TWiki Reference Manual (TWiki-4.0.4-2, Tue, 23 Jul 2006, build 10807)
This page contains all documentation topics as one long, complete reference sheet.
Doubleclick anywhere to return to the top of the page.
Note - if you are reading this at twiki.org, then you are reading about the most recent code under development.
If you want to read about the features on your local TWiki, then you should read the documentation there!
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
TWiki System Requirements
Server and client requirements
Low client and server base requirements are core features that keep TWiki widely deployable, particularly across a range of browser platforms and versions. Many
Plugins and
contrib modules exist which enhance and expand TWiki's capabilities; they may have additional requirements.
Server Requirements
TWiki is written in Perl 5, uses a number of shell commands, and requires
RCS (Revision Control System), a GNU Free Software package. TWiki is developed in a basic Linux/Apache environment. It also works with Microsoft Windows, and should have no problem on any other platform that meets the requirements.
Resource | Required Server Environment * |
Perl | 5.005_03 or higher (5.8.4 or higher is recommended) |
RCS | 5.7 or higher (including GNU diff ) Optional, TWiki includes a pure perl implementation of RCS that can be used instead (although it's slower) |
GNU diff | GNU diff 2.7 or higher is required when not using the all-Perl RcsLite. Install on PATH if not included with RCS (check version with diff -v ) Must be the version used by RCS, to avoid problems with binary attachments - RCS may have hard-coded path to diff |
GNU patch | For upgrades only: GNU patch is required when using the TWiki:Codev.UpgradeTWiki script |
Other external programs | fgrep, egrep |
Cron/scheduler | • Unix: cron • Windows: cron equivalents |
Web server | Apache is well supported; see TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#OtherWebServers for other servers |
Required CPAN Modules
The following Perl modules are used by TWiki:
Module | Preferred version |
Algorithm::Diff (included) | |
CGI::Carp | >=1.26 |
Config | >=0 |
Cwd | >=3.05 |
Data::Dumper | >=2.121 |
Error (included) | |
File::Copy | >=2.06 |
File::Find | >=1.05 |
File::Spec | >=3.05 |
File::Temp | (included with perl 5.6 and later) |
FileHandle | >=2.01 |
IO::File | >=1.10 |
Text::Diff (included) | |
Time::Local | >=1.11 |
Optional CPAN Modules
The following Perl modules may be used by TWiki:
Module | Preferred version | Description |
CGI::Cookie | >=1.24 | Used for session support |
CGI::Session | >=3.95 | Used for session support |
Digest::base | | |
Digest::SHA1 | | |
Jcode | | Used for I18N support with perl 5.6 |
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon | >=0 | Used for I18N support |
Net::SMTP | >=2.29 | Used for sending mail |
Unicode::Map | | Used for I18N support with perl 5.6 |
Unicode::Map8 | | Used for I18N support with perl 5.6 |
Unicode::MapUTF8 | | Used for I18N support with perl 5.6 |
Unicode::String | | Used for I18N support with perl 5.6 |
URI | | Used for configure |
Most of them will probably already be available in your installation. You can check version numbers with the
configure
script, or if you're still trying to get to that point, check from the command line like this:
perl -e 'use FileHandle; print $FileHandle::VERSION."\n"'
Client Requirements
The TWiki
standard installation has relatively low browser requirements:
- HTML 3.2 compliant
- Cookies, if persistent sessions are required
CSS and Javascript are used in most skins, although there is a low-fat skin (Classic skin) available that minimises these requirements. Some skins will require more recent releases of browsers. The default skin (Pattern) is tested on IE 6, Safari, and Mozilla 5.0 based browsers (such as Firefox).
You can easily select a balance of browser capability versus look and feel. Try the installed skins at
TWikiSkinBrowser and more at
TWiki:Plugins.SkinPackage.
Important note about TWiki Plugins
- Plugins can require just about anything - browser-specific functions, stylesheets (CSS), Java applets, cookies, specific Perl modules,... - check the individual Plugin specs.
-
Note: Plugins included in the TWiki distribution do not add requirements, except for the CommentPlugin which requires Perl 5.6.1.
Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory
TWiki Installation Guide
Installation instructions for the TWiki 4.0 production release.
If you are upgrading from a previous version of TWiki, you probably want to read
TWikiUpgradeGuide instead.
TWiki should be fine with any web server and OS that meet the
system requirements. The following installation instructions are written for experienced system administrators; please review the
AdminSkillsAssumptions before you install TWiki. If you need help, ask a question in the
TWiki:Support web or on
TWiki:Codev.TWikiIRC (irc.freenode.net, channel #twiki)
Hint: TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki on TWiki.org has supplemental documentation that help you install TWiki on different platforms, environments and web hosting sites.
Basic Installation
- Download the TWiki distribution from http://TWiki.org/download.html.
- Make a directory for the installation and unpack the distribution in it.
- Make sure the user that runs CGI scripts on your system can read and write all files in the distribution.
Detailed instructions on file permissions are beyond the scope of this guide, but in general:
- During installation and configuration, the CGI user needs to be able to read and write everything in the distribution,
- Once installation and configuration is complete, the CGI user needs write access to everything under the
data
and pub
directories and to lib/LocalSite.cfg
. Everything else should be read-only.
- Everybody else should be denied access to everything, always.
- Make sure Perl 5 and the Perl CGI library are installed on your system.
The default location of Perl is /usr/bin/perl
. If it's somewhere else, change the path to Perl in the first line of each script in the twiki/bin
directory.
Some systems require a special extension on perl scripts (e.g. .cgi
or .pl
). If necessary, rename all files in twiki/bin
(i.e. rename view
to view.pl
etc). If you do this, make sure you set the ScriptSuffix
option in configure
(Step 6).
- Create the file
/twiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg
.
There is a template for this file in /twiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg.txt
.
The file must contain a setting for $twikiLibPath
, which must point to the absolute file path of your twiki/lib
e.g. /home/httpd/twiki/lib
.
If you need to install additional CPAN modules, but can't update the main Perl installation files on the server, you can set $CPANBASE
to point to your personal CPAN install. Don't forget that the webserver user has to be able to read those files as well.
- Configure the webserver so you can execute the
bin/configure
script from your browser.
- Explicit instructions for doing this are beyond the scope of this document, though there is a lot of advice on TWiki.org covering different configurations of webserver. To help you out, there's an example Apache
httpd.conf
file in twiki_httpd_conf.txt
at the root of the package. This file also contains advice on securing your installation. There's also a script called tools/rewriteshebang.pl
to help you in fixing up the shebang lines in your CGI scripts.
- Run the
configure
script from your browser, and resolve any errors or warnings it tells you about.
You now have a basic, unauthenticated installation running. At this point you can just point your Web browser at
http://yourdomain.com/twiki/bin/view
and start TWiki-ing away!
Next Steps
Once you have your TWiki running, you can move on to customise it for your users.
Troubleshooting
- The first step is to re-run the
configure
script and make sure you have resolved all errors, and are happy that you understand any warnings.
- TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki on TWiki.org has supplemental documentation that help you install TWiki on different platforms, environments and web hosting sites.
- If you need help, ask a question in the TWiki:Support web or on TWiki:Codev.TWikiIRC (irc.freenode.net, channel #twiki)
Warning: Can't find topic TWiki.WindowsInstallCookbook
TWiki Upgrade Guide
Upgrade from the previous TWiki 01-Sep-2004 Prodcution Release to TWiki-4.0.0
Overview
TWiki-4.0.0 is a major new release. You can chose between an automated upgrade using a script or a manual update.
Upgrade Requirements
- Please review the AdminSkillsAssumptions before you upgrade TWiki
- Review TWiki:TWiki.TWikiUpgradeTo04x00x00 for latest information and experience notes.
- To upgrade from a release prior to TWiki Release 01-Sep-2004, start with TWiki:TWiki.UpgradingTWiki on TWiki.org
- To upgrade from a standard TWiki Release 01-Sep-2004 to the latest TWiki-4.0.0 Production Release, follow the instructions below
- Once the upgrade has been applied, an existing earlier installation will still be able to read all the topics, but should not be used to write. Make sure you take a backup!
- Not all Plugins written for TWiki Release 01-Sep-2004 are fully supported with Dakar. Make sure the Plugins you use can be upgraded as well!
Major Changes Compared to TWiki Release 01-Sep-2004
See
TWikiReleaseNotes04x00.
Automated Upgrade Procedure
If you would prefer to do things manually,
or if you made custom modifications to distributed files (except topics), then skip to the
manual upgrade procedure below.
The upgrade script is called
"UpgradeTwiki"
, and is found in the root of the distribution. It can be run by any user, though you will need to make sure you correct the permissions so that the webserver user can write all files in the new installation when you have finished. The upgrade script does
not write to your existing installation.
The upgrade script will upgrade the
TWiki core only. Plugins will need to be upgraded separately.
Note: To upgrade from a Beta,
do not use UpgradeTWiki. Instead follow the steps outlined in
Upgrading a Beta, below.
It will:
- Create a new TWiki installation, placing the files from the distribution there as appropriate
- Where possible, merge the changes you've made in your existing topics and attachments into the new twiki
- Where not possible, it will tell you, and you can inspect those differences manually
- Create new configuration files for the new TWiki based on your existing configuation information
- Set the permissions in the new TWiki so that it should work straight away
- Attempt to setup authentication for your new TWiki, if you are using .htaccess in the old one
- Tell you what else you need to do
To perform the upgrade, you need to:
- Check first if there is a newer
UpgradeTwiki
script available, see TWiki:Codev.UpgradeTWiki
- Create a new directory for your new installation: Let's call this
distro/
- Put the distribution zip file in
distro/
- Unzip it
- Choose a directory for the new installation. I will call this
new_twiki
. This directory must not already exist.
- Change directory to
distro/
and run:
./UpgradeTwiki <full path to existing_twiki's setlib.cfg> <full path to new_twiki>
- confirm your system settings by pointing your browser to the
configure
script
Assuming all goes well,
UpgradeTwiki
will give you the final instructions.
Visit
TWiki:Codev.KnownIssuesOfTWiki04x00x00 and fix known issues that apply to you.
There are a few points worth noting:
-
UpgradeTwiki
may not be able to merge all the changes you made in your existing TWiki into the new installation, but it will tell you which ones it couldn't deal with
-
UpgradeTwiki
creates the new installation in a new directory tree. It makes a complete copy of all your existing data, so:
- Clearly you need to point it to a location where there is enough space
- If you have symlinks under your
data/
directory in your existing installation, these are reproduced as actual directories in the new structure. It is up to you to pull these sub-directories out again and re-symlink as needed
-
UpgradeTwiki
doesn't deal with custom templates or Plugins, you will have to reinstall these in the new installation.
- If you are using the Htpasswd login manager, then note that email addresses for users have moved out of user topics and into the password database. There is a script that performs this extra upgrade step for you - see
tools/upgrade_emails.pl
.
Manual Upgrade Procedure
The following steps are a rough guide to upgrading only. It is impossible to give detailed instructions, as what you have to do may depend on whether you can configure the webserver or not, and how much you have changed distributed files in your current TWiki release.
- Follow the installation instructions, and install the new release in a new directory.
- Copy your local webs over to the data and pub directories of the new install
- You could also use softlinks to link the web directories in data and pub to the old installation area
- Unlock the rcs files in data and pub directories from the old installation using the following shell commands:
-
find data -name '*,v' -exec rcs -r -u -M '{}' \;
-
find pub -name '*,v' -exec rcs -r -u -M '{}' \;
- Examine your old TWiki.cfg, and for each local setting, set the corresponding value in the
configure
interface for the new install.
- If you can't use
configure
, then copy the new TWiki.cfg
to LocalSite.cfg
, and edit LocalSite.cfg
. Remove all the settings that you didn't change in your previous install, and change the remaining settings to the values from your old TWiki.cfg.
- Transfer any customized and local settings from TWiki.TWikiPreferences to the topic pointed at by {LocalSitePreferences} (Main.TWikiPreferences). This avoids having to write over files in the distribution.
- If you changed any of the topics in the original TWiki distribution, you will have to transfer your changes to the new install manually. There is no simple way to do this, though the following procedure may help:
- Install a copy of the original TWiki release you were using in a temporary directory
- Use 'diff' to find changed files, and transfer the changes into the new Dakar install.
- Install updated plugins into your new area.
- Point your webserver at the new install.
- Visit TWiki:Codev.KnownIssuesOfTWiki04x00x00 and fix known issues that apply to you.
- If you are using the Htpasswd login manager, then note that email addresses for users have moved out of user topics and into the password database. There is a script that performs this extra upgrade step for you - see
tools/upgrade_emails.pl
.
You are
highly recommended
not to change any distributed files if you can avoid it, to simplify future upgrades!
Upgrading a Beta
If you followed the recommendations and avoided modifying any distributed files, then this is quite straightforward:
- Follow the installation instructions, and install the new release in a new directory.
- Copy your local webs over to the data and pub directories of the new install
- Be careful to copy over the user topics and TWikiUsers?.txt in the Main web
- Copy over your
bin/LocalLib.cfg
and lib/LocalSite.cfg
files
- Copy over any local files you created (such as .htpasswd and .htaccess files)
- Point your webserver at the new install.
If you changed any of the distributed files, you will have to continue from Step 5 above.
Upgrading from Cairo to TWiki4 (additional advice)
Favicon
TWiki4's
PatternSkin introduces the use of the favicon feature which most browsers use to show a small icon in front of the URL and for bookmarks.
In TWiki4 it is assumed that each web has a favicon.ico file attached to the WebPreferences topic. When you upgrade from Cairo to TWiki4 you do not have this file and you will get flooded with errors the error log of your web server. There are two solutions to this.
- Attach a favicon.ico file to WebPreferences in each web.
- Change the setting of the location of favicon.ico in TWikiPreferences so all webs use the favicon.ico from the TWiki web. This is the fastest and easiest solution.
To change the location of favicon.ico in TWikiPreferences to the TWiki web add this line to
TWikiPreferences
* Set FAVICON = %PUBURLPATH%/%TWIKIWEB%/%WEBPREFSTOPIC%/favicon.ico
TWiki User Authentication
TWiki site access control and user activity tracking options
Overview
Authentication, or "login", is the process by which a user lets TWiki know who they are.
Authentication isn't just to do with access control. TWiki uses authentication to identify users, so it can keep track of who made changes, and manage a wide range of personal settings. With authentication enabled, users can personalise TWiki and contribute as recognised individuals, instead of shadows.
TWiki authentication is very flexible, and can either stand alone or integrate with existing authentication schemes. You can set up TWiki to require authentication for every access, or only for changes. Authentication is also essential for access control.
Quick Authentication Test - Use the %WIKIUSERNAME% variable to return your current identity:
TWiki user authentication is split into three sections; password management, user registration, and login management. Password management deals with how users are recognised (authenticated). Registration deals with how new users are added to the wiki. Login management deals with how users log in.
Once a user is logged on, they are remembered using a "session id" stored in a cookie in the browser (or by other less elegant means if the user has disabled cookies). This avoids them having to log on again and again.
Please note
FileAttachments are not protected by TWiki User Authentication.
Tip: TWiki:TWiki.TWikiUserAuthenticationSupplement on TWiki.org has supplemental documentation on user authentication.
Password Management
As shipped, TWiki supports the Apache 'htpasswd' password manager. This manager supports the use of
.htpasswd
files on the server. These files can be unique to TWiki, or can be shared with other applications (such as an Apache webserver). A variety of password encodings are supported for flexibility when re-using existing files. See the descriptive comments in the Security Settings section of the
configure
interface for more details.
New User Registration
New user registration uses the password manager to set and change passwords. It is also responsible for the new user verification process. the registration process supports
single user registration via the
TWikiRegistration page, and
bulk user registration via the
BulkRegistration page (for admins only).
The registration process is responsible for creating user topics.
Login Management
Login management controls the way users have to log in. There are three basic options; no login, login via a TWiki login page, and login using the webserver authentication support.
You can select your chosen login through the Security Settings pane in the
configure
interface.
No Login (select none
in configure)
Does exactly what it says on the tin. Forget about authentication to make your site completely public - anyone can browse and edit freely, in classic Wiki style. All visitors are given the
TWikiGuest default identity, so you can't track individual user activity.
Note: This setup is not recommended on public websites for security reasons; anyone would be able to change system settings and perform tasks usually restricted to the
TWikiAdminGroup.
Template Login (select TWiki::Client::TemplateLogin
in configure)
Template Login asks for a username and password in a web page, and processes them using whatever Password Manager you choose. Users can log in and log out.
Enabling Template Login
- Use the
configure
interface to
- select the
TWiki::Client::TemplateLogin
login manager (on the Security Settings pane).
- select the appropriate password manager for your system, or provide your own.
- Register yourself in the TWikiRegistration topic.
Check that the password manager recognises the new user. If you are using .htpasswd
files, check that a new line with the username and encrypted password is added to the .htpasswd
file. If not, you probably got a path wrong, or the permissions may not allow the webserver user to write to that file.
- Create a new topic to check if authentication works.
- Edit the TWikiAdminGroup topic in the Main web to include users with system administrator status.
This is a very important step, as users in this group can access all topics, independent of TWiki access controls.
TWikiAccessControl has more information on setting up access controls.

At this time
TWikiAccessControls cannot control access to files in the
pub
area, unless they are only accessed through the
viewfile
script. If your
pub
directory is set up in the webserver to allow open access you may want to add
.htaccess
files in there to restrict access.

You can create a custom version of the
TWikiRegistration form by deleting or adding input tags. The
name=""
parameter of the input tags must start with:
"Twk0..."
(if this is an optional entry), or
"Twk1..."
(if this is a required entry). This ensures that the fields are carried over into the user home page correctly.

You can customize the default user home page in
NewUserTemplate. The same variables get expanded as in the
template topics
Apache Login (select TWiki::Client::ApacheLogin
in configure)
Using this method TWiki does not authenticate users internally. Instead it depends on the
REMOTE_USER
environment variable, which is set when you enable authentication in the webserver.
The advantage of this scheme is that if you have an existing website authentication scheme using Apache modules such as
mod_auth_ldap
or
mod_auth_mysql
you can just plug in directly to them.
The disadvantage is that because the user identity is cached in the browser, you can log in, but you can't log out again unless you restart the browser.
TWiki maps the
REMOTE_USER
that was used to log in to the webserver to a
WikiName using the table in
TWikiUsers. This table is updated whenever a user registers, so users can choose not to register (in which case their webserver login name is used for their signature) or register (in which case that login name is mapped to their
WikiName).
The same private
.htpasswd
file used in TWiki Template Login can be used to authenticate Apache users, using the Apache Basic Authentication support. This allows the TWiki registration support to maintain usernames and passwords.
Warning: Do
not use the Apache
htpasswd
program with
.htpasswd
files generated by TWiki!
htpasswd
wipes out email addresses that TWiki plants in the info fields of this file.
Enabling Apache Login using mod_auth
You can use any other Apache authentication module that sets REMOTE_USER.
- Use configure to select the
TWiki::Client::ApacheLogin
login manager.
- Use configure to set up TWiki to create the right kind of
.htpasswd
entries.
- Create a
.htaccess
file in the twiki/bin
directory.
There is an template for this file in twiki/bin/.htaccess.txt
that you can copy and change. The comments in the file explain what need to be done.
If you got it right, the browser should now ask for login name and password when you click on the Edit. If .htaccess
does not have the desired effect, you may need to "AllowOverride All" for the directory in httpd.conf
(if you have root access; otherwise, e-mail web server support)
At this time TWikiAccessControls do not control access to files in the pub
area, unless they are only accessed through the viewfile
script. If your pub
directory is set up to allow open access you may want to add .htaccess
files in there as well to restrict access
- You can create a custom version of TWikiRegistration by deleting or adding input tags. The
name=""
parameter of the input tags must start with: "Twk0..."
(if this is an optional entry), or "Twk1..."
(if this is a required entry). This ensures that the fields are carried over into the user home page correctly.
You can customize the default user home page in NewUserTemplate. The same variables get expanded as in the template topics
- Register yourself in the TWikiRegistration topic.
Check that a new line with the username and encrypted password is added to the .htpasswd
file. If not, you may have got a path wrong, or the permissions may not allow the webserver user to write to that file.
- Create a new topic to check if authentication works.
- Edit the TWikiAdminGroup topic in the Main web to include users with system administrator status.
This is a very important step, as users in this group can access all topics, independent of TWiki access controls.
TWikiAccessControl has more information on setting up access controls.
Logons via bin/logon
Any time a user enters a page that needs authentication, they will be forced to log on. It may be convenient to have a "logon" as well, to give the system a chance to identify the user and retrieve their personal settings. It may be convenient to force them to log on.
The
bin/logon
script accomplishes this. The
bin/logon
script must be setup in the
bin/.htaccess
file to be a script which requires a
valid user
. However, once authenticated, it will simply redirect the user to the view URL for the page from which the
logon
script was linked.
Sessions
TWiki uses the
CPAN:CGI::Session and
CPAN:CGI::Cookie modules to track sessions using cookies. These modules are de facto standards for session management among Perl programmers. If you can't use Cookies for any reason,
CPAN:CGI::Session also supports session tracking using the client IP address. See
How to choose an authentication method for a discussion of the pros and cons of the various authentication methods.
There are a number of
TWikiVariables available that you can use to interrogate your current session. You can even add your own session variables to the TWiki cookie. Session variables are referred to as "sticky" variables.
Getting, Setting, and Clearing Session Variables
You can get, set, and clear session variables from within TWiki web pages or by using script parameters. This allows you to use the session as a personal "persistent memory space" that is not lost until the web browser is closed. Also note that if a session variable has the same name as a TWiki preference, the session variables value takes precedence over the TWiki preference.
This allows for per-session preferences.
To make use of these features, use the tags:
%SESSION_VARIABLE{ "varName" }%
%SESSION_VARIABLE{ "varName" set="varValue" }%
%SESSION_VARIABLE{ "varName" clear="" }%
Note that you
cannot override access controls preferences this way.
Cookies and Transparent Session IDs
TWiki normally uses cookies to store session information on a client computer. Cookies are a common way to pass session information from client to server. TWiki cookies simply hold a unique session identifier that is used to look up a database of session information on the TWiki server.
For a number of reasons, it may not be possible to use cookies. In this case, TWiki has a fallback mechanism; it will automatically rewrite every internal URL it sees on pages being generated to one that also passes session information.
TWiki Username vs. Login Username
This section applies only if you are using authentication with existing login names (i.e. mapping from login names to
WikiNames).
TWiki internally manages two usernames: Login Username and TWiki Username.
- Login Username: When you login to the intranet, you use your existing login username, ex:
pthoeny
. This name is normally passed to TWiki by the REMOTE_USER
environment variable, and used internally. Login Usernames are maintained by your system administrator.
- TWiki Username: Your name in WikiNotation, ex:
PeterThoeny
, is recorded when you register using TWikiRegistration; doing so also generates a personal home page in the Main web.
TWiki can automatically map an Intranet (Login) Username to a TWiki Username if the {AllowLoginName} is enabled in
configure
. The default is to use your
WikiName as a login name.
NOTE: To correctly enter a WikiName - your own or someone else's - be sure to include the Main web name in front of the Wiki username, followed by a period, and no spaces, for example Main.WikiUsername
or %MAINWEB%.WikiUsername
.
This points WikiUsername
to the Main web, where user home pages are located, no matter which web it's entered in. Without the web prefix, the name appears as a NewTopic? everywhere but in the Main web.
Changing Passwords
If your {PasswordManager} supports password changing, you can change and reset passwords using forms on regular pages.
Changing E-mail Addresses
If the active {PasswordManager} supports storage and retrieval of user e-mail addresses, you can change your e-mail using a regular page. As shipped, this is true only for the Apache 'htpasswd' password manager.
Controlling access to individual scripts
You may want to add or remove scripts from the list of scripts that require authentication. The method for doing this is different for each of Template Login and Apache Login.
- For Template Login, update the {AuthScripts} list using
configure
- For Apache Login, add/remove the script from
.htaccess
How to choose an authentication method
One of the key features of TWiki is that it is possible to add HTML to topics. No authentication method is 100% secure on a website where end users can add HTML, as there is always a risk that a malicious user can add code to a topic that gathers user information, such as session IDs. The TWiki developers have been forced to make certain tradeoffs, in the pursuit of efficiency, that may be exploited by a hacker.
This section discusses some of the known risks. You can be sure that any potential hackers have read this section as well!
Firstly, the
most secure method is without doubt to use the webserver authentication support, with Sessions turned
off.
The
second most secure method is to use TWiki's internal authentication with Sessions turned
off. This method is less secure than using the webserver because passwords are sent in
plain text and can therefore be intercepted in transit.
As soon as you allow the server to maintain information about a logged-in user, you open a door to potential attacks. There are a variety of ways a malicious user can pervert TWiki to obtain another users session ID, the most common of which is known as a
cross-site scripting attack. Once a hacker has an SID they can pretend to be that user.
To help prevent these sorts of attacks, TWiki supports
IP matching, which ensures that the IP address of the user requesting a specific session is the same as the IP address of the user who created the session. This works well as long as IP addresses are unique to each client, and as long as the IP address of the client can't be faked.
The
third most secure method is to use sessions with IP matching ({UseIPMatching} switched on). Shorter session expiry times are more secure ({Sessions}{ExpireAfter}). The default session lifetime is 6 hours, which is quite a long lifetime for a session.
Session IDs are usually stored by TWiki in cookies, which are stored in the client browser. Cookies work well, but not all environments or users permit cookies to be stored in browsers. So TWiki also supports two other methods of determining the session ID. The first method uses the client IP address to determine the session ID. The second uses a rewriting method that rewrites local URLs in TWiki pages to include the session ID in the URL.
The first method works well as long as IP addresses are
unique to each individual client, and client IP addresses can't be faked by a hacker. If IP addresses are unique and can't be faked, it is almost as secure as cookies + IP matching, so it ranks as the
fourth most secure method.
If you have to turn IP matching off, and cookies can't be relied on, then you may have to rely on the second method, URL rewriting. This method exposes the session IDs very publicly, so should be regarded as the
least secure method.
See
TWiki:TWiki.SecuringTWikiSite for more information.
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 TWikiAdminGroup (the default administrators group; see #ManagingGroups).
- Users are encouraged to edit and refactor (condense a long topic), since there's a safety net.
As a
collaboration guideline:
- Create broad-based Groups (for more and varied input), and...
- Avoid creating view-only Users (if you can read it, you should be able to contribute to it).
Permissions settings of the webs on this TWiki site
Web | Sitemap | VIEW | CHANGE | RENAME |
Listed | DENY | ALLOW | DENY | ALLOW | DENY | ALLOW |
Main ... | on | | | TWikiGuest | | | |
TWiki ... | on | | | | TWikiAdminGroup | | TWikiAdminGroup |
Antares_KM3Net ... | on | | | | ANTARESxKM3NeTGroup, TWikiAdminGroup | | |
Artemisa ... | on | | | | | | |
Atlas ... | on | | | TWikiGuest | | | TWikiAdminGroup |
Cosmologia ... | on | | | | TWikiAdminGroup, CarlosPenaGaray | | |
DefaultWeb ... | on | | | | TWikiAdminGroup | | TWikiAdminGroup |
ECiencia ... | on | | | | | | |
FisicaMedica ... | on | | | | | | |
Flavianet ... | on | | | | | | |
HGRF ... | on | | | | | | |
Hades ... | on | | | | | | |
IFIMED ... | on | | | | | | |
ILC ... | on | | | | | | |
Informatica ... | on | | | | TWikiAdminGroup, InformaticaGroup | | |
LHCPhenonet ... | on | | | | TWikiAdminGroup, GermanRodrigo, MartinGonzalez | | |
LHCpheno ... | on | | | | TWikiAdminGroup, GermanRodrigo, MartinGonzalez, JorgePortoles, AlbertoFilipuzzi | | |
NEXT ... | on | | | | TWikiAdminGroup NeutrinosGroup? | | |
Neutrinos ... | on | | | | TWikiAdminGroup, NeutrinosGroup | | TWikiAdminGroup, NeutrinosGroup |
PARSIFAL ... | on | | | | | | |
Sandbox ... | on | | | | | | |
WelcomePackage ... | on | | | | | | |
Workshops ... | on | | | | | | |
See
TWikiAccessControl for details
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
Groups are defined by group topics located in the
Main
web, such as the
TWikiAdminGroup. 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 TWikiAdminGroup topic write:
-
Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = Main.TWikiAdminGroup
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
By mistyping a user or group name in the settings, it's possible to lock a topic so that no-one can edit it from a browser. To avoid this, add the
WikiNames of registered administrators to the super admin group topic called
TWikiAdminGroup
. The name of this topic is defined by the {SuperAdminGroup} configure setting. Example group setting:
-
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.
- Restricting CHANGE blocks creating new topics, changing topics or attaching files.
- Restricting RENAME controls who is allowed to rename, move or delete a topic.
- To rename, move or delete a topic, the user also also needs VIEW and CHANGE permission. They also need CHANGE access to change references in any referring topics (though the rename can proceed without this access), and CHANGE access to the target topic.
- Restricting MANAGE controls access to certain management functions, such as 'create web'. It must be set in the TWiki web.
Controlling access to a Web
You can define restrictions of 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 >
Be careful with empty values for any of these. In older versions of TWiki,
meant the same as not setting it at all. However since TWiki Dakar release, it means
allow noone access i.e. prevent anyone from viewing the web. Similarly
now means
do not deny anyone the right to view this web. See "How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings" below for more on this.
Controlling access to a Topic
- You can define these settings in the WebPreferences 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. In older versions of TWiki,
meant the same as not setting it at all. However since TWiki Dakar release, it means
allow no-one access i.e. prevent anyone from viewing the topic. Similarly
now means
do not deny anyone the right to view this topic. See "How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings" below for more on this.
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
RewriteRule ^/twiki/pub/TWiki/(.*)$ /twiki/pub/TWiki/$1 [L,PT]
RewriteRule ^/twiki/pub/([^\/]+)/([^\/]+)/([^\/]+)$ /twiki/bin/viewfile/$1/$2?filename=$3 [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.
How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings
When deciding whether to grant access, TWiki evaluates the following rules in order (read from the top of the list; if the logic arrives at
PERMITTED or
DENIED that applies immediately and no more rules are applied). You need to read the rules bearing in mind that VIEW, CHANGE and RENAME access may be granted/denied separately.
- If the user is a super-user
- If DENYTOPIC is set to a list of wikinames
- people in the list will be DENIED.
- If DENYTOPIC is set to empty ( i.e. Set DENYTOPIC = )
- access is PERMITTED i.e no-one is denied access to this topic
- If ALLOWTOPIC is set
- people in the list are PERMITTED
- everyone else is DENIED
- Note that this means that setting ALLOWTOPIC to empty denies access to everyone except admins (unless DENYTOPIC is also set to empty, as described above)
- If DENYWEB is set to a list of wikiname
- people in the list are DENIED access
- If ALLOWWEB is set to a list of wikinames
- people in the list will be PERMITTED
- everyone else will be DENIED
- Note that setting ALLOWWEB to empty denies access to everyone except admins
- 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:
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.
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.
- 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 in case DENYWEBVIEW
and ALLOWWEBVIEW
is not defined.
Authenticate and Restrict Selected Webs Only
Use the following setup to provide unrestricted viewing access to open webs, with authentication only on selected webs. Requires
TWikiUserAuthentication to be enabled.
- Restrict view access to selected Users and Groups. Set one or both of these variables in its WebPreferences topic:
-
Set DENYWEBVIEW = < list of Users and Groups >
-
Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = < list of Users and Groups >
- Note:
DENYWEBVIEW
is evaluated before ALLOWWEBVIEW
. Access is denied if the authenticated person is in the DENYWEBVIEW
list, or not in the ALLOWWEBVIEW
list. Access is granted in case DENYWEBVIEW
and ALLOWWEBVIEW
is not defined.
Hide Control Settings
Tip: To hide access control settings from normal browser viewing, place them in HTML comment markers.
<!--
* Set DENYTOPICCHANGE = Main.SomeGroup
-->
TWiki Text Formatting
Working in TWiki is as easy as typing in text. You don't need to know HTML, though you can use it if you prefer. Links to topics are created automatically when you enter
WikiWords. And TWiki shorthand gives you all the power of HTML with a simple coding system that takes no time to learn. It's all laid out below.
TWiki Editing Shorthand
Formatting Command:
|
You write:
|
You get:
|
Paragraphs:
Blank lines will create new paragraphs.
|
1st paragraph
2nd paragraph
|
1st paragraph
2nd paragraph
|
Headings:
Three or more dashes at the beginning of a line, followed by plus signs and the heading text. One plus creates a top level heading, two pluses a second level heading, etc. The maximum heading depth is 6.
You can create a table of contents with the %TOC% variable. If you want to exclude a heading from the TOC, put !! after the ---+ .
Empty headings are allowed, but won't appear in the table of contents.
|
---++ Sushi
---+++ Maguro
---+++!! Not in TOC
|
Sushi
Maguro
Not in TOC
|
Bold Text:
Words get shown in bold by enclosing them in * asterisks.
|
*Bold*
|
Bold
|
Italic Text:
Words get shown in italic by enclosing them in _ underscores.
|
_Italic_
|
Italic
|
Bold Italic:
Words get shown in bold italic by enclosing them in __ double-underscores.
|
__Bold italic__
|
Bold italic
|
Fixed Font:
Words get shown in fixed font by enclosing them in = equal signs.
|
=Fixed font=
|
Fixed font
|
Bold Fixed Font:
Words get shown in bold fixed font by enclosing them in double equal signs.
|
==Bold fixed==
|
Bold fixed
|
You can follow the closing bold, italic, or other (* _ __ = == ) indicator
with normal punctuation, such as commas and full stops.
Make sure there is no space between the text and the indicators.
|
_This works_,
_this does not _
|
This works,
_this does not _
|
Verbatim (Literal) Text:
Surround code excerpts and other formatted text with <verbatim> and </verbatim> tags.
verbatim tags disable HTML code. Use <pre> and </pre> tags instead if you want the HTML code within the tags to be interpreted.
NOTE: Preferences variables (* Set NAME = value) are set within verbatim tags.
|
<verbatim>
class CatAnimal {
void purr() {
<code here>
}
}
</verbatim>
|
class CatAnimal {
void purr() {
<code here>
}
}
|
Separator (Horizontal Rule):
Three or more three dashes at the beginning of a line..
|
-------
|
|
Bulleted List:
Multiple of three spaces, an asterisk, and another space.
For all the list types, you can break a list item over several lines by indenting lines after the first one by at least 3 spaces.
|
* level 1
* level 2
* back on 1
* A bullet
broken over
three lines
* last bullet
|
- level 1
- back on 1
- A bullet broken over three lines
- last bullet
|
Numbered List:
Multiple of three spaces, a type character, a dot, and another space. Several types are available besides a number:
Type | Generated Style | Sample Sequence |
1. | Arabic numerals | 1, 2, 3, 4... |
A. | Uppercase letters | A, B, C, D... |
a. | Lowercase letters | a, b, c, d... |
I. | Uppercase Roman Numerals | I, II, III, IV... |
i. | Lowercase Roman Numerals | i, ii, iii, iv... |
|
1. Sushi
1. Dim Sum
1. Fondue
A. Sushi
A. Dim Sum
A. Fondue
i. Sushi
i. Dim Sum
i. Fondue
|
- Sushi
- Dim Sum
- Fondue
- Sushi
- Dim Sum
- Fondue
- Sushi
- Dim Sum
- Fondue
|
Definition List:
Three spaces, a dollar sign, the term, a colon, a space, followed by the definition.
|
$ Sushi: Japan
$ Dim Sum: S.F.
|
- Sushi
- Japan
- Dim Sum
- S.F.
|
Table:
Each row of the table is a line containing of one or more cells. Each cell starts and ends with a vertical bar '|'. Any spaces at the beginning of a line are ignored.
-
| *bold* | header cell with text in asterisks
-
| center-aligned | cell with at least two, and equal number of spaces on either side
-
| right-aligned | cell with more spaces on the left
-
| 2 colspan || and multi-span columns with multiple |'s right next to each other
-
|^| cell with caret indicating follow-up row of multi-span rows
- You can split rows over multiple lines by putting a backslash
'\' at the end of each line
- Contents of table cells wrap automatically as determined by the browser
The TablePlugin provides the |^| multiple-span row functionality and additional rendering features
|
| *L* | *C* | *R* |
| A2 | B2 | C2 |
| A3 | B3 | C3 |
| multi span |||
| A5-7 | 5 | 5 |
|^| six | six |
|^| seven | seven |
| split\
| over\
| 3 lines |
| A9 | B9 | C9 |
|
L | C | R |
A2 | B2 | C2 |
A3 | B3 | C3 |
multi span |
A5-7 | 5 | 5 |
six | six |
seven | seven |
split | over | 3 lines |
A9 | B9 | C9 |
|
WikiWord Links:
CapitalizedWordsStuckTogether (or WikiWords) will produce a link automatically if preceded by whitespace or parenthesis.
If you want to link to a topic in a different web write Otherweb.TopicName .
The link label excludes the name of the web, e.g. only the topic name is shown. As an exception, the name of the web is shown for the WebHome topic.
It's generally a good idea to use the TWikiVariables %TWIKIWEB% and %MAINWEB% instead of TWiki and Main.
|
WebStatistics
Sandbox.WebNotify
Sandbox.WebHome
|
WebStatistics
WebNotify
Sandbox
|
Anchors:
You can define a reference inside a TWiki topic (called an anchor name) and link to that. To define an anchor write #AnchorName at the beginning of a line. The anchor name must be a WikiWord. To link to an anchor name use the [[MyTopic#MyAnchor]] syntax. You can omit the topic name if you want to link within the same topic.
|
[[WikiWord#NotThere]]
[[#MyAnchor][Jump]]
#MyAnchor To here
|
WikiWord#NotThere
Jump
To here
|
Forced Links:
You can create a forced internal link by enclosing words in double square brackets.
Text within the brackets may contain optional spaces; the topic name is formed by capitalizing the initial letter and by removing the spaces; for example, [[text formatting FAQ]] links to topic TextFormattingFAQ. You can also refer to a different web and use anchors.
To "escape" double square brackets that would otherwise make a link, prefix the leading left square bracket with an exclamation point.
|
[[wiki syntax]]
[[Main.TWiki users]]
escaped:
![[wiki syntax]]
|
wiki syntax
Main.TWiki users
escaped:
[[wiki syntax]]
|
Specific Links:
You can create a link where you specify the link text and the URL separately using nested square brackets [[reference][text]] . Internal link references (e.g. WikiSyntax) and URLs (e.g. http://TWiki.org/) are both supported.
The rules described under Forced Links apply for internal link references.
Anchor names can be added as well, to create a link to a specific place in a topic.
|
[[WikiSyntax][wiki syntax]]
[[http://gnu.org][GNU]]
|
wiki syntax
GNU
|
Prevent a Link:
Prevent a WikiWord from being linked by prepending it with an exclamation point.
|
!SunOS
|
SunOS
|
Disable Links:
You can disable automatic linking of WikiWords by surrounding text with <noautolink> and </noautolink> tags.
It is possible to turn off all auto-linking with a NOAUTOLINK preferences setting.
|
<noautolink>
RedHat &
SuSE
</noautolink>
|
RedHat &
SuSE
|
Mailto Links:
E-mail addresses are linked automatically. To create e-mail links that have more descriptive link text, specify subject lines or message bodies, or omit the e-mail address, you can write [[mailto:user@domain][descriptive text]] .
|
a@b.com
[[mailto:a@b.com]\
[Mail]]
[[mailto:?subject=\
Hi][Hi]]
|
a@b.com
Mail
Hi
|
Using HTML
You can use just about any HTML tag without a problem. You can add HTML if there is no TWiki equivalent, for example, write
<strike>deleted text</strike>
to get
deleted text.

There are a few usability and technical considerations to keep in mind:
- On collaboration pages, it's better not to use HTML, but to use TWiki shorthand instead - this keeps the text uncluttered and easy to edit.
- If you use HTML use XHTML 1.0 Transitional syntax.
-
Script tags may be filtered out, at the discretion of your TWiki administrator.
Recommendations when pasting HTML from other sources:
- Copy only text between
<body>
and </body>
tags.
- Remove all empty lines. TWiki inserts
<p />
paragraph tags on empty lines, which causes problems if done between HTML tags that do not allow paragraph tags, like for example between table tags.
- Remove leading spaces. TWiki might interpret some text as lists.
- Do not span a tag over more than one line. TWiki requires that the opening and closing angle brackets -
<...>
- of an HTML tag are on the same line, or the tag will be broken.
- In your HTML editing program, save without hard line breaks on text wrap.

TWiki converts shorthand notation to HTML for display. To copy a fully marked-up page, simply view the source in your browser and save the contents. If you need to save HTML frequently, you may want to check out
TWiki:Plugins/PublishAddOn.
Script tags
You can use HTML
<script>
tags for your TWiki applications. However note that your TWiki administrator can disable
<script>
in topics, and may have chosen to do so for security considerations. TWiki markup and
TWikiVariables are
not expanded inside script tags.
Hyperlinks
Being able to create links without any special formatting is a core TWiki feature, made possible with
WikiWords and inline URLs.
Internal Links
- GoodStyle is a WikiWord that links to the GoodStyle topic located in the current web.
- NotExistingYet? is a topic waiting to be written. Create the topic by clicking on the ?. (Try clicking, but then, Cancel - creating the topic would wreck this example!)
External Links
-
http://...
, https://...
, ftp://...
, gopher://...
, news://...
, file://...
, telnet://...
and mailto:...@...
are linked automatically.
- E-mail addresses like
name@domain.com
are linked automatically.
-
[[Square bracket rules]]
let you easily create non-WikiWord links.
- You can also write
[[http://yahoo.com Yahoo home page]]
as an easier way of doing external links with descriptive text for the link, such as Yahoo home page.
TWiki Variables
TWiki Variables are names that are enclosed in percent signs
%
that are expanded on the fly. Some variables take arguments, such as
%INCLUDE%
. For those variables, the arguments are included in curly braces ({ and }).
Variable | In brief | Full documentation |
%TOC% | Automatically generates a table of contents based on headings in a topic - see the top of this page for an example. | VarTOC |
%WEB% | The current web, is TWiki. | VarWEB |
%TOPIC% | The current topic name, is TWikiDocumentation. | VarTOPIC |
%ATTACHURL% | The attachment URL of the current topic. Example usage: If you attach a file to a topic you can refer to it as %ATTACHURL%/image.gif to show the URL of the file or the image in your text. | VarATTACHURL |
%INCLUDE{"SomeTopic"}% | Server side include, includes another topic. The current web is the default web. Example: %INCLUDE{"TWiki.SiteMap"}% | VarINCLUDE |
%SEARCH{"sushi"}% | Inline search showing the search result embedded in a topic. FormattedSearch gives you control over formatting, useful for creating web-based applications. | VarSEARCH |
TWikiPreferences defines some site-wide variables. Among them are:
- Line break: Write
%BR%
to start a new line.
- Colored text: Write:
%RED% Red %ENDCOLOR% and %BLUE% blue %ENDCOLOR% colors
to get: Red and blue colors.
There are many more variables. To see them all, go to
TWikiVariables.
Documentation Graphics: There are many graphics available to use in your topics. Use
%ICON{"help"}%
,
%ICON{"tip"|%
, and
%icon{"warning"}%
to get:

,

, and

. To see all of the graphics available, see
TWikiDocGraphics.

To "escape" a variable, prefix it with an exclamation mark. Write:
!%SOMEVARIABLE%
to get: %SOMEVARIABLE%.
TWikiPlugin Formatting Extensions
Plugins can extend the functionality of TWiki into many other areas. There are a huge number of TWiki plugins available from the
Plugins web on TWiki.org.
Currently enabled plugins on this TWiki installation, as listed by
%PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%
:
- SpreadSheetPlugin (any TWiki, 10197): Add spreadsheet calculation like
"$SUM( $ABOVE() )"
to tables located in TWiki topics. - BreadCrumbsPlugin (v0.05, $Rev: 11409$): A flexible way to display breadcrumbs navigation
- CalendarPlugin (Dakar, 9113): Show a monthly calendar with highlighted events
- CommentPlugin (Dakar, 8164): Allows users to quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle.
- EditTablePlugin (Dakar, 8154): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
- FilterPlugin (0.97, $Rev: 11709$): Substitute and extract information from content by using regular expressions
- FlexWebListPlugin (v0.09, $Rev: 11715$): Flexible way to display hierarchical weblists
- GluePlugin (1.51, $Rev: 11220$): Enable TWikiML to span multiple lines
- IfDefinedPlugin (v0.95, $Rev: 11518$): Render content conditionally
- ImagePlugin (0.3, $Rev: 11325$): Control the display and alignment of images using an easy syntax
- InterwikiPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 8329$): Link
ExternalSite:Page
text to external sites based on aliases defined in a rules topic - LoginNameAliasesPlugin (Dakar, 1.2): Used to map login names (typically determined by the REMOTE_USER variable set by the web server) to usernames.
- NatSkinPlugin (3.00-pre10, $Rev: 11714$): Supplements the bare bones NatSkin theme for TWiki
- PreferencesPlugin (Dakar, 9839): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
- RedDotPlugin (1.37, $Rev: 11521$): Renders edit-links as little red dots
- RenderListPlugin (1.033): Render bullet lists in a variety of formats
- SlideShowPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 8154$): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
- SmiliesPlugin (Dakar, 8154): Render smilies as icons, like
:-)
for
or :cool:
for :cool: - TablePlugin (Dakar, 8154): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
- TwistyPlugin (1.2.0, $Rev: 11829$): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
- WysiwygPlugin (Dakar, 9565): Translator framework and WYSIWYG editor for TWiki topics
Check on current Plugin status and settings for this site in
TWikiPreferences.
Common Editing Errors
TWiki formatting rules are fairly simple to use and quick to type. However, there are some things to watch out for, taken from the
TextFormattingFAQ:
- Q: Text enclosed in angle brackets like
<filename>
is not displayed. How can I show it as it is?
- A: The
'<'
and '>'
characters have a special meaning in HTML, they define HTML tags. You need to escape them, so write '<'
instead of '<'
, and '>'
instead of '>'
.
Example: Type 'prog <filename>'
to get 'prog <filename>'
.
- Q: Why is the
'&'
character sometimes not displayed?
- A: The
'&'
character has a special meaning in HTML, it starts a so called character entity, i.e. '©'
is the ©
copyright character. You need to escape '&'
to see it as it is, so write '&'
instead of '&'
.
Example: Type 'This & that'
to get 'This & that'
.
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:
- Preferences variables: Can be defined and changed by the user
- 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
Variable names must start with a letter. The following characters can be letters, numbers and the underscore '_'. You can use both upper-case and lower-case letters and you can mix the characteres. E.g.
%MYVAR%
,
%MyVar%
,
%My2ndVar%
, and
%My_Var%
are all valid variable names. Variables are case sensitive.
%MyVAR%
and
%MYVAR%
are not the same variable.
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
You can set variables in all the following places:
- local site level in TWikiPreferences
- user level in individual user topics in Main web
- web level in WebPreferences of each web
- topic level in topics in webs
- plugin topics (see TWikiPlugins)
- 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.
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:
Spaces between the = sign and the value will be ignored. You can split a value over several lines by indenting following lines with spaces - as long as you don't try to use * as the first character on the following line.
Example:
* Set VARIABLENAME = value starts here
and continues here
Whatever you include in your Variable will be expanded on display, exactly as if it had been entered directly.
Example: Create a custom logo variable
- To place a logo anywhere in a web by typing
%MYLOGO%
, define the Variable on the web's WebPreferences topic, and upload a logo file, ex: mylogo.gif
. You can upload by attaching the file to WebPreferences, or, to avoid clutter, to any other topic in the same web, e.g. LogoTopic
. Sample variable setting in WebPreferences:
-
Set MYLOGO = %PUBURL%/%WEB%/LogoTopic/mylogo.gif
You can also set preferences variables on a topic by clicking the link
Edit topic preference settings
under
More topic actions
. 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
Certain topics (a users home topic, web site and default preferences topics) have a problem; variables defined in those topics can have two meanings. For example, consider a user topic. A user may want to use a double-height edit box when they are editing their home topic - but
only when editing their home topic. The rest of the time, they want to have a normal edit box. This separation is achieved using
Local
in place of
Set
in the variable definition. For example, if the user sets the following in their home topic:
* Set EDITBOXHEIGHT = 10
* Local EDITBOXHEIGHT = 20
Then when they are editing any other topic, they will get a 10 high edit box. However when they are editing their home topic, they will get a 20 high edit box.
Local
can be used wherever a preference needs to take a different value depending on where the current operation is being performed.
Use this powerful feature with great care!
%ALLVARIABLES%
can be used to get a listing of the values of all variables in their evaluation order, so you can see variable scope if you get confused.
Frequently Used Preferences Variables
The following preferences variables are frequently used. They are defined in
TWikiPreferences#Miscellaneous_Settings:
-
%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-4.0.4-2, Tue, 23 Jul 2006, build 10807 - predefines the following variables:
ACTIVATEDPLUGINS -- list of currently activated plugins
- Syntax:
%ACTIVATEDPLUGINS%
- Expands to: SpreadSheetPlugin, BreadCrumbsPlugin, CalendarPlugin, CommentPlugin, EditTablePlugin, FilterPlugin, FlexWebListPlugin, GluePlugin, IfDefinedPlugin, ImagePlugin, InterwikiPlugin, LoginNameAliasesPlugin, NatSkinPlugin, PreferencesPlugin, RedDotPlugin, RenderListPlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, TablePlugin, 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
ATTACHURL -- full URL for attachments in the current topic
ATTACHURLPATH -- path of the attachment URL of the current topic
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
DATE -- signature format date
DISPLAYTIME -- display time
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 04:49
- Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME, SERVERTIME
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 " | URL encoding |
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, for example:
<input type="text" name="address" value="%ENCODE{ "any text" type="entity" }%" />
- Related: URLPARAM
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
FAILEDPLUGINS -- debugging for plugins that failed to load, and handler list
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 $title expands to the field title | "$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
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 | month in ISO format | 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 | 2021-02-26T04:49:01Z |
$rcs | RCS format timestamp | 2021/02/26 04:49:01 |
$http | E-mail & http format timestamp | Fri, 26 Feb 2021 04:49:01 GMT |
$epoch | Number of seconds since 00:00 on 1st January, 1970 | 1614314941 |
- Variables can be shortened to 3 characters
- Example:
%GMTIME{"$day $month, $year - $hour:$min:$sec"}%
expands to 26 Feb, 2021 - 04:49:01
-
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
GROUPS -- a formatted list of groups
HOMETOPIC -- home topic in each web
HTTP -- get HTTP headers
HTTP_HOST -- environment variable
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
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.ific.uv.es/twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/arrowbright.gif
-
%ICONURL{"novel.pdf"}%
returns http://twiki.ific.uv.es/twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/pdf.gif
-
%ICONURL{"/queen/boheme.mp3"}%
returns http://twiki.ific.uv.es/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=" is not defined"}%
renders as ==
- 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="..." | A RegularExpression pattern to include a subset of a topic or page | 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 tags spanning multiple lines. If you prefer to include exactly what is in the source of the originating page set this to on . | 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 | |
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
raw
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
LOCALSITEPREFS -- web.topicname of site preferences topic
- The full name of the local site preferences topic. This topic is read for preferences before TWiki.%TWIKIPREFSTOPIC% is read.
- Syntax:
%LOCALSITEPREFS%
- Expands to:
Main.TWikiPreferences
, renders as TWikiPreferences
LOGIN -- present a full login link
LOGOUT -- present a full logout link
MAINWEB -- name of Main web
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 twiki.support@ific.uv.es.
-
%MAKETEXT{"Did you want to [[[_1]][reset [_2]'s password]]?" args="%TWIKIWEB%.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).
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 $formfield | Show a single form field |
"form" | none | Generates the table showing the form fields. See Form Templates |
"attachments" | all="on" to show hidden attachments | Generates the table showing the attachments |
"moved" | none | Details of any topic moves |
"parent" | dontrecurse="on" : By default recurses up tree, this has some cost. nowebhome="on" : Suppress WebHome. prefix="..." : Prefix that goes before parents, but only if there are parents, default "" . format="..." : format string used to display each partent topic, default "[[$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 | current topic |
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 |
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
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
PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS -- list of plugin descriptions
- Syntax:
%PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%
- Expands to:
- SpreadSheetPlugin (any TWiki, 10197): Add spreadsheet calculation like
"$SUM( $ABOVE() )"
to tables located in TWiki topics. - BreadCrumbsPlugin (v0.05, $Rev: 11409$): A flexible way to display breadcrumbs navigation
- CalendarPlugin (Dakar, 9113): Show a monthly calendar with highlighted events
- CommentPlugin (Dakar, 8164): Allows users to quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle.
- EditTablePlugin (Dakar, 8154): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
- FilterPlugin (0.97, $Rev: 11709$): Substitute and extract information from content by using regular expressions
- FlexWebListPlugin (v0.09, $Rev: 11715$): Flexible way to display hierarchical weblists
- GluePlugin (1.51, $Rev: 11220$): Enable TWikiML to span multiple lines
- IfDefinedPlugin (v0.95, $Rev: 11518$): Render content conditionally
- ImagePlugin (0.3, $Rev: 11325$): Control the display and alignment of images using an easy syntax
- InterwikiPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 8329$): Link
ExternalSite:Page
text to external sites based on aliases defined in a rules topic - LoginNameAliasesPlugin (Dakar, 1.2): Used to map login names (typically determined by the REMOTE_USER variable set by the web server) to usernames.
- NatSkinPlugin (3.00-pre10, $Rev: 11714$): Supplements the bare bones NatSkin theme for TWiki
- PreferencesPlugin (Dakar, 9839): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
- RedDotPlugin (1.37, $Rev: 11521$): Renders edit-links as little red dots
- RenderListPlugin (1.033): Render bullet lists in a variety of formats
- SlideShowPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 8154$): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
- SmiliesPlugin (Dakar, 8154): Render smilies as icons, like
:-)
for
or :cool:
for :cool: - TablePlugin (Dakar, 8154): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
- TwistyPlugin (1.2.0, $Rev: 11829$): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
- WysiwygPlugin (Dakar, 9565): Translator framework and WYSIWYG editor for TWiki topics
- Related: ACTIVATEDPLUGINS, FAILEDPLUGINS, PLUGINVERSION
PLUGINVERSION -- the version of a TWiki Plugin, or the TWiki Plugins API
PUBURL -- the base URL of attachments
PUBURLPATH -- the base URL path of attachments
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 %URLPARAM{}%
.
- Syntax:
%QUERYSTRING%
- Expands to:
rev=45;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;amp=;sortcol=0;table=24;up=0
- Related: URLPARAM
REMOTE_ADDR -- environment variable
REMOTE_PORT -- environment variable
REMOTE_USER -- environment variable
REVINFO -- revision information of current topic
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 |
$date | Revision date | 11 Jul 2004 |
$time | Revision time | 23:24:25 |
$username | Login username of revision | jsmith |
$wikiname | WikiName of revision | JohnSmith |
$wikiusername | WikiName with Main web prefix | Main.JohnSmith |
- Example:
%REVINFO{"$date - $wikiusername" rev="1.1"}%
returns revision info of first revision
- Related: REVINFO
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
SCRIPTURL{"script"} -- URL of TWiki script
- Syntax:
%SCRIPTURL{"script"}%
- Expands to:
http://twiki.ific.uv.es/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.ific.uv.es/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
SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"} -- URL path of TWiki script
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 or regular expression search, depending on the type parameter. SearchHelp has more | required |
search="text" | (Alternative to above) | N/A |
web="Name" web="Main, Know" web="all" | Comma-separated list of webs to search. 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 |
type="keyword" type="literal" type="regex" | Do a keyword search like soap "web service" -shampoo ; a literal search like web service ; or RegularExpression search like soap;web service;!shampoo | %SEARCHVAR- DEFAULTTYPE% preferences setting (literal) |
scope="topic" scope="text" scope="all" | Search topic name (title); the text (body) of topic; or all (both) | "text" |
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 TimeInterval. | All results |
reverse="on" | Reverse the direction of the search | Ascending search |
casesensitive="on" | Case sensitive search | Ignore case |
bookview="on" | BookView search, e.g. show complete topic text | Show topic summary |
nonoise="on" | Shorthand for nosummary="on" nosearch="on" nototal="on" zeroresults="off" noheader="on" noempty="on" | Off |
nosummary="on" | Show topic title only | Show topic summary |
nosearch="on" | Suppress search string | Show search string |
noheader="on" | Suppress search header Topics: Changed: By: | Show search header, unless seach 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 hits | Newline "$n" |
- Example:
%SEARCH{"wiki" web="Main" scope="topic"}%
- Example with format:
%SEARCH{"FAQ" scope="topic" nosearch="on" nototal="on" header="| *Topic: * | *Summary: * |" format="| $topic | $summary |"%
(displays results in a table with header - details)
-
Hint: If the TWiki:Plugins.TablePlugin is installed, you may set a %TABLE{}%
variable just before the %SEARCH{}%
to alter the output of a search. Example: %TABLE{ tablewidth="90%" }%
- Related: METASEARCH, TOPICLIST, WEBLIST, FormattedSearch
SERVERTIME -- server time
SERVERTIME{"format"} -- formatted server time
- Same format qualifiers as
%GMTIME%
- Syntax:
%SERVERTIME{"format"}%
- Example:
%SERVERTIME{"$hou:$min"}%
expands to 05:49
-
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
SESSIONVAR -- name of CGI and session variable that stores the session ID
SESSION_VARIABLE -- get, set or clear a session variable
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: