[pmwiki-users] off-topic: Behaviour of non-existiant home page (was: Nested groups)

Neil Herber nospam at eton.ca
Fri Jun 3 08:44:26 CDT 2005


At 2005-06-03  07:50 AM -0500, Patrick R. Michaud is rumored to have said:
>As Hans has mentioned, there are a number of sites (including several
>that I run) where the easiest way to create new pages is to simply
>type the desired page name into the browser's address bar.  Adding a
>PageNotFound indirection is likely to make people more confused.

At the risk of sounding like I don't agree with my own postings, I have had 
the following thoughts ...

Putting a link to a non-existent page on a current page creates an 
automatic link to edit the page. This makes sense to me and seems to make 
sense to Hans too. No change suggested.

Entering a URL for a non-existent page to create the page also seems like 
the "right" thing to do and should not be changed.

Since there are very limited circumstances under which PagNotFound is 
displayed, perhaps the problem really is the language on the page (which is 
what Christian suggested). It might less confusing if it said:

         We are not sure what you want to do with "Test1". Do you want to:

         * Create Main.Test1?
         * Create Test1.HomePage?
         * Create Test1.Test1?

         Or, perhaps the page you want is listed below:

         Test1 /
           NewPage
           RecentChanges
           SomePage


I have reordered the creation selection to what I think is the most likely 
sequence:
1) Creating a new page in the Main group
2) Creating a new group
3) Creating a new page that is bound to confuse everybody since it is also 
the name of a new group

If possible, the "Or, perhaps..." text and list should NOT be displayed if 
the list is empty - which seems to be the usual case.

Since a new author may not be familiar with Group.Page structure, an even 
more explicit version could say:

         Do you want to:

         * Create Main.Test1?  (a new page Test1 in the Main group)
         * Create Test1.HomePage?  (the home page for a new group, Test1)
         * Create Test1.Test1?   (a new page Test1 in a new group, Test1)


Neil

Neil Herber
Corporate info at http://www.eton.ca/
Eton Systems, 15 Pinepoint Drive, Nepean, ON, Canada K2H 6B1
Tel: (613) 829-4668 




More information about the pmwiki-users mailing list