The `template` directive is supplied by the [[!iki plugins/template desc=template]] plugin.
-[[Templates]] are files that can be filled out and inserted into pages in the
-wiki, by using the template directive. The directive has an `id` parameter
+The template directive allows wiki pages to be used as templates.
+These templates can be filled out and inserted into other pages in the
+wiki using the directive. The [[templates]] page lists templates
+that can be used with this directive.
+
+The directive has an `id` parameter
that identifies the template to use. The remaining parameters are used to
fill out the template.
## Creating a template
-The template is a regular wiki page, located in the `templates/`
+The template is in a regular wiki page, located in the `templates/`
subdirectory inside the source directory of the wiki.
+The contents of the [[templatebody]] directive are used as the
+template. Anything outside that directive is not included in the template,
+and is usually used as documentation describing the template.
+
+If the template does not contain a [[templatebody]] directive, the entire
+source of the page is used for the template. This is deprecated, because
+it leads to the template markup being interpreted as ordinary
+page source when the page is built, as well as being used as the template.
-(Alternatively, templates can be stored in a directory outside the wiki,
+Alternatively, templates can be stored in a directory outside the wiki,
as files with the extension ".tmpl".
-By default, these are searched for in `/usr/share/ikiwiki/templates`;
+By default, these are searched for in `/usr/share/ikiwiki/templates`,
the `templatedir` setting can be used to make another directory be searched
-first.)
+first. When referring to templates outside the wiki source directory, the "id"
+parameter is not interpreted as a pagespec, you must include the full filename
+of the template page including the ".tmpl" extension,
+and the templatebody directive is not used. E.g.:
+
+ \[[!template id=blogpost.tmpl]]
The template uses the syntax used by the [[!cpan HTML::Template]] perl
module, which allows for some fairly complex things to be done. Consult its
* To insert the raw value of a variable, with wiki markup not yet converted
to html, use `<TMPL_VAR raw_variable>`.
* To make a block of text conditional on a variable being set use
- `<TMPL_IF NAME="variable">text</TMPL_IF>`.
+ `<TMPL_IF variable>text</TMPL_IF>`.
* To use one block of text if a variable is set and a second if it's not,
- use `<TMPL_IF NAME="variable">text<TMPL_ELSE>other text</TMPL_IF>`
+ use `<TMPL_IF variable>text<TMPL_ELSE>other text</TMPL_IF>`
Here's a sample template:
+ \[[!templatebody <<ENDBODY
<span class="infobox">
Name: \[[<TMPL_VAR raw_name>]]<br />
Age: <TMPL_VAR age><br />
- <TMPL_IF NAME="color">
+ <TMPL_IF color>
Favorite color: <TMPL_VAR color><br />
<TMPL_ELSE>
No favorite color.<br />
</TMPL_IF>
- <TMPL_IF NAME="notes">
+ <TMPL_IF notes>
<hr />
<TMPL_VAR notes>
</TMPL_IF>
</span>
+ ENDBODY]]
+
+ This template describes a person. Parameters: name, age,
+ color (favorite color, optional), notes (optional).
The filled out template will be formatted the same as the rest of the page
that contains it, so you can include WikiLinks and all other forms of wiki