[pmwiki-users] Nested includes and IncludeWithEdit

[Bellave Jayaram]

Patrick,

Could you confirm that the processing for Page1 runs before that for Page2
and finally Page3 is processed and put together? Basically, the more
specific page, Page3, picks out content from Page2 which is more specific
than Page1 which is the leaf level page.

I will try and present a use case.
 
The way I am thinking of configuring is to have Page3, say
RecoverDBPassword, in a Pmwiki field that contains information specific to a
certain Domain, say Databases. 

Page2 is in a Pmwiki Group which is specific to a Topic, say Administration.
Here, Administration could also be applicable to the Networking Domain or
the Systems Domain, each of which has its own Pmwiki field. 

Now, when talking about Administration, it could be that a certain page
(i.e., Page2) contains information about RecoveringLostPassword. 

However, there are now RecoveringLostPasswordTasks (Page 1 in another Pmwiki
Group called Task) that the user must do depending on whether he/she is
trying to recover a LostPassword in the Database that he/she is using or in
the System that he/she is using. 

Since the user is viewing RecoverDBPassword, which is in the Database
Domain, we need to restrict the RecoveringLostPasswordTasks content (which
gets included in the RecoveringLostPassword page) as well as the content in
RecoveringLostPassword page to the Database Domain. This is what is called
"specialization" in DITA.

In other words, how to pass in parameters such that RecoverDBPassword pulls
content from and restricts RecoveringLostPassword which pulls content from
and restricts RecoveringLostPasswordTasks?

I have also posted another question about how such inclusion hierarchy could
be implemented by possibly creating a new markup. All this is in trying to
formalize some of the knowledge within the Pmwiki community to create
blueprints for how to deploy Pmwiki for planned Content Reuse (or even
otherwise) using some of the concepts in DITA. 

The CookBook is a great way for people to discover the various recipes
within Pmwiki but unfortunately, it is daunting for newbies to wade through
it all and to persevere and succeed by trial and error. I believe what we
need is more of methodology or best practices type of documents that can
then be used as "Cookie Cutters" to create many useful Pmwiki sites. Maybe
some documents exist here and there in bits and pieces but I think it would
be nice to compile them all in one place.

I am hoping in the not too distant future that there would be install
wizards that go through some of the questions and preconfigure Pmwiki for a
particular purpose.   

I believe this will improve Pmwiki's appeal as a Low Cost CMS, and its
popularity and standing among wiki engines. I would greatly appreciate
hearing expert opinions on these topics. 

Jayaram


-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick R. Michaud [mailto:pmichaud at pobox.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 1:37 PM
To: Bellave Jayaram
Cc: pmwiki-users at pmichaud.com
Subject: Re: [pmwiki-users] Nested includes and IncludeWithEdit

On Mon, Feb 13, 2006 at 12:02:37AM -0700, Bellave Jayaram wrote:
>    Hi all,
> 
>    Could someone who is familiar with the Pmwiki internals tell me if this
is
>    doable:
> 
>    Page3 -> includes Page2 -> includes Page1

Yes, it works.  

>    If so, then what would happen if I enabled IncludeWithedit (I am yet to
>    try it but will try it soon) for the section of Page 3 which is the
>    content of Page 2?

I have no idea what IncludeWithEdit would do with nested includes.

>    Would it be possible to define/implement a markup where the content of
>    Page 1 would be uneditable but the rest of the Page 2 content would be
>    editable?

What defines "editable" is (or ought to be) the permissions on each
individual page, not the way the pages may be included into other
pages.

>    Such functionalities would allow for massive content reuse for some
types
>    of content in a Pmwiki site, sort of like with DITA (Darwin Information
>    Typing Architecture).

Part of the reason PmWiki supports (:include:) is to allow for
content reuse.  :-)

Hope this helps,

Pm