Reference Manual (v2.1.8)

Installation Guide

This guide describes the steps for installing Foswiki using Apache as the web server, on Linux.
This guide describes the specific steps for installations on Linux with the Apache web server.
If you would prefer to use a different web server, please refer to supplemental documentation when you reach the Apache-specific steps:

Rather not install manually? Visit Foswiki:Download.OtherFoswikiInstallers for automated installers, and virtual machine images. These automate much of the installation process and may help some users get started more easily. For instructions using those packages, refer to the documentation provided there. Note that the installers are optimized for the target system, and do not necessarily follow the normal Foswiki directory structure documented below.

Upgrading? Please see the upgrade guide.

Need further information? Visit Foswiki:Support.SupplementalDocuments for additional notes on installing on different operating systems or shared web-hosting environments, performance tuning, security hardening and more.

Need help? Visit Foswiki:Support web or Foswiki:Community.InternetRelayChat (irc.freenode.net, channel #foswiki).

Before you start

5-Minute Install

Here's the quick version of the instructions, for those that are already comfortable with performing such installations. More detailed instructions follow.

  1. Download and unpack the latest version of Foswiki.
  2. Configure Apache using the Foswiki:Support.ApacheConfigGenerator tool to generate a safe, working config file for your Foswiki installation.
  3. Bootstrap your the install by browsing to the default view URL for your site in your web browser. Depending upon your Apache configuration, your view URL might look something like:
    • http://yoursite.com
    • http://yoursite.com/bin/view
    • http://yoursite.com/foswiki/bin/view
  4. Follow the link in the Bootstrap banner of the returned page to the bin/configure tool, address any warnings and save your configuration.
  5. Return from configure (button at top of page), and register your first user.

Note: If you are using SSL (https://), and access Foswiki via a proxy server, you may need to give bootstrap a "hint" that SSL is in use. Add SSL=1 to the URL, eg: https://yoursite.com?SSL=1. From there, bootstrap should function correctly. You only need to do this if the initial view screen displays without any styling and the links on the page point to non-SSL http locations.

That's it! You Foswiki should now be installed. Browse to /bin/view and start editing!

At some point, you will want to re-visit Configuring Foswiki to enable out-going emails, create administrators and properly secure your installation.

Detailed Instructions

Step 1: Download and unpack Foswiki

  1. Go to your site's root directory as set by Apache (typically within the /var/www or /srv/www directory) or as set by your hosting company.
  2. Download the Foswiki distribution from https://foswiki.org/Download
    • If you have shell access, you can download the distribution directly using using this command:
      wget  https://sourceforge.net/projects/foswiki/files/latest/download
    • If you do not have shell access to your web server host, see the section Uploading the Foswiki distribution to your web server host below.
  3. Unpack the distribution file:
    • go to your web directory (usually /var/www) or in any directory you what to install Foswiki (designed after by /path/to/foswiki/)
    • Untar and gunzip the distribution using this command: (modify to match version number) tar -xzvf foswiki-VERSION.tgz A new subdirectory called Foswiki-VERSION will be created.
    • You can rename this subdirectory to a shorter name. For the rest of this document, this subdirectory is assumed to be at /path/to/foswiki.
    • Note: Foswiki does not support directory paths that contain spaces, so ensure that all of its directory paths do not contain any spaces (particularly on Windows).

Step 2: Confirm file and directory ownership and permissions

Note: Installers on shared hosting sites and Windows can skip to next step.

The general command in Linux distributions to set file ownership to the Apache system user is:
sudo chown -R {user}:{group} /path/to/foswik

The appropriate user/group ownership varies, depending upon the operating system and distribution:
RedHat, Fedora, CentOS, Gentoo, Mandriva apache:apache
debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu www-data:www-data
Suse wwwrun:www
FreeBSD www:www

The default file and directory access permissions as set by the distribution define a reasonable security level that will work for many types of installations, including shared hosting. Nonetheless, you should verify that the web server user has read access to all files and directories beneath the foswiki directory, and execute access for all directories. Also verify that the data and pub directories and all the subdirectories and files beneath them allow write access for the web server user.

If for some reason the file permissions have been modified, the shell script tools/fix_file_permissions.sh can be used to repair the installation.
cd /path/to/foswiki
sh tools/fix_file_permissions.sh

For more information on the appropriate permissions to ensure security for your Foswiki data, see Foswiki:Support.SecuringYourSite.

Step 3: Configure location of the Perl executable

If you are running a Linux system with Perl found on the default path or are on a shared hosting site, then you can jump to this step. This step is required on Windows installations.

The easiest way to fix up the bin scripts is to run the tools/rewriteshebang.pl script:
cd /path/to/foswiki/tools
perl rewriteshebang.pl
or for Windows users:
cd C:\path\to\foswiki\tools
perl rewriteshebang.pl
The script will determine the location of the Perl interpreter and will prompt to update both the bin and tools scripts in a single step. The changed files will be reported, and it is safe to rerun the script.

If you get an error about perl command not found, the you need to find where your perl command is installed and include that in your command. For example:
C:\path\to\perl rewriteshebang.pl

Step 4: Configure the web server

Foswiki provides several methods to configure Apache depending of your access to root and sudo and your preference to set all in one file or several files.

Method 1 and 2 provide better performance and requires editing only one file. However, they require root or sudo access. Method 3 is for cases where you do not have root access (such as on hosted sites).

In details:

Method 1: Use Foswiki's configuration generator (Needs root access)
  • See Foswiki:Support.ApacheConfigGenerator.
  • This is the easiest and best way to generate a smooth-running and secure configuration file.
  • After installing the config file as per your distribution's guidelines, remember to restart or reload Apache each time you edit the file to apply your changes.

Method 2: Customize the Apache config template file included in distribution (Needs root access)
  • A sample config file called foswiki_httpd_conf.txt can be found in the root of the foswiki installation.
  • This is provided in case you can not access the online configuration generator.
  • Instructions are provided in the file for tailoring the configuration to you server.
  • Be carefull! The configuration shipped with Foswiki is for Apache 2.2 or earlier. Apache 2.4 has changed the syntax of the configuration file. Ensure that mod_access_compat is enabled for backwards compatibility when using Apache 2.4
  • As with Method 1, remember to restart or reload Apache each time you edit the file to apply your changes.

Method 3: Customize the .htaccess template files included in distribution (Useful on shared hosting sites)
  • Sample .htaccess files for the Foswiki root and each subdirectory are included in the root of your installation. Each file contains instructions on modifying it for your installation. For more information, see Foswiki:Support.SupplementalDocuments.
location and name of sample .htaccess file copy sample file to the following location tailoring required (Detailed instuctions in each file)
foswiki/root-htaccess.txt foswiki/.htaccess Optional: redirect to a default page for empty URL.
foswiki/bin-htaccess-basic.txt foswiki/bin/.htaccess Optional: In most cases this file will "just work" without tailoring.
foswiki/bin-htaccess-advanced.txt foswiki/bin/.htaccess Yes. Use this file for configuring Apache login, LDAP authentication and other advanced configurations. Must find/replace all instances of {DataDir}, {DefaultUrlHost} and {ScriptUrlPath} with valid information. The setting SetHandler cgi-script is critical to make sure that scripts in the bin directory will be executed by Apache.
foswiki/pub-htaccess.txt foswiki/pub/.htaccess Optional: - Uncomment and set correct URL path on the ErrorDocument statement for friendly handling of file-not-found errors.
foswiki/subdir-htaccess.txt foswiki/<subdir>/.htaccess
Copy to all other subdirectories below foswiki, including
data, lib, locale, templates, tools, working.
All directories except for bin and pub addressed above.
No

TIP General points to keep in mind with any of the above Apache configuration approaches:
  • For security purposes, it's important to check that web access is denied to all Foswiki subdirectories other than bin and pub. All three of the approaches described above (Foswiki:Support.ApacheConfigGenerator, the sample foswiki_httpd_conf.txt file included in the distribution, or .htaccess files) should provide for this but it should be confirmed by using web browser to confirm that direct access to the other directories is blocked.
  • Also for security purposes, be sure to turn off any kind of PHP, Perl, Python, Server Side Includes, or other software execution mechanisms supported by your web server in the pub directory. Again, the three approaches described above all provide for this. However, different script execution mechanisms are disabled in different ways so refer see your web server configuration and documentation for more details.
  • The configuration shipped with Foswiki is for Apache 2.2 or earlier. Apache 2.4 has changed the syntax of the configuration file. Ensure that mod_access_compat is enabled for backwards compatibility when using Apache 2.4, or use the Foswiki:Support.ApacheConfigGenerator config generator.
  • ALERT! New with Foswiki 2.0 The configure script no longer needs any special protection within the Apache configuration.

Step 5: Bootstrap your configuration

  1. Using your web browser, enter the default "view" url for your site. Depending upon your Apache configuration, this might look something like:
    • http://yoursite.com/foswiki/bin/view
    • http://yoursite.com/bin/view
    • http://yoursite.com
      This will Bootstrap your configuration and help Foswiki determine whether or not you are using Short URLs. It also logs you in as a the admin user. Don't close your browser until you've completed the configuration process and registered your first user.
  2. Follow the link to configure rendered in the Bootstrap banner. (Do not manually enter the bin/configure URL or Foswiki will not correctly detect the URL configuration).
  3. Make any required changes, and save the settings.
    • This will create the initial configuration and end the bootstrap process.
    • Configuration items which may require further attention will be highlighted.
    • Save as soon as possible, especially if your site is exposed. Anyone accessing Foswiki before the configuration has been saved will be granted admin rights.

  • TIP If the Foswiki installation can be accessed by more than one protocol://domain, ensure the additional alternative URLs are set in {PermittedRedirectHostUrls}. Example: if {DefaultUrlHost} is set to https://wiki.company.com, an example {PermittedRedirectHostUrls} might contain:
    https://company.com, http://111.222.123.234
  • If your server requires a Proxy in order to access external resources like your mail server, this is configured on the "Security and Authentication" tab, "Proxies" sub-tab. Complete that before proceeding with the E-mail configuration.
  • If you do not want to or are unable to configure from the web interface, there is an alternate command line configuration documented in InstallationGuide.

Step 6: Configure email

Outgoing e-mail is required for Foswiki to send registration confirmations, notifications of changes, password reset requests, etc.

  1. Select the Mail tab in left bar of confgiure and fill out the following parameters:
    • The {WebMasterEmail} should be set to a valid e-mail address. This will be the From: ID used to send Foswiki Emails and will also appear on webmaster mailto: links.
      If you are running on a *nix server with a configured local mail transport agent, you can try pressing the "TIPauto-configure email" button. If auto-configure succeeds, proceed to the next step, to send a test email. If your server is a Windows server, if auto-configure failed, or you know a local transport agent is not available, continue with the SMTP e-mail configuration:
    • The {SMTP}{MAILHOST} should be set to your e-mail server hostame: ex: smtp.gmail.com
    • On most systems, you will also have to configure {SMTP}{Username} and {SMTP}{Password}. These are used so that Foswiki can sign into the e-mail server for purposes of sending e-mail.
    • Click the "TIPauto-configure email" button. (This can run a long time as Foswiki probes all possible e-mail configurations) This will probe the mail server to discover it's configuration, and will finish the configuration. If all goes well, the settings will have been fine tuned for your e-mail server and e-mail is automatically enabled.
  2. Once auto-configure completes, Click the "TIPSend test email" button. located on the {WebMasterEmail} field This will verify if the configuration is correct and able to send mail. If e-mail is enabled, but not functional, you will be unable to register users.
  3. Click the Save button in the upper right corner of the configuration page.

If auto-configure fails to complete, you can use the "Advanced settings" tab to manually configure the e-mail server. You will also need to configure the basic information tab. Although outgoing email is necessary for user registration, it is not required for Foswiki to run otherwise, so if you are setting up a test installation or don't plan on enabling user registration, you can skip this step.

Step 7: Check Authentication and Register Yourself

Authentication of users means their activity can be tracked, and access to your site can be controlled. This is particularly important for sites that are publicly accessible on the web. Foswiki is pre-configured with a flexible and user-friendly authentication set-up that fits most common use-cases. To learn more about this set-up and available alternatives, see User Authentication Options. You can also revisit this later and switch to an alternative authentication set-up.

Test if authentication is working by going to UserRegistration and registering yourself.

If there are problems, see authentication trouble-shooting tips.

TIP After completing initial installation, you are strongly encouraged to read UserAuthentication and Foswiki:Support.UserAuthenticationSupplement for further information about managing users and access controls for your Foswiki site.

Step 8: Establish an Administrator user

The last step in your configuration is to create and user with administration rights.

TIP The steps outlined below are recommended for initial configuration. You should complete this before closing the browser after the bootstrap process. Once you close the browser you will lose your temporary admin status. Later on, you can review the further notes below regarding about administrators and options to protect configure and consider one of the more restrictive options.
Once the Foswiki bootstrap process is completed and you've logged out, configure will be restricted to Foswiki's "AdminGroup". Therefor you must add the user you just registered to the administrators group.

If you have not yet registered your first user, return to InstallationGuide and follow the steps to register a user. Once that is completed, return to AdminGroup
  1. Scroll down to the "Administration" section and click on "Add Members" link.
    • If you do not see the Admistration section, then you don't have authorization to change this group. See InstallationGuide for instructions on establishing an internal admin user.
  2. Enter your WikiName as defined when you registered yourself.
  3. Click the Add Member button
  4. Return to the AdminGroup by clicking the group name on the confirmation page and look under "Members" to confirm you have been added.

Foswiki provides multiple ways to protect configure. See CompleteDocumentation for more details on how to protect your configuration.

Step 9. Save your configuration!

Click the Save button in the upper right corner of the configuration page.

Refer back to any page in your installation (such as the "AdminGroup" page you were at in the previous step). The login section at the top of the left-hand menu should show that you are still be logged in as a temporary Admin user. Click on the "Log Out" link to exit that user.

Congratulations! Your Foswiki Installation is Ready to Use!

You now have set up your Foswiki installation! At this point you can start creating and editing pages. See InstallationGuidePart2 to proceed with further tailoring your site.

In order to keep your user, group, and site configuration information separate from the actual content of your site, it is recommended that you create a new web in which your site's pages will reside. See ManagingWebs for more information on Wiki webs and how to create one.

Troubleshooting

If you are having problems with your installation, try the following:

  • Review the PerlDependencyReport and sure all dependencies are correctly resolved.
  • Run the configure script and ensure you have resolved all errors and are satisfied that you understand any warnings.
    • You can also access the dependency report from the command line:
      cd /path/to/foswiki
      perl tools/dependencies 
  • Consult the topics at Foswiki:Support.SupplementalDocuments and Foswiki:Support.AskedQuestions.
  • Ask for help on IRC (irc.freenode.net, channel #foswiki). There are often a number of people waiting to help.
  • Ask a question in the Foswiki:Support web

Supplemental Information For Installation

System Requirements

Server Requirements

Foswiki is written in Perl 5, which is supported on Microsoft Windows as well as Unix and Unix-like systems (including Linux and OSX). On Unix-like systems, it uses a number of shell commands. It should be able to run out-of-the-box on any server platform that meets the following requirements.

Resource Required Server Environment
Perl 5.8.8 or higher. A minimum of perl 5.12 is recommended.
External programs GNU diff 2.7 or higher, fgrep, and egrep (not required on Windows)
Web server Apache, Nginx and Lighttpd are all well supported; Apache sample configs are provided. For information on other servers, see Foswiki:Support.InstallingOnSpecificPlatforms.

Foswiki is designed to automatically detect the platform and generate a basic configuration the first time the configure script is run, but start from your expected default "view" URL, so that Foswiki can figure out your URL scheme.

Prior versions of Foswiki shipped with the important CPAN modules. Foswiki 2.0 does not, and you must ensure that the perl dependencies listed below are installed before attempting to use Foswiki. For a detailed report, PerlDependencyReport (admin access only!) or the shell script tools/dependencies.

If you are unable to install CPAN modules, see Foswiki:Extensions.CpanContrib. Install this extension into your Foswiki installation directory if you cannot install Perl modules otherwise.

You can check the dependencies before Foswiki is fully operational with the following command. It will list all potentially missing dependencies. Not all listed dependences are required on all installations, Refer to the usage message that accompanies each missing dependency in the report.

cd /path/to/foswiki
perl tools/dependencies

Specific distribution details

Find the closest match to your installed system. and click on the "Show ..." link to reveal the details.

Ubuntu and other Debian derived distributions

Minimum requirements

Install apache and rcs: apt-get install apache2 rcs

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Algorithm::Diff libalgorithm-diff-perl  
Archive::Tar libarchive-tar-perl  
Authen::SASL libauthen-sasl-perl  
CGI libcgi-pm-perl  
CGI::Session libcgi-session-perl  
Crypt::PasswdMD5 libcrypt-passwdmd5-perl  
Digest::SHA libdigest-sha-perl *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Email::Address::XS libemail-address-xs-perl  
Email::MIME libemail-mime-perl  
Encode libencode-perl  
Error liberror-perl  
File::Copy::Recursive libfile-copy-recursive-perl  
HTML::Parser libhtml-parser-perl  
HTML::Tree libhtml-tree-perl  
IO::Socket::IP libio-socket-ip-perl First shipped perl 5.19.8
IO::Socket::SSL libio-socket-ssl-perl  
JSON libjson-perl  
Locale::Codes liblocale-codes-perl  
Locale::Maketext liblocale-maketext-perl  
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon liblocale-maketext-lexicon-perl Optional, needed for internationalization
Locale::Msgfmt liblocale-msgfmt-perl Optional, needed for internationalization
LWP libwww-perl  
LWP::Protocol::https liblwp-protocol-https-perl  
URI liburi-perl  
version libversion-perl Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.

Note: to install all the above:
apt-get install libalgorithm-diff-perl libarchive-tar-perl libauthen-sasl-perl libcgi-pm-perl libcgi-session-perl libcrypt-passwdmd5-perl libdigest-sha-perl libemail-address-xs-perl libemail-mime-perl libencode-perl liberror-perl libfile-copy-recursive-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tree-perl libio-socket-ip-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libjson-perl liblocale-codes-perl liblocale-maketext-perl liblocale-maketext-lexicon-perl liblocale-msgfmt-perl libwww-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl liburi-perl libversion-perl

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
mod_perl2 libapache2-mod-perl2 Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
Apache2::Request libapache2-request-perl Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
DBI libdbi-perl Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql libdbd-mysql-perl Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg libdbd-pg-perl Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite libdbd-sqlite3-perl Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI libfcgi-perl Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager libfcgi-procmanager-perl Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME libcrypt-smime-perl Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Crypt::X509 libcrypt-x509-perl Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM libconvert-pem-perl Optional, used for S/MIME email signing

After expanding the Foswiki archive, change the ownership of the files:
  • Debian, Ubuntu, Kubunto: chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/foswiki

Apache user should issue the following commands:
a2enmod rewrite
Enables mod_rewrite
a2enmod cgi OR a2enmod cgid
Enables CGI. May need cgid if using a threaded mpm.
a2enmod access_compat
Apache 2.4: Enables compatibility with foswiki example apache configurations.

RedHat, SuSE, CentOS and other RPM based distributions

Minimum requirements

Install apache2, rcs, and perl-CPAN

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Algorithm::Diff perl-Algorithm-Diff  
Archive::Tar perl-Archive-Tar *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Authen::SASL perl-Authen-SASL  
CGI perl-CGI  
CGI::Session perl-CGI-Session  
Crypt::PasswdMD5 perl-Crypt-PasswdMD5  
Digest::SHA perl-Digest-SHA *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Email::Address::XS perl-Email-Address-XS  
Email::MIME perl-Email-MIME  
Encode perl-Encode  
Error perl-Error  
File::Copy::Recursive perl-File-Copy-Recursive  
HTML::Parser perl-HTML-Parser  
HTML::Tree perl-HTML-Tree  
IO::Socket::IP perl-IO-Socket-IP First shipped perl 5.19.8
IO::Socket::SSL perl-IO-Socket-SSL  
JSON perl-JSON  
Locale::Language perl-Locale-Codes  
Locale::Maketext perl-Locale-Maketext  
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon perl-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon Optional, needed for internationalization **
Locale::Msgfmt perl-Locale-Msgfmt Optional, needed for internationalization **
LWP perl-libwww-perl  
LWP::Protocol::https perl-LWP-Protocol-https  
URI perl-URI  
version perl-version Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.

To install the above packages on CentOS
Note, Locale::Maketext::Lexicon and Locale::Msgfmt are not available on Centos. Install using CPAN if Internationalization is required.

First add the appropriate perl module repository, and then install the packages.
yum install -y epel-release
yum install perl-Algorithm-Diff perl-Archive-Tar perl-Authen-SASL perl-CGI perl-CGI-Session perl-Crypt-PasswdMD5 perl-Digest-SHA perl-Email-Address-XS perl-Email-MIME perl-Encode perl-Error perl-File-Copy-Recursive perl-HTML-Parser perl-HTML-Tree perl-IO-Socket-IP perl-IO-Socket-SSL perl-JSON perl-Locale-Codes perl-Locale-Maketext perl-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon perl-Locale-Msgfmt perl-libwww-perl perl-LWP-Protocol-https perl-URI perl-version

To install the above packages on SuSE
First add the appropriate SuSE perl-modules repository, and then install the packages. Note: Not all listed packages will install on SuSE, but all dependences are resolved.
zypper ar -f -n perl-modules http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/perl/openSUSE_13.1 perl-modules
zypper install perl-Algorithm-Diff perl-Archive-Tar perl-Authen-SASL perl-CGI perl-CGI-Session perl-Crypt-PasswdMD5 perl-Digest-SHA perl-Email-Address-XS perl-Email-MIME perl-Encode perl-Error perl-File-Copy-Recursive perl-HTML-Parser perl-HTML-Tree perl-IO-Socket-IP perl-IO-Socket-SSL perl-JSON perl-Locale-Codes perl-Locale-Maketext perl-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon perl-Locale-Msgfmt perl-libwww-perl perl-LWP-Protocol-https perl-URI perl-version

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
mod_perl2 mod_perl Required if using Apache2 and mod_perl
Apache2::Request perl-libapreq2 Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
DBI perl-DBI Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql perl-DBD-mysql Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg perl-DBD-Pg Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite perl-DBD-SQLite Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI perl-FCGI Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager perl-FCGI-ProcManager Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME perl-Crypt-SMIME Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
(Not available in default repositories)
Crypt::X509 perl-Crypt-X509 Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM perl-Convert-PEM Optional, used for S/MIME email signing

After expanding the Foswiki archive, change the ownership of the files:
  • RedHat, Fedora, CentOS Mandriva: chown -R apache:apache /path/to/foswiki=
  • Suse: chown -R wwwrun:www /path/to/foswiki

Gentoo (ebuild) based distributions

Minimum requirements

Install www-servers/apache, dev-vcs/rcs, and dev-lang/perl

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Algorithm::Diff dev-perl/Algorithm-Diff  
Archive::Tar perl-Archive-Tar *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Authen::SASL dev-perl/Authen-SASL Optional, needed for authenticated SMTP
CGI dev-perl/CGI  
CGI::Session dev-perl/CGI-Session  
Crypt::PasswdMD5 dev-perl/Crypt-PasswdMD5  
Digest::SHA   Included with perl
Email::Address::XS dev-perl/Email-Address-XS  
Email::MIME dev-perl/Email-MIME  
Error dev-perl/Error  
Encode   Included with perl
File::Copy::Recursive dev-perl/File-Copy-Recursive  
HTML::Parser dev-perl/HTML-Parser  
HTML::Tree dev-perl/HTML-Tree  
IO::Socket::IP   Ebuild not avaiable. Install with g-cpan if IPv6 is needed.
IO::Socket::SSL dev-perl/IO-Socket-SSL Optional, support encrypted email connection: STARTTLS or SSL
JSON dev-perl/JSON  
Locale::Maketext   Included with perl
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon dev-perl/Locale-Maketext-Lexicon Optional, needed for internationalization
Locale::Msgfmt dev-perl/Locale-Msgfmt Optional, needed for internationalization
LWP dev-perl/libwww-perl  
LWP::Protocol::https dev-perl/LWP-Protocol-https  
URI dev-perl/URI  
version   Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.
To install the above packages on Gentoo

emerge dev-perl/Algorithm-Diff perl-Archive-Tar dev-perl/Authen-SASL dev-perl/CGI dev-perl/CGI-Session dev-perl/Crypt-PasswdMD5 dev-perl/Email-Address-XS dev-perl/Email-MIME dev-perl/Error dev-perl/File-Copy-Recursive dev-perl/HTML-Parser dev-perl/HTML-Tree dev-perl/IO-Socket-SSL dev-perl/JSON dev-perl/Locale-Maketext-Lexicon dev-perl/Locale-Msgfmt dev-perl/libwww-perl dev-perl/LWP-Protocol-https dev-perl/URI

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
mod_perl2 www-apache/mod_perl Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
Apache2::Request libapache2-request-perl Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
DBI dev-perl/DBI Optional - Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql dev-perl/DBD-mysql Optional - Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg dev-perl/DBD-Pg Optional - Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite dev-perl/DBD-SQLite Optional - Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI dev-perl/FCGI Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager dev-perl/FCGI-ProcManager Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME dev-perl/Crypt-SMIME Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Crypt::X509 dev-perl/Crypt-X509 Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM dev-perl/convert-pem Optional, used for S/MIME email signing

After expanding the Foswiki archive, change the ownership of the files:
  • chown -R apache:apache /var/www/path-to-foswiki

FreeBSD (pkg) based distributions

Minimum requirements

Install apache24, rcs, and perl5

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Algorithm::Diff p5-Algorithm-Diff  
Archive::Tar p5-Archive-Tar  
Authen::SASL p5-Authen-SASL  
CGI p5-CGI  
CGI::Session p5-CGI-Session  
Crypt::PasswdMD5 p5-Crypt-PasswdMD5  
Digest::SHA p5-Digest-SHA *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Email::Address::XS p5-Email-Address-XS  
Email::MIME p5-Email-MIME  
Encode p5-Encode  
Error p5-Error  
File::Copy::Recursive p5-File-Copy-Recursive  
HTML::Parser p5-HTML-Parser  
HTML::Tree p5-HTML-Tree  
IO::Socket::IP p5-IO-Socket-IP First shipped perl 5.19.8
IO::Socket::SSL p5-IO-Socket-SSL  
JSON p5-JSON  
Locale::Maketext p5-Locale-Maketext  
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon p5-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon Optional, needed for internationalization
Locale::Msgfmt p5-Locale-Msgfmt Optional, needed for internationalization
LWP p5-libwww  
LWP::Protocol::https p5-LWP-Protocol-https  
URI p5-URI  
version p5-version Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.

To install the above packages on FreeBSD

pkg install p5-Algorithm-Diff p5-Archive-Tar p5-Authen-SASL p5-CGI p5-CGI-Session p5-Crypt-PasswdMD5 p5-Digest-SHA p5-Email-Address-XS p5-Email-MIME p5-Encode p5-Error p5-File-Copy-Recursive p5-HTML-Parser p5-HTML-Tree p5-IO-Socket-IP p5-IO-Socket-SSL p5-JSON p5-Locale-Maketext p5-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon p5-Locale-Msgfmt p5-libwww p5-LWP-Protocol-https p5-URI p5-version

After expanding the Foswiki archive, change the ownership of the files:
  • chown -R www:wwwadmin /var/www/path-to-foswiki

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
mod_perl2 ap24-mod_perl2 Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
Apache2::Request libapreq2 Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
BSD-Resource p5-BSD-Resource Optional - used for FCGI process handler resource limits
DBI p5-DBI Optional - Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql p5-DBD-mysql Optional - Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg p5-DBD-Pg Optional - Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite p5-DBD-SQLite Optional - Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI p5-FCGI Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager p5-FCGI-ProcManager Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME p5-Crypt-SMIME Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Crypt::X509 p5-Crypt-X509 Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM p5-Convert-PEM Optional, used for S/MIME email signing

Installation with CPAN

Perl dependencies can also be installed on most systems using cpanm, aka App::cpanminus. On most unix* systems, cpanminus can bootstrap itself using curl or wget. If run as root, the modules will be installed in the System perl. Otherwise they are installed into the users local environment.

Perl Module Notes
Algorithm::Diff  
Archive::Tar *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Authen::SASL Optional, needed for authenticated SMTP
CGI  
CGI::Session  
Crypt::PasswdMD5  
Digest::SHA Included with perl
Error  
Email::Address::XS  
Email::MIME  
Encode  
File::Copy::Recursive  
HTML::Parser  
HTML::Tree  
IO::Socket::IP  
IO::Socket::SSL Optional, support encrypted email connection: STARTTLS or SSL
JSON  
Locale::Maketext  
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon Optional, needed for internationalization
Locale::Msgfmt Optional, needed for internationalization
LWP  
LWP::Protocol::https  
URI  
version Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.

To install the above packages with cpanm
Note: We do not recommend installing CPAN modules with cpanminus as root. See below for information on using a private module library with cpanminus.
curl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - App::cpanminus (optional - install cpanminus if not available )
cpanm Algorithm::Diff Archive::Tar Authen::SASL CGI CGI::Session Crypt::PasswdMD5 Digest::SHA Error Email::Address::XS Email::MIME Encode File::Copy::Recursive HTML::Parser HTML::Tree IO::Socket::IP IO::Socket::SSL JSON Locale::Maketext Locale::Maketext::Lexicon Locale::Msgfmt LWP LWP::Protocol::https URI version

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Apache2::Request Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
DBI   Optional - Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql   Optional - Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg   Optional - Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite   Optional - Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI   Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager   Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME   Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Crypt::X509   Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM   Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Locale::Language Optional, Locale::Language will be removed from the Perl core distribution in 5.28.

Installation using cpanminus

See Foswiki:Support.HowToInstallCpanModules for more information.

If you want to install the dependendencies into a specified location, add the "-l" option to cpanm, and add the lib path to bin/LocalLib.cfg. The dependencies will be installed under the specified location, in the lib/perl5 subdirectory. Example: User "foswiki" logs in and installs the libraries locally under the foswikideps directory:
cpanm -l foswikideps Algorithm::Diff Archive::Tar ...   (install libraries into =/home/foswiki/foswikideps=)

/path/to/foswiki/bin/LocalLib.txt is then edited, and the commented line is modified:
# @localPerlLibPath = ( '/path/to/dir', '/path/to/another/dir', );
@localPerlLibPath = ( '/home/foswiki/foswikideps/lib/perl5', );

Foswiki will now run using the libraries installed by cpanm.

Client Requirements

The standard installation has relatively low browser requirements:

  • XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant
  • Cookies, if persistent sessions are required
  • Javascript, is required for configure, edit save and upload functionality. Foswiki is viewable without javascript.

CSS and Javascript are used in most skins. Some skins will require more recent releases of browsers. The default (Pattern) skin is tested on IE 6+, Safari, Chrome and Firefox.

You can easily select a balance of browser capability versus look and feel. Try the installed skins at System.SkinBrowser and more at Foswiki:Extensions.SkinPackage.

Uploading the Foswiki distribution to your web server host

If you cannot unpack the Foswiki distribution directly in your installation directory, you can unpack the distribution on your local computer, manually create the directory structure on your host server and upload the files as follows:
  • Using the table below, create a directory structure on your host server
  • Upload the Foswiki files by FTP (transfer as text except for the image files in pub directory.)
  • Note: Don't worry if you are not able to put the lib directory at the same level as the bin directory. You can create this directory elsewhere and configure the bin/setlib.cfg file.
    Foswiki dir: What it is: Where to copy: Example:
    foswiki start-up pages root Foswiki dir /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/
    foswiki/bin CGI bin CGI-enabled dir /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/bin
    foswiki/lib library files same level as bin /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/lib
    foswiki/locale language files dir secure from public access /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/locale
    foswiki/pub public files htdoc enabled dir /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/pub
    foswiki/data topic data dir secure from public access /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/data
    foswiki/templates web templates dir secure from public access /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/templates
    foswiki/tools Foswiki utlilities dir secure from public access /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/tools
    foswiki/working Temporary and internal files dir secure from public access /home/smith/public_html/foswiki/working

About Administrators

Administrators have read and write access to any topic, regardless of any access controls that have been applied to the topic or its web. Administrators also have access to configure unless further restricted.

The default setup in Foswiki is that members of Main.AdminGroup have administrator privileges. Any member of the Main.AdminGroup can add subsequent members to that group.

To more easily debug access control issues, you may want to have a regular Foswiki user account for daily use, and a special one that belongs to the AdminGroup that you use only for administering your Foswiki site. See System.AccessControls for more information on access controls and user groups.

TIP Instead of adding users to the AdminGroup, grant those candidate administrators ALLOWTOPICCHANGE rights on the AdminGroup. They can then use a button on the AdminGroup page to join or leave the group at will.

Options to Protect the Configure Script
Foswiki 2.0 has changed how configure is protected. You no longer need to establish special protections within the web server configuration.

There are now several choices for how to protect configure:
  • Option 1 Restrict configure to members of the AdminGroup:
    • This is the default configuration. You don't need to set anything special from within configure.
    • After you save your configuration, be sure to register a user and add them to the AdminGroup before you log out from the initial super admin login. Once you log out, you'll be blocked from any further configure access unless you can log in as a user in the AdminGroup. The default behaviour is that members of the AdminGroup have access to bin/configure

  • Option 2 Restrict configure to a defined list of users:
    • Visit the "Security and Authentication" tab, "Access control" sub-tab.
    • Set {FeatureAccess}{Configure} to a list of WikiNames that will be allowed access to configure.
    • This setting overrides use of the AdminGroup, and these users do not have to be members of the AdminGroup.
    • If you want the admin super-user to also have access to configure, you need to include "BaseUserMapping_333" in that list.

  • Option 3 Define a "super user" ID and allow it access to configure (This is not recommended)
    • Visit the "Security and Authentication" tab, "Passwords" tab. Enable "Expert" options. Set the {Password} field to a hashed ApacheMD5 encoded password.
    • See #InternalAdmin for more information.

You must at least do one of the above before closing your browser or logging out from the temporary admin authority established during bootstrap. Once you close your browser, you have to have a usable id to run configure or you'll need to add a super-user admin login using the command line.

Establishing an internal admin login (optional)

TIP Don't log in with the wikiname AdminUser, and never register or set a password for AdminUser.

There is an optional internal admin (AdminUser) which is accessed by logging in with user admin and a password set in the configuration. Foswiki 2.0 no longer enables the internal admin by default.
  • Setting password from bin/configure interface: The password can be set in configure, in the "Security and Authentication" -> "Passwords" tab. Enter the password in plain text. It will be automatically hashed when saved, and cannot be recovered.
  • Setting the password from the command line: The password can also be set via command line configuration tool, using the following command:
    tools/configure -save -set {Password}='adminpass'
  • Manually setting admin user in LocalSite.cfg: Follow these steps: (ALERT! Caution: This procedure only works for plain ascii passwords, it does not handle international characters.)
    1. Generate the hashed password using the Apache htpasswd tool: (replacing {password} with your password)
      htpasswd -bn  admin {password}
    2. Copy the password hash that's generated. (The part after admin: ex: $apr1$Oc.PLq8V$wslABA3mWXfYT/wH0Hsom0)
    3. Search LocalSite.cfg for $Foswiki::cfg{Password}, Replace the existing line, or if not found, insert a new line in the file, as shown:
      $Foswiki::cfg{Password} = '{password hash}';

User Authentication Options

The most common authentication methods used for public Foswiki installations are Template Login and Apache Login. They have the following relative advantages:
  • Template Login can be set up without any web server configuration, and users can log off without restarting the browser. As the login page is just a Wiki page, you can customize it to suit your needs.
  • Apache Login allows you to use any Apache-module based authentication scheme, such as mod_auth_ldap or mod_auth_mysql. However, as your browser is caching your login, you must restart the browser to log out.

Note that the password databases for both of these authentication mechanisms are compatible, so you can switch between them at a later date.

Template Login authentication

Template Login asks for a username (or optionally e-mail address) and password in a web page, and processes them using whatever Password Manager you choose. Users can log in and log out. Client Sessions are used to remember users. Users can choose to have their session remembered so they will automatically be logged in the next time they start their browser.

Enabling Template Login

IDEA! By default, your Foswiki installation is probably already using TemplateLogin, HtPasswdUser and TopicUserMappingContrib as the default Login, Password and user mapping options.
  1. Using configure, Security And Authentication tab
    1. Navigate to the Login tab on the Security and Authentication panel. Select the Foswiki::LoginManager::TemplateLogin login manager.
    2. Navigate to the Passwords tab. Select the appropriate PasswordManager for your system - the default is Foswiki::Users::HtPasswdUser.
      HELP There is an EXPERT configure setting {TemplateLogin}{PreventBrowserRememberingPassword} that you can set to prevent Browsers from remembering username and passwords if you are concerned about public terminal usage.
      HELP There is an EXPERT configure setting {TemplateLogin}{AllowLoginUsingEmailAddress} that you can set to allow users to login using their password system registered e-mail addresses.

Apache Login authentication

With Apache Login enabled, when Foswiki needs to authenticate the user, the standard HTTP authentication mechanism is used: the browser itself will prompt for a user name and password.

The rest of this section describes Webserver Login using the Apache web server, but the same process is applicable to other webserver implementations as well (though you may require a customised version of the ApacheLogin module to do it).

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 to them directly.

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.

Foswiki maps the REMOTE_USER that was used to log in to the webserver to a WikiName using the table in Main.WikiUsers. This table is updated whenever a user registers, so users can choose not to register (in which case their webserver username is used for their signature) or register (in which case that username is mapped to their WikiName).

The same private .htpasswd file used in Foswiki Template Login can be used to authenticate Apache users, using the Apache Basic Authentication support.

ALERT! Do not use the Apache htpasswd program to modify .htpasswd files generated by Foswiki! htpasswd wipes out e-mail addresses that Foswiki saves in the info fields of this file.

IDEA! Apache Login is required for Apache-based login methods such as mod_ldap

IDEA! You can use any Apache authentication module that sets the REMOTE_USER environment variable.

To set up Apache Login, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Apache Login. Under the Security and Authentication pane on the Login tab in configure:
    1. Select Foswiki::LoginManager::ApacheLogin for {LoginManager}.
    2. Select Foswiki::Users::HtPasswdUser for {PasswordManager}.
    3. Select Foswiki::Users::TopicUserMapping for {UserMappingManager}.
    4. Save your settings.
    5. Configure your Apache settings for HTTP authentication. Use the Foswiki:Support.ApacheConfigGenerator tool or the foswiki/bin-htaccess-advanced.txt file to set the following Apache directives on the bin scripts:(This example is for Apache 2.2, there are changes required if using Apache 2.4)
       AuthType Basic
       <FilesMatch "(attach|edit|manage|rename|save|upload|mail|logon|.*auth).*">
       require valid-user
       </FilesMatch>
      You can also refer to the sample foswiki_httpd_conf.txt and bin-htaccess-advanced.txt files to see how the appropriate Apache directives are specified.

Testing your authentication configuration:

  1. Verify that registration works by registering yourself with the UserRegistration topic. If there are problems, try these troubleshooting tips:
    1. Note: If e-mail is enabled in configure, Foswiki will not allow any new registrations unless e-mail is functional. In order to avoid issues, return to the Mail and Proxies, Email Test tab in configure and verify that Foswiki can successfully send e-mail.
    2. If your PasswordManager is HtPasswdUser (the default), check the .htpasswd file is being updated correctly with a new entry. If not, check {Htpasswd}{FileName} is correct (under Security and Authentication on the Password tab in configure), and that the webserver user has write permission.
  2. Create a new topic (in Sandbox web for example) to confirm that authentication works.
  3. Add users to the Main.AdminGroup. Edit the Main.AdminGroup topic in the Main web to include users that should have administrator status. Read defining adminstrator user(s) for more information.
    ALERT! This is a very important step, as users in this group can access all topics, independent of Foswiki access controls.

Configuring Foswiki manually (without using the configure page)

Foswiki 2.0 includes a shell based configuration tool that can be run from a server command-line login. It will bootstrap the configuration, and prompt for settings as required. Here is an example of using it for an interactive command line bootstrap:
Note: If any of your configuration settings use utf-8 characters, (eg. Ünicöde) be sure to run configure with the perl -CAS option so that all prompted input is properly encoded.
$ perl -CAS tools/configure -save

$ tools/configure -save

LocalSite.cfg load failed
AUTOCONFIG: Found Bin dir: /var/www/foswiki/distro/core/tools, Script name:
configure using FindBin
AUTOCONFIG: PubDir = /var/www/foswiki/distro/core/pub
AUTOCONFIG: DataDir = /var/www/foswiki/distro/core/data
AUTOCONFIG: WorkingDir = /var/www/foswiki/distro/core/working
AUTOCONFIG: ToolsDir = /var/www/foswiki/distro/core/tools
AUTOCONFIG: TemplateDir = /var/www/foswiki/distro/core/templates
AUTOCONFIG: LocalesDir = /var/www/foswiki/distro/core/locale
AUTOCONFIG: ScriptDir = /var/www/foswiki/distro/core/bin
AUTOCONFIG: Unable to use PlainFileStore: ,v files were found in data or pub,
which indicates this installation is already configured for RCS e.g.
/var/www/foswiki/distro/core/data/WFWeb/WebChanges.txt,v
AUTOCONFIG: Store configured for RcsLite
AUTOCONFIG: {Store}{SearchAlgorithm} set to Forking
AUTOCONFIG: Detected OS UNIX:  DetailedOS: linux
** Enter values for critical configuration items.
** type a new value or hit return to accept the value in brackets.

This is the root of all Foswiki URLs.
For example, =http://myhost.com:123=
(do not include the trailing slash.)

{DefaultUrlHost} (http://localhost): http://myhost.com

This is the 'cgi-bin' part of URLs used to access the Foswiki bin
directory. For example =/foswiki/bin=.
See [[https://foswiki.org/Support/ShorterUrlCookbook][ShorterUrlCookbook]]
for more information on setting up Foswiki to use shorter script URLs.

{ScriptUrlPath} (/foswiki/bin):

...

It can also be run in a non-interactive mode, for use in automated deployment systems.
tools/configure -save -noprompt
tools/configure -save -set {DefaultUrlHost}='http://mysite.com'
tools/configure -save -set {ScriptUrlPath}='/bin'
tools/configure -save -set {ScriptUrlPaths}{view}=''
tools/configure -save -set {PubUrlPath}='/pub'
perl -CA tools/configure -save -set {Password}='ÄdmînPäss' 

Any configuration keys may be set using this tool.

To run a wizard, for example autoconfiguration of email:
tools/configure -save -set {WebMasterEmail}='user@email.com'
tools/configure -save -set {SMTP}{MAILHOST}='smtpserver.email.com'
tools/configure -save -set {SMTP}{Username}='userid'
tools/configure -save -set {SMTP}{Password}='password'
tools/configure -save -wizard AutoConfigureEmail -method autoconfigure

And the configuration can then be checked, with optional verbose output: (Without -verbose, only errors and warnings are reported.)
tools/configure -check -verbose

File system permissions can also be checked for any of {DataDir}, {LocalesDir}, {PubDir}, {ScriptDir}, {TemplateDir}, {ToolsDir} and {WorkingDir}, for ex:
tools/configure -check {DataDir} -method validate_permissions

Configuration settings can be searched and queried as well:
tools/configure -search Umask
tools/configure -getcfg {Store}

TWiki Compatibility

Foswiki is 100% backwards compatible with TWiki markup up to and including TWiki 4.2.4. Existing TWiki webs, topics and attachments can be used with Foswiki without requiring any changes.

To support a seamless upgrade from TWiki, Foswiki ships with a plugin called TWikiCompatibilityPlugin. This plugin enables most TWiki extensions to work with Foswiki, without modifications. It also maps requests for legacy TWiki web topics to their Foswiki equivalents, as defined in Foswiki:Development.TopicNameMappingTable. The TWIKIWEB and MAINWEB TWiki variables are also mapped to the new Foswiki macros SYSTEMWEB and USERSWEB.

If you are not upgrading an existing TWiki installation and do not plan to install plugins from the TWiki web site, it is recommended that you disable the TWikiCompatibilityPlugin in the Plugins Section on the configure page.

If a plugin exists both in a TWiki version and a Foswiki version, it is strongly recommended that you use the Foswiki version, as this is coded to work optimally with Foswiki. As part of the Foswiki project, the Foswiki community is evaluating all of the extensions that are available for TWiki, and porting them over to the Foswiki name space. Many of them are being enhanced through the removal of bugs and security vulnerabilities, resulting in better, more functional extensions for Foswiki.

TWiki is a registered trademark of Peter Thoeny.

Related Topics: InstallationGuidePart2, AdminDocumentationCategory, Foswiki:Support.SupplementalDocuments

Foswiki Upgrade Guide

This guide covers upgrading from a previous version of Foswiki to Foswiki 2.x.

ALERT! This upgrade procedure is used to upgrade a to a new major version of Foswiki (1.x to 2.x) or from TWiki. Generally, upgrades of a minor Foswiki version (2.0 to 2.1), or Foswiki patch releases (2.1.3 to 2.1.4) can be done by using the -upgrade- version of the Foswiki package, and follow the Release Notes for the new release.

Overview

Foswiki is a fork from TWiki 4.2.3. (TWiki® is a trademark of Peter Thoeny.) Note that newer versions of Foswiki have not directly tracked newer versions of TWiki, and some divergence has occurred. Foswiki 2.0 diverges significantly in some areas.

If you are upgrading from TWiki to Foswiki, please refer to Foswiki:Support.UpgradingFromOlderTWikiReleases.

Upgrade requirements

  • Please review the Foswiki:System.AdminSkillsAssumptions before you upgrade your site.
  • Carefully review Foswiki:System.SystemRequirements. Foswiki no longer ships with CPAN libraries. CPAN dependencies must be installed prior to upgrade.
  • Before upgrading, a backup of your topics is strongly recommended.
  • 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.

Upgrading to a new patch or minor release

To upgrade to a new patch release — for example, from Foswiki 1.1.0 to 1.1.2 — an upgrade package can be used that will not overwrite typical customizations. Unless otherwise stated in the release notes, we do not recommend upgrading between major or minor versions using the patch (For ex. 1.1.9 to 2.0). A re-installation is recommended.

For patch releases you will find a brief upgrade procedure on the download page for the release. Follow this procedure to upgrade to the patch release. It may contain important steps that are unique to each patch release (for example, some configure settings may need to be changed).

The following files are excluded from the upgrade packages. Any other files will be overwritten! If you have tailored any other files/topics shipped with Foswiki, you will need to either restore them after applying the upgrade, or tailor the upgrade to avoid overwritting the files.

Main web files not shipped in upgrade package

  • data/Main/AdminGroup.txt
  • data/Main/AdminUser.txt
  • data/Main/NobodyGroup.txt
  • data/Main/PatternSkinUserViewTemplate.txt
  • data/Main/ProjectContributor.txt
  • data/Main/RegistrationAgent.txt
  • data/Main/SitePreferences.txt
  • data/Main/UnknownUser.txt
  • data/Main/UserHomepageHeader.txt
  • data/Main/UserListByDateJoined.txt
  • data/Main/UserListByLocation.txt
  • data/Main/UserListHeader.txt
  • data/Main/UserList.txt
  • data/Main/WebAtom.txt
  • data/Main/WebChanges.txt
  • data/Main/WebCreateNewTopic.txt
  • data/Main/WebHome.txt
  • data/Main/WebIndex.txt
  • data/Main/WebLeftBarExample.txt
  • data/Main/WebNotify.txt
  • data/Main/WebPreferences.txt
  • data/Main/WebRss.txt
  • data/Main/WebSearchAdvanced.txt
  • data/Main/WebSearch.txt
  • data/Main/WebTopicList.txt
  • data/Main/WikiGuest.txt

Sandbox web files not shipped in upgrade package

  • data/Sandbox/CommentPluginExampleComments.txt
  • data/Sandbox/CommentPluginExamples.txt
  • data/Sandbox/CommentPluginTemplateExample.txt
  • data/Sandbox/CompareRevisionsAddOnDemoTopic.txt
  • data/Sandbox/PluginTestEmptyPlugin.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebAtom.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebChanges.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebCreateNewTopic.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebHome.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebIndex.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebLeftBarExample.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebNotify.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebPreferences.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebRss.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebSearchAdvanced.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebSearch.txt
  • data/Sandbox/WebTopicList.txt

System web files not shipped in upgrade package

  • data/System/InterWikis.txt
  • data/System/NewUserTemplate.txt
  • data/System/WebPreferences.txt
  • data/System/WebTopicEditTemplate.txt

Other miscellaneous web files not shipped in upgrade package

  • data/_default/WebHome.txt
  • data/_default/WebLeftBar.txt
  • data/_default/WebPreferences.txt
  • data/Trash/TrashAttachment.txt
  • data/Trash/WebPreferences.txt
  • data/TWiki/WebPreferences.txt

Other files not shipped in upgrade package

  • index.html
  • robots.txt

TIP If you use the Foswiki PageCaching feature, be sure to refresh the cache after upgrading to a new Foswiki version. Visit your site with the Query parameter ?refresh=all

Upgrade procedure: upgrading to a new major version

The following is a high level view of the upgrade procedure:

  1. Before the upgrade, plan for client cache management.
  2. Prepare for all upgrade steps.
  3. Install the new Foswiki version and configure it with the same settings as the old version.
    • TIP Windows server users: Don't forget to rerun tools/rewriteshebang.pl to fix up the Perl locations
  4. Install any additional extensions (Plugins) used by your old installation. Make sure to use the latest Foswiki versions.
  5. Convert all the non-default webs from the old installation to the new one. (Encoding and Store changes)
  6. Convert the users, groups, and site customizations from the old installation to the Main web in the new installation, including all user topics.
  7. Apply preferences from the old installation.
  8. Apply your site customizations: skin, logos, menu bars, forms for personal information, and so forth.
  9. Validate your Wiki applications and other key functionality.
  10. Switch your production site from the old installation to the new installation.

More details for each step appear in the following sections. The steps may need to be modified or otherwise tailored with specifics for your installation. In particular, you must take care to preserve any special configuration or customizations you have made, especially if you have modified any of the default software files or system topics that are contained within the installation package.

For purposes of discussion, the following conventions are used:
  • <oldwiki> refers to the directory in which the old installation is located
  • <newwiki> refers to the directory in which the new installation is located; it is assumed to be immediately below the root directory of your web server
  • <old_users_web> refers to the web in which the user topics are located in the old installation. The default value is the Main web. The web is specified in the Store settings pane of the configure page, in the {UsersWebName} setting (visible when Expert mode is enabled).
  • <old_system_web> refers to the web used for documentation and default preferences in the old installation. In Foswiki, the default value is the System web. The web is specified in the Store settings pane of the configure page, in the {SystemWebName} setting (visible when Expert mode is enabled).

After the upgrade, in the new installation, the Main web is used for user topics and site preferences, and the System web is used to hold documentation and default preferences.

The configure page mentioned in this document is accessible via your web browser at http://yourdomain/<newwiki>/bin/configure .

Before the upgrade

Managing caches of static .js, .css files:

If you are using Expires tags, (you should be!) it is very important to take the longest expiration time into consideration. Clients will locally cache JavaScript and CSS until the time expires, unless they clear their cache. There are significant changes to the JavaScript and CSS files shipped with Foswiki 2.0. Clients using locally cached data will not operate correctly.

  • Prior to the upgrade, reduce the Expires tags to a short duration, for example 1 hour.
    • Examine your Apache configuration for statements like: ExpiresDefault "access plus 11 days", change it to ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 hour"
  • Defer the upgrade until the longest expiration time has passed. If the longest time was 2 weeks, delay the upgrade for 2 weeks.
  • Complete the upgrade.
  • Once confident that further upgrades, or fallback are not required, restore the original far future expiration.

If these steps are not done, users will have to clear their browser cache to get the most recent CSS and JavaScript..

Prepare for all upgrade steps

Download the Foswiki distribution from the following location: https://foswiki.org/Download — if you are installing your extensions manually, also download them from the repository where they are stored. (Default extensions are included in the Foswiki distribution).

Review Foswiki:System.SystemRequirements and Install missing Perl modules using your local package manager or CPAN. Foswiki 2.0 no longer ships with CPAN modules. If you have access to the command line on the server, you can test for missing dependencies by running: perl tools/dependencies

Review the Release Notes and learn about the differences between your old installation and the new release to which you are upgrading. Take note of any areas that affect your site and what special steps you may need to take.

Check that all the extensions (plugins, contribs, skins) used by your old installation are available with the new release. Familiarize yourself with any new behaviour that you will have to adapt to or any configuration changes you will have to perform.

  • The EditTablePlugin has been deprecated and is not enabled by default on Foswiki 2.0. It is replaced by the EditRowPlugin. Only one of EditTablePlugin or EditRowPlugin should be enabled.
  • Review the deprecated jQuery javascript plugins. The JQueryPlugin has several changes in available jQuery JavaScript plugins. Determine if any of these will impact your JavaScript enabled topics.

Choose the character encoding to be used in your site.
  • Previous versions of Foswiki defaulted to iso-8859-1 encoding (The "Latin Alphabet 1, intended for US and Western European languages).
  • Foswiki 2.0 defaults to UTF-8 encoding, which provides better support for international character sets.
Note that the 1.x versions of Foswiki make no attempt to enforce the character encoding. Topics contain whatever the user may have pasted into them. If you have windows users, it is highly likely that your old installation is using cp-1252 instead of iso-8859-1. cp-1252 contains windows specific high-ASCII characters including typographic "smart" quotes, alternative bullets and the emdash character. For more information see Foswiki:Support.Utf8MigrationConsiderations.

WARNING If you do not use the utf-8 {Store}{Encoding} and you intend to use, (or have existing) high-bit characters in attachment filenames (such as umlauts and accents) then links to these attachments on Foswiki pages will not work. This is because Foswiki works internally using UNICODE, but the store saves files to disk using your chosen {Store}{Encoding}. The solution is to convert your store to UTF8 at the earliest opportunity.

You must match the prior encoding, or convert old data to the new encoding if you intend to use topics created on an older version of Foswiki. There are two common use cases:
  • Case 1: Your existing site is already using utf-8 encoding. Character set conversion is not needed. Proceed to chosing your store.
  • Case 2: Your existing site uses the default iso-8859-1 or any other common encoding. All topics are consistent with this encoding. You have three options:
    1. Install CharsetConverterContrib and convert topics in-place on your 1.1 system. (The store implementation cannot be changed using this method.) or
    2. Use the bulk_copy.pl script to migrate your existing 1.1.x store over to Foswiki 2.0. Each topic will be converted from the 1.1.x {Site}{CharSet} encoding to the 2.0 {Store}{Encoding}. We recommend you leave 2.0 {Store}{Encoding} as undefined (utf-8). or
    3. Set the 2.0 {Store}{Encoding} to match your 1.1.x {Site}{Encoding} and copy the data into Foswiki 2.0 unmodified.
  • Case 3: Your site contains a mix of encodings. This can happen if users manually paste in encoded data into topics, or topics are created / modified external to Foswiki.
    • In this case, any topics with unusual encodings will display corrupted. Use Foswiki:Extensions.CharsetConverterContrib to modify the character encoding of your Foswiki 1.1.x system in place. Changes in character encoding must be done using the RCS based store. When this tool is run with the -r (repair) option, the tool attempts to detect the encoding and can convert individual topics based upon their content. This is rather unpredictable and may require manual intervention.
    • We strongly recommend that a backup be taken before attempting to use the CharsetConverterContrib. As it modifies topics and attachments in-place, it can cause damage and data loss. The bulk_copy.pl script does not modify existing topics but is unable to handle some legacy configuratino..
    • Note that it's possible that some data cannot be cleanly converted, for ex, if the Charset encoding was changed, so that different topic revisions use different encoding. In this case you may need to remove the topic history.

Choose your desired Store. Foswiki ships with two native stores.
  • RcsStoreContrib is compatible with topics created in prior versions of Foswiki.
  • PlainFileStoreContrib requires that topic histories be converted to a new history format. This can be done at the same time you convert the character set. perl -I lib tools/bulk_copy.pl --help for more information on conversion.
    • Note: If your old data is on TWiki, then bulk_copy.pl is not compatible. You must migrate to Foswiki before converting the Store.

If you are using authentication, prepare a test plan to verify that your authentication mechanism is working correctly. Make sure you are able to test logins by a sufficient sample of users to cover all categories of users of your site. For example, users of various groups may need to be tested. In particular, ensure you test that non-admin users cannot access topics restricted to admins.

  • Empty DENYTOPICxxxx rules are deprecated They are disabled by default. We recommend converting any existing rules into    * Set ALLOWTOPICxxxx = * wildcard allow rules. Use perl tools/convertTopicSettings.pl -help for further information on the conversion process.

Identify all essential Wiki topics and Wiki applications that must be fully functional upon completion of the upgrade. Prepare a test plan to verify their functionality. If you are using access controls, ensure that the test plan will adequately test all categories and groups of users of your site.

If your testing will require a test environment to be set up, ensure that it is ready, with any required support infrastructure (for example, testbed authentication servers). If you need to be able to login with different users in different categories and groups, ensure that you have the required login information ready, or you have testers from those groups available to perform the required test cases.

Installation

Follow the installation instructions in INSTALL.html, located in the root of the new installation, or online at Foswiki:System.InstallationGuide. Install the new release in a new directory. Do not install on top of the old release.
  • For public or otherwise sensitive installations, ensure that your web server configuration is set to deny access to the new Foswiki installation for anyone except you.
  • Configure Foswiki using the configure page.
    • (Not recommended!) If you are upgrading from an older Foswiki release, first copy your <oldwiki>/lib/LocalSite.cfg file to <newwiki>/lib/LocalSite.cfg in order to preserve your existing configuration settings (Not recommended). Alternatively, you can reconfigure the new installation from scratch (you can use your old LocalSite.cfg file as a reference).
    • Verify all of the configuration settings on the configure page, including any new settings added in the new version. Save the configuration after you have completed your changes.
    • To wipe out all your settings and start configuring from a fresh installation, just delete the <newwiki>/lib/LocalSite.cfg file and visit your default view URL. From there follow the link to configure.
  • Additional resources

Test your newly-installed Foswiki site and ensure that its basic functionality works: viewing and editing topics (you can try creating and editing a topic in the Sandbox web).

ALERT! Caution: If you intend to copy data from an older installation without using bulk_copy.pl to change Stores, you should select the RcsStoreContrib in the configuration. Once topic history has been created with the wrong store, it has to either be removed, or old data should be migrated with bulk_copy.pl. If Foswiki encounters mixed RCS and PlainFile topic history, it will "die" to prevent topic history corruption.

If you want to run Foswiki 2.0 in parallel with Foswiki 1.1.9, you can do this safely if the following conditions are met:
  • The RCS store is used on both installations. (RCSWrap and RCSLite are compatible.
  • The 2.0 {Store}{Encoding} must match the 1.1.9 {Site}{CharSet}
  • The 2.0 {AccessControlACL}{EnableDeprecatedEmptyDeny} setting should be enabled.
  • The 2.0 {Htpasswd}{CharacterEncoding} should match your 1.1.9 {Site}{CharSet}
  • The 2.0 {RCS}{TabularChangeFormat} should be enabled for compatible .changes file format.
To make it easier to follow the subsequent steps, you can view this upgrade guide using your new Foswiki site by entering System.UpgradeGuide into the "Jump" text box on the top right of any topic. By doing this instead of using the UpgradeGuide.html file from the distribution, you will be able to use the embedded hyperlinks to jump directly to the referenced pages.

Install extensions

Install all of the extensions that were installed in your old site. In particular, start with any extensions required for the authentication and authorization methods you use (if any). You can use the Install, Update or Remove extensions tab in the Extensions section of the configure page to review installed extensions, search for extensions or all available extensions and configure extensions from the Foswiki:Extensions repository. You can also install extensions manually; see the instructions on the extension's web page from where you obtained the extension (for Foswiki extensions, on foswiki.org).

Check the plugin topics from your old Foswiki installation and transfer the plugin settings to the SitePreferences topic in your new Foswiki site, prefixing each setting with the name of the plugin in uppercase followed by an underscore. For example, to copy over the DEFAULT_TYPE setting from the CommentPlugin topic in the old site to the new site, copy the value to a COMMENTPLUGIN_DEFAULT_TYPE setting in the SitePreferences topic in the new site.

Commonly-customized plugin settings include the following:
  • CommentPlugin - DEFAULT_TYPE
  • EditTablePlugin Deprecated! Replaced with EditRowPlugin - CHANGEROWS, QUIETSAVE, EDITBUTTON
  • InterwikiPlugin - RULESTOPIC
  • InterWikis - If you added your own rules, make sure you copy over the rules to the new installation. Use of a local rules topic is the preferred way to customize the links.
  • SlideShowPlugin - If you changed the embedded 'Default Slide Template', then copy your customized template to the topic in the new installation. You should prefer creating your own slide show template in a separate topic, so you will not have to take special steps over upgrades to preserve your modifications to the default slide template.
  • SmiliesPlugin - If you added your own smileys, make sure you copy over your customizations to the topic in the new installatin.
  • TablePlugin - TABLEATTRIBUTES

Activate, and if required, configure the installed extensions in configure.

Copy parts of the working directory

The working directory contains some critical information for some extensions, found below the foswiki/working/work_areas directory. Extensions use it to store persistent information critical to operation. For example, the MailerContrib directory contains the timestamps of the last notification email run per web. If not copied, the next mailnotify run will notify all recorded changes. This is the most common data that should be copied. Review other non-default extensions to determine if anything else should be copied.

Migrate .htpasswd file

If used, the .htpasswd file may require conversion. If users have registered using "high ascii" characters in their WikiNames (e.g. Ä, ä, Ë, ë, Ï, ï, Ö, ö, Ü, ü) then conversion will be required. Foswiki does not provide a tool to convert .htpasswd. Consider command line tools such as iconv or recode. See this StackOverflow article for more details.

If you are using an external authentication source, such as LDAP, this step does not apply.

Alternative 1: Convert the data using tools/bulk_copy.pl

This is the default way to migrate your system. Note cautions below about hidden files and performance. Assume that you have the following setup:
  • Existing: /var/www/f119
  • New: /var/www/f120
Use the bulk_copy.pl tool to migrate your data:

cd /var/www/f120/tools
perl bulk_copy.pl --xweb System --xweb _default --xweb _empty --latest '*.WebStatistics' /var/www/f119/bin /var/www/f120/bin

This will copy all webs, topics and attachments except for the contents of the System web. This is the recommended solution.

Note that bulk_copy.pl has limitations! It uses the Foswiki Store API to copy topic and attachments. If the store doesn't recognize a topic or attachment, it won't be copied.
  • Files in pub that are "hidden" from the store are not copied.
    • Any filename beginning with an underscore. For ex _myfile. Frequently used by extensions as cache type files. Could also have been directly uploaded.
    • Any filename beginning with a dot. For ex. .htaccess files.
    • Any filename beginning with an asterisk. (This appears to be historical, with no common use).
  • Files in pub that are not associated with a topic attachment META are not copied. (ex. files manually copied into the pub directories).
    • Auto attachments are not copied if the {RCS}{AutoAttachPubFiles} feature is not enabled.
    • Auto attached files in the RCS store will be converted to regular attachments in the PlainFile store. The PlainFile store does not support auto attachments..
  • Files in subdirectories of topic attachments are not copied. (ex. image caches, javascript & css subdirectories, etc.) This is common in the System web.
  • All topic revisions must have the same encoding. If {Site}{CharSet} was changed after history exists, the history will not convert correctly and the copy may fail.
  • bulk_copy.pl can be very slow converting topics with extensive histories. Each revision of a topic is separately converted. Any errors in the history can cause the conversion to fail.

ALERT! bulk_copy.pl executes the code and APIs of the older Foswiki release. Older versions of Foswiki may fail on the latest versions of Perl due to language changes. If you encounter this issue, you could try an upgrade of the 1.1.x system to Foswiki 1.1.10, or use the CharsetConverterContrib to complete the migration.

ALERT! bulk_copy.pl is not compatible with Foswiki 1.0.x versions. If you are copying data from Foswiki 1.0.x, there are two options:
  1. Use CharsetConverterContrib to convert the data "in-place" on Foswiki 2.x -or-
  2. Convert to Foswiki 1.1.10 first, and then convert to Foswiki 2.x.
The first option is faster and less complex.

Before proceeding with conversion, verify that the above limitations are not applicable to your installation. If they are, you will currently need to:
  • Stay on the RCS style store
  • Use CharsetConverterContrib to change encoding if desired.

Alternative 2: Convert data using CharsetConverterContrib

These steps can be used to manually migrate data when not changing the Store type. This is currently the only way to deal with hidden files.

Copy content from non-default webs in old installation to the new installation
Be sure to select an "RCS Store" RcsWrap or RcsLite on the new installation. The PlainFile store is not compatible with topic history written on previous versions of Foswiki. If you have created or updated topics using PlainFileStore, you should either start over, or plan to to remove all ,pfv directories from the system so that there is no history in the PlainFileStore format.

Copy your local webs over to the data and pub directories of the new installation. Do not copy the default webs: <old_system_web> System, Main, Trash, Sandbox, _default, and _empty.
  • It may be preferable to copy and convert one web at a time.
  • Make sure the data and pub directories, as well as the files within them, are readable and writeable by the web server user.
  • Note: Foswiki's WebChanges topics depend on the file timestamp. If you touch the .txt files make sure to preserve the timestamp, or change them in the same chronological order as the old file timestamps.

If needed, convert the character encoding of each web before attempting to access it from the web. The following CharsetConverterContrib command will "inspect" a single web and report any conversion issues. Remove the -i option to proceed with the actual conversion. ALERT! Do not run the actual conversion more than once on a web!
  • perl convert_charset.pl -i -web=<Webname> -encoding=cp-1252

Verify that existing topics are operational and (if you converted to UTF-8) that any international characters have been properly converted and are displayed correctly.

Copy users, user topics, and site customizations to Main web

Copy all topics and attachments from <old_users_web>: copy all files from <oldwiki>/data/<old_users_web>/ to <newwiki>/data/Main/, and copy all files from <oldwiki>/pub/<old_users_web>/ to <newwiki>/pub/Main/ . Do not overwrite any topics already present in the <newwiki>/data/Main/ directory.
  • In addition to all the user topics, if you have created <old_users_web>.NewUserTemplate in the old installation, this step will copy over your template for user topics to the new installation.
  • Ensure that the topic defining the admin group in your old installation is copied over. The admin group is defined in the Security setup pane of the configure page, in the {SuperAdminGroup} setting (visible when Expert mode is enabled). You can do either of the following:
    • Set the {SuperAdminGroup} setting in your new installation to the old admin group.
    • Move the contents of the old admin group to the new admin group. To avoid having to change all references to the old admin group, you must still keep the old admin group defined: set it so its only member is the new admin group, and the new admin group is the only user who can change or rename the old admin group topic.
  • If your old installation did not customize {LocalSitePreferences} on the configure page, or if you did customize {LocalSitePreferences} but kept your site preferences within the <old_users_web> web, then this step will also copy over your site preferences to the new installation.

Use the CharsetConverterContrib to convert the new Main as described above.

Copy over any topics and attachments you want to preserve from the Sandbox web in the old installation: copy the desired files from <oldwiki>/data/Sandbox/ to <newwiki>/data/Sandbox and from <oldwiki>/pub/Sandbox/ to <newwiki>/pub/Sandbox . Some pages you may wish to preserve are the WebHome topic and the WebLeftBar topic (if you had created it in the old wiki installation). The Sandbox web often contains work-in-progress topics that users will want to keep.

Make sure the data and pub directories, as well as the files within them, are readable and writeable by the web server user.

Main changes for older Foswiki installations

For upgrades from an older Foswiki installation:
  • Copy any topics shipped in the default Main web into your new Main, and check for any local customization of these default topics.
  • Verify that the following default users are present in the Main.WikiUsers topic:
    • ProjectContributor - the Foswiki documentation is attributed to this user
    • RegistrationAgent - special user used during the new user registration process
    • UnknownUser - used where the author of a previously stored piece of data can't be determined
    • WikiGuest - guest user; used as a fallback if the user can't be identified
  • If any of the default users are missing, then add them in manually to Main.WikiUsers, using the corresponding entries in Foswiki:System.UsersTemplate as an example.
    • Be sure to preserve the alphabetical order of the WikiUsers topic, and do not insert any blank lines.
  • If you have customized <old_system_web>.UserRegistration, then either copy over <oldwiki>/data/<old_system_web>/UserRegistration.txt and <oldwiki>/data/<old_system_web>/UserRegistration.txt,v to the <newwiki>/data/System/ directory, or modify System.UserRegistration in the new installation to contain your customizations.

Convert empty DENY ACLs to ALLOW * wildcards

By default, empty DENYTOPIC rules will be ignored by Foswiki 2.0. You must change them to the equivalent ALLOWTOPIC * rules. The tools/convertTopicSettings.pl utility will scan the Webs & Topics, and will perform several optional conversions on the topics.
Get help text for convertTopicSettings
perl tools/convertTopicSettings.pl -help
Scan all webs / topics, report any topics with empty DENY rules
perl tools/convertTopicSettings.pl
Replace all empty DENY rules with ALLOW * wildcards
perl tools/convertTopicSettings.pl -fixdeny -update

The following two options are also available, but are not yet recommended.
Same, but convert all ACLs into META settings from inline topic settings, for just the Sandbox web
perl tools/convertTopicSettings.pl -fixdeny -convert -update Sandbox
Convert ALL settings into META settings, not just ACLs, for the Sandbox and Customer webs
perl tools/convertTopicSettings.pl -fixdeny -convert -all -update Sandbox Customer

When convertTopicSettings saves the modified topics, they will be saved by user UnknownUser.

DataForms Applications

If your site uses DataForms that used non-Ascii field names, the form data will require manual migration, or you must enable {LegacyFormfieldNames} in the configuration.
  • Releases prior to Foswiki 2.0 stripped characters other than A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and _. So a field named Fühler would be stored as Fhler.
  • The same DataForms definition on Foswiki 2.0 would be stored as Fühler.

If you do not enable {LegacyFormfieldNames}, then you will need to find and update the META:FIELD definitions in the topics. This would need to be done external to Foswiki.
  %META:FIELD{name="Fhler" title="Fühler" value="123"}%
would need to be changed to
  %META:FIELD{name="Fühler" title="Fühler" value="123"}%

Apply preferences from old installation

If you have not already set your desired site-wide preferences, as described in the section " Set Foswiki Preferences" in the InstallationGuide, then set your preferences. The location of your site preferences is specified in the Miscellaneous settings pane of the configure page, in the {LocalSitePreferences} setting (visible when Expert mode is enabled) — the default location is Main.SitePreferences. Copy any customized preferences from the site preferences topic in your old installation to the site preferences topic in the new installation. (Note you may have already copied over your customized preferences when you transfered the contents of the <old_users_web> web.) (These should have been copied when your Main was migrated.)

If, in your old installation, you customized the default preferences in <old_system_web>.DefaultPreferences, then transfer your customizations from this topic to the SitePreferences topic instead (i.e. the topic specified in your {LocalSitePreferences} setting), so that your customizations will not get overwritten on the next upgrade.

If you have any old extensions that use settings from the "System.<Extension>" topic, these settings should also be copied to the SitePreferences. Topics in the System should never be edited!

Apply additional site customizations

Modify skin with customizations for your site

If you did not already customize the appearance of your new installation, as described in the section " Customize the appearance of your Foswiki site" in the InstallationGuide, then reapply the customizations from your old installation to the new one. Ensure you transfer over any skin templates — .tmpl files, or topics referred to using VIEW_TEMPLATE or EDIT_TEMPLATE preferences — you need. Also ensure you transfer any style sheets or Javascript files required.

Customize pages for managing personal information

In your new installation, default copies of the following topics were installed:

If you customized these topics in your old installation, transfer the changes to these topics in the new installation. Use the corresponding files in the <oldwiki>/<old_system_web>/ directory as a reference.

Check your configuration and installation

Configure provides some tools to validate your installation. They should be run as the web server userid:
cd <path-to-foswiki-installation>
sudo -u www-data tools/configure -check
sudo -u www-data perl tools/configure -check {DataDir} -method validate_permissions
sudo -u www-data perl tools/configure -check {PubDir} -method validate_permissions
 ...  also can be run on: 
    {LocalesDir} {ScriptDir}  {TemplateDir} {ToolsDir} {WorkingDir}

Validate your Wiki applications and other key functionality

Execute your test plan to validate the Wiki applications and other key functionality that need to be up and running after the upgrade.

Execute your test plans for authentication and authorization. Test that users that you have transferred from the old installation can login with any problems, and that access controls work appropriately: check that users are able to view and edit pages for which they have access, and are denied permission to view or edit pages for which they do not have access. Also check that pages restricted to the admin group are not accessible by non-admin users, and that administrators continue to have access.

Switch your production site from the old installation to the new installation

ALERT! If you are converting from RCS to PlainFile store, you must not repeat any copy step from the old to the new version once you've run the conversion.

If you had been running your old installation in parallel with the new one during a test phase, then disable your old installation, and repeat the steps:

Change your web server configuration so that the new installation is accessible to all of your users, and so the old installation is no longer accessible.

Change your web server configuration so that the new installation is accessible using the same URL prefix as your old installation. For purposes of discussion, assume that your old installation is accessible from http://yourdomain/wiki/. You can use one of the following approaches to make the new installation accessible using the same URL prefix:
  • You can rename your <newwiki>/ directory to wiki/ (renaming the directory of your old installation if necessary).
  • If your operating system supports links to other directories and your web server is configured to follow links, then you can create a link called wiki/ that points to <newwiki>/ (renaming the directory of your old installation if necessary).
  • You can configure your web server so that requests to /wiki/ are served from your <newwiki>/ directory.

Re-execute your test plan to verify that your newly-upgraded site is accessible to your users, and that all authentication and authorization mechanisms work as expected (including denying access to those who are not authorized).

Re-execute your test plan to verify that your Wiki applications and other key functionality work as intended.

User Authentication

Controlling who can access your site

Overview

Authentication, or "login", is the process by which a user lets Foswiki know who they are.

Knowing who is accessing your site isn't just to do with controlling access, it's a critical part of what makes Foswiki a social medium. Foswiki uses user identities to manage a wide range of personal settings. Most importantly, it means every contribution is automatically attributed to the person who made it.

Foswiki authentication is very flexible, and can either stand alone, or integrate with existing authentication systems. You can set up Foswiki to require authentication for every access, or only for changes.

Quick Authentication Test - Use the %USERINFO% macro to return your current identity:

Foswiki user authentication is split into four sections; password management, user mapping, user registration, and login management. Password management deals with how users personal data is stored. 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 can be remembered using a Session stored (for example) in a cookie in the browser. This avoids them having to log on again and again.

Foswiki user authentication is configured through the Security Settings pane in the configure interface, Security and Authentication tab. Selecting an authentication method is a complex business, and you may want to read the Important Considerations section before you do so.

Password Management

'Password management' is the process by which user identies and passwords are stored and checked. This work of password management is done by a module called the 'Password Manager'.

The Password Manager is selected using the {PasswordManager} setting in the Security and Authentication -> Passwords tab in configure.

Out of the box, Foswiki comes with a default password manager. Alternatively you can install one of several different password managers to interface to third-party authentication databases (such as LDAP).

The default Password Manager, HtPasswdUser

This password manager uses .htpasswd files stored on the server. These files can be unique to Foswiki, 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 configure for more details.

ALERT! Caution: By default Foswiki uses the .htpasswd file to also store the e-mail addresses of registered users. If the .htpasswd file will be shared with another application, it is critical to preserve the e-mail address stored as the last field in each line of the file.

Changing Passwords (and Email Addresses)

If your {PasswordManager} supports password changing, you can change and reset passwords using forms on regular pages.

If the {PasswordManager} does not support password changing, the ChangePassword and ResetPassword will show a simple message. This message is defined by the setting CHANGEPASSWORDDISABLEDMESSAGE in DefaultPreferences. You can redefine this setting by copying it to SitePreferences and change it to include a link to the password management website of your organisation.

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.

If the {PasswordManager} does not support password changing, ChangeEmailAddress will guide the user to define the e-mail address in the user topic.

User Mapping

Usually when you are using an external authentication method, you want to map from an unfriendly 'login name' to a more friendly WikiName. This process is called 'User Mapping' and is performed in Foswiki by a module called the 'User Mapping Manager'.

The user mapping manager is selected using the {UserMappingManager} setting in the Security and Authentication -> User mapping tab in configure.

A secondary function of the User Mapping Manager is to import information such as user groups from an external user authentication module.

Out of the box, Foswiki comes with a default user mapping manager that maps usernames to wikinames, and supports Foswiki groups internal to Foswiki. If you want, you can plug in an alternate user mapping module to support import of groups etc.

The default User Mapping Manager, TopicUserMapping

This module uses the content of certain specific Foswiki topics to map usernames to wikinames, and supports Foswiki groups internal to Foswiki. This module is described in depth in TopicUserMappingContrib.

User Registration

'User registration' is the process by which a new user registers to use the wiki. Foswiki new user registration is a sophisticated process which negotiates with the Password Manager and User Mapping Manager to establish the identity of the user, to set and change passwords, and store e-mail addresses and other user meta-data. The process includes:
  • new user verification
  • optional new user approval
  • single user registration via the UserRegistration page,
  • bulk user registration via the BulkRegistration page (for admins only).

Configuration

Registration options are selected in the Security and Authentication -> Registration tab in configure. Options controlled by configure include:
  • Enable user registration: {Register}{EnableNewUserRegistration}
  • Use login names separate from the WikiName: {Register}{AllowLoginName}
  • Verify the user's email address: {Register}{NeedVerification}
  • Expiration of unverified pending registrations: {Register}{ExpireAfter}
  • Approve registrations by a 3rd party: {Register}{NeedApproval}
  • Block duplicate registrations by same email address: {Register}{UniqueEmail}
  • Filter registering email addresses by domain: {Register}{EmailFilter}

How registration works:

The default "landing page" for user registration is UserRegistration, however this page is a "director" page, and displays one of two pages: These are the default registration pages, but as of Foswiki 2.1, any page name can be used as the registration page. This can accomodate customized registrations, such as CustomerRegistration, VendorRegistration, etc. each with its own settings. This page (from System or Main) or other custom registration pages each sets a number of additional registration defaults, and then INCLUDEs the components that together compose the operational page. These settings include:
  • %NEWUSERTEMPLATE% - Specifies the template topic used to create the new user's topic. If not set, %USERSWEB.NewUserTemplate or if that does not exist, NewUserTemplate is used.
  • %REGPARTS% - Specifies a list of topics used to resolve the INCLUDEs used to build the registration form. Defaults to the current topic, and then UserRegistrationParts.
  • %FIELDS% - List optional fields to add to the registration form. They correspond to sections in the topics listed in %REGPARTS%
  • %REGISTRATIONGROUPTYPE% and %REGISTRATIONGROUPS%, which controls automatic group membership upon registration.

Note: It is important to use the new %SET{}% macro to establish these defaults. Traditional bullet style "   * Set field=value statements do not get processed when the topic is included.

Custom registration page

You can customize the default UserRegistration topic, or create new registration topics, by copying DefaultUserRegistration to UserRegistration (or another registration topic) in Main web. This will ensure that your changes will remain intact next time you upgrade. There are some brief instructions on UserRegistration that helps you accomplish this.

The user registration page is assembled from INCLUDE blocks either hidden on that page, or by default blocks found in UserRegistrationParts. Details of these INCLUDE blocks are documented in that page. The user registration page is included in the INCLUDE search order, so new include blocks can be added to the page without the need to update System topics.

New fields may also be added to the Registration.
  • The name="" parameter of the <input> tags must start with: "Fwk0..." (if this is an optional entry), or "Fwk1..." (if this is a required entry).
  • The field name (without the Fwk* prefix) should be added to the UserForm (or whaver form you use for user registration) so that they are stored in the user topics.
This ensures that the fields are carried over into the user home page correctly.

For example, you want to add a "DepartmentName" field. Find a similar block in UserRegistrationParts, (OrganisationName for ex.) and copy the entire block to the bottom of your custom registration topic. Name it to create your new field, DepartmentName, and then add the name of the block to the list in the %SET{"FIELDS" value="..." You can hide the block by enclosing it in HTML comments <!-- and -->

Automatic Group Membership

You can also automatically enrol users into groups during registration. Note however that this feature is done through the user interface. It cannot be used to force a user into a NewUsersGroup for example if the user submits the registration through a bot or script that submits the form data omitting the group fields.

Options include:
  • Automatically enrolling users in one or more groups during registration
  • Allow the user to select multiple groups from a list of eligible groups
  • Allow the user to choose only one group from a list of eligible groups
  • Don't do any group enrolment during registration.

The list of eligible groups can be generated in one of two ways:
  • Manually by configuration. This fixed list of groups will always be listed.
  • Automatically based upon CHANGE permission on the group topics.

There are two registration scenarios that apply:
Self-registration by Guest users
The actual registration will be processed by the special internal user RegistrationAgent. Group topics must include an ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = RegistrationAgent to be eligible for enrolment.
Registration by logged-in users
The registration form is filled out by some other logged-in user. In this case, the RegistrationAgent is not used for Group updates. The current user must have ALLOWTOPICCHANGE permission for groups for them to be eligible for enrollment.

Note: During registration, if it turns out that the current user or RegistrationAgent doesn't have permission to update the group topic, the group update will be silently skipped. The user will still be able to register.

The settings that control group memberships during registration are located at the top of the DefaultUserRegistration topic. You also must add extraField_groups to the list of optional fields in the =%SET{"FIELDS" value="..." macro in the optionalFields section.

Login Management

'Login management' controls the way users have to log in. There are three basic options; no login, login via a Foswiki login page, and login using the webserver authentication support. Login management is performed by a module called the 'Login Manager'.

The Login Manager is selected using the {LoginManager} setting in the Security and Authentication -> Login tab in configure.

No Login

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 WikiGuest default identity, so you can't track individual user activity.

ALERT! 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 administrators.

Template Login

Template Login asks for a username (or optionally e-mail address) and password in a web page, and processes them using whatever Password Manager you choose. Users can log in and log out. Client Sessions are used to remember users. Users can choose to have their session remembered so they will automatically be logged in the next time they start their browser.

Enabling Template Login

IDEA! By default, your Foswiki installation is probably already using TemplateLogin, HtPasswdUser and TopicUserMappingContrib as the default Login, Password and user mapping options.
  1. Using configure, Security And Authentication tab
    1. Navigate to the Login tab on the Security and Authentication panel. Select the Foswiki::LoginManager::TemplateLogin login manager.
    2. Navigate to the Passwords tab. Select the appropriate PasswordManager for your system - the default is Foswiki::Users::HtPasswdUser.
      HELP There is an EXPERT configure setting {TemplateLogin}{PreventBrowserRememberingPassword} that you can set to prevent Browsers from remembering username and passwords if you are concerned about public terminal usage.
      HELP There is an EXPERT configure setting {TemplateLogin}{AllowLoginUsingEmailAddress} that you can set to allow users to login using their password system registered e-mail addresses.
  2. Verify that registration works by registering yourself with the UserRegistration topic. If there are problems, try these troubleshooting tips:
    1. Note: If e-mail is enabled in configure, Foswiki will not allow any new registrations unless e-mail is functional. In order to avoid issues, return to the Mail and Proxies, Email Test tab in configure and verify that Foswiki can successfully send e-mail.
    2. If your PasswordManager is HtPasswdUser (the default), check the .htpasswd file is being updated correctly with a new entry. If not, check {Htpasswd}{FileName} is correct (under Security and Authentication on the Password tab in configure), and that the webserver user has write permission.
  3. Create a new topic (in Sandbox web for example) to confirm that authentication works.
  4. Add users to the AdminGroup. Edit the AdminGroup topic in the Main web to include users that should have administrator status. Read defining adminstrator user(s) for more information.
    ALERT! This is a very important step, as users in this group can access all topics, independent of Foswiki access controls.

AccessControl has more information on setting up access controls.

ALERT! Foswiki AccessControls do not protect topic attachments unless the web server has been configured to do so using the viewfile script. Visit Foswiki:Support.ApacheConfigGenerator for examples using Apache.

TIP As Template Login uses a wiki page for its login prompt, there is a great deal of flexibility in customizing the login page for your purposes.

TIP The default new user template page is in System.NewUserTemplate. The same macros get expanded as in the TemplateTopics. You can create a custom new user topic by creating the NewUserTemplate topic in Main web, which will then override the default in System web. See UserForm for copy instructions.

Controlling access to individual scripts

You may want to add or remove scripts from the list of scripts that require authentication. TIP Any scripts listed as requiring authentication will not be usable by the Guest user. If you require that WikiGuest be allowed to edit topics on your site, edit and save must be removed from the list of scripts requiring authentication. To do this, update the {AuthScripts} list using the Security and Authentication" -> *Login tab of configure.

Enabling Webserver Login

With Apache Login enabled, when Foswiki needs to authenticate the user, the standard HTTP authentication mechanism is used: the browser itself will prompt for a user name and password.

The rest of this section describes Webserver Login using the Apache web server, but the same process is applicable to other webserver implementations as well (though you may require a customised version of the ApacheLogin module to do it).

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 to them directly.

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.

Foswiki maps the REMOTE_USER that was used to log in to the webserver to a WikiName using the table in WikiUsers. This table is updated whenever a user registers, so users can choose not to register (in which case their webserver username is used for their signature) or register (in which case that username is mapped to their WikiName).

The same private .htpasswd file used in Foswiki Template Login can be used to authenticate Apache users, using the Apache Basic Authentication support.

ALERT! Do not use the Apache htpasswd program to modify .htpasswd files generated by Foswiki! htpasswd wipes out e-mail addresses that Foswiki saves in the info fields of this file.

IDEA! Apache Login is required for Apache-based login methods such as mod_ldap

IDEA! You can use any Apache authentication module that sets the REMOTE_USER environment variable.

To set up Apache Login, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Apache Login. Under the Security and Authentication pane on the Login tab in configure:
    1. Select Foswiki::LoginManager::ApacheLogin for {LoginManager}.
    2. Select Foswiki::Users::HtPasswdUser for {PasswordManager}.
    3. Select Foswiki::Users::TopicUserMapping for {UserMappingManager}.
    4. Save your settings.
    5. Configure your Apache settings for HTTP authentication. Use the Foswiki:Support.ApacheConfigGenerator tool or the foswiki/bin-htaccess-advanced.txt file to set the following Apache directives on the bin scripts:(This example is for Apache 2.2, there are changes required if using Apache 2.4)
       AuthType Basic
       <FilesMatch "(attach|edit|manage|rename|save|upload|mail|logon|.*auth).*">
       require valid-user
       </FilesMatch>
      You can also refer to the sample foswiki_httpd_conf.txt and bin-htaccess-advanced.txt files to see how the appropriate Apache directives are specified.
  2. Verify that registration works by registering yourself with the UserRegistration topic. If there are problems, try these troubleshooting tips:
    1. Note: If e-mail is enabled in configure, Foswiki will not allow any new registrations unless e-mail is functional. In order to avoid issues, return to the Mail and Proxies, Email Test tab in configure and verify that Foswiki can successfully send e-mail.
    2. If your PasswordManager is HtPasswdUser (the default), check the .htpasswd file is being updated correctly with a new entry. If not, check {Htpasswd}{FileName} is correct (under Security and Authentication on the Password tab in configure), and that the webserver user has write permission.
  3. Create a new topic (in Sandbox web for example) to confirm that authentication works.
  4. Add users to the AdminGroup. Edit the AdminGroup topic in the Main web to include users that should have administrator status. Read defining adminstrator user(s) for more information.
    ALERT! This is a very important step, as users in this group can access all topics, independent of Foswiki access controls.

Logons via bin/logon

Any time a user requests a page that needs authentication, they will be forced to log on. It may be convenient to have a "logon" link 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 enables this. If you are using Apache Login, the bin/logon script must be set up in the Apache configuration or bin/.htaccess file to be a script which requires a valid user. Once authenticated, it will redirect the user to the view URL for the page from which the logon script was linked.

Controlling access to individual scripts

You may want to add or remove scripts from the list of scripts that require authentication. TIP Any scripts listed as requiring authentication will not be usable by the Guest user. If you require that WikiGuest be allowed to edit topics on your site, edit and save must be removed from the list of scripts requiring authentication. To do this, add/remove the script from bin/.htaccess, or from the =FilesMatch= line in the Apache configuration.

Sessions

Foswiki uses the CPAN:CGI::Session and CPAN:CGI::Cookie modules to track sessions. 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.

You don't have to enable sessions to support logins in Foswiki. However it is strongly recommended. Foswiki needs some way to remember the fact that you logged in from a particular browser, and it uses sessions to do this. If you don;t enable sessions, Foswiki will try hard to remember you, but due to limitations in the browsers it may also forget you (and then suddenly remember you again later!). So for the best user experience, you should enable sessions.

There are a number of macros available that you can use to interrogate your current session. You can even add your own session variables to the Foswiki 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 Foswiki 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 Foswiki preference, the session variables value takes precedence over the Foswiki 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="" }%

ALERT! Access controls cannot be modified in this way

Cookies and Transparent Session IDs

Foswiki normally uses cookies to store session information on a client computer. Cookies are a common way to pass session information from client to server. Foswiki cookies simply hold a unique session identifier that is used to look up a database of session information on the Foswiki server.

For a number of reasons, it may not be possible to use cookies. In this case, Foswiki has a fallback mechanism; it will automatically rewrite every internal URL it sees on pages being generated to one that also passes session information. Passing session identification in the URL is not considered secure and is strongly discouraged.

Sessions and Roaming or Mobile Users

If $Foswiki::cfg{Sessions}{UseIPMatching} is enabled, CGI::Session code will compare the current user's IP Address to the address that was used when the session was initially created. If the IP address has changed, then the session is invalidated and the user is required to re-authenticate. There is further information about this option in the configure interface, Security And Authentication tab.

This option is enabled by default in Foswiki 2.0. It should be disabled if mobile users encounter issues due to frequent IP address changes. It is of limited value if the users access Foswiki via a proxy or other device that causes multiple users to share the same IP address.

Optional Sessions for Guest users

EXPERIMENTAL feature: In Foswiki version 2.0, sessions can be suppressed for guest users. This is generally safe if guests have no ability to update. However if guests are permitted to update, such as by using the CommentPlugin, or if any wiki applications make use Session Variables, (See VarSESSIONVAR) then guest sessions should be enabled. See the configure interface, Security And Authentication tab for more information.

Important Considerations

Finally, some points you need to consider when selecting an authentication method.

One of the key features of Foswiki 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 Foswiki 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!

The most secure method is to only use Foswiki via SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), with a login manager installed and Client Sessions turned off. However this is rather extreme. Using Foswiki with sessions turned off is a pain, though, as with all the login managers there are occasions where Foswiki will forget who you are. The best user experience is achieved with sessions turned on.

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 Foswiki 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, Foswiki 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.

Session IDs are usually stored by Foswiki 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 Foswiki 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 Foswiki 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 "rather dodgy".

Most Foswiki sites don't use SSL, so, as is the case with most sites that don't use SSL, there is always a possibility that a password could be picked out of the aether. Browsers do not encrypt passwords sent over non-SSL links, so using Apache Login is no more secure than Template Login.

Of the two shipped login managers:

Apache Login is useful if you want to do this sort of thing: wget --http-user=RogerRabbit --http-password=i'mnottelling http://www.example.com/bin/save/Sandbox/StuffAUTOINC0?text=hohoho,%20this%20is%20interesting i.e. pass in a user and password to a request from the command-line. However it doesn't let you log out.

Template Login degrades to url re-writing when you use a client like dillo that does not support cookies. However, you can log out and back in as a different user.

Finally, it would be really neat if someone was to work out how to use certificates to identify users.....

See Foswiki:Support.SupplementalDocuments for more information.

Access Control

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

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

Please note FileAttachments are not protected by Foswiki Access Control in a default configuration (though this can be enabled).

An important consideration

Open, freeform editing is the essence of WikiCulture - what makes Foswiki different and often more effective than other collaboration tools. For that reason, it is strongly recommended that the decision to restrict read or write access to a web or a topic is 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 Foswiki, content is transparently preserved under revision control:
    • Edits can be undone by the administrator (per default a member of AdminGroup; see CompleteDocumentation).
    • 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 Foswiki site

The topic SitePermissions gives you an overview of the access control settings for all your webs.

Authentication vs. Access Control

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

Access control: Restrict access to content based on users and groups once a user is identified. (Also referred to as Authorization)

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. Groups can also be included in other Groups.

Managing Users

In standard Foswiki a user can create an account in UserRegistration. The following actions are performed: (See ManagingUsers for more details).
  • WikiName, encrypted password and email address 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 WikiUsers topic.
  • Optionally the user is added to one or more groups.

The default visitor name is WikiGuest. This is the non-authenticated user. By default the non-authenticated user is not permitted to edit topics. If you require anonymous editing, see "Controlling access to individual scripts" in UserAuthentication.

ALERT! Your local Foswiki may have an alternate user mapping manager installed which doesn't support user registration. Check with your Wiki administrator if you are in doubt.

Managing Groups

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

Groups are defined by group topics located in the Main web. To create a new group, visit WikiGroups. You will find a "Create a new group" link at the top which reveals a form to create a new group. Enter the name of the new group ending in Group into the "Group Name" form field and the initial members in the "Members" field. This creates a new group topic. (The default User Mapper shipped with Foswiki requires that groups end with the word Group. If your site uses an alternate mapper, it might not have that requirement.)

By default any member of a group has access rights to both adding and removing users from the group through the nice user interface. If you need to limit this access further, change the ALLOWTOPICCHANGE setting through "More Topic Action" -> "Edit topic preference settings".

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

TIP If you want to hide a group and its list of members, you can set ALLOWTOPICVIEW on the group. For example:
  • Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = Main.SecretGroup
    • This group will be usable in the ACL of any topic, but is only visible to members of the group.
    • Caution As with the the prior example, this is set in the "Topic Settings" and not inline in the topic text!

ALERT! Foswiki has strict formatting rules. Settings must be entered as a bullet point.
  • With the TML editor, or in the Settings editor, make sure you have three spaces, an asterisk, and an extra space in front of any access control rule.
  • When using the WYSIWYG editor, create a bullet using the bullet button on the toolbar.

Background: A group topic is an empty topic with 3 hidden preference settings.
  • GROUP: Comma separated list of users and/or groups
  • ALLOWTOPICCHANGE: Comma separated list of users and groups that are allowed to add and remove users from the group
  • VIEW_TEMPLATE: Always set to the value GroupView. This alters the way the topic is presented to include a nice user interface for adding and removing users.

Foswiki 1.1 introduced the smart user interface for adding and removing members of a group. Group topics from prior versions of Foswiki will still work. These have the GROUP setting visible in the topic text itself and you edit it by editing the topic. Foswiki 1.1 WikiGroups will show these old group topics with an "Upgrade Group Topic button". The administrator can upgrade an old group topic to the nice new user interface with one easy click.

The Super Admin Group

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

You can create new administrators simply by adding them to the AdminGroup topic. using the WikiGroups API For example,

A member of the Super Admin Group has unrestricted access throughout the wiki, so only trusted staff should be added to this group.

TIP Hint: Instead of adding users to the AdminGroup, consider adding them to the ALLOWTOPICCHANGE setting for the AdminGroup. Those users will then be able to add and remove themselves from the AdminGroup when they need admin rights, rather than running as admin all the time.

Restricting Access

Access to webs and topics is controlled by:

  • The {AuthScripts} setting in configure -> Security and Authentication -> Login;
  • The {FeatureAccess} settings in configure -> Security and Authentication -> Access Control; and
  • setting the values of certain preferences.

These preferences have the general form:

permission context mode

Where permission is ALLOW or DENY, context is TOPIC, WEB, or ROOT, and mode is VIEW, CHANGE, or RENAME. For example, the preference ALLOWWEBCHANGE lists who is allowed to change topics in the current web. (Some extensions add additional modes. Ex. ALLOWTOPICCOMMENT.)

  • Restricting VIEW blocks viewing and searching of content. When you restrict VIEW to a topic or web, this also restricts INCLUDE and Formatted SEARCH from showing the content of the topics.
  • Restricting CHANGE blocks creating new topics, changing topics or attaching files.
  • Restricting RENAME prevents renaming of topics within a web.
And, when enabled by {FeatureAccess} settings:
  • Restricting HISTORY blocks access to older revisions of topics by the rev= URL parameter.
  • Restricting RAW blocks access to the raw= topic text.

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

  • ALERT! Note that ALLOWWEBxxx and DENYWEBxxx preferences can only be set in WebPreferences topics. You cannot define a site level access. Each web must be protected on their own. Subwebs inherit access settings from the parent web. See next section.
  • ALERT! Note that ALLOWTOPICxxx and DENYTOPICxxx preferences apply only to the topic itself.
  • ALERT! Be warned that some plugins may not respect access permissions.

IDEA! FINALPREFERENCES affects access controls, allowing you to prevent changes to access control settings while still allowing edit access to topics.

Controlling access to a Web

You can define restrictions on who is allowed to view a Foswiki web. You can restrict access to certain webs to selected users and groups, by:

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

  • You can define these settings in the WebPreferences topic, preferable towards the end of the topic:
    • Set DENYWEBVIEW = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set DENYWEBCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set DENYWEBRENAME = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set ALLOWWEBRENAME = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
  • If {FeatureAccess}{AllowRaw} is set to acl in configure, then the following rules are also active:
    • Set ALLOWWEBRAW = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set DENYWEBRAW = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
  • If {FeatureAccess}{AllowHistory} is set to acl in configure, then the following rules are also active:
    • Set ALLOWWEBHISTORY = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set DENYWEBHISTORY = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >

You can also use the asterisk (*) in any of the above settings if you want it to match all possible users.

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

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

Controlling access to a topic

  • You can define these settings in any topic, preferable towards the end of the topic:
    • Set DENYTOPICVIEW = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set DENYTOPICCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set DENYTOPICRENAME = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set ALLOWTOPICRENAME = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
  • If {FeatureAccess}{AllowRaw} is set to acl in configure, then the following rules are also active:
    • Set ALLOWTOPICRAW = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set DENYTOPICRAW = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
  • If {FeatureAccess}{AllowHistory} is set to acl in configure, then the following rules are also active:
    • Set ALLOWTOPICHISTORY = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set DENYTOPICHISTORY = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >

You can also use an asterisk (*) in any of these settings to match all possible users.
ALERT! Caution! Settings are always taken from the latest (current) revision of a topic. If older revisions of a topic had more restrictive access controls, they will not be used when accessing the older revision. If the topic was restricted because it contained sensitive information, and that information was removed, it still exists in the topic history. Once you remove the access restrictions, the topic history will be viewable.

Remember when opening up access to specific topics within a restricted web that other topics in the web - for example, the WebLeftBar - may also need to 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.

Access rules in Foswki version 1.x
If your administrator has enabled {AccessControlACL}{EnableDeprecatedEmptyDeny} in the Foswiki configuration then the old behaviour will still work and an empty DENY setting means do not deny anyone the right to access, in other words allow all access.

Click this link to see more documentation on the prior behaviour.
ALERT! If your site started out life using an earlier version of Foswiki, you might have seen that from Foswiki 2.0 onwards, the empty DENY has been removed. This rule has been replaced by * wildcards in the ALLOW and DENY rules.

The previous documentation said:
  • Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW =
    This means the same as not setting it at all.
  • Set DENYTOPICVIEW =
    This means the same as not setting it at all.
As of Foswiki 2.0, the empty DENY setting is now meaningless, unless explicitly overridden by your installation.

  Before Foswiki 2.0 Foswiki 2.0 and newer
Allow ALL users Set DENY to an empty string Set ALLOW to *
Allow All logged-in users

Set DENY to WikiGuest

Leave ALLOW un-set

<no change from before>
Deny all access Set ALLOW to NobodyGroup

Set ALLOW to NobodyGroup

-or- Set DENY to *

Allow selected users Set ALLOW to desired users/groups Set ALLOW to desired users/groups
Deny selected users Set DENY to desired users/groups Set DENY to desired users/groups

If DENYTOPICVIEW is set to an empty value anyone has access even if ALLOWTOPICVIEW or ALLOWWEBVIEW is defined. This allows you to have very restrictive default access rights to an entire web and still allow individual topics to have more open access.
Wildcard matching

When * is set in a rule, it says that any user identity will match that rule. Setting ALLOW to * says "Allow ALL", setting * to DENY says "Deny ALL".

For example if you want completely open access to a topic for logged in users then use the following rules:
  • Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = *
    This allows everyone.
  • Set DENYTOPICVIEW = WikiGuest
    This overrides the ALLOW, and denies the guest user.

ALERT! Note that it is not possible to override a DENY with an ALLOW at the same level ALLOW on a topic can override DENY at the web level, but not at the TOPIC level

ALERT! If the same setting is defined multiple times the last one overrides the previous. They are not OR'ed together.

ALERT! Setting to an empty value has caused confusion and has been removed. Please read the release notes carefully when you upgrade.

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

Controlling access to attachments

Attachments are referred to directly, and are not normally indirected via Foswiki 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 Foswiki viewfile script. For example,

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

    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/+foswiki/+pub/+System/+.+
    RewriteRule ^/+foswiki/+pub/+([^/]+)((/+([^/]+))+)/+(.+) /foswiki/bin/viewfile/$1/$2?filename=$5 [L,PT]

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

ALERT! Images embedded in topics will load much slower since each image will be delivered by the viewfile script. The Foswiki:Support.ApacheConfigGenerator has some more extensive examples of protecting user attachments, but allowing direct access to trivial graphics attached to System topics.

Controlling who can manage top-level webs

Top level webs are a special case, because they don't have a parent web with a WebPreferences. So there has to be a special control just for the root level.
  • You can define these settings in the SitePreferences topic, preferably towards the end of the topic:
    • Set DENYROOTCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
    • Set ALLOWROOTCHANGE = < comma-delimited list of users and groups >
Note that you do not require ROOTCHANGE access to rename an existing top-level web. You just need WEBCHANGE in the web itself.

How Foswiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings

ALERT! Settings are only read from the most current (latest) revision of a topic. Settings from older revisions are never used, even when viewing an older revision with the rdiff script

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

  1. If the user is an administrator
    • access is PERMITTED.
  2. If DENYTOPIC is set to a list of WikiNames, or set to the * wildcard
    • people in the list will be DENIED.
  3. If ALLOWTOPIC is set to a list of WikiNames, or set to the * wildcard
    1. people in the list are PERMITTED
    2. everyone else is DENIED (nobody is denied if ALLOW is set to *)
  4. If DENYWEB is set to a list of WikiNames, or set to the * wildcard
    • people in the list are DENIED access (everyone if DENY is set to *)
  5. If ALLOWWEB is set to a list of WikiNames, or set to the * wildcard
    • people in the list will be PERMITTED
    • everyone else will be DENIED (nobody is denied if ALLOW is set to *)
  6. If you got this far, access is PERMITTED

Access control and INCLUDE

ALLOWTOPICVIEW and ALLOWTOPICCHANGE only applies to the topic in which the settings are defined. If a topic A includes another topic B, topic A does not inherit the access rights of the included topic B.

Examples: Topic A includes topic B

  • If the included topic B has ALLOWTOPICCHANGE set to block editing for a user, it does not prevent editing the including topic A.
  • If the included topic B has ALLOWTOPICVIEW set to block view for a user, the user can still view topic A but he cannot see the included topic B. He will see a message No permission to view B

Access control quick recipes

Obfuscating webs

Another way of hiding webs is by setting the NOSEARCHALL setting in WebPreferences. It does the following:
  • Prevents the all webs search option from accessing the web
  • Hides the web from the %WEBLIST% macro.
   * Set NOSEARCHALL = on

This setup can be useful to hide a new web until content its ready for deployment, or reduce clutter in the WebLeftBar and default search results when restricted access is not desired.

TIP Setting NOSEARCHALL to any value other than the empty string will hide a web. Setting NOSEARCHALL = off will have the same effect as setting it to on

ALERT! Obfuscating a web without setting view access control is very insecure, as anyone who knows the URL can access the web, and explicit searches naming that web will also work. For security purposes it is better to use the ALLOW or DENY VIEW settings in the WebPreferences topic. %SEARCH% and %WEBLIST% will not show any results for webs that the current user does not have permission to view.

Restrict Access to a whole Foswiki site

For a firewalled Foswiki, e.g. an intranet wiki or extranet wiki, you want to allow only invited people to access your Foswiki.
HELP With this configuration, someone with access to the site needs to register new users. ResetPassword will also have to be done by administrators.

When using Apache Login

User authentication with ApacheLogin is enabled on your site. To reqire login for all scripts:
  • lock down access to the whole bin and pub directories to all but valid users. In the Apache .htaccess file or the appropriate .conf file, replace the <FilesMatch "(attach|edit|... section with this:
<FilesMatch ".*">
       require valid-user
</FilesMatch>

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

When using Template Login

User authentication with TemplateLogin is enabled on your site. To require login for all scripts:
  • Add all scripts in the foswiki/bin directory (except for login, logon) to the list of {AuthScripts} in configure, Security And Authentication tab, Login sub-tab, For a default Foswiki installation:

  • Default (open) site:
{AuthScripts} = 'attach,compareauth,configure,edit,manage,previewauth,rdiffauth,rename,restauth,save,statistics,upload,viewauth,viewfileauth';
  • Restricted (closed) site:
{AuthScripts} = 'attach,changes,compare,compareauth,configure,edit,jsonrpc,manage,oops,preview,previewauth,rdiff,rdiffauth,register,rename,resetpasswd,rest,restauth,save,search,statistics,upload,view,viewauth,viewfile,viewfileauth

ALERT! If you install extensions that add scripts, you must also remember to add the new scripts to this list or the new scripts will not be protected.

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 UserAuthentication to be enabled.

  1. The simple way is to add this to WebPreferences in all webs.
    • Set DENYWEBVIEW = WikiGuest
  2. Restrict view access to selected users and groups. Set one or both of these settings in its WebPreferences topic:
    • Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = < list of users and groups >
    • Note: DENYWEBVIEW is evaluated before ALLOWWEBVIEW. Access is denied if the authenticated person is in the DENYWEBVIEW list, or not in the ALLOWWEBVIEW list. Access is granted if DENYWEBVIEW and ALLOWWEBVIEW are not defined.

In rare cases it may be required to authenticate the view script. This can in some cases have a dramatic performance hit because the webserver must re-authenticate for every page view.

  1. Set require valid-user on your view script in .htaccess or the appropriate Apache .conf file. This looks like: FilesMatch "(attach|edit|manage|rename|save|view|upload|mail|logon|.*auth).*" (normally view is not in that list).

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 UserAuthentication to be enabled.

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

Authenticate and restrict most webs, Allow access to selected topics

Use the following setup is used to "lock down" the Wiki to logged in users, while still allowing UserRegistration, ResetPassword, etc. to remain operational. Requires UserAuthentication to be enabled.

  1. Restrict view access by the guest user, and then selectively unlock topics required for normal operation
    • Set <nop>DENYWEBVIEW = WikiGuest Set this in each WebPreferences topic:
    • Set <nop>ALLOWTOPICVIEW = * Set this in each topic that needs to be unlocked for unauthenticated users.
    • Note: ALLOWTOPICVIEW is evaluated before DENYWEBVIEW. Access is permitted if the authenticated person (or wildcard) is in the ALLOWTOPICVIEW list. The list of topics that need to be unlocked in the System web for login, password reset, registration, and guest access when the System has been locked down is rather extensive.

Control access to topic History and Raw text.

Foswiki 2.0 now restricts the guest user from access to topic history and raw topic text. This is configurable. See: configure Security and Authentication > Access Control > {FeatureAccess}{AllowRaw} and {FeatureAccess}{AllowHistory} (They are expert level settings, so the "Show expert options" button in the lower left corner must be pressed.)

Each of these setting has 3 choices:
  • authenticated - This is the default. Anyone who is logged in has access
  • acl - The feature can be controlled per web or topic using ALLOW or DENY ACLs.
  • all - Open access like on Foswiki 1.x

When set to acl, then standard DENY and ALLOW processing is performed, RAW and HISTORY are added to the VIEW, CHANGE and RENAME access already described here.

If you want to use ACL level controls, but also want WikiGuest blocked by default, you need to edit every WebPreferences topic and set the following:

Note that these ACL controls block access to the raw= and rev= url parameters. They are not enforced internaly in the "Store". Wiki applications still can access prior revisions, and anyone with CHANGE authority can edit the raw topic text.

Show control settings

You can list the access controls affecting a topic using the %SHOWPREFERENCE{ macro in the topic, thus:
%SHOWPREFERENCE{"DENYWEBVIEW,ALLOWWEBVIEW,DENYWEBCHANGE,ALLOWWEBCHANGE,DENYWEBRENAME,ALLOWWEBRENAME"}%

For this topic, this displays:
  • Set DENYWEBVIEW = ""
  • Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = ""
  • Set DENYWEBCHANGE = ""
  • Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = "%USERSWEB%.AdminGroup"
    • ALLOWWEBCHANGE was defined in System.WebPreferences
  • Set DENYWEBRENAME = ""
  • Set ALLOWWEBRENAME = "%USERSWEB%.AdminGroup"
    • ALLOWWEBRENAME was defined in System.WebPreferences

Hide control settings

To hide access control settings from normal browser viewing, you can put them into the topic preference settings by clicking the link Edit topic preference settings under More topic actions menu. Preferences set in this manner are not visible in the topic text, but take effect nevertheless. Access control settings added as topic preference settings are stored in the topic meta data and they override settings defined in the topic text.

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

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

Controlling access to the System web.

Some search engines penalize sites for publishing "duplicate information". The Wiki documentation in the System web falls into that category. Foswiki now has "ALLOWTOPICVIEW = *" settings on critical System topics that require guest access, such as ResetPassword, UserRegistration, and other template topics. You should be able to restrict guest access to the System and retain good operation for guests.

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% macro. If you want to exclude a heading from the TOC, put !! after the ---+.

ALERT! Empty headings are allowed, but won't appear in the table of contents.

See the <ho> tag below for how to adjust heading levels dynamically.

---++ 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
TIP You can follow the closing bold, italic, or other (* _ __ = ==) indicator with normal punctuation, such as commas and full stops.

ALERT! Make sure there is no space between the text and the indicators.
_This works_,
_this does not _

This works,
_this does not _
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.

HELP 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
    • level 2
  • 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...
ALERT! Note that while type characters A, a, I and i must be entered exactly as specified, numbers can be any single digit 0-9. It is recommended for future compatibility that only the number 1 be used for numbered type lists.
   1. Sushi
   1. Dim Sum
   1. Fondue

   A. Sushi
   A. Dim Sum
   A. Fondue

   i. Sushi
   i. Dim Sum
   i. Fondue

  1. Sushi
  2. Dim Sum
  3. Fondue

  1. Sushi
  2. Dim Sum
  3. Fondue

  1. Sushi
  2. Dim Sum
  3. 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.
Definition List: (deprecated)
Three spaces, the term (a single word, no spaces), a colon, a space, followed by the definition.
   Sushi: Japan
   Dim-Sum: S.F.

Sushi
Japan
Dim-Sum
S.F.
Indented Text:
Three spaces, a colon, a space, followed by the paragraph.
  • Continue a paragraph by indenting the line with 3 spaces.
  • Create deeper levels of indentation by using multiples of 3 spaces.
   : Indented line
   Continued
   : New paragraph
      : 2nd level indent

Indented line Continued
New paragraph
2nd level indent
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
  • Use %VBAR% or &#124; to add | characters in tables.
  • Use %CARET% or &#94; to add ^ characters in tables.
TIP 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 |
| %CARET% | B10 |%VBAR%|
| &#94; | B11 |&#124;|

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
^ B10 |
^ B11 |
WikiWord Links:
CapitalizedWordsStuckTogether (or WikiWords) will produce a link automatically if preceded by whitespace or parenthesis.
  • TIP If you want to link to a topic in a different web write Otherweb.TopicName.
  • To link to a topic in a subweb write Otherweb.Subweb.TopicName.
  • HELP 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.
ALERT! Dots '.' are used to separate webs and subwebs from topic names and therefore cannot be used in topic names.

It's generally a good idea to use the macros %SYSTEMWEB%, %SANDBOXWEB% and %USERSWEB% instead of System, Sandbox and Main.

To prevent a word from linking, prefix it with the exclaimation mark (!) or <nop>
%STATISTICSTOPIC%

%SANDBOXWEB%.WebNotify

%SANDBOXWEB%.%HOMETOPIC%

%SANDBOXWEB%.Subweb.TopicName

WebStatistics

WebNotify

Sandbox

TopicName
Acronym Links:
Words that are all capitals will produce a link automatically only if the topic already exists!.
ACRONYM

%SYSTEMWEB%.ACRONYM

ACRONYM

ACRONYM
Anchors:
You can define a reference inside a 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 of no more than 32 characters. 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

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, [[wiki word]] links to topic WikiWord. You can also refer to a different web and use anchors.
TIP To "escape" double square brackets that would otherwise make a link, prefix the leading left square bracket with an exclamation point.
[[wiki syntax]]

[[Main.Wiki groups]]

escaped:
![[wiki syntax]]

WikiSyntax

WikiGroups

escaped: [[wiki syntax]]
Renamed 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. WikiWord) and URLs (e.g. https://foswiki.org/) are both supported. The rules described under Forced Links apply for internal link references.
TIP Anchor names can be added as well, to create a link to a specific place in a topic.
[[WikiWord][wiki word]]

[[http://gnu.org][GNU]]

wiki word

GNU
Automatic links:
Typed-in URLs are linked automatically. Most standard protocols are supported; if yours is missing, it can be added by the site administrator.

URLs for images are automatically inserted inline.

Email addresses are also linked automatically, see further details below.

TIP automatic linking of URLs and email addresses is not blocked by the noautolink setting.
   * file://foswiki.org
   * ftp://foswiki.org
   * http://foswiki.org
   * https://foswiki.org
   * mailto:example@foswiki.org
   * news://foswiki.org
   * nntp://foswiki.org
   * telnet://foswiki.org
   * name@foswiki.org
   * %PUBURL%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ProjectLogos/foswiki-logo-icon.png
Prevent an Automatic Link:
Prevent a WikiWord, URL, email address or image from being linked by prepending it with an exclamation point (!) or <nop> tag.

TIP Note that you can use the <nop> tag, but any leading markup directly adjacent to a wikiword will prevent automatic linking because the word is no longer space delimitied.
!SunOS

<nop>SomeWiki

<b>SomeWiki</b>

=SomeWiki=

<b>https://foswiki.org</b>

_%PUBURL%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ProjectLogos/foswiki-logo-icon.png_

SunOS

SomeWiki

SomeWiki

SomeWiki

https://foswiki.org

https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/ProjectLogos/foswiki-logo-icon.png
Disable Automatic Linking:
You can disable automatic linking of WikiWords by surrounding text with <noautolink> and </noautolink> tags.
HELP You can also turn off WikiWord auto-linking with the NOAUTOLINK preference setting.

The noautolink feature only applies to WikiWords. It does not stop linking of URLs, or email addresses.
 <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]].

ALERT! automatic linking of email addresses is not blocked by <noautolink>, Escape with a ! to prevent auto linking.
a@b.com

[[mailto:a@b.com][Mail]]

[[mailto:?subject=Hi][Hi]]

!a@b.com

a@b.com

Mail

Hi

a@b.com
Special characters:
Some characters are reserved for use by TML
  • Display them in your output by using the HTML entities.
  • Use HTML entities to display characters that are not supported by your site character set (e.g. special mathematical symbols). There's a complete list of named entities in Wikipedia
  • Use numerical entities to display any unicode character (e.g. Chinese script).
&lt; &gt; &amp; &alefsym; &#x4eb9;

A <nop>!= B &#33;= C

<nop>!here, !here
< > & ℵ 亹

A != B != C

!here, here
Escapes
Escapes are used to prevent a "default action" from occuring. They are used in many places when composing topics and writing Foswiki macros.
!
The exclamation point will block expansion of macros, prevents automatic linking of WikiWords, email addresses, URLs, and [[explicit links]].
  • To expand a macro, but escape any wikiword it expands into, use the <nop> tag.
  • To prevent Foswiki from treating ! as an escape, escape it with <nop>, or use the &#33; entity
\
The backslash is used to prevent normal interpretation of a character, allowing inclusion of quotes inside a quoted string. It can also be used to continue a line (escapes the "newline"). When used as a "continue" it must be the very last character prior to the newline.
<nop>
The nop (no operation) is used to prevent linking of WikiWords, email addresses, URLs, but not Macros or [[explicit links]]
!WikiWord %BR%
&#37;TOPIC% %BR%
<nop>%TOPIC% %BR%
<nop>%WIKIWEBMASTER% %BR%
<nop>!%TOPIC% %BR%
!here &#33;here <nop>!here %BR%
%TOP\
IC%


WikiWord
%TOPIC%
EditingShorthand
webmaster@physics.ox.ac.uk
!EditingShorthand
here !here !here
CompleteDocumentation
Controlling how content is rendered:
There are 3 ways to control how your topic content is rendered. This is done with three HTML or pseudo-HTML tags: <literal>, <verbatim> and <pre> They control whether or not:
  • Wiki markup (TML) is rendered
  • Macros (ex: %TOPIC%) are expanded
  • HTML is rendered
  • White space preserved
  • Auto linking of WikiWords and Email addresses occurs
These are explained in more details in the next sections, but are summarized to the right:
TMLHTMLMacrosWhite
Space
Auto Link
WikiWord
Auto Link
Email
<verbatim> ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!DONEALERT!ALERT!
<literal> ALERT!DONEDONEALERT!ALERT!ALERT!
<pre> ALERT!DONEDONEDONEALERT!ALERT!
<noautolink> DONEDONEDONEALERT!ALERT!DONE
Literal content:
Foswiki generates HTML code from TML shorthand. Experts surround anything that must be output literally in the HTML code, without the application of shorthand rules, with <literal>..</literal> tags.
ALERT! Any HTML within literal tags must be well formed i.e. all tags must be properly closed before the end of the literal block.
IDEA! Macros are expanded within literal blocks.
<literal>
| Not | A | Table |
</literal>
| Not | A | Table |
Verbatim (Literal) Text:
Surround code excerpts and other formatted text with <verbatim> and </verbatim> tags.

TIP verbatim tags disable HTML code. Use <pre> and </pre> tags instead if you want the HTML code within the tags to be interpreted.

ALERT! Preferences settings (* Set NAME = value) are set within verbatim tags.
<verbatim>
class CatAnimal {
  void purr() {
    <code here>
  }
}
</verbatim>
class CatAnimal {
  void purr() {
    <code here>
  }
}
Verbatim (Literal) Code Highlighting:
Surround code excerpts and other formatted text e.g. with <verbatim class="bash"> and </verbatim> tags.

IDEA! This type of code highlighting is based on Chili - the jQuery code highlighter plugin. Please find supported class attributes in JQueryChili.

TIP verbatim tags disable HTML code. Use <pre class="bash"> and </pre> tags instead if you want the HTML code within the tags to be interpreted.

ALERT! Preferences settings (* Set NAME = value) are set within verbatim tags.
<verbatim class="bash">
#!/bin/bash
while [ -n "$(ls . ~/ \
~/pub* /var/www 2>/dev/null \
| fgrep foswiki )" ] ; do
 clear
 printf "\nFoswiki rules!\n"
 sleep 10
 clear
 printf "\nFoswiki still rules!\n"
 sleep 10
done; exit 0
</verbatim>
#!/bin/bash
while [ -n "$(ls . ~/ \
~/pub* /var/www 2>/dev/null \
| fgrep foswiki )" ] ; do
 clear
 printf "\nFoswiki rules!\n"
 sleep 10
 clear
 printf "\nFoswiki still rules!\n"
 sleep 10
done; exit 0

Protected content:
Experts protect text from mangling by WYSIWYG editors using <sticky>..</sticky> tags. Sticky tags don't have any effect on normal topic display; they are only relevant when content has to be protected from a WYSIWYG editor (usually because it isn't well-formed HTML, or because it is HTML that WYSIWYG would normally filter out or modify). Protected content appears as plain text in the WYSIWYG editor.
ALERT! Any HTML within sticky tags must be well formed i.e. all tags must be properly closed before the end of the sticky block.
IDEA! Macros are expanded within sticky blocks.
<sticky>
<div>
This div 
%RED%is%ENDCOLOR%
required
</div>
</sticky>

This div is required

Adjust heading levels:
You can adjust heading levels for headings generated using ---+ markup and also HTML <h> tags using the <ho> tag.
The %INCLUDE and %SEARCH macros also have a headingoffset parameter to do this for you in included content.
Heading levels are limited to the range 1..6 after any offset is applied.
---++ offset is 0
<ho off="1">
---++ H2 becomes H3
<ho off="-1">
---++ offset was 1, so offset is now 0

offset is 0

H2 becomes H3

offset was 1, so offset is now 0

Macros

Special text strings expand on the fly to display information, or trigger a function.

Macros are text strings in one of three basic forms:

%MACRONAME%
%MACRONAME{ parameter="value" }%
%MACRONAME{
  param1="value "
        +"& more "
  param2="whatever"
  param1+="and even more"
}%

The third form is a new feature in Foswiki 2.1 to significantly improve readability with complex macros, see Readable Macros for details.

These usually expand into content when a topic is rendered for viewing. There are two types of macros:
  1. Preference settings: May be defined and modified by the user
  2. Registered macros: Defined by the system or by Plugins (for example, the SpreadSheetPlugin introduces a %CALC{}% macro)

Using Macros

To use a macro type its name. For example,

Note:
  • To leave a macro unexpanded, precede it with an exclamation mark, e.g. type !%TOPIC% to get %TOPIC%
    • Alternatively, insert a <nop> anywhere in the macro, Eg. %<nop>TOPIC%
  • Macros are expanded relative to the topic they are used in, not the topic they are defined in
  • Type %SHOWPREFERENCE% to get a full listing of all macros defined for a particular topic, or %SHOWPREFERENCE{"foo"}% to see an individual setting.
  • If a macro is not defined, then it will be left in the text unless it is called with a default parameter, in which case the value of the default parameter will replace the macro call in the output. For example, %UNDEFINED{default="blank"}% will expand to blank.

Order of expansion

The following describes only these types of macros:
  • Preference settings
  • Most macros provided by plugins (notable exceptions include CALC, TABLE and any other macros that are expanded in commonTagsHandler())
  • Most built-in Foswiki macros (exceptions include TOC and macros that have start/stop parts e.g: STARTSECTION/ENDSECTION, STARTINCLUDE/STOPINCLUDE)

Standard form
The key to understanding nested expressions in Foswiki is to understand that macros are expanded "inside-out, left-to-right". Example:

%MACRO1{
   something="%MACRO2{
      somethingelse="%MACRO3%, %MACRO4%"
   }%"
}%
The macros are expanded in this order: MACRO3, MACRO4, MACRO2, MACRO1.

Step-by-Step Example

Delayed form
Standard form macros can nearly always be used to build the parameter string of another macro; however, sometimes it is desirable to bypass the inside-out expansion order and delay the inner macro until after the outer macro has finished expansion. This is accomplished by using the $percent format token instead of %, and escaping any " character it uses (becomes \")

TIP When working with a given macro, consult its documentation to determine which parameters support the $percent/$percnt format tokens. Generally only output parameters like header, format and footer support format tokens.
Example:
%MACRO1{
   format="$percentMACRO2{
      format=\"%MACRO3%, %MACRO4%\"
   }$percent"
}%
The macros are expanded in this order: MACRO3, MACRO4, MACRO1, MACRO2.

Step-by-Step Example

From the conditional output example:

See also: FormattedSearch

Macro Names

Macro names must start with an ASCII letter. The following characters can be ASCII letters, numbers and the underscore '_'. Letters may be upper or lower-case, E.g. %MYVAR%, %MyVar%, %My2ndVar%, and %My_Var% are all separate, valid macro names (macros are case sensitive - %MyVAR% and %MYVAR% are not the same).

By convention all settings, predefined macros and macros registered by plugins are always UPPER-CASE.

Preference Settings

A preference setting lets you define a simple macro that will be expanded in your output. In addition:
  • preference settings are used by Plugins to control their features,
  • preference settings are used for AccessControl.

A preference setting looks like this:

[multiple of 3 spaces] * [space] Set [space] MACRONAME [space] = [space] value

Example:

   * Set WEBBGCOLOR = #FFFFC0

Macros defined using preference settings are expanded by enclosing their name in percent signs. So when you write %WEBBGCOLOR%, it gets expanded to #B9DAFF

Preferences can also be set dynamically by using the %SET{"setting" value="value"}% Macro. With the exception of these dynamic preference settings, preferences are always taken from the most current topic revision, even when accessing previous revisions of a topic.

Preferences can be defined in a number of places:
  1. DefaultPreferences (Foswiki upgrades overwrite this topic)
  2. In (some) plugin documentation topics. (Deprecated)
  3. SitePreferences
  4. In user topics, if the user has one (yours is WikiGuest)
  5. WebPreferences in each web.
  6. Sub-webs inherit the WebPreferences of their parent
  7. In the topic when it is loaded from the Store
  8. In SET macros for run-time preferences

Set statements which occur at numerically higher locations override macros of the same name defined at lower numbered levels, unless the macro was listed in a finalpreferences setting (finalised) at a lower-numbered level. When a preference is finalized, the macro is locked to the value at that level; SET statements at higher-numbered levels are ignored. Looking at it graphically:

prefs-stack.jpg

Access Control rules (ACLs) are also written as preference settings. ACLs cannot be dynamically modified by the %SET{}% macro.

Writing preference settings

Preference settings are written as a simple bullet. In TopicMarkupLanguage (TML) they are written as 3-spaces,asterisk,equals,value

   * Set MYSETTING = My setting value

When using the Wysiwyg editor, click the "Bullet" button and write the setting as a simple bullet. Don't include the asterisk or the leading spaces.

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. (Not when using the Wysiwyg editor.)

Example:

   * Set MACRONAME = value starts here
     and continues here

IDEA! preference settings can easily be disabled with a # sign. Example:

   * #Set DENYWEBCHANGE = %USERSWEB%.UnknownUser

Whatever you include in your bullet style setting will be expanded on display, exactly as if it had been entered directly (though see Parameters, below). (%SET{}% settings are expanded during the set process. See VarSET for further information.)

Example: Create a custom logo macro
  • To place a logo anywhere in a web by typing %MYLOGO%, define the preference settings in 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 preference setting in WebPreferences:
   * Set MYLOGO = %PUBURL%/%WEB%/LogoTopic/mylogo.gif

Preference settings are case sensitive. (Foswiki by convention always writes settings in upper case.)
   * Set lower = This is LOWER
   * Set LOWER = This is UPPER
   * Set LoWeR = This is MIXED
Expand %lower%, %LOWER% and %LoWeR%

Expand %lower%, %LOWER% and %LoWeR%.

Hiding preference settings

You can hide preference settings in the output by enclosing them in HTML comments; for example,
<!--
   * Set HIDDEN = This will be invisible in the output
-->

You can also set preference settings in a topic by clicking the link Edit topic preference settings under More topic actions. Preferences set in this manner are known as 'meta' preferences and are not visible in the topic text, but take effect nevertheless. If the same setting appears as both an inline setting, and in topic meta settings, the meta setting will override the inline setting! There is no warning when the setting is duplicate. This should be avoided to prevent confusion.

ALERT! Caution If your topic will be used in an INCLUDE, it is recommended to not use HTML comments. instead, set preferences into the topic metadata by using the "Edit Settings for this topic" button on the "More topic actions" page. Settings in an included topic are always ignored, but nested comments will break the HTML.

Order of preference settings

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

If a preference is set in both a bullet and in META settings, the META will override the bullet.

If multiple bullet style Set statements are specified for the same preference, the last one encountered is assigned and will be used globally throughout the topic.

%SET{}% style settings are assigned during the topic rendering. So unlike bullet/META settings:
  • Preferences and their effect will be visible in the preview.
  • %SET{} will override both META and bullet style settings unless the preference is FINALIZED.
  • The %SET{} is positional in the topic. Multiple %SET{} macros for the same preference will change the value as the topic is rendered.

Preference settings and topic revision history

Foswiki always reads the bullet style settings from the most current topic revision, so viewing older revisions of a topic can show unexpected results.

Preference settings and INCLUDE

  • Bullet and META style preference settings are never set when topic content is obtained by %INCLUDE{.
  • %SET{ style settings can be overidden when an INCLUDE is expanded, but only when referenced locally in the included topic.

In the below example about weather conditions, note the difference in the CONDITIONS expansion

Parameters

The following block of code was read from PreferenceSettings, and the "Set" statements were defined in CompleteDocumentation
Macros defined using preference settings can take parameters. These are symbols passed in the call to the macro to define local macros that will be expanded in the output. For example, Both Macros and PreferenceSettings have a Set statement that defines the %CONDITIONS% macro as shown here:

 * Set CONDITIONS = According to [[%TOPIC%]] the %WHAT% is %STATE% today (Set in ...).
The %TOPIC% shows where the CONDITIONS macro is expanded, and the ... shows where the Set statement was actually defined.

You can call this macro passing in values for WHAT and STATE. For example:
  • %CONDITIONS{WHAT="sea" STATE="choppy"}%
    • expands to %CONDITIONS{WHAT="sea" STATE="choppy"}%
Note that %CONDITIONS% expands differently when this example is viewed in Macros. This is because Set statement are not active in included topics. The including topic's set statements are used.

Parameter defaults
  • The special parameter name DEFAULT gets the value of any unnamed parameter in the macro call.
  • Parameter macros can accept a default parameter so that they expand to something even when a value isn't passed for them in the call.
Example:

   * Set WEATHER = It's %DEFAULT{default="raining"}%.
  • %WEATHER% expands to %WEATHER%
  • %WEATHER{"sunny"}% expands to %WEATHER{"sunny"}%
The standard formatting tokens can be used in parameters. They will be expanded immediately when the macro is instantiated.

ALERT! Note that parameters override all other macros, including system defined macros, in the expansion of the macro where they are used.

Access Control Settings

These are special types of preference settings to control access to content. AccessControl explains these security settings in detail. Parameters are not available in access control settings. AccessControl settings cannot be set or changed by the %SET{}% macro.

Local values for preferences

Certain topics (user, plugin, web, site and default preferences topics) have a problem; macros defined in those topics can have two meanings. For example, consider a user topic. A user may want to use the wiki text editor, but only when editing their home topic. The rest of the time, they want to use the default Wysiwyg editor. This separation is achieved using Local in place of Set in the macro definition. For example, if the user sets the following in their home topic:

   * Local NOWYSIWYG = 1

Then, when they are editing any other topic, they will get the Wysiwyg editor. However, when they are editing their home topic they will get the wikitext editor. Local can be used wherever a preference needs to take a different value depending on where the current operation is being performed.

%SHOWPREFERENCE% can be used to get a listing of the values of all macros in their evaluation order, so you can see macro scope if you get confused.
%SHOWPREFERENCE{"CONDITIONS"}%
expands into:
  • Set CONDITIONS = ""

Predefined Macros

Most predefined macros return values that were either set in the configuration when Foswiki was installed, or taken from server info (such as current username, or date and time). Some, like %SEARCH%, are powerful and general tools.

ALERT! Predefined macros can be overridden by preference settings (except TOPIC and WEB)

ALERT! Plugins may extend the set of predefined macros (see individual Plugins topics for details)

TIP Take the time to thoroughly read through ALL preference macros. If you actively configure your site, review macros periodically. They cover a wide range of functions, and it can be easy to miss the one perfect macro for something you have in mind. For example, see %BASETOPIC%, %INCLUDE%, and the mighty %SEARCH%.

Readable Macros

Some macros can become quite complex and, as such, hard to read. Over the years changes have been made to make this easier. For some time it has been possible to break a macro over multiple lines. Nonetheless, each parameter can easily extend onto many lines (it can after all be another macro). In general Foswiki allows lines to be continued by ending a line with a \ character. This is generally useful but with macros you need precise control of spaces which \ does not give you.

From Foswiki 2.1 it's now possible to use the following in macros to make them much more readable:
  • parameter="value" +"more" +"and more"
  • param1+="value1" param2+="value2" param1+="more1" param2+="more2"

Once upon a time in the early days of the project the parameters to SEARCH would need to be written as one line of TML, an example from an active Foswiki site:
type="query" nonoise="on" web="Batch" header="|*Batch Code*|*Batch Value*|*Currencies*|*Sizes*|*Count*|*To Queue*|*Killed*|*Ignored*|*Errors*|*Notes*|*History*|*Flow*|" format="| [[$topic][$formfield(BatchCode) $formfield(BatchDate) $formfield(BatchNumber) $formfield(BatchLocation)]]"}$percnt | $formfield(BatchValue) | $formfield(BatchCurrencies) | $formfield(BatchSizes) | $formfield(BatchCount) | $formfield(BatchToQueue) | $formfield(BatchKilled) | $formfield(BatchIgnored) | <div style='background-color:#$percntCALC{$SET(dat,$formfield(BatchDate))$SET(pdat,$formfield(BatchProcessDate))$SET(age,$EVAL($percnt$formfield(BatchCode)_days$percnt))$IF($EXACT($percntWORKFLOWSTATE{\"$topic\"}$percnt,CHECKED),FAF0D4,$IF($GET(age)>=0,ff3300,$IF($GET(age)>=-2,ff9933,66cc33)))}$percnt'>$formfield(BatchErrors)&nbsp;</div> | $formfield(BatchOperators) | $formfield(BatchActivities) | <form name=\"Edit\" action=\"%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/%WEB%/\"> <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"action\" value=\"form\"/> <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"topic\" value=\"$topic\"/> <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirectto\" value=\"%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING{encode="url"}%\"/> <input type=\"image\" src=\"%ICONURL{pencil}%\" alt=\"Edit Form\" /> </form> $formfield(BatchNotes) | $percntWORKFLOWHISTORY{\"$topic\"}$percnt | $percntWORKFLOWTRANSITION{\"$topic\" redirectto=\"%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING{encode="url"}%\"}$percnt |"

That is very hard to read and debug, and even harder to maintain months or years later and for readability this example excludes the complex and many line search parameter.

Now, we can improve that by splitting each parameter onto a separate line:
  type="query"
  nonoise="on"
  web="Batch"
  header="|*Batch Code*|*Batch Value*|*Currencies*|*Sizes*|*Count*|*To Queue*|*Killed*|*Ignored*|*Errors*|*Notes*|*History*|*Flow*|"
  format="| [[$topic][$formfield(BatchCode) $formfield(BatchDate) $formfield(BatchNumber) $formfield(BatchLocation)]] | $formfield(BatchValue) | $formfield(BatchCurrencies) | $formfield(BatchSizes) | $formfield(BatchCount) | $formfield(BatchToQueue) | $formfield(BatchKilled) | $formfield(BatchIgnored) | <div style='background-color:#$percntCALC{$SET(dat,$formfield(BatchDate))$SET(pdat,$formfield(BatchProcessDate))$SET(age,$EVAL($percnt$formfield(BatchCode)_days$percnt))$IF($EXACT($percntWORKFLOWSTATE{\"$topic\"}$percnt,CHECKED),FAF0D4,$IF($GET(age)>=0,ff3300,$IF($GET(age)>=-2,ff9933,66cc33)))}$percnt'>$formfield(BatchErrors)&nbsp;</div> | $formfield(BatchOperators) | $formfield(BatchActivities) | <form name=\"Edit\" action=\"%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/%WEB%/\"> <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"action\" value=\"form\"/> <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"topic\" value=\"$topic\"/> <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirectto\" value=\"%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING{encode="url"}%\"/> <input type=\"image\" src=\"%ICONURL{pencil}%\" alt=\"Edit Form\" /> </form> $formfield(BatchNotes) | $percntWORKFLOWHISTORY{\"$topic\"}$percnt | $percntWORKFLOWTRANSITION{\"$topic\" redirectto=\"%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING{encode="url"}%\"}$percnt |"

That helps a little, but the format parameter still covers multiple lines and is still hard to follow.

Now we could use the standard Foswiki line continuation, but you do not get full control of spacing and you cannot achieve the result you want. In the example above, which creates a table, one possible problem is having cell values centred instead of right justified.

This is when the ability to cleanly separate comes into its own. This is achieved by using the +"more" option to break a parameter into appropriate pieces, we can now transform the above to:
  type="query"
  nonoise="on"
  web="Batch"
  header=""
        +"|*Batch Code*"
        +"|*Batch Value*"
        +"|*Currencies*"
        +"|*Sizes*"
        +"|*Count*"
        +"|*To Queue*"
        +"|*Killed*"
        +"|*Ignored*"
        +"|*Errors*"
        +"|*Notes*"
        +"|*History*"
        +"|*Flow*"
        +"|"
  format=""
        +"| [[$topic][$formfield(BatchCode) $formfield(BatchDate) $formfield(BatchNumber) $formfield(BatchLocation)]]"
        +"| $formfield(BatchValue) "
        +"| $formfield(BatchCurrencies) "
        +"| $formfield(BatchSizes) "
        +"| $formfield(BatchCount) "
        +"| $formfield(BatchToQueue) "
        +"| $formfield(BatchKilled) "
        +"| $formfield(BatchIgnored) "
        +"| <div style='background-color:#"
        +"$percntCALC{"
        +"$SET(dat,$formfield(BatchDate))"
        +"$SET(pdat,$formfield(BatchProcessDate))"
        +"$SET(age,$EVAL($percnt$formfield(BatchCode)_days$percnt))"
        +"$IF($EXACT($percntWORKFLOWSTATE{\"$topic\"}$percnt,CHECKED),FAF0D4,"
        +"$IF($GET(age)>=0,ff3300,$IF($GET(age)>=-2,ff9933,66cc33)))}"
        +"$percnt'>$formfield(BatchErrors)&nbsp;</div> "
        +"| $formfield(BatchOperators) "
        +"| $formfield(BatchActivities) "
        +"| <form name=\"Edit\" action=\"%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/%WEB%/\">"
        +"<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"action\" value=\"form\"/>"
        +"<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"topic\" value=\"$topic\"/>"
        +"<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirectto\" value=\"%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING{encode="url"}%\"/>"
        +"<input type=\"image\" src=\"%ICONURL{pencil}%\" alt=\"Edit Form\" /> </form> $formfield(BatchNotes) "
        +"| $percntWORKFLOWHISTORY{\"$topic\"}$percnt "
        +"| $percntWORKFLOWTRANSITION{\"$topic\" redirectto=\"%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING{encode="url"}%\"}$percnt "
        +"|"

Note the use of + to concatenate all the pieces of the format and header parameters together. Also note that each piece is of the form +"more" and as that is quoted you have full control of the contents. This is especially true for those all important spaces — you'll see some pieces have a trailing space and some do not.

TIP parameter="value" +" and more" — is quite valid on one line if its useful

ALERT! parameter="1" +"2" gives you "12" not "3"

Both the header and format parameters above start each table cell on a separate line. This makes it a little easier to scan the topic text the match the cell positions and check they line up (i.e. the Header cell #n will match the contents from Format cell #n).

Another trick used above for easier maintenance is to initialise a parameter to "" and then add the pieces on separate lines. (In the example we are dealing with table cells hence "|", on a separate line, is used as an end of row marker.) This helps by allowing you to cut and paste whole lines, representing cells, into different column positions without concern as to whether or not it's the 1st column, last column or one in the middle because they have an identical structure.

Nonetheless, keeping the header of a table column separate from the format of each cell in the SEARCH can still be troublesome especially as the number of columns and/or complexity of header and footer cells grow.

To remedy that the param1+="value1" param2="value2" param1+="more1" param2+="more2" can be used. Not that the pieces of different parameters can now be intermingled in whatever way you need to make the macro easier to read. For example we can transform the above to:
  type="query"
  nonoise="on"
  web="Batch"

  header+="|*Control record*"
  format+="| <span style=\"display:none;\">"
         +"$formfield(BatchNumber) $formfield(BatchLocation) "
         +"$percntCALC{$SUBSTRING($topic,13,3)}$percnt $formfield(BatchDate) "
         +"!$formfield(BatchCode)"
         +"</span>"
         +"<a id=\"$topic\"/>[[$topic]]"

  header+="|*Batch Value*"
  format+="|  $formfield(BatchValue) "

  header+="|*Batch Curr- encies*"
  format+="| $formfield(BatchCurrencies) "

  header+="|*Success*"
  format+="|  $formfield(BatchCount) "

  header+="|*To Queue*"
  format+="|  $formfield(BatchToQueue) "

  header+="|*Killed*"
  format+="|  $formfield(BatchKilled) "

  header+="|*Ignored*"
  format+="|  $formfield(BatchIgnored) "

  header+="|*Batch Size*"
  format+="|  $formfield(BatchSizes) "

  header+="|*Batch Errors*"
  format+="| <div style='background-color:#"
         +"$percntCALC{$SET(dat,$formfield(BatchDate))"
         +"$SET(pdat,$formfield(BatchProcessDate))"
         +"$SET(age,$EVAL($percnt$formfield(BatchCode)_days$percnt))"
         +"$IF($EXACT($percntWORKFLOWSTATE{\"$topic\"}$percnt,CHECKED),FAF0D4,"
         +"$IF($GET(age)>=0,ff3300,$IF($GET(age)>=-2,ff9933,66cc33)))}$percnt'>"
         +"$formfield(BatchErrors) </div> "

  header+="|*Batch Oper- ators*"
  format+="| $formfield(BatchOperators) "

  header+="|*Batch Acti- vities*"
  format+="| $formfield(BatchActivities) "

  header+="|*Batch Notes*"
  format+="| <form name=\"Edit\" action=\"%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/%WEB%/\">"
         +"<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"action\" value=\"form\"/>"
         +"<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"topic\" value=\"$topic\"/>"
         +"<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirectto\" value=\"%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING%#$topic\"/>"
         +"<input type=\"image\" src=\"%ICONURL{pencil}%\" alt=\"Edit Form\" /> </form> $formfield(BatchNotes)"

  header+="|*Status History*"
  format+="| $percntWORKFLOWHISTORY{\"$topic\"}$percnt "

  header+="|*Change Status*"
  format+="| $percntWORKFLOWTRANSITION{\"$topic\" redirectto=\"%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING%#$topic\"}$percnt "

  header+="|"
  format+="|"

There is no guesswork (or cell counting) required to work out which cell header matches which format cell. Also note how this enables you to better manage table layouts by keeping the coding for each column together and in turn the easy ability to move a column into other positions by cut and paste.

The 1st parameter in a macro does not have to be named, e.g %MACRO{"I'm the first"}%. How can you extend such a value with name+="more" when it has no name? Well actually it does and it's name is _DEFAULT so you can have %MACRO{"I'm the first" type="X" _DEFAULT+=", with seconds"}%. Some macros may give you an alternative name to use, e.g. %SEARCH allows search i.e. %SEARCH{search="find him" type="literal" search+=" and her"}%. In this situation it is better to use one or the other and not both as that could lead to confusion. In the case of %SEARCH if you use both then this macro will ignore search and use _DEFAULT, so take care.

The following is a working example using the Foswiki FAQ topics follows. You can use this to create yourself a Sandbox topic to try out the + and += options to experiment with ways to make macros easier to read.
%SEARCH{"form.name ~ 'FAQForm'"
  type="query"
  web="System"
  nonoise="on"

  header+="|*Title*"
  format+="|$formfield(TopicTitle)"

  header+="|*Topic*"
  format+="|$web.$topic"

  header+="|*Summary*"
  format+="|$formfield(TopicSummary)"

  header+="|*Related Topics*"
  format+="|$formfield(RelatedTopics)"

  header+="|"
  format+="|"
}%

This gives:
Title Topic Summary Related Topics
Creating applications with DataForms Creating applications with DataForms How can I create a simple data form based application? UserDocumentationCategory
Deleting and renaming topics Deleting and renaming topics How do I delete or rename a topic? UserDocumentationCategory
Deleting and renaming attachments Deleting and renaming attachments How do I delete or rename a file attachment? UserDocumentationCategory
Get Foswiki Get Foswiki I would like to install Foswiki on my server. Can I get the source? AdminDocumentationCategory
Explanation of Foswiki's repRev feature Explanation of Foswiki's =repRev= feature Why does the topic revision not increase when I edit a topic? UserDocumentationCategory
Foswiki software license Foswiki software license Foswiki has a GPL (GNU General Public License). What is GPL? UserDocumentationCategory
HiddenUsersAndGroups HiddenUsersAndGroups How to hide groups and users from common view VarGROUPINFO, AccessControl
Rebuilding WikiUsers topic Rebuilding %WIKIUSERSTOPIC% topic How can I re-build my WikiUsers topic? Foswiki:Support.Faq27, TopicUserMappingContrib, WikiUsers, AdminDocumentationCategory
Fixing broken %SEARCH caused by faulty configuration. Fixing broken =%SEARCH= caused by faulty configuration. I've problems with the WebSearch. There is no Search Result on any inquiry. By clicking the Index topic it's the same problem. AdminDocumentationCategory
How simultaneous edits are handled in Foswiki How simultaneous edits are handled in Foswiki What happens if two or more users try to edit the same topic simultaneously? UserDocumentationCategory
System.FAQTemplate
Troubleshooting Extensions Troubleshooting Extensions A plugin I installed is not working. How can I troubleshoot it? Foswiki:Support.Faq31, InstalledPlugins, AdminDocumentationCategory
Definition of "WikiWiki" Definition of "WikiWiki" So what is this WikiWiki thing exactly? WelcomeGuest, GoodStyle, FrequentlyAskedQuestions, WikiCulture

ACTIVATEDPLUGINS -- list of currently activated plugins

Examples

ADDTOZONE -- add content to a named zone on the page

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"zone" comma-separated list of the names of zones that the content should be added to. The only zones guaranteed to exist are head, script and body. head
id identifier for the text being added with the ADDTOZONE call, to be used in the requires parameter of other ADDTOZONE calls. HELP Multiple ADDTOZONE calls with the same id parameter will simply overwrite the earlier ADDTOZONE call.  
requires comma separated string of ids of text within this zone that this content should follow when the zone is rendered. The content will be rendered even if a specified id is missing.  
text text to be added to the named zone, mutually exclusive with topic.  
topic full qualified web.topic name that contains the text to be added, mutually exclusive with text. %BASETOPIC%
section section of the topic to be added the default section between STARTINCLUDE and STOPINCLUDE

What is a "Zone"?

Zones are specific places in the output HTML that are marked by calls to the RENDERZONE macro. Zones are used to collect various content together, such as Javascript and CSS, that must be included in the output HTML in a specific order, and in a specific place.

There are three special zones called head, script and body. The head zone is rendered as part of the HTML head section. It is the catch-all container for any content supposed to be placed into the HTML head section, except Javascript, which is collected in the script zone.

All Javascript must always be added to the script zone exclusively, in order to grant ordering constraints among scripts are resolved properly. Never add Javascript to the head zone -- never add non-Javascript content to the script zone.

Both head and script zones are added to the HTML head section automatically just before the closing </head> tag as if they were specified explicitly in the skin templates using:
<head>
...
%RENDERZONE{"head"}%
%RENDERZONE{"script"}%
</head>

The body zone is added to the end of the rendered page just prior to the closing <body> tag.

The body zone is new with Foswiki 2.1.5. It was added for improved compatibility with the NatSkin.

You may create as many zones in addition to the standard head and script zones as you like. For any non-standard zone specified in ADDTOZONE you will also need to provide an appropriate RENDERZONE.

Interesting use cases in wiki applications:
  • Create a sidebar zone to add widgets,
  • Create a toolbar zone to add buttons icons
  • Create a menu zone to add menu entries

Adding content to a zone
ADDTOZONE adds content to a zone identified with the id parameter. An id identifier is unique within the zone that they are added to. When the same id is used in multiple calls to ADDTOZONE the last call will win, that is previous content of the same id will be overwritten.

Enforcing a linear order of content within a zone
An ADDTOZONE call may ensure that its content appears after the content of some other ADDTOZONE calls by specifying their ids in the requires parameter. The requires parameter constraints the linear order of content added to a zone. When a zone is rendered, all ordering constraints expressed via requires are satisfied. Those ids not found in a zone don't have any influence on the final ordering. Missing ids aren't considered an error rather than an over-specified ordering problem.

Working with {MergeHeadAndScriptZones} disabled (default)
In this mode, the head and script zones are treated separately.

Even when head and script zones are treated separately, the head zone will always be rendered before the script zone, unless otherwise specified using RENDERZONE explicitly. So any content in the script zone that depends on content placed into the head zone is satisfied intrinsicly as they are both rendered as specified above.

Working with {MergeHeadAndScriptZones} enabled
In this mode, the head and script zones are separate when adding to them, but may be treated as merged when you call RENDERZONE if there are any dependencies specified that only exist in the opposite zone. This allows an ADDTOZONE{"head"...} to to successfully require an id that has been added to script.

ALERT! {MergeHeadAndScriptZones} is provided to maintain compatibility with legacy extensions that use ADDTOHEAD to add <script> markup and require content that is now in the script zone. {MergeHeadAndScriptZones} will be removed from a future version of Foswiki.

Examples

Adding to a zone with missing dependencies
You must ensure that no head content (and no inline Javascript) depends on script content. Any such dependency will be ignored.

In real world application this isn't a problem as Javascript is never added to the head zone or Javascript zone part of the script zone never really depends on non-Javascript content part of the head zone.

HTML comment decoration which normally appears after each id's content in the rendered HTML will contain a small informative text to aid debugging.

Example
%ADDTOZONE{
  "script"
  text="
  <script type='text/javascript'>
    alert('test');
  </script>"
  requires="some-id-that-exists-in-script"
  id="MY::TEST"
}%

Result
<script type='text/javascript'>
  alert('test');
</script>
<!-- MY::TEST: requires= missing ids: some-id-that-exists-in-script -->

Adding Javascript to a page
Make sure that all inline Javascript code in the topic (if it is allowed) is added to the page using %ADDTOZONE{"script"...requires="library-id"}% with the appropriate library-id to guarantee a correct load order. For example, jQuery code should be added as follows:

%JQREQUIRE{"shake"}%
%ADDTOZONE{
   "script"
   id="MyApp::ShakePart"
   text="
   <script type='text/javascript'>
      jQuery('#something').shake(3, 10, 180);
   </script>"
   requires="JQUERYPLUGIN::SHAKE"
}%

where "MyApp::ShakePart" is a unique id to identify the text added to script; and JQUERYPLUGIN::SHAKE signifies that the content added with that identifier should appear beforehand.

Adding CSS to a page
%ADDTOZONE{"head"
   id="MyCSS"
   text="
      <style type='text/css' media='all'>
         @import url('%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/MyCSS/foo.css');
      </style>"
}%

ATTACHURL -- full URL for attachments in the current topic

Shorthand for PUBURL, with path set to the current topic. Otherwise supports all the same parameters as PUBURL.

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

Shorthand for PUBURLPATH with path set to the current topic. Otherwise supports all the same parameters as PUBURLPATH.

AUTHREALM -- authentication realm

String defined as the {AuthRealm} expert option in configure Security And Authentication tab, =Login sub-tab.. This is used in certain password encodings, and in login templates as part of the login prompt.

Examples

  • %AUTHREALM% expands to Enter your WikiName. (First name and last name, no space, no dots, capitalized, e.g. JohnSmith). Cancel to register if you do not have one.

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. This is the name of the topic requested by the user.

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. This is the name of the web requested by the user.

BUTTON -- renders a nice button

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"text" text to be put on this button  
value text to be put on this button  
accesskey access key used for this button  
class e.g. use simple for a non-3D button  
data_... add html5 data attributes  
align left, right, center
href url of the click target #
icon icon to be put on the left; note, this can be any icon attached to the {IconSearchPath}; see also VarJQICON  
id html id for this button  
onclick javascript event triggered when clicking the button  
target topic to open when clicking on the button  
title popup title displayed when hovering over the button  
type type of action to be performed; available actions are
  • button - normal click button, target specified in target or href parameter
  • clear - clears all input fields in the form that contains the button
  • reset - resets all input fields in a form to their initial value
  • submit - submits the form that contains the button
  • save - same as submit but takes care of extra validation steps when saving a wiki topic
button

Examples

%BUTTON{
    "%MAKETEXT{"Submit"}%"
    icon="tick"
    onclick="confirm('Are your sure?')"
  }%
  %BUTTON{
    "%MAKETEXT{"Cancel"}%"
    icon="cross"
    target="%WEB%.%TOPIC%"
  }% %CLEAR%
Note: BUTTONS are floating to the left by default. Take care to add a %CLEAR% after the %BUTTON{...}% so that further content does not overlap with the button.

CALC -- add spreadsheet calculations to tables and outside tables

The %CALC{"formula"}% macro is handled by the SpreadSheetPlugin. There are around 90 formulae, such as $ABS(), $EXACT(), $EXISTS(), $GET()/$SET(), $IF(), $LOG(), $LOWER(), $PERCENTILE(), $TIME(), $VALUE().
  • This macro is specifically for manipulating data in tables, and so is evaluated after the normal Macro expansion order. If you need a standard ordered evaluation see CALCULATE

Examples

  • %CALC{"$SUM($ABOVE())"}% returns the sum of all cells above the current cell
  • %CALC{"$EXISTS(Web.SomeTopic)"}% returns 1 if the topic exists
  • %CALC{"$UPPER(Collaboration)"}% returns COLLABORATION

CALCULATE -- add spreadsheet formulae calls using standard Macro evaluation order.

The %CALCULATE{"formula"}% macro is handled by the SpreadSheetPlugin. There are around 90 formulae, such as $ABS(), $EXACT(), $EXISTS(), $GET()/$SET(), $IF(), $LOG(), $LOWER(), $PERCENTILE(), $TIME(), $VALUE(). This macro is uses the normal (left to right, inside out) Macro expansion order. If you need to evaluate after expanding table data, see CALC

Examples

    • %CALCULATE{"$EXISTS(Web.SomeTopic)"}% returns 1 if the topic exists
    • %CALCULATE{"$UPPER(Collaboration)"}% returns COLLABORATION
CALC, IF, SpreadSheetPlugin

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

Parameters

  • The following standard attributes are recognized
    Name Description Default
    type This is the name of the template to use for this comment. Comment templates are defined in a Foswiki template - see Customisation, below. If this attribute is not defined, the type is whatever is defined by COMMENTPLUGIN_DEFAULT_TYPE preference setting. below
    default Default text to put into the prompt.  
    target Name of the topic to add the comment to the current topic
    mode For compatibility with older versions only, synonymous with type  
    nonotify Set to "on" to disable change notification for target topics off
    noform Set to "on" to disable the automatic form that is generated around your comment prompt if you don't provide a FORM template. See CommentPluginExamples:noform for an example. off
    nopost Set to "on" to disable insertion of the posted text into the topic. off
    remove Set to "on" to remove the comment prompt after the first time it is clicked. off
    button Button label text Add comment

Examples

  • A %COMMENT% without parameters shows a simple text box.

COVER -- current skin cover

Extends the skin search path. For instance, if SKIN is set to catskin, bearskin, and COVER is set to ruskin, the skin search path becomes ruskin, catskin, bearskin.

The COVER setting can be overridden using the URL parameter cover, such as ?cover=ruskin

Examples

  • %COVER% currently expands to %COVER% (it will only expand when a cover is actually set)

DATE -- signature format date

Examples

  • %DATE% expands to 16 Dec 2024
  • Date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure
    ALERT! When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TemplateTopics for details.

DISPLAYTIME -- display formatted time

Formatted time - either GMT or Local server time, depending on {DisplayTimeValues} setting in configure. Same format qualifiers as %GMTIME%

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"format" Optional format (see GMTIME)  

Examples

  • %DISPLAYTIME% expands to 16 Dec 2024 - 16:19
  • %DISPLAYTIME{"$hou:$min"}% expands to 16:19

ENCODE -- encode characters in a string

Encode character sequences in "string", by mapping characters (or sequences of characters) to an alternative character (or sequence of characters). This macro can be used to encode strings for use in URLs, to encode to HTML entities, to protect quotes, and for as many other uses as you can imagine.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"string" String to encode "" (empty string)
type Use a predefined encoding (see below). Default is 'url'. Parameter type not be used if old or new are given.
old Comma-separated list of tokens to replace. Tokens are normally single characters, but can also be sequences of characters. The standard FormatTokens may be used in this list. Each token must be unique - you cannot list the same token twice. May not be used with type; required if new is used
new comma-separated list of replacement tokens. The elements in this list match 1:1 with the elements in the old list. Again, the standard FormatTokens may be used. An empty element in the new list will result in the corresponding token in the old list being deleted from the string. If the new list is shorter than the old list it will be extended to the same length using the empty element. Tokens do not have to be unique.
ALERT! When using old and new, be aware that the results of applying earlier tokens are not processed again using later tokens. (see examples below)
May not be used with type; required if old is used
If ENCODE is called with no optional parameters (e.g. %ENCODE{"string"}%) then the default type="url" encoding will be used.

Predefined encodings

Unless otherwise specified, the type parameter encodes the following "special characters"
  • type="entity" or type="entities" Encode special characters into HTML entities, like a double quote into &#34;
    • all non-printable ASCII characters below space, except newline ("\n") and carriage return ("\r").
    • HTML special characters "<", ">", "&", single quote (') and double quote (")
    • TML special characters "%", "[", "]", "@", "_", "*", "=", "$" and "|"
  • type="html" As type="entity" except it also encodes \n (newline) and carriage return ("\r").
  • type="safe" Encode just the characters '"<>% into HTML entities.
  • type="quote" or type="quotes" Escapes double quotes with backslashes (\"), does not change any other characters
  • type="url" (default) Encode special characters for use in URL parameters, like a double quote into %22.

Examples

  • %ENCODE{"spaced name"}% expands to spaced%20name
  • %ENCODE{"| Blah | | More blah |" old="|,$n" new="&#124;,<br />"}% expands to =| Blah | | More blah | - this encoding is useful to protect special TML characters in tables.
  • %ENCODE{"10xx1x01x" old="1,x,0" new="A,,B"}% expands to ABABA
  • %ENCODE{"1,2" old="$comma" new=";"}% expands to 1;2
Values for HTML input fields must be entity encoded.
Example:
<input type="text" name="address" value="%ENCODE{ "any text" type="entity" }%" />
ENCODE can be used to filter user input from URL parameters and similar to help protect against cross-site scripting. The safest approach is to use type="entity". This can however prevent an application from fully working. You can alternatively use type="safe" which encodes only the characters '"<>% into HTML entities. When ENCODE is passing a string inside another macro always use double quotes ("") type="quote". For maximum protection against cross-site scripting you are advised to install the Foswiki:Extensions.SafeWikiPlugin.

Double quotes in strings must be escaped when passed into other macros.
Example:
%SEARCH{ "%ENCODE{ "string with "quotes"" type="quotes" }%" noheader="on" }%

ALERT! When using old and new, be aware that the results of applying earlier tokens are not processed again using later tokens. For example:
   %ENCODE{"A" old="A,B" new="B,C"}% will result in 'B' (not 'C'),
   %ENCODE{"asd" old="as,d" new="d,f"}% will yield 'df', and
   %ENCODE{"A" old="A,AA" new="AA,B"}% will give 'AA' and.
   %ENCODE{"asdf" old="a,asdf" new="a,2"}% will give 'asdf'

ENDINCLUDE -- end position of topic text if included

If present in included topic, stop to include text at this location and ignore the remaining text. A normal view of the topic shows everyting exept the %STOPINCLUDE% macro itself.

ENDSECTION -- marks the end of a named section within a topic

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.

Parameters

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

Examples

  • %ENDSECTION{"X" type="expandvariables"}%

ENDTAB -- ending marker for a tab of a tabpane

This closes a previously opened TAB.

ENDTABPANE -- ending tag for tabpane widget

This closes a previously opened TABPANE.

ENDTWISTY -- complements an opening TWISTY tag to close a twisty

Closes an open twisty

ENDTWISTYTOGGLE -- Twisty closure

Will end the most inner unclosed Twisty Toggle section, using the proper tag

Examples

%ENDTWISTYTOGGLE%

ENV -- inspect the value of an environment variable

Returns the current value of the environment variable in the CGI (Common Gateway Interface) environment. This is the environment that the CommandAndCGIScripts are running in.

If an environment variable is undefined (as against being set to the empty string) it will be returned as not set.

Note: For security reasons, only those environment variables whose names match the regular expression in the configuration setting {AccessibleENV} (in the Security Settings/Miscellaneous section of configure) can be displayed. Any other variable will just be shown as an empty string, irrespective of its real value.

Examples

  • %ENV{MOD_PERL}% displays as: not set

EXAMPLETAG -- example macro tag

The %EXAMPLETAG% variable is handled by the ExamplePlugin

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"..." Unnamed parameter  
text - example text "..."
format format of report  

Examples

  • %EXAMPLETAG{"hello" format="| $topic: $summary |"}%

EXPAND -- expand macros in a string as if they were used in another topic

The viewer must have VIEW access to topictoexpandin for this to work. All the standard formatting macros can be used in expression, such as $percent and $quot.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"text" Text to expand. Note that %-signs must be escaped using $percent, or they will be expanded in the context of the calling topic  
scope Scope to expand the topic in. This is the name of a topic. You can use Web.Topic syntax to refer to a topic in another web %TOPIC%

Examples

EXPAND can be useful when you want to pick up the value of macros defined in another topic. For example, you might want to define a set of preferences in one topic, but pick up their value in another topic (this is very useful when building reusable applications). In this case you can write:
   * Set MYPREFERENCE = value
in "SettingsTopic" and then, in "MyTopic", write:
%EXPAND{"$percentMYPREFERENCE$percent" scope="SettingsTopic"}%
Of course we can also write:
%EXPAND{"$percentMYPREFERENCE$percent" scope="%OTHERTOPIC%"}%
which lets us select which other topic to get the preference value from.

Additional parameters can be passed to the macro being expanded using the standard macro syntax in the name of the macro; for example,

%EXPAND{"$percentMYPREFERENCE{$quotdefault$quot param=$quotvalue$quot}" scope="SettingsTopic"}%

ALERT! EXPAND is not very efficient, and should be used sparingly.

HELP To expand a web preference (for example, a web access control) then set scope="Theotherweb.%WEBPREFSTOPIC%"

FAILEDPLUGINS -- debugging for plugins that failed to load

Also generates a list of handlers defined by plugins

Examples

  • %FAILEDPLUGINS%

FORMAT -- format a list of objects

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"one, two, three" The list to be expanded into the format. Required. Currently only two types of list data are supported; topic names (type="topic") and plain strings (type="string").  
format Format string; see Supported formatting tokens for possible values.  
header Text to come before the formatted output  
footer Text to come after the formatted output  
separator Separator between formatted elements $n
type Treat input list as either topic or string topic

Examples

   %FORMAT{"one,two,three" type="string" format="   * $item"}%
   %FORMAT{"%SKIN%"
      header="the Skin setting is evaluated in this order:"
      format="   1 =$topic="
      footer="   1 =default="
   }%

Supported formatting tokens

If type="topic" (the default) the format string can contain any of the topic-specific format tokens specified in FormattedSearch ($web, $topic, $parent, $text, $locked, $date, $isodate, $index, $item, $rev, $username, $wikiname, $wikiusername, $createdate, $createusername, $createwikiname, $createwikiusername, $summary, $changes, $formname, $formfield, $pattern, $count, $ntopics, $nhits, $pager). In addition, the macro supports all the standard FormatTokens.

If type="string" then the comma separated list is treated as a list of strings. In this case, the format tokens $index and $item will return the position of the item in the list (1-based), and the item itself, respectively. Note that a comma can be embedded in the data using the standard formatting token $comma.

The FORMAT macro is currently only of use in formatting lists of topics, or of simple strings. It will be extended in future releases to add the capability to render other object types.

IDEA! For more sophisticated handling of string lists, consider installing Foswiki:Extensions.FilterPlugin

FORMFIELD -- renders a field in the form attached to some topic

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" The name of a Data form field  
topic="..." Topic where form data is located. May be of the form Web.TopicName Current topic
format Format string. See Tokens expanded in format below. $value
default Text shown if the field is defined in the topic, but the field value is empty. For example, a text field for which all the content has been deleted.  
alttext Text shown if the field is not defined in the topic (even if it is specified in the form definition). For example, this is used when a field exists in the form definition, but the referring topic hasn't been edited since it was added.  
rev="n" Specify a revision of the topic. If not specified, defaults to the most recent rev (or the viewed rev if viewing an old rev of the same topic)  
Tokens expanded in format:
  • $value expands to the raw field value
  • $value(display) is the form field value after mapping the stored value to the display value (use with +values form fields). If the field type does not support value mapping, renders the same as $value
  • $name is the field name
  • $title expands to the field title
  • $formname gives the name of the form the field is in. $form is maintained for compatibility, but is deprecated
  • $attributes - from the field definition
  • $type - from the field definition
  • $size - from the field definition
  • $definingTopic - topic in which the field is defined
  • The standard format tokens are also expanded

Examples

 %FORMFIELD{"ProjectName"
   topic="Projects.SushiProject"
   default="(no project name given)"
   alttext="ProjectName field not found in form"
 }%

GMTIME -- formatted Greenwich Mean Time (UTC)

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"format" format $day $month $year - $hour:$min
%GMTIME% uses the default date format defined by the {DefaultDateFormat} setting in configure
Supported special format tokens:
Token: Unit: Example
$seconds seconds 59
$minutes minutes 59
$hours hours 23
$day day of month 31
$wday day of the Week (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat) Thu
$dow day of the week (Sun = 0) 2
$week number of week in year (ISO 8601) 34
$month short name of month Dec
$mo 2 digit month 12
$year 4 digit year 1999
$ye 2 digit year 99
$tz either "GMT" (if set to gmtime), or "Local" (if set to servertime) GMT
$iso ISO format timestamp 2024-12-16T16:19:17Z
$rcs RCS format timestamp 2024/12/16 16:19:17
$http E-mail & http format timestamp Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:19:17 GMT
$epoch Number of seconds since 00:00 on 1st January, 1970 1734365957
Tokens can be shortened to 3 characters

Examples

  • %GMTIME% expands to 16 Dec 2024 - 16:19
  • %GMTIME{"$day $month, $year - $hour:$min:$sec"}% expands to 16 Dec, 2024 - 16:19:17
    ALERT! When used in a template topic, this macro will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TemplateTopics for details.

GROUPINFO -- retrieve details about a group

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"groupname" Optional name of group  
format Format of a single user or group in the list.
  • $name expands to the group name, and (for users list only)
  • $wikiname, $username and $wikiusername to the relevant strings.
  • $allowschange returns 0 (false) or 1 (true) if the group can be modified by the group member being processed.
  • The standard FormatTokens are also supported.
 
separator separator between items in the list ,
header Header for the list  
footer Footer for the list  
zeroresults If set, and there are no Groups or Members that can be shown, the header and footer are suppressed, and this text is output undefined
show filter the output list of Groups - can be set to all, allowschange, denychange, allowschange(UserWikiName), denychange(UserWikiName) all
expand Set false if users should not be expanded from nested groups. Default behavior is to expand all nested groups into a flat list of users. 1
limit If set, limits the number of results to this
limited If limit is set, and the list is truncated, this text will be added at the end of the list  

ALERT! Note: GROUPINFO will not list members that are hidden from the current authenticated user. If the current user does not have VIEW authority for a user's topic, then the user will not be shown as a group member.

Examples

HISTORY -- control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns

The %HISTORY{}% macro is handled by the HistoryPlugin

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"format"
format="format"
Format of one line, may include any variable which is supported by macro REVINFO r$rev - $date - $wikiusername
topic Topic name, can be in web.topic format current topic
web Web name current web
versions Number or range (format: from..to). Examples:
To get version 2, write: versions="2"
To get version 2 to 3, write: versions="2..3"
To get version 2 to the latest, write: versions="2.."
To get all versions up to version 5, write: versions="..5"
To get all versions up to but not including the latest, write: versions="..-1"
To get the versions from 1 to 5 in reverse order, write: versions="5..1"
all versions in the order latest to first
header Text to print before the list.
May contain the tokens $next and $previous which will be evaluated if there are newer or older revisions available for the topic that are not listed according to versions (or rev1, rev2, nrev).
These tokens take the syntax $next{'some text' url='url'} (the same for $previous). 'some text' is the text which should be printed, 'url' is the url for the corresponding link.
The tokens $rev1, $rev2, $nrev in 'text' or 'url' will be replaced by appropriate values for the next or previous block of revisions. See the attached oopshistory.tmpl for an example of how to use this.
$next
footer="text" Text to print after the list. May contain the tokens $next and $previous (see header) $previous

Deprecated (but supported) parameters:
Parameter Description Default
nrev Number of revisions to show. Ignored if versions is specified, or if both rev1 and rev2 are specified. 10
rev2 Newest revision to show rev1+nrev if rev1 is specified, latest revision otherwise
rev1 Oldest revision to show rev2-nrev
reverse Show newest revisions first, if on "on"

Additional macros
The following macros are expanded only if there is a corresponding %HISTORY% on the page. If more than one %HISTORY% is used on the same page, the values from the last one will be used.

  • %HISTORY_REV1%: Oldest revision from the printed history
  • %HISTORY_REV2%: Latest revision from the printed history
  • %HISTORY_NREV%: Number of the printed revisions
  • %HISTORY_MAXREV%: Latest available revision of the topic

HOMETOPIC -- home topic in each web

Examples

  • %HOMETOPIC% expands to WebHome, renders as System

HTTP -- get HTTP headers

  • Called with the name of an HTTP request header field, returns its value. Capitalization and the use of hyphens versus underscores are not significant.
  • Request headers are sent by the browser to the server. It is not possible to access the Response headers returned to the browser.
  • Only returns headers permitted by site configuration. Returns '' if the header is not allowed.
  • When called without a parameter, nothing is returned. See VarHTTPS for other options.
ALERT! The HTTP and HTTPS macros are deprecated as of Foswiki release 2.1. and will be removed in a future release.

Parameters

Name Description
"name" Name of the header to get

Examples

Write Returns Notes
%HTTP%   Always returns ''
%HTTP{"Accept-language"}%    
%HTTP{"User-Agent"}% Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)  
%HTTP{"Cookie"}%   Not allowed by default.
ALERT! You can see the HTTP headers your browser sends to the server on a number of sites e.g. http://www.ericgiguere.com/tools/http-header-viewer.html

HTTP_HOST -- environment variable

Examples

  • %HTTP_HOST% expands to astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk

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.
  • Called with the name of an HTTP request header field, returns its value. Capitalization and the use of hyphens versus underscores are not significant.
  • Request headers are sent by the browser to the server. It is not possible to access the Response headers returned to the browser.
  • Only returns headers permitted by site configuration.
  • When called without a parameter, nothing is returned. See VarHTTPS for other options.
ALERT! The HTTP and HTTPS macros are deprecated as of Foswiki release 2.1. and will be removed in a future release.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" Name of the header to get optional

Examples

Write Returns Notes
%HTTPS% 1 Returns '1' if HTTPS is active
%HTTPS{"Accept-language"}%    
%HTTPS{"User-Agent"}% Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)  
%HTTPS{"Cookie"}%   Not allowed by default.
ALERT! You can see the HTTP headers your browser sends to the server on a number of sites e.g. http://www.ericgiguere.com/tools/http-header-viewer.html

ICON -- small documentation graphic or icon of common attachment types

Generates a small graphic image from the set attached to DocumentGraphics. 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. If you specify an icon which cannot be found, the one specified in the default parameter will be used (and if that fails, the else icon will be used)

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"filename or icon name" requested icon else
default default icon to use if requested icon is not found  
alt alt text to be added to the HTML img tag  
quote allows you to control the quote used in the generated HTML "

Examples

  • %ICON{"flag-gray"}% displays as flag-gray
  • %ICON{"pdf"}% displays as pdf
  • %ICON{"docx" default="doc"}% displays as docx
  • %ICON{"smile.pdf"}% displays as smile.pdf
  • %ICON{"/dont/you/dare/smile.pdf"}% returns /dont/you/dare/smile.pdf
  • %ICON{"data.unknown" alt="Unknown file type"}% displays as Unknown file type
  • %ICON{"data.unknown"}% displays as data.unknown
  • %ICON{"http://trunk.foswiki.org/pub/System/DocumentGraphics/xsl.gif"}% displays http://trunk.foswiki.org/pub/System/DocumentGraphics/xsl.gif

  • Graphics: arrowbright arrowbright, bubble bubble, choice-yes choice-yes, hand hand
  • File types: bmp bmp, doc doc, gif gif, hlp hlp, html html, mp3 mp3, pdf pdf, ppt ppt, txt txt, xls xls, xml xml, zip zip

If you find that ICON is producing broken HTML when it is used in another macro e.g. for formatting search results, then this may be because it is using the wrong kind of quotes for the context. In this case you can control the quotes it uses using the quote parameter. For example
  • %ICON{"pdf" quote="'"}%
You can also use formatting tokens such as $quot and $dollar in quote.

ICONURL -- URL of small documentation graphic or icon

Generates the full URL of a DocumentGraphics image, which Foswiki 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.)

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" Name of the icon, or pathname to extract an extension from else
default Optional default icon if the primary icon can't be found else

Examples

  • %ICONURL% returns https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/DocumentGraphics/else.png
  • %ICONURL{"arrowbright"}% returns https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/DocumentGraphics/arrowbright.png
  • %ICONURL{"novel.pdf"}% returns https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/DocumentGraphics/pdf.png
  • %ICONURL{"notanicon" default="ram"}% returns https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/DocumentGraphics/ram.png
  • %ICONURL{"/queen/boheme.mp3"}% returns https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/DocumentGraphics/mp3.png

ICONURLPATH -- URL path of small documentation graphic or icon

Generates the relative URL path of a DocumentGraphics image, typically used in an HTML img tag. Specify image name or full filename (see ICON for details on filenames.)

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" Name of the icon, or pathname to extract an extension from else
default Optional default icon if the primary icon can't be found else

Examples

  • %ICONURLPATH{"locktopic"}% returns /pub/System/DocumentGraphics/locktopic.png
  • %ICONURLPATH{"eggysmell.xml"}% returns /pub/System/DocumentGraphics/xml.png
  • %ICONURLPATH{"notanicon" default="ram"}% returns /pub/System/DocumentGraphics/ram.png
  • %ICONURLPATH{"/doc/xhtml.xsl"}% returns /pub/System/DocumentGraphics/xsl.png

IF -- simple conditionals

Evaluate a condition and show one text or another based on the result. See details in IfStatements.
Parameter Description Default
"condition" Condition to test  
then String to expand if the condition evaluates to true  
else String to expand if the condition evaluates to false  

Examples

  • %IF{"CONDITION" then="THEN" else="ELSE"}% shows
    "THEN" if "CONDITION" evaluates to TRUE, otherwise "ELSE" will be shown
 %IF{"defined FUNFACTOR"
   then="FUNFACTOR is defined"
   else="FUNFACTOR is not defined"
 }%
renders as
FUNFACTOR is not defined

INCLUDE -- include another topic, or subsection of a topic, or a URL, or Foswiki embedded documentation

(Including a topic) 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{"System.SiteMap"}%  
"Web.Topic, SomeOtherTopic, System.OrOtherTopic" A list of topics - INCLUDE will include the first topic that exists and the user has permission to VIEW. If a section is also specified, it will use the first topic that has that section defined in it.  
pattern Include a subset of a topic or a web page. Specify a RegularExpression that contains the text you want to keep in parenthesis, e.g. pattern="(from here.*?to here)". IncludeTopicsAndWebPages has more. none
rev Include a previous topic revision; N/A for URLs top revision
warn 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
headingoffset Adds the given offset to any HTML headings generated in the included text. Works on headings defined by HTML tags as well as headings defined using foswiki markup. 0
section Includes only the specified named section, as defined in the included topic by the [VarSTARTSECTION][STARTSECTION{"name" type="section"} ]] and [VarENDSECTION][ENDSECTION{"name" type="section"}]] macros. Nothing is shown if the named section does not exists. section="" is equivalent to not specifying a section  
  Any other parameter will be defined as a macro 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.  

(Including a web page) Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"http://..." A full qualified URL, i.e. %INCLUDE{"https://foswiki.org:80/index.html"}%. Supported content types are text/html and text/plain.
IDEA! If the URL resolves to an attachment file on the server this will automatically translate to a server-side include.
 
pattern Include a subset of a topic or a web page. Specify a RegularExpression that contains the text you want to keep in parenthesis, e.g. pattern="(from here.*?to here)". IncludeTopicsAndWebPages has more. none
raw When a page is included, normally Foswiki will process it, doing the following: 1) Alter relative links to point back to originating host, 2) Remove some basic HTML tags (html, head, body, script) and finally 3) Remove newlines from HTML tags spanning multiple lines. If you prefer to include exactly what is in the source of the originating page set this to on.
raw="on" is short for disableremoveheaders="on", disableremovescript="on", disableremovebody="on", disablecompresstags="on" and disablerewriteurls="on".
disabled
literal While using the raw option will indeed include the raw content, the included content will still be processed and rendered like regular topic content. To disable parsing of the included content, set the literal option to "on". off
disableremoveheaders Bypass stripping headers from included HTML (everything until first </head> tag) off
disableremovescript Bypass stripping all <script> tags from included HTML off
disableremovebody Bypass stripping the </body> tag and everything around over and below it off
disablecompresstags Bypass replacing newlines in HTML tags with spaces. This compression step rewrites unmatched <'s into &lt; entities unless bypassed off
disablerewriteurls Bypass rewriting relative URLs into absolute ones off
warn Warn if URL include fails: Fail silently (if off); output default warning (if set to on); else, output specific text (use $topic for topic name) appended with the http error information. %INCLUDEWARNING% preferences setting

HELP JavaScript in included webpages is filtered out as a security precaution per default (disable filter with disableremovescript parameter)

ALERT! Foswiki by default is configured to deny URL format includes.

(Including Foswiki embedded module documentation) Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"doc:..." A full qualified Foswiki module, i.e. %INCLUDE{"doc:Foswiki::Func"}%. The module must be found on the Foswiki lib path  
publicOnly Boolean to extract only public methods on
level Override the root heading level to the specified number  
pattern Include a subset of the module. Specify a RegularExpression that contains the text you want to keep in parenthesis, e.g. pattern="(from here.*?to here)". IncludeTopicsAndWebPages has more. none

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. If a topic is used in a chain of INCLUDEs, INCLUDINGTOPIC is set to the topic directly INCLUDing this one, NOT the topic that has been requested by the user (which is given by BASETOPIC)
ALERT! Be careful of the subtle difference between INCLUDINGTOPIC and BASETOPIC. You probably should be using BASETOPIC

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. If a topic is used in a chain of INCLUDEs, INCLUDINGWEB is set to the topic directly INCLUDing this one, NOT the web that has been requested by the user (which is given by BASEWEB)
ALERT! Be careful of the subtle difference between INCLUDINGWEB and BASEWEB. You probably should be using BASEWEB

JQICON -- render an image

Renders an icon made availabe by the IconService.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" name of the icon to display  
class additional css class for the img tag  
animate can be one of bounce, burst, flash, float, horizontal, passing, pulse, ring, shake, spin, tada, vertical, wrench
alt alt attribute  
title title attribute  
style css style format to be added to the image element  
format format string used to render the icon; known variables to be used in the format string are:
  • $iconName: name as given to the name parameter
  • $iconPath: url path
  • $iconClass: css class as specified by the class parameter
  • $iconStyle: css styles as specified by the style parameter
  • $iconAlt: alt attribute-value; if the alt parameter to JQICON is set, this expands to alt='...'
  • $iconTitle: title attribute-value; if the title parameter to JQICON is set, this expands to title='...'
for image icons: <img src='$iconPath' class='$iconClass $iconName' $iconStyle $iconAlt$iconTitle/>; for font icons: <i class='$iconClass' $iconStyle $iconTitle></i>

Example for famfamfam icons:

%JQICON{"tick" alt="alternative content" title="this is a tick icon"}%
%JQICON{"cross"}%
%JQICON{"disk"}%
%JQICON{"star"}%
%JQICON{"lightbulb"}%
%JQICON{"camera"}%
%JQICON{"date"}%
%JQICON{"heart" animate="bounce"}%

Produces:

alternative content cross disk star lightbulb camera date heart

Example for font-awesome icons:

%JQICON{"fa-pagelines" style="font-size:1em;color:#00BF00"}%
%JQICON{"fa-pagelines" style="font-size:2em;color:#0FAF0F"}%
%JQICON{"fa-pagelines" style="font-size:3em;color:#1F9C1F"}%
%JQICON{"fa-pagelines" style="font-size:4em;color:#2D812D"}%
%JQICON{"fa-pagelines" style="font-size:5em;color:#315C31"}%

Produces:

JQICONPATH -- render the url path to an image icon

This is a shortcut for:

%JQICON{"name" format="$iconPath"}%

Note that this macro only makes sense for image icons, those that refer to a single image file. It does not work for font icons such as those defined in JQueryFontAwesome. This web font holds all icons in one large font file and as such cannot be refered to individually by means of their url path the same way as images can.

Examples

%JQICONPATH{"tick"}% expands to /pub/System/FamFamFamSilkIcons/tick.png

JQPLUGINS -- display a summary of available plugins

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"plugins" this is a regular expression that the plugin identifier must match to be displayed  
format format string to render information for each matching plugin; known variables to be used in the format string are:
  • $active state of the plugin: displays (active) when this plugin is loaded on the current page
  • $author author of the plugin
  • $documentation plugin documentation topic defaults to %SYSTEMWEB%.JQuery$name
  • $homepage link to the hompeage of this third party plugin
  • $index the current index in the list of all plugins being displayed
  • $name name of the plugin as can be used in JQREQUIRE
  • $summary short description what this plugin does; most plugins provide this piece of information in the summary section of the documentation topic
  • $tags list of TML macros this plugin implements
  • $version version of the plugin as provided by the author of this plugin
   1 <a href="$homepage">$name</a> $active $version $author
header header string prepended to the output; empty when no plugin matches  
footer footer string appended to the output; empty when no plugin matches  
separator separator put between each plugin rendered in a row $n
tagformat format string to render a link to any tag documentation a plugin implements [[%SYSTEMWEB%.Var$tag][$tag]]

Examples

 %JQPLUGINS{
   "treeview|slimbox"
   header="   * JQuery Plugins:$n"
   format="      * [[$documentation][$name]] v$version was developed by [[$homepage][$author]]"
 }%
Produces:

JQREQUIRE -- enable a plugin on the current page

This macro will load a list of plugins to be added to the current page. Use JQPLUGINS to display the list of available and active plugins. While loading a plugin, additional plugins it may depend on are loaded as well. Information about these dependencies is stored within the plugins themselves and can't be changed. Dependencies also make sure the javascript code is added to the html page in the right order. It uses ADDTOZONE to aggregate javascript and css at the right place on the html page.
HELP in case of an error JQREQUIRE will produce an inline HTML error message.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"plugin,plugin,plugin" comma-separated list of plugins to be loaded  
warn (on/off) allows you to switch off warnings when a plugin was not found on

Examples

  • %JQREQUIRE{"easing,sliding,falling"}%

JQTHEME -- switch jQuery UI theme

Foswiki's default UI theme is configured in $Foswiki::cfg{JQueryPlugin}{JQueryTheme} and defaults to foswiki. Use configure to change this site wide. Use JQTHEME if you decide to use a different theme on the current page.

Some Foswiki skins may come with their own jQuery UI matching the overall user experience of the web design.
HELP in case of an error JQTHEME will produce an inline HTML error message.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" name of theme: JQueryPlugin knows the following themes base, lightness, redmod, smoothness; additional themes maybe created using the themeroller and installed to /pub/System/JQueryPlugin/$name foswiki
warn (on/off) allows you to switch off warnings when a theme was not found on

LANG -- the language specified by the server locale

This macro is used to generate the lang (and xml:lang) attribute in generated HTML pages. If {UseLocale} is enabled, it is calculated from the configure Internationalization tab -> Locale sub-tab setting of {Site}{Locale}. Otherwise it defaults to en (English).
  • In templates the lang attribute is defined like this:
    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="%LANG%" lang="%LANG%">
  • Do not confuse LANG with LANGUAGE

Examples

  • %LANG% expands to en

LANGUAGE -- language code for the current user

Returns the language code for the current user. This is the language used by Foswiki to generate the user interface. The language is detected from the user's browser, unless some site/web/user/session-defined preference setting overrides it.

If a LANGUAGE preference is explicitly set, this will be used as the user language instead of any language detected from the browser.
ALERT! Avoid defining LANGUAGE in a non- per-user way, otherwise users will not be able to choose their preferred language.

Examples

  • %LANGUAGE% expands to en

LANGUAGES -- list available languages

List the languages available (as PO files). These are the languages in which the user interface is available.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
format format for each item. See below for format tokens available in the format string. "   * $langname"
separator separator between items. "\n" (newline) Note: The standard FormatTokens can also be used here.
marker Text for $marker if the item matches selection "selected"
selection Current language to be selected in list (none)
format tokens: (In addition to these tokens, the standard FormatTokens can also be used)
Token Meaning
$langname language's name, as informed by the translators
$langtag language's tag. Ex: en, pt-br, etc.
$marker Marker will be substituted only when the item matches the selection.

Examples

  • %LANGUAGES% expands to
    * English
  • <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. These local site preferences overload the system level preferences defined in DefaultPreferences.

Examples

  • %LOCALSITEPREFS% expands to Main.SitePreferences, renders as SitePreferences

Examples

TIP You are already logged out, so %LOGOUT expands to an empty string

Examples

  • %LOGOUT% expands to

MAKETEXT -- creates text using Foswiki's I18N infrastructure

Strings captured in the MAKETEXT macro are automatically mapped to the current user's selected language via locale/*.po translation files.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"text"
string="text"
The text to be displayed (the translatable string).  
args a comma-separated list of arguments to be interpolated in the string, replacing [_N] placeholders in it.  

Examples

  • %MAKETEXT{string="Edit"}% expands to Edit
  • %MAKETEXT{"If you have any questions, please contact [_1]." args="%WIKIWEBMASTER%"}% expands to If you have any questions, please contact webmaster@physics.ox.ac.uk.
  • %MAKETEXT{"Did you want to [[[_1]][reset [_2]'s password]]?" args="%SYSTEMWEB%.ResetPassword,%WIKIUSERNAME%"}% expands to Did you want to reset Main.WikiGuest's password?
Notes
  • [_n] brackets are validated to a positive integer from 1 to 100.
  • Missing arguments are replaced with an empty string ''.
  • An ampersand (&) followed by one ascii alphabetic character (a...z, A...Z) in the translatable string will be expanded to an access key string. For example, &X will expand to <span class='foswikiAccessKey'>X</span>. If you want to write an actual ampersand, either follow it with a non-alphabetic character or write two consecutive ampersands (&&).
  • Translatable strings starting with underscores (_) are reserved. You cannot use translatable phrases starting with an underscore.
  • Make sure that the translatable string is constant. Do not include %MACROS% inside the translatable strings as they will be expanded before the %MAKETEXT{...}% itself is handled. You can, however, use macros in the args, as shown in the examples above.
  • The string will be output in English if no mapping can be found in the .po translation file for the current user's selected language.

Plurals

The %MAKETEXT macro also supports a limited subset of the quant style bracket notation:
  • %MAKETEXT{string="Edit [*,_1,file]" args="4"}% expands to Edit 4 files
Notes on plurals
  • Only 3 arguments are supported.
  • The first parameter must be an asterisk. Literals quant, numf or # are not supported.
  • The 2nd parameter must be the argument number
  • The 3rd parameter is the word or phrase to be made plural.

META -- displays meta-data

Provided mainly for use in templates, this macro generates the parts of the topic view that relate to meta-data (attachments, forms etc.).

Parameters

The unnamed parameter controls what meta-data is displayed, other parameters control how it is displayed.

"form"
Generates the table showing the form fields.
"attachments"
Generates a table of attachments
Parameter Description Default
all to show hidden attachments off
title to show a title - only if attachments are displayed  
template to use a custom template for the rendering of attachments attachtables
"moved"
If a topic was moved or renamed, generates a message with details and a revert link
Parameter Description Default
prefix Prefix that goes before the moved message, but only if the message is generated  
suffix Prefix that goes after the moved message, but only if the message is generated  

"parent"

Display details of ancestor topics
Parameter Description Default
dontrecurse Recursing up the tree incurs some cost. Equivalent to depth=1 off
depth Return only the specified ancestor  
nowebhome Suppress WebHome  
format Format string used to display each parent topic where $web expands to the web name, and $topic expands to the topic name [[$web.$topic][$topic]]
separator Separator between parents >
prefix Prefix that goes before parents, but only if there are parents  
suffix Suffix, only appears if there are parents  

"formfield"

Display the value of a single form field
Parameter Description Default
name name of the field  
newline how to represent newlines in the value $n
bar How to represent vertical bars in the data. Vertical bars are rewritten to an HTML entity by default so as to not be mistaken for a table separator. This option allows you to change what is produced. &vbar;
display If on retrieves the displayed value of a *+values formfield type, as against the default, stored, value off
topic Select which topic to get the meta-data from  
QUERY

NONCE -- generate a nonce (developers only)

DEVELOPERS ONLY

This macro is used to generate a 'nonce', a unique key that identifies the source of a request in order to block some kinds of cyber attack. See https://foswiki.org/Support/HowToIntegrateWithRequestValidation for more information.

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

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

NOTIFYTOPIC -- name of the notify topic

Examples

  • %NOTIFYTOPIC% expands to WebNotify, renders as WebNotify

PERLDEPENDENCYREPORT -- report perl module dependencies

Intended for use by installers / administrators, reports on the status of Perl dependencies in the Foswiki core and extensions.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"extensions" requests dependencies of installed extensions. (not set)

PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS -- list of plugin descriptions

Examples

  • %PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS% expands to
    • TWikiCompatibilityPlugin (1.12, 1.12): Add TWiki personality to Foswiki
    • SpreadSheetPlugin (17 May 2023, 1.25): Add spreadsheet calculations like "$SUM($ABOVE())" to Foswiki tables and other topic text
    • SlideShowPlugin (09 Mar 2021, 2.40): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings
    • ActionTrackerPlugin (2018-09-05, 2.4.12): Adds support for action tags in topics, and automatic notification of action statuses
    • AutoViewTemplatePlugin (2016-04-08, 1.24): Automatically sets VIEW_TEMPLATE and EDIT_TEMPLATE
    • BreadCrumbsPlugin (27 Apr 2022, 4.00): A flexible way to display breadcrumbs navigation
    • CalendarPlugin (18 Jul 2017, 2.020): Show a monthly calendar with highlighted events
    • CommentPlugin (06 Aug 2023, 2.95): Quickly post comments to a page without an edit/save cycle
    • CompareRevisionsAddonPlugin (1.114, 1.114):
    • ConfigurePlugin (06 Aug 2023, 1.12): configure interface using json-rpc
    • EditTablePlugin (06 Aug 2023, 4.47): Edit tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
    • FilterPlugin (29 Apr 2022, 6.10): Substitute and extract information from content by using regular expressions
    • FlexFormPlugin (29 Apr 2022, 8.10): Flexible way to render DataForms
    • FlexWebListPlugin (29 Apr 2022, 4.10): Flexible way to display hierarchical weblists
    • GluePlugin (2.20, 2.20): Enable markup to span multiple lines
    • HistoryPlugin (16 Nov 2020, 1.20): Shows a complete history of a topic
    • HomePagePlugin (1.23, 1.23): Allow User specified home pages - on login
    • IfDefinedPlugin (2.01, 2.01): Render content conditionally
    • InterwikiPlugin (06 Aug 2023, 1.27): Link ExternalSite:Page text to external sites based on aliases defined in a rules topic
    • JQueryPlugin (25 Apr 2023, 10.51): jQuery JavaScript library for Foswiki
    • LatexModePlugin (4.2, $Rev: 17761 (2014-06-10) $): Enables LaTeX markup (mathematics and more) in Foswiki topics
    • MailerContribPlugin (2.84, 2.84): Supports e-mail notification of changes
    • MimeIconPlugin (04 May 2022, 4.10): Icon sets for mimetypes
    • NatEditPlugin (11 Jul 2023, 9.63): A Wikiwyg Editor
    • PreferencesPlugin (1.16, 1.16): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
    • RenderListPlugin (06 Aug 2023, 2.29): Render bullet lists in a variety of formats
    • RenderPlugin (29 Apr 2022, 7.00): Render WikiApplications asynchronously
    • SmiliesPlugin (17 Sep 2015, 2.03): Render smilies like smile as icons
    • SubscribePlugin (06 Aug 2023, 3.7): This is a companion plugin to the MailerContrib. It allows you to trivially add a "Subscribe me" link to topics to get subscribed to changes.
    • TablePlugin (22 Jan 2018, 1.160): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
    • TinyMCEPlugin (11 Feb 2019, 1.32): Integration of the Tiny MCE WYSIWYG Editor
    • TopicInteractionPlugin (01 Jul 2022, 9.23): Improved interaction with attachments and DataForms
    • TopicTitlePlugin (05 Mar 2022, 2.10): Free-form title for topics
    • TreePlugin (1.93, 1.93): Renders topics' parent-child relationships as hierarchical tree view. Useful for dynamic site maps and threads.
    • TwistyPlugin (29 Jun 2023, 3.00): Twisty section Javascript library to open/close content dynamically
    • UpdatesPlugin (12 Nov 2019, 2.00): Checks Foswiki.org for updates
    • WysiwygPlugin (13 Jun 2018, 1.38): Translator framework for WYSIWYG editors

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

Use %PLUGINVERSION{"name"}% to get the version of a specific plugin

Examples

  • %PLUGINVERSION{"InterwikiPlugin"}% expands to 1.27
  • %PLUGINVERSION% to get the version of the API, expands to 2.4

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"topic"
topic="topic"
topic="web.topic"
Topic to open  
url URL to open (if topic is not used)  
label Link label the topic or the url
template View template to call when viewing a topic; not used for URLs "viewplain"
width Width of window "600"
height Height of window "480"
toolbar Show toolbars? "0"
scrollbars Show scrollbars? "1"
status Show status? "1"
location Show location bar? "0"
resizable Is the window resizable? "1"
left Left position "0"
top Top position "0"
center Center the window? "0"
menubar Show menubar? "0"
createnew Create a new window for each popup? "1"

Examples

  • Example with topic link:
    %POPUPWINDOW{"CompleteDocumentation" label="Open this topic in a new window"}%
    Generates: Open this topic in a new window
  • Example with URL:
    %POPUPWINDOW{url="https://foswiki.org"}%
    Generates: https://foswiki.org
  • Enable POPUPWINDOW by writing %JQREQUIRE{"popupwindow"}% on the page

PUBURL -- generate an URL for an attachment

Generate an absolute URL for an attachment, or for a web or topic within the attachment database.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"attachment" Name of attachment to link  
web Web  
topic Topic, or Web.Topic  
topic_version Select topic version, if supported most recent
attachment_version Select attachment version, if supported most recent

Examples

  • %PUBURL% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub
  • %PUBURL{"icon_plus.png"}% expands to =%PUBURL{"icon_plus.png"}%
  • %PUBURL{web="System"}% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System
  • %PUBURL{topic="System.MainFeatures"}% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/MainFeatures
  • %PUBURL{web="System" topic="MainFeatures"}% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/MainFeatures
  • %PUBURL{topic="System.MainFeatures"}% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/MainFeatures
  • %PUBURL{topic="System.MainFeatures" "icon_plus.png"}% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/System/MainFeatures/icon_plus.png
  • Also supports topic_version and attachment_version parameters. These can be used with advanced store implementations to select specific attachment versions. However simple file-based stores do not normally support them.
    HELP The 'old' way of building URLs using PUBURL involved concatenating the web and topic names to the PUBURL e.g. %PUBURL%/Main/SystemFeatures. This practice is strongly discouraged, as it does not correctly handle encoding of the parts of the URL. At the first opportunity you should replace all such URLs with the equivalent %PUBURL%{topic="System.MainFeatures"}%, which will handle URL encoding for you.

    IDEA! ATTACHURL provides a shorter way to refer to the attachments on the current topic.

PUBURLPATH -- generate a relative URL for an attachment

Generate a relative URL for an attachment, or for a web or topic within the attachment database.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"attachment" Name of attachment to link  
web Web  
topic Topic, or Web.Topic  
topic_version Select topic version, if supported most recent
attachment_version Select attachment version, if supported most recent

Examples

  • %PUBURLPATH% expands to /pub
  • %PUBURLPATH{"icon_plus.png"}% expands to =%PUBURLPATH{"icon_plus.png"}%
  • %PUBURLPATH{web="System"}% expands to /pub/System
  • %PUBURLPATH{topic="System.MainFeatures"}% expands to /pub/System/MainFeatures
  • %PUBURLPATH{web="System" topic="MainFeatures"}% expands to /pub/System/MainFeatures
  • %PUBURLPATH{topic="System.MainFeatures" "icon_plus.png"}% expands to /pub/System/MainFeatures/icon_plus.png
  • Also supports topic_version and attachment_version parameters. These can be used with advanced store implements to select specific attachment versions. However simple file-based stores do not normally support them.
ALERT! This macro will only generate a relative URL if the store supports them, and the context allows it. Otherwise it will generate the same as PUBURL

HELP The 'old' way of building URLs using PUBURLPATHPATH involved concatenating the web and topic names to the PUBURLPATH e.g. %PUBURLPATH%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%. This practice is strongly discouraged, as it does not correctly handle encoding of the parts of the URL. At the first opportunity you should replace all such URLs with the equivalent %PUBURLPATH%{topic="System.MainFeatures"}%, which will handle URL encoding for you.

IDEA! ATTACHURLPATH provides a shorter way to refer to the attachments on the current topic.

QUERY -- get the value of meta-data

Uses the query syntax described in QuerySearch to get information about meta-data from one specified topic.
  • supports formatted access to formfields and other meta-data in topics using the same syntax as is used in IF and SEARCH statements,
  • gives access to all meta-data, including that added by extensions,
  • supports reporting values using JSON and other standards, simplifying the retrieval of meta-data for REST applications,
  • replaces the FORMFIELD macro for most applications.
See QuerySearch for more details of how to write queries

Parameters

Parameter Description
"item" The meta-data to query
style set the output format (see below)
rev operate on the given version of the current topic. Note that this will only affect simple queries that refer to the current topic, such as form.name. More complex queries that use searches or indirection to refer to other topics always use the latest version of those topics.

Examples

      Get the name of the form in the current topic:
      %QUERY{"form.name"}%

      Get the value of the 'Firstname' form field in
        the current topic:
      %QUERY{"fields[name='Firstname'].value"}%

      Get the value of the 'Firstname' form field in
        the current topic (shorthand version):
      %QUERY{"Firstname"}%

      Get a list of all the names of attachments on
        the topic 'System.DocumentGraphics':
      %QUERY{"'System.DocumentGraphics'/attachments.name"}%

      Get configuration setting {NameFilter}:
      %QUERY{"{NameFilter}"}%
Plain strings (such as field values) are returned without quotes. Simple arrays of scalars are also returned without quotes, in a comma-separated list (beware of values that contain commas!).

More complex data structures (e.g. arrays of hashes) will only be returned if style="perl" or style="json" are set - else will return a string containing 'undef'.

You can make the macro generate different output formats using the style parameter:
  • style="perl" - generates values as Perl code strings generated by running through CPAN:Data::Dumper
  • style="json" - generates values as JSON strings, suitable for reading by browsers.

Only some configuration settings are available via QUERY: {AccessControlACL}{EnableDeprecatedEmptyDeny}, {AccessibleCFG}, {AdminUserLogin}, {AdminUserWikiName}, {AntiSpam}{EmailPadding}, {AntiSpam}{EntityEncode}, {AntiSpam}{HideUserDetails}, {AntiSpam}{RobotsAreWelcome}, {AttachmentNameFilter}, {AuthRealm}, {AuthScripts}, {Cache}{Enabled}, {DefaultDateFormat}, {DefaultUrlHost}, {DenyDotDotInclude}, {DisplayTimeValues}, {EnableEmail}, {EnableHierarchicalWebs}, {FormTypes}, {HomeTopicName}, {LeaseLength}, {LeaseLengthLessForceful}, {LinkProtocolPattern}, {LocalSitePreferences}, {LoginNameFilterIn}, {MaxRevisionsInADiff}, {MinPasswordLength}, {NameFilter}, {NotifyTopicName}, {NumberOfRevisions}, {PluginsOrder}, {Plugins}{WebSearchPath}, {PluralToSingular}, {Register}{AllowLoginName}, {Register}{Approvers}, {Register}{DisablePasswordConfirmation}, {Register}{EnableNewUserRegistration}, {Register}{NeedApproval}, {Register}{NeedVerification}, {Register}{RegistrationAgentWikiName}, {ReplaceIfEditedAgainWithin}, {SandboxWebName}, {ScriptSuffix}, {ScriptUrlPath}, {Site}{Locale}, {SitePrefsTopicName}, {Stats}{TopContrib}, {Stats}{TopicName}, {Stats}{TopViews}, {SuperAdminGroup}, {SystemWebName}, {TemplateLogin}{AllowLoginUsingEmailAddress}, {TemplatePath}, {TrashWebName}, {UploadFilter}, {UseLocale}, {UserInterfaceInternationalisation}, {UsersTopicName}, {UsersWebName}, {Validation}{Method}, {WebMasterEmail}, {WebMasterName}, {WebPrefsTopicName}

QUERYPARAMS -- show parameters to the query

Expands the parameters to the query that was used to display the page.

Parameters

Parameter: Description: Default:
format Format string for each entry $name=$value
separator Separator string $n (newline)
encoding Control how special characters are encoded. If this parameter is not given, safe encoding is performed which HTML entity encodes the characters '"<>%.
entity - Encode special characters into HTML entities, like a double quote into &#034;. Does not encode \n or \r.
safe - Encode characters '"<>% into HTML entities. (this is the default)
html - As type="entity" except it also encodes \n and \r
quotes - Escape double quotes with backslashes (\"), does not change other characters
url - Encode special characters for URL parameter use, like a double quote into %22
safe
The following tokens are expanded in the format string:
Token Expands To
$name Name of the parameter
$value String value of the parameter. Multi-valued parameters will have a "row" for each value.
In addition the standard FormatTokens are also expanded.

Examples

   %QUERYPARAMS{
     format="<input type='hidden' name='$name' value='$value' encoding="entity" />"
   }%
ALERT! Security warning!

Using QUERYPARAMS can easily be misused for cross-site scripting unless specific characters are entity encoded. By default QUERYPARAMS encodes the characters '"<>% into HTML entities (same as encoding="safe") which is relatively safe. The safest is to use encoding="entity". When passing QUERYPARAMS inside another macro always use double quotes ("") combined with using QUERYPARAMS with encoding="quote". For maximum security against cross-site scripting you are advised to install the Foswiki:Extensions.SafeWikiPlugin.

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.
    ALERT! URLs built this way are typically restricted in length, typically to 2048 characters. If you need more space than this, you will need to use an HTML form and =%QUERYPARAMS%=

Examples

  • %QUERYSTRING% expands to section=content

REMOTE_ADDR -- environment variable

Examples

  • %REMOTE_ADDR% expands to 18.119.121.115

REMOTE_PORT -- environment variable

Examples

  • %REMOTE_PORT% expands to

REMOTE_USER -- environment variable

Examples

  • %REMOTE_USER% expands to
    ALERT! Displays the user identity established by the Web Server. Not available when using Template Autentication. The REMOTE_USER variable only expands when the active script is configured to Require valid-user in the Apache configuration. Eg. If your site uses Apache authentication and allows guest access, view this page with bin/view and bin/viewauth to see the effect.

RENDERLIST -- render bullet lists in a variety of formats

The %RENDERLIST% macro is handled by the RenderListPlugin

Examples

%RENDERLIST{"org" focus="Sales.WestCoastTeam"}%
      * [[Eng.WebHome][Engineering]]
         * [[Eng.TechPubs][Tech Pubs]]
      * [[Sales.WestCoastTeam][Sales]]
         * [[Sales.EastCoastTeam][East Coast]]
         * [[Sales.WestCoastTeam][West Coast]]
Expands as:
  Sales
  East Coast
  West Coast

RENDERZONE - render the content of a zone

Rendersa zone. See ADDTOZONE for an explanation of zones.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"zone" name of the zone   (reguired)
format format string for each item added to the zone
$item <!--<literal> $id $missing</literal>-->
missingtoken string assigned to the $missing format token for use in the format parameter.
$id: requires= missing ids: $missingids
chomp remove leading and trailing whitespace from formatted items, can be useful for pretty-printing and compression. off
header prepended to the output  
footer appended to the output  
separator put between each item of a zone  
The following tokens are expanded in the format string:
  • $id - id of the ADDTOZONE call within the zone currently being rendered.
  • $item - text of the ADDTOZONE call within the zone currently being rendered.
  • $zone - the "zone" currently being rendered.
  • $missing - if the ADDTOZONE call being rendered required any id which was not found, then $missing is the missingtoken parameter; empty string otherwise.
  • $missingids - comma separated list of ids that were required by the ADDTOZONE call currently being rendered but weren't found within this zone.
Supports the standard format tokens in all parameters.

HELP header and footer are not output if there is no content in the zone (nothing has been ADDTOZONEd ). However they are output if the output is the empty string (at least one ADDTOZONE has been processed).

HELP Zones are cleared after being rendered; they are only ever rendered once.

HELP head, script and body are default zones. The corresponding RENDERZONE is already included in the base foswiki.tmpl. head and script are automatically inserted before the </head> tag in the output HTML page. body is automatically inserted before the </body> tag in the output HTML page.

HELP Macros will be expanded in all zones. TML markup will not be expanded in the head and scripts zones. Any formatting in head and scripts zones including [[TML links]] must be done directly using HTML. TML pseudo-tags like nop. verbatim, literal. and noautolink are removed from head and script zones and have no influence on the markup. All other zones will be rendered as normal topic text.

HELP Normally, dependencies between individual ADDTOZONE statements are resolved within each zone. However, if {MergeHeadAndScriptZones} is enabled in configure, then head content which requires an id that only exists in script will be re-ordered to satisfy this dependency. ALERT! {MergeHeadAndScriptZones} will be removed from a future version of Foswiki.

REVINFO -- revision information of current topic

%REVINFO% is equivalent to %REVINFO{format="r1.$rev - $date - $wikiusername"}%

Examples

  • %REVINFO% expands to r1 - 17 Jun 2022 - 12:27:48 - ProjectContributor
  • %REVINFO{"$n      * $topic: $date"}% expands to

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"format" Format of revision information, see supported formatting tokens below "r$rev - $date - $time - $wikiusername"
web Name of web Current web
topic Topic name Current topic
rev Specific revision number Latest revision
Supported formatting tokens:
Token Unit
$web Name of web
$topic Topic name
$rev Revision number
$username Login username of revision
$wikiname WikiName of revision
$wikiusername WikiName with Main web prefix
$date Revision date. Actual date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure
$time Revision time
$iso Revision date in ISO date format
$min, $sec, etc. Same date format qualifiers as GMTIME{"format"}

Examples

  • %REVINFO{"$date - $wikiusername" rev="43"}%
  • To get the latest revision, even when looking at an older revision:
    %REVINFO{"$rev" rev="-1"}%

REVTITLE -- The requested revision as displayed in topic breadcrumbs

If a topic revision is requested in the URL, it returns the printable revision of the current topic revision. Otherwise returns an empty string.

Examples

  • %REVTITLE% expands to (simulated) (r3) (actual)

SCRIPTNAME -- name of current script

  • The name of the current script is shown, including script suffix, if any (for example viewauth.cgi)

Examples

  • %SCRIPTNAME% expands to view

SCRIPTSUFFIX -- script suffix

  • Some Foswiki installations require a file extension for CGI scripts, such as .pl or .cgi

Examples

  • %SCRIPTSUFFIX% expands to

SCRIPTURL -- URL of script(s)

Expands to the URL of a script, or the base URL of all scripts

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"$script" Name of script  
web Web name to add to URL  
topic Topic (or Web.Topic) to add to URL  
Any other parameters to the macro will be added as parameters to the URL

Examples

  • %SCRIPTURL{"view" topic="Cartoons.EvilMonkey"}% will expand to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/Cartoons/EvilMonkey
  • %SCRIPTURL{"view" web="Cartoons"}% will expand to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/Cartoons?web=Cartoons
  • %SCRIPTURL{"view" topic="Cartoons.EvilMonkey" rev="1"}% will expand to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/Cartoons/EvilMonkey?rev=1
  • %SCRIPTURL{"edit" web="Cartoons" topic="EvilMonkey" t="%GMTIME{"$epoch"}%"}% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/bin/edit/Cartoons/EvilMonkey?t=1734365957
  • %SCRIPTURL% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/bin
  • %SCRIPTURL{script}% expands to https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/bin/script
HELP In most cases you should use SCRIPTURLPATH instead, as it works much better with URL rewriting

HELP The edit script should always be used in conjunction a t="%GMTIME{"$epoch"}%" parameter to ensure pages about to be edited are not cached in the browser

ALERT! The 'old' way of building URLs using SCRIPTURL involved concatenating the web and topic names to the SCRIPTURL e.g. %SCRIPTURL{"script"}%/Cartoons/EvilMonkey. This practice is strongly discouraged, as it does not correctly handle encoding of the parts of the URL. At the first opportunity you should replace all such URLs with the equivalent %SCRIPTURL%{"script" topic="Cartoons.EvilMonkey"}%, which will handle URL encoding for you.

ALERT! The SCRIPTURL macro does NOT support building jsonrpc or rest requests with parameters. They should still use the "contatenation" method. This is expected to be fixed in Foswiki 2.2.

SCRIPTURLPATH -- URL path of script(s)

Expands to the base URL of scripts, without protocol or host

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"$script" Name of script  
web Web name to add to URL  
topic Topic (or Web.Topic) to add to URL  
Any other parameters to the macro will be added as parameters to the URL

Examples

  • %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view" topic="Cartoons.EvilMonkey"}% expands to /Cartoons/EvilMonkey
  • %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view" web="Cartoons"}% expands to /Cartoons?web=Cartoons
  • %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view" topic="Cartoons.EvilMonkey" rev="1"}% will expand to /Cartoons/EvilMonkey?rev=1
  • %SCRIPTURLPATH{"edit" web="Cartoons" topic="EvilMonkey" t="%GMTIME{"$epoch"}%"}% expands to /bin/edit/Cartoons/EvilMonkey?t=1734365957
  • %SCRIPTURLPATH% expands to /bin
  • %SCRIPTURLPATH{script}% expands to /bin/script
HELP The edit script should always be used in conjunction with a t="%GMTIME{"$epoch"}%" parameter to ensure pages about to be edited are not cached in the browser

HELP See SCRIPTURL if you expect to need the protocol and host e.g. if you are saving the HTML of the page and using it on a different host.

ALERT! The 'old' way of building URLs using SCRIPTURLPATH involved concatenating the web and topic names to the SCRIPTURLPATH e.g. %SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"}%/Cartoons/EvilMonkey. This practice is strongly discouraged, as it does not correctly handle encoding of the parts of the URL. At the first opportunity you should replace such URLs with the equivalent %SCRIPTURLPATH%{"script" topic="Cartoons.EvilMonkey"}%, which will handle URL encoding for you.

ALERT! The SCRIPTURL macro does NOT support building jsonrpc or rest requests with parameters. They should still use the "contatenation" method. This is expected to be fixed in Foswiki 2.2.

SEARCH -- search content

Inline search, shows a search result embedded in a topic

Parameters

Parameter Description Default:
"text"
search="text"
Search term. Is a keyword search, literal search, regular expression search, or query, depending on the type parameter. SearchHelp has more required
web Comma-separated list of webs to search. e.g.
web="Main, Know"
web="all"
The special word all means all webs that do not have the NOSEARCHALL preference set to on in their WebPreferences.
You can specifically exclude webs from an all search using a minus sign - for example, web="all,-Secretweb". Caution: The "all,-Secretweb" syntax does not exclude subwebs of the excluded web. It applies to only a single web. See Foswikitask:Item8893 AccessControls are respected when searching webs; it is much better to use them than NOSEARCHALL. Wildcards are not currently supported for web names.
Current web
topic Limit search to topics e.g.
topic="WebPreferences"
topic="*Bug"
topic="MyTopic,YourTopic"
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. Adding a topic restriction to a search can greatly improve the search performance.
All topics in a web
excludetopic Exclude topics from search e.g.
excludetopic="Web*"
excludetopic="WebHome, WebChanges"
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.
 
scope Search topic name ("topic"); the body ("text") of the topic; or name and body ("all") text
type Control how the search is performed when scope="text" or scope="all"
"keyword" - use Google-like controls as in soap "web service" -shampoo; searches word parts: using the example, topics with "soapsuds" will be found as well, but topics with "shampoos" will be excluded
"word" - identical to keyword but searches whole words: topics with "soapsuds" will not be found, and topics with "shampoos" will not be excluded
"literal" - search for the exact string, like web service
"regex" - use a RegularExpression search like soap;web service;!shampoo; to search on whole words use \bsoap\b
"query" - QuerySearch of form fields and other meta-data, like (Firstname='Emma' OR Firstname='John') AND Lastname='Peel'
%SEARCHVARDEFAULTTYPE% preferences setting (currently literal)
order Sort the results of search by the topic names ("topic"), topic creation time ("created"), last modified time ("modified"), last editor's WikiName ("editby"), or named field of DataForms ("formfield(name)"). 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).
The web order is always alphabetical. When ordered by topic the result is first ordered by web and then by topic.
topic
limit A number will limit the number of topics from which results will be returned. This is done after sorting if order is specified. Note that this does not limit the number of hits from the same topic when you have multiple="on". all
date limits the results to those pages with latest edit time in the given time interval.  
reverse If "on" will reverse the direction of the search. Does only apply to key specified by order. off
casesensitive If "on" perform a case sensitive search. (For type=query searches, casesensitive is always on. See QuerySearch for more flexible case comparison options) off
decode Reverse any encoding done to protect search terms by %URLPARAM{}% macro. Comma separated list of encodings, entered in reverse order of the URLPARAM macro arguments. Supported decoding types are entity|entities, safe and url.  
bookview If ="on", perform a BookView search, e.g. show complete topic text. Very resource demanding. Use only with small result sets off
nonoise If "on", shorthand for nosummary="on" nosearch="on" nototal="on" zeroresults="off" noheader="on" noempty="on" off
nosummary Show topic title only, no content summary off
nosearch Suppress search string off
noheader Suppress default search header
Topics: Changed: By: , unless a header is explicitly specified
Show default search header, unless search is inline and a format is specified
nototal Do not show number of topics found off
zeroresults If off, false or 0, suppress/replace all output if there are no hits. Can also be set to a FormattedSearch string to customise the output on - displays the summary, and number of topics found. "Number of topics: 0"
noempty If "on", suppress results for webs that have no hits. off
header Custom format results: see FormattedSearch for usage & examples  
format Custom format results: see FormattedSearch for usage & examples  
footer Custom format results: see FormattedSearch for usage & examples  
expandvariables If "on", expand embedded macros 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 off
multiple If ="on", find multiple hits per topic. Each hit can be formatted. The last token is used in case of a regular expression ";" and search off (only one hit found per topic
nofinalnewline If "on", the search variable does not end in a line by itself. Any text continuing immediately after the SEARCH macro on the same line will be rendered as part of the table generated by the search, if appropriate. This feature is only active when format is defined. on
recurse If "on", recurse into subwebs, if subwebs are enabled. Note: recurse will currently search subwebs of explicitly excluded webs. (web="all, -Sandbox" recurse="on") will still search subwebs of Sandbox. This behavior is likely to change in a future release. off
separator Separator between search hits (only used when format is set) uses FormatTokens.
If separator is not defined, the default is "$n" (newline). Not defining the separator will additionally cause a newline to be added after a header and before a footer.
$n (Newline)
headingoffset Adds the given offset to any HTML headings generated in the search result. Works on headings defined by HTML tags as well as headings defined using foswiki markup. 0
newline Line separator within a search hit. Useful if you want to put multi-line content into a table cell, for example if the format parameter contains a $pattern() or a $formfield() the result of which may contain newlines, in which case you could use newline="%BR%" $n (Newline)
pagesize number of items to show per page 25
showpage Page of items to show (starts at 1) (overridden by the value specified by the URL parameter hash from $previousurl and $nexturl) "1"
pager If "on" adds paging to your SEARCHes
Note: the default pager (when pagerformat is not defined) requires the parameters to the SEARCH to not change while paging, as it uses $previousurl and $nexturl. If you use time variable parameters, you will have to define your own pagerformat.
off
pagerformat Custom format results: see FormattedSearch for usage & examples filled from skin template
groupby Warning: this option is liable to change dramatically (and potentially incompatibly) in the next major release of foswiki. Setting to "none" applies only to multi-web SEARCHs, and means the header and footer are only output once - at the beginning and end of the list of results, and the order parameter is applied over the entire set of results (this setting removes the legacy that results are always partitioned by web) see SiteChanges for an example. web

Examples

  • %SEARCH{"wiki" web="%USERSWEB%" scope="topic"}%
  • %SEARCH{
        "FAQ"
        nonoise="on"
        header="| *Topic: * | *Summary: * |"
        format="| $topic    | $summary    |"
    }%
    (displays results in a table with header - details)

Results are sorted alphanumerically on the web name (major key) and topic name (minor key). Only the minor key is affected by the order parameter.

TIP The appearance of the table emitted by the SEARCH may be controlled with TablePlugin's %TABLE{}% macro placed just before the %SEARCH{}%. Example: %TABLE{ tablewidth="90%" }%

SERVERINFORMATION -- report detailed web server information

Intended for use by installers / administrators, reports on the runtime information of the Foswiki installation, including all environment variables and other execution related information.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
environment Displays critical %ENV Environment variables. (Displayed if nothing set)
execution Displays important execution details. (Displayed if nothing set)
modules Displays loaded modules, along with version and location.. (Displayed if nothing set)

SERVERTIME -- formatted server time

Same format parameters as VarGMTIME[GMTIME%]], but displaying the server time instead of UTC.

Examples

  • %SERVERTIME% elsnds to 16 Dec 2024 - 16:19
  • %SERVERTIME{"$hou:$min"}% expands to 16:19
ALERT! Note: When used in a template topic, this macro will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TemplateTopics for details.

SESSIONID -- unique ID for this session

Examples

  • %SESSIONID% expands to ==

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

Examples

  • %SESSIONVAR% expands to

SESSION_VARIABLE -- get, set or clear a session variable

Parameters

Parameter Description
"name" name of variable
set value to set it to
clear if it is to be cleared
TIP The users ID is in the AUTHUSER session variable, and is read-only

Examples

  • %SESSION_VARIABLE{"MYVAR" set="myval"}%
  • %SESSION_VARIABLE{"MYVAR" clear=""}%

SET -- set a preference setting during runtime

A preference setting created via %SET{}% will only be usable in the topic where it has been found by the parser, similar to normal PreferenceSettings.

When used in an include, note that each call to %INCLUDE opens a new scope for preference variables. An %INCLUDE of another topic containing a %SET{}% statement will not define those values in the including base topic's scope. However unlike bullet/Meta style preferences, %SET{}% statements will be active while the INCLUDE is rendered.

If a perference is FINALized in a Bullet/Meta setting, then the %SET{}% macro will be unable to modify it.

In contrast, a TMPL:DEF template definition containing %SET{}% macros will add those values to the current scope as if these settings have been parsed as part of the current topic's text.

A TMPL:DEF template definition containing %SET macros will also add those values to the current scope as if these settings have been parsed as part of the base topic's text.

Setting a preference setting in a list like in

   * Set foo = %SEARCH{...

or in META settings will store the text of the TML expression.

The equivalent %SET statement:

%SET{"foo" value="%SEARCH{..."}%

will store the result of the TML expression as a consequence of the parser processing macros inside-out-left-to-right.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" Name of preference to set  
value Value to set it to  

Examples

To cache the result of another macro use %SET{"search_result" value="%SEARCH{...}%"}%. The result of the value expression will be temporarily bound to the variable %search_result% and might be used within the scope of the current topic being processed, or in %INCLUDing or other %INCLUDEd topics.

Note that this macro does NOT expand FormatTokens that are used to alter the macro processing sequence. ($percent, $dollar, ...).

SHOWPREFERENCE -- show where preferences are defined.

Preference values are shown in a bulleted list, together with where they were defined.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default:
"name,name,name" Comma-separated list of preferences to show  

Examples

  • %SHOWPREFERENCE% will show all preferences
  • %SHOWPREFERENCE{"ATTACHFILESIZELIMIT"}% expands to
   * Set ATTACHFILESIZELIMIT = "10000"
      * ATTACHFILESIZELIMIT was *finalised* in System.DefaultPreferences

  • %SHOWPREFERENCE{"DENYWEBCHANGE,ALLOWWEBCHANGE"}% expands to
   * Set DENYWEBCHANGE = ""
   * Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = "%USERSWEB%.AdminGroup"
      * ALLOWWEBCHANGE was defined in System.WebPreferences

SKIN -- current skin

%SKIN% expands the skin search path. For instance, SKIN can be set to catskin, bearskin. The SKIN setting can be overridden using the URL parameter skin, such as ?skin=catskin,bearskin You can also extend the existing skin path using covers - see COVER

Examples

  • %SKIN% expands to natedit,pattern
  • See Skins for more information

SLIDESHOWEND -- end slideshow

The %SLIDESHOWEND% macro is handled by the SlideShowPlugin

Examples

See SLIDESHOWSTART

SLIDESHOWSTART -- convert a topic with headings into a slideshow

Handled by the SlideShowPlugin

Parameters

Parameter Description
template optional name of slide template to use

Examples

 %SLIDESHOWSTART%
 ---++ Sample Slide 1
    * Bullet 1
    * Bullet 2
 ---++ Sample Slide 2
    * Bullet 1
    * Bullet 2
 %SLIDESHOWEND%
  • Expands as:

Start presentation

Slide 1: Sample Slide 1

  • Bullet 1
  • Bullet 2

Slide 2: Sample Slide 2

  • Bullet 1
  • Bullet 2

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

Examples

  • %SPACEDTOPIC% expands to Var%20*SPACEDTOPIC
    ALERT! This is a deprecated macro. It can be duplicated with %ENCODE{%SPACEOUT{"%TOPIC%" separator=" *"}%}%

SPACEOUT -- 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

Examples

  • %SPACEOUT{"WebHome"}% expands to: Web Home

Parameters

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

STARTINCLUDE -- start position of topic text if included

If present in included topic, start to include text from this location up to the next %ENDINCLUDE% macro, or to the end. A normal view of the topic shows everything except the %STARTINCLUDE% macro itself.
TIP If you want more than one part of the topic included, use %STARTSECTION{type="include"}% instead

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 which are all merged into one when included (%STARTINCLUDE% is restricted to only one). Sections of type include may not be given a name.
    • type="expandvariables" - all macros inside an "expandvariables" type section gets expanded when a new topic based on the template topic is created. See TemplateTopics for more information.
    • 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 TemplateTopics for more information.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" Name of the section. Must be unique inside a topic. Generated name
=type=" Type of the section; type "section", "expandvariables", "include" or "templateonly" "section"
Any other parameter will be defined as a default value for a macro within the scope of the section. The example parameters on the left will result in %PARONE% and %PARTWO% being defined if they are not defined parameters to the INCLUDE, or nested INCLUDEs surrounding it, or previsouly defined Preferences.

HELP If a section is not given a name, it will be assigned one. Unnamed sections are assigned names starting with _SECTION0 for the first unnamed section in the topic, _SECTION1 for the second, etc..

HELP You can define nested sections. It is not recommended to overlap sections, although it is valid in Foswiki. Use named sections to make sure that the correct START and ENDs are matched. Section markers are not displayed when a topic is viewed.

Examples

  • %STARTSECTION{"name"}% ................... %ENDSECTION{"name"}%
  • %STARTSECTION{"name" type="section"}% .... %ENDSECTION{"name" type="section"}% (type="section" is the default)
  • %STARTSECTION{type="include"}% ........... %ENDSECTION{type="include"}%
  • %STARTSECTION{type="expandvariables"}% ... %ENDSECTION{type="expandvariables"}%
  • %STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}% ...... %ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%

STATISTICSTOPIC -- name of statistics topic

Examples

  • %STATISTICSTOPIC% expands to WebStatistics, renders as WebStatistics

STOPINCLUDE -- Alias for ENDINCLUDE

STOPSECTION -- Alias for ENDSECTION

SYSTEMWEB -- name of documentation web

The web containing all documentation and default preference settings

Examples

  • %SYSTEMWEB% expands to System

TAB -- tab inside a tabpane widget

Defines a tab inside a TABPANE area; must be closed using ENDTAB.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"text" label of the tab Tab
before when switching tabs, this is the javascript fragment to be executed just before the tab is displayed  
after this javascript handler is to be executed after the tab has been made visible  
afterload this javascript handler will be called when content loaded asynchronously (using the url parameter, below) has finished loading; depending on the network latency, this can be significantly later than execution of the after handler above  
id id of this tab; this id can be used in the TABPANEs select parameter to display this tab; this id is also added to the class attribute of the html element representing the tab button  
url link from where to load the content of the tab asynchronously when selecting this tab; the result of the addressed handler will replace the content area; if no url is set the content of the TAB ... ENDTAB area will be shown when the tab is selected  
width width of the tab area auto
height height of the tab area auto
container element where ajax content will be loaded; this is only used together with url  

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

The %TABLE{}% macro is handled by the TablePlugin

Attributes for tables
Parameter Description Default Example
tableborder Table border width (pixels). "1" tableborder="2"
tablebordercolor Table border color. unspecified tablebordercolor="#333"
tableframe Table frame, set to "void" (no sides), "above" (the top side only), "below" (the bottom side only), "hsides" (the top and bottom sides only), "lhs" (the left-hand side only), "rhs" (the right-hand side only), "vsides" (the right and left sides only), "box" (all four sides), "border" (all four sides). unspecified tableframe="hsides"
tablerules Table rules, set to "none" (no rules), "groups" (rules will appear between row groups and column groups only), "rows" (rules will appear between rows only), "cols" (rules will appear between columns only), "all" (rules will appear between all rows and columns). See also: headerrules and datarules. unspecified tablerules="rows"
tablewidth Table width: percentage of window width, or absolute pixel value. unspecified tablewidth="100%"
headerrows Number of header rows to exclude from sort. (will be rendered in a HTML thead section) "1" headerrows="1"
footerrows Number of footer rows to exclude from sort. (will be rendered in a HTML tfoot section) "0" footerrows="1"
id Unique table identifier string, used for targeting a table with CSS. tableN (where N is the table order number on the page) id="userTable"
summary Table summary used by screen readers: A summary of what the table presents. It should provide an orientation for someone who listens to the table. unspecified; WARNING: this attribute is deprecated in HTML5, don't use it anymore. summary="List of subscribed users"
caption Table caption: A title that will be displayed just above the table. unspecified caption="Users"
inlinemarkup Set to "on" to generate inline markup HTML (in addition to the CSS markup); useful if you need to copy the table, for instance to paste the table into an email). unspecified inlinemarkup="on"
class Add specified class to the default foswikiTable class. unspecified class="mytable"

Attributes for table sorting
Parameter Description Default Example
sort Set the table sorting user interface (clickable column headers) "on" or "off". unspecified sort="on"
initsort Column to sort initially (use "1" for the first column). If specified, sorting is enabled; by setting sort="off" the sorting interface can be hidden. unspecified initsort="2"
initdirection Initial sorting direction for initsort, set to "up" (descending, or decreasing in value) or "down" (ascending, or increasing in value). down initdirection="up"
disableallsort Disable all sorting, both initsort and header sort. This is mainly used by plugins such as the EditTablePlugin to disable sorting in a table while editing the table. unspecified disableallsort="on"

Attributes for table cells
Argument Description Default Example
cellpadding Cell padding (pixels). unspecified cellpadding="0"
cellspacing Cell spacing (pixels). unspecified cellspacing="3"
cellborder Cell border width (pixels). unspecified cellborder="0"
valign Vertical alignment of cells and headers, set to "top", "middle", "bottom" or "baseline". unspecified valign="top"
columnwidths Column widths: Comma delimited list of column widths, percentage or absolute pixel value. unspecified columnwidths="80%,20%"

Attributes for data cells
Parameter Description Default Example
datarules Set to "none" (no rules), "rows" (rules will appear between rows only), "cols" (rules will appear between columns only), "all" (rules will appear between all rows and columns). Overrides tablerules for data cells. unspecified datarules="none"
datavalign Vertical alignment of data cells; overrides valign. unspecified datavalign="top"
dataalign Data cell alignment, one value for all columns, or a comma separated list for different alignment of individual columns. Set to "left", "center", "right" or "justify". Overrides individual cell settings. unspecified dataalign="center"
databg Data cell background colour, a comma separated list. Specify "none" for no colour, that is to use the colour/background of the page the table is on. "#edf4f9,#fff" databg="#f2f2f2,#fff"
databgsorted Data cell background colour of a sorted column; see databg. the values of databg databgsorted="#d4e8e4, #e5f5ea"
datacolor Data cell text colour, a comma separated list. unspecified datacolor="#00c, #000"

Attributes for headers
Parameter Description Default Example
headerrules Set to "none" (no rules), "rows" (rules will appear between rows only), "cols" (rules will appear between columns only), "all" (rules will appear between all rows and columns). Overrides tablerules for header cells. unspecified headerrules="none"
headerbg Header cell background colour. Specify "none" for no colour, that is to use the colour/background of the page the table is on. "#6b7f93" headerbg="#999"
headerbgsorted Header cell background colour of a sorted column. Specify "none" for no colour, that is to use the colour/background of the page the table is on. the value of headerbg headerbgsorted="#32596c"
headercolor Header cell text colour. "#fff" headercolor="#00c"
headervalign Vertical alignment of header cells; overrides valign. unspecified headervalign="top"
headeralign Header cell alignment, one value for all columns, or a comma separated list for different alignment of individual columns. Set to "left", "center", "right" or "justify". Overrides individual cell settings. unspecified headeralign="left,right"
headerrows See: Attributes for tables

Other attributes
Parameter Description Default Example
include Other topic defining the TABLE parameters. The first %TABLE% in the topic is used. This is useful if you have many topics with the same table format and you want to update the format in one place. Use topic or web.topic notation. unspecified include="Main.WebHome"

Examples

 %TABLE{ sort="off" tableborder="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="3" cellborder="0" }%
 | *A1* | *B1* |
 | A2   | B2   |
  • Expands as:
    A1 B1
    A2 B2

TABPANE -- tabpane widget

This macro starts the tabpane, containing a series of TAB...ENDTABs and ends with ENDTABPANE. A complete tabpane normally looks like this:
%TABPANE%
 %TAB{"tab 1"}%
   ...
 %ENDTAB%
 %TAB{"tab 2"}%
   ...
 %ENDTAB%
%ENDTABPANE%
Multiple tabpanes can be nested using the following scheme:
%TABPANE%
 %TAB{"tab 1"}%
   %TABPANE%
     %TAB{"tab 1.1"}%
       ...
     %ENDTAB%
     %TAB{"tab1.2"}%
       ...
     %ENDTAB%
   %ENDTABPANE%
 %ENDTAB%
 %TAB{"tab 2"}%
   ...
 %ENDTAB%
%ENDTABPANE%

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
select number or id of tab to select 1
automaxexpand resizes the tabpane to the maximum height to fit into the window off
minheight when automaxexpand is enabled, this is the minimum size a tab is allowed to be resized 230
class extra class: use simple for a non-3D tabpane; use=plain= for a no-frame look&feel  
animate enables/disables animation of switching tabs off
remember enables/disables recording the current tab into the url anchor, as well as initialize the currently selected tab reading the anchor off

Examples

see JQueryTabpane for more examples

TOC -- table of contents

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

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"TopicName" topic name Current topic
web Name of web Current web
depth Limit depth of headings shown in TOC 6
title Title to appear at top of TOC  
align Align at left or right side of the page  
id Optional ID in case multiple TOCs are on the page and each TOC needs to be addressable with an anchor link. Allowed characters: a-zA-Z0-9-_, no spaces. If you don't specify an id, the anchor foswikiTOC can be used in a link to the first TOC: [[#foswikiTOC][Back to TOC]] creates Back to TOC. Multiple TOC macros will increment the generated ID. #foswikiTOC, #foswikiTOC2 ... "foswikiTOC"

Preference Settings

Default settings are defined in DefaultPreferences, and can be overridden in SitePreferences:
Setting Description Value
TOC_MIN_DEPTH The first header level to appear in the TOC 1
TOC_MAX_DEPTH The last header level to appear in the TOC  
TOC_TITLE The default TOC title On this page:
TOC_HIDE_IF_INCLUDED Do not show a TOC if the topic it contains is included in another topic on

Examples

%TOC{depth="2"}%
%TOC{"CompleteDocumentation" web="%SYSTEMWEB%" title="Contents:"}%
See also: Foswiki:Support/HowToCreateATableOfContents
TIP If multiple headers have the exact same text, the anchors for the 2nd, 3rd etc will be suffixed by _AN1, _AN2 etc so the anchors become unique.

ALERT! If other topics are included using INCLUDE then any headingoffset specified on the INCLUDE macro will not be seen by TOC.

TOPIC -- name of current topic

  • %TOPIC% expands to the name of the topic. If you are looking at the text of an included topic, it is the name of the included topic.

Examples

TOPICLIST -- topic index of a web

List of all topics in a web. The "format" defines the format of one topic item. It may include formatting tokens: The $topic token gets expanded to the topic name, $marker to marker parameter where topic matches selection, and $web to the name of the web, or any of the standard FormatTokens.

Parameters

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

Examples

   Create a bullet list of all topics:
   %TOPICLIST{"   * $web.$topic"}%

   Create a comma separated list of all topics:
   %TOPICLIST{separator=", "}%

   Create an option list (for drop down menus):
   %TOPICLIST{" <option>$topic</option>"}%

   Create an option list of web topics with the current topic selected:
   <select>%TOPICLIST{
      " <option $marker value='$topic'>$topic</option>"
      separator=" "
      selection="%TOPIC%"
   }%</select>

%TREEVIEW{}% displays topic children in a hierarchical tree
%TREE{}% synonym of %TREEVIEW{}%

Parameters

  • The following standard attributes are recognized
Parameter Description Default
web The web to search. current web
topic Specify tree's root topic. If none the entire web topics' tree is generated none
formatting Specify the formatting method
ullist is a <ul>-list, see sample UL lists
ollist is a <ol>-list, see sample OL lists
outline is an outline list, see sample Outlines
hlist is a <h n >-list of section heads, see sample Headlines
coloroutline:colorlist is an outline formatting with level values turned into colors, see sample Nested tables. Example: formatting="coloroutline:#ffeeff,#eeffee,#ffffee,#eeeeff,#ffeeee,#eeffff"
imageoutline:mode is a way to incorporate images into the outline format, specifically to display thread-like and folder views, see sample Image Trees. The general format is: imageoutline: mode : images : imageformat. Example: formatting="imageoutline:thread" or formatting="imageoutline:thread:I.gif,white.gif,T.gif,L.gif:<img src=\"$image\" border=\"0\">".
outline
excludetopic Same meaning as VarSEARCH excludetopic. Topics with excluded parent or processed like topic without parent. none
includetopic Same meaning as VarSEARCH topic. Can improve processing time. none
startlevel The depth of the tree to start showing nodes from. To hide the root node, supply startlevel="1" (root is level 0). The displayed node depths are relative to the root topic. 0 or 1 if topic is not specified
stoplevel The depth of the tree to show, relative to start level. 999
header Output the value within a <div> of class treePluginHeader. Suppressed if the tree is empty. none
footer Output the value within a <div> of class treePluginFooter. Suppressed if the tree is empty. none
zero Output the value within a <div> of class treePluginZero if the tree is empty. none
bookview List topics in BookView form. Not supported from v0.9. Instead use something like:
%TREE{topic="GrandParent" formatting="outline" format="$outnum $topic <br /> $summary <hr />"}%
none
format Specify the format for each node ( outline & coloroutline). The following pseudo-variable are supported on top of the ones described in FormattedSearch:
$spacetopic - the topic with spaces
$level - the tree depth of the topic (in whatever format)
$count - the topic's child position
$index - the index of the topic in the tree. Starts from one. Most useful when used in combination with TreeBrowserPlugin
$outnum - outline number for the topic (eg, 1.3.4.2)
$url - the current topic's URL Not supported. Use %SCRIPTURL{view}%/$web/$topic instead.
$author - the topic's last author Not supported from v0.9. Use %AUTHOR% instead.
$modTime - the topic's modification time. Not supported from v0.9. Use $date instead.
none
formatbranch - specify the format for a group of children ( outline & coloroutline)
$parent - the text of a node
$children - the text of all the node's children (if any)
none
levelprefix Specify a prefix to a node format. The prefix is inserted $level times at the beginning of the rendered node format. It allows generation of trees using Foswiki bullet list syntax thus enabling usage of TreePlugin in combination with TreeBrowserPlugin. none
nodiv Suppress the <div> around the tree. Set to 2 to suppress div around header, footer and zero. Allows for trees concatenation. none
separator Character string used to separate items in the tree \n
nocache Set to 1 to disable caching mechanism for that specific tree. Really a developer setting. 0

Examples

See the following page for sample usage and output:

TWISTY -- generate content block with interactive visibility controls

This renders the button as well as the toggled content section contained within this and the closing ENDTWISTY tag.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
id Used to link TWISTYBUTTON and TWISTYTOGGLE  
link Link label for both show and hide links  
hidelink Hide link label  
showlink Show link label  
mode "block" or "inline" Specify if the Twisty Toggle section will use a <div> or a <span> tag. Note that if the contents contains block elements such as div, mode should be block as well to create valid HTML markup. <block>
showimgleft Specify the url of an image that will be displayed with the show link at the left side of the link.
You may use ICONURLPATH to display one of the DocumentGraphics icons. Alternatively use an image attached to the topic.
 
hideimgleft Specify the url of an image that will be displayed with the hide link at the left side of the link.
You may use ICONURLPATH to display one of the DocumentGraphics icons. Alternatively use an image attached to the topic.
 
showimgright Specify the url of an image that will be displayed with the show link at the right side of the link.
You may use ICONURLPATH to display one of the DocumentGraphics icons. Alternatively use an image attached to the topic.
 
hideimgright Specify the url of an image that will be displayed with the hide link at the right side of the link.
You may use ICONURLPATH to display one of the DocumentGraphics icons. Alternatively use an image attached to the topic.
 
remember If "on", the Twisty state is remembered the next time the page is shown. If "off", the stored setting will be cleared.

ALERT! Note: when used, think carefully about a unique name (id) for the Twisty, otherwise the cookie that is set might affect other Twisties with the same name. Also note that only interaction is stored, not the state of the Twisty when left unclicked.
 
start "hide" or "show" Initial state of the Twisty; this will override any setting stored in a cookie (see remember).  
firststart "hide" or "show" Initial state of the Twisty the first time the visitor gets to see the Twisty; this will NOT override cookie settings (see remember).  
noscript Make content hidden in case use does not have JavaScript on. Default content is shown in case JavaScript if off  
class CSS class name for Twisty element  
linkclass CSS class name for link  
prefix Text to display before the show/hide links  
suffix Text to display after the show/hide links  
Additional parameters img, imgleft, imgright, hideimg, showimg are deprecated, use showimgleft, hideimgleft, showimgright or hideimgright.

TWISTYBUTTON -- Shorthand version for TWISTYSHOW & TWISTYHIDE

This is useful if both the show and the hide button take the same arguments.

Parameters

All parameters supported by TWISTY, except for
  • noscript and class (only used for 'toggle' content)
  • mode button mode defaults to "block"

Examples

%TWISTYBUTTON{
    id="myid"
    link="more"
  }%%TWISTYTOGGLE{
    id="myid"
  }%content%ENDTWISTYTOGGLE%

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
id Used to link TWISTYSHOW, TWISTYHIDE and TWISTYTOGGLE required
link Hide link label  
mode "block" or "inline" Specify if the Twisty Hide link will use a <div> or a <span> tag. Note that if the contents contains block elements such as div, mode should be block as well to create valid HTML markup. <block>
img Specify the url of an image that will be displayed at the right side of the link.
You may use ICONURLPATH to display one of the DocumentGraphics icons. Alternatively use an image attached to the topic.
 
remember If "on", the Twisty state is remembered the next time the page is shown. If "off", the stored setting will be cleared.
Note: when used, think carefully about a unique name (id) for the Twisty, otherwise the cookie that is set might affect other Twisties with the same name. Also note that only interaction is stored, not the state of the Twisty when left unclicked.
 
start "hide" or "show" Initial state of the Twisty; this will override any setting stored in a cookie (see remember).  
firststart "hide" or "show" Initial state of the Twisty the first time the visitor gets to see the Twisty; this will NOT override cookie settings (see remember).  

Examples

%TWISTYHIDE{id="demo" link=" Click to Fold " imgleft="%ICONURLPATH{toggleclose}%"}%

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
id Used to link TWISTYSHOW, TWISTYHIDE and TWISTYTOGGLE required
link Show link label  
mode "block" or "inline" Specify if the Twisty Show link will use a <div> or a <span> tag. Note that if the contents contains block elements such as div, mode should be block as well to create valid HTML markup. <block>
img Specify the url of an image that will be displayed at the right side of the link.
You may use ICONURLPATH to display one of the DocumentGraphics icons. Alternatively use an image attached to the topic.
 
imgleft Specify the url of an image that will be displayed at the left side of the link.
You may use ICONURLPATH to display one of the DocumentGraphics icons. Alternatively use an image attached to the topic.
 
imgright Specify the url of an image that will be displayed at the right side of the link.
You may use ICONURLPATH to display one of the DocumentGraphics icons. Alternatively use an image attached to the topic.
 
remember If "on", the Twisty state is remembered the next time the page is shown. If "off", the stored setting will be cleared.
Note: when used, think carefully about a unique name (id) for the Twisty, otherwise the cookie that is set might affect other Twisties with the same name. Also note that only interaction is stored, not the state of the Twisty when left unclicked.
 
start "hide" or "show" Initial state of the Twisty; this will override any setting stored in a cookie (see remember).  
firststart "hide" or "show" Initial state of the Twisty the first time the visitor gets to see the Twisty; this will NOT override cookie settings (see remember).  

Examples

%TWISTYSHOW{id="demo" link=" Click to Unfold " imgleft="%ICONURLPATH{toggleopen}%"}%

TWISTYTOGGLE -- Twisty Toggle contents section

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
id Used to link TWISTYSHOW, TWISTYHIDE and TWISTYTOGGLE. required
mode "block" or "inline" Specify if the Twisty Toggle section will use a <div> or a <span> tag. Note that if the contents contains block elements such as div, mode should be block as well to create valid HTML markup. <block>
class CSS class name for content element  
linkclass CSS class name for link  
remember If "on", the Twisty state is remembered the next time the page is shown. If "off", the stored setting will be cleared.
Note: when used, think carefully about a unique name (id) for the Twisty, otherwise the cookie that is set might affect other Twisties with the same name. Also note that only interaction is stored, not the state of the Twisty when left unclicked.
 
start "hide" or "show" Initial state of the Twisty; this will override any setting stored in a cookie (see remember).  
firststart "hide" or "show" Initial state of the Twisty the first time the visitor gets to see the Twisty; this will NOT override cookie settings (see remember).  
noscript hide to make content hidden in case use does not have JavaScript on  

Examples

%TWISTYTOGGLE{id="demo" mode="block" remember="on"}%My content%ENDTWISTYTOGGLE%

URLPARAM -- get URL or HTTP POST parameter value

Returns the value of the named parameter in the URL or HTTP POST request.

Parameters

Parameter: Description: Default:
"name" The name of a URL parameter required
default Default value, used if the parameter is not present ""
newline Convert newlines in textarea to other delimiters  
encode Control how special characters are encoded
"off" - No encoding. Avoid using this when possible. See the security warning below.
"entity" - Encode special characters into HTML entities. See ENCODE for more details.
"safe" - Encode characters '"<>% into HTML entities.
"url" - Encode special characters for URL parameter use, like a double quote into %22
"quote" - Escape double quotes with backslashes (\"), does not change other characters; required when feeding URL parameters into other macros.
You can combine several encodings together, and they will be applied in the order you specify e.g. encode="safe, quote"
safe
multiple If set, gets all selected elements of a <select multiple="multiple"> tag. Can be set to a format string, with $item indicating the element, e.g. multiple="Option: $item" (also supports the standard FormatTokens) first element
separator Separator between multiple selections. Only relevant if multiple is specified $n (new line)

Examples

%URLPARAM{"skin"}% returns print for a .../view/System/CompleteDocumentation?skin=print URL

HELP URL parameters passed into HTML form fields must be entity encoded.

HELP Double quotes in URL parameters must be escaped when passed into other macros.
Example: %SEARCH{ "%URLPARAM{ "search" encode="safe, quote" }%" noheader="on" }%

HELP Reverse the encoding when used in SEARCH.
Example: %SEARCH{ "%URLPARAM{ "search" encode="safe, quote"}%" decode="safe" noheader="on" }%. (It is not necessary to reverse quote encoding, otherwise decode= options should be specified in the reverse order from the encode= options.)

HELP When used in a template topic, this macro will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TemplateTopics for details.

ALERT! Watch out for internal parameters, such as rev, skin, template, topic, web; they have a special meaning in Foswiki. Common parameters and view script specific parameters are documented at CommandAndCGIScripts.

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

ALERT! Security warning! Using URLPARAM can easily be misused for cross-site scripting unless specific characters are entity encoded. By default URLPARAM encodes the characters '"<>% into HTML entities (same as encode="safe") which is relatively safe. The safest is to use encode="entity". When passing URLPARAM inside another macro always use double quotes ("") combined with using URLPARAM with encode="quote". For maximum security against cross-site scripting you are adviced to install the Foswiki:Extensions.SafeWikiPlugin.

USERINFO -- retrieve details about a user

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"name" WikiName or login username. May be a group. current user
format Format string; see below for supported formatting tokens. $username, $wikiusername, $emails
Format tokens that can be used in format:
Token Description
$emails (*) Comma separated list of email addresses known to the user mapper (this would normally be TopicUserMappingContrib). If expanding for a group, then this will be the email addresses of all members.
$username (*) Login username. If expanding for a group, this should expand as unknown
$wikiname, $wikiusername The user's WikiName and Main.WikiName, respectively  
$groups (*) Comma separated list of group membership. Currently only expands for users
$isadmin (*) Has admin privileges (expands to true or false)
$isgroup Is a group (expands to true or false)  
TIP Tokens flagged '(*)' are considered private and are hidden from other users by default.
The standard format tokens are also supported.

Examples

  • %USERINFO{"name" format="..."}% expands to guest, Main.WikiGuest, (lists $username, $wikiusername, $emails)
With formatted output, using tokens:
%USERINFO{ format="$username is really $wikiname" }%
Expands to: guest is really WikiGuest

Retrieve information about another user. You can use either a wikiname or a username to identify the user. You can only see the restricted information about another user if you are an admin, or the {AntiSpam}{HideUserDetails} configuration option is not enabled. (User details are hidden on this site) :
%USERINFO{ "WikiGuest" format="$username is really $wikiname" }%
Expands to: guest is really WikiGuest

USERNAME -- your login username

Foswiki makes names available in three formats: USERNAME like jsmith, WIKINAME like JohnSmith and WIKIUSERNAME like Main.JohnSmith. Un-authenticated users are all WikiGuest.

This macro is an alias for the USERINFO macro with a fixed format="$username".
ALERT! The login username is considered "protected" information by default and will not be revealed to non-admin users.

Parameters

Parameter Description
"name" WikiName or login username. current user

Examples

  • %USERNAME% expands to guest
  • %USERNAME{AdminUser}% expands to ==
    ALERT! When used in a template topic, this macro will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TemplateTopics for details

USERSWEB -- name of users web

  • The web containing individual user topics, WikiGroups, and customised site-wide preferences.

Examples

  • %USERSWEB% expands to Main

VAR -- get a preference value from another web

Parameters

Parameter Description
"name" name of preference to retrieve
web name of web to retrieve the preference from

Examples

  • %VAR{"WEBBGCOLOR"}% expands to #B9DAFF
  • %VAR{"WEBBGCOLOR" web="Main"}% expands to #FFEFA6

WEB -- name of current web

  • %WEB% expands to the name of the web where the topic is located. If you are looking at the text of an included topic, it is the web where the included topic is located.

Examples

  • %WEB% expands to System

WEBLIST -- index of all webs

Generate a list of webs. Obfuscated webs are excluded, e.g. webs with a NOSEARCHALL = on preference setting. The "format" defines the format of one web item. The $name gets expanded to the name of the web, $qname gets expanded to double quoted name, $marker to marker where web matches selection. Subwebs are listed recursively.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default
"format"
format="format"
Format of one line, may include $name (the name of the web), $qname (the name of the web in double quotes), $indentedname (the name of the web with parent web names replaced by indents, for use in indented lists), and $marker (which expands to marker for the item matching selection only). The standard FormatTokens may also be used. $name
separator Web separator $n (new line). Standard FormatTokens may also be used.
web if you specify $web in format, it will be replaced with this value.  
webs Comma separated list of webs to consider. This list can include two pseudo-webs, public which expands to all non-hidden and webtemplate which expands to the names of all template webs.
NOTE: Administrators will see all webs, not just the public ones
public
subwebs Specifies a single web. If specified, then public and webtemplate (described above) will expand relative to show subwebs *below this web only.  
selection Entry to be selected in list. If one of the webs matches this selection, then $marker in the format will be expanded %WEB%
marker Text for $marker if the item matches selection selected="selected"

Examples

Create a bullet list of all webs:
%WEBLIST{"   * [[$name.%HOMETOPIC%]]"}%
Create a dropdown of all public webs + Trash web, with the current web highlighted:
<form><select name="web">%WEBLIST{
      "<option $marker value='$qname'>$name</option>"
      webs="Trash, public"
      selection="%WEB%"
      separator=" "
   }% </select></form>
ALERT! WEBLIST will not show a web called 'TWiki' even if it exists in the file system unless the TWikiCompatibilityPlugin is installed and activated in configure. This is done to ensure that the TWiki compatibility components such as the TWiki web are only visible and active when needed

WEBPREFSTOPIC -- name of web preferences topic

Examples

  • %WEBPREFSTOPIC% expands to WebPreferences, renders as WebPreferences

WIKIAGENTEMAIL -- From: email address in emails sent by Foswiki.

Examples

  • %WIKIAGENTEMAIL% expands to webmaster@physics.ox.ac.uk

WIKIAGENTNAME -- From: Name used in emails sent by Foswiki

Examples

  • %WIKIAGENTNAME% expands to Astro Wiki Administrator

WIKIHOMEURL -- site home URL

Examples

  • %WIKIHOMEURL%= expands to /=
  • Normally by default set to %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%
    ALERT! For the top bar logo URL use %WIKILOGOURL% defined in WebPreferences instead.

WIKINAME -- your Wiki username

The WikiName is the same as %USERNAME% if not defined in the WikiUsers topic. This macro is an alias for the USERINFO macro with a fixed format="$wikiname".

Parameters

Parameter Description
"name" WikiName or login username. current user

Examples

  • %WIKINAME% expands to WikiGuest
  • %WIKINAME{guest}% expands to WikiGuest
    ALERT! When used in a template topic, this macro will be expanded when the template is used to create new topic. See TemplateTopics for details

WIKIPREFSTOPIC -- name of site-wide preferences topic

Examples

WIKITOOLNAME -- name of your site

Examples

  • %WIKITOOLNAME% expands to Foswiki

WIKIUSERNAME -- your Wiki username with web prefix

Your %WIKINAME% with Main web prefix, useful to point to your Foswiki home page This macro is an alias for the USERINFO macro with a fixed format="$wikiusername".

Parameters

Parameter Description
"name" WikiName or login username. current user

Examples

  • %WIKIUSERNAME% expands to Main.WikiGuest, renders as WikiGuest
  • %WIKIUSERNAME{guest}% expands to Main.WikiGuest, renders as WikiGuest
    ALERT! When used in a template topic, this macro will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TemplateTopics for details

WIKIUSERSTOPIC -- name of topic listing all registered users

Examples

  • %WIKIUSERSTOPIC% expands to WikiUsers
  • with Main prefix renders as WikiUsers

WIKIVERSION -- the version of the installed Foswiki engine

Examples

  • %WIKIVERSION% expands to v2.1.8

WIKIWEBMASTER -- feedback email address for site

Examples

  • %WIKIWEBMASTER% expands to webmaster@physics.ox.ac.uk

WIKIWEBMASTERNAME -- Name of the administrator for the site

Examples

  • %WIKIWEBMASTERNAME% expands to Astro Wiki Administrator

Customize the display of search results.

The default output format of a %SEARCH{...}% is a table consisting of topic names and topic summaries. Use the format="..." parameter to customize the search result. The format parameter typically defines a bullet or a table row containing macros, such as %SEARCH{ "food" format="| $topic | $summary |" }%. See %SEARCH{...}% for other search parameters, such as separator="".

Syntax

Three parameters can be used to specify a customized search result:

1. header="..." parameter

Use the header parameter to specify the header of a search result. It should correspond to the format of the format parameter. This parameter is optional. Example:
header="| *Topic:* | *Summary:* |"

Format tokens that can be used in the header string:

Name: Expands To:
$web Name of the web
$ntopics Number of topics found in current web. Will be 0 (zero).
$nhits Number of hits if multiple="on". Will be 0 (zero).
$pager pager control - can be optionally customised using the pagerformat below
$n or $n() New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar

TIP Most macros accept parameter strings which are split over multiple lines. This is usually more readable than using $n tokens. If you are familiar with sectional includes, you might also consider nested sectional includes to hold the newline content outside of the parameter string entirely.

TIP Note that newline is not a line break. The browser will wrap the lines together. If you require a line break, displaying the results on two lines, use %BR%. Or use two consecutive newlines to create a TML "Paragraph".

$nop or $nop() Is a "no operation". This token gets removed; useful for nested search
$quot Double quote (") (\" also works)
$percent Percent sign (%) ($percnt also works)
$dollar Dollar sign ($)
$lt Less than sign (<)
$gt Greater than sign (>)
$amp Ampersand (&)
$comma Comma (,)

ALERT! Note that if the separator parameter for SEARCH is not defined a newline is added after the header.

2. footer="..." parameter

Use the footer parameter to specify the footer of a search result. It should correspond to the format of the format parameter. This parameter is optional. Example:
footer="| *Total:* | *$nhits* |"

Format tokens that can be used in the footer string:

Name: Expands To:
$web Name of the web
$ntopics Number of topics found in current web
$nhits Number of hits if multiple="on". Cumulative across all topics in current web. Identical to $ntopics unless multiple="on"
$pager pager control - can be optionally customised using the pagerformat below
$n or $n() New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar

TIP Most macros accept parameter strings which are split over multiple lines. This is usually more readable than using $n tokens. If you are familiar with sectional includes, you might also consider nested sectional includes to hold the newline content outside of the parameter string entirely.

TIP Note that newline is not a line break. The browser will wrap the lines together. If you require a line break, displaying the results on two lines, use %BR%. Or use two consecutive newlines to create a TML "Paragraph".

$nop or $nop() Is a "no operation". This token gets removed; useful for nested search
$quot Double quote (") (\" also works)
$percent Percent sign (%) ($percnt also works)
$dollar Dollar sign ($)
$lt Less than sign (<)
$gt Greater than sign (>)
$amp Ampersand (&)
$comma Comma (,)

ALERT! Note that if the separator parameter for SEARCH is not defined a newline is added after the last search result.

3. pagerformat="..." parameter

Use the pagerformat parameter to customise the appearance of the paging control. It should correspond to the format of the format parameter. This parameter is optional. Example:
pagerformat="Page $currentpage of $numberofpages [[$nexturl][next page]]"

Format tokens that can be used in the pagerformat string:

Name: Expands To:
$previouspage The page number before the currently displayed one
$currentpage The currently displayed page number
$nextpage The page number after the currently displayed one
$numberofpages Total number of pages there are results for
$pagesize The number of results per page
$previousurl full URL to the previous page - IF using the built in pager system
$nexturl full URL to the previous page - IF using the built in pager system
$previousbutton skin template (SEARCH:pager_previous) html for the full URL to the previous page - IF using the built in pager system
$nextbutton skin template (SEARCH:pager_next) html for the full URL to the previous page - IF using the built in pager system
$n or $n() New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar

TIP Most macros accept parameter strings which are split over multiple lines. This is usually more readable than using $n tokens. If you are familiar with sectional includes, you might also consider nested sectional includes to hold the newline content outside of the parameter string entirely.

TIP Note that newline is not a line break. The browser will wrap the lines together. If you require a line break, displaying the results on two lines, use %BR%. Or use two consecutive newlines to create a TML "Paragraph".

$nop or $nop() Is a "no operation". This token gets removed; useful for nested search
$quot Double quote (") (\" also works)
$percent Percent sign (%) ($percnt also works)
$dollar Dollar sign ($)
$lt Less than sign (<)
$gt Greater than sign (>)
$amp Ampersand (&)
$comma Comma (,)

4. format="..." parameter

Use the format parameter to specify the format of one search hit. Example:
format="| $topic | $summary |"

Format tokens that can be used in the format string:

Name: Expands To:
$web Name of the web
$topic Topic name
$topic(20) Topic name, "- " hyphenated every 20 characters
$topic(30, -<br />) Topic name, hyphenated every 30 characters with separator "-<br />"
$topic(40, ...) Topic name, shortened to 40 characters with trailing ellipsis.
$parent Name of parent topic; empty if not set
$parent(20) Name of parent topic, same hyphenation/shortening as $topic()
$text Formatted topic text. In case of a multiple="on" search, it is the line found for each search hit.
$locked LOCKED flag (if any)
$date Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 16 Dec 2024 - 16:19
$isodate Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 2024-12-16T16:19Z
$index number of total results - can be used as a running counter in the format, or in the footer. This $index is not affected by web based partitioning of results.
$item the full name of a result item - in a SEARCH context, equivalent to $web.$topic
$rev Number of last topic revision, e.g. 4
$username Login username of last user to update the topic, e.g. jsmith
$wikiname WikiName of last user to update the topic, e.g. JohnSmith
$wikiusername WikiName of last usr to update the topic, like Main.JohnSmith
$createdate Time stamp of topic revision 1
$createusername Login username of topic revision 1, e.g. jsmith
$createwikiname WikiName of topic revision 1, e.g. JohnSmith
$createwikiusername WikiName topic link of topic revision 1, e.g. Main.JohnSmith
$summary Topic summary, just the plain text, all formatting and line breaks removed; up to 162 characters
$summary(50) Topic summary, up to 50 characters shown
$summary(showvarnames) Topic summary, with %SOMEMACRO{...}% macros shown as SOMEMACRO{...}
$summary(noheader) Topic summary, with leading ---+ headers removed
Note: The tokens can be combined, for example $summary(100, showvarnames, noheader)
$summary(searchcontext) Creates a topic summary with the search terms highlighted
$summary(searchcontext, 50) Creates a topic summary with the search terms highlighted, up to 50 characters
$changes Summary of changes between latest rev and previous rev
$changes(n) Summary of changes between latest rev and rev n
$formname The name of the form attached to the topic; empty if none
$formfield(name) The field value of a form field; for example, if Definition of "WikiWiki" was a search hit, $formfield(TopicClassification) would get expanded to =. This applies only to topics that have a DataForm. For multi-line textfields new lines are replaced by the value of the =newline parameter if it is defined, otherwise by an HTML <br />
$formfield(name, 10) Form field value, "- " hyphenated every 10 characters
$formfield(name, 20, -<br />) Form field value, hyphenated every 20 characters with separator "-<br />"
$formfield(name,30,...) Form field value, shortened to 30 characters with trailing ellipsis.
$formfield(name, display) Form field value after mapping the stored value to the display value (use with +values form fields). You can still use the hyphenation controls described above by placing them after display e.g. $formfield(name, display, 10)
$extract(reg-exp) A regular expression pattern to extract some text from a topic (does not search meta data; use $formfield instead). Escapes some characters to their standard FormatTokens in the discovered text to make embedding in other macros easier. See Using $extract and $pattern below for more information.
$pattern(reg-exp) As $extract, with the difference that $pattern does not escape quotes or precent signs in the result.
$count(reg-exp) Count of number of times a regular expression pattern appears in the text of a topic (does not search meta data). Follows guidelines for use and limitations outlined above under $pattern(reg-exp). Example: $count(.*?(---[+][+][+][+]) .*) counts the number of <H4> headers in a page.
$ntopics Number of topics found in current web. This is the current topic count, not the total number of topics
$nhits Number of hits if multiple="on". Cumulative across all topics in current web. Identical to $ntopics unless multiple="on"
$pager pager control - can be optionally customised using the pagerformat below
$n or $n() New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar

TIP Most macros accept parameter strings which are split over multiple lines. This is usually more readable than using $n tokens. If you are familiar with sectional includes, you might also consider nested sectional includes to hold the newline content outside of the parameter string entirely.

TIP Note that newline is not a line break. The browser will wrap the lines together. If you require a line break, displaying the results on two lines, use %BR%. Or use two consecutive newlines to create a TML "Paragraph".

$nop or $nop() Is a "no operation". This token gets removed; useful for nested search
$quot Double quote (") (\" also works)
$percent Percent sign (%) ($percnt also works)
$dollar Dollar sign ($)
$lt Less than sign (<)
$gt Greater than sign (>)
$amp Ampersand (&)
$comma Comma (,)

Using $extract and $pattern

$extract and $pattern are subtle. These tokens specify a RegularExpression that covers the whole text (of each line found by the search if multiple="on", of the entire topic text otherwise). The regular expression typically starts with .*, and must end in .*

The leading .* matches all the content up to the start of the string you want to find. It will try to match the longest string of characters it can, so if your pattern occurs several times in the content it will always match the last occurence. If you always want to match the first occurrence, use .*? instead.

You _must* end the pattern with .*

Put the section of the pattern that matches the text you want to keep in parenthesis, like this $extract(.*?(from here.*?to here).*)
  • Example: $extract(.*?\*.*?Email\:\s*([^\n\r]+).*) extracts the e-mail address from * Email: ...

Do not use .* inside the parentheses, e.g. $extract(.*foo(.*)bar.*) does not work. You can however use .*? thus $extract(.*foo(.*?)bar.*)

Make sure that the integrity of a web page is not compromised; for example, if you include an HTML table make sure to include everything including the table end tag. $extract will automatically escape "<>&%$ characters so that the string matched by the pattern doesn't break any macros that are wrapped around it. $pattern does not do this, and should be used with care. $extract is only available in Foswiki 2.0 and later.

Examples

Here are some samples of formatted searches. The SearchPatternCookbook has other examples, such as creating a picklist of usernames, searching for topic children and more.

Search showing topic name and summary


%SEARCH{
   "VarREMOTE"
   scope="topic"
   nonoise="on"
   header="| *Topic*        | *Summary*  |"
   format="| [[$topic]]     | $summary   |"
   footer="| *Topics found* | *$ntopics* |"
}%

Click to execute

Table showing form field values of topics with a form

In a web where there is a form that contains a TopicClassification field, an OperatingSystem field and an OsVersion field we could write:


%SEARCH{
   "TopicClassification~'FrequentlyAskedQuestion'"
   type="query"
   nonoise="on"
   header="| *Topic:* | *Summary:* | *Related Topics:* |"
   format="| [[$topic]] | $formfield(TopicSummary) | $formfield(RelatedTopics) |"
}%

Click to execute

Extract some text from a topic using regular expression

The following example makes use of the $pattern() token to extract the first level-1 heading for each topic:


%SEARCH{
    "^---[+][^+][^\r\n]+[\r\n]"
    type="regex"
    nonoise="on"
    header="Headings:"
    limit="5"
    format="   * [[$topic][$pattern([\r\n\-+!]+([^\r\n]*?)[\r\n].*)]]"
    footer="Found $ntopics topics with level-1 headings"
}%

Click to execute

SEARCH is one of many macros that produce output which may be controlled with format, header and footer parameters, among others. To make use of additional macros in the output, familiarity with inside-out, left-to-right order of expansion rules is required. There are two forms:
  1. Standard: Use %INNERMACRO% to build the parameter string before %OUTERMACRO% is expanded
     %OUTERMACRO{
       format="%INNERMACRO%"
     }%
  2. Delayed: Use the parameter string to incorporate %INNERMACRO% into the output of %OUTERMACRO%
     %OUTERMACRO{
       format="$percentINNERMACRO$percent"
     }%
TIP When working with a given macro, consult its documentation to determine which parameters support the $percent/$percnt format tokens. Generally only output parameters like header, format and footer support format tokens.

Standard form
The key to understanding nested expressions in Foswiki is to understand that macros are expanded "inside-out, left-to-right". Example:

%MACRO1{
   something="%MACRO2{
      somethingelse="%MACRO3%, %MACRO4%"
   }%"
}%
The macros are expanded in this order: MACRO3, MACRO4, MACRO2, MACRO1.

Step-by-Step Example

Delayed form
Standard form macros can nearly always be used to build the parameter string of another macro; however, sometimes it is desirable to bypass the inside-out expansion order and delay the inner macro until after the outer macro has finished expansion. This is accomplished by using the $percent format token instead of %, and escaping any " character it uses (becomes \")

TIP When working with a given macro, consult its documentation to determine which parameters support the $percent/$percnt format tokens. Generally only output parameters like header, format and footer support format tokens.
Example:
%MACRO1{
   format="$percentMACRO2{
      format=\"%MACRO3%, %MACRO4%\"
   }$percent"
}%
The macros are expanded in this order: MACRO3, MACRO4, MACRO1, MACRO2.

Step-by-Step Example

From the conditional output example:

Worked example
Problem: search for some topics in an initial (outer) search, and for each of them apply a second (inner) search. The idea is to use the outer search to build a series of inner seraches.

Consider the following example. Let's search for all topics that contain the word "culture" (outer search), and find out where each topic found is linked from (inner search).

Initial (outer) search:
%SEARCH{
   "culture"
   nonoise="on"
   format="   * $topic is referenced by: (list all references)"
}%

Second (inner) search:

For each hit, we want this search:
%SEARCH{
   "(topic found in outer search)"
   nonoise="on"
   format="$topic"
   separator=", "
}%

Now let's nest the two.
Method 1 (nesting with escapes)
The inner search cannot be placed directly into the format string of the outer, because of the "inside-out, left-to-right" macro expansion behaviour discussed earlier. It must be delayed so that the outer search is evaluated first. To do this, we need to escape the inner search, i.e. let the outer search build a series of inner searches, which are executed only when the outer list is complete..
  • Use $percent to escape (delay) the inner search's SEARCH macro
  • Use \" to escape the double quotes
  • Use $dollar to escape the $ of $topic


%SEARCH{
   "culture"
   nonoise="on"
   limit="5"
   format="\
   * [[$topic]] is referenced by:
      * $percentSEARCH{
         \"$topic\"
         nonoise=\"on\"
         format=\"[[$dollartopic]]\"
         separator=\", \"
      }$percent"
}%

Click to execute

ALERT! When nesting with escapes, each new nesting level must "escape the escapes", e.g. write $dollarpercentSEARCH{ for level three, $dollardollarpercentSEARCH{ for level four, etc.

Method 2 (nesting with sectional includes)
Nested expressions with delayed macros can be difficult to write: care must be taken to escape all the quotes of the inner delayed macro, and it may become confusing whether to use $topic, $dollartopic or $dollardollartopic.

If you find yourself using escaped tokens like $dollartopic, another approach is to use the STARTSECTION/ENDSECTION feature of INCLUDE. Instead of nesting the inner search expression directly inside the format string of the outer, the inner search is written as a separate stand-alone section of a topic which is INCLUDEd into the format string of the outer.


%SEARCH{
   "culture"
   nonoise="on"
   limit="5"
   format="\
   * $topic is referenced by:
      * $percentINCLUDE{\"%TOPIC%\" section=\"mysearch\" thetopic=\"$topic\"}$percent"
}%

<verbatim class="foswikiHidden">
%SEARCH{
   "%thetopic%"
   nonoise="on"
   format="$topic"
   separator=", "
}%
</verbatim>

Click to execute

Most recently changed pages


%SEARCH{
   "1"
   type="query"
   nonoise="on"
   order="modified"
   reverse="on"
   limit="7"
   header="| *Topic* | *Changed* | *By* |"
   format="| [[$topic]] | $date  | $wikiusername |"
}%

Click to execute

Search with conditional output

Sometimes it may be desirable for each hit to be displayed differently depending on some criteria. For example, maybe you want to list 20 topics modified in 2009, but decorate the hits which are children of UserDocumentationCategory with an info icon.
  1. Specify a search which returns the hits you need
  2. For each search hit, test the condition that will influence the output using a nested IF statement


%SEARCH{
   "info.date >= d2n('2009-01-01') AND info.date <= d2n('2009-12-31')"
   type="query"
   limit="20"
   format="   * $percentICON{
      \"$percentIF{
         \"'$topic'/parent.name='UserDocumentationCategory'\"
         then=\"info\"
         else=\"gear\"
      }$percent\"
   }$percent [[$topic]]"
}%

Click to execute

info Details:
  • The SEARCH has a delayed ICON. The $percent ensures that ICON is evaluated once for each search hit
  • The ICON contains an IF, which again is delayed with the $percent token and will also be evaluated for each SEARCH hit. Additionally, the inside-out, left-to-right rule discussed earlier means that this IF expression will be evaluated before ICON.
  • If $topic is a child of UserDocumentationCategory, the info icon is used; otherwise, gear.

Embedding search forms to return a formatted result

Use an HTML form and an embedded formatted search on the same topic. You can link them together with an URLPARAM macro. Example:


<input type="text" id="search_field" size="32" />
%BUTTON{"Search" icon="find" id="search_button"}%

<verbatim class="jqLoader" data-section="example7_results" id="result_loader">

<div class="search_results">
%SEARCH{
   "%URLPARAM{"q" encode="entity, quote"}%"
   decode="entity"
   type="keyword"
   nosearch="on"
   format="<div class='search_hit'> [[$web.$topic]]
      <div class='search_summary'>$summary(searchcontext)<!-- --></div> 
      <div class='search_info'>$date, $wikiusername</div>
    </div>"
}%
</div>

</verbatim>

<literal>
<script>
jQuery(function($) {
  function doSearch() {
    $("#result_loader").trigger("refresh", {
      params: {
        q: $("#search_field").val()
      }
    });
    return false;
  };
  $("#search_button").on("click", doSearch);
  $("#search_field").on("keydown", function(ev) {
    if (ev.keyCode == 13) {
      doSearch();
    }
  });
});
</script>
<style>
.search_results em {
  color:red;
}
.search_hit {
  margin-bottom:1em;
}
.search_info a,
.search_info {
  color:#64B000;
}
</style>
</literal>

Search


<div class="search_results">
%SEARCH{
   "%URLPARAM{"q" encode="entity, quote"}%"
   decode="entity"
   type="keyword"
   nosearch="on"
   format="<div class='search_hit'> [[$web.$topic]]
      <div class='search_summary'>$summary(searchcontext)<!-- --></div> 
      <div class='search_info'>$date, $wikiusername</div>
    </div>"
}%
</div>


Related topics: UserDocumentationCategory, SearchHelp, Macros#VarSEARCH, SearchPatternCookbook, RegularExpression

File Attachments

Each topic can have one or more files of any type attached to it by using the Attach screen to upload (or download) files from your local PC. Attachments are stored under revision control: uploads are automatically backed up; all previous versions of a modified file can be retrieved.

What are attachments good for?

File Attachments can be used to archive data, or to create powerful customized groupware solutions, like file sharing and document management systems, and quick Web page authoring.

Document management system

You can use Attachments to store and retrieve documents (in any format, with associated graphics, and other media files); attach documents to topics; collaborate on documents with full revision control; distribute documents on a need-to-know basis using web and topic-level access control; create a central reference library that's easy to share with an user group spread around the world.

File sharing

For file sharing, FileAttachments on a series of topics can be used to quickly create a well-documented, categorized digital download center for all types of files: documents, graphics and other media, drivers and patches, applications; anything you can safely upload!

Web authoring

Through your web browser, you can easily upload graphics (or sound files, or anything else you want to link to on a page) and place them on a single page, or use them across a web, or site-wide.

HELP You can also add graphics - any files - directly, typically by FTP upload. This requires FTP access, and may be more convenient if you have a large number of files to load. FTP-ed files cannot be managed using browser-based attachment controls. You can use your browser to create shortcuts using Macros, like this %H% = HELP.

Attachment Names

Attachment names are stored directly in the server native file system, so filenames are sanitized to prevent use of names that would be unacceptable to the variety of platforms where Foswiki is supported. Note that the rules are different depending on whether or not your installation is configured to support international characters (UseLocale)

Default rules without international character set support.

  • Filenames must only be compose of:
    • "Mixed Alpha-Numeric" characters. (A-Z, a-z and 0-9)
    • May also contain:
      • . (period / decimal point / "dot")
      • _ (Underscore)
      • - (Hyphen or dash)
      • embedded spaces (Will be converted to underscore (_) during upload
  • Any other characters are removed from the filename.
  • Any leading dots or slashes (., \ or /) will be stripped
  • Embedded spaces will be converted to underscore _
  • Certain filenames that might be interpreted as executable code will have .txt appended. (This is set locally by your system administrator)

Attachment name rules with international character set support enabled.

  • Embedded spaces are converted to _ (Underscore).
  • Filenames are filtered according to rules set by your administrator.
  • The default rules will strip the following characters from the filename:
    • Any "whitespace" characters
    • * (Asterisk)
    • ? (Question mark)
    • ~ (Tilde)
    • ^ (Caret / Circumflex)
    • \ (Backslash)
    • $ (Dollar-sign)
    • @ (At-sign)
    • % (Percent-sign)
    • `'" Quotes (Open-quote, Close-quote/Apostrophe, and Double-quote)
    • & (Ampersand)
    • ; (Semicolon)
    • | (Vertical line)
    • <> (Less and Greater signs)
    • [] (Open and close square brackets)
    • And any ASCII control characters (Hex x00-x1f)
  • Any leading dots or slashes (., \ or /) will be stripped
  • Certain filenames that might be interpreted as executable code will have .txt appended. (This is set locally by your system administrator)

Uploading files

  • Click on the [Attach] link at the bottom of the page. The Attach screen lets you browse for a file, add a comment, and upload it. The uploaded file will show up in the file attachment table.
    HELP The topic must already exist. If it does not, it is a two step process: First create the topic, then add the file attachment.
    • Any type of file can be uploaded. Some files that might pose a security risk are renamed, for example: *.php files are renamed to *.php.txt so that no one can place code that would be read in a .php file.
    • Foswiki can limit the file size. This is defined by the %ATTACHFILESIZELIMIT% preference settings, currently set at 10000 kB.
      ALERT! It is not recommended to upload files greater than a few hundred K through a browser. Large files can be extremely slow-loading, and often time out. Use an FTP site for large file uploads.
  • Automatic attachments:
    • When enabled, all files with valid names in a topic's attachment directory are shown as attachments to the topic - even if they were directly copied to the directory and never attached by using an [Attach] link. This is a convenient way to quickly "attach" files to a topic without uploading them one by one; although at the cost of losing audit trail and version control.
      • Before an attachment is shown, the filename is filtered per the above Attachment name rules. If the filtered name is not identical to the actual file name, the file will not be included in the list of attachments
    • To enable this feature, set the {AutoAttachPubFiles} configuration option.
      HELP The automatic attachment feature can only be used by an administrator who has access to the server's file system.
  • Linking to the attached file in the topic:
    • Checking the "Create a link to the attached file" appends a link at the end of the topic. The format can be modified with the %ATTACHEDFILELINKFORMAT% preference setting. Images (files ending in gif, jpg, jpeg or png) are handled by %ATTACHEDIMAGEFORMAT%.
    • The two named preference settings may use the following variables:
      • $filename: the name of the file
      • $fileext: the filename extension (string following the last period, if present) or an empty string.
      • $fileurl: URL encoded version of the filename
      • =$filetime: the time in epoch seconds when the attachment was last modified
      • $comment: the file comment from the upload dialog
      • $size: the filesize (%ATTACHEDIMAGEFORMAT% only)
      • Any standard formatting tokens: $n, $comma, $lt, etc.
      • $name: (deprecated, should no longer be used)

Downloading files

ALERT! There is no access control on individual attachments. If you need control over single files, create a separate topic per file and set topic-level access restrictions for each.

Moving attachment files

An attachment can be moved between topics.
  • Click [Manage] on the Attachment to be moved.
  • On the control screen, select the new web and/or topic.
  • Click [Move]. The attachment and its version history are moved. The original location is stored as topic meta data.

Deleting attachments

Move unwanted Attachments to web Trash, topic TrashAttachment.

Linking to attached files

  • To reference an attachment located in another topic, enter:
    • %PUBURL%/%WEB%/OtherTopic/Sample.txt (if it's within the same web)
    • %PUBURL%/Otherweb/OtherTopic/Sample.txt (if it's in a different web)

  • Attached HTML files and text files can be inlined in a topic. Example:
    1. [Attach] file: Sample.txt
    2. [Edit] topic and write text: %INCLUDE{"%ATTACHURL%/Sample.txt"}%

  • GIF, JPG and PNG images can be attached and shown embedded in a topic. Example:
    1. [Attach] an image file, for example: Smile.gif
    2. [Edit] topic and write text: %ATTACHURL%/Smile.gif
    3. [Preview]: text appears as /pub/System/FileAttachment/Smile.gif, an image.

Securing Attachments

In most installations, attachments are not secured. Anyone can read them if they know the name of the web, topic and attachment.

To secure attachments, you have to control access to the attachments through the viewfile script, which requires a change in your web server configuration. To see how to configure Apache to do this, see https://foswiki.org/Support/ApacheConfigGenerator#Attachments

Examples

Following you will find some examples of screens and tables related to this topic and referenced throughout the previous text. The appearance of these tables might vary, depending on what skin is used on your Foswiki installation.

File attachment table

Files attached to a topic are displayed in a directory table, showing the different file names and attributes. An h means the attachment is hidden and not listed when viewing a topic in normal mode.

The file attachment table is normally displayed at the bottom of the page, or optionally, hidden and accessed when you click [Attach].

Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
txttxt Sample.txt manage 0.1 K 22 Jul 2000 - 19:37 ProjectContributor Just a sample
gifgif Smile.gif manage 0.1 K 22 Jul 2000 - 19:38 ProjectContributor Smiley face

File attachment controls

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

Here, you have different options:
  • To update an existing file, choose the updated file on your local drive and click [Update file]. The filename of the original attachment will preserved; the filename of the local file you chose will not be used.
  • To change the comment on an attachment, enter a new comment and then click [Change comment and properties only]. Note that the comment listed against the specific version will not change, however the comment displayed when viewing the topic does change.
  • To hide/unhide an attachment, enable the Do not show attachment in table checkbox, then click [Change comment and properties only].

Attach new file

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

Comment

Describe the file so other people know what it is.

Properties

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

Attachments will not be shown in topic view page.

or Cancel

Data Forms

Structured data, how to set up and work with data forms.

Overview

Next to freeform topic contents, each topic can store additional data in name/value pairs.

Topic data is normally not visible when you view a topic (except for a small table at the bottom of the topic - dependent on the used skin). Topic data works "behind the scenes" and facilitates searches, reports and custom displays.

Topic data, or better: structured data, can be used in many ways. The Foswiki Support questions serves as a demonstration how topic data can be used:
  • To create a complete list of "Support Questions" topics
  • To show a subset of all questions that have not been answered yet
  • To display the title and subject of each question

Another uses for structured data could be:
  • Create a list of all contributions of one particular author
  • Create a quick report of all employee names and phone numbers
  • Create a software documentation repository
  • Create and track tasks
  • Create a bug tracker

To work with topic data, you will need 3 things:
  1. The data definition, specified in a table in a "data form" topic. The table lists all fields and their types - see The data definition.
  2. The web's WebPreferences needs to list the form in the WEBFORMS setting - see Enabling forms.
  3. The form must get connected to the topic - see Adding a form to a topic.
Then you are ready to enter data values for each topic.

Optional further steps are:
  1. Create a template topic so that new topics based on that template have the form already added - see Template topics.
  2. Build an HTML form to create new topics based on that template topic, or to pass field values from the HTML form to the data form.
  3. Expand form fields into the text using the %FORMFIELD% macro - see VarFORMFIELD
  4. Create a custom View Template to display your data. See SkinTemplates and AutoViewTemplatePlugin.
  5. Build a search to create a report from the stored data

For a step by step tutorial, see the FAQ How can I create a simple data form based application?.

Sometimes new users with a web programming background are confused how "data forms" and "HTML forms" are related. They are not related. But you'll see later on that you can use web forms to pass data to a topic data form.

The data definition

Topics can store data as name/value pairs, or form fields. The attributes of each form field are specified in the data definition, which is an ordinary topic.

The data form topic

The data definition is defined in a TML table and looks like this:
| *Name*  | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Description* | *Attributes* | *Default* |
| TopicTitle | text | 100 | | Title of the topic | H | |
| Version | select | 1 | Version in SVN,Foswiki 1.1.4,Foswiki 1.1.3,Foswiki 1.1.2,Foswiki 1.1.1 | | | |
| Status | select | 1 | Asked,More info required,Answered | Mandatory status | M | Asked |
| Related Topics | textboxlist | | | | | |
In the next section we'll go into the details of the table contents.

The name of the data form topic usually ends with "Form". For example, the form topic for the Support Questions is named "QuestionForm". The form topic can be placed in any web, but usually this is in the same web as the topics that will be using it.

Topic types
You could consider the data form topic as the data type. For instance, all topics that use the form QuestionForm are topics of type "Question".

A useful core feature of Foswiki 1.1 is the automatic selection of view and edit templates based on the name of the form attached to a topic. With this we are really starting build up a topic as something resembling a typed object: its form name being the type identifier, and its form+templates as the details of its implementation. See AutoViewTemplatePlugin for details of this feature.

General Notes:
  • The topic definition is not read when a topic is viewed.
  • Form definition topics can be protected in the usual manner, using AccessControl, to limit who can change the form definition and/or individual value lists. Note that view access is required to be able to edit topics that use the form definition, though view access to the form definition is not required to view a topic where the form has been used.

The form table

A form is to a web as a table is to a database. -- Andrew Steele

The data form table is a kind of spreadsheet:
  • Each row of the table specifies one form field
  • The table header defines what attributes of the form fields need to be specified

The data form table contains up to 7 columns. The first three (Name, Type and Size) are required, the others are optional.
  1. Name
  2. Type
  3. Size
  4. Values
  5. Description
  6. Attributes
  7. Default

Header row
Data form tables often have an optional header row as a useful reminder of the column names:
| *Name*  | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Description* | *Attributes* | *Default* |

Form field rows
One form field is defined by each row in the table.

Name The name of the form field; must be unique for that form.
Type The data type: text, date, single or multi-value, labels (read-only). The type also defines how form field data can be entered in the edit screen, such as text field or radio buttons.
Size The input size of the form field inputs on the edit screen.
Values For checkboxes, radio buttons and dropdown lists: predefined input to select from. More advanced: this can be a dynamically generated list of values.
Description A message that describes the field.
Attributes Attributes controlling how the field is displayed.
Default NEW if there is a default column, its value (or lack of value) is used as the default for new fields. This allows you to default the value of select, radio and checkbox to something other than the first values element

Form field attributes

Name
The name of the form field.

  • Names have to be unique for each data definition.
  • A very few field names are reserved. If you try to use one of these names, Foswiki will automatically append an underscore to the name when the form is used. But do not use the field name undefined (or any variant of that name, such as UnDefined), as that name is reserved for use in search queries.
  • You can space out the title of the field, and it will still find the topic e.g. Aeroplane Manufacturers is equivalent to AeroplaneManufacturers.
  • If a label field has no name, it will not be shown when the form is viewed, only when it is edited.
  • Field names can in theory include any text, but you should stick to alphanumeric characters.
    • Leading and trailing spaces do not matter.
    • The field name used for a select, checkbox or radio field, can also be a topic-name used to fetch values from that topic.
    • You can use [[...]] double bracket links to link to a topic/field name that is not a wiki word.
    • You can also use square bracket links in the form of [[topicname][field name]] to use a field name other than the topic name. ie. [[ComputerManufacturers][Made by]]
    (In this example, the topic ComputerManufacturers is used to fetch values for the Madeby field.)
    • Spaces will be stripped from the field name. ie: Made by becomes Madeby.
    • Releases prior to Foswiki 2.0 also stripped characters other than A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and _. So a field named Fühler would be stored as Fhler. The same field name on Foswiki 2.0 is stored as Fühler. (See UpgradeGuide for more information.}

Type
The data type defines the kind of input: text, date, single or multi-value, or labels (read-only). This is done by setting the type of interface control on the edit screen: checkbox, radio button, text field, and so on.

The control appearance is also specified by size and (initial) value. More on those attributes below.

Type Description Size attribute Value attribute Modifiers
checkbox One or more checkboxes. How many checkboxes will be displayed on each line. A comma-separated list of item labels. checkbox+buttons will add Set and Clear buttons to the basic checkbox type.
checkbox+values allows the definition of values that are different to the displayed text.
date A single-line text box and a calendar icon button next to it; clicking on the button will bring up a calendar from which the user can select a date. The date can also be typed into the text box. The text box width in characters. The initial text (unless default column exists).  
label Read-only label text.   The text of the label.  
radio Like checkbox except that radio buttons are mutually exclusive; only one can be selected. radio+values allows the definition of values that are different to the displayed text.
select A select box / dropdown. A fixed size for the box (e.g. 1, or a range e.g. 3..10. To get a dropdown, use size 1.
If you specify a range, the box will never be smaller than 3 items, never larger than 10, and will be 5 high if there are only 5 options.
A comma-separated list of options for the box. select+multi turns multiselect on for the select, to allow Shift+Click and Ctrl+Click to select (or deselect) multiple items.
select+values allows the definition of values that are different to the displayed text. You can combine these modifiers e.g. select+multi+values
text A one-line text field. The text box width in number of characters. The initial (default) content when a new topic is created with this form definition (unless default column exists).  
textarea A multi-line text box. Size in columns x rows, e.g. 80x6; default size is 40x5. The initial text (unless default column exists).  

Example of select+values
A formfield definition like:
| Field 9 | select+values | 1 | One, Two=2, Three=III, Four | Various values formats |

displays as:

The generated HTML code reveals that the form values differ from the option labels:
<select name="Field9" size="1" class="foswikiSelect">
<option value="One" class="foswikiOption">One</option>
<option value="2" class="foswikiOption">Two</option>
<option value="III" class="foswikiOption">Three</option>
<option value="Four" class="foswikiOption">Four</option>
</select>

Extending the range of form data types
Some plugins add data types. For instance, JQueryPlugin's sub-plugin JQueryFarbtastic adds the data type color:
| *Name*  | *Type* | *Size* |
| MyColor | color | 10 |

Example (click in the field to view):


Note to extension developers
Such extended data types are single-valued (can only have one value) with the following exceptions:
  • any type name starting with checkbox
  • any type name with +multi anywhere in the name
Types with names like this can both take multiple values.

Size
The input size of the form field inputs on the edit screen. The size acts a bit different for each type - see the Type table above.

Values
For checkboxes, radio buttons and dropdown lists: predefined input to select from. More advanced: this can be a dynamically generated list of values.

  • The field value will be used to initialize a field when a form is created (unless default column exists), unless specific values are given by the topic template or query parameters. The first item in the list for a select or radio type is the default item. For label, text, and textarea fields the value may also contain commas. checkbox fields cannot be initialized through the form definition.
  • Leading and trailing spaces do not matter.
  • Field values can also be generated through a FormattedSearch, which must yield a suitable table as the result.
  • Macros in the initial values of a form definition get expanded when the form definition is loaded.
    • If you want to use a | character in the initial values field, you have to precede it with a backslash, thus: \|.
      • \| escaping is _only active in the Values column. It is not usable elsewhere. Use &vbar; or &#124; in other columns.
    • You can use <nop> to prevent macros from being expanded.
    • The Format tokens can be used to prevent expansion of other characters.

Default
If this column exists in the form definition, then it will be used to determine the default value for a field. It over-rides all defaulting from the Values column.

How to retrieve values from other topics
If you have rows defined like this:
| *Name*  | *Type* | *Size* |
| AeroplaneManufacturers | select | |
... Foswiki will look for the topic AeroplaneManufacturers to get the possible values for the select field.

The Values column must be empty.

The AeroplaneManufacturers topic must contain a table, where each row of the table describes a possible value. The table only requires one column, Name. Other columns may be present, but are ignored.

For example:
| *Name* |
| Routan |
| Focke-Wulf |
| De Havilland |

How to set field values using a macro
A powerful way to populate selectable field values is by using SEARCH to generate a comma-separated list of values.

For example, to create a list of documentation topics whose name contain "Wiki", you write:
| *Name*  | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* |
| Subject | select+multi | 10 | ,%SEARCH{ \
   "Wiki" \
   scope="topic" \
   web="%SYSTEMWEB%" \
   nonoise="on" \
   type="regex" \
   format="$topic" \
   separator=", " \
}% |
Note the use of the backslash to be able to write the macro in a more readable way using multiple lines. The comma just before the SEARCH means "empty value" to make it possible to select none.

Sometimes you have a topic with a bullet list that can be used as selectable values. The rather advanced SEARCH expression would be:
| Subject | select+multi | 10 | ,%SEARCH{ \
   "   *\s*.*?" \
   topic="QuestionSubjectCategory" \
   type="regex" \
   multiple="on" \
   casesensitive="on" \
   nonoise="on" \
   separator="," \
   format="$pattern(.*   \*\s*([^\n]*).*)" \
}% | | |
You are not expected to write these kind of search expressions yourself, but if you like you can find more of these in Search Pattern Cookbook.

Fields and linefeeds
Some browsers may strip linefeeds from text fields when a topic is saved. If you need linefeeds in a field, make sure it is a textarea.

Description
Description of the field. Sometimes used in help information.

Attributes
Whether the field is mandatory or hidden when viewed.

H Indicates that this field should not be shown in view mode. However, the field is available for editing and storing information.
M Indicates that this field is mandatory. The topic cannot be saved unless a value is provided for this field. If the field is found empty during topic save, the user is presented with an error message. Mandatory fields are indicated by an asterisk next to the field name.

Multiple attributes can be entered, separated by spaces:
| TopicTitle | text | 100 | | | H M |

Enabling forms

Before connecting topics to a data definition, the definition must be enabled in the Web's WebPreferences topic.

This is done by adding the form topic name to the WEBFORMS setting. The setting accepts a comma-separated list of form topics:
   * Set WEBFORMS = BugForm, FeatureForm, Books.BookLoanForm, %USERSWEB%.UserForm
As you can see, form topics located in other webs can be added by using their web prefix.

You have to list the available form topics explicitly. You cannot use a SEARCH to define WEBFORMS.

Adding a form to a topic

With WEBFORMS enabled, a form can be added or changed on the edit screen.

Manual operation

  1. Add a form: click the "Add form" button and select one of the forms in the list.
  2. Switching or removing a form: click the "Change form" button and select another one, or none, from the list.

Automatically adding a form to a new topic

Using a template topic
If you don't want users to select a form themselves, this step can be automated by using a template topic that has the form connected.

For example, Question topics on foswiki.org are created using QuestionTemplate:
%META:FORM{name="QuestionForm"}%
%META:FIELD{name="TopicTitle" attributes="H" title="TopicTitle" value=""}%
%META:FIELD{name="Subject" attributes="" title="Subject" value=""}%
%META:FIELD{name="Status" attributes="M" title="Status" value="Asked"}%
In the template initial field values can be set, like the "Status" field in this example.

Using the edit template
If you will use only one form in a web, you can also modify the web's WebTopicEditTemplate topic to contain the form reference.

Using url parameters
You can also pass the formtemplate parameter to the edit (not save) URL. Initial values can then be provided in the URLs or as form values.

For example:
%SCRIPTURL{edit}%/%WEB%/KnowledgeTopicAUTOINC00001?formtemplate=MyForm;Subject=FAQWhatIsWikiWiki;Category=One;Category=Two;action=form

  • XxxYyyAUTOINC00001: creates a new auto-numbered topic name with base "XxxYyy" - see automatically generate unique topic names
  • formtemplate: specifies the form topic, like: formtemplate=MyForm
  • form values: name=value, like: Subject=FAQWhatIsWikiWiki
  • form values with multiple values like checkboxes: name=value1;name=value2, like: Category=One;Category=Two
  • action=form: shows the topic data form and hides the topic text form

Using a web form to create a topic and pass data

If you want to create+save a topic instead of bringing up the edit screen, you must use a web form.

The same parameters as above can be set in HTML (hidden) form fields:
<form name="newtopic" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{"save"}%/Sandbox/" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="formtemplate" value="SimpleForm" />
<input type="hidden" name="topic" value="KnowledgeTopicAUTOINC00001" />
<input type="hidden" name="Subject" value="FAQWhatIsWikiWiki" />
<input type="hidden" name="Category" value="One" />
<input type="hidden" name="Category" value="Two" />
<input type="submit" class="foswikiSubmit" value="Create topic" />
</form>

Creates:
For an overview of web form parameters, see CGI and Command Line Scripts.

Changing a form

You can change a form definition, and Foswiki will try to make sure you don't lose any data from the topics that use that form.

  • If you change the form definition, the changes will not take affect in a topic that uses that form until you edit and save it.
  • If you add a new field to the form, then it will appear next time you edit a topic that uses the form.
  • If you delete a field from the form, or change a field name, then the data will not be visible when you edit the topic (the changed form definition will be used). If you save the topic, the old data will be lost (though thanks to revision control, you can always see it in older versions of the topic)
  • If two people edit the same topic containing a form at exactly the same time, and both change fields in the form, Foswiki will try to merge the changes so that no data is lost.

Searching in form data

The best way to search in form data is using the structured query language in the SEARCH macro.

As an example, the search used on Foswiki Support questions is:
%SEARCH{
   "QuestionForm.Status='Asked'"
   type="query"
   excludetopic="QuestionTemplate"
   web="%WEB%"
   format="   * [[$web.$topic][$formfield(TopicTitle)]] $formfield(Subject)"
   order="formfield(Extension)"
   nonoise="on"
}%
For a step by step tutorial, see the FAQ How can I create a simple data form based application?.

See SEARCH for an overview of SEARCH parameters, and Query Search for the query language specifics.

Template topics

Foswiki uses several types of templates. Template topics are topics that define the default text for new topics.

(If you are looking for templates used to display existing topics, see SkinTemplates. These are combined with DataForms for custom presentation of topic data (View Template) and custom editing (Edit Template).

Overview

There are four types of template topics:

Topic Name: What it is:
WebCreateNewTopicTemplate Page shown when you click on a newtopic Create New Topic link. It provides a form requesting the necessary information to create a new, nonexistent topic.
TopicDoesNotExistViewTemplate Alert page shown when you try to view a nonexistent topic and usually used as a prompt to help you create this new topic. For this reason, the form of the WebCreateNewTopicTemplate is included and therefore shown, too.
WebTopicEditTemplate Default text used in a new topic.
<MyCustomNamed>Template Whenever you create a topic ending in the word "Template", it is automatically added to the list of available template topics in the "Use Template" drop down field on the WebCreateNewTopic page.

When you create a new topic using the edit script, the system locates a template topic according to the following search order:
  1. A topic name specified by the templatetopic CGI parameter
    • if no web is specified, the current web is searched first and then the System web
  2. WebTopicEditTemplate in the current web
  3. WebTopicEditTemplate in the System web

Macro expansion

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

Macro: Description:
%DATE% Signature format date. See VarDATE
%GMTIME% Date/time. See VarGMTIME
%GMTIME{...}% Formatted date/time. See VarGMTIME
%NOP% A no-operation macro that gets removed. Useful to prevent a SEARCH from hitting an edit template topic; also useful to escape a variable, such as %URLPA%NOP%RAM{...}% escaping URLPARAM
%STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
...
%ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
Text that gets removed when a new topic based on the template topic is created. See notes below.
%STARTSECTION{type="expandvariables"}%
...
%ENDSECTION{type="expandvariables"}%
All Foswiki macros enclosed in this section type are expanded when a new topic based on the template topic is created. Otherwise only the macros listed in this table are expanded.
%SERVERTIME% Date/time. See VarSERVERTIME
%SERVERTIME{...}% Formatted date/time. See VarSERVERTIME
%USERNAME% Login username of user who is instantiating the new topic, e.g. guest (On some systems this will be the same as the WikiName).
%URLPARAM{"name"}% Value of a named URL or HTTP POST parameter
%WIKINAME% WikiName of user who is creating the new topic, e.g. WikiGuest
%WIKIUSERNAME% User name of user who is creating the new topic, e.g. Main.WikiGuest

Macro notes:

%STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
...
%ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
markers are used to embed text that you do not want expanded when a new topic based on the template topic is created. For example, you might want to write in the template topic:
%STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
This template topic can only be changed by:
   * Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = Main.AdminGroup
%ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
This will restrict who can edit the template topic, but will get removed when a new topic based on that template topic is created.

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

All other macros are unchanged, e.g. are carried over "as is" into the new topic, unless they are contained within a %STARTSECTION{type="expandvariables"}% section.

Specifying a form

When you create a new topic based on a template topic, you often want the new topic to have a form attached to it. You can attach a form to the template topic, in which case it will automatically be copied into the new topic.

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

See CommandAndCGIScripts for information about this, and all the other parameters to edit.

Automatically generated topic names

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

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

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

Template topics in action

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

New example topic:  

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

<form name="new" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{edit}%/%SANDBOXWEB%/" method="post">
New example topic: <input type="text" name="topic" class="foswikiInputField" value="ExampleTopicAUTOINC0001" size="30" />&nbsp;<input type="submit" class="foswikiSubmit" value="Create" />
<input type="hidden" name="templatetopic" value="ExampleTopicTemplate" />
<input type="hidden" name="topicparent" value="%TOPIC%" />
<input type="hidden" name="onlywikiname" value="on" />
<input type="hidden" name="onlynewtopic" value="on" />
</form>

ALERT! Note: You can create a topic in one step, without going through the edit screen. To do that, specify the save script instead of the edit script in the form action. When you specify the save script you must use the "post" method. Example:
<form name="new" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{save}%/Sandbox/" method="post">
    ...
</form>

See CommandAndCGIScripts for details of the parameters that the edit script understands.

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

Using absolute vs relative URLs in templates

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

Skin Templates

The framework used to render output.

Overview

Skin Templates are plain text with embedded template directives, macros and tokens that are expanded by Foswiki to build an output page, usually HTML.

(If you are looking for the template used as 'starter text' for new topics. see TemplateTopics.)

Skin templates are used when composing the output from all actions, such as view, edit, and preview. By sharing common template definitions between all these actions, it makes it easy to change the look and feel of all pages by editing just a few templates.

Skin templates are either stored as text files with the extension .tmpl in the templates/ directory, or in Foswiki topics.

Template directives are expanded when the template is loaded, and are used to define the general structure of the output. Macros and Template Tokens are expanded when the page is rendered, and fill in page-specific information.

Note that Macros and Tokens are written using the same syntax. See Macros for more information on macros.

Tokens look exactly like Macros, but they are specific for the script expanding the template, and cannot be used elsewhere in Foswiki. See SkinTemplateTokens for more information on tokens.

How Template Directives Work

Template directives look a lot like standard Macros.
  • %TMPL:INCLUDE{"file"}% includes a template file. The file is found as described below.
  • %TMPL:DEF{"name"}% defines a block. All text between this and the next %TMPL:END% directive is removed and saved for later use with %TMPL:P%.
  • %TMPL:END% ends a block definition.
  • %TMPL:PREV%: returns the previous definition of the block being defined.
  • %TMPL:P{"name"}% includes a previously defined block.
  • %{...}% is a comment. Whitespace either side of the comment (newlines, spaces, tabs etc) is treated as part of the comment, and removed when the comment is removed.
You can use a block before or after declaring it. If you define the same block twice, only the second definition is used.

ALERT! Most template directives work only for templates: they do not get processed in normal topic text. The one exception is %TMPL:P.

Parameters to blocks

%TMPL:DEF% and %TMPL:P% support simple parameters.

Parameters are only available in the immediate definition being included; they are not passed on to any other TMPL:P inside the TMPL:DEF being expanded unless they are passed on explicitly in a new parameter.

Block parameters
For example, we can define a parameter P inside a block:
%TMPL:DEF{"x"}% x%P%z %TMPL:END%
then pass a value to that parameter:
%TMPL:P{"x" P="y"}%
This will expand to xyz.

Block definition parameters
Default parameter values can be set in the definition:
%TMPL:DEF{"x" y="1"}% x%y%z %TMPL:END%
then
%TMPL:P{"x"}%
will expand to x1z.

You can also use a parameter inside a default parameter:
%TMPL:DEF{"x" y="%value%"}% x%y%z %TMPL:END%
then
%TMPL:P{"x" value="1000"}%
will expand to x1000z.

Naming
Any alphanumeric characters can be used in parameter names. TMPL:P parameters override any other possible definition of the name, so you should not use parameter names that might clash with Macros.

Conditional expansion

Using context identifiers
Three parameter names, context, then and else are reserved. They are used to support a limited form of "if" condition that you can use to select which of two TMPL:DEF to expand, based on a context identifier:
%TMPL:DEF{"link_inactive"}%<input type="button" disabled value="Link>%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"link_active"}%<input type="button" onclick="link()" value="Link" />%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:P{context="inactive" then="link_inactive" else="link_active"}% for %CONTEXT%
When the inactive context is set, then this will expand the link_inactive TMPL:DEF; otherwise it will expand link_active.

This style of conditional expansion is used in preference to the %IF{} macro where possible because it is much more efficient.

See If Statements: Context identifiers for details of supported context identifiers.

Using parameters
The mechanism to pass parameters to blocks can be used to conditionally call different template blocks. For example:
%TMPL:DEF{"conditional" tmpl="default"}%
%TMPL:P{"%tmpl%"}%
%TMPL:END%

%TMPL:DEF{"default"}%
This is a default template.
%TMPL:END%

%TMPL:DEF{"special"}%
This is a special template.
%TMPL:END%

...
%TMPL:P{"conditional" tmpl="special"}%

TMPL:INCLUDE recursion

You can use recursion with %TMPL:INCLUDE% for piecewise customisation, or mixing in new features.

If there is a recursion in the %TMPL:INCLUDE% chain (eg. view.tmpl contains %TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%), the templating system will detect that you are trying to include the same template again, and will instead include the next version of the template of that name that it finds in the template path.

For example, say you only want to override the breadcrumbs for the view script. You could create a tempate called view.crumbless.tmpl:
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%
%TMPL:DEF{"breadcrumb"}% We don't want any crumbs %TMPL:END%
and then * Set SKIN=crumbless,pattern

Remember: the template path contains the most specific template first.

Comments

Comments %{...}% are removed from the templates as soon as the file is read, before any other template macros are evaluated. Whitespace either side of the comment (newlines, spaces, tabs etc) is also removed.

Finding Skin Templates

Most skin templates are stored in .tmpl files in the templates directory. For example, templates/view.tmpl is the default skin template file for the bin/view script. You can also save skin templates in user topics.

The {TemplatePath} configuration setting (in the Miscellaneous section of the configure page) defines which directories, files and Foswiki topics will be recognised as containing templates.

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

All other templates are searched for using the {TemplatePath}. This is a list of generic name patterns, each of which contains the placeholders $name (the template name), $web (the web), and $skin (the skin), each standing in for part of the name. Each entry in this list is expanded in turn until the template is found.

The rules defined by the out-of-the-box setting of {TemplatePath} are:
  1. templates/$web/$name.$skin.tmpl
  2. templates/$name.$skin.tmpl
  3. $web.$skinSkin$nameTemplate
  4. System.$skinSkin$nameTemplate
  5. templates/$web/$name.tmpl
  6. templates/$name.tmpl
  7. $web.$nameTemplate
  8. System.$nameTemplate
For example, let's say we are viewing a topic in web Sandbox and are searching for the template called function. The skin path is set to custom,pattern. The following locations will be considered in turn, until a template is found:
  1. templates/Sandbox/function.custom.tmpl (rule 1) dead, deadly, doom
  2. templates/Sandbox/function.pattern.tmpl (rule 1) dead, deadly, doom
  3. templates/function.custom.tmpl (rule 2)
  4. templates/function.pattern.tmpl (rule 2)
  5. Sandbox.CustomSkinFunctionTemplate (rule 3)
  6. Sandbox.PatternSkinFunctionTemplate (rule 3)
  7. System.CustomSkinFunctionTemplate (rule 4)
  8. System.PatternSkinFunctionTemplate (rule 4)
  9. templates/Sandbox/function.tmpl (rule 5) dead, deadly, doom
  10. templates/function.tmpl (rule 6)
  11. Sandbox.FunctionTemplate (rule 7)
  12. System.FunctionTemplate (rule 8)
ALERT! dead, deadly, doom This usage is supported for compatibility only and is deprecated. Store web-specific templates in topics instead.

When a skin name or template name is used to build a topic name, the first character is automatically capitalised.

When a SubWeb is used, the $web reference must be qualified with a dot (.), not slash (/). For instance: If SANDBOXWEB above is a SubWeb, then the reference must be SANDBOXWEB = Sandbox.SubWeb. Sandbox/SubWeb does not work.

The skin path is set as described in Skins.

Template file names are usually derived from the name of the currently executing script; however it is also possible to override these settings in the view and edit scripts, for example when a topic-specific template is required. Two preference settings can be used to override the skin templates used:
  • VIEW_TEMPLATE sets the template to be used for viewing a topic.
  • EDIT_TEMPLATE sets the template for editing a topic.
If these preferences are set then the indicated templates will be chosen for view and edit respectively. The template search order remains as specified above.

Note that the topic name specified as a template may need to be fully qualified with Web and SubWeb. E.g.
   * Set VIEW_TEMPLATE = Web.SubWeb.SpecificViewTemplate
Also the qualification needs to be given in the form Web.SubWeb.TopicTemplate as in the example; Web/SubWeb.TopicTemplate or Web/SubWeb/TopicTemplate does not work.

Security and usability

Setting the {TemplatePath} is a compromise between the often opposing goals of security and usability. From a security perspective, allowing templates to be loaded from topics might open a door to people who want to inject their own evil HTML in those topics. From a usability perspective, it's very desireable to be able to override templates from topics, as it vastly increases the range of wiki applications.

The default {TemplatePath} comes down on the side of usability, by allowing templates from topics to be found before templates from the (more secure) templates directory. If you are particularly security concious, you may want to reverse this order, so that templates in templates/ are always found before those in topics. You can do this by simply moving rules 3 and 7 to the end of the list.

Note that topics containing templates are checked for VIEW access using the normal Foswiki access controls. Any access control failure is silently ignored, and the template path expansion continues.

Developing new templates

Debugging

When writing new templates, it can sometimes it can be hard to work out where different parts of the generated output come from. To help you debug your new templates, the Foswiki::Templates module has a "trace" mode. In this mode, the HTML source created is annotated with HTML comments that are wrapped around the output generated by each template, as it is expanded. For example, when trace mode is off,
%TMPL:DEF{"x:y"}% de %TMPL:END%
blah %TMPL:P{"x:y"}% blah
will expand to:
blah  de  blah
With tracing enabled, the HTML source will look like:
blah <!--x:y--> de <!--/x:y--> blah
To enable the trace mode, edit lib/Foswiki/Templates.pm in your installation and change use constant TRACE => 0 to use constant TRACE => 1.

Note that the trace annotations may make your output look strange. However you can usually "view source" in the browser to see what was generated (or you may be able to run the script from the command-line e.g. cd bin; perl -T -I . view topic=MyWeb.MyTopic skin=mynewskin).

IDEA! Don't forget to switch the trace mode off again when you are finished!

Overview of the default templates

Finally, here's a very high-level overview of the default templates. These templates are rarely used on their own, but are used as the base on which skins, such as PatternSkin, are built.

foswiki.tmpl is the default master template. The main purpose of this template is to instantiate the following blocks:
  • htmldoctype - start of all HTML pages
  • bodystart - start of the body tag
  • main - page content
  • bodyend - end of the page
Default definitions are provided for each of these blocks. foswiki.tmpl is never used on its own, but is frequently included by other templates.

Next, there are a number of action-specific templates, such as view.tmpl, edit.tmpl, login.tmpl. These are the templates loaded by the actions of the same name. Their purpose is to include foswiki.tmpl, and provide new, page-specific, definitions of the blocks described above.

Several of the action-specific templates have skinned versions, such as view.print.tmpl and view.text.tmpl. These skinned versions are used to view the page in a specific way - for printing, or as plain text, for example.

Template processing

The templates that render topic text are typically broken up into 3 areas, divided by a token %TEXT%.
..header area before any topic text...
%TEXT%  (will be substituted with topic text)
...footer area after the topic text...

When the core expands the template, it happens in 3 phases
  1. Macros are expanded and TML is rendered in the header area before the %TEXT% token, with context header_text set.
  2. The topic text then has its macros expanded, and TML rendered with context body_text set. The results replaces the %TEXT% token.
  3. Finally the footer area has it's macros expanded and TML rendered in the area after the %TEXT% token with context footer_text set.

The contexts - header_text, body_text and footer_text are not used by the Foswiki core, but can be used by extensions during macro expansion to determine which part of the page is being processed.

Other important templates:

messages.tmpl is an important template; it provides the basic definitions of all error and warning messages that Foswiki issues. These are defined using the %MAKETEXT macro to simplify translation into different languages.

attachtables.tmpl is another template worthy of separate mention. This template defines the different parts of the page that are involved in displaying tables of attachments. The blocks defined in this template are instantiated directly from code, rather than via %TMPL:P.

The remainder of the templates are used for varying purposes; their names, or introductory comments, should clarify.

A skin can provide a new version of any or all of these templates, depending on the depth of customisation. See the template files named *.pattern.* to see what PatternSkin defines.


Related Topics: Skins Macros JavascriptFiles

Foswiki Skins

Skins overlay regular templates to give different looks and feels to Foswiki screens.

Overview

Foswiki uses SkinTemplates as the basis of all the screens it uses to interact with users. Each screen has an associated template file that contains the basic layout of the screen. This is then filled in by the code to generate what you see in the browser.

Foswiki ships with a default set of template files that give a very basic, CSS-themable, look-and-feel. Foswiki also includes support for skins that can be selected to give different, more sophisticated, look and feel. A default Foswiki installation will usually start up with the PatternSkin already selected. Skins may also be defined by third parties and loaded into a Foswiki installation to give more options. To see how Foswiki looks when no skin is selected, view this topic with a non-existant skin.

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

See other types of extensions: AddOns, Contribs, Plugins

Installing Skins

  • Use /bin/configure to browse or search the list of extensions available from Foswiki.org, and to install the extension.
  • Or, use the tools/extension_installer script to download and install the extension.
  • Or, download an extension package from some other source, and unzip it.
  • Follow any special installation instructions in the Skin topic.

Changing the default skin

Foswiki ships with the PatternSkin activated by default. You can set the skin for the whole site (via SitePreferences), a single web (via its WebPreferences topic) or topic, for each user individually, or even per request - see Activating Skins below for more details.

Defining Skins

You may want to define your own skin, for example to comply with corporate web guidelines, or because you have a aesthetic vision that you want to share. There are a couple of places you can start doing this.

SkinTemplates are located by looking at a list of possible locations, including topics and files in the templates directory. The lookup process is configurable, and is described in SkinTemplates You can choose to define your skin entirely in topics, entirely in files in templates, or in a mixture of both.

The easiest way to start creating a new skin is to layer it over an existing skin, only overriding those parts of the existing skin that you want to customise. Foswiki can be configured to fall back to another skin if a template is not defined in your skin. A custom skin can be as small as one file!

Most skins, even those that look radically different to the default, use this layering approach, by basing themselves on the default skin templates (those template files with no skin name e.g view.tmpl, edit.tmpl etc). These templates provide a minimal interface that is easy to understand and build on. Another advantage of this approach is that if new features are exposed in the default templates, your skin has a chance to pick them up "for free".

If you use PatternSkin as your starting point, and you want to modify the layout, colors or even the templates to suit your own needs, have a look first at the topics PatternSkinCustomization and PatternSkinCssCookbook. These topics also provide practical instructions how to create custom skin template files.

ALERT! Note: Don't call your skin text or rss as these two skin names have reserved meanings, see below at hard-coded meanings.

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

(Certain template files are expected to provide certain TMPL:DEFs - these are listed in sub-bullets)
  • addform - used to select a new form for a topic
  • attachagain - used when refreshing an existing attachment
  • attachnew - used when attaching a new file to a topic
  • attachtables - defines the format of attachments at the bottom of the standard topic view
    • ATTACH:files:footer, ATTACH:files:header, ATTACH:files:row, ATTACH:versions:footer, ATTACH:versions:header, ATTACH:versions:row
  • changeform - used to change the form in a topic
  • changes - used by the changes script
  • edit - used for the edit screen
  • form
  • formtables - used to defined the format of forms
    • FORM:display:footer, FORM:display:header, FORM:display:row
  • login - used for loggin in when using the TemplateLoginManager
    • LOG_IN, LOG_IN_BANNER, LOG_OUT, LOGGED_IN_BANNER, NEW_USER_NOTE, UNRECOGNISED_USER
  • moveattachment - used when moving an attachment
  • oopsaccessdenied - used to format Access Denied messages
    • no_such_topic, no_such_web, only_group, topic_access
  • oopsattention - used to format Attention messages
    • already_exists, bad_email, bad_ver_code, bad_wikiname, base_web_missing, confirm, created_web, delete_err, invalid_web_color, invalid_web_name, in_a_group, mandatory_field, merge_notice, missing_action, missing_fields, move_err, missing_action, no_form_def, no_users_to_reset, not_a_user, oversized_upload, password_changed, password_mismatch, problem_adding, remove_user_done, rename_err, rename_not_wikiword, rename_topic_exists, rename_web_err, rename_web_exists, rename_web_prerequisites, reset_bad, reset_ok, save_error, send_mail_error, thanks, topic_exists, unrecognized_action, upload_name_changed, web_creation_error, web_exists, web_missing, wrong_password, zero_size_upload
  • oopsgeneric - a basic dialog for user information; provides "ok" button only
  • oopslanguagechanged - used to confirm a new language when internationalisation is enabled
  • oopsleaseconflict - used to format lease Conflict messages
    • lease_active, lease_old
  • preview - used for previewing edited topics before saving
  • rdiff - used for viewing topic differences
  • registernotify - used by the user registration system
  • registernotifyadmin - used by the user registration system
  • rename - used when renaming a topic
  • renameconfirm - used when renaming a topic
  • renamedelete - used when renaming a topic
  • renameweb - used when renaming a web
  • renamewebconfirm - used when renaming a web
  • renamewebdelete - used when renaming a web
  • searchbookview - used to format search results in book view
  • searchformat - used to format search results
  • search - used to format inline search results if no formatting is specified
  • settings
  • view - used by the view CGI script
  • viewprint - used to create the printable view

foswiki.tmpl is a master template conventionally used by other templates, but not used directly by code.

ALERT! Note: Make sure templates do not end with a newline. Any newline will expand to an empty <p /> in the generated html. It will produce invalid html, and may break the page layout.

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

You can use recursion in the TMPL:INCLUDE chain. For example, if view.tmpl contains %TMPL:INCLUDE{"foswiki"}%, the templating system will include the next SKIN in the skin path. To create a customisation of the Pattern skin, where you only want to remove the edit & WYSIWYG buttons from the view screen, you create only a view.yourlocal.tmpl:
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%
%TMPL:DEF{"edit_topic_link"}%%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"edit_wysiwyg_link"}%%TMPL:END%

and then set SKIN=yourlocal,pattern in SitePreferences, a particular web's WebPreferences, or in an individual topic, depending on the desired scope of the skin.

Settings in Skins

You can use template directives, ordinary Macros, and other predefined settings in your skins. Some commonly used macros in skins:

Macro: Expanded to:
%WEBLOGONAME% Filename of web logo
%WEBLOGOIMG% Image URL of web logo
%WEBLOGOURL% Link of web logo
%WEBLOGOALT% Alt text of web logo
%WIKILOGOURL% Link of page logo
%WIKILOGOIMG% Image URL of page logo
%WIKILOGOALT% Alt text of page logo
%WEBBGCOLOR% Web-specific background color, defined in the WebPreferences
%WIKITOOLNAME% The name of your Foswiki site
%SCRIPTURL% The script URL of Foswiki
%SCRIPTURLPATH% The script URL path
%SCRIPTSUFFIX% The script suffix, ex: .pl, .cgi
%WEB% The name of the current web.
%TOPIC% The name of the current topic.
%WEBTOPICLIST% Common links of current web, defined in the WebPreferences. It includes a Go box
%TEXT% The topic text, e.g. the content that can be edited
%QUERY{"form.name"}% DataForm, if any
%QUERY{"attachments.name"}% FileAttachment list
%QUERY{"parent.name"}% The topic parent
%EDITTOPIC% Edit link
%REVTITLE% The revision title, if any, ex: (r1.6)
%REVINFO% Revision info, ex: r1.6 - 24 Dec 2002 - 08:12 GMT - WikiGuest
%WEBCOPYRIGHT% Copyright notice, defined in the WebPreferences
%BROADCASTMESSAGE% Broadcast message at the beginning of your view template, can be used to alert users of scheduled downtimes; can be set in SitePreferences

Using Cascading Style Sheets

CSS files are gererally attachments to the skin topic that are included in the skin templates - in the case of PatternSkin in the template css.pattern.tmpl.

  • General documentation of CSS classes: AppendixCascadingStyleSheets
  • To see how CSS is used in the default Foswiki skin, see: PatternSkin
  • If you write a complete new skin, this is the syntax to use in a template file:
%ADDTOZONE{
    "head"
    id="MySkin/mystyle"
    text="
        <style type='text/css' media='all'>
            @import url('%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/MySkin/mystyle.css');
        </style>"
}%

See ADDTOZONE

Skin parts

The "Go" Box and Navigation Box

The default skins include a "Go" box, also called "Jump" box, to jump to a topic.

The box also understands URLs, e.g. you can type http://www.google.com/ to jump to an external web site. The feature is handy if you build a skin that has a select box of frequently used links, like Intranet home, employee database, sales database and such. A little JavaScript gets into action on the onchange method of the select tag to fill the selected URL into the "Go" box field, then submits the form.

Here is an example form that has a select box and the "Go" box for illustration purposes. You need to have JavaScript enabled for this to work:

Navigate:

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

FLASHNOTE Notifications

PatternSkin has a notification message display using the variable FLASHNOTE. For example:

  • Set FLASHNOTE = Skins documentation

See the alert at the top of this topic.

Attachment Tables

Controlling the look and feel of attachment tables is a little bit more complex than for the rest of a skin. By default, the attachment table is a standard Foswiki table, and the look is controlled in the same way as other tables. In a very few cases you may want to change the content of the table as well.

The format of standard attachment tables is defined through the use of special template directives which by default, are defined in the attachtables.tmpl template using the %TMPL:DEF directive syntax described in SkinTemplates. These macros are:
Macro Description
ATTACH:files:header Standard title bar
ATTACH:files:row Standard row
ATTACH:files:footer Footer for all screens
ATTACH:files:header:A Title bar for upload screens, with attributes column
ATTACH:files:row:A Row for upload screen
ATTACH:files:footer:A Footer for all screens

The format of tables of file versions in the Upload screen can also be changed, using the macros:
Macro Description
ATTACH:versions:header Header for versions table on upload screen
ATTACH:versions:row Row format for versions table on upload screen
ATTACH:versions:footer Footer for versions table on upload screen

The ATTACH:row macros are expanded for each file in the attachment table, using the following special tags:
Tag Description
%A_URL% viewfile URL that will recover the file
%A_REV% Revision of this file
%A_ICON% A file icon suitable for representing the attachment content
%A_FILE% The name of the file. To get the 'pub' URL of the file, use %PUBURL%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%/%A_FILE%
%A_SIZE% The size of the file
%A_DATE% The date the file was uploaded
%A_USER% The user who uploaded it
%A_COMMENT% The comment they put in when uploading it
%A_COUNT% The sequential attachment number (starting with 1)
%A_ATTRS% The attributes of the file as seen on the upload screen e.g "h" for a hidden file

Two additional helper tags are expanded:
Tag Description
%R_STARTROW_N% (where N is the desired number of attachments in a row); true if a new row should be started. Usage:
%IF{
    "'%R_STARTROW_4%' = '1'"
    then="<div class='row-fluid'>"
}%
%R_ENDROW_N% (where N is the desired number of attachments in a row; true if a row should be closed. Usage:
%IF{
    "'%R_ENDROW_4%' = '1'"
    then="</div>"
}%

Packaging and Publishing Skins

See Foswiki:Development/ExtensionDeveloperGuide

For your own skin you are encouraged to show a small 88x31 pixel logo at the bottom of your skin:
<a href="https://foswiki.org/">
     <img src="%PUBURL%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ProjectLogos/foswiki-badge.png"\
          alt="Powered by Foswiki" height="42"\
          title="Powered by Foswiki" />
</a>

Generating:

Powered by Foswiki

Browsing Installed Skins

You can try out all installed skins in the SkinBrowser.

Activating Skins

Foswiki uses a skin search path, which lets you combine skins additively. The skin path is defined using a combination of PreferenceSettings and URL parameters.

Foswiki works by asking for a template for a particular function - for example, 'view'. The detail of how templates are searched for is described in SkinTemplates, but in summary, the templates directory is searched for a file called view.skin.tmpl, where skin is the name of the skin e.g. pattern. If no template is found, then the fallback is to use view.tmpl. Each skin on the path is searched for in turn. For example, if you have set the skin path to local,pattern then view.local.tmpl will be searched for first, then view.pattern.tmpl and finally view.tmpl.

The basic skin is defined by the SKIN preference:

   * Set SKIN = catskin, bearskin

You can override this using the URL parameter skin, such as ?skin=catskin,bearskin:

Setting the ?skin parameter in the URL replaces the existing skin path setting for the current request only.

You can also extend the existing skin path using covers:

   * Set COVER = ruskin

This pushes a different skin to the front of the skin search path, so the final skin path will be ruskin, catskin, bearskin.

There is also a cover URL parameter that can be used to push yet more skin names in front of the COVER preference.

So the final value of the skin path is given by:
  1. value of the cover URL parameter
  2. value of the COVER preference
  3. value of the skin URL parameter, if it is non-null
  4. value of the SKIN preference, if the skin URL parameter is not given

For example, if we have

   * Set SKIN = muscle,bone
   * Set COVER = epidermis

and a URL with the parameter ?cover=hair,dermis then the final skin path will be hair, dermis, epidermis, muscle, bone.

Or we might specify a skin URL parameter, ?skin=flesh. With the same preferences this will set the skin path epidermis, flesh.

Note that you cannot use the cover URL parameter to remove a skin applied by the COVER preference. Once a COVER preference is defined, it is always applied.

Hard-Coded Skins and Covers

text
The text skin is reserved for Foswiki internal use.

rss*
Skin names starting with rss also have a special meaning; if one or more of the skins in the skin path starts with 'rss' then 8-bit characters will be encoded as XML entities in the output, and the content-type header will be forced to text/xml.

cover=print
The cover URL parameter has some hardcoded effects that are not present when the same setting is prepended to the skin. The templates set the CSS media type by examining the cover value.
  • cover=print sets media="all" for the print.css stylesheet. This causes the CSS to render identically for all media. What you see on the screen will be similar to what will be printed.
  • skin=print,pattern links to the print.css stylesheet only for print media. This causes the CSS to honor the current media. The screen results will be different from what is actually printed.


Related Topics: SkinTemplates, SkinBrowser, AdminDocumentationCategory, DeveloperDocumentationCategory

Meta data

Additional data, Foswiki-generated or from forms, may be embedded in the topic text using META: macros

Overview

The default store engines store topics in plain-text files on disk, in a simple and obvious directory structure. The big advantage of this approach is that it makes it very easy to manipulate topics from outside Foswiki, and it is also very robust; there are no complex binary indexes to maintain, and moving a topic from one installation to another is as simple as copying a couple of text files.

To keep everything together in one place, meta-data (Foswiki-generated or from forms) is embedded directly in topics, using special macros. These macros are easy to spot, as they all start with the reserved META: prefix.

META: data includes information such as file attachments, topic movement history, and form field values. For efficiency reasons, the topic history is not stored in this meta-data, but is expected to be implemented elsewhere by the store engine.

Meta data syntax

  • Format is the same as for any other macros except that each meta-data macro must be on a line on its own.
    • %META:<type>{key1="value1" key2="value2" ...}%
  • The characters %"\r\n{} are encoded in argument values, using the standard URL encoding.
  • Meta-data is divided into core meta-data, described below, and extension meta-data, which shares the same syntax but is used by extensions.
  • Dates are stored as "epoch times" i.e. the integer number of seconds since 1st January 1970.

Example of core meta-data
%META:TOPICINFO{version="6" date="1655468868" author="LastEditor" format="1.0"}%
   text of the topic
%META:TOPICMOVED{from="Real.SecretAgents" to="Hollywood.SecretAgents"
   by="CoverUp" date="1655468868"}%
%META:TOPICPARENT{name="MilitaryIntelligence5"}%
%META:FILEATTACHMENT{name="CV.txt" version="3" ... }%
%META:FILEATTACHMENT{name="Photo.gif" version="1" ... }%
%META:FORM{name="SecretAgentForm"}%
%META:FIELD{name="ChosenWeapon" value="Beretta"}%
%META:FIELD{name="Paramour" value="PussyGalore"}%
%META:PREFERENCE{name="ALLOWTOPICCHANGE" value="JamesBond"}%
%META:PREFERENCE{name="DENYTOPICVIEW" value="ErnstBlofeld"}%

Core meta-data

The following meta-data macros are supported by the Foswiki core. Other macros may be used by extensions; see the extension documentation for more details. The core will read and write these extension macros, but will otherwise ignore them.

Some fields are required by macros, while others are optional. Required fields are marked with a %REG% symbol. The %REG% character is not part of the attribute name.

META:TOPICINFO

This macro caches some of the information that would normally be derived from the underlying store engine. It does this for efficiency reasons.

Key Comment
author%REG% Canonical user identifier of last user to change the topic. The exact format of this depends on the user mapping manager.
version Topic version; a plain integer.
date epoch time
format Format of this topic, will be used for automatic format conversion
reprev Set when a revision is overwritten by the same author within the {ReplaceIfEditedAgainWithin} window (set in configure ). If reprev is the same as version, it prevents Foswiki from attempting to do a 3-way merge when merging overlapping edits by two different users.

Note that the version and date fields are advisory only and cannot be trusted. This is because processes outside of Foswiki's control may write topic files without maintaining these fields.

META:TOPICMOVED

This only exists if the topic has been moved. If a topic is moved more than once, only the most recent META:TOPICMOVED meta datum exists in the topic. Older ones can to be found in the topic history.

%META:TOPICMOVED{from="Real.SecretAgents" to="Hollywood.SecretAgents" by="CoverUp" date="1416592876"}%

Key Comment
from%REG% Full name, i.e., web.topic
to%REG% Full name, i.e., web.topic
by%REG% Canonical user identifier of who moved the topic. The exact format of this depends on the user mapping manager.
date%REG% epoch time

Notes:
  • the moved version numbers can be deduced from the topic history.

META:TOPICPARENT

The topic from which this topic was created, typically when clicking on a ? question mark link, or by filling out a form. The topic parent may also be manipulated in the user interface.
Key Comment
name%REG% Normally just TopicName, but it can be a full Web.TopicName format if the parent is in a different Web.

META:FILEATTACHMENT

Reference to a file attached to this topic.

Key Comment
name%REG% Name of file, no path. Must be unique within topic
version An integer
path Full path file was loaded from
size In bytes
date epoch time when the file was attached
user Canonical user identifier of user who uploaded the attachment. The exact format of this depends on the user mapping manager.
comment As supplied when file uploaded
attr h if hidden, optional

Extra fields that are added if an attachment is moved:

Key Comment
movedfrom full topic name - web.topic.filename
movedby Canonical user identifier of user who moved the attachment. The exact format of this depends on the user mapping manager.
movedto full topic name - web.topic.filename
movedwhen epoch time

META:FORM

Key Comment
name%REG% The name of the topic containing the form definition. Can optionally include the web name (i.e., web.topic), but doesn't normally

META:FIELD

Should only be present if there is a META:FORM entry.

Key Name
name%REG% Ties to entry in the form definition. This is the title with all characters except alphanumerics and . removed
value%REG% Value user has supplied via form
title Full text from the form definition

META:PREFERENCE

Out-of-band preference.

Key Name
name%REG% Preference name
value%REG% Preference value
type Set or Local (Set is the default)

There is no absolute need for meta-data macros to be listed in a specific order within a topic, but it makes sense to do so, because form fields are displayed in the order they are defined when the topic is viewed.

The recommended sequence is:

  • META:TOPICINFO
  • META:TOPICPARENT (optional)
  • text of topic
  • META:TOPICMOVED (optional)
  • META:FILEATTACHMENT (0 or more entries)
  • META:FORM (optional)
  • META:FIELD (0 or more entries; FORM required)
  • META:PREFERENCE (0 or more entries)

Viewing meta-data embedded in page source

You can append the raw=debug parameter to the URL to view the topic text with embedded meta-data, e.g: debug view for this topic. raw=all lets you view the topic source as plain text, e.g: plain text view for this topic.

Including meta data in viewed topics

%META

Meta-data belonging to the viewed topic can be included in the view using the %META macro. See VarMETA for details.

%FORMFIELD

The %FORMFIELD macro lets you inspect the values of form field meta-data in other topics. See VarFORMFIELD for details.

%SEARCH

%SEARCH can also be used to extract meta data. See VarSEARCH and the examples in FormattedSearch and SearchPatternCookbook.

Extending meta-data in Extensions

Extensions can extend meta-data with information of their own. See Foswiki::Func for more information.


Related Topics: DeveloperDocumentationCategory

Add-Ons

Deprecated name for the Contribs type of extension. Some older extensions will still be named as an AddOn.

Overview

An add-on runs separately from the Foswiki scripts, e.g. for data import, export to static HTML, etc. Add-Ons normally do not call any Foswiki code directly, though may invoke Foswiki scripts. There are different types of add-ons, they may be stand alone scripts, browser plugins, office tool extensions, or even a set of topics that form a wiki application.

See other types of extensions: Contribs, Plugins, Skins

Add-Ons Installed on this site

Number of topics: 1

Installing AddOns

  • Use /bin/configure to browse or search the list of extensions available from Foswiki.org, and to install the extension.
  • Or, use the tools/extension_installer script to download and install the extension.
  • Or, download an extension package from some other source, and unzip it.
  • Follow any special installation instructions in the AddOn topic.

Creating new Add-Ons

Foswiki Contribs

Extensions to Foswiki that are not plugins

Overview

The term "Contrib" is used to refer to any package that is not just a simple plugin.

Foswiki contribs may
  • extend the functionality of Foswiki, in a lower-level way than plugins,
  • or provide alternative implementations for sections of the Foswiki core e.g. user management, or when an extension just can't be implemented as a plugin because it requires very close access to Foswiki internals,
  • or they might provide other files that Foswiki uses, for example language files,
  • or they might be packages of topics that implement a "Wiki Application", using the wiki macro language, TML.

Relevant links on Foswiki.org:

See other types of extensions: AddOns, Plugins, Skins

Foswiki Contribs Installed on this site

Number of topics: 12

Installing Contribs

  • Use /bin/configure to browse or search the list of extensions available from Foswiki.org, and to install the extension.
  • Or, use the tools/extension_installer script to download and install the extension.
  • Or, download an extension package from some other source, and unzip it.
  • Follow any special installation instructions in the Contrib topic.

Foswiki Plugins

Extensions that use a simple API to talk to Foswiki

Overview

You can add plugins to extend Foswiki functionality without altering the core code. A plug-in approach lets you:

  • add virtually unlimited features while keeping the main Foswiki code compact and efficient;
  • heavily customize an installation and still do clean updates to new versions of Foswiki;
  • rapidly develop new Foswiki functions in Perl using the plugin API.

Everything to do with Foswiki plugins - demos, new releases, downloads, development, general discussion - is available at Foswiki.org, in the Foswiki:Extensions web.

Foswiki plugins are developed and contributed by interested members of the community. Plugins are provided on an 'as is' basis; they are not a part of Foswiki, but are independently developed and maintained.

Most TWiki® plugins can also be used with Foswiki if the TWikiCompatibilityPlugin is installed.

See other types of extensions: AddOns,Contribs, Skins

See InstalledPlugins for a list of plugins installed on this site.

Installing Plugins

Each plugin comes with its own documentation page, which includes step-by-step installation instructions, a detailed description of any special requirements, and version details. Many also have a working example for testing.

The easiest way to install plugins is to use the configure interface. However you can also install plugins from the command-line. Every plugin comes with installation instructions.

Each plugin has a standard release topic, located in the Foswiki:Extensions web at Foswiki.org. There's usually a number of other related topics, such as a developers page, and an appraisal page. After installation, a copy of this page will be installed to your System web.

If you install a plugin and it doesn't seem to work, then you can get information on all the InstalledPlugins that may help to resolve the issue.

Failing that, you may want to check your webserver error log and the various Foswiki log files, and any notes in the support topic for the plugin (linked from the plugin front page).

Some Notes on Plugin Performance

The performance of the system depends to some extent on the number of plugins installed and on the plugin implementation. Some plugins impose no measurable performance decrease, some do. For example, a Plugin might use many Perl libraries that need to be initialized with each page view (unless you run mod_perl). You can only really tell the performance impact by installing the plugin and by measuring the performance with and without the new plugin, on real data.

TIP If you need to install an "expensive" plugin, but you only need its functionality only in a subset of your data, you can disable it elsewhere by defining the %DISABLEDPLUGINS% setting.

Define DISABLEDPLUGINS to be a comma-separated list of names of plugins to disable. Define it in SitePreferences to disable those plugins everywhere, in the WebPreferences topic to disable them in an individual web, or in a topic to disable them in that topic. For example,
   * Set DISABLEDPLUGINS = SpreadSheetPlugin, EditTablePlugin

Managing Installed Plugins

Some plugins require additional settings or offer extra options that you have to select. Also, you may want to make a plugin available only in certain webs, or temporarily disable it. And may want to list all available plugins in certain topics. You can handle all of these management tasks with simple procedures:

Listing Active Plugins

Plugin status macros let you list all active plugins wherever needed.

This site is running Foswiki version v2.1.8, plugin API version 2.4

  • %ACTIVATEDPLUGINS% - shows the activated plugins
  • %PLUGINVERSION% - shows the plugins API version
  • %FAILEDPLUGINS% - shows what plugins failed, and why

Enabling Plugins

Plugins can be enabled and disabled with the configure script. An installed plugin needs to be enabled before it can be used. Plugins can also be selectively disabled again using the DISABLED_PLUGINS preference, as described above.

Plugin Evaluation Order

By default, plugins are executed in alphabetical order of plugin name. It is possible to change the order, for example to evaluate database macros before the spreadsheet CALCs, using the {PluginsOrder} in the Extensions section of configure.

Plugin-Specific Settings

Some plugins are configured with plugin preference settings, some with configure settings, and some with both. The plugin topic will contain details.

configure settings are accessible though the configure interface.

Note that some older plugins use preference settings defined in the plugin topic. For example, the (fictional) BathPlugin topic might contain:
  • Set ELECTRIC = on
This setting defines the default value for the preference BATHPLUGIN_ELECTRIC. You should never edit the BathPlugin topic to change this setting; instead, override the setting by defining BATHPLUGIN_ELECTRIC as described in PreferenceSettings.

Developing your own plugins

DevelopingPlugins provides a simple introduction to hooking into Foswiki code from your own Perl modules. Foswiki:Development.GettingStarted is the starting point for more comprehensive documentation.

Naming of Config.spec elements

when building your extension, there are several choices on where to place the elements in the $Foswiki::cfg hash:

Location Example Notes
Under the {Extensions} namespace $Foswiki::cfg{Extensions}{BathPlugin}{PlugType} This is the recommended location, It is recommended for all new extensions, and strongly recommended for non-Plugin type extensions (Contribs, Skins, etc).
Under the {Plugins} namespace $Foswiki::cfg{Plugins}{BathPlugin}{PlugType} This is traditionally where foswiki organizes all plugin settings.
Foswiki automatically populates two settings for Plugins (and only plugins):
  • {Plugins}...{Module}
  • {Plugins}...{Enable}
which must not be defined in the Config.spec file.
We no longer recommend using this namespace for custom settings.
Under the root namespace $Foswiki::cfg{BathPlugin} Not Recommended Historical extensions place settings under the root, it results in a very cluttered configuration.
Config namespace Rules going forward:
  • Existing extensions should probably not be restructured, to avoid configuration migration issues.
  • If developing a "Contrib" or "Skin", configuration should live under {Extensions}, even if it has a Plugin component.
  • If developing a "Plugin", it can use {Plugins} space but this is no longer recommended.
  • Never store settings at the root level.

Also, don't confuse the layout within Configure tabs with the hierarchy within the configuration hash. Settings are organized in the Configuration Tabs based upon the heading hierarchy of the Spec file, not the configuration hash structure. It is strongly recommended to stick to one location for settings for any extension. Try not to split settings into multiple areas of the configuration hash, except when the settings are "Extending" a core feature like the Store. All of these below settings will appear under the Extensions -> BathPlugin tab. (but this is certainly not recommended).
---+ Extensions
---++ BathPlugin
$Foswiki::cfg{Plugins}{BathPlugin}{PlugType} = 'rubber';
$Foswiki::cfg{Extensions}{BathPlugin}{ToyType} = 'duckie';
$Foswiki::cfg{foobar} = 'some archaic root-level setting';

CGI and Command Line Scripts

Programs on the server performing actions such as rendering, saving and renaming topics.

These scripts are located in the bin and tools directories. This topic describes the interfaces to some of those scripts. All scripts in the bin directory can be called from the CGI (Common Gateway Interface) environment or from the command line. The scripts in the tools directory can only be called from the command line.

CGI Scripts

Details on CGI scripts located in the bin directory.

Note that a blank in the 'Default' column means that the parameter is not required, and has no default. required means the parameter is required, and has no default. text in italics describes default behaviour if no value is given.

General Information

CGI environment
In the CGI environment parameters are passed to the scripts via the URL and URL parameters. Environment variables are also used to determine the user performing the action. If the environment is not set up, the default user is used (usually guest).

Command-line
You must be have the bin directory on the perl path to run the scripts from the command line.

TIP To avoid issues with file permissions, run the scripts as the web server user such as nobody, www-data or www.
If running scripts under the control of cron, install the crontab under the web server user.

Parameters are passed on the command line using two possible formats:

  • Traditional command line "switch" style format: -name value, The "-" prefix for the keyword is required.
$ cd /usr/local/foswiki/bin
$ save -topic MyWeb.MyTopic -user admin -action save -text "New text of the topic"
  • Keyword format: parameter=value. A "-" prefix is optional.
$ cd /usr/local/foswiki/bin
$ save topic=MyWeb.MyTopic user=admin action=save text="New text of the topic"
All parameters require a value, even if that is the empty string. Note that parameters passed on the command-line should not be URL-encoded.

Note: If any of the arguments will contain utf-8 strings, (ie. when entering a Unicode topic name), you must run the command using the perlrun argument -CA. For example:
$ cd /usr/local/foswiki/bin
$ perl -CA ./save -topic MyWeb.MyÜtf8Töpic -user admin -action save -text "Text with »Äëïöü« utf8 characters."

For more details on the perl command line arguments, see http://perldoc.perl.org/perlrun.html.

"Authentication" in the command line environment

Unlike the CGI environment, the default user for command line operations is AdminUser.

  • The -user parameter is specific to the command line and is not recognized by in the web environment. It allows a user to be specified without requiring that the password be supplied. It is only active from the command line.
  • The -username / -password parameters are processed by the authentication system and require the password be authenticated. Depending upon the authentication implementation, it may or may not be usable in the command line environment.

When calling a tools script from the command line, you normally need to be cd'd to the =bin directory e.g.
$ cd bin
$ ../tools/mailnotify -q -nonews -nochanges -Main -System

Context

Each script sets a Foswiki context to signal to plugins and other components the environment that they are running. In addition to the per-script context, two additional contexts are optionally set:
  • command_line is set if there is no CGI query object available.
  • static is set by scripts that render static content like PDF or other offline publishing tools

A comprehensive list of core context identifiers used by Foswiki is found in the IfStatements

Common parameters

All the scripts accept a number of common parameters. The first two components of the URL after the script name are taken as the web and the topic, respectively. Standard URL parameters are:

Parameter Description Default
cover Specifies temporary skin path to prepend to the skin path for this script only (see Skins)  
debugenableplugins During debugging it can be useful to selectively disable all but a subset of plugins. This parameter allows the caller to specify a comma-separated list of plugins that should be enabled. It can only be used when $ENV{FOSWIKI_ASSERTS} is set to 1 in bin/LocalLib.cfg.  
foswikioriginalquery The original query that was being made before a redirect for user confirmation was required.  
foswiki_redirect_cache Foswiki sometimes caches long lists of parameters that must survive over a sequence of browser redirects. This parameter identifies one of these caches. The parameter value is a "magic number" that uniquely idenitifies a file in the working/tmp directory. These files have a very short lifetime, and are destroyed when the cache is read.  
logout requests the LoginManager to log the current user out (this happens at the begining of the request so will terminate any other operation requested)  
refresh If the Foswiki page cache is in use, setting this parameter will invalidate the cache. Valid values are cache, on and all. See PageCaching for more information on the page cache.  
response Used as part of the request validation process.  
skin Overrides the default skin path (see Skins) value of the SKIN preference
t While the t parameter is not actively used by any scripts, it is used when building links to scripts such as edit, to ensure that each edit link is unique. This stops the browser from trying to use a cached reply from a previous call to the script. generally set to current time, in seconds
topic Overrides the web.topic path given in the URL (specify Web.TopicName, or TopicName in combination with defaultweb below)  
defaultweb a default value for web, which is over-ridden by specifying either a web in the topic param above, or in the url location (used for selecting a web in a webform)  
user Command-line only; set the name of the user performing the action. Note: this usage is inherently insecure, as it bypasses webserver login constraints. For this reason only authorised users should be allowed to execute scripts from the command line.  
validation_key part of cross-site scripting protection. Any request sent from browsers that might change data stored on the server must carry a key that indentifies the source of the request.  
preserve_vk part of cross-site scripting protection. Normally a validation key is expired once it has been used once. However non-HTML5 browsers can't handle this, so the validation key has to be preserved for re-use.  
<any name> Any other parameter name passed to the script is passed through for possible use by the script. This is typically only applicable to the edit, save and view scripts.  

Where revision parameters are required, individual versions are identified by positive, non-zero integers. Versions start with 1 and are sequencial. For compatibility reasons, Some scripts accept revision numbers with '1.' (or even 'r1.') prepended to the number, but this usage is deprecated and should be corrected when encountered.

Note: Prior releases of Foswiki would accept the undocumented username and password parameter on any script. Foswiki 1.1.9 restricts this to the view script and only on POST transactions unless overridden in the Foswiki configuration.

attach

Despite the name, this script doesn't actually attach a file to a topic - for that, use upload. This script is part of the transactions sequence executed when a file is uploaded from the browser. it just generates the "new attachment" page for a topic.

Parameter Description Default
filename Name of existing attachment (if provided, this is a "manage attachment" action) this is a "new attachment" action

changes

Shows all the changes in the given web.

The changes script can receive one parameter:

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

The main difference between invoking this script and using WebChanges is that WebChanges is based on a %SEARCH%, while this script reads the changes file in each web, making it much faster.

NOTE: The result from changes script and the topic WebChanges can be different, if the changes file is deleted from a web. In particular, in new installations the changes script will return no results while the WebChanges topic will.

configure

configure is the browser script used for inspection of, and changes to, the site configuration. None of the parameters to this script are useable for any purpose except configure. See configure.

edit

The edit script understands the following parameters, typically supplied by HTML input fields.

A major role of the edit script is new topic creation. Parameters that are mainly relevant to new topic creation are marked with wip

Parameter name Description Default
action If action=text, then hide the form. If action=form, then hide the normal text area and only edit the form. edit both
breaklock If set, any lease conflicts will be ignored, and the edit will proceed even if someone is already editing the topic.  
cmd Admin only features, see below  
contenttype Optional parameter that defines the application type to write into the CGI header. May be used to invoke alternative client applications text/html
formtemplate Name of the form to instantiate in the topic. Set to none to remove any existing form.  
notemplateexpansion wip Do not expand any macros in the template topic. (see New topic creation below) expand
onlynewtopic wip If on, error if the topic already exists edit existing topic
onlywikiname wip If on, error if the name of a topic being created is not a WikiWord allow non-wikiword names
redirectto If the user continues from edit to save, and if the save (or cancel) process is successful, save will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName, a Web.TopicName, or a URL.
Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl}).
 
rev Lets you specify a specific revision to use as the basis of the edit. latest
template Allows you to specify a different skin template. Overrides any setting of EDIT_TEMPLATE.  
templatetopic wip The name of the template topic, copied to get the initial content for a new topic. (see New topic creation below)  
text wip Set the text to be edited. If this parameter is not given, the text is taken from the existing topic (if it exists)  
topicparent Sets the parent topic. Set to none to remove parent. Set to topic name to change parent, leave empty to keep existing parent. keep existing parent
<any name> This can be used in two ways; first, if the topic has a form with a field called <any name>, it will set the value of that field. wip Second, it can be expanded in the topic text during topic creation - see New topic creation below  

The following options are only available to the site Administrator. They can "rewrite history" and should be used with caution only when absolutely necessary.

Parameter name Description Default
cmd=delRev Administrators only delete the most recent revision of the topic - all other parameters are ignored. You have to be an administrator to use this, and not all store implementations will support it. This option returns you to an editor for the current version, but the edit is ignored, and save will delete the latest revision.  
cmd=repRev Administrators only replace the text of the most recent revision of the topic with the text in the text parameter. text may include embedded meta-data tags. As far as possible, the original author and date of the revision being replaced are retained. You have to be an administrator to use this, and not all store implementations will support it.  

Skin notes:

The EDIT_TEMPLATE preference (or the template parameter) can be used to override the default 'edit' template on a per-web or per-topic basis.

The action parameter works by loading the editform.tmpl or edittext.tmpl templates in place of the standard edit.tmpl. If an EDIT_TEMPLATE has been defined, then it replaces edit, e.g. if EDIT_TEMPLATE=specialed and action=form then the template used will be specialedform

In most skins that are based on the default templates (such as PatternSkin) you can easily change the Edit and Edit WikiText buttons to append the action parameter, by setting the EDITACTION preference to the value text or form (You can always get back to editing the whole topic by removing the action parameter from the URL browser Location window, and reloading the edit window).

New topic creation wip:

The string AUTOINC followed by one or more digits anywhere in the topic name will be converted to a number such that the resulting topic name is unique in the target web. However this doesn't happen until the topic is saved.

When a new topic is created using edit, the topic isn't actually created until the edit is saved. The content of the new topic is initialised according to the parameters you pass.
  • templatetopic - defines the full name (web.topic) of a topic to use as a template for the new topic. The template topic is copied and, unless notemplateexpansion is set, the following macros are expanded in the topic text: URLPARAM, DATE, SERVERTIME, GMTIME, USERNAME, WIKINAME, WIKIUSERNAME, USERINFO. (see TopicTemplates)
  • text - use this as the text of the topic. Macros are not expanded in this text. Overrides any text set in the templatetopic.
  • formtemplate - Overrides any form set in the templatetopic.
  • notemplateexpansion - given by templatetopic. Use this when you want a verbatim copy of a topic.
  • onlynewtopic and onlywikiname are used to control validation of the new topic name.
  • <any name> - besides the form field value setting described above, when creating a new topic, %URLPARAM{" <any name> "}% in the templatetopic will be expanded to the parameter value.

login

Used for logging in with TemplateLoginManager, and for interactive validation of operations that require user confirmation.
Parameter Description Default
foswikiloginaction If 'validate', the login script is being used for interactive validation of an operation. Otherwise it is being used for login.  
foswiki_origin URL that was being accessed when an access violation occurred. the login process will redirect to this URL if it is successful  
remember If set, this will cause the user's login to be retained even after their browser is shut down.
sudo promote login to internal admin (admins only)  
password password of user logging in  
username username of user logging in (if set, login will attempt to authenticate)  
usernamestep used to initialise the username input field in the login form (will not attempt to authenticate)  

TIP Note: The login script will only accept the username and password fields when submitted with a POST.

logon

Used for logging in when Web Server authentication is being used (e.g. ApacheLoginManager). The script does nothing; it is purely a placeholder for triggering the login process. The webserver must be set up to require a valid user to access this script, thus triggering the webserver login process.

manage

Performs a range of management functions.

ALERT! Note: The manage script can only be called via the HTTP POST method. Make sure you specify method="post" if you call the manage script via a form action. It is not possible to call manage from an <a href ...> link.

Parameter Description Default
action One of create, createweb, changePassword, resetPassword, bulkRegister, deleteUserAccount, editSettings, saveSettings, restoreRevision required

action=create
Alternative entry point for creation, via edit, of a new topic, used by screens that support several actions using manage.
Parameter Description Default
topic Name of topic to create (can be web.topic) required
Other parameters are the same as for edit.

action=createweb
Create a new web
Parameter Description Default
baseweb Name of the web to copy to create the new web required
newtopic Value of %TOPIC% within the web creation message. Optionally used in some skins to signify a non-default home topic.  
newweb Name of the new web required
nosearchall Value for NOSEARCHALL ''
webbgcolor value for WEBBGCOLOR ''
websummary Value for WEBSUMMARY ''

action=editSettings
No parameters

action=saveSettings
Parameter Description Default
originalrev Revision that the edit started on latest
redirectto If the savesettings process is successful, save will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName, a Web.TopicName, or a URL.
Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl}).
redirect to the web.topic from the URL path
text Text of the topic required
action_save Must be set to Save or settings are not saved required
action_cancel Must be set to Cancel to cancel save. required
If neither action_save or action_cancel are provided, an oops error is issued. All other parameters may be interpreted as form fields, depending on the current form definition in the topic.

action=bulkRegister
See BulkRegistration.
Parameter Description Default
logtopic Topic to save the log in same as topic name, with 'Result' appended
overwritehometopics Whether to overwrite existing home topics or not do not overwrite

action=changePassword
Change password, email address, or both, of a user.
Parameter Description Default
email new email address  
oldpassword current password required, unless current user is an admin
password new password  
passwordA new password confirmation required if password is given
username login name of user to change password/email for required
password, =passwordA and email are optional. If neither or password and passwordA is set, then the user password is left unchanged. If email is unset, their email is left unchanged.

action=resetPassword
Reset the password for a single or multiple users
Parameter Description Default
introduction message to be sent alongside the reset, most often used to announce to the user that they have been given an account.  
loginname list of usernames to reset required

This is used by BulkResetPassword and ResetPassword. Only administrators can provide a list of login usernames, non-admins can only provide a single UserName.

BulkRegistration provides the means to create multiple accounts but it does not announce those accounts to the users who own them. BulkResetPassword is used to assign the passwords, the Introduction is used to explain why they are receiving the mail.

action=deleteUserAccount
For non-admin users, it unregisters (removes) the currently logged-in user. Administrators can remove any account.
Parameter Description Default
user User ID to be removed required. Must be current logged in user if not admin
password Users' password required if not admin
removeTopic Should user topic be moved to trash web?  

action=restoreRevision
Alternative entry point for edit, used by screens that support several actions using manage. Parameters are as for =edit.

action=addUserToGroup
add a user / list of users to a group
Parameter Description Default
create create the group if it doesn't exist 0
groupname groupname to change required
redirectto If the add process is successful, manage will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName, a Web.TopicName, or a URL.
Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl}).
None. An Oops screen showing the results is returned.
username list of usernames/wikinames to add to group required

action=removeUserFromGroup
remove a user / list of users to a group
Parameter Description Default
groupname groupname to change required
redirectto If the remove process is successful, manage will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName, a Web.TopicName, or a URL.
Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl}).
None. An Oops screen showing the results is returned.
username list of usernames/wikinames to add to group required

oops

This script is mainly used for rendering pages containing error messages, though it is also used for some functional actions such as manage pages (move topic etc).

oops templates are used with the oops script to generate system messages. This is done to make internationalisation or other local customisations simple.

The oops script supports the following parameters:

Parameter Description Default
def Can be set to the name of a single definition within template. This definition will be instantiated in the template wherever %INSTANTIATE% is seen. This lets you use a single template file for many messages. For an example, see oopsmanagebad.tmpl.  
paramN Where N is an integer from 1 upwards. These values will be substituted into template for %PARAM1% etc.  
template Name of the template file to display oops

preview

This script is deprecated. Its functions are covered by the save script.

rdiff

Renders the differences between version of a topic

Parameter Description Default
context number of lines of context  
render the rendering style {sequential, sidebyside, raw, debug} DIFFRENDERSTYLE, sequential
rev1 the higher revision latest
rev2 the lower revision latest
type history gives a history, diff rev1 against rev2, last latest to previous diff
The context parameter is only respected if the back-end store supports context diffs.

register

Parameter Description Default
action register or verify or approve or disapprove required

ALERT! Note: The register script can only be called via the HTTP POST method except when the action is verify. Make sure you specify method="post" if you call the register script via a form action. It is not possible to call register from an <a href ...> link. The verify action is an exception as it is used to verify registration by clicking a href link from an email.

action=register

Starts the registration process for a new user.

User data is passed in 0 or more parameters of the format FwkNname where Fwk is a standard prefix, N is 0 for an optional parameter and 1 for a required parameter, and name is the parameter name. The following standard Fwk parameters are predefined:

Parameter Description Default
Fwk1Email New user's email address required
Fwk1FirstName New user's first name required
Fwk1LastName New user's surname required
Fwk1WikiName Wikiname of user being registered required
Fwk1LoginName New user's login username required
Fwk1Password New user's password  
Fwk0Confirm Password confirmation (if enabled)  
Fwk0Name User's name. Defaults to FirstName LastName  
Fwk0AddToGroups Accepts a comma-separated list of group names to add the new user to.  

Any additional Fwk parameters will be written to the user topic (except Photo and Confirm).

If registration verification (or registration approval) is enabled in configure, a pending registration record will be created and the registrant (or the approver) will be emailed with the verification code.

If all goes well, then:
  • If verification is required, outputs the registration confirmation screen.
  • If approval is required, outputs the pending approval screen.
  • Otherwise outputs the welcome screen.

When called from CGI, this method requires a POST request.

action=verify

Sent to activate a user's pending registration. Only applicable if registration verification is enabled.

Parameter Description Default
code Activation code, verifies a pending registration

If the verification is successful:
  • If approval is required, outputs the pending approval screen.
  • Otherwise outputs the welcome screen.

action=approve
Sent to activate a pending registration. Only applicable if registration approval is enabled.

Parameter Description Default
code Approval code for the pending registration

Outputs the welcome screen and mails the successful registrant.

action=disapprove
Sent to deny a pending registration. Only applicable if registration approval is enabled.

Parameter Description Default
code Approval code for the pending registration

Presents a screen where the admin can optionally enter an email message to be sent to the failed registrant. NOTE: the registration fails even if this mail is not sent.

If the code has the value DENIED then the request is interpreted as the second stage of an approval denial. Registration parameters are passed in the URL parameters email, referee, wikiname and =feedback. These parameters are used to compose a feedback mail for the failed registrant.

rename

Used for renaming webs, topics and attachments.

Parameter Description Default
action renameweb or renameother renameother
confirm if non-0, requires a second level of confirmation  
referring_topics (internal use only) list of topics that refer to the web or topic being renamed  
redirectto If the rename process is successful, rename will redirect to this topic or URL. The parameter value can be a TopicName, a Web.TopicName, or a URL.
Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl}).
the renamed topic

action="renameweb"
Rename a web.
Parameter Description Default
newparentweb new parent web name existing parent
newsubweb new web name  

action=renameother
Rename a topic or an attachment.
Parameter Description Default
attachment Attachment to move  
currentwebonly if non-0, searches current web only for links to this topic search all webs
newattachment New name for attachment same as attachment, if given
newtopic new topic name required
newweb new web name required
onlywikiname if off, a non-wikiword is acceptable for the new topic name on
template template for error when an attachment doesn't exist, deleteattachment for when deleting an attachment  

ALERT! Note: The rename script can only be called via the HTTP POST method. Make sure you specify method="post" if you call the rename script via a form action. It is not possible to call rename from an <a href ...> link.

resetpasswd

This script is deprecated. Its functions are covered by the manage script.

rest

This REST (Representational State Transfer) script can be invoked via http in the same way as the other scripts (see Invocation Examples, below) to execute a function that is associated to a "subject" and a "verb" (see below). These functions are usually registered by plugins using the Foswiki::Func::registerRESTHandler method. The rest script will print the result directly to the browser unless the endpoint parameter is specified, in which case it will output a redirect to the given topic or url.

The rest script supports the following parameters:
Parameter Description Default
redirectto Redirect to this topic or URL after successfully running the rest function. The parameter value can be a TopicName, a Web.TopicName, or a URL.
Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl}).
None.
password See username  
username If TemplateLogin, or a similar login manager not embedded in the web server, is used, then you can pass a username and password to the server (though see below for a preferred way to pass authentication information).

REST scripts that require a topic context must use the standard topic parameter to pass the topic name, as the URL path is used to identify the REST function. If not defined, then the topic context in REST handlers will be Main.

The function is free to use any other query parameters for its own purposes.

rest authentication
If a REST operation requires a logged-in user but no user is logged in, then it will return a 401 status. In the case of the TemplateLogin login manager, this will include a WWW-Authenticate header starting with FoswikiBasic. This allows the status to percolate through to Javascript where it can be handled by your code. The realm in the WWW-Authenticate header is taken from the {AuthRealm} setting in configure, or the empty string if it is not set.

If you are using TemplateLogin, the preferred way to pass user login information back to the server is to use the X-Authorization HTTP header. This header is modelled on the HTTP Authorization header, as described in http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2617.txt, except that the scheme name FoswikiBasic is used instead of Basic. The user-id and password are combined with a : and base64 encoded. For example, if the user agent wishes to send the userid "Aladdin" and password "open sesame", it would use the following header field:
X-Authorization: FoswikiBasic QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==
When used with jQuery:
$.ajax({
  beforeSend: function(xhrObj){
    xhrObj.setRequestHeader("X-Authorization",
      "FoswikiBasic QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==");
  }
});

ALERT! The rest script should always be configured to require authentication in any site that is using ApacheLogin. Otherwise there is a risk of opening up major security holes. So make sure you add it to the {AuthScripts} list in configure.

ALERT! Note: As of 1.1.9, the rest script no longer will accept the username and password fields by default. If the prior behavior is required, it can be enabled in bin/configure by setting $Foswiki::cfg{Session}{AcceptUserPwParam} = /^rest$/;. Note that even with this enabled, the rest script requires that the username and password be entered using POST.

Invocation Examples

The rest script assumes that it will be called with URL in the form:

http://my.host/bin/rest/<subject>/<verb>

where <subject> must be the WikiWord name of one of the installed Plugins, and the <verb> is the alias for the function registered using the Foswiki::Func::registerRESTHandler method. The <subject> and <verb> are then used to lookup and call the registered function. If you need to pass a topic name, then this is passed in the topic URL parameter.

As an example, the EmptyPlugin has registered a function to be used with the rest script under the subject EmptyPlugin and the verb example.

The URL to call this function from a browser would be:
  • https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/bin/rest/EmptyPlugin/example?topic=My.TopicName
alternatively, to run it from the commandline:
  • cd foswiki/bin ; ./rest /EmptyPlugin/example -topic=My.TopicName

Note that for Plugins to register REST handlers, they must be enabled in configure.

Retrieving passed values
Additional parameters can be recovered via the query object in the $session, for example with the url:
http://my.host/bin/rest/MyPlugin/update?web=foo

The url parameters can be processed using:
my $query = $session->{request};
my $web = $query->{param}->{web}[0];

save

The save script performs a range of save-related functions.

Parameter Description Default
action_addform Redirect to the "change form" page.  
action_cancel exit without save, return to view  
action_checkpoint save and redirect to the edit script, dontnotify is on  
action_delRev Administrators only delete the most recent revision of the topic - all other parameters are ignored. You have to be an administrator to use this, and not all store implementations will support it.  
action_preview preview edited text  
action_quietsave save, and return to view, dontnotify is on  
action_replaceform Redirect from the "change form" page.  
action_repRev Administrators only replace the text of the most recent revision of the topic with the text in the text parameter. text must included embedded meta-data tags. All other parameters are ignored. You have to be an administrator to use this, and not all store implementations will support it.  
action_save default behaviour; save, return to view  
dontnotify if non-0, suppress change notification  
edit The bin script to use to re-edit the topic when action is checkpoint edit
editaction When action is checkpoint, add form or replace form..., this is used as the action parameter to the edit script that is redirected to after the save is complete.  
editparams The parameter string to use to edit the topic when action is checkpoint  
forcenewrevision if set, forces a revision even if Foswiki thinks one isn't needed  
formtemplate if defined, use the named template for the form (will remove the form if set to 'none')  
newtopic If templatetopic is given, and this parameter is set to 1 and the topic does not exist, will clear the initial topic text.  
onlynewtopic If set, error if topic already exists  
onlywikiname If set, error if topic name is not a WikiWord  
originalrev Revision on which the edit started.  
redirectto The save process will redirect to this topic or URL if it is successful. (Typically this would be the URL that was being viewed when edit was invoked). The parameter value can be a TopicName, a Web.TopicName, or a URL.
Note: Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure (Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl}).
topic specified in URL path
template The template to use to re-edit the topic when action is checkpoint  
templatetopic Name of a topic to use as a template for the text and form (new topic only) (see New topic creation above)  
text New text of the topic  
topicparent Sets the parent topic. Set to none to remove parent. Set to topic name to change parent, leave empty to keep existing parent. keep existing parent
Local+name create/set a local META:PREFERENCE called name  
Set+name create/set a normal topic META:PREFERENCE called name  
Unset+name remove a META:PREFERENCE call name  
Default+name gives a default for name. If name is set to this value, then the preference will be removed. ALERT! Requires a corresponding Set+name or Local+name to work.  
<any name> If the topic has a form with a field called <any name>, it will set the value of that field.  

Any errors will cause a redirect to another page, either an oops page to report the error, or a login if the save is not authorized.

The string AUTOINC followed by one or more digits anywhere in the topic name will be converted to a number such that the resulting topic name is unique in the target web.

When the action is save, checkpoint, quietsave, or preview:
  1. The new text is taken from the text parameter, if it is defined,
    • otherwise it is taken from the templatetopic, if it is defined, (new topic only)
    • otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if any,
  2. The name of the new form is taken from the formtemplate, if defined
    • otherwise it is taken from the templatetopic, if defined, (new topic only)
    • otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if any,
    • otherwise no form is attached.
  3. The value for each field in the form is taken from the query, if it is defined
    • otherwise it is taken from the templatetopic, if defined, (new topic only)
    • otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if any,
    • otherwise it defaults to the empty string.

Merging is only enabled if the topic text comes from text and originalrev is > 0 and is not the same as the revision number of the most recent revision. If merging is enabled both the topic and the meta-data are merged.

Form field values are passed in parameters named 'field' - for example, if I have a field Status the parameter name is Status.

ALERT! Note: The save script can only be called via HTTP POST method. Make sure you specify method="post" if you call the save script via a form action. Example:

<form name="new" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{save}%/Sandbox/" method="post">
    ...
</form>
It is not possible to call save from an <a href ...> link.

search

This cgi script has been deprecated. When called, it will redirect to the WebSearch topic, and the parameters will be passed on.

statistics

ALERT! Note: This script is no longer callable using a simple HTTP "GET" operation. It must be called using the POST method using a form.

Refresh the %ISSTATISTICSTOPIC% topics in range of webs.
Parameter Description Default
autocreate Flag to request auto-creation of missing WebStatistics topics. 0=false 1=true (See logging and statistics page in bin/configure.)
logdate Generate statistics for the specified year/month, spacified as YYYYMM current month
subwebs Flag to request processing of subwebs of the requested webs. 0=false 1=true 0 (Subwebs are not processed)
webs comma-separated list of webs. all accessible webs

Command line examples: (All run by first changing to the foswiki/bin directory)
ALERT! Caution: This script writes to foswiki system files. It must be run as the web server user. If ownership of critical system files is changed, it may disrupt the web server!
  1. ./statistics updates all user webs, excluding subwebs
  2. ./statistics webs=Userweb,Sandbox subwebs=1 updates Userweb and Sandbox including subwebs
  3. ./statistics -webs System -autocreate 1 updates System, creating a missing WebStatistics topic if permitted by configuration.

see SiteToolStatistics for more details on %ISSTATISTICSTOPIC%, a form you can POST to update statistics, and how to update statistics using cron.

upload

Uploads an attachment to a topic. The HTTP request is expected to be in multipart/form-data format.
Parameter Description Default
changeproperties if non=0, this is a property change operation only - no file will be uploaded.  
createlink if non-0, will create a link to file at end of topic  
filecomment Comment to associate with file in attachment table  
filepath local (client) path name of the file being uploaded. This is used to look up the data for the file in the HTTP query.  
hidefile if non-0, will not show file in attachment table  
noredirect Normally the script will redirect to 'view' when the upload is complete, but also designed to be useable for REST-style calling using the 'noredirect' parameter. If this parameter is set it will return an appropriate HTTP status code and print a message to STDOUT, starting with 'OK' on success and 'ERROR' on failure.  
redirectto URL to redirect to after upload. The parameter value can be a TopicName, a Web.TopicName, or a URL. Redirect to a URL only works if it is enabled in configure, and is ignored if noredirect is specified.
(Miscellaneous {AllowRedirectUrl}).
topic specified in URL path

Tips
  • You can use a tool like curl to upload files from the command line using this script.
  • You can call upload easily from XmlHttpRequest in Javascript.
  • You can directly invoke upload from the CLI script.__New with Foswiki 2.1__
    • You must use the Perl CLI options '-CA' if the filename or any other arguments contains utf-8 (non-ASCII) characters.
    • ex. Run from the bin directory: perl -CA ./upload filepath="/path/and/filename.dat" filename="Ãttachname.dat" topic=Sandbox.ExistingÜtf8Topic

ALERT! Note: The upload script can only be called via HTTP POST method. Make sure you specify method="post" if you call the upload script via a form action. It is not possible to call upload from an <a href ...> link.

view

Used for viewing topics.

Parameter Description Default
contenttype Allows you to specify a different Content-Type: (e.g. contenttype=text/plain) text/html
raw
  • on - show the text of the topic in a scrollable textarea.
  • debug - as on, but also shows the metadata (forms etc) associated with the topic.
  • text - show only the source of the topic, as plain text (Content-type: text/plain). Only shows the body text, not the form or other meta-data.
  • all - show only the source of the topic, as plain text (Content-type: text/plain), with embedded meta-data. This may be useful if you want to extract the source of a topic to a local file on disc.
 
rev Revision to view (e.g. rev=45) latest
SEARCH<hex number> Identifies a result set that is being paged through  
section Allows to view only a part of the topic delimited by a named section (see VarSTARTSECTION). If the given section is not present, no topic content is displayed.  
template Allows you to specify a different skin template, overriding the 'view' template the view script would normally use. The default template is view. For example, you could specify /System/CommandAndCGIScripts?template=edit. This is mainly useful when you have specialised templates for a Wiki Application.  
<any name> It can be expanded in the topic text during rendering and referenced in IF statements - See the VarURLPARAM macro and IfStatements  

ALERT! For historical reasons, the view script has a special interpretation of the text skin. This skin cannot be redefined.

viewfile

Used for viewing attachments. Normally, a site will publish the attachments (pub) directory using a URL. However if it contains sensitive information, you will want to protect attachments using AccessControls. In this case, you can use the viewfile script to give access to attachments while still checking access controls.

Parameter Description Default
filename name of attachment required
rev Revision to view latest

Instead of using the filename parameter, you can append the attachment name to the end of the URL path (after the topic) e.g. https://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/bin/viewfile/Webname/TopicName/Attachment.gif

Tool Scripts

Details on command line scripts located in the tools directory.

configure

This is a fully functional command line interface to the Foswiki configuration. It is able to set and check configuration values, and to run wizards.

tools/configure [-search] [-getspec] [-getcfg] [-check] [-wizard] [-method] [-save] [-json] [-trace] [-help] [-noprompt] [-expert]

Note: if you need to pass in international characters, it needs to be run with the perl -CA command argument. (perl -CAS when running a new configuration bootstrap)

Function Usage
Bootstrap a new install without helptext tools/configure -save -expert
Bootstrap an installation containing international characters perl -CAS tools/configure -save
Set multiple variables tools/configure -save -set {Password}='newadminpassword' -set {WebMasterEmail}='newadmin@yourco.com'
Check a setting or section of settings. tools/configure -check Internationalisation
Run a wizard tools/configure -wizard Email -method send_test_email
Set admin password that contains international characters perl -CA tools/configure -save -set {Password}='tajemství'
Display one or more settings tools/configure -getcfg {SMTP} -getcfg {PubDir}

For full help, run tools/configure -help.

dependencies

Generates a report of missing or all dependencies. This report is also available to administrators at PerlDependencyReport

tools/dependencies
Generates a report on the missing dependencies
tools/dependencies -all
Generates a report on all dependencies, installed or missing, along with information on the installation location.

geturl.pl

This is a very simple script to get the content of a web site, either using GET or POST. It is marked as deprecated and might be removed in a future release. Its functions are covered by the standard wget and curl commands, which have the added advantage of performing authentication..
  • Usage: geturl.pl <host> <path> [<port> [<header>]]
  • Example: geturl.pl some.domain /some/dir/file.html 80
  • Will get: http://some.domain:80/some/dir/file.html
  • Example: geturl.pl POST some.domain /bin/statistics?webs=Sandbox
  • Will post: http://some.domain/bin/statistics?webs=Sandbox triggering a statistics run

rewriteshebang.pl

Simple script to rewrite the #!/usr/bin/perl shebang lines specific to your local Perl installation. It will rewrite the first line of all your cgi scripts so they use a different shebang line. Use it if your perl is in a non-standard location, or you want to use a different interpreter (such as 'speedy').

tick_foswiki.pl

This script executes a number of non-essential regular administration tasks that will help keep your site healthy and happy, such as removing expired sessions and lease files.

It is intended to be run as a cron job or a scheduled task once a week. Example crontab entry:
0 0 * * 0 cd /usr/local/foswiki/bin && perl ../tools/tick_foswiki.pl

Note: The script has to be run by a user who can write files created by the webserver user.

Extensions, such as the MailerContrib, also install tool scripts. Check the documentation of the extension for details.

extension_installer

This script will download and install, or remove an extension.

For more details, execute it from the Foswiki root directory with the usage parameter:
./tools/extension_installer usage
Note that this script is a generic version of the _installer script shipped with each extension. There are 3 ways to install a script using these scripts:
  • Download SomePlugin_installer and execute it from the Foswiki root directory
  • run ./tools/extension_installer SomePlugin - the extension will be downloaded and installed
  • Use the configure web interface to the Extensions Installer.


Related topics: AdminDocumentationCategory, DeveloperDocumentationCategory

Site Tools

Utilities for searching, navigation, and monitoring site activity

Site Tools include utilities for navigating, searching and keeping up with site activity.

In particular, you have two highly configurable, automated site monitoring tools, WebNotify, to e-mail alerts when topics are edited, and WebStatistics, to generate detailed activity reports.

WebNotify - recent changes alert

About the Web changes notification service

Each Foswiki web has an automatic e-mail notification service that sends you an e-mail with links to all of the topics modified since the last alert.

Users subscribe to email notifications using their WikiName or an alternative email address, and can specify the webs/topics they wish to track. Whole groups of users can also be subscribed for notification.

The general format of a subscription is:

three spaces * subscriber [ : topics ]

Where subscriber can be a WikiName, an email address, or a group name. If subscriber contains any characters that are not legal in an email address, then it must be enclosed in 'single' or "double" quotes. ALERT! Note: The guest user WikiGuest does not have an email address mapped to it, and will never receive email regardless of the configuration of that user.

topics is an optional space-separated list of topics:
  • ... without a Web. prefix
  • ...that exist in this web.
Users may further customize the specific content they will receive using the following controls:
  • Using wild-card character in topic names - You can use * in a topic name, where it is treated as a wildcard character. A * will match zero or more other characters - so, for example, Fred* will match all topic names starting with Fred, *Fred will match all topic names ending with Fred, and * will match all topic names.
  • Unsubscribing to specific topics - Each topic may optionally be preceded by a '+' or '-' sign. The '+' sign means "subscribe to this topic". The '-' sign means "unsubscribe" or "don't send notifications regarding this particular topic". This allows users to elect to filter out certain topics. Topic filters ('-') take precedence over topic includes ('+') i.e. if you unsubscribe from a topic it will cancel out any subscriptions to that topic.
  • Including child-topics in subscription - Each topic may optionally be followed by an integer in parentheses, indicating the depth of the tree of children below that topic. Changes in all these children will be detected and reported along with changes to the topic itself. Note This uses the Foswiki "Topic parent" feature.
  • Subscribing to entire topic ("news mode") - Each topic may optionally be immediately followed by an exclamation mark ! and/or a question mark ? with no intervening spaces, indicating that the topic (and children if there is a tree depth specifier as well) should be mailed out as complete topics instead of change summaries. ! causes the full topic to be mailed every time even if there have been no changes, and ? will mail the full topic only if there have been changes. One can limit the content of the subscribed topic to send out by inserting %STARTPUBLISH% and %STOPPUBLISH% markers within the topic.

Examples: Subscribe Daisy to all changes to topics in this web.
   * daisy.cutter@flowers.com
Subscribe Daisy to all changes to topics that start with Web.
   * daisy.cutter@flowers.com : Web*
Subscribe Daisy to changes to topics starting with Petal, and their immediate children, WeedKillers and children to a depth of 3, and all topics that match start with Pretty and end with Flowers e.g. PrettyPinkFlowers.
   * DaisyCutter: Petal* (1) WeedKillers (3) Pretty*Flowers
Subscribe StarTrekFan to changes to all topics that start with Star except those that end in Wars, sInTheirEyes or shipTroopers.
   * StarTrekFan: Star* - *Wars - *sInTheirEyes - *shipTroopers
Subscribe Daisy to the full content of NewsLetter whenever it has changed.
   * daisy@flowers.com: NewsLetter?
Subscribe buttercup to NewsLetter and its immediate children, even if it hasn't changed.
   * buttercup@flowers.com: NewsLetter! (1)
Subscribe GardenGroup (which includes Petunia) to all changed topics under AllNewsLetters to a depth of 3. Then unsubscribe Petunia from the ManureNewsLetter, which she would normally get as a member of GardenGroup:
   * GardenGroup: AllNewsLetters? (3)
   * petunia@flowers.com: - ManureNewsLetter
Subscribe IT:admins (a non-Foswiki group defined by an alternate user mapping) to all changes to Web* topics.
   * 'IT:admins' : Web*

A user may be listed many times in the WebNotify topic. Where a user has several lines in WebNotify that all match the same topic, they will only be notified about changes in that topic once (though they will still receive individual mails for news topics).

If a group is listed for notification, the group will be recursively expanded to the email addresses of all members.

ALERT! Warning: Because an email address is not linked to a user name, there is no way for Foswiki to check access controls for subscribers identified by email addresses. A subscriber identified by an email address alone will only be sent change notifications if the topic they are subscribed to is readable by guest users. You can limit which email addresses can be used in WebNotify, or even block use of emails altogther, using the {MailerContrib}{EmailFilterIn} setting in configure.

TIP Tip: List names in alphabetical order to make it easier to find the names.

Note for System Administrators: Notification is supported by an add-on to the Foswiki kernel called the MailerContrib. See the MailerContrib topic for details of how to set up this service.

Note: If you prefer a news feed, point your reader to WebRss (for RSS 1.0 feeds) or WebAtom (for ATOM 1.0 feeds). Learn more at WebRssBase and WebAtomBase, respectively.


Related topics: WikiUsers, UserRegistration

WebSearch - search the site

WebSearch is a flexible search facility, part of the core feature set. WebSearchAdvanced offers more options, including:
  • topic title or full-text search
  • regular expressions
  • query search over form data
  • search within web or site-wide
  • index-style A-Z alphabetical listing sorted topic title
  • many more

See also: SearchHelp for help; Macros and FormattedSearch for including hard-coded searches in text.

WebChanges - what's new

To check for the most recently edited topics while on-site, use the WebChanges link, usually located in the toolbar. It lists the most recently modified topics, newest first, along with the first couple of lines of the page content.

This is simply a preset SEARCH. The number of topics listed by the limit parameter.:
%SEARCH{ "1" web="%BASEWEB%" type="query" nosearch="on"
  order="modified" reverse="on" limit="50"
}%

WebRss and WebAtom - news feeds on recent changes

You can point your news reader at WebRss and WebAtom to find out what is new in a web. WebRssBase and WebAtomBase have the details. Like WebChanges, this is based on a %SEARCH{}%.

WebIndex - list of topics

WebIndex lists all web topics in alphabetical order, with the first couple of lines of text. This is simply a preset SEARCH:
%SEARCH{"1" scope="topic" type="query" nosearch="on" }%

WebStatistics - site statistics

See SiteToolStatistics for detailed configuration and customization information.

Introduction

Statistics of visits to pages in a web can be generated manually or automatically, on a per-web basis. Statistics are compiled as a running total for each month.They include totals for Topic Views, Topic Saves, Attachment Uploads, Most Popular Topics with number of views, and Top Contributors showing total of saves and attachment uploads. Statistics from previous months are saved, and a new row is written to the table at the beginning of each month.

  • You can create a WebStatistics link using %STATISTICSTOPIC%

Statistics are compiled by a script that processes the Foswiki event log. The script can be run two ways:
  • Manually, by an authorized user from a browser URL
  • Automatically by a shell script, usually run as a cron job

Manually running statistics

The following form can be used to run statistics and create the WebStatistics topics for selected or all webs.

Note: The current user - WikiGuest must have access rights to read/write the WebStatistics topics, and if missing, must have authority to create the WebStatistics in the selected webs.

Run statistics on a list of one or more webs

Enter a comma separated list of webnames. Enter a subweb by specifying ParentWeb/SubWeb/ Web names must follow web naming rules and start with an upper case letter.

Additional Settings

Autocreate missing WebStatistics

Select this option if you want the Statistics script to auto-create the WebStatistics if it is missing. (Note: this operation must be enabled in the configuration).

Process sub-webs

Process any subwebs of the requested webs. If this is not selected, then sub-webs must be explicitly listed in the list of webs.

Specify date to process

Specify the date of the logs to process in YYYYMM format. Example: 201203 to request March 2012.

Log Files

Foswiki generates an event log which is used by the statistics script
  • The directory for the log file is defined by the {Log}{Dir} setting in configure Logging and Statistics tab.
  • The file name is events.log Old events are archived as events.<year><month>
  • Example path name: working/logs/events.log
  • Each access gets logged as:
    | <time> | <wikiusername> | <action> | <web>.<topic> | <extra info> | <IP address> |
  • Example log entry:
    | 16 Dec 2024 - 16:19 | WikiGuest | view | WebRss | | 66.124.232.02 |
  • By default the following actions are logged:
    Script Action name Extra info
    attach attach when viewing attach screen of previous uploaded attachment: filename
    changes changes  
    edit edit when editing non-existing topic: (not exist)
    login login Authentication failure or success
    manage rename when moving topic: moved to Newweb.NewTopic
    manage move when moving attachment: Attachment filename moved to Newweb.NewTopic
    manage renameweb when renaming a web: oldweb moved to newweb
    rdiff rdiff higher and lower revision numbers: 4 3
    register regstart WikiUserName, e-Mail address, UserName: user attempts to register
    register register E-mail address: user successfully registers
    register bulkregister WikiUserName of new, e-mail address, admin ID
    save save when replacing existing revision: repRev 3
    when user checks the minor changes box: dontNotify
    when user changes attributes to an exising attachment: filename.ext
    save cmd special admin parameter used when saving
    search search search string
    upload upload filename
    view view when viewing non-existing topic: (not exist)
    when viewing previous topic revision: r3
    n/a logout When authentication information is cleared
  • You can disable the logging (and therefore the reporting) of individual actions using the {Log}{Action} EXPERT setting in configure.

E-mail

See also InstallationGuidePart2

Configuring outgoing mail

Outgoing mail is required for UserRegistration and for recent changes alert.

The preferred place to configure e-mail is in the configure Mail tab tool (LocalSite.cfg). The configure tool fully documents these setting.

The notify e-mail uses the default changes.tmpl template, or a skin if activated by a preference setting.

mailnotify also relies on a hidden file in each data/Web directory: .changes and a file with the Web name (one per web) in the working/work_areas/MailerContrib/ directory. Make sure both are writable by your web server process. .changes contains a list of changes; The file in the working/work_areas/MailerContrib/ directorycontains a timestamp of the last time notification was done for the web.Both files are automatically created as needed.

Legacy and current configuration

ALERT! Caution: Older versions of Foswiki, and especially TWiki migrations might configure e-mail in the preference settings topic.Make sure you delete that setting if you are using a SitePreferences topic from a previous release of Foswiki. These settings are no longer used and have been removed.

Parameter configure
(Current)
preference settings
(Legacy)
Default Description
Global enable {EnableEmail} n/a enabled Globally enable/disable email support.
Extermal mail program {MailProgram} n/a '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -oi -oeq' E-mail program used when Net:SMTP is unavailable
Mail relay host {SMTP}{MAILHOST} SMTPMAILHOST not set Destination SMTP Server used to receive and relay email. Net::SMTP is disabled if this is not set.
Mail sending hostname {SMTP}{SENDERHOST} SMTPSENDERHOST not set Hostname used to identify sender. Some SMTP configurations will require this.
SMTP Password {SMTP}{Password} not supported not set

Setting the automatic e-mail schedule

For Unix platforms: Edit the cron table so that mailnotify is called in an interval of your choice. Please consult man crontab for how to modify the table that schedules program execution at certain intervals. Example:
% crontab -e
0 1 * * * (cd /path/to/bin; ./mailnotify -q)

The above line will run mailnotify nightly at 01:00. The -q switch suppresses all normal output.

For ISP installations: Many ISPs don't allow hosted accounts direct cron access, as it's often used for things that can heavily load the server. Workaround scripts are available.

On Windows: You can use a scheduled task if you have administrative privileges.

Site Permissions

  • AccessControl describes how to restrict read and write access to topics and webs, by users and groups
  • SitePermissions lists the permissions settings of the webs on this site

Help with crontab

The crontab command is used to schedule commands to be executed periodically.


Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory, AdminToolsCategory

Managing Topics

Browser-based rename, move, copy, and delete for individual topics

Overview

You can use browser-based controls to change a name of a topic, move it to another web or delete it to a hidden Trash web.

How to rename or move a topic

  1. Select the [More topic actions] link (normally located in an action toolbar at the top or bottom of page) on the topic to be changed. Then, in the new screen, click [Rename or move topic...] or [Delete topic...]. You can now rename and/or move in one operation:
    • Move: Select the target web if other than the current web
    • Rename: Enter the new topic name - default is current name
      ALERT! You'll be warned if any of the topics to be affected are locked (being edited), or if there is a name conflict.
  2. Prevent updates by unchecking individual items on the list of referring links - these topics will NOT to be updated with the new name (by default, only links in the same web will be updated).
  3. Click on [Rename]: the topic will be renamed and links to the topic updated as requested.
    • If any of the referring pages are locked then they will be listed: you can correct these later by again pressing [Rename].
TIP There is a Put back feature that allows you to undo a rename/move/delete action - an instruction line and an undo link will appear under the [Rename or move topic] section of the [More topic actions] page. This allows you to revert from the last modification only.

How to delete a topic

Foswiki deletes topics by moving them to the hidden Trash web.
  1. Select the [More actions] link (normally located in an action toolbar at the top or bottom of page) on the topic to be changed. Then, in the new screen, click [Delete topic...]. That will bring up the "rename" form prepopulated with the Trash web and a suitable topic name.
  2. Click on [Delete]: the topic will be renamed and moved to the Trash web as requested.

How to copy a topic

  1. Select the [More actions] link (normally located in an action toolbar at the top or bottom of page) on the topic to be changed.
  2. On the "More actions" page, scroll down to the "Copy topic" section. In the "Name of copy" text box, enter in the new topic name. To copy the topic to another web, fully qualify the topic name with the web name, separating the two with a period (for example, Web.TopicName).
  3. Select the [Copy topic] button. You will be directed to an edit page for the newly-created topic. You can save the new copy immediately, or make some changes and then save it.

Deleted topics: How to clear the trash

Deleted topics are moved to a special Trash web - they are NOT physically erased from the server. All webs share the same Trash - in case of a name conflict with a topic already existing in the Trash web, the user is alerted and asked to choose a new name.

See your chosen store implementations' topic for additional details related to keeping your trash clean.

Redirecting from an old topic

The default "new topic" screen tells the user when a topic being created used to exist, but was moved. So if anyone follows a link to a moved topic, they will be able to click through to the new name.

How rename/move works

  1. %SEARCH%, with a special template, finds and displays all occurrences of the topic name in other topics, either web- or site-wide. These referring links are by default automatically changed to the new topic and/or web name. This includes relevant MetaData definitions.
    • User can omit one or more topics from the update list by unchecking them.
    • <pre> and <verbatim> are honoured - no changes are made to text within these areas.
      ALERT! Foswiki will therefore not change any references within macros defined in <pre> and <verbatim> blocks
  2. The topic is moved (if locks allow).
  3. References are changed (locks and permissions permitting).
  4. Any referring topics that cannot be changed due to locks are listed - user can take note and change them at another time.

How referring topics are found

First, matching topics in the current web are listed - matches are to topic. Next, all webs (including the current one) are listed that match web.topic. All webs will be searched during rename, even if NOSEARCHALL is defined on a web, though access permissions will of course be honoured.

Changed references are kept as short as possible, for example: topic is used in preference to web.topic.

Effect of user access settings

User permissions affect the 'rename' functions in various ways. To rename a topic, you need all of VIEW, CHANGE and RENAME access to that topic. To alter referring topics, you need CHANGE access. See AccessControl for information on setting up access permissions.

Special considerations

Consider carefully whether to make browser-based rename/move/delete widely available, or to restrict it to an administrator/moderator group. Allowing all users to easily manipulate topics can be extremely useful in refactoring a busy web or site. However, there are at least two significant potential drawbacks to take into account:
  1. When referring links are updated, the modified topics appear in WebChanges, creating the impression that editorial changes were made. This can undermine the usefulness of WebChanges.
  2. Due to current limitations, fairly heavy use of rename/move/delete functions can lead to an accumulation of minor technical problems (such as broken links) and usability issues (e.g. user confusion). If rename... is used heavily, these negatives will obviously increase, in number and effect.

Ultimately, the size, objectives, and policies of your site, the real-world behavior of your user group, and most importantly, the initial Foswiki site management leadership, will determine the most effective implementation of this feature, and the success of the site overall.

Known issues

Rename/move is fairly complicated due to the dynamic generation of links. Ideally, it would be possible to run the required part of rendering in a way that would allow identification of the text to be changed. Unfortunately, these hooks don't exist at present. Instead, %SEARCH% is used with a special template to show the text to be changed, and the selected topics are then altered. One drawback is that search can show matches that will not be updated due to case differences. Other mismatches with actual rendered output are also possible as the approaches are so different.

The following shows some limitations of square bracket processing.

[[Old Topic]]  => [[NewTopic][Old Topic]]
[[old topic]]  => [[NewTopic][old topic]]
[[old t opic]] => not changed
[[OldTopic]]   => [[NewTopic]]

Reviewing and Reverting

TIP The previous version of this documented recommended copy/paste from the raw view of a prior version to revert. This is not recommended as it fails to revert changes to the topic metadata. Note howver that no method actually reverts attachments as they are stored separately from the topics.
Foswiki's revision control saves all topic changes. To view earlier versions of a topic, click on the History link in topic actions. If you would like to revert to an earlier version or reclaim part of an earlier version, just copy from the old topic revision to the current topic revision as follows:
  1. If necessary, using the History view, find the revision number you want to restore.
  2. Visit the [More topic actions] page, [Restore topic] section.
  3. Enter the desired revision number and click [Restore]. This action creates a new revision from the specified version.
Caution: This action does not "rewrite history". A new revision is created, and the rollback can still be reverted. If the is some highly sensitive data that must be removed from the history, this operation will not remove the information. In order to completely expunge data from history, there are several possible options:
  • Move the topic to trash, and create a new version of the topic by cut/paste from the raw view of the trashed topic.
  • or the site administrator can use the cmd=delRev option of the edit script to permanently remove the last revision of a topic.
  • or a server admin can remove the topic.txt,v rcs file from the file system after removing the offending information from the topic.


Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory

Managing Webs

Browser-based rename, move, copy, and delete for individual webs

What are Webs?

A Foswiki site is divided into "Webs", or groups or topics - each one represents one subject, one area of collaboration. Administrators can add, rename or delete webs.
At file level, a Web is a directory located inside the data directory, with text files as topics.
A number of Webs are fixed: System for documentation, Main to store user pages and site-wide preferences, Trash for the topic recycle bin.
Other webs can be created as needed.

Create a new web

To use this form you must be administrator.

Before you begin: consider that less webs are better than more webs. Cross-linking topics is easier, and searches are faster, if there are only a few larger webs.

Name of the new web Required

Naming rule: the name must start with an upper case letter, followed by upper or lower case letters or numbers. Examples: Learn, SupDocs, KNow3. It is recommended to use Web names that are not autolinking as WikiWords. See TopicsAndWebs for more information about naming webs, and disambiguation when a Web contains a topic of the same name.

If you are creating a sub-web (a web inside a web), use the notation Existingweb.Newweb.

About sub-webs

You can only create (Hierarchical) sub-webs if the {EnableHierarchicalWebs} expert setting under the configure -> Store Tab is enabled. sub-webs are currently enabled (default) .

You might not need sub-webs. Foswiki topics already have a parent/child relationship within a web, which is shown in the breadcrumb. Try to keep the number of webs to a minimum in order to keep search and cross-referencing simple.

Summary

Enter a short description of the web. This description will be used in the SiteMap. If you are using links: write Web.TopicName instead of just TopicName for correct linking.

Additional Settings

Leave these settings as default if you do not understand what they mean.

Template web

Base the new web on an existing web.

About template webs

There are two methods used to create a new web.
First you can use a specially designed TemplateWeb. This is an invisible web that begins with an underscore "_" character (for example _default). All topics in the template web will be copied into your new web.
The second method is to use an existing web as a template web. This may be useful if you already have a web that you would like to use as a starting point. Only topics that have names beginning with "Web..." (like "WebHome" or "WebNotify") are copied. In either case you will want to be sure to verify that your new web has all the custom modifications that you desire.

Notes:
  • You must have ROOTCHANGE access to create a top-level web (one with no parent)
  • A new web created using the _default or _empty template webs must have their access controls set before public use
  • _empty is really empty (only has a WebPreferences topic); normally you want to choose _default.
  • Only the person who created it has permission to change the WebPreferences in the new web

List on SiteMap page

Should the new web be listed on SiteMap? Even if hidden, the web will be linkable and accessible to users.

Include in global search and %WEBLIST%

Specify if you want to exclude the web from global search, and from the %WEBLIST% macro used in the WebLeftBarWebsList.

Web color

Displayed on SiteMap and in the left bar (Pattern Skin).
Choose by clicking on the input field, or enter a System.StandardColors.

In-depth info on Webs

Subweb preferences are inherited

The PreferenceSettings of a subweb are inherited from the parent web and overridden locally. Preferences are ultimately inherited from the DefaultPreferences topic.

Example Preference Inheritance for Sandbox/TestWeb/SubWeb.SubWebTopic topic:
  1. System.DefaultPreferences default settings
  2. Main.SitePreferences site-wide settings inherits from and overrides settings in System.DefaultPreferences
  3. Sandbox.WebPreferences inherits from and overrides settings in Main.SitePreferences
  4. Sandbox/TestWeb.WebPreferences inherits from and overrides settings in Sandbox.WebPreferences
  5. Sandbox/TestWeb/SubWeb.WebPreferences inherits from and overrides settings in Sandbox/TestWeb.WebPreferences
  6. Sandbox/TestWeb/SubWeb.SubWebTopic inherits from and overrides settings in Sandbox/TestWeb/SubWeb.WebPreferences

Subweb navigation

The default Pattern skin indicates Subwebs by indenting them in the sidebar relative to their level in the hierarchy.

Renaming or Deleting a Web

Rename a web via the Tools section in each WebPreferences topic. You may delete a web by moving it into a Trash web.

Permissions

You may only rename a web if you have the following permissions
  • You must be allowed to rename and changes topics in the web you want to rename
  • You must be allowed to rename topics in the parent web of the web you want to rename
  • If the web is a root web (i.e. it has no parent web) then you must have permission to both create and rename root webs. These permissions are controlled by the ALLOWROOTCHANGE preference, which can be set in SitePreferences.
  • If you move the web to another parent web you must be allowed to create and change topics in the new parent web. When you rename a web Foswiki will try and update all links that refer to the old web. You should note that links only get updated in topics that you are allowed to edit. If you use access rights in the Foswiki installation it is generally best to let an administrator rename webs to avoid too many broken links.

Renaming the webs in the distribution

It is possible, though not recommended, to change the names of the webs in the distribution. If you plan to rename the Main web, remember that Foswiki stores user topics in this web. That means that every WikiName signature - Main.SomeUserName - points to it and would need updating (unless the macro style %USERSWEB%.SomeUserName, is used throughout). This potentially large change can be performed automatically if you rename the web from the Tools section of WebPreferences, as described above.

ALERT! If you want to rename the System or Main webs, remember they are referred to in the Foswiki configuration. You will need to change the {SystemWebName}, {UsersWebName} and/or {LocalSitePreferences} settings in the configuration using the configure interface.

ALERT! Renaming the webs in the distribution is not recommended because it makes upgrades much more complicated.

Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory, AdminToolsCategory

Manage Users

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

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

Authentication and Access Control

Register User

You don't have to have user home pages in Foswiki for Authentication to work - see UserAuthentication for details.

  • UserRegistration is used when you want new users to individually register with Foswiki by filling out a form
  • BulkRegistration is used by administrators to register multiple users at the same time

Change, Reset and Install Passwords

Note that the below features are only relevant when you use an internal password manager where Foswiki can set and reset passwords.

  • ChangePassword is for users who can remember their password and want to change it
  • ResetPassword is for users who cannot remember their password; a system generated password is e-mailed to them
  • BulkResetPassword is for administrators who want to reset many passwords at once
  • ChangeEmailAddress changes the hidden email address stored in the password file

Changing User Account Names

To change the user's WikiName:
  • Rename the user's Foswiki homepage in the Main web, such as from JaneSmith to JaneMiller.
    • Fix backlinks in the Main web only
    • Make sure the group topics are updated (if any.)
  • Edit the WikiUsers topic and move the user's entry so that the list is in proper alphabetical order.
  • Recreate the old topic with a pointer to the new topic, so that links in other webs work properly. Example content:
    %M% Jane Smith is now known as JaneMiller

If external authentication is used and you want to change the login username:
  • The login username needs to be changed in the authentication server (e.g. Active Directory)
  • In Foswiki's WikiUsers topic, fix the mapping from username to WikiName:
       * JaneSmith - jsmith - 13 Sep 2006
    to:
       * JaneMiller - jmiller - 13 Sep 2006

Removing User Accounts

No permission to view RemoveUser

Configuring User Registration

The registration process is configured at configure Security and Authentication tab, Registration sub-tab.
  • Registration is enabled with {Register}{EnableNewUserRegistration} (This is the default)

Verification of the new registration email address

Registration can be configured to require a verification via the registered email address: {Register}{NeedVerification}
  • An email is sent to the email address entered by the new user with a confirmation code.
  • The user must enter the confirmation code into a dialog on the wiki to confirm the registration.
  • The pending registration lifetime defaults to 6 hours. If the user does not confirm within that time, the pending registration will be removed.
  • Registration requests pending verification can be viewed by visiting the PendingRegistrationsReport

Administrative approval of new registrations

Registration can be configured to require approval. {Register}{NeedApproval}
  • If confirmation is enabled, the email address is verified per the steps in the prior paragraph
  • An email is then set to the list of Approvers - {Register}{Approvers}
  • The approver can then Approve or Deny the registration by following a link in the email.
  • Registrations awaiting approval can be viewed and approved from the PendingRegistrationsReport

Registration Email Requirements

By default, Foswiki does not require unique email addresses. Multiple users can register using the same email address. Enable the setting {Register}{UniqueEmail} to prevent use of the same email by multiple users.

By default, any email domain can be used for registration. Set the expert setting {Register}{EmailFilter} to restrict the domains usable for registration. See the configure help for more details.

See the configure help at configure Security and Authentication tab, Registration sub-tab, for more details.

Expiration of pending registrations and approvals

By default, expiration of pending registrations and approvals is done "on the fly" during the registration process. For best performance, you can set {Register}{ExpireAfter} to a negative number, which will mean that Foswiki won't try to clean up expired registrations durning registration. Instead you should use a cron job to clean up expired sessions. The standard maintenance cron script tools/tick_foswiki.pl includes this function.

Note that if you are using registration approval by 3rd party reviewers, this timer should most likely be significantly increased. 24 hours = 86400, 3 days = 259200.

Pending registration requests are stored in the {WorkingDir}/registration_approvals directory, but are no longer in plain text format. To view the pending registrations see the new PendingRegistrations report.

Customizing the User Registration pages

If you modify any of the topic related to User Registration, you should put the modified versions into the Main web. This will make it easier to upgrade to new versions of Foswiki.

Creating a custom User Registration page

Three topics make up the user registration page:

The actual customization steps are documented in comments internal to DefaultUserRegistration. The general steps are:
  1. Copy DefaultUserRegistration to UserRegistration. (Use the "More topic actions" option on DefaultUserRegistration)
  2. Edit UserRegistration that you just created and follow the instructions on that page.

Using these two steps, you can:
  • Enable/disable entry of existing UserForm fields in registration.
  • Enable automatic group membership during registration.

Note that while it may be interesing to enable fields like OrganizationURL, Comments, etc. they are often used by registration SPAM-Bots to generate topics with links.

Creating a custom NewUserTemplate and UserForm

If you want to modify the contents of the user page that is created during user registration.

  1. Copy NewUserTemplate to NewUserTemplate
  2. Modify the page as desired.

The Registration process will automatically find and use the Main version of the template if it exists.

If you want to customize the contents of the UserForm, for example, to remove or add field:
  1. Copy NewUserTemplate to UserTemplate
  2. Copy UserForm to UserForm
  3. Make your desired changes.
  4. Edit NewUserTemplate, delete the UserForm, and add your new Main form.
See UserForm for more details.

Creating multiple categories of users

By combining all the above concepts, it's possible to have multiple categories of users, for example "Customers", "Vendors", "Employees", each with a custom Template topic, a custom User form and a custom Registration form.

Multiple categories of users can be supported by:

Customizing registration Emails.

Foswiki's Registration can send 7 emails whose output is governed by templates:
User registration confirmation. (Awaiting email verification). templates/registerconfirm.tmpl
User registration failed notification, cleanup was successful. templates/registerfailedremoved.tmpl
User registration failed notification, cleanup of partial registration also failed. templates/registerfailednotremoved.tmpl
User registration denied notification. templates/registerdenied.tmpl
Approver registration pending notification. templates/registerapprove.tmpl
User notification of sucessful registraiton. templates/registernotify.tmpl
Administrator notification of successful registration. templates/registernotifyadmin.tmpl

As these are SkinTemplates, they can be customized and selected using the SKIN path setting. Because there are default .tmpl files in the templates dir, this cannot use Template topics.

Note: As of Foswiki 2.1.3, the email From: address can be different from the WIKIWEBMASTER address, and is configurable using the bin/configure tool. See the "Expert" {WikiAgentName} and {WikiAgentEmail} settings on the "Mail" section, "Basic Settings and Autoconfiguration" tab. If these fields are not set, then the WIKIWEBMASTER setting will be used as the From: address.

These template files have a specific format that matches the raw format of emails sent via SMTP, so be careful and test your changes. It is easiest to start by copying the default templates that you wish to change.: (You don't need to copy every template).

cd templates
cp registernotify.tmpl registernotify.myskin.tmpl
cp registerconfirm.tmpl registerconfirm.myskin.tmpl
cp registernotifyadmin.tmpl registernotifyadmin.myskin.tmpl
then add myskin to the beginning of the SKIN setting in SitePreferences.

From this point on, your myskin templates will be used for the registration emails.

To make it possible for users to modify the email contents, you could use a parameterized %INCLUDE% statement in your customized version, eg:

From: %WIKIAGENTNAME% <%WIKIAGENTEMAIL%>
To: %FIRSTLASTNAME% <%EMAILADDRESS%>
Subject: %MAKETEXT{
   "[_1] - Registration for [_2] ([_3])"
   args="%WIKITOOLNAME%, %WIKINAME%, %EMAILADDRESS%"
}%
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=%CHARSET%
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

%INCLUDE{
    "%USERSWEB%.RegisterNotifyEmail"
    WIKINAME="%WIKINAME%"
    FIRSTLASTNAME="%FIRSTLASTNAME%"
    EMAILADDRESS="%EMAILADDRESS%"
    TEMPLATETOPIC="%TEMPLATETOPIC%"
}%
HELP Note the use of %WIKINAME%, %FIRSTLASTNAME%, %EMAILADDRESS%, passed in from the INCLUDE so that the topic below is similar to the original template. The %TEMPLATETOPIC% variable is also available. It could be used as a "section" name in the include, or directly in the email for tailoring messages for specific types of users.

and then create a topic Main.RegisterNotifyEmail:
Welcome to %WIKITOOLNAME%.

%MAKETEXT{"Your personal [_1] topic is located at [_2]. You can customize it as you like:" args="%WIKITOOLNAME%, %SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%USERSWEB%/%WIKINAME%"}%

   * %MAKETEXT{"Some people turn it into a personal portal with favorite links, what they work on, what help they'd like, etc."}%
   * %MAKETEXT{"Some add schedule information and vacation notice."}%

Regards
%WIKIWEBMASTERNAME%
Your Wiki Admin


%MAKETEXT{"Note:"}%
   2 %MAKETEXT{"You can change your password at via [_1]" args="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ChangePassword"}%
   3 %MAKETEXT{"If you haven't set a password yet or you want to reset it, go to: [_1]" args="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ResetPassword"}%

%MAKETEXT{"Submitted content:"}%
%FORMDATA%


Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory

Appendix A: Foswiki Development Time-line

The complete timeline of Foswiki Releases. Foswiki was forked from TWiki 4.2.4 and released with significant improvments as Foswiki 1.0 in January 2009. Since then there have been 31 releases, with 2 major versions and 2 minor versions.

Foswiki Release 2.1.8 - 06 Aug 2023

Foswiki 2.1.8 contains 61 fixes and improvements, including 9 critical security related fixes.

Foswiki Release 2.1.7 - 28 Mar 2022

Foswiki 2.1.7 was built on 28 Mar 2022. It is a release that contains 117 fixes, including 7 critical security related fixes.

Foswiki Release 2.1.6 - 27 Feb 2018

Foswiki 2.1.6 was built on 27 Feb 2018. It is a release that contains 11 fixes, including some critical security related fixes.

Foswiki Release 2.1.5 - 22 Jan 2018

Foswiki 2.1.5 was built on 22 Jan 2018. It is a release that contains 43 fixes and 5 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 2.1.4 - 31 May 2017

Foswiki 2.1.4 was built on 31 May 2017. It is a release that contains 31 fixes.

Foswiki Release 2.1.3 - 12 Feb 2017

Foswiki 2.1.3 was built on 12 Feb 2017. It is a release that contains 68 fixes and 21 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 2.1.2 - 2 May 2016

Foswiki 2.1.2 was built on 2 May 2016. It is a release that contains 1 fix.

Foswiki Release 2.1.1 - 30 Apr 2016

Foswiki 2.1.1-RC2 was built on 25 Apr 2016. It is a release that contains 36 fixes and 21 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 2.1.0 - 02 Feb 2016

Foswiki 2.1.0 was built on 02 Feb 2016. It is a release that contains 37 fixes and 14 enhancements. It closes 7 Feature Requests.

Foswiki Release 2.0.3 - 15 Nov 2015

Foswiki 2.0.3 was built on 15 Nov 2015. It is a release that contains 17 fixes and 1 enhancement.

Foswiki Release 2.0.2 - 01 Oct 2015

Foswiki 2.0.2 was built on 01 Oct 2015. It is a release that contains 65 fixes and 5 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 2.0.1 - 03 Aug 2015

Foswiki 2.0.1 was built on 03 Aug 2015. It is a release that contains 28 fixes and 3 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 2.0 - 04 Jul 2015

Foswiki 2.0.0 was built on 04 Jul 2015. It is a release that contains 312 fixes and 157 enhancements, and closes 48 Feature Requests.

Foswiki Release 1.1.10 - 23 Nov 2015

Foswiki 1.1.10 was built 23 Nov 2015. It is a release that contains 8 fixes and 8 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 1.1.9 - 19 Nov 2013

Foswiki 1.1.9 was built 18 Nov 2013. It is a release that contains 43 fixes and 4 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 1.1.8 - 28 Feb 2013

Foswiki 1.1.8 was built 28 Feb 2013. It is a release that fixes CVE-2013-1666. It contains 4 fixes.

Foswiki Release 1.1.7 - 01 Feb 2013

Foswiki 1.1.7 was built 01 Feb 2013. It is a release that fixes CVE-2012-6329 and CVE-2012-6330. It contains 20 fixes and 4 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 1.1.6 - 02 Dec 2012

Foswiki 1.1.6 was built 02 Dec 2012. It is a release that fixes some important issues including some minor security related issues. It contains 94 fixes and 27 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 1.1.5 - 10 Apr 2012

Foswiki 1.1.5 was built 10 Apr 2012. It is a release that fixes some very important issues including some security related issues. It contains 100 fixes and 20 enhancements.

Foswiki Release 1.1.4 - 20 Dec 2011

Foswiki 1.1.4 was built 20 Dec 2011. It is a release that fixes some very important including some security related issues. It contains 143 fixes and 27 enhancements. jQuery has been updated to 1.7.1.

Foswiki Release 1.1.3 - 16 Apr 2011

Foswiki 1.1.3 was built 16 Apr 2011. It is a release that fixes more than 150 bugs. jQuery has been updated to 1.4.3. The default PatternSkin has some usability improvements.

Foswiki Release 1.1.2 - 09 Nov 2010

Foswiki 1.1.2 was built 09 Nov 2010. It is a release that fixes some very important bugs incl. a security related bug. Installations running 1.1.0 and 1.1.1 should be upgraded to 1.1.2

Foswiki Release 1.1.1 - 25 Oct 2010

It is a release that fixes some important bugs that were introduced in 1.1.0. It is highly recommended that all running 1.1.0 upgrade to 1.1.1.

Foswiki Release 1.1.0 - 04 Oct 2010

Foswiki 1.1.0 was built 04 Oct 2010. It is a release with more than 270 bug fixes relative to 1.0.10 and more than 680 bug fixes relative to 1.0.0.

This release adds more than 100 enhancements. Foswiki 1.1.0 introduces jQuery Javascript user interface framework, improved topic history display, new QUERY and FORMAT macros, better user interfaces for group management, much improved WYSIWYG editor, facelift of the default skin, much improved configure tool, and much more.

Foswiki 1.1 has many improvements that end-users as well as administrators will appreciate. In addition Foswiki 1.1 comes with a lot of "under the hood" improvements to the core code, with the goal of making it easier to plug in work from other projects, such as jQuery, KinoSearch, Solr and others. Work has been made to improve the definition of internal APIs to allow other not-yet-written modules, such as store implementations. Most of these modifications should be invisible to the end user and admin, but are important to position Foswiki for the next generation of plugins. Here is a list of the most important enhancements in Foswiki 1.1.0

Foswiki Hall of Fame

The proud, free, independent Foswiki community as of the release of 1.1.0 (highlights - for full list see Foswiki:Tasks.HallOfFame)

Foswiki Release 1.0.10 - 09 Sep 2010

Foswiki 1.0.10 was built 09 Sep 2010 as a patch release with more than 410 bug fixes relative to 1.0.0.

This release is expected to be the final bug fixing release for foswiki 1.0, and wraps up about 70 fixes found since 1.0.9.

Importantly, this release fixes an issue running configure on Perl 5.12, improves compatibility with proxy and enterprise search indexers, and updates the shipped plugins to the latest versions.

It resolves a number of issues for running foswiki on MS Windows.

Foswiki Release 1.0.9 - 17 Jan 2010

Foswiki 1.0.9 was built 17 Jan 2010. It is a patch release with more than 320 bug fixes relative to 1.0.0 and several enhancements. This release fixes many bugs in the Wysiwyg editor, bugs related to more advanced wiki applications and bugs in the Plugin API. It contains several bug fixes and enhancements related to security and spam fighting.

Foswiki Release 1.0.8 - 29 Nov 2009

Foswiki 1.0.8 was built 29 Nov 2009. It is a patch release with more than 280 bug fixes relative to 1.0.0 and some enhancements. This release fixes a short list of quite annoying old bugs incl a bug that prevented efficient use of MailerContrib for producing newsletters. The Wysiwyg editor has been upgraded with the latest Tiny MCE editor release 3.2.7.

Foswiki Release 1.0.7 - 20 Sep 2009

More than 30 new bug fixes and some enhancements.

The Wysiwyg editor has been upgraded to using Tiny MCE editor version 3.2.2 which solves many editor related bugs. The pickaxe icon has been replaced by a "Wiki Text" button as the pickaxe was hard to guess the function of.

Several bugs fixed related to the Cross-Site Request Forgery feature.

TablePlugin sorts numbers and dates better

EditTablePlugin handles SpreadSheetPlugin in footer rows correctly

Fixed a problem where Windows installations of Foswiki would create new users with non-working passwords

"Managing webs" feature redesigned for better usability

Foswiki Release 1.0.6 - 21 Jun 2009

More than 40 bugs fixed and several small enhancements.

Major security enhancement against Cross-Site Request Forgery

A central translation framework got introduced. Foswiki is already available in 20 major languages and dialects. The new translation framework will ease the translation process by allowing contributions from users.

Foswiki Release 1.0.5 - 25 Apr 2009

Additional 20 bugs fixed.

Some few minor enhancements

New security features added

Upgrade package for 1.0.5 is relative to 1.0.0.

Foswiki Release 1.0.4 - 19 Mar 2009

Small update of 1.0.3 with 33 more bugs fixed incl some severe bugs in EditTablePlugin.

Upgrade package for 1.0.4 is relative to 1.0.0.

The number of bugfixes in 1.0.4 relative to 1.0.0 is more than 100 + some bugs that were introduced and fixed in the not published 1.0.1-1.0.3. There are 5 minor enhancements.

Foswiki Release 1.0.3 - 28 Feb 2009

Both 1.0.1 ,1.0.2, and 1.0.3 were not published because they did not pass the final quality control. Another handful of bugs were fixed.

Upgrade package for 1.0.3 is relative to 1.0.0.

Foswiki Release 1.0.2 - 26 Feb 2009

Same as 1.0.1 but with a handful of additional bug fixes.

Upgrade package for 1.0.2 is relative to 1.0.0 since 1.0.1 was never published on the Foswiki website.

Foswiki Release 1.0.1 - 24 Feb 2009

Patch release containing more than 70 bug fixes and some user interface improvements of configure. Due to a bug (Item1126) the development team decide not to publish this release but instead release 1.0.2 a few days later

Bug fix highlights:

  • Fixed some bugs related to expired sessions and date in session cookies.
  • Fixed a number of bugs in configure related to installation of extensions
  • Fixed a bug that prevented proper operation with https
  • Fixed a bug related to VIEW_TEMPLATE and preview
  • Enhanced the user interface of configure

Foswiki Release 1.0.0 - 09 Jan 2009

Foswiki is the old TWiki project under a new name. Restrictions on the use of the TWiki brand resulted in many of its developers continuing the project under the new Foswiki name. Foswiki is backwards compatible with all content from older TWiki installations. Foswiki 1.0.0 ships with a TWikiCompatibilityPlugin installed and activated by default, thus enabling most extensions made for TWiki to work under Foswiki.

New features and enhancements

  • Foswiki 1.0.0 is built on a new platform called Foswiki Stand Alone which adds support for FastCGI and enables more optimized functionality in mod_perl and other similar runtime environments. Foswiki Stand Alone also enables future features such as running Foswiki by itself without a separate web server (for example, from a stand alone memory key). You can ensure your applications and plugins will work properly on the new platform (and thus with any future capabilities dependent on the new architecture) by testing them out now with Foswiki 1.0.0.
  • A TWikiCompatibilityPlugin has been created that enables most extensions made for TWiki to work under Foswiki, and to support seamless migrations from TWiki to Foswiki.
  • The PatternSkin has been given a facelift: The PatternSkin topic offers a choice of multiple themes, the sidebar can be placed either on the left or right, a frame can be added around the main content area, and a TWiki theme is available to make it easier for those upgrading from TWiki (dimensions such as the top bar size match the dimensions in the TWiki PatternSkin).
  • The "Advanced Search" page now supports a query-based search.
  • A new section type, "expandvariables", adds better control over macro expansion in topic templates. You can now create template topics with sections where all macros contained within the sections are expanded.
  • A "Copy topic" feature is now present in the "More topic actions" tools.
  • IF conditions has been expanded with an "isempty" test condition.
  • viewfile script can be used as a webserver ErrorDocument enabling both more secure attachments and user focused error dialogs.

Security Updates

Foswiki is much more secure than TWiki 4.2.4.

  • Foswiki 1.0.0 has secured by default the powerful but also vulnerable URLPARAM macro against cross site scripting (XSS) attacks. URLPARAM now by default encodes a short list of unsafe characters '"<>% which eliminates most XSS possibilities encountered with URLPARAM. This protects all topics using the URLPARAM macro without requiring any changes to them.
  • Functions QUERYPARAMS, ORIGURL (skin macro) are secured against XSS attacks. QUERYPARAMS, like URLPARAM, is now encoded with the new, safe encoding.
  • The print preview link is no longer vulnerable to XSS attacks.
  • Additional security fixes have been made, based on security audits performed by the Foswiki team. Sensitive data from the topic text and web client requests are validated for safety.

Terminology changes in Foswiki

As part of the first Foswiki product release, various topics and terms were changed to avoid using the TWiki brand name and to more accurately reflect their purpose, including the following:

  • The TWiki web is now called System, as it contains configuration information for the entire Foswiki installation. The TWikiCompatibilityPlugin provides backwards compatible support for references to the TWiki web, in order to facilitate migrations from TWiki to Foswiki.
  • The %TWIKIWEB% and %MAINWEB% variables are now called %SYSTEMWEB% and %USERSWEB%
  • Topics in the Foswiki distribution have been renamed to eliminate the TWiki word and to make the titles more readable (for example, Plugins, Skins, and so forth).
  • All templates, CSS and Javascript names have been changed from twikiXxxxx to foswikiXxxxx
  • Key terminology changes:
    TWiki term Foswiki term
    TWiki variable Macro
    preference(s) variable preference setting, or macro when referring to expansion of same
    TWiki form Data form
    TWiki Plugin Plugin
    TWiki Template Skin Template
    Topic Template Template Topic
    TWiki Markup Language (TML) Topic Markup Language (TML)
    TWiki Application Wiki Application

Appendix C: CSS

Listing of CSS class names emitted from Foswiki core code and standard extensions.

With Foswiki 2.0 a number of classes have been deprecated. These are marked DEPRECATED below.

Who should read this document?

Skin builders and others who want to change the appearance of the default installation or any of the skins can use this document to see what styles can be created for these html elements.

Naming conventions

  1. All Foswiki class names have the prefix foswiki - for example: foswikiAlert, foswikiToc. This makes it less likely that our CSS classes will get in conflict with other Style Sheets. Remember that CSS class names are case sensitive - Foswiki CSS uses lowercase foswiki.
  2. If you define your own CSS classes, it is preferable that you do not use the foswiki prefix to prevent undesired overriding effects.

A wide range of standard styles are used in the Foswiki core code and topics, and more are used in extensions. The following is an exhaustive list of all styles defined by Foswiki. For the most part, the names are the only documentation of the purpose of the style. For more information on how these styles are used, read the code (sorry!)

CSS class names

Structural elements

.foswikiContainer Container around all level one page elements to maintain consistent width and margins
.foswikiPage The container for the complete page contents, just below the body tag (only used by default templates)
.foswikiTopic The container for the topic contents
.foswikiAttachments Container for attachments table, including header
table#foswikiAttachmentsTable Identifier for the attachment table
.foswikiHorizontalList Container around horizontal bullet list (.foswikiHorizontalList ul)
li.foswikiLast Last element of a horizontal list
.foswikiBroadcastMessage Site-wide message block; contents set in System.DefaultPreferences; custom set in Main.SitePreferences
.foswikiNotification Temporary alert, for instance after user actions; used as wrapper around %FLASHNOTE%
.foswikiMessage Permanent/semi-permanent message.
.foswikiContentHeader Optional container around text placed above topic text
.foswikiContentFooter Optional container around text placed below topic text
.foswikiFooterNote Text below topic text; for instance with parent or "topic moved" message
#foswikiLogin Login box
#foswikiLogo Logo
.foswikiPreviewArea Container around topic preview
.foswikiTopicActions Topic Actions list
.foswikiTopicInfo Topic Info section containing REVINFO
.foswikiTopicText The rendered Topic text
.foswikiTabs Container for tabs (styled bullet list, .foswikiTabs ul)
li.foswikiActiveTab Active tab
.foswikiTabContent Container for content below tabs
.foswikiMain The container for the main contents, usually including the header (only used by default templates)

General appearance

.foswikiLeft Left float
.foswikiRight Right float
.foswikiClear Clear float; usually written as <div class="foswikiClear"></div>
.foswikiAlert Warnings and alert messages; general red text
.foswikiHelp Help text block
.foswikiGrayText Grayed out text; text of less importance
.foswikiToc Table of Contents block
.foswikiTocTitle Title text of Table of Contents
.foswikiHidden Hidden elements
.foswikiSmall Small text
.foswikiSmallish Somewhat less smaller text; in-between normal and small
.foswikiLarge Large text, for instance for introduction paragraphs
.foswikiNoBreak Causes whitespace not to create a linebreak; for instance with the dates in the attachment table
.foswikiImage Optional container around images; for instance to create a border around an <img> element
.foswikiUserName Container around user name links (not used much yet)

.foswikiCurrentWebHomeLink Used by Render.pm if a link points to the web's home topic
.foswikiCurrentTopicLink Used by Render.pm if a link points to the current topic
.foswikiEmulatedLink Used in the preview screen to make fake links appear as links
.foswikiLinkLabel Text part of a link; used if a link contains more than a text label, for instance an icon
.foswikiUnvisited Makes link appear as not visited (ignores the visited link state)
.foswikiRequiresChangePermission To mark links to actions that the user does not have permissions for (for instance to hide action links)

Tables

.foswikiTable Tables, for instance used by TablePlugin
.foswikiFirstCol Leftmost column
.foswikiLastCol Rightmost column
.foswikiSortedCol Sorted column
.foswikiSortedAscendingCol Sorted column, ascending
.foswikiSortedDescendingCol Sorted column, descending
.foswikiTopRow First row in search results; also used for styling first table rows (td.foswikiTopRow)
.foswikiTableEven Even numbered rows
.foswikiTableOdd Odd numbered rows
.foswikiTableCol + column number Unique column identifier, for instance: foswikiTableCol0
.foswikiTableRow + type + row number Unique row identifier, for instance: foswikiTableRowdataBg0
.tableSortIcon Holder (span) for the table column sort icon

Data form elements

See also: HTML form elements

.foswikiFormHolder Outer container for the data form in edit; contains the textarea width
.foswikiFormTable Table container for (editable) form elements
.foswikiFormTableHRow Table container for (editable) form elements
.foswikiFormTableRow Table container for form elements
.foswikiFormTableFooter Table container for form elements
.foswikiEditForm Edit state of data form
.foswikiMandatory Indication of mandatory field
.foswikiAddFormButton "Add form" button on edit screen

HTML form elements

.foswikiForm Container for data form in topic, including header
.foswikiActionFormStepSign Indicator for each form step (see foswikiFormStep)
.foswikiFormSteps Container around a form that contains a number of separate 'steps'; each 'step' in a separate row
.foswikiFormStep Form step row
.foswikiLast Last step (always in combination with foswikiFormStep); sometimes used as last table row
.foswikiPageForm Container for the form on the page
.foswikiButton Normal button
.foswikiButtonDisabled Disabled normal button
.foswikiSubmit Submit button
.foswikiSubmitDisabled Disabled submit button
.foswikiButtonCancel Cancel button
.foswikiInputField Text input field
.foswikiInputFieldDisabled Disabled text input field
.foswikiInputFieldReadOnly Read-only text input field
.foswikiInputFieldFocus Text input field with insert focus; for Internet Explorer that does not recognize the :focus pseudo class selector
.foswikiInputFieldBeforeFocus The color of the input text field when not clicked in the field; usually a grayed text color with a hint, for instance "Search"
.foswikiRadioButton Radio button
.foswikiCheckbox Checkbox
.foswikiSelect Select dropdown menu
.foswikiSelectDisabled Disabled dropdown menu
.foswikiOption Dropdown option element
.foswikiTextarea Textarea
.foswikiTextareaRawView Raw topic view textarea

Search and lists

.foswikiSearchResult Container around image and contents
.foswikiSearchResultContents Search result content, such as title, summary, author
.foswikiSearchResultCount Search results count
.foswikiSearchResultImage Container around image (img tag) in Search results
.foswikiSearchResultMeta Search result meta data such as author name, date
.foswikiSearchResultTitle Search result title
.foswikiSearchResults List of search results
.foswikiSearchResultsHeader Search results header with search string, number of hits
.foswikiSearchResultsPager Search results pagination
.foswikiSummary Topic or list item summary
.foswikiSummary em Highlighted search term in summary
.foswikiNew Identifier of new topics: topics without a revision history
.foswikiTopRow First row in search results; also used for styling first table rows (td.foswikiTopRow)
.foswikiBottomRow Last row in search results
.foswikiSRRev Revision number in search results listing
.foswikiSRAuthor Author in search results listing
#foswikiNumberOfResultsContainer See Behaviour classes below
.foswikiWebSearchForm Container around the search form

Other elements

.foswikiButtonGroup Group of buttons. Introduced with Foswiki 2.0.
.foswikiToolbar Container for controls. Introduced with Foswiki 2.0.
.foswikiToolbarHeader Header in foswikiToolbar. Introduced with Foswiki 2.0.
.foswikiWebIndent Used by %WEBLIST% to indent sub-web names
.foswikiAccessKey Access key demarkation
.foswikiSeparator Separator element between sequential elements; usually a pipe character
.foswikiEditboxStyleMono Gives the edit textarea monospaced font (not used with WYSWIWYG)
.foswikiEditboxStyleProportional Gives the edit textarea proportional font (not used with WYSWIWYG)
p.foswikiAllowNonWikiWord Message "Allow non WikiWord for the new topic name"
.foswikiIcon Icon image; span around image or the image itself

History

.foswikiDiffTable Revision table
.foswikiMarker Demarkation of part
.foswikiDiffDeletedMarker Demarkation of part that has been deleted
.foswikiDiffDeletedText Demarkation of part that has been deleted
.foswikiDiffAddedHeader Demarkation of part that has been added
.foswikiDiffAddedMarker Demarkation of part that has been added
.foswikiDiffAddedText Demarkation of part that has been added
.foswikiDiffChangedHeader Demarkation of part that has been changed
.foswikiDiffChangedText Demarkation of part that has been changed
.foswikiDiffUnchangedMarker Demarkation of part that has been unchanged
.foswikiDiffUnchangedText Demarkation of part that has been unchanged
.foswikiDiffUnchangedTextContents Demarkation of part that has been unchanged
.foswikiDiffLineNumberHeader  
.foswikiDiffDebug  
.foswikiDiffDebugRight  
.foswikiDiffDebugLeft  

Behaviour classes

Markers to invoke behaviour with unobtrusive JavaScript.
.foswikiFocus Behaviour marker so a field can be given input focus. As of Foswiki 2.0 this also requires to add %JQREQUIRE{"focus"}% to the page.
.foswikiChangeFormButton "Replace form" button; clicking calls JavaScript function suppressSaveValidation
#foswikiNumberOfResultsContainer Container identifier to write the number of search results into
input[type="text"].foswikiDefaultText Behaviour marker so the field will contain default text that disappears when clicked into. The visual style is set with foswikiInputFieldBeforeFocus and foswikiInputFieldFocus. The default text is provided by the title attribute of the form field.
.foswikiJs Added to the html tag if the browser has javascript enabled.
.foswikiMakeVisible For elements that should only be visible with JavaScript on: default set to hidden, is made visible by JavaScript. This is how it works: by default the body tag should include the class foswikiNoJs. An onload script replaces that class with foswikiJs. Elements that should be hidden have the class style .foswikiNoJs .foswikiMakeVisible.
.foswikiMakeHidden For elements that should be hidden with JavaScript on: no default style, is made hidden by JavaScript
.foswikiSort Sort control
.foswikiMakeVisibleBlock DEPRECATED as of Foswiki 1.1.0 Use .foswikiMakeVisible - for div elements that should only be visible with JavaScript on: default set to hidden, is made visible by JavaScript
.foswikiMakeVisibleInline DEPRECATED as of Foswiki 1.1.0 Use span.foswikiMakeVisible - for span elements that should only be visible with JavaScript on: default set to hidden, is made visible by JavaScript
.foswikiPopUp DEPRECATED as of Foswiki 1.1.0 Use %POPUPWINDOW{"topic"}%

Troubleshooting foswikiFocus

Tips

PatternSkin makes extensive use of CSS in its templates. Read the PatternSkin topic and PatternSkinCss to learn more about creating your own CSS-based skin.

Practical introduction to CSS: http://www.w3.org/Style/LieBos2e/enter/


Related Topics: Skins, PatternSkin, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory

Topic revision: r1 - 20 Jun 2022, ProjectContributor
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