[pmwiki-users] Edit template to use for documenting a new skin?

tamouse mailing lists tamouse.lists at gmail.com
Mon Sep 17 21:24:50 CDT 2012


On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 6:36 PM, Petko Yotov <5ko at 5ko.fr> wrote:
> tamouse mailing lists writes:
>>
>> > You should note that most "generic" page names up here can already
>> > contain
>> > some text in an existing wiki. In such a case, noone will ever see the
>> > templates you provided. Some skin authors have chosen to have specific
>> > page
>> > names, like wikilib.d/Site.MouseSkinSiteHeader.
>>
>> Ah, yes, I can foresee a problem with that... which I guess begs the
>> question: how much should be done in the template, and how much should
>> be done via wiki pages. I've been enjoying being able to mutate things
>> quickly via wiki pages and prefer doing that to mucking with the
>> template. The template is really pretty basic, and the richness comes
>> from the wiki pages that populate the elements.
>
>
> Any content that might need editing from within the wiki is probably better
> in wiki pages and not in the skin.tmpl template. Or even in a single
> wikipage, as PageTextVariables or as [[#sections]] to be included from the
> different parts of the skin.

I had not thought of that option -- that might actually be
interesting.. all the skin elements coming from one wiki page, which
means I can create something like Site.MouseSkin, and have it all
drawn from there.

> But I notice that we call two things "template", one is the HTML skin
> template (structure/frame of the site), the other is a wiki page pre-filled
> with some default content and shipped with the recipe in wikilib.d files,
> like your Site.SiteHeader.

Yes, it is an interesting sort of distinction, one which I have been
sort of struggling with: what do I put in the .tmpl file (less
customizeable out of the box if one isn't familiar with that) vs. what
is in wiki pages (more familiar to wiki users/admins perhaps). I
really have only my personal experience of exploring pmwiki use, so
it's hard for me to know what will work for others best.

> What I was saying is that when a page Site.SiteHeader already exists in a
> wiki, it will be shown/used/included instead of some default page (let's
> call it wikitemplate) from any wikilib.d directory.

Yes, I did get that, and in fact, it was sort of what I was depending
on in a way, but not quite thinking through that someone may have to
completely redesign that if they already used it before.

> And I know a number of sites which do have a page Site.SiteHeader, and often
> a complex one, so if people try your skin, it may not work as you or they
> expect. That's why I suggested using unique page names like
> MouseSkinSiteHeader.

Yes, it makes perfect sense to me.

>> > I really don't recommend relying on pages GroupFooter or GroupHeader
>> > being
>> > unused in a remote wiki.
>>
>> I was avoiding setting $GroupHeaderFmt and $GroupFooterFmt in the
>> skin.php file to allow the admin to set these differently than what I
>
>
> Right. We shouldn't change or use $GroupHeaderFmt and $GroupFooterFmt, or
> the pages GroupHeader and GroupFooter. These are reserved to the admins and
> authors of the wiki, to add or remove content at the beginning or at the end
> of all pages in a wikigroup. (If we absolutely have to, better document how
> admins can change it from config.php, and not inside your script.)
>
>
>> might choose. I'm rethinking this now, but would appreciate some
>> guidance on this
>
>
> If you need some page to appear in the skin, just include it from the skin
> template. But I probably don't completely understand if there is some
> problem here.

Right. No, there's really no problem. I'm trying to understand what
would be best for general use, rather than whatever I cooked up on my
own.

I'm also trying to really distinguish between content I want on my
wiki pages, vs. what should be in the skin. It's sometimes a little
fuzzy. I trying to make my rule of thumb here to make what is actually
in the skin be minimal, which is what I would appreciate in a skin I
might adopt.

Thanks!



More information about the pmwiki-users mailing list