[pmwiki-users] Feature request: Action lists in skins

[Bronwyn Boltwood]

On Apr 6, 2005 5:36 PM, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> Overall if anything is done here I tend to lean towards the idea of
> having the actions as ordered lists in separate pages, which are then
> processed by <!--wiki:--> directives and styled by appropriate CSS.
> This seems to give the most flexibility and ease of understanding.
> We can even include a default "actions" page in the distribution,
> even if the default distribution skin (and other skins) elect not to
> use it.

On one hand I like this, but I can see some potential problems with it
too.  While a skin author can decide to use a different action list,
the admin may not realize that that skin will do so.  So, when they
see that skin X doesn't use their customized action list, then to
them, that skin seems broken.

The designer, though, might have good reasons for making changes. 
Take a look at the titleblock from my Pukka skin:

<!--PageTitleFmt-->
<div id="titleblock">
	<div id="morecmds">
		<ul class="navlist">
			<li><a href="$ScriptUrl/$[$Group/RecentChanges]">$[Recent Changes]</a></li>
			<li><a href='$ScriptUrl/Main/SearchWiki&amp;q=$Title'>$[Linked to
by]</a></li>
			<li><a id="print" href="$PageUrl?action=print"
target="_blank">$[Printable View]</a></li>
		</ul>
	</div>
	<p id="groupname"><a href='$ScriptUrl/$Group'>$Group</a> / <a
href='$PageUrl'>$Name</a></p>
	<p id="pagetitle"><a href='$PageUrl'>$Title</a></p>
	<div id="cmdtabs" class="author">
		<ul class="navlist">
			<li><a id="browse" href="$PageUrl">$[Read Page]</a></li>
			<li><a id="edit" href="$PageUrl?action=edit">$[Edit Page]</a></li>
			<li><a id="diff" href="$PageUrl?action=diff">$[Page History]</a></li>
			<li class="upload"><a id="upload" href="$PageUrl?action=upload"
target="_blank">$[Attach file]</a></li>
			<li class="attr"><a id="attr" href="$PageUrl?action=attr">$[Change
Attributes]</a></li>
		</ul>
	</div>
</div>
<!--/PageTitleFmt-->

I thought hard about the usability and design of the skin before I
settled on that arrangement.  The stuff in <div id="morecmds"> does
not directly affect the page's text or properties.  I wanted to convey
that visually, so I put those actions in a little floating box at the
right of the title block.  The stuff in <div id="cmdtabs"
class="author"> is displayed as a series of tabs just above the page
text area, and these actions do alter the page or give you a different
view of it:
	-reading
	-editing
	-history (and rollback)
	-attaching files
	-changing page attributes like passwords.  

I couldn't have achieved those effects by using one pre-existing
ordered list.  But neither would I want to "break" the user's
customized action list by not using it.  There's probably a middle
road, but it will need to be found before I feel comfortable with this
proposed change.

I believe in helping the admin to retain control of their wiki, which
is why -- even though Pukka's not *that* simple a skin -- it should
still be simple to use, customize, and even modify.  There are
optional stylesheets that turn certain features on and off.  These act
as examples and weren't much trouble for me to write, but they would
have been difficult for at least some new wiki admins.

By the way, is there a way to put ids, classes and so forth on the
action links if we start listing them in wikipages?

I'm uncertain what I think of Pm's $ActionListFmt and matching
chop-o-matic thing
(http://pmichaud.com/pipermail/pmwiki-users/2005-April/012151.html). 
I wouldn't know how to use it unless someone wrote some very clear
documentation.  I'm not that afraid of PHP code, but I do find it hard
to figure out which bits to change, and how to change them without
breaking things.

The current setup for this is actually pretty good, so proposed
changes need to be carefully thought out.

Bronwyn