I propose we make a general plugin to add personalized tooltips to the links generated by TWiki.

• add a preference TOOLTIPPLUGIN_LINKTEXT that describes what has to be shown in the tooltip. In the variable one could use a small set of perl variables for some the info related to the link:
  • Meta informations (Description, Author, last editor, ...)
  • File info (size, last edit time, creation time ...)
• An example of syntax could be:
  • Set TOOLTIPPLUGIN_LINKTEXT = "$file->meta->description, Last Edited $file->ctime by $file->editor"
• and the outcome could be Plugins.TooltipPlugin

For a reasonably safe implementation we could use the perl Safe module to avoid exposing reserved variables.

PS. Maybe it's better to have the link rendering step written as a core module with a hook for plugins?

PPS. As you can see I am already thinking in terms of objects ... i.e. to the TWikiWinter2001Release?

-- AndreaSterbini - 15 Jun 2001

Isn't there an efficiency problem here (at least in current file based storage). Each links would need a file read and parse to get information.

-- JohnTalintyre - 15 Jun 2001

Which brings up the caching ideas that have been throw around a bit here. I think for some features additions to work efficent there will be need for a caching (meta-information at as well) mechanism.

The core probably should not depend on it though.

Andrea its more likely to be ObjectRelease2002SouthernWinter? . Of course our current release is way pass its initial date.

-- NicholasLee - 15 Jun 2001