Topics

What are Topics and Webs?

Topics are the basic building block of a Foswiki site. You may be more familiar with the term pages, documents or articles in other software; however, Foswiki's topics traditionally serve more purposes than the equivalent in other systems. Topics can only exist inside a web. The topic you're reading now is TopicsAndWebs.

A Web is a collection of topics (and other webs, known as subwebs). Webs are containers and by themselves cannot store information; only topics can do that. You may be more familiar with the term Namespaces in other wiki software, but Foswiki's webs are more like directories and folders in your computer's operating system. There is no common "root" web. The TopicsAndWebs topic you're reading now is contained in the System web (its complete, fully qualified name is TopicsAndWebs).

Anatomy of a Topic

Each topic has:

• name
  • topics in a given web have unique names to identify them
  • topics with a WikiWord name are automatically linked (as opposed to [[forced bracketed links]] - see EditingShorthand to learn more)
  • there are restrictions on topic names; see topic naming rules
  • a topic's fully qualified name is prefixed with the web it is contained in, for example the topic you're reading now may be referred to as TopicsAndWebs
    • fully qualified names are used when a link is being made to a topic in another web
• content
  • you're reading the topic text of TopicsAndWebs right now
  • use WYSIWYG or TML and macros to write rich topic content
• attachments
  • topics may have one or more file attachments
  • changes to attachments are automatically recorded
• DataForm
  • topics may have a DataForm attached to them, which specifies metadata fields that users may fill. This data may be queried and reported (see the FrequentlyAskedQuestions application as an example)
• access controls
  • control who can view, edit, rename, move or delete topics
  • set permissions for individual users or user groups
  • override default permissions inherited by the web or site
• revisions
  • changes are automically recorded
  • change history shows authors, dates, and allows comparison between any two versions
  • revert to older versions
• containing web
  • every topic must be contained within a web
  • list of webs at SiteMap
• meta-data
  • hidden contextual data stored within each topic
  • Example: parent topic
    • new topics are automatically made a "child" of the topic it was created from
    • parent relationship allows hierarchical, parent-child navigation
    • See Figure of System web
• backlinks
  • a list of all topics that reference a given topic (see "More topic actions")

Creating and editing topics

Foswiki makes it easy to add and edit topics or link between them.

To edit: click Edit in the toolbar which should be present at the top and bottom of each page (assuming default PatternSkin). An edit screen appears. Use the Edit Help button if you need it.

• Click Preview to see how your edit looks.
• Click Save to save.

To add a new topic there are three ways in the default PatternSkin:

1. Create a link to the topic which doesn't exist yet, e.g. by editing a topic and typing a WikiName. When the topic is saved, the link will be shown with a ?: click the ? and a new edit window appears.
2. Navigate to the topic which doesn't exist yet, e.g. by typing the name of topic in the JumpBox. Foswiki should display a screen which invites you to create the topic.
3. Click the Create New Topic link in the WebLeftBar links down the left side of the page (assuming default PatternSkin). Foswiki should display a screen which invites you to create the topic.

Topic Names

The best strategy is to use WikiWords for your topic names. In this way, linking is automatic. However, if non- WikiWord names are required, you can use [[bracketed links]] to force a link to a non-standard topic name (see EditingShorthand). Forced links are subject to some restrictions and the actual topic name may not be identical to what was entered into the forced link.

• The first letter of each "word" will be automatically capitalized
• Spaces are compressed out of the topic name
• The following special characters are removed: (May be different in your installation)
  • Any other "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)

Example: If you enter [[my special-topic @here]], you will see MySpecial-topicHere, but the actual topic created will be MySpecial-topicHere.

Note that if you use the Topic Creator, WikiWord rules are strictly enforced and the resulting topic name would be MySpecialTopicHere For more details on forced links, see EditingShorthand

Revision numbers

Topic and attachment versions are identified by positive, non-zero, integer numbers. Versions start with 1 and are sequencial.

Reverting, renaming, moving and deleting topics

See Deleting and renaming topics and ManagingTopics

Anatomy of a web

If a user navigates to a Foswiki site without specifying a web, the default Main will be displayed.

Each web has:

• name
  • topic naming rules apply to web names
  • there is no ability to refer to subwebs with a relative path, i.e. they must always be fully qualified - referred to in full, with the parent web(s) prefixed
    • the '.' and '/' characters serve as path delimiters to a web or topic
    • example: MyTopic
    • it is possible in Foswiki to have a subweb which is the same name as a topic. For this reason, if there is a web named Sandbox/MySubWeb, navigating to it must be done so using a trailing slash, i.e. [[Sandbox/MySubWeb/]]. Without the trailing slash, Foswiki tries to display the topic named [[Sandbox.MySubWeb]].
      • Disambiguation of identical web and topic names using the trailing slash is only active within [[Square bracket links]].
• WebPreferences topic
  • sets PreferenceSettings to be inherited by all contained topics, e.g. access controls, and:
    • FINALPREFERENCES to prevent subwebs and topics from overriding inherited PreferenceSettings
    • WEBFORMS to specify a list of DataForms that users should be able to attach to contained topics
    • WEBCOPYRIGHT to customise copyright message for all contained topics
  • provides a link to the rename and delete web utility
• System topic
  • the home topic for the container web. It is also the default topic Foswiki will display if a user navigates to a web without specifying a topic name.
• Utility topics (from the _default template web):
  • _default.WebAtom
  • _default.WebChanges
  • _default.WebCreateNewTopic
  • _default.WebIndex
  • _default.WebLeftBar
  • _default.WebNotify
  • _default.WebPreferences
  • _default.WebRss
  • _default.WebSearch
  • _default.WebSearchAdvanced
  • _default.WebTopicList

Renaming, moving and deleting webs

See ManagingWebs

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Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory, ManagingTopics, ManagingWebs