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Documentation of the TWiki Implementation (version TWiki-6.1.0, Mon, 16 Jul 2018, build 30610)

  • (1) Login Username vs. Wiki Username
  • (2) Wiki Variables
  • (3) Notification of Changes by Email
  • (4) TWiki Category Table
  • (5) Implementation Notes
  • (6) Installation Notes

Related Topics: TWikiHistory, TWikiPlannedFeatures, TWikiEnhancementRequests.

(1) Login Username vs. Wiki Username

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

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

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

(2) Wiki Variables

TWiki Variables

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

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

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

Using Variables

To use a variable type its name. For example,

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

Note:

  • To leave a variable unexpanded, precede it with an exclamation point, e.g. type !%TOPIC% to get %TOPIC%
  • Variables are expanded relative to the topic they are used in, not the topic they are defined in
  • Type %ALLVARIABLES% to get a full listing of all variables defined for a particular topic

Variable Names

Variable names must start with a letter. The following characters can be letters, numbers and the underscore '_'. You can use both upper-case and lower-case letters and you can mix the characteres. E.g. %MYVAR%, %MyVar%, %My2ndVar%, and %My_Var% are all valid variable names. Variables are case sensitive. %MyVAR% and %MYVAR% are not the same variable.

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

Preferences Variables

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

Setting Preferences Variables

You can set variables in all the following places:

  1. system level in TWiki.TWikiPreferences
  2. plugin topics (see TWikiPlugins)
  3. local site level in Main.TWikiPreferences
  4. user level in individual user topics in Main web
  5. web level in WebPreferences of each web
  6. topic level in topics in webs
  7. session variables (if sessions are enabled)

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

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

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

Examples: 

   * Set VARIABLENAME1 = value
      * Set VARIABLENAME2 = value

Spaces between the = sign and the value will be ignored. You can split a value over several lines by indenting following lines with spaces - as long as you don't try to use * as the first character on the following line.

Example: 

   * Set VARIABLENAME = value starts here
     and continues here

Whatever you include in your variable will be expanded on display, exactly as if it had been entered directly.

Example: Create a custom logo variable

  • To place a logo anywhere in a web by typing %MYLOGO%, define the Variable on the web's WebPreferences topic, and upload a logo file, ex: mylogo.gif. You can upload by attaching the file to WebPreferences, or, to avoid clutter, to any other topic in the same web, e.g. LogoTopic. Sample variable setting in WebPreferences: 
      * Set MYLOGO = %PUBURL%/%WEB%/LogoTopic/mylogo.gif

You can also set preferences variables on a topic by clicking the link Edit topic preference settings under More topic actions. Use the same * Set VARIABLENAME = value syntax. Preferences set in this manner are not visible in the topic text, but take effect nevertheless.

Parameterized Variables (Macros)

It is possible to pass parameters to TWiki variables. This is called a macro in a programming language.

To define a parameterized variable, set a variable that contains other variables, such as: 

   * Set EXAMPLE = Example variable using %DEFAULT%, %PARAM1% and %PARAM2%
   * Set DEMO = Demo using %DEFAULT{ default="(undefined)" }%,
                %PARAM1{ default="(undefined)" }% and %PARAM2{ default="(undefined)" }%

A special %DEFAULT% variable denotes the default (nameless) parameter of the calling variable. Variables optionally may list a default="..." parameter that gets used in case the calling variable does not specify that parameter.

To use a parameterized variable (or call a macro), add parameters within the curly brackets, such as: 

   * %EXAMPLE{ "foo" PARAM1="bar" PARAM2="baz" }%
   * %DEMO{ "demo" PARAM2="parameter 2" }% -- note that PARAM1 is missing
which resolves to:
  • %EXAMPLE{ "foo" PARAM1="bar" PARAM2="baz" }%
  • %DEMO{ "demo" PARAM2="parameter 2" }% -- note that PARAM1 is missing

Parameters in the variable definition are expanded using the following sequence:

  1. Parameter from variable call. In above example, %PARAM1% gets expanded to bar.
  2. Session variable and preferences settings

Example

Define variables: 

   * Set DRINK = red wine
   * Set FAVORITE = My %DEFAULT{default="favorite"}% dish is %DISH{default="steak"}%,
                    my %DEFAULT{default="favorite"}% drink is %DRINK%.
TIP The default can be defined with a default parameter (%DISH{default="steak"}%), or as a preferences setting (Set DRINK = ...).

Use Variables: 

%FAVORITE{ DISH="Sushi" DRINK="Sake" }%
Returns:
%FAVORITE{ DISH="Sushi" DRINK="Sake" }% 

%FAVORITE{}%
Returns:
%FAVORITE{}% 

%FAVORITE{ "preferred" }%
Returns:
%FAVORITE{ "preferred" }%

Access Control Variables

These are special types of preferences variables to control access to content. TWikiAccessControl explains these security settings in detail.

Local values for variables

Certain topics (a users home topic, web site and default preferences topics) have a problem; variables defined in those topics can have two meanings. For example, consider a user topic. A user may want to use a double-height edit box when they are editing their home topic - but only when editing their home topic. The rest of the time, they want to have a normal edit box. This separation is achieved using Local in place of Set in the variable definition. For example, if the user sets the following in their home topic: 

   * Set EDITBOXHEIGHT = 10
   * Local EDITBOXHEIGHT = 20
Then when they are editing any other topic, they will get a 10 high edit box. However when they are editing their home topic, they will get a 20 high edit box. Local can be used wherever a preference needs to take a different value depending on where the current operation is being performed.

Use this powerful feature with great care! %ALLVARIABLES% can be used to get a listing of the values of all variables in their evaluation order, so you can see variable scope if you get confused.

Frequently Used Preferences Variables

The following preferences variables are frequently used. They are defined in TWikiPreferences#Miscellaneous_Settings:

  • %BB% - line break and bullet combined
  • %BB2% - level 2 bullet with line break
  • %BB3% - level 3 bullet with line break
  • %BB4% - level 4 bullet with line break
  • %BR% - line break
  • %BULLET% - bullet sign
  • %CARET% - caret symbol
  • %VBAR% - vertical bar
  • %H% - HELP Help icon
  • %I% - IDEA! Idea icon
  • %M% - MOVED TO... Moved to icon
  • %N% - NEW New icon
  • %P% - REFACTOR Refactor icon
  • %Q% - QUESTION? Question icon
  • %S% - PICK Pick icon
  • %T% - TIP Tip icon
  • %U% - UPDATED Updated icon
  • %X% - ALERT! Alert icon
  • %Y% - DONE Done icon
  • %RED% text %ENDCOLOR% - colored text (also %YELLOW%, %ORANGE%, %PINK%, %PURPLE%, %TEAL%, %NAVY%, %BLUE%, %AQUA%, %LIME%, %GREEN%, %OLIVE%, %MAROON%, %BROWN%, %BLACK%, %GRAY%, %SILVER%, %WHITE%)
  • %REDBG% text %ENDBG% - colored background (also %YELLOWBG%, %ORANGEBG%, %PINKBG%, %PURPLEBG%, %TEALBG%, %NAVYBG%, %BLUEBG%, %AQUABG%, %LIMEBG%, %GREENBG%, %OLIVEBG%, %MAROONBG%, %BROWNBG%, %BLACKBG%, %GRAYBG%, %SILVERBG%, %WHITEBG%)

There are additional useful preferences variables defined in TWikiPreferences, in Main.TWikiPreferences, and in WebPreferences of every web.

Predefined Variables

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

  • ALERT! Predefined variables can be overridden by preferences variables (except TOPIC and WEB)
  • ALERT! Plugins may extend the set of predefined variables (see individual plugin topics for details)
  • TIP Take the time to thoroughly read through ALL preference variables. If you actively configure your site, review variables periodically. They cover a wide range of functions, and it can be easy to miss the one perfect variable for something you have in mind. For example, see %INCLUDINGTOPIC%, %INCLUDE%, and the mighty %SEARCH%.

Search predefined variables

List of all predefined variables

This TWiki: - TWiki-6.1.0, Mon, 16 Jul 2018, build 30610

ACTIVATEDPLUGINS -- list of currently activated plugins

ADDTOHEAD -- add HTML to the HTML head section of the current page

  • Useful for TWiki applications to add custom CSS or JavaScript to the HTML head section of a topic. Supplied TWiki variables will be expanded. %ADDTOHEAD{}% expands in-place to an empty string, unless there is an error in which case the variable expands to an error string.
  • Syntax: %ADDTOHEAD{ "..." text="..." }%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Comment:
    "..." ID of the head block, such as "MY_CSS" Optional but recommended
    text="..." HTML text to add to the head section Mutually exclusive with topic=""
    topic="Web.TopicName" Name of topic that contains the full HTML text to add to the head section, such as topic="Main.MyCssTopic" Mutually exclusive with text=""
    requires="..., ..." Comma-separated list of other IDs this one depends on Optional
  • Example: %ADDTOHEAD{ "MYBOX_CSS" text="<style type=\"text/css\"> .myBox { height: 22px; background-color: #AFB3C5; } </style>" }%

ALLVARIABLES -- list of currently defined TWikiVariables

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

AQUA -- start aqua colored text

ATTACHURL -- full URL for attachments in the current topic

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

AUTHREALM -- authentication realm

BASETOPIC -- base topic where an INCLUDE started

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

BASEWEB -- base web where an INCLUDE started

  • The web name where the includes started, e.g. the web of the first topic of nested includes. Same as %WEB% in case there is no include.
  • Syntax: %BASEWEB%
  • Syntax: %BASEWEB{format="..."}% -- see WEB for format documentation
  • Related: BASETOPIC, INCLUDINGWEB, INCLUDE, WEB

BB -- bullet with line break

BB2 -- level 2 bullet with line break

BB3 -- level 3 bullet with line break

BB4 -- level 4 bullet with line break

BLACK -- start black colored text

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

BLUE -- start blue colored text

BR -- line break

BROWN -- start brown colored text

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

BULLET -- bullet sign

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

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

CARET -- caret symbol

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

  • A %COMMENT% without parameters shows a simple text box.
  • A %COMMENT{}% can handle the following parameters:
    Parameter Description Default
    type This is the name of the template to use for this comment. Comment templates are defined in a TWiki template - see customization. If this attribute is not defined, the type is whatever is defined by COMMENTPLUGIN_DEFAULT_TYPE, either in this topic or in your WebPreferences. "below"
    default Default text to put into the textarea of the prompt.  
    target Name of the topic to add the comment to the current topic
    location Regular expression specifying the comment location in the target topic. Read carefully the CommentPlugin documentation!  
    mode For compatibility with older versions only, synonymous with type  
    nonotify Set to "on" to disable change notification for target topics "off"
    noform Set to "on" to disable the automatic form that encloses your comment block - remember to insert <form> tags yourself! See CommentPluginExamples#noform for an example. "off"
    nopost Set to "on" to disable insertion of the posted text into the topic. "off"
    remove Set to "on" to remove the comment prompt after the first time it is clicked. "off"
    button Button label text "Add comment"
  • See CommentPlugin for more information
  • Related: HIDE, TWikiForms

DATE -- signature format date

DISPLAYTIME -- display date and time

  • Syntax: %DISPLAYTIME%
  • Expands to: 2025-07-26 - 05:35
  • Date part of the format is displayed as defined by the {DefaultDateFormat} in configure, default $year-$mo-$day. The time is shown as hh:mm (24 hour clock)
  • Related: DISPLAYTIME{"format"}, GMTIME, SERVERTIME

DISPLAYTIME{"format"} -- formatted display time

  • Formatted time - either GMT or Local server time, depending on {DisplayTimeValues} setting in configure, default $year-$mo-$day. Same format qualifiers as %GMTIME%
  • Syntax: %DISPLAYTIME{"format"}%
  • Supported variables: $seconds, $minutes, $hours, $day, $wday, $dow, $month, $mo, $year, $ye, $tz, $iso, $rcs, $http, $epoch
  • Example: %DISPLAYTIME{"$hou:$min"}% expands to 05:35
  • Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME, SERVERTIME

EDITACTION -- Selects an edit template

  • EDITACTION defined in a topic or preference setting will define the use of an editaction template instead of the standard edit. If EDITACTION is defined as text, then hide the form. If EDITACTION is defined as form hide the normal text area and only edit the form.
  • Syntax: Set EDITACTION = text|form
  • Expands to: %EDITACTION%
  • Related: TWikiScripts#edit
  • ALERT! When EDITACTION is defined as text or form the Edit and Edit Raw buttons simply add ;action=text or ;action=form to the URL for the edit script. If you have defined EDITACTION in a topic setting or preference setting you can still edit the topic content or the form by removing the ;action=form or ;action=text from the edit URL in the browser and reload.

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

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

  • Supported attributes:
    Attribute Comment Default
    header Specify the header format of a new table like "|*Food*|*Drink*|". Useful to start a table with only a button (no header)
    format The format of one column when editing the table. A cell can be a text input field, or any of these edit field types:
    • Text input field (1 line):
      | text, <size>, <initial value> |
    • Textarea input field:
      | textarea, <rows>x<columns>, <initial value> |
    • Drop down box:
      | select, <size>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc* |
      * only one item can be selected
    • Radio buttons:
      | radio, <size*>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc |
      * size indicates the number of buttons per line in edit mode
    • Checkboxes:
      | checkbox, <size*>, <option 1>, <option 2>, etc |
      * size indicates the number of checkboxes per line in edit mode
    • Fixed label:
      | label, 0, <label text> |
    • Row number:
      | row, <offset> |
    • Date:
      | date, <size>, <initial value>, <DHTML date format*> |
      * see Date Field Type     		"text, 16"
    for all cells
    changerows Rows can be added and removed if "on"
    Rows can be added but not removed if "add"
    Rows cannot be added or removed if "off"     		CHANGEROWS
    plugin setting
    quietsave Quiet Save button is shown if "on", hidden if "off" QUIETSAVE
    plugin setting
    include Other topic defining the EDITTABLE parameters. The first %EDITTABLE% in the topic is used. This is useful if you have many topics with the same table format and you want to update the format in one place. (none)
    helptopic Topic name containing help text shown below the table when editing a table. The %STARTINCLUDE% and %STOPINCLUDE% variables can be used in the topic to specify what is shown. (no help text)
    headerislabel Table header cells are read-only (labels) if "on"; header cells can be edited if "off" or "0" "on"
    editbutton Set edit button text, e.g. "Edit this table"; set button image with alt text, e.g. "Edit table, %PUBURL%/%SYSTEMWEB%/TWikiDocGraphics/edittopic.gif"; hide edit button at the end of the table with "hide" (Note: Button is automatically hidden if an edit button is present in a cell) EDITBUTTON
    plugin setting
    buttonrow Set to top to put the edit buttons above the table. bottom
    javascriptinterface Use javascript to directly move and delete row without page refresh. Enable with "on", disable with "off". JAVASCRIPTINTERFACE
    plugin setting

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

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

  • Encode "special" characters to HTML numeric entities. Encoded characters are:
    • all non-printable ASCII characters below space, except newline ("\n") and linefeed ("\r")
    • HTML special characters "<", ">", "&", single quote (') and double quote (")
    • TWiki special characters "%", "[", "]", "@", "_", "*", "=" and "|"
  • Syntax: %ENCODE{"string"}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "string" String to encode required (can be empty)
    type="url" Encode special characters for URL parameter use, like a double quote into %22 (this is the default)
    type="quotes" Escape double quotes with backslashes (\"), does not change other characters. This type does not protect against cross-site scripting. type="url"
    type="moderate" Encode special characters into HTML entities for moderate cross-site scripting protection: "<", ">", single quote (') and double quote (") are encoded. Useful to allow TWiki variables in comment boxes. type="url"
    type="safe" Encode special characters into HTML entities for cross-site scripting protection: "<", ">", "%", single quote (') and double quote (") are encoded. type="url"
    type="entity" Encode special characters into HTML entities, like a double quote into &#034;. Does not encode newline (\n) or linefeed (\r). type="url"
    type="html" Encode special characters into HTML entities. In addition to type="entity", it also encodes space, \n and \r. Useful to encode text properly in HTML input fields. type="url"
  • Example: %ENCODE{"spaced name"}% expands to spaced%20name
  • ALERT! Notes:
    • Values of HTML input fields should encoded as "html".
      Example: <input type="text" name="address" value="%ENCODE{ "any text" type="html" }%" />
    • Double quotes in strings must be escaped when passed into other TWiki variables.
      Example: %SEARCH{ "%ENCODE{ "string with "quotes"" type="quotes" }%" noheader="on" }%
    • Use type="moderate", type="safe" or type="entity" to protect user input from URL parameters and external sources against cross-site scripting (XSS). type="entity" is the safest mode, but some TWiki applications might not work. type="safe" provides a safe middle ground, type="moderate" provides only moderate cross-site scripting protection.

ENDBG -- end background color section

  • ENDBG is a rendering shortcut settings predefined in TWikiPreferences. See the section rendering shortcut settings in that topic for a complete list of background colors.
  • Syntax: %REDBG% red background %ENDBG%
  • Expands to:
    red background
  • Note: %<color>BG% section must end with %ENDBG%. If you want to switch from one background color to another one you first need to end the active background color with %ENDBG%, such as %REDBG% some text %ENDBG% %GREENBG% more text %ENDBG%.
  • Related: VarENDCOLOR, VarREDBG, TWikiPreferences rendering shortcuts, StandardColors

ENDCOLOR -- end colored text

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

  • Syntax: %ENDSECTION{"name"}%
  • Syntax: %ENDSECTION{type="include"}%
  • Syntax: %ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
  • Syntax: %ENDSECTION{type="expandvariables"}%
  • Supported parameter:
    Parameter: Description:
    "name" Name of the section.
    type="..." Type of the section being terminated; supported types "section", "include", "templateonly", "expandvariables"
  • If the STARTSECTION is named, the corresponding ENDSECTION must also be named with the same name. If the STARTSECTION specifies a type, then the corresponding ENDSECTION must also specify the same type. If the section is unnamed, ENDSECTION will match with the nearest unnamed %STARTSECTION% of the same type above it.
  • Related: ENDSECTION, INCLUDE, STARTINCLUDE, STARTSECTION, STOPINCLUDE

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

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

EXAMPLEVAR -- example variable

  • The %EXAMPLEVAR{}% variable is handled by the EmptyPlugin
  • Syntax: %EXAMPLEVAR{"text" format="..."}%
  • Parameter text="..." - example text.
  • Parameter format="..." - format of report.
  • Example: %EXAMPLEVAR{"hello" format="| $topic: $summary |"}%
  • Related: EmptyPlugin

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

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

  • Syntax: %FORMFIELD{"fieldname"}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "fieldname" The name of a TWiki form field required
    topic="..." Topic where form data is located. May be of the form Web.TopicName Current topic
    format="..." Format string. Variable $value expands to the field value, $title to the raw field name, $name to the field name, $attributes to the attributes, $type to the form field type, $size to the size, and $definingTopic to the form definition topic. "$value"
    default="..." Text shown when no value is defined for the field ""
    alttext="..." Text shown when field is not found in the form ""
    newline="$br" Convert newlines in textarea to other delimiters. Variable $br expands to <br /> tag, and $n to a newline. Other text is encoded based on encode parameter. no conversion
    encode="html" Encode special characters into HTML entities. If a FORMFIELD is passed into an HTML form field it should be encoded as "html". Additional encodings available: encode="quote", encode="moderate", encode="safe", encode="entity" and encode="url". See ENCODE for details. "" (no encoding)
  • Example: %FORMFIELD{"ProjectName" topic="Projects.SushiProject" default="(not set)" alttext="ProjectName field not found"}%
  • Example: <input type="text" name="Address" value="%FORMFIELD{ "Address" encode="html" }%" />
  • Related: ENCODE, METASEARCH, SEARCH, FormattedSearch, QuerySearch, SearchHelp

GET{"name"} -- get a variable

  • Get the value of a named variable, previously set with %SET{}%. The %SET{}% and %GET{}% variables are handled by the SetGetPlugin.
  • Syntax: %GET{ "name" default="..." }%
  • Supported attributes:
    Attribute Comment Default
    "name" Name of variable. (required)
    default="..." Text shown if variable is not found. "" (empty string)
  • Example: %GET{"lunch"}% returns Sushi if the following has been previously set:
    %SET{ "lunch" value="Sushi" default="undecided" }% - see more examples
  • Related: IF, SET, SETGETDUMP, SetGetPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin#FuncGET

GMTIME -- GM time

GMTIME{"format"} -- formatted GM time

  • Syntax: %GMTIME{"format"}%
  • Supported variables:
    Variable: Unit: Example
    $seconds seconds 59
    $minutes minutes 59
    $hours hours 23
    $day day of month 31
    $wday day of the Week (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat) Thu
    $dow day of the week (Sun = 0) 2
    $week number of week in year (ISO 8601) 34
    $month 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 offset such as "-0700" (if set to servertime)     		GMT
    $iso ISO format timestamp 2025-07-26T05:35:12Z
    $rcs RCS format timestamp 2025/07/26 05:35:12
    $http E-mail & http format timestamp Sat, 26 Jul 2025 05:35:12 GMT
    $epoch Number of seconds since 00:00 on 1st January, 1970 1753508112
  • Variables can be shortened to 3 characters
  • Example: %GMTIME{"$day $month, $year - $hour:$min:$sec"}% expands to 26 Jul, 2025 - 05:35:12
  • ALERT! Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
  • Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME, REVINFO, SERVERTIME

GRAY -- start gray colored text

GREEN -- start green colored text

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

GROUPS -- a formatted list of groups

H -- help icon

HEADLINES{"url"} -- show RSS and ATOM feeds in TWiki pages

  • The %HEADLINES{"url"}% variable is handled by the HeadlinesPlugin.
  • Syntax: %HEADLINES{ "http://..." }%
  • Parameters: (all but the first one are optional)
    "..." Source of RSS or ATOM feed; this can be a URL (starting with http) or a web.topic location for internal feeds
    refresh="60" Refresh rate in minutes for caching feed; "0" for no caching
    limit="12" Maximum number of items shown
    header="..." Header. May include these variables:
    - $channeltitle, $title: title of channel (channel.title)
    - $channellink, $link: link of channel (channel.link)
    - $channeldescription, $description: description (channel.description)
    - $channeldate, $date: publication date of the channel (channel.pubDate)
    - $rights: copyrights of the channel (channel.copyright)
    - $imagetitle: title text for site (image.title)
    - $imagelink: link for site (image.link)
    - $imageurl: URL of image (image.url)
    - $imagedescription: description of image (image.description)
    format="..." Format of one item. May include these variables:
    - $title: news item title (item.title)
    - $link: news item link (item.link)
    - $description: news item description (item.description)
    - $date: the publication date (item.pubDate, item.date)
    - $category: the article category (item.category)
    Details
  • Example: %HEADLINES{ "http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf" header="*[[$link][$title]]:* $description" format="$t* [[$link][$title]]" limit="4" }% shows the latest Slashdot news in bullet list format
  • Related: HeadlinesPlugin

HIDE -- hide content in topic view

  • Text inside the HIDE is removed when viewing the topic. This can be used to remove large amounts of text from being sent to the browser, such as the user list in Main.TWikiUsers if there are many thousands of users.
  • Syntax: %HIDE{ any text }%
  • Expands to: (empty string)
  • Notes:
    • Using HIDE is not a replacement for access control, because edit and raw view still show the content.
    • Variables inside HIDE still get expanded because variables execute inside out, e.g. you can't use it to speed up slow variables.
    • <!-- HTML comments --> also hide content from the user, but unlike HIDE, HTML comments are sent to the browser.
  • Related: NOP, STARTINCLUDE

HOMETOPIC -- home topic in each web

HTTP -- get HTTP headers

HTTP_HOST -- environment variable

HTTPS -- get HTTPS headers

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

I -- idea icon

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

  • Generates the HTML img tag of a small graphic image attached to TWikiDocGraphics. Images typically have a 16x16 pixel size. You can select a specific image by name, or you can give a full file path or URL, in which case the type of the file will be used to select one of a collection of common file type icons.
  • Syntax: %ICON{"name"}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "name" Name of icon required
    format="..." Format of icon. Supported variables (with Person %ICON{"person"}% example):
    • $name - name of icon (person)
    • $type - type of icon (gif)
    • $filename - icon filename (person.gif)
    • $web - web where icon is defined (TWiki)
    • $topic - topic where icon is defined (TWikiDocGraphics)
    • $description - icon description (Person)
    • $width - width of icon ('16')
    • $height - height of icon ('16')
    • $img - full img tag of icon (<img src="... />)
    • $info - icon tag with usage info in title
    • $url - URL of icon (http://example.com/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/person.gif)
    • $urlpath - URL path of icon (/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/person.gif)     		format="$img"
    default="else" Alternate icon if named icon is not defined default="$name"
  • Examples:
    • %ICON{"flag-gray"}% returns: Gray flag
    • %ICON{"pdf"}% returns: PDF
    • %ICON{"smile.pdf"}% returns: PDF
    • %ICON{"/home/sweet/home.pdf"}% returns: PDF
    • %ICON{"http://twiki.org/doc/xhtml.xsl"}% returns: XSL (XML style sheet)
    • %ICON{"bubble" format="$description icon is defined in $web.$topic"}% returns: Speech bubble icon is defined in TWikiDocGraphics
  • Graphic samples: Arrow blue right arrowbright, Speech bubble bubble, Yes / Done choice-yes, Pointing hand hand
  • File type samples: Bitmap bmp, Microsoft Word file doc, GIF gif, Standard help file hlp, HTML html, Waveform sound file mp3, PDF pdf, PowerPoint ppt, Text txt, Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet xls, XML xml, Compressed Zip archive zip
  • Related: ICONURL, ICONURLPATH, TWikiPreferences, FileAttachments, TWikiDocGraphics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Merges the content of a specified page into the current one before rendering.
  • Syntax: %INCLUDE{"page" ...}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "SomeTopic" The name of a topic located in the current web, i.e. %INCLUDE{"WebNotify"}%  
    "Web.Topic" A topic in another web, i.e. %INCLUDE{"TWiki.SiteMap"}%  
    "http://..." A full qualified URL, i.e. %INCLUDE{"http://twiki.org:80/index.html"}%. Supported content types are text/html and text/plain.
    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 scans from start ('^') to end and contains the text you want to keep in parenthesis, e.g., pattern="^.*?(from here.*?to here).*". IncludeTopicsAndWebPages has more. none
    headingoffset="2" Adjust the level of headings in the included topic. A "2" or "+2" increases the level by two, e.g. a ---+ H1 turns into a ---+++ H3. Positive and negative values are supported. Adjusted min and max levels are H1 and H6, respectively. no adjustment
    hidetoc="on" Remove %TOC% in included content. Useful to show table of contents in individual topics, while suppressing them if included in a big master document. TOC_HIDE_IF_
    INCLUDED     setting
    rev="2" Include a previous topic revision; N/A for URLs top revision
    raw="on" When a page is included, normally TWiki will process it, doing the following: 1) Alter relative links to point back to originating host, 2) Remove some basic HTML tags (html, head, body, script) and finally 3) Remove newlines from HTML tags spanning multiple lines. If you prefer to include exactly what is in the source of the originating page set this to on.
    raw="on" is short for disableremoveheaders="on", disableremovescript="on", disableremovebody="on", disablecompresstags="on" and disablerewriteurls="on".     		disabled
    literal="on" While using the raw option will indeed include the raw content, the included content will still be processed and rendered like regular topic content. To disable parsing of the included content, set the literal option to "on". disabled
    disableremoveheaders="on" Bypass stripping headers from included HTML (everything until first </head> tag) disabled
    disableremovescript="on" Bypass stripping all <script> tags from included HTML disabled
    disableremovebody="on" Bypass stripping the </body> tag and everything around over and below it disabled
    disablecompresstags="on" Bypass replacing newlines in HTML tags with spaces. This compression step rewrites unmatched <'s into &lt; entities unless bypassed disabled
    disablerewriteurls="on" Bypass rewriting relative URLs into absolute ones disabled
    warn="off" Warn if topic include fails: Fail silently (if off); output default warning (if set to on); else, output specific text (use $topic for topic name) %INCLUDEWARNING% preferences setting
    section="name" Includes only the specified named section, as defined in the included topic by the STARTSECTION and ENDSECTION variables. Nothing is shown if the named section does not exists. section="" is equivalent to not specifying a section  
    PARAMONE="val 1"
    PARAMTWO="val 2"         		Any other parameter will be defined as a variable within the scope of the included topic. The example parameters on the left will result in %PARAMONE% and %PARAMTWO% being defined within the included topic. A default value for a variable can be specified in the included topic in case the corresponding parameter is not specified, such as %PARAMONE{ default="..." }%  
  • Security Considerations:
    • The ability to INCLUDE arbitrary URLs, such as %INCLUDE{"http://www.google.com/"}% is turned off by default. To turn this on, ask your TWiki administrator to enable the {INCLUDE}{AllowURLs} flag in the Security setup section of configure.
    • JavaScript in included web pages is filtered out as a security precaution per default. Disable filtering with raw or disableremovescript parameter.
  • Examples: See IncludeTopicsAndWebPages
  • Related: BASETOPIC, BASEWEB, INCLUDINGTOPIC, INCLUDINGWEB, STARTINCLUDE, STOPINCLUDE, STARTSECTION, ENDSECTION, TOC, IncludeTopicsAndWebPages, ParameterizedVariables

INCLUDINGTOPIC -- name of topic that includes current topic

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

INCLUDINGWEB -- web that includes current topic

  • The web name of the topic that includes the current topic - same as %WEB% if there is no INCLUDE.
  • Syntax: %INCLUDINGWEB%
  • Syntax: %INCLUDINGWEB{format="..."}% -- see WEB for format documentation
  • Related: BASEWEB, INCLUDINGTOPIC, INCLUDE, WEB

JQENDTAB -- end a JQuery tab within a tab pane

JQENDTABPANE -- end a JQuery tab pane

JQTAB -- start a JQuery tab within a tab pane

JQTABPANE -- start a JQuery tab pane

  • Create nice looking horizontal tab panes in TWiki topics. Write a sequence of %JQTAB{"..."}% and %JQENDTAB% pairs, and enclose them in %JQTABPANE% and %JQENDTABPANE%. Tab panes can be nested, e.g. within one tab you can add another tab pane. These variable are handled by the JQueryPlugin.
  • Syntax: %JQTABPANE% %JQTAB{"Tab 1}% ... %JQENDTAB% %JQTAB{"Tab 2}% ... %JQENDTAB% ... %JQENDTABPANE%
  • Example:
    %JQTABPANE%
    %JQTAB{"Tab 1"}%
    Tab 1 content...
    %JQENDTAB%
    %JQTAB{"Tab 2"}%
    Tab 2 content...
    %JQENDTAB%
    %JQENDTABPANE%
  • Related: JQENDTAB, JQENDTABPANE, JQTAB, JQueryPlugin

LANGUAGE -- current user's language

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

LANGUAGES -- list available TWiki languages

  • List the languages available (as PO files) to TWiki. Those are the languages in which TWiki's user interface is available.
  • Syntax: %LANGUAGES{...}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    format format for each item. See below for variables available in the format string. "   * $langname"
    separator separator between items. "\n" (newline)
    marker="selected" Text for $marker if the item matches selection "selected"
    selection="%LANGUAGE%" Current language to be selected in list (none)
  • format variables:
    Variable Meaning
    $langname language's name, as informed by the translators
    $langtag language's tag. Ex: en, pt-br, etc.
  • Example: <select>%LANGUAGES{format="<option $marker value='$langtag'>$langname</option>" selection="%LANGUAGE%"}%</select> creates an option list of the available languages with the current language selected

LIME -- start lime colored text

LOCALSITEPREFS -- web.topicname of site preferences topic

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

LOGIN -- present a full login link to non-authenticated user

LOGINURL -- present a login link

LOGOUT -- present a full logout link to authenticated user

LOGOUTURL -- present a logout link

M -- moved to... icon

MAINWEB -- synonym for USERSWEB

MAKETEXT -- creates text using TWiki's I18N infrastructure

  • Syntax: %MAKETEXT{"string" args="..."}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter Description Default
    "text" or string="text" The text to be displayed. none
    args="param1, param2" a comma-separated list of arguments to be interpolated in the string, replacing the [_N] placeholders in it. none
  • Examples:
    • %MAKETEXT{string="Notes:"}%
      expands to
      Notes:
    • %MAKETEXT{"If you have any questions, please contact [_1]." args="%WIKIWEBMASTER%"}%
      expands to
      If you have any questions, please contact ivoadoc@ivoa.net.
    • %MAKETEXT{"Did you want to [[[_1]][reset [_2]'s password]]?" args="%SYSTEMWEB%.ResetPassword,%WIKIUSERNAME%"}%
      expands to
      Did you want to reset Main.TWikiGuest's password?
  • Notes:
    • TWiki will translate the string to the current user's language only if it has such string in its translation table for that language.
    • Ampersands (&) followed by one letter (one of a...z, A...Z -- say, X) in the translatable string will be translated to <span class='twikiAccessKey'>X</span>. This is used to implement access keys. If you want to write an actual amperstand that stays just before a letter, write two consecutive amperstands (&&): they will be transformed in just one.
    • Translatable string starting with underscores (_) are reserved. You must not use translatable phrases starting with an underscore.
    • Make sure that the translatable string is constant. Specially, do not include %VARIABLES% inside the translatable strings (since they will get expanded before the %MAKETEXT{...}% itself is handled).

MAROON -- start maroon colored text

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

META -- displays meta-data

  • Provided mainly for use in templates, this variable generates the parts of the topic view that relate to meta-data (attachments, forms etc.) The formfield item is the most likely to be useful to casual users.
  • Syntax: %META{ "item" ...}%
  • Parameters:
    Item Options Description
    "formfield" name="...": name of the field. The field value can be shortened as described in FormattedSearch for $formfield.
    newline="...": by default, each newline character will be rewritten to <br /> to allow metadata that contains newlines to be used in tables, etc. $n indicates a newline character.
    bar="...": by default, each vertical bar is rewritten to an HTML entity so as to not be mistaken for a table separator.
    topic="...": Get meta info of "Topic" or "Web.Topic"; default "%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%".     		Show a single form field
    "form" topic="...": Get meta info of "Topic" or "Web.Topic"; default "%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%". Generates the table showing the form fields. See Form Templates
    "attachments" all="on" to show hidden attachments.
    title="..." to show a title - only if attachments are displayed.
    template="..." to use a custom template for the rendering of attachments; default attachtables is used.
    topic="...": Get meta info of "Topic" or "Web.Topic"; default "%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%".     		Generates the list of attachments
    "moved" topic="...": Get meta info of "Topic" or "Web.Topic"; default "%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%". Details of any topic moves
    "parent" dontrecurse="on": By default recurses up tree, this has some cost.
    nowebhome="on": Suppress WebHome.
    prefix="...": Prefix that goes before parents, but only if there are parents, default "".
    format="...": Format string used to display each parent topic where $web expands to the web name, and $topic expands to the topic name; default: "[[$web.$topic][$topic]]"
    suffix="...": Suffix, only appears if there are parents; default "".
    separator="...": Separator between parents; default " > ".
    topic="...": Get meta info of "Topic" or "Web.Topic"; default "%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%".     		Generates the parent link
  • Attention: The base topic, not the current topic, is used if %META{}% is placed in an included topic. Add a topic="%WEB%.%TOPIC%" parameter if you need meta info of the current topic.
  • Note: Formatting tokens can be used for newline, prefix, format, suffix and separator options, such as separator="$n   * "
  • Related: METASEARCH, PARENTTOPIC, SEARCH, FormattedSearch

METASEARCH -- special search of meta data

  • Syntax: %METASEARCH{...}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    type="topicmoved" What sort of search is required?
    "topicmoved" if search for a topic that may have been moved
    "parent" if searching for topics that have a specific parent i.e. its children
    "field" if searching for topics that have a particular form field value (use the name and value parameters to specify which field to search)     		Required
    web="%WEB%" Wiki web to search: A web, a list of webs separated by whitespace, or all webs. Current web
    topic="%TOPIC%" The topic the search relates to, for topicmoved and parent searches All topics in a web
    name form field to search, for field type searches. May be a regular expression (see SEARCH).  
    value form field value, for field type searches. May be a regular expression (see SEARCH).  
    title="Title" Text that is prefixed to any search results empty
    format="..." Custom format results. Supports same format strings as SEARCH. See FormattedSearch for usage, variables & examples Results in table
    default="none" Default text shown if no search hit Empty
  • Example: %METASEARCH{type="topicmoved" web="%WEB%" topic="%TOPIC%" title="This topic used to exist and was moved to: "}%
  • Example: You may want to use this in WebTopicViewTemplate and WebTopicNonWikiTemplate:
    %METASEARCH{type="parent" web="%WEB%" topic="%TOPIC%" title="Children: "}%
  • Example: %METASEARCH{type="field" name="Country" value="China"}%
  • Related: SEARCH, META
  • ALERT! Note: METASEARCH is deprecated in favour of the new and much more powerful query type search. See SEARCH and QuerySearch.

N -- "new" icon

NAVY -- start navy blue colored text

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

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

NOTIFYTOPIC -- name of the notify topic

OLIVE -- start olive green colored text

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

ORANGE -- start orange colored text

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

P -- pencil icon

PARENTTOPIC -- parent of current topic

  • Syntax: %PARENTTOPIC% or %PARENTTOPIC{ format="..." topic="..." }%
  • Expands to: TWikiVariables, renders as TWikiVariables
  • Parameters:
    Item Description Default
    format="..." Format string used to display parent topic, where $web expands to the web name, and $topic expands to the topic name. Additional formatting tokens can be used. "$topic"
    (topic name)
    topic="..." Get parent of "Topic" or "Web.Topic" "%WEB%.%TOPIC%"
    (current topic)
  • Related: META, METASEARCH, TOPIC

PINK -- start pink colored text

PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS -- list of plugin descriptions

  • Syntax: %PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%
  • Expands to:
    • SpreadSheetPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30478 (2018-07-16) $): Add spreadsheet calculation like "$SUM( $ABOVE() )" to TWiki tables or anywhere in topic text
    • BackupRestorePlugin (2021-03-19, $Rev: 30914 (2021-03-19) $): Administrator utility to backup, restore and upgrade a TWiki site
    • ColorPickerPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30442 (2018-07-16) $): Color picker, packaged for use in TWiki forms and TWiki applications
    • CommentPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30530 (2018-07-16) $): Quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle
    • DatePickerPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30446 (2018-07-16) $): Pop-up calendar with date picker, for use in TWiki forms, HTML forms and TWiki plugins
    • EditTablePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30448 (2018-07-16) $): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
    • HeadlinesPlugin (2018-07-13, $Rev: 30560 (2018-07-16) $): Show headline news in TWiki pages based on RSS and ATOM news feeds from external sites
    • InterwikiPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30454 (2018-07-16) $): Write ExternalSite:Page to link to a page on an external site based on aliases defined in a rules topic
    • JQueryPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30456 (2018-07-16) $): jQuery JavaScript library for TWiki
    • PreferencesPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30528 (2018-07-16) $): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
    • RedirectPlugin (2015-12-02, $Rev: 29697 (2015-12-03) $): Create a redirect to another topic or website
    • SetGetPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30472 (2018-07-16) $): Set and get variables and JSON objects in topics, optionally persistently across topic views
    • SlideShowPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30474 (2018-07-16) $): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
    • SmiliesPlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30476 (2018-07-16) $): Render smilies as icons, like  :-) for smile or  :eek: for eek!
    • TWikiSheetPlugin (2018-07-15, $Rev: 30604 (2018-07-16) $): Add TWiki Sheet spreadsheet functionality to TWiki tables
    • TablePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30480 (2018-07-16) $): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
    • TagMePlugin (2018-07-05, $Rev: 30482 (2018-07-16) $): Tag wiki content collectively or authoritatively to find content by keywords
    • TinyMCEPlugin (2021-06-09, $Rev: 31045 (2021-06-09) $): Integration of the Tiny MCE WYSIWYG Editor
    • TwistyPlugin (2018-07-06, $Rev: 30497 (2018-07-16) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
    • WatchlistPlugin (2018-07-10, $Rev: 30536 (2018-07-16) $): Watch topics of interest and get notified of changes by e-mail
    • WysiwygPlugin (2018-07-06, $Rev: 30528 (2018-07-16) $): Translator framework for WYSIWYG editors
  • Related: ACTIVATEDPLUGINS, FAILEDPLUGINS, PLUGINVERSION, TWikiPlugins, InstalledPlugins

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

PUBURL -- the base URL of attachments

PUBURLPATH -- the base URL path of attachments

PURPLE -- start purple colored text

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

Q -- question icon

QUERYPARAMS -- show paramaters to the query

  • Expands the parameters to the query that was used to display the page.
  • Syntax: %QUERYPARAMS{...}%
  • Parameters:
    • format="..." format string for each entry, default $name=$value
    • separator="..." separator string, default separator="$n" (newline)
    • encode="..." the encoding to apply to parameter values; see ENCODE for a description of the available encodings. If this parameter is not given, no encoding is performed.
  • The following escape sequences are expanded in the format string:
    Sequence: Expands To:
    $name Name of the parameter
    $value String value of the parameter. Multi-valued parameters will have a "row" for each value.
    $n or $n() New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar
    $nop or $nop() Is a "no operation". This variable gets removed; useful for nested search
    $quot or \" Double quote (")
    $percnt Percent sign (%)
    $dollar Dollar sign ($)
    $lt Less than sign (<)
    $gt Greater than sign (>)

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

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

  • String of all the URL parameters that were on the URL used to get to the current page. For example, if you add ?name=Samantha;age=24;eyes=blue to this URL you can see this in action. This string can be appended to a URL to pass parameter values on to another page.
  • ALERT! Note: URLs built this way are typically restricted in length, typically to 2048 characters. If you need more space than this, you will need to use an HTML form and %QUERYPARAMS%.
  • Syntax: %QUERYSTRING%
  • Expands to: rev=11
  • Related: QUERYPARAMS, URLPARAM

RED -- start red colored text

REDBG -- start red colored background section

REDIRECT{"url"} -- create a redirect to another topic or website

REMOTE_ADDR -- environment variable

REMOTE_PORT -- environment variable

REMOTE_USER -- environment variable

RENDERLIST -- render bullet lists in a variety of formats

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

REVINFO -- revision information of current topic

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

  • Syntax: %REVINFO{"format"}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "format" Format of revision information, see supported variables below "r1.$rev - $date - $wikiusername"
    web="..." Name of web Current web
    topic="..." Topic name Current topic
    rev="5" Specific revison number. Old RCS format "1.5" is also supported. Latest revision
  • Supported variables in format:
    Variable: Unit: Example
    $web Name of web Current web
    $topic Topic name Current topic
    $rev Revison number. Add prefix r to get the usual r5 format 5
    $username Login username of revision jsmith
    $wikiname WikiName of revision JohnSmith
    $wikiusername WikiName with Main web prefix Main.JohnSmith
    $date Revision date. Actual date format defined as {DefaultDateFormat} in configure, default $year-$mo-$day 2010-12-31
    $time Revision time 23:24:25
    $iso Revision date in ISO date format 2006-09-22T06:24:25Z
    $min, $sec, etc. Same date format qualifiers as GMTIME{"format"}  
  • Example: %REVINFO{"$date - $wikiusername" rev="1.1"}% returns revision info of first revision
  • Related: GMTIME{"format"}, REVINFO

S -- red star icon

SCRIPTNAME -- name of current script

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

SCRIPTSUFFIX -- script suffix

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

SCRIPTURL -- base URL of TWiki scripts

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

  • Syntax: %SCRIPTURL{"script"}%
  • Expands to: https://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/script
  • Example: To get the authenticated version of the current topic you can write %SCRIPTURL{"viewauth"}%/%WEB%/%TOPIC% which expands to https://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/viewauth/TWiki/TWikiVariables
  • Example: How to link to another topic with a URL parameter: [[%SCRIPTURL{view}%/%WEB%/MyQuery?food=sushi][Sushi]]
  • ALERT! Note: In most cases you should use %SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"}% instead, as it works with URL rewriting much better
  • Related: PUBURL, SCRIPTNAME, SCRIPTSUFFIX, SCRIPTURL, SCRIPTURLPATH, SCRIPTURLPATH{"script"}, TWikiScripts

SCRIPTURLPATH -- base URL path of TWiki scripts

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

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

SEARCH{"text"} -- search content

  • Inline search, shows a search result embedded in a topic
  • Syntax: %SEARCH{"text" ...}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "text" Search term. Is a keyword search, literal search, regular expression search, or query, depending on the type parameter. SearchHelp has more required
    search="text" (Alternative to above) N/A
    web="Name"
    web="Main, Know"
    web="all"     		Comma-separated list of webs to search. You can specifically exclude webs from an all search using a minus sign - for example, web="all,-Secretweb". The special word all means all webs that do not have the NOSEARCHALL variable set to on in their WebPreferences. Note that TWikiAccessControls are respected when searching webs; it is much better to use them than NOSEARCHALL. Current web
    topic="WebPreferences"
    topic="*Bug"     		Limit search to topics: A topic, a topic with asterisk wildcards, or a list of topics separated by comma. Note this is a list of topic names and must not include web names. All topics in a web
    excludetopic="Web*"
    excludetopic="WebHome, WebChanges"     		Exclude topics from search: A topic, a topic with asterisk wildcards, or a list of topics separated by comma. Note this is a list of topic names and must not include web names. None
    scope="topic"
    scope="text"
    scope="all"     		Search topic name (title); the text (body) of topic; or all (title and body) "text"
    type="keyword"
    type="word"
    type="literal"
    type="regex"
    type="query"     		Control how the search is performed when scope="text" or scope="all"
    keyword: use Google-like controls as in soap "web service" -shampoo; searches word parts: using the example, topics with "soapsuds" will be found as well, but topics with "shampoos" will be excluded
    word: identical to keyword but searches whole words: topics with "soapsuds" will not be found, and topics with "shampoos" will not be excluded
    literal: search for the exact string, like web service
    regex: use a RegularExpression search like soap;web service;!shampoo; to search on whole words use \bsoap\b
    query: query search of form fields and other meta-data, like (Firstname='Emma' OR Firstname='John') AND Lastname='Peel'     		%SEARCHVAR- DEFAULTTYPE% preferences setting (literal)
    order="topic"
    order="created"
    order="modified"
    order="editby"
    order=
     "formfield(name)"         		Sort the results of search by the topic names, topic creation time, last modified time, last editor, or named field of TWikiForms. The sorting is done web by web; if you want to sort across webs, create a formatted table and sort it with TablePlugin's initsort. Note that dates are sorted most recent date last (i.e at the bottom of the table). Sort by topic name
    limit="all"
    limit="16"     		Limit the number of results returned. This is done after sorting if order is specified All results
    date="..." limits the results to those pages with latest edit time in the given time interval. All results
    reverse="on" Reverse the direction of the search Ascending search
    casesensitive="on" Case sensitive search Ignore case
    bookview="on" BookView search, e.g. show complete topic text Show topic summary
    nonoise="on" Shorthand for nosummary="on" nosearch="on" nototal="on" zeroresults="off" noheader="on" noempty="on" Off
    nosummary="on" Show topic title only Show topic summary
    nosearch="on" Suppress search string Show search string
    noheader="on" Suppress default search header
    Topics: Changed: By: , unless a header is explicitly specified     		Show default search header, unless search is inline and a format is specified (Cairo compatibility)
    nototal="on" Do not show number of topics found Show number
    zeroresults="off" Suppress all output if there are no hits zeroresults="on", displays: "Number of topics: 0"
    noempty="on" Suppress results for webs that have no hits. Show webs with no hits
    headingoffset="2" Adjust the level of headings in text of topics found, taking effect in $text and $pattern() of a FormattedSearch. A "2" or "+2" increases the level by two, e.g. a ---+ H1 turns into a ---+++ H3. Positive and negative values are supported. Adjusted min and max levels are H1 and H6, respectively. no adjustment
    header="..."
    format="..."
    footer="..."     		Custom format results: see FormattedSearch for usage, variables & examples Results in table
    expandvariables="on" Expand variables before applying a FormattedSearch on a search hit. Useful to show the expanded text, e.g. to show the result of a SpreadSheetPlugin %CALC{}% instead of the formula Raw text
    multiple="on" Multiple hits per topic. Each hit can be formatted. The last token is used in case of a regular expression ";" and search Only one hit per topic
    nofinalnewline="on" If on, the search variable does not end in a line by itself. Any text continuing immediately after the search variable on the same line will be rendered as part of the table generated by the search, if appropriate. off
    recurse="on" Recurse into subwebs, if subwebs are enabled. off
    separator=", " Line separator between search hits "$n" (Newline)
    newline="%BR%" Line separator within a search hit. Useful if you want to put multi-line content into a table cell, for example if the format="" parameter contains a $pattern() that captures more than one line, or contains a $formfield() that returns a multi-line textfield. "$n" (Newline)
  • Example: %SEARCH{"wiki" web="Main" scope="topic"}%
  • Example with format: %SEARCH{"FAQ" scope="topic" nosearch="on" nototal="on" header="| *Topic: * | *Summary: * |" format="| $topic | $summary |"}% (displays results in a table with header - details)
  • HELP Hint: If the TWiki:Plugins.TablePlugin is installed, you may set a %TABLE{}% variable just before the %SEARCH{}% to alter the output of a search. Example: %TABLE{ tablewidth="90%" }%
  • Related: FORMFIELD, METASEARCH, TOPICLIST, WEBLIST, FormattedSearch, QuerySearch, SearchHelp, SearchPatternCookbook, RegularExpression

SERVERTIME -- server time

SERVERTIME{"format"} -- formatted server time

  • Same format qualifiers as %GMTIME%
  • Syntax: %SERVERTIME{"format"}%
  • Supported variables: $seconds, $minutes, $hours, $day, $wday, $dow, $month, $mo, $year, $ye, $tz, $iso, $rcs, $http, $epoch
  • Example: %SERVERTIME{"$hou:$min"}% expands to 07:35
  • ALERT! Note: When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
  • Related: DISPLAYTIME, GMTIME, SERVERTIME

SESSIONID -- unique ID for this session

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

SESSION_VARIABLE -- get, set or clear a session variable

  • Session variables are stored in a personal "persistent memory space" that is not lost until the web browser is closed
  • Syntax: %SESSION_VARIABLE{"name"}% - read a session variable
  • Syntax: %SESSION_VARIABLE{"name" set="value"}% - set a session variable
  • Syntax: %SESSION_VARIABLE{"name" clear=""}% - clear a session variable
  • Special read-only session variables:
    • %SESSION_VARIABLE{"AUTHUSER"}% - user ID, current value:
    • %SESSION_VARIABLE{"SESSION_REQUEST_NUMBER"}% - number of pages accessed by current user since login, current value:
  • Related: TWikiUserAuthentication#Sessions, AUTHREALM, GET, LOGIN, LOGOUT, SESSIONID, SESSIONVAR, SET

SET{"name" value="..."} -- set a variable

  • Set a named variable that can be retrieved later with %GET{}%. No output is shown, e.g. %SET{}% resolves to an empty string. The %SET{}% and %GET{}% variables are handled by the SetGetPlugin.
  • Syntax: %SET{ "name" value="..." remember="1" }%
  • Supported attributes:
    Attribute Comment Default
    "name" Name of variable. Alphanumeric characters, dashes and underscores can be used. (required)
    value="..." Value of variable. Escape double quotes with backslash. (required, may be empty)
    remember="1" If set, the variable will be stored persistently so that it can be used later in any TWiki topic. See important notes. "0"
  • Example: %SET{"lunch" value="Sushi"}% - see more examples.
  • Related: GET, IF, SETGETDUMP, SetGetPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin#FuncSET

SETGETDUMP{...} -- dump persistent variables

  • Dump persistent key/values previously set with %SET{}%. The %SETGETDUMP{}%, %SET{}%, and %GET{}% variables are handled by the SetGetPlugin.
  • Syntax: %SETGETDUMP{ format="..." separator="..." }%
  • Supported attributes:
    Attribute Comment Default
    format="..." Format output using variables $key and $value "key: $key, value: $value <br />"
    separator="..." String used for separating entries "\n"
  • Example: %SETGETDUMP{"| $key | $value |" separator="$n"}% - see more examples.
  • Related: GET, IF, SET, SetGetPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin#FuncSET

SILVER -- start silver colored text

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

SLIDESHOWEND -- end slideshow

SLIDESHOWSTART -- convert a topic with headings into a slideshow

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

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

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

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

  • Inserts spaces after lower case letters that are followed by a digit or a capital letter, and after digits that are followed by a capital letter.
  • Useful for spacing out WikiWords
  • Syntax: %SPACEOUT{ "%TOPIC%" }%
  • Expands to: TWiki Variables
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    separator The separator to put between words e.g. %SPACEOUT{"DogsCatsBudgies" separator=", "}% -> Dogs, Cats, Budgies ' '
  • TIP Hint: Spaced out WikiWords are not automatically linked. To SPACEOUT a WikiWord but preserve the link use "double bracket" format. For example, [[WebHome][%SPACEOUT{"WebHome"}%]] expands to Web Home
  • Related: SPACEDTOPIC, $PROPERSPACE() of SpreadSheetPlugin

STARTINCLUDE -- start position of topic text if included

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

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

  • Section boundaries are defined with %STARTSECTION{}% and %ENDSECTION{}%.
  • Sections may be given a name to help identify them, and/or a type, which changes how they are used.
    • type="section" - the default, used for a generic section, such as a named section used by INCLUDE.
    • type="include" - like %STARTINCLUDE% ... %STOPINCLUDE% except that you can have as many include blocks as you want (%STARTINCLUDE% is restricted to only one).
    • type="templateonly" - start position of text to be removed when a template topic is used. Use this to embed text that you do not want expanded when a new topic based on the template topic is created. TWikiTemplates has more.
    • type="expandvariables" - start position where TWikiVariables get expanded when a new topic is created. Normally only certain variables get expanded when a new topic based on the template topic is created. All variables get expanded within a "expandvariables" section. TWikiTemplates has more.
  • Syntax: %STARTSECTION{"name"}% ................... %ENDSECTION{"name"}%
  • Syntax: %STARTSECTION{type="include"}% ........... %ENDSECTION{type="include"}%
  • Syntax: %STARTSECTION{type="templateonly"}% ...... %ENDSECTION{type="templateonly"}%
  • Syntax: %STARTSECTION{type="expandvariables"}% ... %ENDSECTION{type="expandvariables"}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default
    "name" Name of the section. Must be unique inside a topic. Generated name
    type="..." Type of the section; type "section", "include", "templateonly", or "expandvariables" "section"
  • ALERT! Note: If a section is not given a name, it will be assigned one. Unnamed sections are assigned names starting with _SECTION0 for the first unnamed section in the topic, _SECTION1 for the second, etc..
  • ALERT! Note: You can define nested sections. Do not overlap sections. Use named sections to make sure that the correct START and ENDs are matched. Section markers are not displayed when a topic is viewed.
  • Related: ENDSECTION, HIDE, INCLUDE, NOP, STARTINCLUDE, STOPINCLUDE

STATISTICSTOPIC -- name of statistics topic

STOPINCLUDE -- end position of topic text if included

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

SYSTEMWEB -- name of TWiki documentation web

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

T -- tip icon

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

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

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

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

TEAL -- start teal colored text

TOC -- table of contents of current topic

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

TOC{"Topic"} -- table of contents

  • Table of Contents. Shows a TOC that is generated automatically based on headings of a topic. Headings in WikiSyntax ("---++ text") and HTML ("<h2>text</h2>") are taken into account. Any heading text after "!!" is excluded from the TOC; for example, write "---+!! text" if you do not want to list a header in the TOC. An abbreviated heading can be shown in the TOC, such as "---++ text!! this is excluded from TOC".
  • Syntax: %TOC{"SomeTopic" ...}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "TopicName" topic name Current topic
    web="Name" Name of web Current web
    depth="2" Limit depth of headings shown in TOC 6
    title="Some text" Title to appear at top of TOC none
  • Example: %TOC{depth="2"}%
  • Example: %TOC{"TWikiDocumentation" web="TWiki" title="Contents:"}%
  • Related: INCLUDE, TOC

TOPIC -- name of current topic

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

  • List of all topics in a web. The "format" defines the format of one topic item. It may include variables: The $topic variable gets expanded to the topic name, $marker to marker parameter where topic matches selection, and $web to the name of the web, or any of the standard FormatTokens.
  • Syntax: %TOPICLIST{"format" ...}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "format" Format of one line, may include $web (name of web), $topic (name of the topic), $marker (which expands to marker for the item matching selection only) "$topic"
    format="format" (Alternative to above) "$topic"
    separator=", " line separator "$n" (new line)
    marker="selected" Text for $marker if the item matches selection "selected"
    selection="TopicA, TopicB" Current value to be selected in list (none)
    web="Name" Name of web Current web
  • Example: %TOPICLIST{"   * $web.$topic"}% creates a bullet list of all topics
  • Example: %TOPICLIST{separator=", "}% creates a comma separated list of all topics
  • Example: %TOPICLIST{" <option>$topic</option>"}% creates an option list (for drop down menus)
  • Example: <select>%TOPICLIST{" <option $marker value='$topic'>$topic</option>" separator=" " selection="%TOPIC%"}%</select> creates an option list of web topics with the current topic selected
  • Related: SEARCH, WEBLIST

TOPICURL -- shortcut to viewing the current topic

TWIKIWEB -- synonym for SYSTEMWEB

TWISTY{ attributes } -- dynamically open and close sections of content

  • The %TWISTY{}% variable is handled by the TwistyPlugin.
  • Syntax: %TWISTY{}% ... %ENDTWISTY%
  • See plugin topic for explanation of variables and attributes
  • Example:
    %TWISTY{}%
    my twisty content
    %ENDTWISTY%
  • Related: TwistyPlugin, TwistyContrib

U -- "updated" icon

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

  • Returns the value of a URL parameter.
  • Syntax: %URLPARAM{"name"}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "name" The name of a URL parameter required
    newline="$br" Convert newlines in textarea to other delimiters. Variables $br (for <br /> tag), $n (for newline) are expanded. Other text is encoded based on encode parameter. no conversion
    encode="off" Turn off encoding. See important security note below encode="safe"
    encode="quote" Escape double quotes with backslashes (\"), does not change other characters; required when feeding URL parameters into other TWiki variables. This encoding does not protect against cross-site scripting. encode="safe"
    encode="moderate" Encode special characters into HTML entities for moderate cross-site scripting protection: "<", ">", single quote (') and double quote (") are encoded. Useful to allow TWiki variables in comment boxes. encode="safe"
    encode="safe" Encode special characters into HTML entities for cross-site scripting protection: "<", ">", "%", single quote (') and double quote (") are encoded. (this is the default)
    encode="entity" Encode special characters into HTML entities. See ENCODE for details. encode="safe"
    encode="html" Encode special characters into HTML entities. In addition to encode="entity", it also encodes space, newline (\n) and linefeed (\r). Useful to encode text properly in HTML input fields. encode="safe"
    encode="url" Encode special characters for URL parameter use, like a double quote into %22 encode="safe"
    multiple="on"
    multiple="[[$item]]"     		If set, gets all selected elements of a <select multiple="multiple"> tag. A format can be specified, with $item indicating the element, e.g. multiple="Option: $item" first element
    separator=", " Separator between multiple selections. Only relevant if multiple is specified "\n" (newline)
    format="..." Format the result. $value expands to the URL parameter. If multiple is specified, $value expands to the result of the concatenated items. "$value"
    default="..." Default value in case parameter is empty or missing. The format parameter is not applied. empty string
  • Example: %URLPARAM{"skin"}% returns print for a .../view/TWiki/TWikiVariables?skin=print URL
  • ALERT! Notes:
    • IMPORTANT: There is a risk that this variable can be misused for cross-site scripting (XSS) if the encoding is turned off. The encode="safe" is the default, it provides a safe middle ground. The encode="entity" is more aggressive, but some TWiki applications might not work.
    • URL parameters passed into HTML form fields should be encoded as "html".
      Example: <input type="text" name="address" value="%URLPARAM{ "address" encode="html" }%" />
    • Double quotes in URL parameters must be escaped when passed into other TWiki variables.
      Example: %SEARCH{ "%URLPARAM{ "search" encode="quotes" }%" noheader="on" }%
    • When used in a template topic, this variable will be expanded when the template is used to create a new topic. See TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopicsVars for details.
    • Watch out for TWiki internal parameters, such as rev, skin, template, topic, web; they have a special meaning in TWiki. Common parameters and view script specific parameters are documented at TWikiScripts.
    • 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.
  • Related: ENCODE, SEARCH, FormattedSearch, QUERYSTRING

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

  • Syntax: %USERINFO%
  • Expands to: guest, TWikiGuest, (comma-separated list of the username, wikiusername, and emails)
  • With formatted output, using tokens $emails, $username, $wikiname, $wikiusername, $groups and $admin ($admin returns 'true' or 'false'):
    • Example: %USERINFO{ format="$username is really $wikiname" }%
    • Expands to: guest is really TWikiGuest
  • Retrieve information about another user:
    • Example: %USERINFO{ "TWikiGuest" format="$username is really $wikiname" }%
    • Expands to: guest is really TWikiGuest
    • Note: The parameter should be the wikiname of a user. Since TWiki 4.2.1, you can also pass a login name. You can only get information about another user if the {AntiSpam}{HideUserDetails} configuration option is not enabled, or if you are an admin. (User details are hidden in this TWiki)
  • Related: USERNAME, WIKINAME, WIKIUSERNAME, TWikiUserAuthentication, ChangeEmailAddress

USERNAME -- your login username

USERSWEB -- name of users web

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

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

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

VBAR -- vertical bar

WEB -- name of current web

  • %WEB% expands to the name of the web where the topic is located. If you are looking at the text of an included topic, it is the web where the included topic is located.
  • Syntax: %WEB%, expands to: TWiki
  • Syntax: %WEB{format="..."}%
  • Supported parameter:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    format="..." Format, may include tokens $web (the full web path), $parents (parent webs, if any), $current (current web without parent webs) "$web"
  • Example, assuming %WEB% is Engineering/TechPubs/Apps:
    %WEB{format="Parent webs: $parents, current web: $current"}% returns: Parent webs: Engineering/TechPubs, current web: Apps
  • Related: BASEWEB, INCLUDINGWEB, TOPIC

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

  • List of all webs. Obfusticated webs are excluded, e.g. webs with a NOSEARCHALL = on preference variable. The "format" defines the format of one web item. The $name variable gets expanded to the name of the web, $qname gets expanded to double quoted name, $marker to marker where web matches selection.
  • Syntax: %WEBLIST{"format" ...}%
  • Supported parameters:
    Parameter: Description: Default:
    "format" Format of one line, may include $name (the name of the web), $qname (the name of the web in double quotes), $indentedname (the name of the web with parent web names replaced by indents, for use in indented lists), and $marker (which expands to marker for the item matching selection only) "$name"
    format="format" (Alternative to above) "$name"
    separator=", " Line separator "$n" (new line)
    web="" if you specify $web in format, it will be replaced with this ""
    webs="public" Comma separated list of webs, public expands to all non-hidden.
    NOTE: Administrators will see all webs, not just the public ones     		"public"
    marker="selected" Text for $marker if the item matches selection "selected"
    selection="%WEB%" Current value to be selected in list selection="%WEB%"
    subwebs="Sandbox" Show webs that are a sub-web of this one (recursivly) ""
    limit="30" Limit number of webs to show "" (all)
    overlimit="..." Message shown if over limit, such as: overlimit="   * [[%SYSTEMWEB%.SiteMap][More...]]" ""
  • Example: %WEBLIST{"   * [[$name.WebHome]]"}% - creates a bullet list of all webs.
  • Example: <form><select name="web"> %WEBLIST{"<option $marker value=$qname>$name</option>" webs="Trash, public" selection="%WEB%" separator=" "}% </select></form> - creates a dropdown of all public webs + Trash web, with the current web highlighted.
  • Related: TOPICLIST, SEARCH

WEBPREFSTOPIC -- name of web preferences topic

WHITE -- start white colored text

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

WIKIHOMEURL -- site home URL

  • DEPRECATED, please use %WIKILOGOURL% instead.
  • Syntax: %WIKIHOMEURL%
  • Expands to: /twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
  • Defined in: TWikiPreferences, default %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%USERSWEB%/%HOMETOPIC%
  • ALERT! Note: For the top bar logo URL use %WIKILOGOURL% defined in WebPreferences instead.
  • Related: WIKILOGOURL, WIKITOOLNAME

WIKILOGOALT -- site logo tooltip message

WIKILOGOIMG -- site logo image URL

WIKILOGOURL -- site logo home URL

WIKINAME -- your Wiki username

WIKIPREFSTOPIC -- name of site-wide preferences topic

WIKITOOLNAME -- name of your TWiki site

WIKIUSERNAME -- your Wiki username with web prefix

WIKIUSERSTOPIC -- name of topic listing all registers users

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

WIKIVERSION -- the version of the installed TWiki engine

X -- warning icon

Y -- "yes" icon

YELLOW -- start yellow colored text

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

(3) Notification of Changes by Email

Each TWiki web does an automatic email notification of recent changes. Users can subscribe / unsubscribe themselves in WebNotify of each TWiki web. The Perl script mailnotify is called by a deamon once every 60 minutes. For each Twiki web mailnotify is sending an automated email to subscribed users in case some topics changed within these 60 minutes.

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

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

(4) TWiki Category Table

It is possible to add a category table to a TWiki web. This permits storing and searching for more structured information. Editing a topic shows a HTML form with the usual text area and a table with selectors, checkboxes, radio buttons and text fields. The category table is shown at the end of a topic. The format of the category table can be defined per TWiki web.

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

  • twikicatitems.tmpl : Defines the items in the table
  • twikicatedit.tmpl : Defines the look of the table when editing a topic
  • twikicatview.tmpl : Defines the look of the table when viewing a topic

_Format of category definition template twikicatitems.tmpl_

Valid lines: 

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

Explanation: 

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

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

Example file: 

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

_Format of twikicatedit.tmpl and twikicatview.tmpl_

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

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

Example: 

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

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

TWikiCategory

TopicClassification:
PublicFAQ
OperatingSystem:
OsSolaris
OsVersion:
2.5 

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

TWikiCategory

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

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

Example (edit this page to see the source) :

(5) Implementation Notes

_Platform_

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

_Directories_

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

_Files in twiki/bin_

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

(6) Installation Notes

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

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

  • Request the TWiki distribution (in Unix ZIP format) from http://TWiki.SourceForge.net/download.html .
  • Create directory /home/httpd/twiki and unzip the TWiki distribution to this directory.
  • The twiki/bin directory of TWiki must be set as a cgi-bin directory. Add /home/httpd/twiki/bin to /etc/httpd/conf/access.conf with only ExecCGI option.
  • The twiki/pub directory of TWiki must be set so that it is visible as a URL. Add /home/httpd/twiki/pub to /etc/httpd/conf/access.conf with normal access options (copy from /home/httpd/html).
  • Now add Alias for /twiki/pub and ScriptAlias for /twiki/bin to /etc/httpd/conf/srm-conf .
  • Restart Apache by /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S85httpd restart .
  • Test if the twiki/bin directory is cgi-enabled:
    • Enter the URL of that directory into your browser ( http://your.domain.com/twiki/bin ). It is not set correctly as cgi-bin in case you get something like "Index of /twiki/bin" . It is OK if you get a message like "Forbidden. You don't have permission to access /twiki/bin/ on this server."
    • Execute the testenv script from your browser ( http://your.domain.com/twiki/bin/testenv ). It should show a table of all CGI environment variables.
  • Make sure PERL and the PERL CGI library is installed on your system. Default location of PERL executable is /usr/bin/perl . In case PERL is installed in a different location, the first line of all perl scripts in the twiki/bin directory need to be changed (alternatively you can create a symbolic link from /usr/bin/perl ).
  • To be able to edit the perl scripts and .tmpl files it is necessary to chown and chgrp -R twiki so all the files have the owner you want.
  • The scripts execute as nobody . Set the file permission of all Perl scripts in the twiki/bin directory as executable to -rw-r-xr-x .
  • Set the file permission of all files below twiki/data to 666 ( -rw-rw-rw- ).
  • Set the file permission of the twiki/data directory and all its subdirectories to 777 ( drwxrwxrwx ).
  • Set the file permission of the twiki/pub directory to 777 ( drwxrwxrwx ).
  • Edit the file twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm and set the variables at the beginning of the file to your needs.
  • Make sure RCS is installed. In case RCS is not in the path environment variable, add it to path . Alternatively, add the full path name to the rcs, ci, co, rlog, rcsdiff commands in the variables of twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm .
  • Point your browser at http://your.domain.com/twiki/bin/view and start wiki-ing away!
  • Note in case cgi user is not nobody : The *,v RCS repository files delivered with the installation package are locked by user nobody . In case the user is different (e.g. www-data ), it is not possible to check in files, this has the effect that the topic version number does not increase when saving a topic. In this case you need to unlock all repository files and lock them as user www-data (check the rcs man pages), or simply delete all the repository files.
  • Security issue: Directories twiki/data , twiki/templates and all its subdirectories should be set so that they are not visible as a URL. (Alternatively, move the directries to a place where they are not visible, and change the variables in twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm accordingly)
  • Enable email notification of topic changes, (3) has more.

  • Optional: You can add new rendering rules or new %variables%. To insure an easy upgrade of TWiki it is recommended to do this customization in twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm , not twiki/bin/wiki.pm .

  • Optional: If you are on a public server and you would like to authenticate users you need to rename file .htaccess.txt in the twiki/bin directory to .htaccess and change it to your needs. For details consult the HTTP server documentation (for Apache server: [1], [2], [3]). Note: In case .htaccess does not have any effect you need to enable it: Add "AllowOverride All" to the Directory section of access.conf for your twiki/bin directory.

  • Optional: You can automatically generate usage statistics for all webs. To enable this:
    • Make sure variable $doLogTopicView, $doLogTopicSave and $doLogTopicUpload in wikicfg.pm are set. This will generate log entries in file twiki/data/log<date>.txt .
    • Topic WebStatistics must be present in all webs where you want to have statistics. You can use the topic in the Main web as a template.
    • Call the twiki/bin/statistics script from a cron job, once a day is recommended. This will update the WebStatistics topics in all webs.
    • Attention: The script must run as the same user as the CGI scripts are running, which is user nobody on most systems. Example crontab entry:
      0 0 * * * (cd /path/to/TWiki/bin; ./statistics >/dev/null 2>&1)
    • There is a workaround in case you can't run the script as user nobody : Run the utility twiki/bin/geturl in your cron job and specify the URL of the twiki/bin/statistics script as a parameter. Example:
      0 0 * * * (cd /path/to/TWiki/bin; ./geturl mydomain.com /urlpath/to/TWiki/bin/statistics >/dev/null 2>&1)
    • The twiki/bin/statistics script can also be executed as a CGI script, just enter the URL in your browser. Examples:
      • Update current month for all webs:
        http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics
      • Update current month for Main web only:
        http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics/Main
      • Update January 2000 for Main web:
        http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics/Main?logdate=200001

  • To create a new web:
    • Use a name for the web consisting of characters A..Z , a..z but not in WikiNotation.
    • Create a new template directory under twiki/templates .
    • Create a new data directory under twiki/data and check the file permission of the directory.
    • Copy the files WebHome.txt , WebPreferences.txt , WebNotify.txt , WebSearch.txt and WebStatistics.txt from the twiki/data/Main directory to the new data directory, preserving the original files' owner, group and permissions ( on Unix use cp -p ). The data files must be writable by the owner the CGI scripts are running on ( usually nobody ). Hint: You can set permissions of .txt and .txt,v files to -rw-rw-rw- and then edit the topic using your browser, RCS will restore the file permission correctly when saving the topic.
    • Add the new web to the web list (on top of each topic) by editing the site-level preferences TWikiPreferences:
      • Add the new web to the WIKIWEBLIST variable.
    • Add the new web to the web table (at the bottom of each WebHome topic) by editing the TWikiWebsTable topic.
    • Change the web preferences by editing the WebPreferences topic of the new web:
      • Set the WEBBGCOLOR variable to a color of your taste. The number represents the unique color for the web (consult an HTML book for colors.)
      • Customize the WEBTOPICLIST variable to contain the web specific links you prefer.
      • Optional: Set the WEBCOPYRIGHT variable to have a web-specific copyright text (at the bottom of each topic).
    • If needed, create customized templates in the new templates directory. (Non existing templates are inherited from twiki/templates )
    • If you want to use a category table, copy the three files twikicatitems.tmpl , twikicatedit.tmpl and twikicatview.tmpl from the twiki/templates/Know directory to the new templates directory, and customize it. The TWiki Category Table section has more.
    • In case you want usage statistics for this web: Copy file WebStatistics.txt from the twiki/data/Main directory to the new data directory. Edit topic WebStatistics in the new web and delete old usage entries.

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

directory twiki/bin : 

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

directory twiki/templates/ : 

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

directory twiki/templates/Main : 

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

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

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

directory twiki/data/ : 

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

part of directory twiki/data/Main : 

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

directory twiki/pub/ : 

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

directory twiki/pub/icn/ : 

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

-- PeterThoeny - 05 Apr 2000

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Topic revision: r11 - 2000-02-28 - PeterThoeny
 
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