PmWiki | PmWiki / Page specific variables

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This page describes the "variables" that are associated with pages. Page variables have the form {$variable}, and can be used in page markup or in certain formatting strings in PmWiki. For example, the markup "{$Group}" renders in this page as "PmWiki".

Note: Do not confuse these variables (set and used only in PmWiki pages) with PHP variables. Page variables can be read in PHP with the PageVar() function.

Note that these variables do not necessarily exist in the PHP code, because they have to be determined for a specific page. (However, they are usable in FmtPageName strings.)

There is also the form {pagename$variable}, which returns the value of the variable for another page. For example, "{MarkupMasterIndex$Title}" displays as "Markup Master Index".

Special references

Special references are used to retain the context of the original (source) page when the variable is included into a destination (target) page).

*$PageVariablename - prefixed by an asterisk (*) - value reflects target page context
$PageVariablename - retains value in source page context

Special references are also used in page list templates.

For example you can test to see if the page is part of another page

(:if ! name {$FullName}:)
->[-[[{$FullName}#anchor|more
...]]-]
(:ifend:)

Default page variables

The page variables defined for PmWiki are:

{$Group} - page's group name, as in "PmWiki"

{$Groupspaced} - spaced group name, as in "Pm Wiki"

{$DefaultGroup} - default group name, as in "Main"

{$SiteGroup} - default group name for e.g. RecentChanges, as in "Site"

{$Name} - page name, as in "PageVariables"

{$Namespaced} - spaced page name, as in "Page Variables"

{$DefaultName} - name of default page, as in "HomePage"

{$FullName} - page's full name, as in "PmWiki.PageVariables"

{$BaseName} - page's "base" form (stripping any recipe-defined prefixes or suffixes) as in "PmWiki.PageVariables"

{$Title} - page title (may differ from Name), as in "Page specific variables"

{$Titlespaced} - title/spaced page name, as in "Page specific variables"

{$Description} - page's description from the (:description:) markup, as in "Documentation for "variables" that are associated with pages."

{$LastModified} - date page was edited, as in "April 27, 2008, at 05:44 PM"

{$LastModifiedBy} - page's last editor, as in "Muni"

{$LastModifiedHost} - IP of page's last editor, as in "85.20.156.14"

{$LastModifiedSummary} - Summary from last edit, as in ""

Note: Enclose {$LastModifiedSummary} with [= and =] to avoid having PmWiki process any markup that may be contained in the summary.

Note: This stopped working recently, and [={$LastModifiedSummary}=] renders as {$LastModifiedSummary} (the variable is no longer expanded, as in ""). It was usefull for watchlists with PageLists. Petko

{$PageUrl} - page's url, as in "$ScriptUrl/PmWiki/PageVariables"

{$Action} - page's url action argument, as in "browse"

In addition to the above, there are some page-invariant variables available through this markup:

{$Author} - the name of the person currently interacting with the site, as in ""

{$AuthId} - current authenticated id, as in "" Please note the lower case 'd'. {$AuthID} returns nothing

{$Version} - PmWiki version, as in "pmwiki-2.2.0-beta65"

{$VersionNum} - The internal version number, as in "2001965"

{$ScriptUrl} - The url to the pmwiki script, as in "http://pmwiki.org/wiki"

Custom page variables

You may add custom page variables as a local customization. In a local configuration file or a recipe script, use the variable $FmtPV:

$FmtPV['$VarName'] = "'variable definition'";
$FmtPV['$CurrentSkin'] = '$GLOBALS["Skin"]';

Defines new Page Variable of name $CurrentSkin, which can be used in the page with {$CurrentSkin} (also for Conditional markup). It's necessary to use the single quotes nested inside double-quotes as shown above (preferred) or a double-quoted string nested inside single-quotes like '"this"'.

Making a {$WikiTitle} markup doesn't quite follow the formula above. Instead you need to use

$FmtPV['$WikiTitle'] = '$GLOBALS["WikiTitle"]';

If you want to have a Page Variable that returns the currently used password (more precisely, the last password entered), you can use

$FmtPV['$AuthPw'] = 'reset(array_keys((array)@$_SESSION["authpw"]))';

Page specific variables

Special references

Default page variables

Custom page variables

See also