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00880: [[PmWiki/Page text variables]] change request

Description:

Page text variables are a useful lightweight include mechanism.

I have been endeavouring to product some real working examples to reduce the learning curve for others.

• question: are page text variable names deliberately case sensitive?

river: Whanganui
Range: Southern Alps

->[-(lowercase)-] "{$:river}" [-(uppercase)-] "{$:River}"
->[-(lowercase)-] "{$:range}" [-(uppercase)-] "{$:Range}"

• suggestion: remove leading and trailing spaces around the page text variable text

Fish:                        Inanga                                             
:Island:           Rakiura
:Volcano:       Ngauruhoe                
:Caldera:Rotorua            
(:Hiker:    Simon   :)

"{$:Fish}" | "{$:Island}" | "{$:Volcano}" | "{$:Caldera}" | "{$:Hiker}"

$PageTextVarPatterns = array(
  'var:'        => '/^(:*\\s*(\\w[-\\w]*)\\s*:[ \\t]?)\\s*(.*)\\s*($)/m',
  '(:var:...:)' => '/(\\(: *(\\w[-\\w]*) *:(?!\\))\\s?)\\s*(.*?)\\s*(:\\))/s'
  );

Still like to see this as the default simon August 22, 2009, at 01:35 AM

See also

Test.PageTextVariables, Test.PageListWithPgVar, Test.PageListOrderingWithPgVar, Test.Ptv

PITS.00855, PITS.00884

When using page text variables for selection or ordering, don't put the curly braces around the variable name.

In other words, it's $:City=Paris and not {$:City}=Paris.

City: Paris
(:pagelist group=PmWiki $:City=Paris count=8 fmt=Cookbook/PagelistTemplateSamples#oneline:)

Similarly, to order results by city, one uses order=$:City and not order={$:City}. The curly forms do a replacement before the pagelist command is evaluated.

Try reworking the examples with this in mind and see if it works as you expect.

Pm February 08, 2007, at 02:59 PM

Thanks Pm, fixed examples and this PITS entry.

Added another problem with use in page lists

Examples explained or closed

Usage with pagelists

When using page text variables to select pages, the markup is counter-intuitive, syntax is $:ptv=- to show all pages, one might expect $:ptv=* (doctrine of least surprise)

With all other expressions, * means "zero or more characters", $:ptv=- means not empty, and it is the same as $:ptv=?* (one or more characters) which you may find more intuitive. --Petko August 21, 2009, at 09:09 PM

This is a wilecard character so I'm happy with the clarification, thanks. Curious where the "-" comes from though. simon August 22, 2009, at 01:35 AM

Usage in a list template

• question: Are the =$ and <$ page text variables working as expected?

>>comment<<
[[#bycountry]]
(:template default order=$:Country $:Country=-:)
(:if ! equal '{=$:Country}' '{<$:Country}' :)
-<'''{=$:Country}''':  
(:ifend:)
[-[[{=$FullName}]]-]
[[#bycountryend]]
>><<
(:pagelist group=PmWiki count=12 fmt=#bycountry:)

(:pagelist group=PmWiki count=12 fmt=#bycountry order=-$:Country:)

(:pagelist group=PITS $:From=Simon fmt=#pitsentry count=4:)
>>comment<<
[[#pitsentry]]
* [-[[{=$FullName}]] ''{=$:Status}'' {=$:Summary}-]
[[#pitsentryend]]
>><<

(:pagelist group=PITS $:From=??~Simon]] fmt={$FullName}#pitsentry count=4:)

Undeclared page variables

• question: undeclared page variables are not shown, this is intended behaviour cf invalid page text variable names

:invalid name:with embedded space
"{$:invalid name}"
"{$:undeclared}"