X-Git-Url: http://git.vanrenterghem.biz/git.ikiwiki.info.git/blobdiff_plain/c69a7f758590c91bd137a8d1cfa99f37bf28045a..39d37c7c1be6b8bd4ac48aa7f0f4fc04c86aa310:/doc/plugins/aggregate.mdwn?ds=inline

diff --git a/doc/plugins/aggregate.mdwn b/doc/plugins/aggregate.mdwn
index 9bedab1cb..2925b6fba 100644
--- a/doc/plugins/aggregate.mdwn
+++ b/doc/plugins/aggregate.mdwn
@@ -1,15 +1,17 @@
 [[!template id=plugin name=aggregate author="[[Joey]]"]]
-[[!tag type/useful]]
+[[!tag type/special-purpose]]
 
-This plugin implements the [[ikiwiki/directive/aggregate]] [[ikiwiki/directive]].
+This plugin allows content from other feeds to be aggregated into the
+wiki. To specify feeds to aggregate, use the
+[[ikiwiki/directive/aggregate]] [[ikiwiki/directive]].
 
-New users of aggregate should enable the `aggregateinternal => 1` option in the
-.setup file. If you don't do so, you will need to enable the [[html]] plugin
-as well as aggregate itself, since feed entries will be stored as HTML.
+## requirements
 
-The [[meta]] and [[tag]] plugins are also recommended. The
-[[htmltidy]] plugin is suggested, since feeds can easily contain html
-problems, some of which tidy can fix.
+The [[meta]] and [[tag]] plugins are also recommended to be used with this
+one. Either the [[htmltidy]] or [[htmlbalance]] plugin is suggested, since
+feeds can easily contain html problems, some of which these plugins can fix.
+
+## triggering aggregation
 
 You will need to run ikiwiki periodically from a cron job, passing it the
 --aggregate parameter, to make it check for new posts. Here's an example
@@ -17,6 +19,11 @@ crontab entry:
 
 	*/15 * * * * ikiwiki --setup my.wiki --aggregate --refresh
 
+The plugin updates a file `.ikiwiki/aggregatetime` with the unix time stamp
+when the next aggregation run could occur. (The file may be empty, if no
+aggregation is required.) This can be integrated into more complex cron
+jobs or systems to trigger aggregation only when needed.
+
 Alternatively, you can allow `ikiwiki.cgi` to trigger the aggregation. You
 should only need this if for some reason you cannot use cron, and instead
 want to use a service such as [WebCron](http://webcron.org). To enable
@@ -25,37 +32,19 @@ visit is `http://whatever/ikiwiki.cgi?do=aggregate_webtrigger`. Anyone
 can visit the url to trigger an aggregation run, but it will only check
 each feed if its `updateinterval` has passed.
 
-## internal pages and `aggregateinternal`
+## aggregated pages
 
 This plugin creates a page for each aggregated item. 
 
 If the `aggregateinternal` option is enabled in the setup file (which is
-recommended), aggregated pages are stored in the source directory with a
+the default), aggregated pages are stored in the source directory with a
 "._aggregated" extension. These pages cannot be edited by web users, and
 do not generate first-class wiki pages. They can still be inlined into a
 blog, but you have to use `internal` in [[PageSpecs|IkiWiki/PageSpec]],
 like `internal(blog/*)`.
 
-For backward compatibility, the default is that these pages have the
-".html" extension, and are first-class wiki pages -- each one generates
-a separate HTML page in the output, and they can even be edited.
-
-That turns out to not be ideal for aggregated content, because publishing
-files for each of those pages is a waste of disk space and CPU, and you
-probably don't want to allow them to be edited. So, there is an alternative
-method that can be used (and is recommended), turned on by the
-`aggregateinternal` option in the setup file.
-
-If you are already using aggregate and want to enable `aggregateinternal`,
-you should follow this process:
-
-1. Update all [[PageSpecs|ikiwiki/PageSpec]] that refer to the aggregated
-   pages -- such as those in inlines. Put "internal()" around globs 
-   in those PageSpecs. For example, if the PageSpec was `foo/*`, it should
-   be changed to `internal(foo/*)`. This has to be done because internal
-   pages are not matched by regular globs.
-2. Turn on `aggregateinternal` in the setup file.
-3. Use [[ikiwiki-transition]] to rename all existing aggregated `.html`
-   files in the srcdir. The command to run is
-   `ikiwiki-transition aggregateinternal $setupfile`,
-4. Refresh the wiki. (`ikiwiki -setup your.setup -refresh`)
+If `aggregateinternal` is disabled, you will need to enable the [[html]]
+plugin as well as aggregate itself, since feed entries will be stored as
+HTML, and as first-class wiki pages -- each one generates
+a separate HTML page in the output, and they can even be edited. This
+option is provided only for backwards compatability.