Documentation of the TWiki Implementation (version 01 May 2000)

Related Topics: TWikiWeb, TWikiHistory, TWikiPlannedFeatures, TWikiEnhancementRequests.


(1) Wiki Username vs. Login Username

TWiki manages internally two usernames: Login username and Wiki username.

Note: When you refer to a WikiName of a user (your own or somebody else's) be sure to specify the Main web in front of the Wiki user name, e.g. write it as Main.WikiUsername. This assures that the name will be linked automatically to the TWiki.Main web, even if the text is written in a different Wiki web.

TWiki can map the Intranet username to the Wiki username automatically, provided that the Login username and Wiki username pair has been entered in the TWikiUsers topic. This happens automatically when you register.

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Apr 2000


(2) Wiki Variables

TWiki expands the following variables enclosed in % percent signs:

Variable: Expanded to:
%WIKIHOMEURL% The base script URL of TWiki, link of Home icon in upper left corner, is http://TWiki.SourceForge.net/
%SCRIPTURL% The script URL of TWiki, is http://TWiki.SourceForge.net/cgi-bin
%SCRIPTURLPATH% The path of the script URL of TWiki, is /cgi-bin
%PUBURL% The public URL of TWiki, is http://TWiki.SourceForge.net/d/pub
%PUBURLPATH% The path of the public URL of TWiki, is /d/pub
%ATTACHURL% The attachment URL of the current topic, is http://TWiki.SourceForge.net/d/pub/Main/TWikiDocumentation
Example: If you attach a file you can refer to it as %ATTACHURL%/image.gif
%ATTACHURLPATH% The path of the attachment URL of the current topic, is /d/pub/Main/TWikiDocumentation
%WIKITOOLNAME% Name of wiki tool, is TWikibeta
%WIKIVERSION% Wiki tool version, is 01 May 2000
%USERNAME% Your login username, is guest
%WIKIUSERNAME% Your Wiki username, if defined in TWikiUsers. Same as %USERNAME% if not defined. Is Main.TWikiGuest
%WEB% The current web, is Main
%TOPIC% The current topic name, is TWikiDocumentation
%DATE% Todays date, is 01 May 2000
%HTTP_HOST% HTTP_HOST environment variable, is
%REMOTE_ADDR% REMOTE_ADDR environment variable, is
%REMOTE_PORT% REMOTE_PORT environment variable, is
%REMOTE_USER% REMOTE_USER environment variable, is
%INCLUDE{"file.ext"}% Server side include, includes the text of a file. The default directory is the current Wiki web. Example: %INCLUDE{"../Know/TopicName.txt"}%
%SEARCH{"str" ...}% Inline search, shows a search result embedded in a topic. Parameter is composed of the search string, followed by optional name="value" pairs:
Pair: Description: Default:
web="Name" Specify Wiki web to search Current web
scope="topic" Search topic name (title) Topic text (body)
regex="on" RegularExpression search Literal search
casesensitive="on" Case sensitive search Ignore case
nosummary="on" Show topic title only Show topic summary
nosearch="on" Suppress search string Show search string
nototal="on" Do not show number of topics found Show number
Example: %SEARCH{"wiki" web="Main" scope="topic"}%

Additional variables are defined in the preferences ( site-level ( SL ) in TWikiPreferences, web-level ( WL ) in WebPreferences of each web, and user level ( UL ) preferences in individual user topics):

Variable: Level: What:
%WIKIWEBMASTER% SL Webmaster email address (sender of email notifications) , is Peter@Thoeny.com
%WIKIWEBLIST% SL List of TWikibeta webs (in upper right corner of topics)
%WEBTOPICLIST% WL Common links of web (second line of topics)
%WEBCOPYRIGHT% SL , WL Copyright notice (bottom right corner of topics)
%WEBBGCOLOR% WL Background color of web
%EDITBOXWIDTH% SL , UL Horizontal size of edit box, is 70
%EDITBOXHEIGHT% SL , UL Vertical size of edit box, is 17
%ATTACHLINKBOX% SL , UL Default state of the link check box in the attach file page. Check box is initially checked if value is set to CHECKED , unchecked if empty. If checked, a link is created to the attached file at the end of the topic. Value is:

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Apr 2000


(3) Notification of Changes by Email

Each TWikibeta web does an automatic email notification of recent changes. Users can subscribe / unsubscribe themselves in WebNotify of each TWiki web. The Perl script mailnotify is called by a deamon in regular intervals. The script is sending an automated email to subscribed users in case some topics changed in a web within this interval.

Implementation note: Edit the cron table so that mailnotify is called every 60 minutes. Please consult man crontab of how to modify the table that schedules program execution at certain intervals. Example:

% crontab -e
15,45 * * * * (cd ~twiki/public_html/bin; ./mailnotify)
The above line will call mailnotify at 15 minutes and 45 minutes passed every hour.

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Apr 2000


(4) TWiki Category Table

It is possible to add a category table to a TWiki web. 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. The category table is shown at the end of a topic. The format of the category table can be defined per TWiki web.

If you want to use a Category Table in a TWiki web you need to have the following three files in the twiki/templates/{Yourweb} directory:

Format of category definition template twikicatitems.tmpl

Valid lines:

select|{name}|{selSize}|{val1}|{val2}|{val3}...
checkbox|{name}|{checkFlag}|{itemsPerLine}|{val1}|{val2}|{val3}...
radio|{name}|{itemsPerLine}|{val1}|{val2}|{val3}...
text|{name}|{charSize}
# comments start with a # character

Explanation:

  {name}             name of tag
  {selSize}          vertical size of SELECT tag
  {val1}|{val2}...   values
  {checkFlag}        set to true for [Set] [Clear] buttons, else set to false
  {itemsPerLine}     input items per line before wrap around, 0 if no wrap around
  {charSize}         number of characters for text fields

Remark: Line radio|UseCategory|0|Yes|No has a special meaning. If present, it is possible to choose in "edit" if the category table is included in the topic or not

Example file:

radio|UseCategory|0|Yes|No, delete this category table
select|TopicClassification|1|Select one...|NoDisclosure|PublicSupported|PublicFAQ
checkbox|OperatingSystem|true|5|OsSolaris|OsSunOS|OsHPUX|OsWin
text|OsVersion|16

Format of twikicatedit.tmpl and twikicatview.tmpl

Use the example below and customize if needed. twikicatedit.tmpl and twikicatview.tmpl can be identical, but they do not have to be.

Attention: <!--TWikiCat--> is needed at the beginning and end as markers. Do not delete them!

Example:

<!--TWikiCat--> <h4> TWikiCategory </h4>
<table border="2" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1">
%REPEAT%<tr>
<td valign="top" align="right"> %CATNAME%:  <br>%CATMODIFIER%</td><td>  %CATVALUE% </td>
</tr>%REPEAT%
</table><!--TWikiCat-->

Above template files will result in the following category table when viewing a topic:

TWikiCategory

TopicClassification:
PublicFAQ
OperatingSystem:
OsSolaris
OsVersion:
2.5 

Above template files will result in the following table when editing a topic:

TWikiCategory

UseCategory :
Yes    No, delete this category table   
TopicClassification :
OperatingSystem :
   
OsSolaris    OsSunOS    OsHPUX    OsWin   
OsVersion :

Note: It is possible to force the values of a category table when creating a new topic. This is useful to create new topics using a form for the topic name. The default values of the category table can be specified as hidden fields if needed, i.e. <input type="hidden" name="someCategory" value="someValue">

Example (edit this page to see the source) :

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Apr 2000


(5) Implementation Notes

Platform

TWiki is written in PERL 5, but it uses also many shell command. The current implementation runs only on a Unix machine. RCS for revision control must be installed on the system.

Directories

Directory: Used for:
twiki/bin TWiki PERL scripts
twiki/pub Public files (FileAttachments, images)
twiki/data source text
twiki/templates HTML templates, used by TWiki scripts

Files in twiki/bin

File: Used for:
.htaccess.txt Authentication. Rename to .htaccess and customize if used
attach Script that shows the attach file page (FileAttachment)
changes Script that shows recent changes
delete (not used yet)
edit Script to edit a topic
geturl Script to fetch URL data
mailnotify Script called by cron job to notify users of changes
oops Script that shows a OK or oops dialog
preview Script to preview topic after edit
rdiff Script to see differences of topics
register Script to register new users
save Script that saves a topic, called by preview
search Script that displays search results
statistics Script to create statistics topic
testenv Script to test CGI environment variables
upload Script that does file upload (FileAttachment)
view Script to view a topic ( the script )
viewfile Script to view an file attachment
wiki.pm main TWiki library
wikicfg.pm for initialization and configuration, used by wiki.pm
wikisearch.pm search engine, used by wiki.pm

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Apr 2000


(6) Installation Notes

These installation steps use the Apache web server on Linux as an example. TWiki should run on other web servers and Unix systems as well.

Note: These installation notes assume user nobody for all files manupulated by the cgi scripts (executed by the web server), and user twiki for all other files. You need to replace user nobody with an other user in case the web server executes the script with a different user ( default for Debian is www-data ). Also, you can substitute user twiki with your own user name.

Here are contents of directories with file permissions. Please note that this is for debugging reasons only and does not exactly reflect the distribution:

directory twiki/bin :

drwxr-xr-x   2 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb 18 18:31 .
drwxr-xr-x   8 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb 26 04:20 ..
-rw-rw-r--   1 twiki   twiki        770 Feb 10 12:10 .htaccess
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       3968 Feb 18 00:26 attach
-rwxr-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       3033 Feb 17 23:57 changes
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       1377 Feb  8 18:18 delete
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       8785 Feb 17 23:58 edit
-rwxr--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1811 Feb  4 14:31 geturl
-rwxr-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       5047 Feb  8 20:33 mailnotify
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       1825 Feb  8 18:29 oops
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       6932 Feb 11 02:06 preview
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       7804 Feb 17 23:59 rdiff
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       7010 Feb 18 00:03 register
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       2501 Jan 25 19:39 save
-rwxr-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       1778 Feb 18 00:04 search
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       9810 Feb  8 18:43 statistics
-rwxr-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki        509 Feb  7 18:55 testenv
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       6856 Feb 18 00:11 upload
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       4922 Feb 17 23:54 view
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       1606 May 21  1999 viewfile
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki      27794 Feb 26 06:03 wiki.pm
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki      10143 Feb 27 04:03 wikicfg.pm
-rw-r-xr-x   1 twiki   twiki       5440 Feb  7 04:36 wikisearch.pm

directory twiki/templates/ :

drwxr-xr-x   7 twiki   twiki       1024 Jan 16 19:39 .
drwxr-xr-x   8 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb 26 04:20 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 twiki   twiki       1024 Jun  8  1999 Know
drwxr-xr-x   2 twiki   twiki       1024 Dec  9  1998 Main
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       2286 Feb 24 21:50 attach.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1272 Feb  8 16:07 attachtable.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1884 Feb 24 21:54 changes.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       2242 Feb 24 21:33 edit.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        965 Feb  8 16:07 mailnotify.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki         30 Jan 14  1999 notedited.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        934 Feb  8 16:07 notext.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        899 Feb  8 16:07 notwiki.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        299 Feb 24 21:58 noweb.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        957 Feb 24 22:17 oops.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        871 Feb 24 22:17 oopsdel.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1330 Feb 24 22:17 oopslocked.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb 24 22:17 oopsregexist.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        912 Feb 24 22:17 oopsregpasswd.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        923 Feb 24 22:17 oopsregrequ.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1125 Feb 24 22:17 oopsregthanks.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        942 Feb 24 22:17 oopsregwiki.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1564 Feb 24 22:17 oopsrev.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        906 Feb 24 22:17 oopsupload.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1535 Feb 24 22:02 preview.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1661 Feb 24 22:04 rdiff.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        263 Aug  3  1999 register.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        936 Feb  8 16:08 registernotify.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1779 Feb 24 22:06 search.tmpl
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1533 Feb 24 21:43 view.tmpl

directory twiki/templates/Main :

drwxr-xr-x   2 twiki   twiki       1024 Dec  9  1998 .
drwxr-xr-x   7 twiki   twiki       1024 Jan 16 19:39 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       2732 Feb 24 21:34 edit.tmpl

directory twiki/templates/Know (has a TWiki Category Table) :

drwxr-xr-x   2 twiki   twiki       1024 Jun  8  1999 .
drwxr-xr-x   7 twiki   twiki       1024 Jan 16 19:39 ..
-rw-rw-r--   1 twiki   twiki        446 Jun  8  1999 notedited.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--   1 twiki   twiki        206 Jun  8  1999 twikicatedit.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--   1 twiki   twiki       1060 Jul 16  1999 twikicatitems.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--   1 twiki   twiki        231 Jun  8  1999 twikicatview.tmpl

directory twiki/data/ :

drwxrwxrwx   8 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb 26 04:17 .
drwxr-xr-x   8 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb 26 04:20 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      2241 Feb 25 20:18 .htpasswd
drwxrwxrwx   2 twiki   twiki       3072 Feb 27 01:15 Know
drwxrwxrwx   2 twiki   twiki       9216 Feb 27 18:16 Main
-rw-rw-rw-   1 twiki   twiki          1 Feb 26 06:01 debug.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody   1263064 Jan 31 23:13 log200001.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody   1063398 Feb 27 18:33 log200002.txt

part of directory twiki/data/Main :

drwxrwxrwx   2 twiki   twiki       9216 Feb 27 18:16 .
drwxrwxrwx   8 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb 26 04:17 ..
-rw-rw-rw-   1 twiki   twiki       5722 Feb 27 18:13 .changes
-rw-rw-rw-   1 twiki   twiki          9 Feb 27 18:15 .mailnotify
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody     26163 Feb 24 12:22 TWikiDocumentation.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody     44133 Feb 24 12:22 TWikiDocumentation.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody     11661 Feb 27 18:13 TWikiHistory.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody     18877 Feb 27 18:13 TWikiHistory.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      3029 Feb 26 04:46 TWikiPreferences.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      3219 Feb 26 04:46 TWikiPreferences.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      7188 Feb 11 21:39 TWikiRegistration.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      7375 Feb 11 21:39 TWikiRegistration.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      3180 Feb 25 20:19 TWikiUsers.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody     16537 Feb 25 20:19 TWikiUsers.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      2613 Feb  7 04:47 TWikiVariables.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      3125 Feb  7 04:47 TWikiVariables.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      2068 Feb 10 11:34 TWikiWeb.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      3610 Feb 10 11:34 TWikiWeb.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      1677 Feb 26 05:11 TWikiWebsTable.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      1866 Feb 26 05:11 TWikiWebsTable.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      2294 Feb 27 17:54 WebHome.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      5282 Feb 27 17:54 WebHome.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody       586 Jan 17 01:05 WebNotify.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      1629 Jan 17 01:05 WebNotify.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      1834 Feb 25 14:13 WebPreferences.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      2023 Feb 25 14:13 WebPreferences.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      4407 Feb 11 21:08 WebSearch.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody     10822 Feb 11 21:08 WebSearch.txt,v
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody  nobody      4416 Feb 27 00:00 WebStatistics.txt
-r--r--r--   1 nobody  nobody     27759 Feb 27 00:00 WebStatistics.txt,v

directory twiki/pub/ :

drwxrwxrwx  11 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb  8 18:10 .
drwxr-xr-x   8 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb 26 04:20 ..
drwxrwxrwx   4 nobody  nobody      1024 Aug 28  1999 Know
drwxrwxrwx  19 nobody  nobody      1024 Feb 27 09:56 Main
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       1078 Jan 14 20:24 favicon.ico
drwxr-xr-x   2 twiki   twiki       1024 Mar 27  1999 icn
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       3016 Sep 10 04:27 twikilogo.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       5320 Sep 10 04:27 twikilogo1.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       6125 Sep 10 04:27 twikilogo2.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       7218 Sep 10 04:27 twikilogo3.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       6710 Sep 11 02:21 twikilogo4.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki       2877 Jun 15  1999 wikiHome.gif

directory twiki/pub/icn/ :

drwxr-xr-x   2 twiki   twiki       1024 Mar 27  1999 .
drwxrwxrwx  11 twiki   twiki       1024 Feb  8 18:10 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        801 Mar 27  1999 _filetypes.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        143 Mar 27  1999 bat.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        926 Mar 27  1999 bmp.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        141 Mar 27  1999 c.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        144 Mar 27  1999 dll.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        152 Mar 27  1999 doc.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        130 Mar 27  1999 else.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        876 Mar 27  1999 exe.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        147 Mar 27  1999 fon.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        142 Mar 27  1999 h.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        156 Mar 27  1999 hlp.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        186 Mar 27  1999 html.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        144 Mar 27  1999 java.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        148 Mar 27  1999 mov.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        150 Mar 27  1999 pdf.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        146 Mar 27  1999 pl.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        150 Mar 27  1999 ppt.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        148 Mar 27  1999 ps.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        148 Mar 27  1999 py.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        130 Mar 27  1999 ram.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        154 Mar 27  1999 reg.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        147 Mar 27  1999 sh.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        155 Mar 27  1999 sniff.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        149 Mar 27  1999 ttf.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        134 Mar 27  1999 txt.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        154 Mar 27  1999 wav.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        152 Mar 27  1999 wri.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        152 Mar 27  1999 xls.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 twiki   twiki        144 Mar 27  1999 zip.gif

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Apr 2000


(7) Upgrading Earlier Versions to TWiki 01 Mai 2000

To upgrade an earlier TWiki version like 01 Sep 1999 to version 01 May 2000 you should do the following things:

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Apr 2000