[pmwiki-users] pagelists link= with pages generated externally

[Christophe David]

> It could also check the timestamp of the import directory itself,
> to perhaps detect the import more quickly.  So then we'd have both,
> a check every n minutes, and a check whenever the import/ directory
> obviously changed somehow.

Indeed.


> We'd probably need to do the actual conversion as a background
> task after handing the visitor's request, otherwise some unlucky
> visitor could have a long wait as PmWiki performs the import
> (especially if there are a lot of files, or if any of them
> are particularly long).

If it can be done, yes of course.  But if the process runs quite
often, there should not be so many pages to process and the extra
delay for the unlucky visitor should not be that long.
Speaking for myself, I prefer the import feature quickly and possibly
some small delay sometimes that having to wait until an elegant
background solution can be found.

> - to take all files in the import directory that have a name that
> meets the PmWiki naming conventions and to use their content as if a
> user had typed it in the PmWiki edit form
> What authorship should it use in this case?  I guess this would
> need to be set as a configuration variable.

Ideally. By default "import" or something like that.

>> - then the imported file could be renamed (,imported012345678 for example).
> If we remove the restriction of renaming the file, then the
> import/ directory doesn't need to be writable at all.  Or
> perhaps we leave renaming of import files as a configuration
> option.

Indeed, but is it worth the trouble of having to manage which file
have already been processed, etc?  And the external programs creating
the files need write access too.
Same comment as above: nice to have, but I prefer a fast
implementation without it than waiting for the import feature.

> Thanks!

Thank YOU !  ;-)

I don't want to push you, but if you could tell me how many nights I
still have to sleep before seeing it ;-)

What a great feature it will be ;-)  Think of all the applications,
scripts and system logs that now require system access to be read and
that would be readable from PmWiki with all its features !  Same for
automatically generated reports of all kinds...

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