[pmwiki-users] Calculated PTV in forms

[Hans Bracker]

Hello Kirpi,

I  fully  understand  how  one  can  get lost in the realm of PmWiki variable
syntax,  I  often  struggled  with  exactly  the same problem! And yet
the  markup  for PmWiki's variables are well defined. With developing Fox I
tried  to follow the PmWiki conventions in this respect.

As  to  the  use  of  name=$:someptv  or  simply $:someptv in an Input
markup (:input .... :) :
it is mentioned in PmWiki's documentation on page
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/InputDefault under section
(:input default source=... :)
as a way to get default input in a form from PTVs on other pages.
There  is  no  mention of how this works (and I don't see good reasons
why  it should), but basically when using (:input ... :) markup of any
kind  any  name=$:someptv  or  $:someptv will be rendered in HTML as an
input   element   with  name="ptv_someptv".  And  if  (:input  default
source=...  :)  is  used  those fields will be populated with the PTV
values from a given source page.
This  ptv_  prefix  to the name can then be used on form submission by
the form processing engine, for instance by PmForms or Fox.

Fox  will  use values of such field to update a PTV called "someptv" or
even  create  it  new.  But when using it in the form as a replacement
variable like {$$name} it would need its real HTML name, i.e.
with the ptv_ prefix, like {$$ptv_someptv}.

I  should  try to make this clear in the Fox documentation on the page
about    PageTextVariables.    Or    perhaps    make   Fox  understand
PTVs  in  replacement  variables,  for  example by using a syntax like
{$$:someptv}, as equivalent to {$$ptv_someptv}
This may be more intuitiv.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

cheers,
 Hans