I think it might be better that TOPICLIST does not show the Web* topics unless specifically asked for. Many users complain that the Web* topics confuse them, especially when there are very few topics. If we did this, what would it break?

-- MartinCleaver - 16 May 2004

Patch attached. It gives TOPICLIST and excludetopic parameter that defaults to "Web*", so can be overridden.

TBH, I think that handleWebAndTopicList belongs in Search.pm but I didn't want to move it without first asking.

--- TWiki.pm.~1.341.~   2004-05-08 21:38:08.000000000 -0500
+++ TWiki.pm    2004-05-17 22:39:39.000000000 -0500
@@ -2496,10 +2496,12 @@
     my $web = extractNameValuePair( $theAttr, "web" ) || "";
     my $webs = extractNameValuePair( $theAttr, "webs" ) || "public";
     my $selection = extractNameValuePair( $theAttr, "selection" ) || "";
+    my $theExclude = extractNameValuePair( $theAttr, "excludetopic" ) || "Web*";
     $selection =~ s/\,/ /g;
     $selection = " $selection ";
     my $marker    = extractNameValuePair( $theAttr, "marker" ) || 'selected="selected"';
 
+    # Get topics
     my @list = ();
     if( $isWeb ) {
         my @webslist = split( /,\s?/, $webs );
@@ -2519,6 +2521,12 @@
             @list = &TWiki::Store::getTopicNames( $web );
         }
     }
+
+    #CodeSmell - this whole thing should be in Search.pm
+    # Exclude topics
+    $theExclude = TWiki::Search::_makeTopicPattern( $theExclude );  # E.g. "Web*, FooBar" ==> "^(Web.*|FooBar)$"  
+    @list = grep( !/$theExclude/, @list ) if( $theExclude ); 
+
+    # Format
     my $text = "";
     my $item = "";
     my $line = "";

-- MartinCleaver - 18 May 2004

please add the documentation that will acompany your proposal.

-- SvenDowideit - 04 Jul 2004

Here is the documentation for this feature.

<
< Topic index of a web. The "format" defines the format of one topic item. It may include variables: The $name variable gets expanded to the topic name; the $web variable gets expanded to the name of the web. Parameters are format, separator and web:  
 
>
> Topic index of a web. The "format" defines the format of one topic item. It may include variables: The $name variable gets expanded to the topic name; the $web variable gets expanded to the name of the web. Since 1 Aug 2004, the parameter of excludetopic="Web*" is supplied, thus hiding TWiki's special topics from normal view. To get the previous behaviour, supply excludetopic="" to override. Parameters are excludetopic, format, separator and web: 
 
    | ="excludetopic"="topicpattern" | Topics to hide | ="Web*"= |

-- MartinCleaver - 09 Jul 2004

This is a good little enhancement, consistent with SEARCH. However, I do not agree that we should suppress all Web* topics by default, it is not consistent and it does not work well with localized installations. Furthermore, with the current parser you can't unset a parameter with excludetopic="".

-- PeterThoeny - 10 Jul 2004

By "consistent with SEARCH" I assume you mean you like it because it takes the same parameter as SEARCH, thus making excludetopic mutually independent of its SEARCH or TOPICS context. However, I do not understand what you mean for your usage of the phrase "it is not consistent" for the part "suppress all Web* topics _by default_". It is orthogonal to SimplerDefaults? for example. Perhaps you can explain?

I will agree that the problem you allude to (inadvertently hiding all topics starting with Web, e.g. a topic called WebMethods) causes problems, but it extends beyond the scope of localisation.

Short of moving the special topics from WebSpecialtopic to _Specialtopic (e.g. _Statistics) (a motion which I support because it stops the pollution of the users topic name space), I guess a solution would be (yet another) variable explicitly containing the list of special topics to be excluded.

So how about TOPICLISTEXCLUSIONPATTERN = "WebChanges, WebIndex, WebNotify, WebPreferences, WebRss, WebSearch, WebStatistics, WebTopicList"

Finally I suggest recording a feature request for the unsetting of a parameter by setting it to an empty string. It will return.

-- MartinCleaver - 12 Jul 2004

Could someone confirm that the TOPICLISTEXCLUSIONPATTERN would be accepted if I were to code it? Thanks. M.

-- MartinCleaver - 19 Jul 2004

i'd say maybe, but only after you have doccoed the pluginHandlers that Walter rushed in for you.

-- SvenDowideit - 19 Jul 2004

Let me add my support for Martin's suggestion. Having the default web topics show up in the topic list is always a great nuisance.

-- ThomasWeigert - 19 Jul 2004

Live diff:

• http://mbssrc.com/view/TWiki/TRTChangesFromDistribution?from=localInstallation;to=TWiki20040507beta;statusFilter=FSCD;sortcol=0;table=2;up=0;mode=diff;file=twiki%2Flib%2FTWiki.pm

-- MartinCleaver - 10 Sep 2004

In retrospect, when trying to clean up the menus in TWiki so that the TWiki web appears after the web list in a "help" section, I find myself editing TWiki.WebLeftBar to say:

   * *TWiki Webs*
%WEBLIST{"      * [[$name.%HOMETOPIC%][$name]]" separator=""}%
<div class="twikiLeftBarPersonal" excludetopic="TWiki">
%INCLUDE{"%MAINWEB%.%WIKINAME%LeftBar" warn="<a href=\"%SCRIPTURLPATH%/edit%SCRIPTSUFFIX%/%MAINWEB%/%WIKINAME%LeftBar?templatetopic=%TWIKIWEB%.WebLeftBarPersonalTemplate\">Create</a> personal sidebar"}%

Note the excludetopic should now be excludeweb - any opinions? They share the same underlying code.

-- MartinCleaver - 15 Sep 2004b

Martin, sorry for being off topic but what is this http://mbssrc.com? I mean, I realize that it is a twiki for the Melbourne Business School that you are running. What skin are you using? What is this diff application that you have there?

-- ThomasWeigert - 11 Oct 2004

The diff application you see is the TWikiReleaseTrackerPlugin - the skin is KoalaSkin with the KoalaSkinMBSTheme

Colas told me that he plans to port his nested webs feature to PatternSkin? ; once he has done so I'll port the MBS theme feature also.

-- MartinCleaver - 11 Oct 2004

Should this patch be Develop?

-- MartinCleaver - 26 Jul 2005

i'm not really sure what it does, in comparison to the already existing excludetopic parameter

see http://develop.twiki.org/~develop/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiVariables#SEARCH_text_search_content

I guess this topic has become too confusing for me to understand what you are proposing (yes, i am refusing to look at code, as the context switch won't be helpful to the other things i'm doing)

-- SvenDowideit - 26 Jul 2005