Question

I'd like to be able to generate a table/page containing a list of all the pages a given user has edited in the past, even if they're not currently the most recent editor; I'm thinking of something similar to the Wikipedia's "user contributions" feature. I've looked at the search function, but haven't seen an intuitive way of doing this (e.g. there's no way to limit the search to an "editby" field).

It seems like the ContributorsPlugin might be a good start for this, but that only lists the editors for a given topic.

Is there a way to code a formatted search so that the search returns this type of list?

Environment

Answer

Assuming your signature is in every topic of interest, you can use a TWikiSearch for your WikiName. This works here on TWiki.org since we have the convention to sign the contributions (in addition, the Codev and Plugins webs have a InterestedParties field where you can put your name if you are interested in the subject of that topic).

Here is an example showing the 20 most recent topics you (e.g. the logged in person) was involved in recently. Write this:

%SEARCH{ "%WIKINAME%" order="modified" limit="20" reverse="on" }%

To get this:

Searched: TWikiGuest

Results from Support web retrieved at 04:12 (GMT)

This could be formatted nicely with a FormattedSearch.

-- PeterThoeny - 11 Apr 2005

Thanks for the fast response Peter!

While that search does do some of what I wanted, unfortunately it doesn't do everything. The search returns any page that includes the user's name in-text, so if a user was simply being discussed on the page, but had not edited the page, the page is still returned. Additionally, the search only returns pages with user signatures in them, which aren't always present (at least on my site).

I guess my hope is to be able to directly search (or otherwise access) the list of authors who have edited each page.

-- MarcPerkins - 11 Apr 2005

You can't. Without signatures, the best you can do is search for the most recent editor of a page. There is no way to search the history of a page.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 11 Apr 2005

That said, the underlying revision system does store this information. If anyone would provide code to expose this information via the API we'd happily look at incorporating it. I'd venture that this plugin would indeed, Marc, be the best place to start extending functionality to cover your needs and that some of ContributorsPlugin might better eventually belong in the core.

-- MartinCleaver - 11 Apr 2005

Actually the information is already exposed, it's just not very efficient to get at it. You can ask for rev info for any givem prior revision.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 12 Apr 2005

Using the ContributorsPlugin, combined with a formatted search, I've been able to generate a table containing a list of all topics in the web that includes which users have edited each of the topics.

Assuming you have the plugin, here's the code:

%SEARCH{ "\.*" scope="topic" regex="on" nosearch="on" nototal="on" order="modified" reverse="on" header="| Topic | Most recent author | Last revision | All topic authors |" format="| [[$topic]] | $wikiusername | $date |$percntCONTRIBUTORS{web=$percntCURRENTWEB$percnt topic=$quot$topic$quot format=$quot $dollarauthor $quot nodups=$quoton$quot}$percnt |" }%

For an example of this search's output, formatted as a form, see this page: http://rabbit-island.net/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Main/WebContributors (The page is slow to load, as the search takes ~14 seconds to complete.)

Ideally, one could put this table (maybe as a form?) onto a page (WebContributors?), search the last table column ("All topic authors") for a given user's name, and then display all rows containing a given user's name in a table, which would give you a list of all pages a specific user has edited.

I'm running into two problems:

1) The search is very processor intensive, and thus leads to slow load times for the page that contains the search. Would it be possible to have the page (WebContributors?) containing the result of the first, site-wide, search be static, and updated by a cron job that runs the search only at a given interval (hourly?) This would drastically reduce the server load caused by this search.

2) I don't know how to perform the second search (I described above) that searches the site-wide table of user edits to generate a list of only a specific user's edits.

-- MarcPerkins - 16 Apr 2005

You could install the VarCachePlugin to cache the contributors topic. The topic can be refreshed on demand or after a fixed time.

-- PeterThoeny - 06 Jun 2005

Thanks Peter, that worked like a charm to reduce the page load time. Now I just need to play with that second search ...

-- MarcPerkins - 01 Jul 2005

Hi everyone! I see that the issue has been resolved for MarcPerkins and his site. I am however not happy with the solution for our TWiki site. We need a better integrated solution. Something along the lines of what MartinCleaver proposed above.

We use TWiki as a collaboration platform for an international and iterdisciplinary research project. For many scholars and developers it is crucial to get full credit for their contributions to the project. It is therefore important for us to have system that lists all the edits of a particular contributor for all topics. Ideally this functionality should be incoorporated into the user sites.

Are there any plans to include this functionality into the core revision control system?

Thanks!

-- MatthiasRoeder - 31 May 2007

Matthias, you have to raise a question like that in Codev (create a change proposal) - it will just be ignored here.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 12 Jul 2007

Thanks a lot, Crawford!

-- MatthiasRoeder - 19 Jul 2007