X-Git-Url: http://git.vanrenterghem.biz/git.ikiwiki.info.git/blobdiff_plain/bf4e6716cc57eb6d0dfca43ce92b64934950513e..bbc6cd7d57c621dbad097867bca996ad910d64ca:/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn diff --git a/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn b/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn index 7337c3d49..d46c0d9a8 100644 --- a/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn +++ b/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn @@ -2,18 +2,19 @@ seems like it could be beneficial to have it rendered in the post-commit hook, just like everything else in the wiki. - I hope to statically generate it eventually, currently the problem is - that it takes at least several seconds to generate the recentchanges - page, and adding several seconds to every page edit is not desiriable. If - the time can be reduced it could be done, I'm also not adverse to - adding an optional way to statically render it even at the current speed. + > I hope to statically generate it eventually, currently the problem is + > that it takes at least several seconds to generate the recentchanges + > page, and adding several seconds to every page edit is not desiriable. If + > the time can be reduced it could be done, I'm also not adverse to + > adding an optional way to statically render it even at the current + > speed. --[[Joey]] * Also, is it planned/desired that recent changes generate the same information in RSS feed format? This seems like it could be a useful way to keep track of the wiki as a whole. - This is used by various interwiki type things, I think, so should be - done.. + > This is used by various interwiki type things, I think, so should be + > done.. --[[Joey]] * Lastly, would it be possible to use the recent changes code with a pagespec? I understand this sort of infringes on territory covered by the @@ -21,3 +22,67 @@ once, when it's created, and I imagine some people -- some deranged, obsessive-compulsive people like myself -- would like to know about the changes made to existing pages as well as newly-created pages. + + > That would work rather well for pages like [[todo]] and [[bugs]], where + > you want to know about any updates, not just initial + > creation. --[[JoshTriplett]] + + > Of course you can use email subscriptions for that too.. --[[Joey]] + + >> I have more thoughts on this topic which I will probably write + >> tomorrow. If you thought my other patches were blue-sky, wait until + >> you see this. --Ethan + +OK, so here's how I see the RecentChanges thing. I write blog posts and +the inline plugin generates RSS feeds. Readers of RSS feeds are notified +of new entries but not changes to old entries. I think it's rude to change +something without telling your readers, so I'd like to address this. +To tell the user that there have been changes, we can tell the user which +page has been changed, the new text, the RCS comment relating to +the change, and a diff of the actual changes. The new text probably isn't +too useful (I have a very hard time rereading things for differences), +so any modifications to inline to re-inline pages probably won't help, +even if it were feasible (which I don't think it is). So instead we +turn to creating diffs automatically and (maybe) inlining them. + +I suggest that for every commit, a diff is created automagically +but not committed to the RCS. The page containing this diff would be +a "virtual page", which cannot be edited and is not committed. +(Committing here would be bad, because then it would create a new +commit, which would need a new diff, which would need to be committed, +etc.) Virtual pages would "expire" and be deleted if they were not +depended on in some way. + +Let's say these pages are created in edits/commit_%d.mdwn. RecentChanges +would then be a page which did nothing but inline the last 50 `edits/*`. +This would give static generation and RSS/Atom feeds. The inline +plugin could be optionally altered to inline pages from `edits/*` +that match any pages in its pagespec, and through this we could get +a recent-changes+pagespec thing. You could also exclude edits that have +"minor" in the commit message (or some other thing that marks them as +unremarkable). + +You could make an argument that I care way too much about what amounts +to edits anyhow, but like Josh says, there are use cases for this. +While this could be done with mail subscriptions, I can think of sites +where you might want to disable all auth so that people can't edit +your pages. --Ethan + +> I really dislike all Wiki engine recentchanges pages. They all tend to be +> fairly machine readable, but confusing for non-wiki users to grok. And I've +> yet to see an _attractive_ recentchanges implementation. IkiWikis' is no +> better or worse than the others. +> +> I really like the frontpage of [Bill +> Seitz](http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/FrontPage) as an recentchanges +> format. Note how he uses some clever css to show changes in different +> sections of the website. I modeled my own +> [recentchanges](http://xtermin.us/recentchanges) page page on his ideas. This +> probably isn't appropriate for non-WikiLog style setups, but is this +> something closer to what you what was requested? +> +> BTW: My recentchanges plugin does not seem to add a lot processing time +> to compiling. Then again, I'm not pulling changelog message from the RCS +> backend. +> +> -- CharlesMauch