TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: TWiki hangs when used on Apache 2.0. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: TOC incorrectly strips out links in headers. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: The HTML tags that are generated by TOC do not close properly. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: TOC on INCLUDEd topic ignores STOPINCLUDE. Details TWiki:Main.WillNorris TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Quotes in tooltip message can break a TWiki form. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Better error message if the file attachment directory is not writable. Details TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Image size of PNG files. Details TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens
Fix: The testenv script distinguishes between real user ID and effective user ID. Details TWiki:Main.RichardDonkin
Fix: Variables in square bracket links dont work in form fields. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Variable with Parameters in Form Fields Disappear. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Verbatim tag should escape HTML entities. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Field names of TWiki Forms can be WikiWords, this is used to link to a help topic. Details TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Fix: Clean up the WebRssBase INCLUDES to use VARIABLES set in TWikiPreferences. Details TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
Fix: Resolving variables in included topics. Details TWiki:Main.OliverKrueger TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit

01-Feb-2003 Release (Beijing)

01-Dec-2001 Release (Athens)

01-Sep-2001 Release

01-Dec-2000 Release

01-May-2000 Release

  • 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.

01-Sep-1999 Release

  • 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 .

01-Jul-1999 Release

  • 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>.

1998 Releases

  • 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.

Dev Flow

The typical TWiki development flow...

Related Topics: DeveloperDocumentationCategory

 
 
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