One of the candidates for TWiki 4.1 is pure documentation: Add
VarXXX topics for all the preferences in TWiki, so that TWikiVariables can collect them for a comprehensive alphabetic listing. See
TWiki:Codev.OrganizeTWikiVariables for details.
Status: I've done 50 topics so far, but want to commit in one swoop for the preferences to make reverting easier if appropriate. Please be patient...
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haj
Harald, I would put only those twiki pref settings that the user is interested in, plus some frequently used ones by admins. That is:
- User: all "Rendering Shortcuts Settings"
- Admin: BROADCASTMESSAGE, HTTP_EQUIV, HTTP_EQUIV_ON_EDIT, HTTP_EQUIV_ON_PREVIEW, HTTP_EQUIV_ON_VIEW, NOAUTOLINK, WEBBGCOLOR
To (1) avoid clutter in
TWikiVariables, (2) to avoid double documentation, and (3) to limit the VarXXX just for stuff used for actual page rendering, I would not document the following TWiki pref settings as VarXXX:
- Access control (ALLOW*, DENY*)
- COMPOSER, DONTNOTIFYCHECKBOX, EDITBOX, EDITBOXHEIGHT, EDITBOXSTYLE, EDITBOXWIDTH, FAVICON, FORCENEWREVISIONCHECKBOX, INCLUDEWARNING, LINKTOOLTIPINFO, LPREFERENCES, MAILTHISTOPIC, MAILTHISTOPICTEXT, NEWTOPIC, NEWTOPICBGCOLOR, NEWTOPICFONTCOLOR, NOSEARCHALL, PREVIEWBGIMAGE, SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE, SEARCHSTOPWORDS, SEARCHVARDEFAULTTYPE, SITEMAP, SITEMAPLIST, SITEMAPUSETO, SITEMAPWHAT, SKIN, TOPICURL, TWIKICOLORSURL, TWIKILAYOUTURL, TWIKISTYLEURL, USERCOLORSURL, USERLAYOUTURL, USERSTYLEURL, WEBCOPYRIGHT, WEBFORMS, WEBHEADER, WEBHEADERART, WEBHEADERBGCOLOR, WEBLOGO, WEBLOGOALT, WEBLOGOIMG, WEBLOGOURL, WEBRSSCOPYRIGHT, WEBTOPICLIST, WIKILOGO, WIKILOGOALT, WIKILOGOIMG, WIKILOGOURL, WIKIWEBLIST, WIKIWEBMASTER, WIKIWEBMASTERNAME
I feel sorry because you have already done so much work!
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PTh
I do not agree with your here Peter.
You think like someone who is used to TWiki and know where to find the different places where all these TWiki Variables are defined. And it is many many places.
The users have no idea where to find these variables.
An alphabetical list of all variables is something my users ask for again and again.
The problem we have is maybe that the
TWikiVariables topic itself gets too long and heavy. So we needs perhaps to organise the topic a little differently.
But Harald has done the work he did based on a discussion we have had many of us that our users complain that they cannot find all those variables scattered all around in Core code,
TWikiPreferences,
WebPreferences, and the Plugin topics. Gathering all the core ones + the standard ones from the preference docs is a great help.
What we need is that the
VarTopics have maybe a form attached so we can group the variable so we do not end up with ONE big document. Harald had also made some concept code - the Aha stuff - that looked like it could help making a lot of info more easy to navigate.
I would be very disapointed if all this good work is thrown away. Especially because we were many that agreed at a meeting that it would be a good idea.
I thought you were there too?
KJL
See also
Item2592:
TWikiVariables does not list WIKILOGOURL (only mentioned with deprecated VarWIKIHOMEURL). There's no VarWIKILOGOURL page either. Shouldn't it?
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haj
Yes. That bug report shows clearly a user that has a problem with the way
TWikiVariables - and their meaning - is spread all over the place.
KJL
Kenneth: Actually, I
was thinking with the end user in mind when I wrote above post. End users for example do not care about NEWTOPICBGCOLOR, NEWTOPICFONTCOLOR, SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE, SEARCHSTOPWORDS, SEARCHVARDEFAULTTYPE, etc. Those are purely site level settings only the site admin is interested to see. The natural place to look for those settings is the site level preferences topic, so listing them in the big TWikiVariables does not add value (it adds clutter.)
Yes, I was at the meeting when we discussed, and I suggested to take only the settings relevant for end users.
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PTh
The example of a user (the admin kind) that Harald refers to looked for WIKILOGOURL which is very much an admin kind of
TWikiVar.
So how about somehow - placing all the ADMIN type of Twiki variables in ONE common
TWikiVariableForAdmins topic. Instead of all the new
VarXXX topics Harald did we can compile them in ONE topic which contains only these admin variables. Maybe a few of the current
TWikiVariables can be moved there was well. Those
TWikiVariables that are defined in
TWikiPreferences that end users would find usefull can remain as
VarTopics.
The list you gave Peter of variables that should not be listed should be reviewed. Some can be used by end users for Twiki applications. Quite many of them actually. When you think
TWikiVariables you should most of all think end users making TWiki Applications.
Some of the variables like ALLOWTOPICCHANGE are also end user relevant. But instead of explaining them again we should simply link to the topic that explains all these variables in context.
I think we need a Codev topic to get our thoughts collected on this.
There is a need for ONE place to find
TWikiVariables. We just need to find the best way to present them and also in a way that does not flood the TWiki Web with topics and creates redundant information. This is a request I get all the time from my users so there is a need for more than just add 10 more
VarXXX topics.
KJL
I removed VarXXX preferenes variables not typically used by content creators as
%VARIABLES%
, see
Item3006.
I am setting this to "waiting for release", which is correct if applied with
Item3006
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PTh
4.1.0 released
KJL