TWiki Templates
Definition of the templates used to render all HTML pages displayed in TWiki
Overview
The new modular template system offers flexible, easy control over the layout of all TWiki pages. The master template approach groups parts that are shared by several templates - like headers and footers - in a common file. Special variables allow individual layouts to include parts from a master template - variables are mixed with regular HTML markup for template-specific content. Templates are used to define
page layout, and also to supply
default content for new pages.
Major changes from the previous template system
Where the old templates were each complete HTML documents, the new templates are defined using variables to include template parts from a master file. You can now change one instance of a common element to update all occurrences; previously, every affected template had to be updated. This simplifies the conversion of templates into XHTML format, and provides a more versatile solution for templates and for
TWikiSkins. The new system:
- separates a set of common template parts into a base template that is included by all of the related templates;
- defines common variables, like a standard separator (ex: "|"), in the base template;
- defines variable text in the individual templates and passes it back to the base template.
How Template Variables Work
- Special template directives (or preprocessor commands) are embedded in normal templates.
- All template preprocessing is done in
&TWiki::Store::readTemplate() so that the caller simply gets an expanded template file (the same as before).
- Directives are of the form
%TMPL:<key>% and %TMPL:<key>{"attr"}%.
- Directives:
-
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"file"}%: Includes a template file. The template directory of the current web is searched first, then the templates root (twiki/templates).
-
%TMPL:DEF{"var"}%: Define a variable. Text between this and the END directive is not returned, but put into a hash for later use.
-
%TMPL:END%: Ends variable definition.
-
%TMPL:P{"var"}%: Prints a previously defined variable.
- Variables live in a global name space: there is no parameter passing.
- Two-pass processing lets you use a variable before or after declaring it.
- Templates and TWikiSkins work transparently and interchangeably. For example, you can create a skin that overloads only the
twiki.tmpl master template, like twiki.print.tmpl, that redefines the header and footer.
-
Use of template directives is optional: templates work without them.
-
NOTE: Template directives work only for templates: they do not get processed in topic text.
Types of Template
There are three types of template:
- Master Template: Stores common parts; included by other templates
- HTML Page Templates: Defines the layout of TWiki pages
- Template Topics: Defines default text when you create a new topic
Master Templates
Common parts, appearing in two or more templates, can be defined in a master template and then shared by others:
twiki.tmpl is the default master template.
| Template variable: | Defines: |
|---|
| %TMPL:DEF{"sep"}% | "|" separator |
| %TMPL:DEF{"htmldoctype"}% | Start of all HTML pages |
| %TMPL:DEF{"standardheader"}% | Standard header (ex: view, index, search) |
| %TMPL:DEF{"simpleheader"}% | Simple header with reduced links (ex: edit, attach, oops) |
| %TMPL:DEF{"standardfooter"}% | Footer, excluding revision and copyright parts |
| %TMPL:DEF{"oops"}% | Skeleton of oops dialog |
HTML Page Templates
TWiki uses HTML template files for all actions, like topic view, edit, and preview. This allows you to change the look and feel of all pages by editing just a few template files.
Templates are stored either in the
twiki/templates directory or in user topics. As an example,
twiki/templates/view.tmpl is the template file for the
twiki/bin/view script.
Templates can be overloaded by individual webs.
TWikiSkins can overload the standard templates.
TWiki uses the following search order to determine which template to use:
| If a skin is specified | If no skin is specified |
|---|
templates/%WEB%/script.skin.tmpl | templates/%WEB%/script.tmpl |
templates/script.skin.tmpl | templates/script.tmpl |
data/%WEB%/SkinSkinScriptTemplate.txt | data/%WEB%/ScriptTemplate.txt |
data/TWiki/SkinSkinScriptTemplate.txt | data/TWiki/ScriptTemplate.txt |
Legend:
• script refers to the script name, e.g view, edit
• Script refers to the same, but with the first character capitalized, e.g View
• skin refers to the skin name, e.g dragon, pattern
• Skin refers to the same, but with the first character capitalized, e.g Dragon
• %WEB% refers to the current web |
Additionally (and primarily for use in
%TMPL:INCLUDE{}%) the template name may be a wiki topic name, specified as
Web.Topic, in which case the search is:
If
Web is not specified in the INCLUDE, it defaults to TWiki, and the search to the first type.
Special variables are used in templates, especially in
view, to display
meta data.
Template Topics
Template topics define the default text for new topics. There are three types of template topic:
All template topics are located in the TWiki web. The
WebTopicEditTemplate can be overloaded. When you create a new topic, TWiki locates a topic to use as a content template according to the following search order:
- A topic name specified by the
templatetopic CGI parameter.
- WebTopicEditTemplate in the current web
- WebTopicEditTemplate in the TWiki web
Edit Template Topics and Variable Expansion
The following variables get expanded when a user creates a new topic based on a template topic:
| Variable: | Description: |
|---|
%DATE% | Current date, e.g. 23 Nov 2024 |
%USERNAME% | Login name, e.g. jsmith |
%WIKINAME% | WikiName of user, e.g. JohnSmith |
%WIKIUSERNAME% | User name, e.g. Main.JohnSmith |
%URLPARAM{"name"}% | Value of a named URL parameter |
%NOP% | A no-operation variable that gets removed. Useful to prevent a SEARCH from hitting an edit template topic; also useful to escape a variable like %URLPARAM%NOP%{...}% |
%NOP{ ... }% | A no-operation text that gets removed. Useful to write-protect an edit template topic, but not the topics based this template topic. See notes below. Example:
%NOP{
* Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = Main.TWikiAdminGroup
}% |
Notes:
- Unlike other variables,
%NOP{ ... }% can span multiple lines.
- The scan for the closing
}% pattern is "non-greedy", that is, it stops at the first occurance. That means, you need to escape variables with parameters located inside %NOP{ ... }%: Insert a %NOP% between } and %. Silly example: %NOP{ %GMTIME{"$year"}%NOP%% }%.
All other variables are unchanged, e.g. are carried over "as is" into the new topic.
Template Topics in Action
Here is an example for creating new topics based on a specific template topic:
The above form asks for a topic name. A hidden input tag named
templatetopic specifies
ExampleTopicTemplate as the template topic to use. Here is the HTML source of the form:
<form name="new" action="%SCRIPTURLPATH%/edit%SCRIPTSUFFIX%/%INTURLENCODE{"%WEB%"}%/">
* New example topic:
<input type="text" name="topic" value="ExampleTopic%SERVERTIME{$yearx$mox$day}%" size="23" />
<input type="hidden" name="templatetopic" value="ExampleTopicTemplate" />
<input type="hidden" name="topicparent" value="%TOPIC%" />
<input type="hidden" name="onlywikiname" value="on" />
<input type="hidden" name="onlynewtopic" value="on" />
<input type="submit" value="Create" />
(date format is <nop>YYYYxMMxDD)
</form>
The
edit scipt understands the following parameters, typically supplied by HTML input fields:
| Parameter: | Description: |
|---|
topic | Name of topic to create. Can be set in a text field, or is set programmatically (e.g. with a sequential number) |
onlywikiname | If set, TWiki will complain if the topic name is not a WikiWord |
onlynewtopic | If set, TWiki will complain if a topic of the same name already exists |
templatetopic | The name of the template topic, e.g. topic used to copy the initial content |
topicparent | Sets the parent topic |
TopicClassification | Assuming the template topic has a form with a field called "TopicClassification", it will set the value of the field |
contenttype | Optional parameter that defines the application type to write into the CGI header. Defaults to text/html. May be used to invoke alternative client applications |
anyname | Any parameter can passed to the new topic; if the template topic contains %URLPARAM{"anyname"}%, it will be replaced by its value |
TIP: You can use the
%WIKIUSERNAME% and
%DATE% variables in your topic templates to include the signature of the person creating a new topic. The variables are expanded into fixed text when a new topic is created. The standard signature is:
-- %WIKIUSERNAME% - %DATE%
Templates by Example
Attached is an example of an oops based template
oopsbase.tmpl and an example oops dialog
oopstest.tmpl based on the base template. %A%
NOTE: This isn't the release version, just a quick, simple demo.
Base template oopsbase.tmpl
The first line declares a delimiter variable called "sep", used to separate multiple link items. The variable can be called anywhere by writing
%TMPL:P{"sep"}%
%TMPL:DEF{"sep"}% | %TMPL:END%
<html>
<head>
<title> %WIKITOOLNAME% . %WEB% . %TOPIC% %.TMPL:P{"titleaction"}%</title>
<base href="%SCRIPTURL%/view%SCRIPTSUFFIX%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td bgcolor="%WEBBGCOLOR%" rowspan="2" valign="top" width="1%">
<a href="%WIKIHOMEURL%">
<img src="%PUBURLPATH%/wikiHome.gif" border="0"></a>
</td>
<td>
<b>%WIKITOOLNAME% . %WEB% . </b><font size="+2">
<B>%TOPIC%</b> %TMPL:P{"titleaction"}%</font>
</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="%WEBBGCOLOR%">
<td colspan="2">
%TMPL:P{"webaction"}%
</td>
</tr>
</table>
--- ++ %TMPL:P{"heading"}%
%TMPL:P{"message"}%
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0">
<tr bgcolor="%WEBBGCOLOR%">
<td valign="top">
Topic <b>%TOPIC%</b> . {
%TMPL:P{"topicaction"}%
}
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
|
Test template oopstest.tmpl
Each oops template basically just defines some variables and includes the base template that does the layout work.
%TMPL:DEF{"titleaction"}% (test =titleaction=) %TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"webaction"}% test =webaction= %TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"heading"}%
Test heading %TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"message"}%
Test =message=. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...
* Some more blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...
* Param1: %PARAM1%
* Param2: %PARAM2%
* Param3: %PARAM3%
* Param4: %PARAM4%
%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"topicaction"}%
Test =topicaction=:
[[%WEB%.%TOPIC%][OK]] %TMPL:P{"sep"}%
[[%TWIKIWEB%.TWikiRegistration][Register]] %TMPL:END%
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"oopsbase"}%
|
Sample screen shot of oopstest.tmpl
With URL:
.../bin/oops/Sandbox/TestTopic2?template=oopstest¶m1=WebHome¶m2=WebNotify
Known Issues
- A drawback of referring to a master template is that you can only test a template from within TWiki, where the include variables are resolved. In the previous system, each template was a structurally complete HTML document with a
.tmpl filename extension - it contained unresolved %VARIABLES%, but could still be previewed directly in a browser.
--
TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie - 30 Jun 2004
--
TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 15 Aug 2004
--
TWiki:Main.MikeMannix - 14 Sep 2001
--
TWiki:Main.DavidLeBlanc - 11 Mar 2002
