TWiki Webmaster Reference (ver. 01 Sep 2001)

This page contains all documentation topics as one long and complete reference sheet. Use the extended menu below to jump directly to sections. Doubleclick anywhere on-screen to return to the top of the page.

(You can also browse the TWiki reference as individual pages from the full topics menu.)

Note: Read the most up to date version of this document at http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiDocumentation

Related Topics: TWikiSite, TWikiHistory, TWikiPlannedFeatures, TWikiEnhancementRequests

Warning: Can't find topic TWiki/.TWikiImplementationNotes

Warning: Can't find topic TWiki/.TWikiInstallationNotes

Warning: Can't find topic TWiki/.TWikiUpgradeNotes

Warning: Can't find topic TWiki/.TWikiAuthentication

TWiki Access Control

Restricting read and write access to topics and webs, by Users and groups

TWiki Access Control allows you restrict access to single topics and entire webs, by individual user and by user Groups. Access control, combined with TWikiUserAuthentication, lets you easily create and manage an extremely flexible, fine-grained privilege system.

Tip: TWiki:TWiki.TWikiAccessControlSupplement on TWiki.org has additional documentation on access control.

An Important Control Consideration

Open, freeform editing is the essence of WikiCulture - what makes TWiki different and often more effective than other collaboration tools. For that reason, it is strongly recommended that decisions to restrict read or write access to a web or a topic are made with great care - the more restrictions, the less Wiki in the mix. Experience shows that unrestricted write access works very well because:

• Peer influence is enough to ensure that only relevant content is posted.
• Peer editing - the ability for anyone to rearrange all content on a page - keeps topics focused.
• In TWiki, content is transparently preserved under revision control:
  • Edits can be undone by the administrator (per default a member of TWikiAdminGroup; see #ManagingGroups).
  • Users are encouraged to edit and refactor (condense a long topic), since there's a safety net.

• Create broad-based Groups (for more and varied input), and...
• Avoid creating view-only Users (if you can read it, you should be able to contribute to it).

Permissions settings of the webs on this TWiki site

Web	Sitemap	VIEW		CHANGE		RENAME
	Listed	DENY	ALLOW	DENY	ALLOW	DENY	ALLOW
Main	on
TWiki	on				TWikiAdminGroup		TWikiAdminGroup
DnD	on				DnDGroup TWikiAdminGroup		DnDGroup TWikiAdminGroup
Support	on

Please Note:

• A blank in the the above table may mean either the corresponding control is absent or commented out or that it has been set to a null value. The two conditions have dramatically different and possibly opposed semantics.
• TWikiGuest is the guest account - used by unauthenticated users.
• The TWiki web must not deny view to TWikiGuest; otherwise, people will not be able to register.

Note: Above table comes from SitePermissions

Authentication vs. Access Control

Authentication: Identifies who a user is based on a login procedure. See TWikiUserAuthentication.

Access control: Restrict access to content based on users and groups once a user is identified.

Users and Groups

Access control is based on the familiar concept of Users and Groups. Users are defined by their WikiNames. They can then be organized in unlimited combinations by inclusion in one or more user Groups. For convenience, Groups can also be included in other Groups.

Managing Users

A user can create an account in TWikiRegistration. The following actions are performed:

• WikiName and encrypted password are recorded using the password manager if authentication is enabled.
• A confirmation e-mail is sent to the user.
• A user home page with the WikiName of the user is created in the Main web.
• The user is added to the TWikiUsers topic.

The default visitor name is TWikiGuest. This is the non-authenticated user.

Managing Groups

The following describes the standard TWiki support for groups. Your local TWiki may have an alternate group mapping manager installed. Check with your TWiki administrator if you are in doubt.

Groups are defined by group topics located in the Main web. To create a new group, visit TWikiGroups and enter the name of the new group ending in Group into the "new group" form field. This will create a new group topic with two important settings:

• Set GROUP = < list of Users and/or Groups >
• Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = < list of Users and/or Groups >

The GROUP setting is a comma-separated list of users and/or other groups. Example:

• Set GROUP = Main.SomeUser, Main.OtherUser, Main.SomeGroup

The ALLOWTOPICCHANGE setting defines who is allowed to change the group topic; it is a comma delimited list of users and groups. You typically want to restrict that to the members of the group itself, so it should contain the name of the topic. This prevents users not in the group from editing the topic to give themselves or others access. For example, for the KasabianGroup topic write:

• Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = Main.KasabianGroup

Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you have three spaces, an asterisk, and an extra space in front of any access control rule.

The Super Admin Group

A number of TWiki functions (for example, renaming webs) are only available to administrators. Administrators are simply users who belong to the SuperAdminGroup. This is a standard user group, the name of which is defined by {SuperAdminGroup} setting in configure. The default name of this group is the TWikiAdminGroup. The system administrator may have chosen a different name for this group if your local TWiki uses an alternate group mapping manager but for simplicity we will use the default name TWikiAdminGroup in the rest of this topic.

You can create new administrators simply by adding them to the TWikiAdminGroup topic. For example,

• Set GROUP = Main.ElizabethWindsor, Main.TonyBlair

Restricting Access

You can define who is allowed to read or write to a web or a topic. Note that some plugins may not respect access permissions.

• Restricting VIEW blocks viewing and searching of content. When you restric VIEW to a topic or web, this also restricts INCLUDE and Formatted SEARCH from showing the content of the topics.
• Restricting CHANGE blocks creating new topics, changing topics or attaching files.
• Restricting RENAME prevents renaming of topics within a web.

Note that there is an important distinction between CHANGE access and RENAME access. A user can CHANGE a topic, but thanks to version control their changes cannot be lost (the history of the topic before the change is recorded). However if a topic or web is renamed, that history may be lost. Typically a site will only give RENAME access to administrators and content owners.

Controlling access to a Web

You can define restrictions on who is allowed to view a TWiki web. You can restrict access to certain webs to selected Users and Groups, by:

• authenticating all webs and restricting selected webs: Topic access in all webs is authenticated, and selected webs have restricted access.
• authenticating and restricting selected webs only: Provide unrestricted viewing access to open webs, with authentication and restriction only on selected webs.

• You can define these settings in the WebPreferences topic, preferable towards the end of the topic:
  • Set DENYWEBVIEW = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set DENYWEBCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set DENYWEBRENAME = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set ALLOWWEBRENAME = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >

If your site allows hierarchical webs, then access to sub-webs is determined from the access controls of the parent web, plus the access controls in the sub-web. So, if the parent web has ALLOWWEBVIEW set, this will also apply to the subweb. Also note that you will need to ensure that the parent web's FINALPREFERENCES does not include the access control settings listed above. Otherwise you will not be able override the parent web's access control settings in sub-webs.

Creation and renaming of sub-webs is controlled by the WEBCHANGE setting on the parent web (or ROOTCHANGE for root webs). Renaming is additionally restricted by the setting of WEBRENAME in the web itself.

Note: If you restrict access to the Main, make sure to add the TWikiRegistrationAgent so that users can register. Example:

• • Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = TWikiAdminGroup, TWikiRegistrationAgent

Note: For Web level access rights Setting any of these settings to an empty value has the same effect as not setting them at all. Please note that the documentation of TWiki 4.0 and earlier versions of TWiki 4.1 did not reflect the actual implementation, e.g. an empty ALLOWWEBVIEW does not prevent anyone from viewing the web, and an an empty DENYWEBVIEW does not allow all to view the web.

Controlling access to a Topic

• You can define these settings in any topic, preferable towards the end of the topic:
  • Set DENYTOPICVIEW = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set DENYTOPICCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set DENYTOPICRENAME = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set ALLOWTOPICRENAME = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >

Remember when opening up access to specific topics within a restricted web that other topics in the web - for example, the WebLeftBar - may also be accessed when viewing the topics. The message you get when you are denied access should tell you what topic you were not permitted to access.

Be careful with empty values for any of these.

• Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW =
  This means the same as not setting it at all. (This was documented wrong in versions 4.0.X, 4.1.0 and 4.1.1)

• Set DENYTOPICVIEW =
  Since TWiki 4.0 this means do not deny anyone the right to view this topic. If DENYTOPICVIEW is set to an empty value anyone has access even if ALLOWTOPICVIEW or ALLOWWEBVIEW is defined. This allows to have very restrictive default access rights to an entire web and still allow individual topics to have more open access.

The same rules apply to ALLOWTOPICCHANGE/DENYTOPICCHANGE and APPLYTOPICRENAME/DENYTOPICRENAME. Setting ALLOWTOPICCHANGE or ALLOWTOPICRENAME to en empty value means the same as not defining it. Setting DENYTOPICCHANGE or DENYTOPICRENAME to an empty value means that anyone can edit or rename the topic.

The setting to an empty has caused confusion and great debate and it has been decided that the empty setting syntax will be replaced by something which is easier to understand in the 4.2 version of TWiki. A method to upgrade will be provided. Please read the release notes carefully when you upgrade.

See "How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings" below for more on how ALLOW and DENY interacts.

Controlling access to Attachments

Attachments are referred to directly, and are not normally indirected via TWiki scripts. This means that the above instructions for access control will not apply to attachments. It is possible that someone may inadvertently publicise a URL that they expected to be access-controlled.

The easiest way to apply the same access control rules for attachments as apply to topics is to use the Apache mod_rewrite module, and configure your webserver to redirect accesses to attachments to the TWiki viewfile script. For example,

    ScriptAlias /twiki/bin/ /filesystem/path/to/twiki/bin/
    Alias /twiki/pub/       /filesystem/path/to/twiki/pub/

    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/+twiki/+pub/+TWiki/+.+
    RewriteRule ^/+twiki/+pub/+([^/]+)/+((([^/]+)/+)+)(.+) /twiki/bin/viewfile/$1/$4?filename=$5 [L,PT]

That way all the controls that apply to the topic also apply to attachments to the topic. Other types of webserver have similar support.

Note: Images embedded in topics will load much slower since each image will be delivered by the viewfile script.

Controlling who can manage top-level webs

Top level webs are a special case, because they don't have a parent web with a WebPreferences. So there has to be a special control just for the root level.

• You can define these settings in the Main.%TWIKIPREFSTOPIC% topic, preferable towards the end of the topic:
  • Set DENYROOTCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >
  • Set ALLOWROOTCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of Users and Groups >

How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings

When deciding whether to grant access, TWiki evaluates the following rules in order (read from the top of the list; if the logic arrives at PERMITTED or DENIED that applies immediately and no more rules are applied). You need to read the rules bearing in mind that VIEW, CHANGE and RENAME access may be granted/denied separately.

1. If the user is an administrator
   • access is PERMITTED.
2. If DENYTOPIC is set to a list of wikinames
   • people in the list will be DENIED.
3. If DENYTOPIC is set to empty ( i.e. Set DENYTOPIC = )
   • access is PERMITTED i.e no-one is denied access to this topic.
     Attention: Use this with caution. This is deprecated and will likely change in the next release.
4. If ALLOWTOPIC is set
   1. people in the list are PERMITTED
   2. everyone else is DENIED
5. If DENYWEB is set to a list of wikinames
   • people in the list are DENIED access
6. If ALLOWWEB is set to a list of wikinames
   • people in the list will be PERMITTED
   • everyone else will be DENIED
7. If you got this far, access is PERMITTED

Access Control quick recipes

Obfuscating Webs

Another way of hiding webs is to keep them hidden by not publishing the URL and by preventing the all webs search option from accessing obfuscated webs. Do so by enabling the NOSEARCHALL variable in WebPreferences:

• Set NOSEARCHALL = on

This setup can be useful to hide a new web until content its ready for deployment, or to hide view access restricted webs.

Note: Obfuscating a web without view access control is very insecure, as anyone who knows the URL can access the web.

Restrict Access to Whole TWiki Site

For a firewalled TWiki, e.g. an intranet wiki or extranet wiki, you want to allow only invited people to access your TWiki. In this case, enable user authentication with ApacheLogin and lock down access to the whole twiki/bin and twiki/pub directories to all but valid users. In the Apache .htaccess file or the appropriate .conf file, replace the <FilesMatch "(attach|edit|... section with this:

<FilesMatch ".*">
       require valid-user
</FilesMatch>

If needed, you can further restrict access to selected webs with ALLOWWEBVIEW and other access control settings.

Note: With this configuration, someone with access to the site needs to register new users.

Authenticate all Webs and Restrict Selected Webs

Use the following setup to authenticate users for topic viewing in all webs and to restrict access to selected webs. Requires TWikiUserAuthentication to be enabled.

1. Set require valid-user on your view script in .htaccess or the appropriate Apache .conf file. As of 4.x, this looks like: FilesMatch "(attach|edit|manage|rename|save|view|upload|mail|logon|.*auth).*" (normally view is not in that list).
2. Restrict view access to selected Users and Groups. Set one or both of these variables in its WebPreferences topic:
   • Set DENYWEBVIEW = < list of Users and Groups >
   • Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = < list of Users and Groups >
   • Note: DENYWEBVIEW is evaluated before ALLOWWEBVIEW. Access is denied if the authenticated person is in the DENYWEBVIEW list, or not in the ALLOWWEBVIEW list. Access is granted if DENYWEBVIEW and ALLOWWEBVIEW are not defined.
3. If you still want public users to be able to register automatically follow TWiki:TWiki.RegisterOnViewRestrictedSite.

Authenticate and Restrict Selected Webs Only

Use the following setup to provide unrestricted viewing access to open webs, with authentication only on selected webs. Requires TWikiUserAuthentication to be enabled.

1. Restrict view access to selected Users and Groups. Set one or both of these variables in its WebPreferences topic:
   • Set DENYWEBVIEW = < list of Users and Groups >
   • Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = < list of Users and Groups >
   • Note: DENYWEBVIEW is evaluated before ALLOWWEBVIEW. Access is denied if the authenticated person is in the DENYWEBVIEW list, or not in the ALLOWWEBVIEW list. Access is granted if DENYWEBVIEW and ALLOWWEBVIEW are not defined.

Hide Control Settings

Tip: To hide access control settings from normal browser viewing, you can put them into the topic-local settings. You can access those settings via the "More" screen, as explained in TWikiVariables.

Alternatively, place them in HTML comment markers, but this exposes the access setting during ordinary editing.

<!--
   * Set DENYTOPICCHANGE = Main.SomeGroup
-->

TWiki Templates

Definition of the templates used to render all HTML pages displayed in TWiki

Overview

Templates are plain text with embedded template directives that tell TWiki how to compose blocks of text together, to create something new.

There are two types of template:

• Master Templates: Define the HTML used to display TWiki pages.
• Template Topics: Define default text when you create a new topic

Tip: TWiki:TWiki.TWikiTemplatesSupplement on TWiki.org has supplemental documentation on TWiki templates.

Master Templates

Master templates are also used in the definition of TWikiSkins.

Master templates are stored as text files with the extension .tmpl. They are usually HTML with embedded template directives. The directives are expanded when TWiki wants to generate a user interface screen.

How Template Directives Work

• Directives are of the form %TMPL:<key>% and %TMPL:<key>{"attr"}%.
• Directives:
  • %TMPL:INCLUDE{"file"}%: Includes a template file. The file is found as described below.
  • %TMPL:DEF{"block"}%: Define a block. All text between this and the next %TMPL:END% directive is removed and saved for later use with %TMPL:P.
  • %TMPL:END%: Ends a block definition.
  • %TMPL:P{"var"}%: Includes a previously defined block.
  • %{...}%: is a comment.
• Two-pass processing lets you use a variable before or after declaring it.
• Templates and TWikiSkins work transparently and interchangeably. For example, you can create a skin that overloads only the twiki.tmpl master template, like twiki.print.tmpl, that redefines the header and footer.
• Use of template directives is optional: templates work without them.
• NOTE: Template directives work only for templates: they do not get processed in normal topic text.

TMPL:P also supports simple parameters. For example, given the definition %TMPL:DEF{"x"}% x%P%z%TMPL:END% then %TMPL:P{"x" P="y"}% will expand to xyz.

Note that parameters can simply be ignored; for example, %TMPL:P{"x"}% will expand to x%P%z.

Any alphanumeric characters can be used in parameter names. You are highly recommended to use parameter names that cannot be confused with TWikiVariables.

Note that three parameter names, context, then and else are reserved. They are used to support a limited form of "if" condition that you can use to select which of two templates to use, based on a context identifier:

%TMPL:DEF{"link_inactive"}%<input type="button" disabled value="Link>%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"link_active"}%<input type="button" onclick="link()" value="Link" />%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:P{context="inactive" then="inactive_link" else="active_link"}% for %CONTEXT%

Finding Templates

The master templates shipped with a twiki release are stored in the twiki/templates directory. As an example, twiki/templates/view.tmpl is the default template file for the twiki/bin/view script.

You can save templates in other directories as long as they are listed in the {TemplatePath} configuration setting. The {TemplatePath} is defined in the Miscellaneous section of the configure page.

You can also save templates in user topics. The {TemplatePath} configuration setting defines which topics will be accepted as templates.

Templates that are included with an explicit '.tmpl' extension are looked for only in the templates/ directory. For instance %TMPL:INCLUDE{"example.tmpl"}% will only return templates/example.tmpl, regardless of {TemplatePath} and SKIN settings.

The out-of-the-box setting of {TemplatePath} supports the following search order to determine which template file or topic to use for a particular script or %TMPL:INCLUDE{"script"}% statement. The skin path is set as described in TWikiSkins.

1. templates/web/script.skin.tmpl for each skin on the skin path
   • this usage is supported for compatibility only and is deprecated. Store web-specific templates in TWiki topics instead.
2. templates/script.skin.tmpl for each skin on the skin path
3. templates/web/script.tmpl
   • this usage is supported for compatibility only and is deprecated. Store web-specific templates in TWiki topics instead.
4. templates/script.tmpl
5. The TWiki topic aweb.atopic if the template name can be parsed into aweb.atopic
6. The TWiki topic web.SkinSkinScriptTemplate for each skin on the skin path
7. The TWiki topic web.ScriptTemplate
8. The TWiki topic %SYSTEMWEB%.SkinSkinScriptTemplate for each skin on the skin path
9. The TWiki topic %SYSTEMWEB%.ScriptTemplate

• script refers to the script name, e.g view, edit
• Script refers to the same, but with the first character capitalized, e.g View
• skin refers to a skin name, e.g dragon, pattern. All skins are checked at each stage, in the order they appear in the skin path.
• Skin refers to the same, but with the first character capitalized, e.g Dragon
• web refers to the current web

For example, the example template file will be searched for in the following places, when the current web is Thisweb and the skin path is print,pattern:

1. templates/Thisweb/example.print.tmpl deprecated; don't rely on it
2. templates/Thisweb/example.pattern.tmpl deprecated; don't rely on it
3. templates/example.print.tmpl
4. templates/example.pattern.tmpl
5. templates/Thisweb/example.tmpl deprecated; don't rely on it
6. templates/example.tmpl
7. Thisweb.PrintSkinExampleTemplate
8. Thisweb.PatternSkinExampleTemplate
9. Thisweb.ExampleTemplate
10. TWiki.PrintSkinExampleTemplate
11. TWiki.PatternSkinExampleTemplate
12. TWiki.ExampleTemplate

Template names are usually derived from the name of the currently executing script; however it is also possible to override these settings in the view and edit scripts, for example when a topic-specific template is required. Two preference variables can be used to override the templates used:

• VIEW_TEMPLATE sets the template to be used for viewing a topic
• EDIT_TEMPLATE sets the template for editing a topic.

TMPL:INCLUDE recursion for piecewise customisation, or mixing in new features

If there is recursion in the TMPL:INCLUDE chain (eg twiki.classic.tmpl contains %TMPL:INCLUDE{"twiki"}%, the templating system will include the next twiki.SKIN in the skin path. For example, to create a customisation of pattern skin, where you only want to over-ride the breadcrumbs for the view script, you can create only a view.yourlocal.tmpl:

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%
%TMPL:DEF{"breadcrumb"}% We don't want any crumbs %TMPL:END%

The default {TemplatePath} will not give you the desired result if you put these statements in the topic Thisweb.YourlocalSkinViewTemplate. The default {TemplatePath} will resolve the request to the template/view.pattern.tmpl, before it gets to the Thisweb.YourlocalSkinViewTemplate resolution. You can make it work by prefixing the {TemplatePath} with: $web.YourlocalSkin$nameTemplate.

Default master template

twiki.tmpl is the default master template. It defines the following sections.

Template Topics

The second type of template in TWiki are template topics. Template topics define the default text for new topics. There are three types of template topic:

When you create a new topic using the edit script, TWiki locates a topic to use as a content template according to the following search order:

1. A topic name specified by the templatetopic CGI parameter
   • if no web is specified, the current web is searched first and then the TWiki web
2. WebTopicEditTemplate in the current web
3. WebTopicEditTemplate in the TWiki web

Variable Expansion

When the following variables are used in a template topic, they automatically get expanded when new topic is created based on it:

%STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
...
%ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}% markers are used to embed text that you do not want expanded when a new topic based on the template topic is created. For example, you might want to write in the template topic:

%STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
This template can only be changed by:
   * Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = Main.TWikiAdminGroup
%ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%

%NOP% can be used to prevent expansion of TWiki variables that would otherwise be expanded during topic creation e.g.i escape %SERVERTIME% with %SER%NOP%VERTIME%.

All other variables are unchanged, e.g. are carried over "as is" into the new topic.

Specifying a Form

Sometimes this isn't quite what you want, as it copies all the existing data from the template topic into the new topic. To avoid this and use the default values specified in the form definition instead, you can use the formtemplate CGI parameter to the edit script to specify the name of a form to attach.

See TWikiScripts for information about all the other parameters to edit.

Automatically Generated Topic Names

For TWiki applications it is useful to be able to automatically generate unique topicnames, such as BugID0001, BugID0002, etc. You can add AUTOINC<n> to the topic name in the edit and save scripts, and it will be replaced with an auto-incremented number on topic save. <n> is a number starting from 0, and may include leading zeros. Leading zeros are used to zero-pad numbers so that auto-incremented topic names can sort properly. Deleted topics are not re-used to ensure uniqueness of topic names. That is, the auto-incremented number is always higher than the existing ones, even if there are gaps in the number sequence.

Examples:

• BugAUTOINC0 - creates topic names Bug0, Bug1, Bug2, ... (does not sort properly)
• ItemAUTOINC0000 - creates topic names Item0000, Item0001, Item0002, ... (sorts properly up to 9999)
• DocIDAUTOINC10001 - start with DocID10001, DocID10002, ... (sorts properly up to 99999; auto-links)

Example link to create a new topic:

[[%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/%WEB%/BugIDAUTOINC00001?templatetopic=BugTemplate;topicparent=%TOPIC%;t=%SERVERTIME{"$day$hour$min$sec"}%][Create new item]]

Template Topics in Action

Here is an example for creating new topics (in the Sandbox web) based on a specific template topic and form:

The above form asks for a topic name. A hidden input tag named templatetopic specifies ExampleTopicTemplate as the template topic to use. Here is the HTML source of the form:

<form name="new" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/Sandbox/">
   * New example topic: 
     <input type="text" name="topic" value="ExampleTopicAUTOINC0001" size="30" />
     <input type="hidden" name="templatetopic" value="ExampleTopicTemplate" />
     <input type="hidden" name="topicparent" value="%TOPIC%" />
     <input type="hidden" name="onlywikiname" value="on" />
     <input type="hidden" name="onlynewtopic" value="on" />
     <input type="submit" class="twikiSubmit" value="Create" />
</form>

See TWikiScripts#edit for details of the parameters that the edit script understands.

TIP: You can use the %WIKIUSERNAME% and %DATE% variables in your topic templates to include the signature of the person creating a new topic. The variables are expanded into fixed text when a new topic is created. The standard signature is:
-- %WIKIUSERNAME% - %DATE%

Using Absolute vs Relative URLs in Templates

When you use TWikiVariables such as %PUBURL% and %PUBURLPATH% in templates you should be aware that using %PUBURL% instead of %PUBURLPATH% puts absolute URLs in the produced HTML. This means that when a user saves a TWiki page in HTML and emails the file to someone outside a company firewall, the receiver has a severe problem viewing it. It is therefore recommended always to use the %PUBURLPATH% to refer to images, CSS, Javascript files etc so links become relative. This way browsers just give up right away and show a usable html file.

Related Topics: TWikiSkins, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory

TWiki Skins

Skins overlay regular templates to give different looks and feels 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 feels. 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 this topic with a non-existant skin.

Topic text is not affected by the choice of skin, though a skin can be defined to use a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet), which can sometimes give a radically different appearance to the text.

Relevant links on TWiki.org:

• TWiki:TWiki.TWikiSkinsSupplement - tip: supplemental documentation on TWiki skins
• TWiki:Plugins.SkinPackage - list of all contributed skin packages
• TWiki:Plugins.SkinDevelopment - discussion and feedback on contributed skins
• TWiki:Plugins.SkinBrainstorming - open forum for new skin ideas
• TWiki:Plugins.SkinPackageHowTo - template to create a new skin package

See other types of extensions: TWikiAddOns, TWikiContribs, TWikiPlugins

Changing the default TWiki skin

TWiki default ships with the skin PatternSkin activated. You can set the skin for the whole site, a single web or topic, or for each user individually, by setting the SKIN variable to the name of a skin. If the skin you select doesn't exist, then TWiki will pick up the default templates.

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 an 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 customise, as TWiki can be configured to fall back to another skin if a template is not defined in your skin. Name the files as described above (for example view.myskin.tmpl.

If you use PatternSkin as your starting point, and you want to modify the layout, colors or even the templates to suit your own needs, have a look first at the topics PatternSkinCustomization and PatternSkinCssCookbook.

For your own TWiki skin you are encouraged to show a small 80x31 pixel logo at the bottom of your skin:

<a href="http://twiki.org/"><img src="%PUBURL%/%SYSTEMWEB%/TWikiLogos/T-logo-80x15.gif" alt="This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform" width="80" height="15" title="This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform" border="0" /></a>

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

Note: Two skin names have reserved meanings; text skin, and skin names starting with rss have hard-coded meanings.

The following template files are used for TWiki screens, and are referenced in the TWiki core code. If a skin doesn't define its own version of a template file, then TWiki will fall back to the next skin in the skin path, or finally, to the default version of the template file.

(Certain template files are expected to provide certain TMPL:DEFs - these are listed in sub-bullets)

• addform - used to select a new form for a topic
• attachagain - used when refreshing an existing attachment
• attachnew - used when attaching a new file to a topic
• attachtables - defines the format of attachments at the bottom of the standard topic view
  • ATTACH:files:footer, ATTACH:files:header, ATTACH:files:row, ATTACH:versions:footer, ATTACH:versions:header, ATTACH:versions:row
• changeform - used to change the form in a topic
• changes - used by the changes script
• edit - used for the edit screen
• form
• formtables - used to defined the format of forms
  • FORM:display:footer, FORM:display:header, FORM:display:row
• login - used for loggin in when using the TemplateLoginManager
  • LOG_IN, LOG_IN_BANNER, LOG_OUT, LOGGED_IN_BANNER, NEW_USER_NOTE, UNRECOGNISED_USER
• moveattachment - used when moving an attachment
• oopsaccessdenied - used to format Access Denied messages
  • no_such_topic, no_such_web, only_group, topic_access
• oopsattention - used to format Attention messages
  • already_exists, bad_email, bad_ver_code, bad_wikiname, base_web_missing, confirm, created_web, delete_err, invalid_web_color, invalid_web_name, in_a_group, mandatory_field, merge_notice, missing_action, missing_fields, move_err, missing_action, no_form_def, no_users_to_reset, notwikiuser, oversized_upload, password_changed, password_mismatch, problem_adding, remove_user_done, rename_err, rename_not_wikiword, rename_topic_exists, rename_web_err, rename_web_exists, rename_web_prerequisites, reset_bad, reset_ok, save_error, send_mail_error, thanks, topic_exists, unrecognized_action, upload_name_changed, web_creation_error, web_exists, web_missing, wrong_password, zero_size_upload
• oopschangelanguage - used to prompt for a new language when internationalisation is enabled
• oopsgeneric - a basic dialog for user information; provides "ok" button only
• oopslanguagechanged - used to confirm a new language when internationalisation is enabled
• oopsleaseconflict - used to format lease Conflict messages
  • 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.

Note: It is best to create these templates for your skin. If you TMPL:INCLUDE the default templates, or templates from other skins, when you are defining your own skin, you run the risk that the included file might change and break your skin.

Partial customisation, or adding in new features to an existing skin

You can use recusion in the TMPL:INCLUDE chain (eg twiki.classic.tmpl contains %TMPL:INCLUDE{"twiki"}%, the templating system will include the next twiki.SKIN in the skin path. For example, to create a customisation 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%

Because ClassicSkin and the default templates use the same Template definition names, you can over-ride the edit links in them (or any skin derived from them) using the same view.yourlocal.tmpl (just set SKIN=yourlocal,classic either in TWikiPreferences for globally, or a Web's Webname.WebPreferences for a particular web)

Variables in Skins

You can use template variables, TWikiVariables, and other predefined variables to compose your skins. Some commonly used variables in skins:

The "Go" Box and Navigation Box

The default skins include a "Go" box, also called "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 "Go" box for illustration purposes. You need to have JavaScript enabled for this to work:

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

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

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:

The format of tables of file versions in the Upload screen can also be changed, using the macros:

The ATTACH:row macros are expanded for each file in the attachment table, using the following special tags:

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:

• http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/bin/view/TWiki//TWikiSkins?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.

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

TWiki Variables

Special text strings expand on the fly to display user data or system info

TWikiVariables are text strings - %VARIABLE% or %VARIABLE{ parameter="value" }% - that expand into content whenever a topic is rendered for viewing. There are two types of variables:

1. Preferences variables: Can be defined and changed by the user
2. Predefined variables: Defined by the TWiki system or by Plugins (for example, the SpreadSheetPlugin introduces a %CALC{}% variable)

Using Variables

To use a variable type its name. For example,

• type %T% to get (a preferences variable)
• type %TOPIC% to get TWikiVariables (a predefined variable)
• type %CALC{ "$UPPER(Text)" }% to get TEXT (a variable defined by 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

By convention all settings, predefined variables and variables used by plugins are always UPPER-CASE.

Preferences Variables

Unlike predefined variables, preferences variables can be defined by the user in various places.

Setting Preferences Variables

1. local site 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
5. web level in WebPreferences of each web
6. topic level in topics in webs
7. session variables (if sessions are enabled)

Settings at higher-numbered levels override settings of the same variable at lower numbered levels, unless the variable was included in the setting of FINALPREFERENCES at a lower-numbered level, in which case it is locked at the value it has at that level.

If you are setting a variable and using it in the same topic, note that TWiki reads all the variable settings from the saved version of the topic before it displays anything. This means you can use a variable anywhere in the topic, even if you set it somewhere inconspicuous near the end. But beware: it also means that if you change the setting of a variable you are using in the same topic, Preview will show the wrong thing, and you must Save the topic to see it correctly.

The syntax for setting Variables is the same anywhere in TWiki (on its own TWiki bullet line, including nested bullets):
[multiple of 3 spaces] * [space] Set [space] VARIABLENAME [space] = [space] value

Examples:

• Set VARIABLENAME = value
  • Set VARIABLENAME = value

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. Preferences set in this manner are not visible in the topic text, but take effect nevertheless.

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

   * Set EDITBOXHEIGHT = 10
   * Local EDITBOXHEIGHT = 20

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:

• %BR% - line break
• %BULLET% - bullet sign
• %BB% - line break and bullet combined
• %BB2% - indented line break and bullet
• %RED% text %ENDCOLOR% - colored text (also %YELLOW%, %ORANGE%, %PINK%, %PURPLE%, %TEAL%, %NAVY%, %BLUE%, %AQUA%, %LIME%, %GREEN%, %OLIVE%, %MAROON%, %BROWN%, %BLACK%, %GRAY%, %SILVER%, %WHITE%)
• %H% - Help icon
• %I% - Idea icon
• %M% - Moved to icon
• %N% - New icon
• %P% - Refactor icon
• %Q% - Question icon
• %S% - Pick icon
• %T% - Tip icon
• %U% - Updated icon
• %X% - Alert icon
• %Y% - Done icon

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.

• Predefined variables can be overridden by preferences variables
• Plugins may extend the set of predefined variables (see individual Plugins 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%.

This version of TWiki - TWiki-4.2.0, Tue, 22 Jan 2008, build 16278 - predefines the following variables:

ACTIVATEDPLUGINS -- list of currently activated plugins

• Syntax: %ACTIVATEDPLUGINS%
• Expands to: SpreadSheetPlugin, BlackListPlugin, BreadCrumbsPlugin, CommentPlugin, DpSyntaxHighlighterPlugin, EditHiddenTablePlugin, EditTablePlugin, FilterPlugin, FlexWebListPlugin, IfDefinedPlugin, ImgPlugin, InterwikiPlugin, JQueryPlugin, JQueryTwistyPlugin, NatSkinPlugin, RedDotPlugin, RenderListPlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmartEditPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, TablePlugin, TinyMCEPlugin, TopicCreatePlugin, TreeBrowserPlugin, TreePlugin, TwistyPlugin, WysiwygPlugin
• Related: PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS, FAILEDPLUGINS, PLUGINVERSION

ALLVARIABLES -- list of currently defined TWikiVariables

• Syntax: %ALLVARIABLES%
• Expands to: a table showing all defined TWikiVariables in the current context

AQUA -- start aqua colored text

• AQUA is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %AQUA% aqua text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: aqua text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

ATTACHURL -- full URL for attachments in the current topic

• Syntax: %ATTACHURL%
• Expands to: http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/pub/TWiki//VarATTACHURL
• Example: If you attach a file you can refer to it as %ATTACHURL%/image.gif
• Related: ATTACHURLPATH, PUBURL, PUBURLPATH, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH, FileAttachments

ATTACHURLPATH -- path of the attachment URL of the current topic

• Syntax: %ATTACHURLPATH%
• Expands to: /twiki/pub/TWiki//VarATTACHURLPATH
• Related: ATTACHURL, PUBURL, PUBURLPATH, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH, FileAttachments

AUTHREALM -- authentication realm

• String defined as {AuthRealm} in configure. This is used in certain password encodings, and in login templates as part of the login prompt.
• Syntax: %AUTHREALM%
• Expands to: Enter your LoginName. (Typically First name and last name, no space, no dots, capitalized, e.g. JohnSmith, unless you chose otherwise). Visit TWikiRegistration if you do not have one.
• Related: TWikiUserAuthentication, SESSIONID, SESSIONVAR, LOGIN, LOGOUT, SESSION_VARIABLE

BASETOPIC -- base topic where an INCLUDE started

• The name of the topic where a single or nested INCLUDE started - same as %TOPIC% if there is no INCLUDE
• Syntax: %BASETOPIC%
• Related: BASEWEB, INCLUDINGTOPIC, INCLUDE, TOPIC

BASEWEB -- base web where an INCLUDE started

• The web name where the includes started, e.g. the web of the first topic of nested includes. Same as %WEB% in case there is no include.
• Syntax: %BASEWEB%
• Related: BASETOPIC, INCLUDINGWEB, INCLUDE, WEB

BB -- bullet with line break

• Line break and bullet without indentation.
• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: BB =
  •
• Related: BR, BULLET, BB2, BB3, BB4, CARET, VBAR

BB2 -- level 2 bullet with line break

• Line break and bullet, level 2.
• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: BB2 =
    •
• Related: BR, BULLET, BB, BB3, BB4, VBAR

BB3 -- level 3 bullet with line break

• Line break and bullet, level 3.
• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: BB3 =
      •
• Related: BR, BULLET, BB, BB2, BB4, VBAR

BB4 -- level 4 bullet with line break

• Line break and bullet, level 4.
• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: BB4 =
        •
• Related: BR, BULLET, BB, BB2, BB3, VBAR

BLACK -- start black colored text

• BLACK is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %BLACK% black text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: black text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

BLUE -- start blue colored text

• BLUE is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %BLUE% blue text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: blue text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

BR -- line break

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: BR =
  
• Related: BULLET, BB, BB2, BB3, BB4, CARET, VBAR

BROWN -- start brown colored text

• BROWN is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %BROWN% brown text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: brown text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

BULLET -- bullet character

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: BULLET = •
• Related: BR, BB, BB2, BB3, BB4, CARET, VBAR

CALC{"formula"} -- add spreadsheet calculations to tables and outside tables

• The %CALC{"formula"}% variable is handled by the SpreadSheetPlugin. There are around 80 formulae, such as $ABS(), $EXACT(), $EXISTS(), $GET()/$SET(), $IF(), $LOG(), $LOWER(), $PERCENTILE(), $TIME(), $VALUE().
• Syntax: %CALC{"formula"}%
• Examples:
  • %CALC{"$SUM($ABOVE())"}% returns the sum of all cells above the current cell
  • %CALC{"$EXISTS(Web.SomeTopic)"}% returns 1 if the topic exists
  • %CALC{"$UPPER(Collaboration)"}% returns COLLABORATION
• Related: IF, SpreadSheetPlugin

CARET -- caret symbol

• The caret variable can be used in TWiki tables.
• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: CARET = ^
• Related: BR, BULLET, BB, BB2, BB3, BB4, VBAR

CODE{"language"} -- format and syntax highlight code fragments

• Syntax: %CODE{"language"}%
  • where language is one of bash, c++, c#, java, javascript, lua, makefile, perl, plsql, php3, phython, scheme, tcl, html, xml, verilog, vhdl
• Related: BeautifierPlugin

COMMENT{ attributes } -- insert an edit box into the topic to easily add comments.

• A %COMMENT% without parameters shows a simple text box.
• The following standard attributes are recognized

  Name	Description	Default
  type	This is the name of the template to use for this comment. Comment templates are defined in a TWiki template - see Customisation, below. If this attribute is not defined, the type is whatever is defined by COMMENTPLUGIN_DEFAULT_TYPE, either in this topic or in your WebPreferences.	below
  default	Default text to put into the textarea of the prompt.
  target	Name of the topic to add the comment to	the current topic
  location	Regular expression specifying the comment location in the target topic. Read carefully the CommentPlugin documentation!
  mode	For compatibility with older versions only, synonymous with type
  nonotify	Set to "on" to disable change notification for target topics	off
  noform	Set to "on" to disable the automatic form that encloses your comment block - remember to insert <form> tags yourself! See CommentPluginExamples#noform for an example.	off
  nopost	Set to "on" to disable insertion of the posted text into the topic.	off
  remove	Set to "on" to remove the comment prompt after the first time it is clicked.	off
  button	Button label text	Add comment

• See CommentPlugin for more information

DATE -- signature format date

• Syntax: %DATE%
• Expands to: 22 Apr 2025
• Date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
• Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME{"format"}, SERVERTIME

DISPLAYTIME -- display time

• Syntax: %DISPLAYTIME%
• Expands to: 23 Apr 2025 - 02:23
• Date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure
• Related: DISPLAYTIME{"format"}, GMTIME, SERVERTIME

DISPLAYTIME{"format"} -- formatted display time

• Formatted time - either GMT or Local server time, depending on setting in configure. Same format qualifiers as %GMTIME%
• Syntax: %DISPLAYTIME{"format"}%
• Example: %DISPLAYTIME{"$hou:$min"}% expands to 02:23
• Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME, SERVERTIME

EDITTABLE{ attributes } -- edit TWiki tables using edit fields and other input fields

• The %EDITTABLE{}% variable is handled by the EditTablePlugin
• Syntax: %EDITTABLE{ attributes }%

• Supported attributes:

  Attribute	Comment	Default
  header	Specify the header format of a new table like "|*Food*|*Drink*|". Useful to start a table with only a button	(no header)
  format	The format of one column when editing the table. A cell can be a text input field, or any of these edit field types: • Text input field (1 line):   | text, <size>, <initial value> | • Textarea input field:   | textarea, <rows>x<columns>, <initial value> | • Drop down box:   | select, <size>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc* |   * only one item can be selected • Radio buttons:   | radio, <size*>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc |   * size indicates the number of buttons per line in edit mode • Checkboxes:   | checkbox, <size*>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc |   * size indicates the number of checkboxes per line in edit mode • Fixed label:   | label, 0, <label text> | • Row number:   | row, <offset> | • Date:   | date, <size>, <initial value>, <DHTML date format> | (see Date Field Type)	"text, 16" for all cells
  changerows	Rows can be added and removed if "on" Rows can be added but not removed if "add" Rows cannot be added or removed if "off"	CHANGEROWS Plugin setting
  quietsave	Quiet Save button is shown if "on", hidden if "off"	QUIETSAVE Plugin setting
  include	Other topic defining the EDITTABLE parameters. The first %EDITTABLE% in the topic is used. This is useful if you have many topics with the same table format and you want to update the format in one place.	(none)
  helptopic	Topic name containing help text shown below the table when editing a table. The %STARTINCLUDE% and %STOPINCLUDE% variables can be used in the topic to specify what is shown.	(no help text)
  headerislabel	Table header cells are read-only (labels) if "on"; header cells can be edited if "off" or "0"	"on"
  editbutton	Set edit button text, e.g. "Edit this table"; set button image with alt text, e.g. "Edit table, %PUBURL%/%TWIKIWEB%/TWikiDocGraphics/edittopic.gif"; hide edit button at the end of the table with "hide" (Note: Button is automatically hidden if an edit button is present in a cell)	EDITBUTTON Plugin setting

• Example:
  %EDITTABLE{ format="| text, 20 | select, 1, one, two, three |" changerows="on" }%
| *Name* | *Type* |
| Foo | two |
• Related: See EditTablePlugin for more details

ENCODE{"string"} -- encodes a string to HTML entities

• Encode "special" characters to HTML numeric entities. Encoded characters are:
  • all non-printable ASCII characters below space, except newline ("\n") and linefeed ("\r")
  • HTML special characters "<", ">", "&", single quote (') and double quote (")
  • TWiki special characters "%", "[", "]", "@", "_", "*", "=" and "|"
• Syntax: %ENCODE{"string"}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "string"	String to encode	required (can be empty)
  type="entity"	Encode special characters into HTML entities, like a double quote into ". Does not encode \n or \r.	type="url"
  type="html"	As type="entity" except it also encodes \n and \r	type="url"
  type="quotes"	Escape double quotes with backslashes (\"), does not change other characters	type="url"
  type="url"	Encode special characters for URL parameter use, like a double quote into %22	(this is the default)

• Example: %ENCODE{"spaced name"}% expands to spaced%20name
• Note: Values of HTML input fields must be entity encoded.
  Example: <input type="text" name="address" value="%ENCODE{ "any text" type="entity" }%" />
• Note: Double quotes in strings must be escaped when passed into other TWiki variables.
  Example: %SEARCH{ "%ENCODE{ "string with "quotes"" type="quotes" }%" noheader="on" }%

• Related: URLPARAM

ENDCOLOR -- end colored text

• ENDCOLOR is a rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %RED% red text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: red text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: VarAQUA, VarBLACK, VarBLUE, VarBROWN, VarGRAY, VarGREEN, VarLIME, VarMAROON, VarNAVY, VarOLIVE, VarORANGE, VarPINK, VarPURPLE, VarRED, VarSILVER, VarTEAL, VarWHITE, VarYELLOW, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

ENDSECTION{"name"} -- marks the end of a named section within a topic

• Syntax: %ENDSECTION{"name"}%
• Syntax: %ENDSECTION{type="include"}%
• Supported parameter:

  Parameter:	Description:
  "name"	Name of the section.
  type="..."	Type of the section being terminated; supported types "section", "include", "templateonly".

• If the STARTSECTION is named, the corresponding ENDSECTION must also be named with the same name. If the STARTSECTION specifies a type, then the corresponding ENDSECTION must also specify the same type. If the section is unnamed, ENDSECTION will match with the nearest unnamed %STARTSECTION% of the same type above it.
• Related: STARTSECTION

ENV{"varname"} -- inspect the value of an environment variable

• Returns the current value of the environment variable in the CGI (Common Gateway Interface) environment. This is the environment that the TWiki scripts run in on the web server.
• Note: For security reasons, only those variables whose names match the regular expression in {AccessibleENV} in the Security Settings/Miscellaneous section of configure can be displayed. Any other variable will just be shown as an empty string, irrespective of its real value.
• Example: %ENV{MOD_PERL}% displays as: not set
• If a variable is undefined (as against being set to the empty string) it will be returned as not set.
• Related: HTTP_HOST, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_PORT, REMOTE_USER

FAILEDPLUGINS -- debugging for plugins that failed to load, and handler list

• Syntax: %FAILEDPLUGINS%
• Expands to: See TWikiPlugins#FAILEDPLUGINS
• Related: PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS, ACTIVATEDPLUGINS, PLUGINVERSION

FORMFIELD{"fieldname"} -- renders a field in the form attached to some topic

• Syntax: %FORMFIELD{"fieldname"}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "fieldname"	The name of a TWiki form field	required
  topic="..."	Topic where form data is located. May be of the form Web.TopicName	Current topic
  format="..."	Format string. $value expands to the field value, and $title expands to the fieldname	"$value"
  default="..."	Text shown when no value is defined for the field	""
  alttext="..."	Text shown when field is not found in the form	""

• Example: %FORMFIELD{"ProjectName" topic="Projects.SushiProject" default="(not set)" alttext="ProjectName field found"}%
• Related: SEARCH

GMTIME -- GM time

• Syntax: %GMTIME%
• Expands to: 22 Apr 2025 - 16:23
• Date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
• Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME{"format"}, SERVERTIME

GMTIME{"format"} -- formatted GM time

• Syntax: %GMTIME{"format"}%
• Supported variables:

  Variable:	Unit:	Example
  $seconds	seconds	59
  $minutes	minutes	59
  $hours	hours	23
  $day	day of month	31
  $wday	day of the Week (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat)	Thu
  $dow	day of the week (Sun = 0)	2
  $week	number of week in year (ISO 8601)	34
  $month	short name of month	Dec
  $mo	2 digit month	12
  $year	4 digit year	1999
  $ye	2 digit year	99
  $tz	either "GMT" (if set to gmtime), or "Local" (if set to servertime)	GMT
  $iso	ISO format timestamp	2025-04-22T16:23:39Z
  $rcs	RCS format timestamp	2025/04/22 16:23:39
  $http	E-mail & http format timestamp	Tue, 22 Apr 2025 16:23:39 GMT
  $epoch	Number of seconds since 00:00 on 1st January, 1970	1745339019

• Variables can be shortened to 3 characters
• Example: %GMTIME{"$day $month, $year - $hour:$min:$sec"}% expands to 22 Apr, 2025 - 16:23:39
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
• Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME, REVINFO, SERVERTIME

GRAY -- start gray colored text

• GRAY is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %GRAY% gray text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: gray text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

GREEN -- start green colored text

• GREEN is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %GREEN% green text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: green text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

GROUPS -- a formatted list of groups

• Expands to a formatted list of user groups in your TWiki.
• Syntax: %GROUPS%
• The variable is intended to be used in TWikiGroups, to allow a group listing for various user mapping managers.
• Related: REMOTE_USER, USERINFO, USERNAME, WIKIUSERNAME, WIKIUSERSTOPIC

H -- help icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: H =
• Related: I, ICON, M, N, P, Q, S, T, U, X, Y

HOMETOPIC -- home topic in each web

• Syntax: %HOMETOPIC%
• Expands to: WebHome, renders as TWiki
• Related: NOTIFYTOPIC, STATISTICSTOPIC, TOPIC

HTTP -- get HTTP headers

• Called with the name of an HTTP header field, returns its value. Capitalization and the use of hyphens versus underscores are not significant.
• Syntax: %HTTP%
• Syntax: %HTTP{"Header-name"}%
• Examples:

  %HTTP%
  %HTTP{"Accept-language"}%
  %HTTP{"User-Agent"}%	Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit? /537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot? /1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)

• Note: You can see the HTTP headers your browser sends to the server on a number of sites e.g. http://www.ericgiguere.com/tools/http-header-viewer.html
• Related: HTTPS, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_PORT, REMOTE_USER

HTTP_HOST -- environment variable

• Syntax: %HTTP_HOST%
• Expands to: twiki.keegel.id.au
• Related: ENV, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_PORT, REMOTE_USER

HTTPS -- get HTTPS headers

• The same as %HTTP% but operates on the HTTPS environment variables present when the SSL protocol is in effect. Can be used to determine whether SSL is turned on.
• Syntax: %HTTPS%
• Syntax: %HTTPS{"Header-name"}%
• Related: HTTP, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_PORT, REMOTE_USER

I -- idea icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: I =
• Related: H, ICON, M, N, P, Q, S, T, U, X, Y

ICON{"name"} -- small documentation graphic or icon of common attachment types

• Generates the HTML img tag of a small graphic image attached to TWikiDocGraphics. Images typically have a 16x16 pixel size. You can select a specific image by name, or you can give a full filename, in which case the type of the file will be used to select one of a collection of common file type icons.
• Syntax: %ICON{"name"}%
• Examples:
  • %ICON{"flag-gray"}% returns
  • %ICON{"pdf"}% returns
  • %ICON{"smile.pdf"}% returns
  • %ICON{"/dont/you/dare/smile.pdf"}% returns
  • %ICON{"http://twiki.org/doc/xhtml.xsl"}% returns
• Graphic samples: arrowbright, bubble, choice-yes, hand
• File type samples: bmp, doc, gif, hlp, html, mp3, pdf, ppt, txt, xls, xml, zip
• Related: ICONURL, ICONURLPATH, TWikiPreferences, FileAttachments, TWikiDocGraphics

ICONURL{"name"} -- URL of small documentation graphic or icon

• Generates the full URL of a TWikiDocGraphics image, which TWiki renders as an image. The related %ICON{"name"}% generates the full HTML img tag. Specify image name or full filename (see ICON for details on filenames.)
• Syntax: %ICONURL{"name"}%
• Examples:
  • %ICONURL{"arrowbright"}% returns http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/arrowbright.gif
  • %ICONURL{"novel.pdf"}% returns http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/pdf.gif
  • %ICONURL{"/queen/boheme.mp3"}% returns http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/mp3.gif
• Related: ICONURLPATH, ICON, TWikiPreferences, FileAttachments, TWikiDocGraphics

ICONURLPATH{"name"} -- URL path of small documentation graphic or icon

• Generates the URL path of a TWikiDocGraphics image, typically used in an HTML img tag. Specify image name or full filename (see ICON for details on filenames.)
• Syntax: %ICONURLPATH{"name"}%
• Examples:
  • %ICONURLPATH{"locktopic"}% returns /twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/locktopic.gif
  • %ICONURLPATH{"eggysmell.xml"}% returns /twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/xml.gif
  • %ICONURLPATH{"/doc/xhtml.xsl"}% returns /twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/xsl.gif
• Related: ICONURL, ICON, TWikiPreferences, FileAttachments, TWikiDocGraphics

IF{"condition" ...} -- simple conditionals

• Evaluate a condition and show one text or another based on the result. See details in IfStatements
• Syntax: %IF{"CONDITION" then="THEN" else="ELSE"}% shows "THEN" if "CONDITION" evaluates to TRUE, otherwise "ELSE" will be shown
• Example: %IF{"defined FUNFACTOR" then="FUNFACTOR is defined" else="FUNFACTOR is not defined"}% renders as FUNFACTOR is not defined
• Related: $IF() of SpreadSheetPlugin

INCLUDE{"page"} -- include other topic or web page

• Syntax: %INCLUDE{"page" ...}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "SomeTopic"	The name of a topic located in the current web, i.e. %INCLUDE{"WebNotify"}%
  "Web.Topic"	A topic in another web, i.e. %INCLUDE{"TWiki.SiteMap"}%
  "http://..."	A full qualified URL, i.e. %INCLUDE{"http://twiki.org:80/index.html"}%. Supported content types are text/html and text/plain. if the URL resolves to an attachment file on the server this will automatically translate to a server-side include.
  pattern="..."	Include a subset of a topic or a web page. Specify a RegularExpression that scans from start ('^') to end and contains the text you want to keep in parenthesis, e.g., pattern="^.*?(from here.*?to here).*". IncludeTopicsAndWebPages has more.	none
  rev="2"	Include a previous topic revision; N/A for URLs	top revision
  raw="on"	When a page is included, normally TWiki will process it, doing the following: 1) Alter relative links to point back to originating host, 2) Remove some basic HTML tags (html, head, body, script) and finally 3) Remove newlines from HTML tags spanning multiple lines. If you prefer to include exactly what is in the source of the originating page set this to on. raw="on" is short for disableremoveheaders="on", disableremovescript="on", disableremovebody="on", disablecompresstags="on" and disablerewriteurls="on".	disabled
  literal="on"	While using the raw option will indeed include the raw content, the included content will still be processed and rendered like regular topic content. To disable parsing of the included content, set the literal option to "on".	disabled
  disableremoveheaders="on"	Bypass stripping headers from included HTML (everything until first </head> tag)	disabled
  disableremovescript="on"	Bypass stripping all <script> tags from included HTML	disabled
  disableremovebody="on"	Bypass stripping the </body> tag and everything around over and below it	disabled
  disablecompresstags="on"	Bypass replacing newlines in HTML tags with spaces. This compression step rewrites unmatched <'s into &lt; entities unless bypassed	disabled
  disablerewriteurls="on"	Bypass rewriting relative URLs into absolute ones	disabled
  warn="off"	Warn if topic include fails: Fail silently (if off); output default warning (if set to on); else, output specific text (use $topic for topic name)	%INCLUDEWARNING% preferences setting
  section="name"	Includes only the specified named section, as defined in the included topic by the STARTSECTION and ENDSECTION variables. Nothing is shown if the named section does not exists.
  PARONE="val 1"   PARTWO="val 2"	Any other parameter will be defined as a variable within the scope of the included topic. The example parameters on the left will result in %PARONE% and %PARTWO% being defined within the included topic.

• Note: JavaScript in included webpages is filtered out as a security precaution per default (disable filter with disableremovescript parameter)
• Examples: See IncludeTopicsAndWebPages
• Related: BASETOPIC, BASEWEB, INCLUDINGTOPIC, INCLUDINGWEB, STARTINCLUDE, STOPINCLUDE, STARTSECTION, ENDSECTION

INCLUDINGTOPIC -- name of topic that includes current topic

• The name of the topic that includes the current topic - same as %TOPIC% in case there is no include
• Syntax: %INCLUDINGTOPIC%
• Related: BASETOPIC, INCLUDINGWEB, INCLUDE, TOPIC

INCLUDINGWEB -- web that includes current topic

• The web name of the topic that includes the current topic - same as %WEB% if there is no INCLUDE.
• Syntax: %INCLUDINGWEB%
• Related: BASEWEB, INCLUDINGTOPIC, INCLUDE, WEB

LANGUAGE -- current user's language

• Returns the language code for the language used as the current user. This is the language actually used by TWiki Internationalization (e.g. in user interface).
• The language is detected from the user's browser, unless some site/web/user/session-defined setting overrides it:
  • If the LANGUAGE preference is set, it's used as user's language instead of any language detected from the browser.
  • Avoid defining LANGUAGE at a non per-user way, so each user can choose his/her preferred language.
• Related: LANGUAGES

LANGUAGES -- list available TWiki languages

• List the languages available (as PO files) to TWiki. Those are the languages in which TWiki's user interface is available.
• Syntax: %LANGUAGES{...}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  format	format for each item. See below for variables available in the format string.	"   * $langname"
  separator	separator between items.	"\n" (newline)
  marker="selected"	Text for $marker if the item matches selection	"selected"
  selection="%LANGUAGE%"	Current language to be selected in list	(none)

• format variables:

  Variable	Meaning
  $langname	language's name, as informed by the translators
  $langtag	language's tag. Ex: en, pt-br, etc.

• Example: <select>%LANGUAGES{format="<option $marker value='$langtag'>$langname</option>" selection="%LANGUAGE%"}%</select> creates an option list of the available languages with the current language selected

LIME -- start lime colored text

• LIME is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %LIME% lime text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: lime text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

LOCALSITEPREFS -- web.topicname of site preferences topic

• The full name of the local site preferences topic. These local site preferences overload the system level preferences defined in TWiki.TWikiPreferences.
• Syntax: %LOCALSITEPREFS%
• Expands to: Main.TWikiPreferences, renders as TWikiPreferences

LOGIN -- present a full login link

• Syntax: %LOGIN%
• Expand to: Log In
• Related: TWikiUserAuthentication, SESSIONID, SESSIONVAR, LOGOUT, SESSION_VARIABLE

LOGOUT -- present a full logout link

• Syntax: %LOGOUT%
• Expand to:
• Related: TWikiUserAuthentication, SESSIONID, SESSIONVAR, LOGIN, SESSION_VARIABLE

M -- moved to... icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: M =
• Related: H, I, ICON, N, P, Q, S, T, U, X, Y

MAINWEB -- synonym for USERSWEB

• Deprecated. Please use %USERSWEB% instead.

MAKETEXT -- creates text using TWiki's I18N infrastructure

• Syntax: %MAKETEXT{"string" args="..."}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter	Description	Default
  "text" or string="text"	The text to be displayed.	none
  args="param1, param2"	a comma-separated list of arguments to be interpolated in the string, replacing the [_N] placeholders in it.	none

• Examples:
  • %MAKETEXT{string="Notes:"}%
    expands to
    Notes:
  • %MAKETEXT{"If you have any questions, please contact [_1]." args="%WIKIWEBMASTER%"}%
    expands to
    If you have any questions, please contact webmaster@keegel.id.au.
  • %MAKETEXT{"Did you want to [[[_1]][reset [_2]'s password]]?" args="%SYSTEMWEB%.ResetPassword,%WIKIUSERNAME%"}%
    expands to
    Did you want to reset Main.TWikiGuest's password?
• Notes:
  • TWiki will translate the string to the current user's language only if it has such string in its translation table for that language.
  • Amperstands (&) followed by one letter (one of a...z, A...Z) (say, X) in the translatable string will be translated to <span class='twikiAccessKey'>X</span>. This is used to implement access keys. If you want to write an actual amperstand that stays just before a letter, write two consecutive amperstands (&&): they will be transformed in just one.
  • translatable string starting with underscores (_) are reserved. You cannot use translatable phrases starting with an underscore.
  • Make sure that the translatable string is constant. Specially, do not include %VARIABLES% inside the translatable strings (since they will get expanded before the %MAKETEXT{...}% itself is handled).

MAROON -- start maroon colored text

• MAROON is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %MAROON% maroon text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: maroon text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

META -- displays meta-data

• Provided mainly for use in templates, this variable generates the parts of the topic view that relate to meta-data (attachments, forms etc.) The formfield item is the most likely to be useful to casual users.
• Syntax: %META{ "item" ...}%
• Parameters:

  Item	Options	Description
  "formfield"	name="...": name of the field. The field value can be shortened as described in FormattedSearch for $formfield newline="...": by default, each newline character will be rewritten to <br /> to allow metadata that contains newlines to be used in tables, etc. $n indicates a newline character. bar="...": by default, each vertical bar is rewritten to an HTML entity so as to not be mistaken for a table separator.	Show a single form field
  "form"	none	Generates the table showing the form fields. See Form Templates
  "attachments"	all="on" to show hidden attachments. title="..." to show a title - only if attachments are displayed. template="..." to use a custom template for the rendering of attachments; default attachtables is used.	Generates the list of attachments
  "moved"	none	Details of any topic moves
  "parent"	dontrecurse="on": By default recurses up tree, this has some cost. nowebhome="on": Suppress WebHome. prefix="...": Prefix that goes before parents, but only if there are parents, default "". format="...": Format string used to display each parent topic where $web expands to the web name, and $topic expands to the topic name; default: "[[$web.$topic][$topic]]" suffix="...": Suffix, only appears if there are parents; default "". separator="...": Separator between parents; default " > ".	Generates the parent link

• Related: METASEARCH

METASEARCH -- special search of meta data

• Syntax: %METASEARCH{...}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  type="topicmoved"	What sort of search is required? "topicmoved" if search for a topic that may have been moved "parent" if searching for topics that have a specific parent i.e. its children "field" if searching for topics that have a particular form field value (use the name and value parameters to specify which field to search)	Required
  web="%WEB%"	Wiki web to search: A web, a list of webs separated by whitespace, or all webs.	Current web
  topic="%TOPIC%"	The topic the search relates to, for topicmoved and parent searches	All topics in a web
  name	form field to search, for field type searches. May be a regular expression (see SEARCH).
  value	form field value, for field type searches. May be a regular expression (see SEARCH).
  title="Title"	Text that is prefixed to any search results	empty
  format="..."	Custom format results. Supports same format strings as SEARCH. See FormattedSearch for usage, variables & examples	Results in table
  default="none"	Default text shown if no search hit	Empty

• Example: %METASEARCH{type="topicmoved" web="%WEB%" topic="%TOPIC%" title="This topic used to exist and was moved to: "}%
• Example: You may want to use this in WebTopicViewTemplate and WebTopicNonWikiTemplate:
  %METASEARCH{type="parent" web="%WEB%" topic="%TOPIC%" title="Children: "}%
• Example: %METASEARCH{type="field" name="Country" value="China"}%
• Related: SEARCH, META
• Note: METASEARCH is deprecated in favour of the new and much more powerful query type search. See SEARCH and QuerySearch.

N -- "new" icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: N =
• Related: H, I, ICON, M, P, Q, S, T, U, X, Y

NAVY -- start navy blue colored text

• NAVY is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %NAVY% navy text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: navy text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

NOP -- template text not to be expanded in instantiated topics

• Syntax: %NOP%
  • In normal topic text, expands to <nop>, which prevents expansion of adjacent variables and wikiwords
  • When the topic containing this is used as a template for another topic, it is removed.
• Syntax: %NOP{...}% deprecated
  • In normal topic text, expands to whatever is in the curly braces (if anything).
  • Note: This is deprecated. Do not use it. Use %STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}% .. %ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}% instead (see TWikiTemplates for more details).
• Related: STARTSECTION, TWikiTemplates

NOTIFYTOPIC -- name of the notify topic

• Syntax: %NOTIFYTOPIC%
• Expands to: WebNotify, renders as WebNotify
• Related: HOMETOPIC, STATISTICSTOPIC, TOPIC

OLIVE -- start olive green colored text

• OLIVE is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %OLIVE% olive text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: olive text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

ORANGE -- start orange colored text

• ORANGE is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %ORANGE% orange text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: orange text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

P -- pencil icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: P =
• Related: H, I, ICON, M, N, Q, S, T, U, X, Y

PINK -- start pink colored text

• PINK is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %PINK% pink text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: pink text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS -- list of plugin descriptions

• Syntax: %PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%
• Expands to:
  • SpreadSheetPlugin (any TWiki, $Rev: 16273 (22 Jan 2008) $): Add spreadsheet calculation like "$SUM( $ABOVE() )" to TWiki tables and other topic text
  • BlackListPlugin (2013-03-22, $Rev: 25492 (2013-03-22) $): Utility to keep malicious users away from a public TWiki site
  • BreadCrumbsPlugin (v2.01, $Rev: 0 (01 Sep 2008) $): A flexible way to display breadcrumbs navigation
  • CommentPlugin (TWiki-4, $Rev: 15776 (22 Jan 2008) $): Allows users to quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle
  • DpSyntaxHighlighterPlugin (1.5.2, $Rev: 16559 (12 Dec 2008) $): Client side syntax highlighting using the dp.SyntaxHighlighter
  • EditHiddenTablePlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 15561 (03 Jul 2008) $): Edit TWiki tables rows using a form
  • EditTablePlugin (4.7.10, $Rev: 16239 (22 Jan 2008) $): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
  • EditTablerowPlugin: (disabled)
  • ExcelImportExportPlugin: (disabled)
  • FilterPlugin (1.51, $Rev: 16970 (03 Jul 2008) $): Substitute and extract information from content by using regular expressions
  • FlexWebListPlugin (v1.23, $Rev: 16971 (03 Jul 2008) $): Flexible way to display hierarchical weblists
  • IfDefinedPlugin (v1.02, $Rev: 16972 (03 Jul 2008) $): Render content conditionally
  • ImgPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 10608$): Allows TWiki variable-style insertion of images in topics
  • InterwikiPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 14913 (17 Sep 2007) $): Link ExternalSite:Page text to external sites based on aliases defined in a rules topic
  • JQueryPlugin (0.90, $Rev: 17031 (16 Jul 2008) $): jQuery JavaScript library for TWiki
  • JQueryTwistyPlugin (1.2, $Rev: 16736 (03 Jul 2008) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
  • NatSkinPlugin (3.00-pre20, $Rev: 16978 (03 Jul 2008) $): Theming engine for NatSkin
  • PhotoarchivePlugin: (disabled)
  • PreferencesPlugin: (disabled)
  • RedDotPlugin (1.40, $Rev: 16137 (03 Jan 2008) $): Renders edit-links as little red dots
  • RenderListPlugin (2.0, $Rev: 16235 (22 Jan 2008) $): Render bullet lists in a variety of formats
  • SlideShowPlugin (Any TWiki, $Rev: 15091 (22 Jan 2008) $): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
  • SmartEditPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 9598$): Provide SmartEditAddOn
  • SmiliesPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 16049 (22 Jan 2008) $): Render smilies as icons, like for  :-) or for  :eek:
  • TablePlugin (1.032, $Rev: 16182 (22 Jan 2008) $): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
  • TinyMCEPlugin (03 Aug 2008, $Rev: 17303 (12 Dec 2008) $): Integration of TinyMCE? with WysiwygPlugin
  • TopicCreatePlugin (1.000): Automatically create a set of topics and attachments at topic save time
  • TreeBrowserPlugin (v1.8): Renders a list as a collapsable/expandable tree.
  • TreePlugin (1.7): Dynamic generation of TWiki topic trees
  • TwistyPlugin (1.4.9, $Rev: 15653 (19 Nov 2007) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
  • WysiwygPlugin (03 Aug 2008, $Rev: 17720 (12 Dec 2008) $): Translator framework for Wysiwyg editors
• Related: ACTIVATEDPLUGINS, FAILEDPLUGINS, PLUGINVERSION

PLUGINVERSION -- the version of a TWiki Plugin, or the TWiki Plugins API

• Syntax: %PLUGINVERSION{"name"}% to get the version of a specific plugin
• Example: %PLUGINVERSION{"InterwikiPlugin"}% expands to $Rev: 14913 (17 Sep 2007) $
• Syntax: %PLUGINVERSION% to get the version of the API
• Expands to: 1.2
• Related: WIKIVERSION, ACTIVATEDPLUGINS, FAILEDPLUGINS, PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS

PUBURL -- the base URL of attachments

• Syntax: %PUBURL%
• Expands to: http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/pub
• Example: You can refer to a file attached to another topic with %PUBURL%/%WEB%/OtherTopic/image.gif
• Related: ATTACHURL, ATTACHURLPATH, PUBURLPATH, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH, FileAttachments

PUBURLPATH -- the base URL path of attachments

• Syntax: %PUBURLPATH%
• Expands to: /twiki/pub
• Related: ATTACHURL, ATTACHURLPATH, PUBURL, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH, FileAttachments

PURPLE -- start purple colored text

• PURPLE is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %PURPLE% purple text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: purple text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

Q -- question icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: Q =
• Related: H, I, ICON, M, N, P, S, T, U, X, Y

QUERYPARAMS -- show paramaters to the query

• Expands the parameters to the query that was used to display the page.
• Syntax: %QUERYPARAMS{...}%
• Parameters:
  • format="..." format string for each entry, default $name=$value
  • separator="..." separator string, default separator="$n" (newline)
  • encoding="..." the encoding to apply to parameter values; see ENCODE for a description of the available encodings. If this parameter is not given, no encoding is performed.
• The following escape sequences are expanded in the format string:

• Example:
  • %QUERYPARAMS{format="<input type='hidden' name='$name' value='$value' encoding="entity" />"}%
• See also QUERYSTRING, URLPARAM

QUERYSTRING -- full, unprocessed string of parameters to this URL

• String of all the URL parameters that were on the URL used to get to the current page. For example, if you add ?name=Samantha;age=24;eyes=blue to this URL you can see this in action. This string can be appended to a URL to pass parameter values on to another page.
• Note: URLs built this way are typically restricted in length, typically to 2048 characters. If you need more space than this, you will need to use an HTML form and %QUERYPARAMS%.
• Syntax: %QUERYSTRING%
• Expands to: rev=25;skin=clean.nat%2Cpattern
• Related: QUERYPARAMS, URLPARAM

RED -- start red colored text

• RED is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %RED% red text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: red text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

REMOTE_ADDR -- environment variable

• Syntax: %REMOTE_ADDR%
• Expands to: 3.141.244.88
• Related: ENV, HTTP_HOST, REMOTE_PORT, REMOTE_USER

REMOTE_PORT -- environment variable

• Syntax: %REMOTE_PORT%
• Expands to: 30243
• Related: ENV, HTTP_HOST, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_USER

REMOTE_USER -- environment variable

• Syntax: %REMOTE_USER%
• Expands to:
• Related: ENV, HTTP_HOST, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_PORT, USERNAME, WIKINAME, WIKIUSERNAME

RENDERLIST -- render bullet lists in a variety of formats

• The %RENDERLIST% variable is handled by the RenderListPlugin
• Syntax: %RENDERLIST%
• Syntax: %RENDERLIST{ "org" focus="Sales.WestCoastTeam" }%
• Example:
  %RENDERLIST{ "org" }%
   * [[Eng.WebHome][Engineering]]
      * [[Eng.TechPubs][Tech Pubs]]
   * [[Sales.WestCoastTeam][Sales]]
      * [[Sales.EastCoastTeam][East Coast]]
      * [[Sales.WestCoastTeam][West Coast]]
• Related: RenderListPlugin

REVINFO -- revision information of current topic

• Syntax: %REVINFO%
• Expands to: r2 - 22 Jan 2008 - 14:21:36 - TWikiContributor
• Date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure
• Related: REVINFO{"format"}

REVINFO{"format"} -- formatted revision information of topic

• Syntax: %REVINFO{"format"}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "format"	Format of revision information, see supported variables below	"r1.$rev - $date - $wikiusername"
  web="..."	Name of web	Current web
  topic="..."	Topic name	Current topic
  rev="1.5"	Specific revison number	Latest revision

• Supported variables in format:

  Variable:	Unit:	Example
  $web	Name of web	Current web
  $topic	Topic name	Current topic
  $rev	Revison number. Prefix r1. to get the usual r1.5 format	5
  $username	Login username of revision	jsmith
  $wikiname	WikiName of revision	JohnSmith
  $wikiusername	WikiName with Main web prefix	Main.JohnSmith
  $date	Revision date. Actual date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure	21 Sep 2006
  $time	Revision time	23:24:25
  $iso	Revision date in ISO date format	2006-09-22T06:24:25Z
  $min, $sec, etc.	Same date format qualifiers as GMTIME{"format"}

• Example: %REVINFO{"$date - $wikiusername" rev="1.1"}% returns revision info of first revision
• Related: GMTIME{"format"}, REVINFO

S -- red star icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: S =
• Related: H, I, ICON, M, N, P, Q, T, U, X, Y

SCRIPTNAME -- name of current script

• The name of the current script is shown, including script suffix, if any (for example viewauth.cgi)
• Syntax: %SCRIPTNAME%
• Expands to: view
• Related: SCRIPTSUFFIX, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH

SCRIPTSUFFIX -- script suffix

• Some TWiki installations require a file extension for CGI scripts, such as .pl or .cgi
• Syntax: %SCRIPTSUFFIX%
• Expands to:
• Related: SCRIPTNAME, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH

SCRIPTURL -- base URL of TWiki scripts

• Syntax: %SCRIPTURL%
• Expands to: http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/bin
• Note: The edit script should always be used in conjunction with ?t=%GMTIME{"$epoch"}% to ensure pages about to be edited are not cached in the browser
• Related: PUBURL, SCRIPTNAME, SCRIPTSUFFIX, SCRIPTURL{"script"}, SCRIPTURLPATH

SCRIPTURL{"script"} -- URL of TWiki script

• Syntax: %SCRIPTURL{"script"}%
• Expands to: http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/bin/script
• Example: To get the authenticated version of the current topic you can write %SCRIPTURL{"viewauth"}%/%WEB%/%TOPIC% which expands to http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/bin/viewauth/TWiki//TWikiVariables
• Note: In most cases you should use %SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"}% instead, as it works with URL rewriting much better
• Related: PUBURL, SCRIPTNAME, SCRIPTSUFFIX, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH, SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"}

SCRIPTURLPATH -- base URL path of TWiki scripts

• As %SCRIPTURL%, but doesn't include the protocol and host part of the URL
• Syntax: %SCRIPTURLPATH%
• Expands to: /twiki/bin
• Note: The edit script should always be used in conjunction with ?t=%GMTIME{"$epoch"}% to ensure pages about to be edited are not cached in the browser
• Related: PUBURLPATH, SCRIPTNAME, SCRIPTSUFFIX, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"}

SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"} -- URL path of TWiki script

• As %SCRIPTURL{"script"}%, but doesn't include the protocol and host part of the URL
• Syntax: %SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"}%
• Expands to: /twiki/bin/script
• Related: PUBURLPATH, SCRIPTNAME, SCRIPTSUFFIX, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURL{"script"}, SCRIPTURLPATH

SEARCH{"text"} -- search content

• Inline search, shows a search result embedded in a topic
• Syntax: %SEARCH{"text" ...}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "text"	Search term. Is a keyword search, literal search, regular expression search, or query, 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. You can specifically exclude webs from an all search using a minus sign - for example, web="all,-Secretweb". The special word all means all webs that do not have the NOSEARCHALL variable set to on in their WebPreferences. Note that TWikiAccessControls are respected when searching webs; it is much better to use them than NOSEARCHALL.	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. Note this is a list of topic names and must not include web names.	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. Note this is a list of topic names and must not include web names.	None
  scope="topic" scope="text" scope="all"	Search topic name (title); the text (body) of topic; or all (title and body)	"text"
  type="keyword" type="word" type="literal" type="regex" type="query"	Control how the search is performed when scope="text" or scope="all" keyword: use Google-like controls as in soap "web service" -shampoo; searches word parts: using the example, topics with "soapsuds" will be found as well, but topics with "shampoos" will be excluded word: identical to keyword but searches whole words: topics with "soapsuds" will not be found, and topics with "shampoos" will not be excluded literal: search for the exact string, like web service regex: use a RegularExpression search like soap;web service;!shampoo; to search on whole words use \bsoap\b query: query search of form fields and other meta-data, like (Firstname='Emma' OR Firstname='John') AND Lastname='Peel'	%SEARCHVAR- DEFAULTTYPE% preferences setting (literal)
  order="topic" order="created" order="modified" order="editby" order=  "formfield(name)"	Sort the results of search by the topic names, topic creation time, last modified time, last editor, or named field of TWikiForms. The sorting is done web by web; if you want to sort across webs, create a formatted table and sort it with TablePlugin's initsort. Note that dates are sorted most recent date last (i.e at the bottom of the table).	Sort by topic name
  limit="all" limit="16"	Limit the number of results returned. This is done after sorting if order 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 default search header Topics: Changed: By: , unless a header is explicitly specified	Show default search header, unless search is inline and a format is specified (Cairo compatibility)
  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 variable on the same line will be rendered as part of the table generated by the search, if appropriate.	off
  recurse="on"	Recurse into subwebs, if subwebs are enabled.	off
  separator=", "	Line separator between search hits	"$n" (Newline)
  newline="%BR%"	Line separator within a search hit. Useful if the format="" parameter contains a $pattern() that captures more than one line, i.e. contents of a textfield in a form.	"$n" (Newline)

• Example: %SEARCH{"wiki" web="Main" scope="topic"}%
• Example with format: %SEARCH{"FAQ" scope="topic" nosearch="on" nototal="on" header="| *Topic: * | *Summary: * |" format="| $topic | $summary |"% (displays results in a table with header - details)
• Hint: If the TWiki:Plugins.TablePlugin is installed, you may set a %TABLE{}% variable just before the %SEARCH{}% to alter the output of a search. Example: %TABLE{ tablewidth="90%" }%
• Related: METASEARCH, TOPICLIST, WEBLIST, FormattedSearch, SearchHelp, SearchPatternCookbook, RegularExpression

SERVERTIME -- server time

• Syntax: %SERVERTIME%
• Expands to: 23 Apr 2025 - 02:23
• Date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
• Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME, SERVERTIME{"format"}

SERVERTIME{"format"} -- formatted server time

• Same format qualifiers as %GMTIME%
• Syntax: %SERVERTIME{"format"}%
• Example: %SERVERTIME{"$hou:$min"}% expands to 02:23
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
• Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME, SERVERTIME

SESSIONID -- unique ID for this session

• Syntax: %SESSIONID%
• Expand to: c3dc549c6c6440f001da97b5175bacf1
• Related: TWikiUserAuthentication, AUTHREALM, SESSIONVAR, LOGIN, LOGOUT, SESSION_VARIABLE

SESSIONVAR -- name of CGI and session variable that stores the session ID

• Syntax: %SESSIONVAR%
• Expand to: TWIKISID
• Related: TWikiUserAuthentication, AUTHREALM, SESSIONID, LOGIN, LOGOUT, SESSION_VARIABLE

SESSION_VARIABLE -- get, set or clear a session variable

• Syntax: %SESSION_VARIABLE{"name"}%
• Syntax: %SESSION_VARIABLE{"name" set="value"}%
• Syntax: %SESSION_VARIABLE{"name" clear=""}%
• Hint: The users ID is in the AUTHUSER session variable, and is read-only
• Related: TWikiUserAuthentication, AUTHREALM, SESSIONID, SESSIONVAR, LOGIN, LOGOUT

SILVER -- start silver colored text

• SILVER is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %SILVER% silver text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: silver text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

SLIDESHOWEND -- end slideshow

• The %SLIDESHOWEND% variable is handled by the SlideShowPlugin
• Syntax: %SLIDESHOWEND%
• Example: See SLIDESHOWSTART
• Related: SLIDESHOWSTART, SlideShowPlugin

SLIDESHOWSTART -- convert a topic with headings into a slideshow

• The %SLIDESHOWSTART% variable is handled by the SlideShowPlugin
• Syntax: %SLIDESHOWSTART%
• Syntax: %SLIDESHOWSTART{ template="MyOwnSlideTemplate" }%
• Example:
  %SLIDESHOWSTART%
---++ Sample Slide 1
    * Bullet 1
    * Bullet 2
---++ Sample Slide 2
    * Bullet 1
    * Bullet 2
%SLIDESHOWEND%
• Related: SLIDESHOWEND, SlideShowPlugin

SPACEDTOPIC -- topic name, spaced and URL-encoded deprecated

• The current topic name with added URL-encoded spaces, for use in regular expressions that search for backlinks to the current topic
• Syntax: %SPACEDTOPIC%
• Expands to: Var%20*SPACEDTOPIC
• Note: This is a deprecated variable. It can be duplicated with %ENCODE{%SPACEOUT{"%TOPIC%" separator=" *"}%}%
• Related: SPACEOUT, TOPIC, ENCODE

SPACEOUT{"string"} -- renders string with spaces inserted in sensible places

• Inserts spaces after lower case letters that are followed by a digit or a capital letter, and after digits that are followed by a capital letter.
• Useful for spacing out WikiWords
• Syntax: %SPACEOUT{ "%TOPIC%" }%
• Expands to: TWiki Variables
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  separator	The separator to put between words e.g. %SPACEOUT{"DogsCatsBudgies" separator=", "}% -> Dogs, Cats, Budgies	' '

• Hint: Spaced out WikiWords are not automatically linked. To SPACEOUT a WikiWord but preserve the link use "double bracket" format. For example, [[WebHome][%SPACEOUT{"WebHome"}%]] expands to Web Home
• Related: SPACEDTOPIC, $PROPERSPACE() of SpreadSheetPlugin

STARTINCLUDE -- start position of topic text if included

• If present in included topic, start to include text from this location up to the end, or up to the location of the %STOPINCLUDE% variable. A normal view of the topic shows everything exept the %STARTINCLUDE% variable itself.
• Note: If you want more than one part of the topic included, use %STARTSECTION{type="include"}% instead
• Syntax: %STARTINCLUDE%
• Related: INCLUDE, STARTSECTION, STOPINCLUDE

STARTSECTION -- marks the start of a section within a topic

• Section boundaries are defined with %STARTSECTION{}% and %ENDSECTION{}%.
• Sections may be given a name to help identify them, and/or a type, which changes how they are used.
  • type="section" - the default, used for a generic section, such as a named section used by INCLUDE.
  • type="include" - like %STARTINCLUDE% ... %STOPINCLUDE% except that you can have as many include blocks as you want (%STARTINCLUDE% is restricted to only one).
  • type="templateonly" - start position of text to be removed when a template topic is used. This is used to embed text that you do not want expanded when a new topic based on the template topic is created. See TWikiTemplates for more information.
• Syntax: %STARTSECTION{"name"}% ................ %ENDSECTION{"name"}%
• Syntax: %STARTSECTION{type="include"}% ........ %ENDSECTION{type="include"}%
• Syntax: %STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}% ... %ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default
  "name"	Name of the section. Must be unique inside a topic.	Generated name
  type="..."	Type of the section; type "section", "include" or "templateonly"	"section"

• Note: If a section is not given a name, it will be assigned one. Unnamed sections are assigned names starting with _SECTION0 for the first unnamed section in the topic, _SECTION1 for the second, etc..
• Note: You can define nested sections. It is not recommended to overlap sections, although it is valid in TWiki. Use named sections to make sure that the correct START and ENDs are matched. Section markers are not displayed when a topic is viewed.
• Related: ENDSECTION, INCLUDE, NOP, STARTINCLUDE, STOPINCLUDE

STATISTICSTOPIC -- name of statistics topic

• Syntax: %STATISTICSTOPIC%
• Expands to: WebStatistics, renders as WebStatistics
• Related: HOMETOPIC, NOTIFYTOPIC, TOPIC

STOPINCLUDE -- end position of topic text if included

• If present in included topic, stop to include text at this location and ignore the remaining text. A normal view of the topic shows everyting exept the %STOPINCLUDE% variable itself.
• Syntax: %STOPINCLUDE%
• Related: INCLUDE, STARTINCLUDE

SYSTEMWEB -- name of TWiki documentation web

• The web containing all documentation and default preference settings
• Syntax: %SYSTEMWEB%
• Expands to: TWiki
• Related: USERSWEB

T -- tip icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: T =
• Related: H, I, ICON, M, N, P, Q, S, U, X, Y

TABLE{ attributes } -- control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns

• The %TABLE{}% variable is handled by the TablePlugin
• Syntax: %TABLE{ attributes }%

• Supported attributes:

  Argument	Comment	Default value	Example
  sort	Set table sorting by clicking headers "on" or "off".	unspecified	sort="on"
  initsort	Column to sort initially ("1" to number of columns).	unspecified	initsort="2"
  initdirection	Initial sorting direction for initsort, set to "up" (descending) or "down" (ascending).	unspecified	initdirection="up"
  disableallsort	Disable all sorting, both initsort and header sort. This is mainly used by plugins such as the EditTablePlugin to disable sorting in a table while editing the table.	unspecified	disableallsort="on"
  headerbg	Header cell background colour.	"#6b7f93"	headerbg="#999999"
  headerbgsorted	Header cell background colour of a sorted column.	the value of headerbg	headerbgsorted="#32596c"
  headercolor	Header cell text colour.	"#ffffff"	headercolor="#0000cc"
  databg	Data cell background colour, a comma separated list. Specify "none" for no colour, that is to use the colour/background of the page the table is on.	"#edf4f9,#ffffff"	databg="#f2f2f2,#ffffff"
  databgsorted	Data cell background colour of a sorted column; see databg.	the values of databg	databgsorted="#d4e8e4,#e5f5ea"
  datacolor	Data cell text colour, a comma separated list.	unspecified	datacolor="#0000CC, #000000"
  tableborder	Table border width (pixels).	"1"	tableborder="2"
  tableframe	Table frame, set to "void" (no sides), "above" (the top side only), "below" (the bottom side only), "hsides" (the top and bottom sides only), "lhs" (the left-hand side only), "rhs" (the right-hand side only), "vsides" (the right and left sides only), "box" (all four sides), "border" (all four sides).	unspecified	tableframe="hsides"
  tablerules	Table rules, set to "none" (no rules), "groups" (rules will appear between row groups and column groups only), "rows" (rules will appear between rows only), "cols" (rules will appear between columns only), "all" (rules will appear between all rows and columns).	unspecified	tablerules="rows"
  cellpadding	Cell padding (pixels).	"0"	cellpadding="0"
  cellspacing	Cell spacing (pixels).	"0"	cellspacing="3"
  cellborder	Cell border width (pixels).	unspecified	cellborder="0"
  valign	Vertical alignment of cells and headers, set to "top", "middle", "bottom" or "baseline".	unspecified	valign="top"
  headervalign	Vertical alignment of header cells; overrides valign.	unspecified	headervalign="top"
  datavalign	Vertical alignment of data cells; overrides valign.	unspecified	datavalign="top"
  headeralign	Header cell alignment, one value for all columns, or a comma separated list for different alignment of individual columns. Set to "left", "center", "right" or "justify". Overrides individual cell settings.	unspecified	headeralign="left,right"
  dataalign	Data cell alignment, one value for all columns, or a comma separated list for different alignment of individual columns. Set to "left", "center", "right" or "justify". Overrides individual cell settings.	unspecified	dataalign="center"
  tablewidth	Table width: Percentage of window width, or absolute pixel value.	unspecified	tablewidth="100%"
  columnwidths	Column widths: Comma delimited list of column widths, percentage or absolute pixel value.	unspecified	columnwidths="80%,20%"
  headerrows	Number of header rows to exclude from sort. (will be rendered in a HTML thead section)	"1"	headerrows="1"
  footerrows	Number of footer rows to exclude from sort. (will be rendered in a HTML tfoot section)	"0"	footerrows="1"
  id	Unique table identifier string, used for targeting a table with CSS.	tableN (where N is the table order number on the page)	id="userTable"
  summary	Table summary used by screenreaders: A summary of what the table presents. It should provide an orientation for someone who listens to the table.	unspecified	summary="List of subscribed users"
  caption	Table caption: A title that will be displayed just above the table.	unspecified	caption="Users"

• Example:
  %TABLE{ tableborder="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="3" cellborder="0" }%
| *A1* | *B1* |
| A2 | B2 |
• Related: See TablePlugin for more details

TEAL -- start teal colored text

• TEAL is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %TEAL% teal text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: teal text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

TOC -- table of contents of current topic

• Syntax: %TOC%
• Related: TOC{"Topic"}

TOC{"Topic"} -- table of contents

• Table of Contents. Shows a TOC that is generated automatically based on headings of a topic. Headings in WikiSyntax ("---++ text") and HTML ("<h2>text</h2>") are taken into account. Any heading text after "!!" is excluded from the TOC; for example, write "---+!! text" if you do not want to list a header in the TOC
• Syntax: %TOC{"SomeTopic" ...}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "TopicName"	topic name	Current topic
  web="Name"	Name of web	Current web
  depth="2"	Limit depth of headings shown in TOC	6
  title="Some text"	Title to appear at top of TOC	none

• Example: %TOC{depth="2"}%
• Example: %TOC{"TWikiDocumentation" web="TWiki" title="Contents:"}%
• Example: see TWiki:Sandbox.TestTopicInclude
• Hint: TOC will generate links to the headings, so when a reader clicks on a heading it will jump straight where that heading is anchored in the text. If you have two headings with exactly the same text, then their anchors will also be identical and they won't be able to jump to them. To make the anchors unique, you can add an invisible HTML comment to the text of the heading. This will be hidden in normal view, but will force the anchors to be different. For example, ---+ Heading <!--5-->.
• Related: TOC

TOPIC -- name of current topic

• %TOPIC% expands to the name of the topic. If you are looking at the text of an included topic, it is the name of the included topic.
• Syntax: %TOPIC%
• Expands to: TWikiVariables, renders as TWikiVariables
• Related: BASETOPIC, INCLUDINGTOPIC, TOPICLIST, WEB

TOPICLIST{"format"} -- topic index of a web

• List of all topics in a web. The "format" defines the format of one topic item. It may include variables: The $topic variable gets expanded to the topic name, $marker to marker parameter where topic matches selection, and $web to the name of the web, or any of the standard FormatTokens.
• Syntax: %TOPICLIST{"format" ...}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "format"	Format of one line, may include $web (name of web), $topic (name of the topic), $marker (which expands to marker for the item matching selection only)	"$topic"
  format="format"	(Alternative to above)	"$topic"
  separator=", "	line separator	"$n" (new line)
  marker="selected"	Text for $marker if the item matches selection	"selected"
  selection="TopicA, TopicB"	Current value to be selected in list	(none)
  web="Name"	Name of web	Current web

• Example: %TOPICLIST{"   * $web.$topic"}% creates a bullet list of all topics
• Example: %TOPICLIST{separator=", "}% creates a comma separated list of all topics
• Example: %TOPICLIST{" <option>$topic</option>"}% creates an option list (for drop down menus)
• Example: <select>%TOPICLIST{" <option $marker value='$topic'>$topic</option>" separator=" " selection="%TOPIC%"}%</select> creates an option list of web topics with the current topic selected
• Related: SEARCH, WEBLIST

TOPICURL -- shortcut to viewing the current topic

• This variable always expands to an url pointing to the current base topic.
• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: TOPICURL = http://twiki.keegel.id.au/twiki/bin/view/TWiki//TWikiDocumentation

TWIKIWEB -- synonym for SYSTEMWEB

• Deprecated. Please use %SYSTEMWEB% instead.

U -- "updated" icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: U =
• Related: H, I, ICON, M, N, P, Q, S, T, X, Y

URLPARAM{"name"} -- get value of a URL parameter

• Returns the value of a URL parameter.
• Syntax: %URLPARAM{"name"}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "name"	The name of a URL parameter	required
  default="..."	Default value in case parameter is empty or missing	empty string
  newline="<br />"	Convert newlines in textarea to other delimiters	no conversion
  encode="entity"	Encode special characters into HTML entities. See ENCODE for more details.	no encoding
  encode="url"	Encode special characters for URL parameter use, like a double quote into %22	no encoding
  encode="quote"	Escape double quotes with backslashes (\"), does not change other characters; required when feeding URL parameters into other TWiki variables	no encoding
  multiple="on" multiple="[[$item]]"	If set, gets all selected elements of a <select multiple="multiple"> tag. A format can be specified, with $item indicating the element, e.g. multiple="Option: $item"	first element
  separator=", "	Separator between multiple selections. Only relevant if multiple is specified	"\n" (new line)

• Example: %URLPARAM{"skin"}% returns print for a .../view/TWiki//TWikiVariables?skin=print URL
• Note: URL parameters passed into HTML form fields must be entity ENCODEd.
• Note: Double quotes in URL parameters must be escaped when passed into other TWiki variables.
  Example: %SEARCH{ "%URLPARAM{ "search" encode="quotes" }%" noheader="on" }%
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
• Note: There is a risk that this variable could be misused for cross-site scripting.
• Related: ENCODE, SEARCH, FormattedSearch, QUERYSTRING

Note If you have %URLPARAM{ in the value of a URL parameter, it will be modified to %<nop>URLPARAM{. This is to prevent an infinite loop during expansion.

USERINFO{"WikiName"} -- retrieve details about a user

• Syntax: %USERINFO%
• Expands to: guest, TWikiGuest, (comma-separated list of the username, wikiusername, and emails)
• With formatted output, using tokens $emails, $username, $wikiname, $wikiusername, $groups and $admin ($admin returns 'true' or 'false'):
  • Example: %USERINFO{ format="$username is really $wikiname" }%
  • Expands to: guest is really TWikiGuest
• Retrieve information about another user:
  • Example: %USERINFO{ "TWikiGuest" format="$username is really $wikiname" }%
  • Expands to: guest is really TWikiGuest
  • Note: The parameter should be the wikiname of a user. You can only get information about another user if the {AntiSpam}{HideUserDetails} configuration option is not enabled, or if you are an admin. (User details are hidden in this TWiki)
• Related: USERNAME, WIKINAME, WIKIUSERNAME, TWikiUserAuthentication, ChangeEmailAddress

USERNAME -- your login username

• TWiki makes names available in three formats: USERNAME like jsmith, WIKINAME like JohnSmith and WIKIUSERNAME like Main.JohnSmith. Un-authenticated users are all TWikiGuest.
• Syntax: %USERNAME%
• Expands to: guest
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
• Related: REMOTE_USER, USERINFO, WIKINAME, WIKIUSERNAME, TWikiUserAuthentication

USERSWEB -- name of users web

• The web containing individual user topics, TWikiGroups, and customised site-wide preferences.
• Syntax: %USERSWEB%
• Expands to: Main
• Related: SYSTEMWEB

VAR{"NAME" web="Web"} -- get a preference value from another web

• Syntax: %VAR{"NAME" web="Web"}%
• Example: To get %WEBBGCOLOR% of the Main web write %VAR{"WEBBGCOLOR" web="Main"}%, which expands to =#FFEFA6 =
• Related: WEBPREFSTOPIC

VBAR -- vertical bar

• The vertical bar variable can be used in TWiki tables.
• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: VBAR = |
• Related: BR, BULLET, BB, BB2, BB3, BB4, CARET

WEB -- name of current web

• %WEB% expands to the name of the web where the topic is located. If you are looking at the text of an included topic, it is the web where the included topic is located.
• Syntax: %WEB%
• Expands to: TWiki/
• Related: BASEWEB, INCLUDINGWEB, TOPIC

WEBLIST{"format"} -- index of all webs

• List of all webs. Obfusticated webs are excluded, e.g. webs with a NOSEARCHALL = on preference variable. The "format" defines the format of one web item. The $name variable gets expanded to the name of the web, $qname gets expanded to double quoted name, $marker to marker where web matches selection.
• Syntax: %WEBLIST{"format" ...}%
• Supported parameters:

  Parameter:	Description:	Default:
  "format"	Format of one line, may include $name (the name of the web), $qname (the name of the web in double quotes), $indentedname (the name of the web with parent web names replaced by indents, for use in indented lists), and $marker (which expands to marker for the item matching selection only)	"$name"
  format="format"	(Alternative to above)	"$name"
  separator=", "	Line separator	"$n" (new line)
  web=""	if you specify $web in format, it will be replaced with this	""
  webs="public"	Comma separated list of webs, public expands to all non-hidden. NOTE: Administrators will see all webs, not just the public ones	"public"
  marker="selected"	Text for $marker if the item matches selection	"selected"
  selection="%WEB%"	Current value to be selected in list	selection="%WEB%"
  subwebs="Sandbox"	show webs that are a sub-web of this one (recursivly)	""

• Example: %WEBLIST{"   * [[$name.WebHome]]"}% - creates a bullet list of all webs.
• Example: <form><select name="web"> %WEBLIST{"<option $marker value=$qname>$name</option>" webs="Trash, public" selection="%WEB%" separator=" "}% </select></form> - creates a dropdown of all public webs + Trash web, with the current web highlighted.
• Related: TOPICLIST, SEARCH

WEBPREFSTOPIC -- name of web preferences topic

• Syntax: %WEBPREFSTOPIC%
• Expands to: WebPreferences, renders as WebPreferences
• Related: HOMETOPIC, WIKIPREFSTOPIC, VAR

WHITE -- start white colored text

• WHITE is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %WHITE% white text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: white text  (shown with a gray background here)
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

WIKIHOMEURL -- site home URL

• Syntax %WIKIHOMEURL%
• Expands to /twiki/bin/view
• Defined in TWikiPreferences and normally per default set to %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%
• Note: For the top bar logo URL use %WIKILOGOURL% defined in WebPreferences instead.
• Related: WIKITOOLNAME

WIKINAME -- your Wiki username

• The WikiName is the same as %USERNAME% if not defined in the TWikiUsers topic
• Syntax: %WIKINAME%
• Expands to: TWikiGuest
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
• Related: REMOTE_USER, USERINFO, USERNAME, WIKIUSERNAME, WIKIUSERSTOPIC

WIKIPREFSTOPIC -- name of site-wide preferences topic

• Syntax: %WIKIPREFSTOPIC%
• Expands to: TWikiPreferences, renders as TWikiPreferences
• Related: HOMETOPIC, WEBPREFSTOPIC

WIKITOOLNAME -- name of your TWiki site

• Syntax: %WIKITOOLNAME%
• Expands to: TWiki
• Related: WIKIHOMEURL, WIKIVERSION

WIKIUSERNAME -- your Wiki username with web prefix

• Your %WIKINAME% with Main web prefix, useful to point to your TWiki home page
• Syntax: %WIKIUSERNAME%
• Expands to: Main.TWikiGuest, renders as TWikiGuest
• Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details
• Related: REMOTE_USER, USERINFO, USERNAME, WIKINAME

WIKIUSERSTOPIC -- name of topic listing all registers users

• Syntax: %WIKIUSERSTOPIC%
• Expands to: TWikiUsers, with Main prefix renders as TWikiUsers
• Related: WIKIUSERNAME

WIKIVERSION -- the version of the installed TWiki engine

• Syntax: %WIKIVERSION%
• Expands to: TWiki-4.2.0, Tue, 22 Jan 2008, build 16278
• Related: PLUGINVERSION, WIKITOOLNAME

X -- warning icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: X =
• Related: H, I, ICON, M, N, P, Q, S, T, U, Y

Y -- "yes" icon

• Type: Preference variable - TWikiRenderingShortcut.
• Current value: Y =
• Related: H, I, ICON, M, N, P, Q, S, T, U, X

YELLOW -- start yellow colored text

• YELLOW is one of the rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of colors.
• Syntax: %YELLOW% yellow text %ENDCOLOR%
• Expands to: yellow text
• Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
• Related: ENDCOLOR, TWikiPreferences, StandardColors

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 eveything 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

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"}%

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

META:FILEATTACHMENT

Extra fields that are added if an attachment is moved:

META:FORM

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.

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:

Note: SEARCH can also be used to render meta data, see examples in FormattedSearch and SearchPatternCookbook.

Related Topics: DeveloperDocumentationCategory, UserDocumentationCategory

Warning: Can't find topic TWiki/.TWikiFormTemplate

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:

• TWiki:TWiki.TWikiPluginsSupplement - tip: supplemental documentation on TWiki plugins
• TWiki:Plugins.PluginPackage - list of all contributed plugin packages
• TWiki:Plugins.PluginDevelopment - discussion and feedback on contributed plugins
• TWiki:Plugins.PluginBrainstorming - open forum for new plugin ideas
• TWiki:Plugins.PluginPackageHowTo - template to create a new plugin package

See other types of extensions: TWikiAddOns, TWikiContribs, TWikiSkins

Installing Plugins

Each TWiki Plugin comes with its own documentation: step-by-step installation instructions, a detailed description of any special requirements, version details, and a working example for testing. Many Plugins have an install script that automates these steps for you.

Special Requirements: Some Plugins need certain Perl modules to be preinstalled 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.

Each Plugin has a standard release topic, located in the TWiki:Plugins web at TWiki.org. There's usually a number of other related topics, such as a developers page, and an appraisal page.

On-Site Pretesting

The recommended approach to testing new Plugins before making them public is to create a second local TWiki installation, and test the Plugin there. You can allow selected users access to the test area. Once you are satisfied that it won't compromise your main 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

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 Plugins

Plugins can be enabled and disabled with the configure script. 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 are usually configured by variables accessible though the configure interface, but in some cases (usually older plugins) TWiki preferences are used. If a TWiki variable is defined in a Plugin topic e.g:

• Set SETTING = Create dynamic foo bar reports

Listing Active Plugins

Plugin status variables let you list all active Plugins wherever needed.

This site is running TWiki version TWiki-4.2.0, Tue, 22 Jan 2008, build 16278, Plugin API version 1.2

%ACTIVATEDPLUGINS%

%PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%

• SpreadSheetPlugin (any TWiki, $Rev: 16273 (22 Jan 2008) $): Add spreadsheet calculation like "$SUM( $ABOVE() )" to TWiki tables and other topic text
• BlackListPlugin (2013-03-22, $Rev: 25492 (2013-03-22) $): Utility to keep malicious users away from a public TWiki site
• BreadCrumbsPlugin (v2.01, $Rev: 0 (01 Sep 2008) $): A flexible way to display breadcrumbs navigation
• CommentPlugin (TWiki-4, $Rev: 15776 (22 Jan 2008) $): Allows users to quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle
• DpSyntaxHighlighterPlugin (1.5.2, $Rev: 16559 (12 Dec 2008) $): Client side syntax highlighting using the dp.SyntaxHighlighter
• EditHiddenTablePlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 15561 (03 Jul 2008) $): Edit TWiki tables rows using a form
• EditTablePlugin (4.7.10, $Rev: 16239 (22 Jan 2008) $): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
• EditTablerowPlugin: (disabled)
• ExcelImportExportPlugin: (disabled)
• FilterPlugin (1.51, $Rev: 16970 (03 Jul 2008) $): Substitute and extract information from content by using regular expressions
• FlexWebListPlugin (v1.23, $Rev: 16971 (03 Jul 2008) $): Flexible way to display hierarchical weblists
• IfDefinedPlugin (v1.02, $Rev: 16972 (03 Jul 2008) $): Render content conditionally
• ImgPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 10608$): Allows TWiki variable-style insertion of images in topics
• InterwikiPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 14913 (17 Sep 2007) $): Link ExternalSite:Page text to external sites based on aliases defined in a rules topic
• JQueryPlugin (0.90, $Rev: 17031 (16 Jul 2008) $): jQuery JavaScript library for TWiki
• JQueryTwistyPlugin (1.2, $Rev: 16736 (03 Jul 2008) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
• NatSkinPlugin (3.00-pre20, $Rev: 16978 (03 Jul 2008) $): Theming engine for NatSkin
• PhotoarchivePlugin: (disabled)
• PreferencesPlugin: (disabled)
• RedDotPlugin (1.40, $Rev: 16137 (03 Jan 2008) $): Renders edit-links as little red dots
• RenderListPlugin (2.0, $Rev: 16235 (22 Jan 2008) $): Render bullet lists in a variety of formats
• SlideShowPlugin (Any TWiki, $Rev: 15091 (22 Jan 2008) $): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
• SmartEditPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 9598$): Provide SmartEditAddOn
• SmiliesPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 16049 (22 Jan 2008) $): Render smilies as icons, like for  :-) or for  :eek:
• TablePlugin (1.032, $Rev: 16182 (22 Jan 2008) $): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
• TinyMCEPlugin (03 Aug 2008, $Rev: 17303 (12 Dec 2008) $): Integration of TinyMCE? with WysiwygPlugin
• TopicCreatePlugin (1.000): Automatically create a set of topics and attachments at topic save time
• TreeBrowserPlugin (v1.8): Renders a list as a collapsable/expandable tree.
• TreePlugin (1.7): Dynamic generation of TWiki topic trees
• TwistyPlugin (1.4.9, $Rev: 15653 (19 Nov 2007) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
• WysiwygPlugin (03 Aug 2008, $Rev: 17720 (12 Dec 2008) $): Translator framework for Wysiwyg editors

%FAILEDPLUGINS%

TWiki::Plugins::EditTablerowPlugin could not be loaded.  Errors were: 
Can't locate TWiki/JSCalendarContrib.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /var/www/twiki/lib . /usr/local/lib64/perl5 /usr/local/share/perl5 /usr/lib64/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib64/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//arch /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//5.10.1/x86_64-linux-thread-multi /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//5.10.1 /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib/) at /var/www/twiki/lib/TWiki/Plugins/EditTablerowPlugin.pm line 801.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /var/www/twiki/lib/TWiki/Plugins/EditTablerowPlugin.pm line 801.
Compilation failed in require at (eval 61) line 1.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 61) line 1.

----

TWiki::Plugins::ExcelImportExportPlugin could not be loaded.  Errors were: 
Can't locate TWiki/Plugins/ExcelImportExportPlugin.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /var/www/twiki/lib . /usr/local/lib64/perl5 /usr/local/share/perl5 /usr/lib64/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib64/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//arch /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//5.10.1/x86_64-linux-thread-multi /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//5.10.1 /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib/) at (eval 62) line 1.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 62) line 1.

----

TWiki::Plugins::PhotoarchivePlugin::initPlugin did not return true (0)

TWiki::Plugins::PreferencesPlugin could not be loaded.  Errors were: 
Can't locate TWiki/Plugins/PreferencesPlugin.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /var/www/twiki/lib . /usr/local/lib64/perl5 /usr/local/share/perl5 /usr/lib64/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib64/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//arch /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//5.10.1/x86_64-linux-thread-multi /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib//5.10.1 /var/www/twiki/lib/CPAN/lib/) at (eval 90) line 1.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 90) line 1.

----

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.

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 disabled. To enable a callback, remove DISABLE_ from the function name.

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; set $NO_PREFS_IN_TOPIC if you possibly can, as that will stop TWiki from reading the plugin topic for every page. Use Config.spec instead.
• 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 1.2.
  • 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
  • See TWiki:Plugins.MailInContrib for an example of this
  • TWiki:Plugins.BuildContrib can help you with this
• 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 Plugins by providing a programming interface for TWiki.

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 GoBox 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.>"

• Plugins Preferences <If user settings are needed, explain... Entering values works exactly like TWikiPreferences and WebPreferences: six (6) spaces and then:>"
  • Set <EXAMPLE = value added>

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.>"