Form Field List Plugin

Search, filter and format multiple TWiki form fields from multiple topics.

This plugin offers more options than the predefined variable %FORMFIELD{"fieldname"}%.

This plugin uses TWiki:Plugins/TopicDataHelperPlugin

Syntax Rules

• %FORMFIELDLIST{}% - default rendering of the fields of the current topic
• %FORMFIELDLIST{parameters}% - see list of parameters below

Topics to search

Topics to include/exclude

Form fields to include/exclude

Sort options

Formatting parameters

Formatting variables

These substitution variables can be used in the format, header and footer tags:

These variables can be used in the header and footer tags:

Sorting by field changed, not by topic changed

A short motivation:

At our intranet homepage we have a list of 'client news blurbs': news oneliners to give all a quick look on what work is going on for each client. These blurbs are part of the ClientForm, and are included on every client topic. Of course, when the topic gets updated, the news blurb would be bumped on the homepage as well, even though the news itself was not updated.

For these situations it is useful to sort the list of field values on date when the field has been updated. For this you may use the sort parameter $fieldDate.

When a list with sort="$fieldDate" is found, the plugin compares the form values with a cached version, and copies the change date of the cached version if the field value was not updated.

The list will only work correctly once the cache is there. The very first view creates the cache. Subsequent views compares to the cache.

Note that sorting on dates by default lists latest on top.

Example

This example finds - from all topics in Main web - all field names with the string 'name' in it. The fields of each topic are grouped by a table header.

%FORMFIELDLIST{
web="%MAINWEB%"
topic="*"
includefieldpattern="(?i)name"
limit="10"
default="<span class='twikiGrayText'>not set<span>"
alt="No fields found"
topicheader="| *<nop>$topicName* ||"
format="| <nop>$name | $value |"
}%

Output (if installed):

%FORMFIELDLIST{ web="Main" topic="*" includefieldpattern="(?i)name" limit="10" default="not set" alt="No fields found" topicheader="| $topicName ||" format="| $name | $value |" }%

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, i.e. %INTERWIKIPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

• One line description, is shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Search, filter and format multiple TWiki form fields from multiple topics.

• Default format of rendering form field values:

      * Set FORMAT = $value

• Debug plugin: (See output in data/debug.txt)
  • Set DEBUG = 0

Plugin Installation Instructions

Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this plugin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the server where TWiki is running.

• Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
• Unzip FormFieldListPlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

• Visit configure in your TWiki installation, and enable the plugin in the Plugins section.

Plugin Info

Related Topics: TWiki Variable FORMFIELD, TWikiPreferences, TWikiPlugins