(r8) TWikiDocumentation < TWiki

Documentation of the TWiki Implementation

(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

(1) Login Username vs. Wiki Username

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

Login username: When you login to the Intranet you use your login username, e.g. thoeny. TWiki uses this name internally to log who changed topics.

Wiki username: Is your name in WikiNotation, e.g. PeterThoeny. When you create your own home page topic, you should use your WikiName for the topic name. Like that, your name will be linked automatically where ever it is used. Please create your home page in TWiki.Main, not any other TWiki web.

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

%INCLUDE:"TWikiVariables.txt"%

(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:_  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:

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) :

New PublicFAQ topic:

(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
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
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

(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://www.mindspring.net/~peterthoeny/twiki/index.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." .
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 , 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)
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. Consult the HTTP server documentation for details, an example site for Apache is at http://info.mcs.kent.edu/system/web_help/htaccess/ . 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.

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 , WebNotify.txt , WebSearch.txt , webcolor.inc and weblist.inc from the twiki/data/Main directory to the new data directory.
- Change webcolor.inc to a color of your taste. The number represents the unique color for the web (consult an HTML book for colors.) Note: The file must not have a new line, just the number without a return.
- Customize weblist.inc (web specific links on top) if needed.
- Add the new web in twiki/data/wikiwebs.inc (web specific links on top) and twiki/data/wikiwebtable.inc (table of all webs at the end of the WbHome topics).
- In case you need a web specific copyright notice (at the bottom), copy file webcopyright.inc from the twiki/data directory to the new data directory, and customize it.
- 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.

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	5 twiki	 t5				512 Nov 11 02:52 .
drwxr-xr-x	5 twiki	 t5				512 Nov  6 02:57 ..
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				430 Oct 21 18:51 .htaccess
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  3752 Mar 27 02:21 attach
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  2810 Oct 21 18:51 changes
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  1244 Mar 27 02:21 delete
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  2589 Nov  6 03:05 edit
-rwxr-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  4614 Oct 21 18:52 mailnotify
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  1353 Oct 23 20:19 oops
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  2043 Nov  6 03:05 preview
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  6249 Aug  3 04:34 register
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  6890 Nov 11 03:06 rdiff
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  1819 Nov  6 03:06 save
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  3174 Oct 21 18:51 search
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  6696 Mar 27 02:22 upload
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  3878 Nov 11 03:06 view
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  1538 Mar 27 02:22 viewfile
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			 16169 Nov  7 01:43 wiki.pm
-rw-r-xr-x	1 twiki	 t5			  3945 Jun 23 01:24 wikicfg.pm

directory twiki/templates/ :

drwxr-xr-x	6 twiki	 t5				512 Nov  4 20:34 .
drwxr-xr-x	5 twiki	 t5				512 Nov 11 02:52 ..
drwxr-xr-x	2 twiki	 t5				512 Oct 23 20:57 Know
drwxr-xr-x	2 twiki	 t5				512 Nov  4 20:35 Main
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  2232 Mar 27 02:03 attach.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1200 Mar 27 02:03 attachtable.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1751 Nov 11 02:41 changes.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1711 Nov  6 03:01 edit.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				896 Oct 21 18:51 mailnotify.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				 25 Oct 21 18:51 notedited.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				 21 Oct 21 18:51 notext.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				157 Oct 23 21:05 notwiki.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				218 Oct 23 20:06 noweb.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				279 Oct 23 20:29 oops.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				833 Mar 27 02:03 oopsdel.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1331 Oct 23 20:29 oopslocked.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1026 Aug 03 08:21 oopsregexist.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				935 Aug 03 08:23 oopsregpasswd.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				924 Aug 03 08:26 oopsregrequ.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				931 Aug 03 08:29 oopsregwiki.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				868 Mar 27 02:03 oopsupload.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  2010 Nov  6 03:01 preview.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1501 Nov 12 22:56 rdiff.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				263 Aug  3 02:44 register.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1548 Oct 23 21:10 search.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1541 Oct 26 21:07 view.tmpl

directory twiki/templates/Main :

drwxr-xr-x	2 twiki	 t5				512 Nov  4 20:35 .
drwxr-xr-x	6 twiki	 t5				512 Nov  4 20:34 ..
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  2328 Nov  6 03:03 edit.tmpl

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

drwxr-xr-x	2 twiki	 t5				512 Nov  4 20:35 .
drwxr-xr-x	6 twiki	 t5				512 Nov  4 20:34 ..
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				611 Dec  7 20:59 notedited.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				210 Dec 24 23:22 twikicatedit.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1887 Jan  6 20:54 twikicatitems.tmpl
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				245 Dec 24 23:27 twikicatview.tmpl

directory twiki/data/ :

drwxrwxrwx	6 twiki	 t5				512 Nov 19 01:01 .
drwxr-xr-x	5 twiki	 t5				512 Nov 11 02:52 ..
drwxrwxrwx	2 twiki	 t5			  9216 Nov 13 13:55 Know
drwxrwxrwx	2 twiki	 t5			  4608 Nov 15 21:42 Main
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535			 53 Aug 03 08:31 .htpasswd
-rw-rw-rw-	1 twiki	 t5			  1091 Nov  6 04:15 debug.txt
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  4153 Nov 19 01:01 log199810.txt
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  7189 Nov 19 01:01 log199811.txt
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  2356 Oct 22 00:56 webcopyright.inc
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				276 Oct 22 00:28 wikiwebs.inc
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  1484 Oct 22 01:11 wikiwebtable.inc

part of directory twiki/data/Main :

drwxrwxrwx	2 twiki	 t5			  4608 Nov 19 00:56 .
drwxrwxrwx	6 twiki	 t5				512 Nov 19 01:01 ..
-rw-rw-rw-	1 twiki	 t5			  5974 Nov 15 21:42 .changes
-rw-rw-rw-	1 twiki	 t5				  9 Nov 15 23:00 .mailnotify
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  3991 Jul 22 04:33 FileAttachment.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  4173 Jul 22 04:33 FileAttachment.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  6773 Aug  5 16:18 TWikiRegistration.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  6960 Aug  5 16:18 TWikiRegistration.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  1990 Nov  6 18:25 TWikiUsers.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  3045 Nov  6 18:25 TWikiUsers.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  1181 Oct 29 20:54 WebHome.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  1537 Oct 29 20:54 WebHome.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535			454 Oct 21 18:52 WebNotify.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody	65535			638 Oct 27 02:45 WebNotify.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  3653 Oct 21 18:52 WebSearch.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody	65535		  3835 Oct 27 02:45 WebSearch.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				  7 Oct 21 18:52 webcolor.inc
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				278 May 20 17:42 webcopyright.inc
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				402 Oct 26 07:45 weblist.inc

directory twiki/pub/ :

drwxrwxrwx	4 twiki	 t5			  1024 Mar 27 02:58 .
drwxr-xr-x	4 twiki	 t5			  1024 Mar 27 02:08 ..
drwxrwxrwx	4 nobody	nobody		 1024 Mar 27 03:54 Main
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5			  2877 Mar 27 02:27 wikiHome.gif
drwxr-xr-x	2 twiki	 t5			  1024 Mar 27 03:17 icn

directory twiki/pub/icn/ :

drwxr-xr-x	2 twiki	 t5			  1024 Mar 27 03:17 .
drwxrwxrwx	4 twiki	 t5			  1024 Mar 27 02:58 ..
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				801 Mar 27 03:02 _filetypes.txt
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				143 Mar 27 03:16 bat.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				926 Mar 27 03:16 bmp.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				141 Mar 27 03:16 c.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				144 Mar 27 03:16 dll.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				152 Mar 27 03:16 doc.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				130 Mar 27 03:16 else.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				876 Mar 27 03:16 exe.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				147 Mar 27 03:16 fon.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				142 Mar 27 03:16 h.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				156 Mar 27 03:16 hlp.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				186 Mar 27 03:16 html.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				144 Mar 27 03:16 java.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				148 Mar 27 03:16 mov.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				150 Mar 27 03:16 pdf.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				146 Mar 27 03:16 pl.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				150 Mar 27 03:16 ppt.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				148 Mar 27 03:16 ps.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				148 Mar 27 03:16 py.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				130 Mar 27 03:17 ram.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				154 Mar 27 03:17 reg.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				147 Mar 27 03:17 sh.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				155 Mar 27 03:17 sniff.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				149 Mar 27 03:17 ttf.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				134 Mar 27 03:17 txt.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				154 Mar 27 03:17 wav.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				152 Mar 27 03:17 wri.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				152 Mar 27 03:17 xls.gif
-rw-r--r--	1 twiki	 t5				144 Mar 27 03:17 zip.gif

-- PeterThoeny - 22 Oct 1998
-- PeterThoeny - 18 Nov 1998
-- PeterThoeny - 11 Jan 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 20 Jan 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 06 Mar 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 27 Mar 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 02 Jun 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 14 Jun 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 23 Jun 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 01 Sep 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 29 Sep 1999
-- PeterThoeny - 14 Jan 2000
-- PeterThoeny - 02 Feb 2000

Topic revision: r8 - 2000-02-03 - PeterThoeny

Account
- Log In
- Register User

~~Edit~~
~~Attach~~

Copyright © 1999-2025 by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding TWiki? Send feedback
Note: Please contribute updates to this topic on TWiki.org at TWiki:TWiki.TWikiDocumentation.