X-Git-Url: http://git.vanrenterghem.biz/git.ikiwiki.info.git/blobdiff_plain/7f7cab849640279e98722f1fb27866a26e55aa71..c6ce186a8145a874cd0d17ae983c002c0a242b66:/doc/todo/pagespec_aliases.mdwn diff --git a/doc/todo/pagespec_aliases.mdwn b/doc/todo/pagespec_aliases.mdwn index 654636bc2..43714dc50 100644 --- a/doc/todo/pagespec_aliases.mdwn +++ b/doc/todo/pagespec_aliases.mdwn @@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ not sure whether I should name-grab 'alias' since [[todo/alias_directive]] is an existing wishlist item. > I think it would make sense to have "pagespec" in the name somehow. + +> > Good idea, how about `pagespecalias`? — [[Jon]] + > > No, the strict/warnings does not make me puke. Have you read my perl > code? :-P @@ -86,7 +89,12 @@ an existing wishlist item. > Well, except that websetup doesn't currently support configuring hashes > like used here. Which is a pity, but has led me to try to avoid using > such hashes in the setup file. -> + +> > If I removed the `getsetup` subroutine, it would not be exposed via +> > website, is that right? I suppose it doesn't hurt to validate key, even if +> > this risk was not there. Is the use of a hash here a blocker for adoption? +> > — [[Jon]] + > Have you considered not defining the pagespec aliases in the setup file, but > instead as directives on pages in the wiki? Using pagestate could store > up the aliases that have been defined. It could however, be hard to get @@ -94,6 +102,16 @@ an existing wishlist item. > an alias `foo` would need to somehow depend on the page where the alias > was defined. --[[Joey]] +> > I haven't thought the dependency issue through beyond "that might be hard". +> > Personally, I don't like defining stuff like this in pages, but I appreciate +> > some do. There could be some complex scenarios where some pages rely on a +> > pagespec alias defined on others; and could have their meanings changed by +> > changing the definition. A user might have permission to edit a page with a +> > definition on it but not on the pages that use it, and similar subtle permission +> > bugs. I'm also not sure what the failure mode is if someone redefines an alias, +> > and whether there'd be an unpredictable precedence problem. +> > How about both methods? — [[Jon]] + Here's an example setup chunk: pagespec_aliases: @@ -108,6 +126,8 @@ however, to add ' or internal()' to `boring`, for some reason. > Probably needs to be `or internal(*)` --[[Joey]] +> > Ah yes, could be, thanks. — [[Jon]] + > another useful pagespec alias for large maps: basewiki: "sandbox or templates or templates/* or ikiwiki or ikiwiki/* or shortcuts or recentchanges or wikiicons/*" @@ -115,3 +135,52 @@ however, to add ' or internal()' to `boring`, for some reason. > -- [[Jon]] >> Useful indeed! --[[Joey]] + +--------------------------- + +Based on the above, I have written an experimental plugin called "subset". +It's in my "ikiplugins" repo on github, in the "experimental" branch. + + +It takes Joey's suggestion of defining the subsets (aliases) as directives; +I took the example of the [[plugins/shortcut]] plugin and designated a single special page as the one where the directives are defined, +though unlike "shortcut" I haven't hardcoded the name of the page; it defaults to "subsets" but it can be re-defined in the config. + +I've also added a feature which one might call subset-caching; I had to override `pagespec_match_list` to do it, however. +An extra parameter added to `pagespec_match_list` called `subset` which + +* limits the result to look *only* within the set of pages defined by the subset (uses the "list" option to pagespec_match_list to do this) +* caches the result of the subset search so that the second time subset "foo" is used, it uses the stored result of the first search for "foo". + +This speeds things up if one is using a particular subset more than once, which one probably is if one bothered to define the subset in the first place. +The speed increase is most dramatic when the site has a large number of pages and the number of pages in the subset is small. +(this is similar to the "trail" concept I used in my [[plugins/contrib/report]] plugin, but not quite the same) + +Note that things like [[plugins/map]] can't make use of "subset" (yet) because they don't pass along all the parameters they're given. +But [[plugins/contrib/report]] actually works without alteration because it does pass along all the parameters. + +Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to do the dependencies - I'd really appreciate help on that. + +--[[KathrynAndersen]] + +> > Cool! I like the caching idea. I'm not sure about the name. I don't like defining +> > stuff in pages, but I appreciate this is a matter of taste, and would be happy with +> > supporting both. — [[Jon]] + +>>> I've now gone and completely re-done "subset" so that it is less like an alias, but it a bit clearer and simpler: +>>> instead of having a separate "match_" function for every alias, I simply have one function, "match_subset" +>>> which takes the name of the subset. Thus a \[[!subset name="foo"...]] would be called `subset(foo)` rather than `foo()`. + +>>> There are a few reasons for this:
+>>> (a) it's more secure not to be evaluating code on the fly
+>>> (b) it's simpler
+>>> (c) (and this was my main reason) it makes it possible to do caching without having to have a separate "subset" argument. +>>> I've done a bit of a hack for this: basically, the PageSpec is checked to see if the very start of the PageSpec is `subset(foo) and` or if the whole pagespec is just `subset(foo)` and if either of those is true, then it does the subset caching stuff. +>>> The reason I check for "and" is that if it is "subset(foo) or something" then it would be an error to use the subset cache in that case. +>>> The reason I just check the start of the PageSpec is because I don't want to have to do complex parsing of the PageSpec. + +>>> As for defining subsets in the config rather than on pages, I perfectly understand that desire, and I could probably add that in. + +>>> As for the name "subset"... well, it's even less like an alias now, and "alias" is already a reserved name. What other names would you suggest? + +>>>--[[KathrynAndersen]]