[pmwiki-users] Generate a list of categories, when some category pages don't exist

[the Other michael]

On 3/19/07, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 10:39:22PM -0400, the Other michael wrote:
> > On 3/19/07, Kathryn Andersen <kat_lists at katspace.homelinux.org> wrote:
> > > > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wiki.pmwiki.user/29869
> > > > asked if anybody had examined/tested Sebastian's script? from
> > > > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wiki.pmwiki.user/29462/focus=29487
> > >
> > > > and now I am resurrecting said thread. Is there anything on the
> > > > roadmap or recent releases that would render this void, shortly?
>
> I think the script will still work.
>
> > > Recent releases of 2.2beta enable one to auto-create pages when they're
> > > referenced.
> > > To auto-create Category pages, one would put the following in
> > > local/config.php:
> > >
> > > $AutoCreate['/^Category\\./'] = array('ctime' => $Now);
> >
> > But if the pagelist (referencing the cat-tagged pages) is included in
> > the header or footer, that would mean we've got an auto-created empty
> > page.
>
> I don't quite understand this last comment.
>
> Pm
>

If I'm understanding AutoCreate, it automatically creates (ahem) a
page when first referenced -- but it doesn't fill it with anything.

If the only content given to the bulk of category pages is created by
the group footer (a pagelist directive listing references, one of the
suggestions on http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/Categories

Then AutoCreate will be creating an empty page.

With a large number of categories (I can easily see hundreds
eventually occuring in my department), that's a lot of pages.

In the grand scheme of file handling, this may not be a large issue.

But
1) if pages are auto-created when a tag is clicked, what happens when
the category tag is changed or removed? Although this tag has ceased
to exist/be used (is there a difference?), it will still appear on a
pagelist of  group Category pages.

2) general itchiness at empty pages serving as placeholders just for a
listing of categories. It seems like WikiBloat.


I guess that's why people can turn things on and off.

-- 
-the Other michael
http://www.xradiograph.com/interference
http://www.xradiograph.com/wrottings