---+ Table of Contents %TOC% ---+ Introduction The new TWiki version is called 'March 2001' and has a number of new features. For the full details, see [[#MoreInfo]] at the end of this page. Please experiment in TestArea, as always... ---+ Headings To create headings, as in this page, just type ='---+ Something'= for heading level 1, ='---++ Something else'= for heading level 2, and so on. To insert the table of contents for the current page, just write %TOC%, and you'll get a hyperlinked table of contents as above. This is very useful, particularly for writing reasonably sized documents on TWiki. It does encourage writing longer pages, which is not necessarily a good thing - e.g. [[OTS.WirelessNetworks]] was a long unwieldy page and is now much more usable now it's been re-factored into many smaller linked pages. However, tables of contents are very useful, even on medium sized pages, to let people skip to the particular bit they are interested in. ---+ Improved Searching WebSearch is now more powerful - you can easily search across all webs, not just the one you are in, and you can sort the search results by topic name, author or last-changed time. You can also do a TWiki.BookView search, which returns the complete text of all matching topics - useful for printing. ---++ Improved Ref-By Searches The Ref-By link on every page shows any links to this page, across all webs, not just the current one. Ref-By is very useful, as it lets you find any page linking to this page - e.g. you can go to your home page and hit Ref-By to see all pages where your name is mentioned :) ---+ More flexible page names for acronyms You can now create a page with a name such as 'TLA', for any all-upper-case acronym of three letters or more, and link to it by just mentioning the TLA when within that page's web. The benefit of this is that _any_ use of this acronym is linked automatically (at least on the TWiki web that contains the acronym's page). Unlike normal WikiName pages, you'll have to actually create the page using the Go field at the top of any page. This auto-linking of acronyms is generally a good idea, though it might be a pain in some acronym-heavy pages, as the automatic linking can't be restricted to the first occurrence of the TLA in a page - in that case, you might want to create a page for the TLA with some other name and link to it with explicit references. ---+ Easier Linking ---++ More flexible links to TWiki pages Links to TWiki pages can now be created by writing a TWiki.WikiName that is in lower case, with spaces between the words: just write out the TWiki.WikiName within two square parentheses, in any mix of case, using spaces to separate words - e.g. ==[[web home]]== links to WebHome. When linking to a page in another web, you can make the other web's name appear as part of the link to emphasise that the user will move out of this web - just refer to ==[[TWiki.WebHome]]== to create a link like [[TWiki.WebHome]]. ---++ More readable links to WikiWord pages You can now link to WikiWord pages but have a more readable link - for example, ==[[TWiki.TWikiFAQ][FAQ]]== creates a link to the [[TWiki.TWikiFAQ][FAQ]] for TWiki. Put the WikiName in the first pair of square parentheses, and the text for the link in the second pair (analogous to HTML's <a href=xxx>, if you know HTML). ---++ External links without HTML You can now link to external URLs without writing an <a href=xxx> in HTML, or having a long URL visible in the page... Just write [[http://www.cisco.com/][Cisco]] to get [[http://www.cisco.com/][Cisco]] ---++ Link to other parts of a page Named anchors are links within a topic. Define a named anchor with =#MyAnchor= at the beginning of a line, and link to it with =[[#MyAnchor]]=. For example, [[#MoreInfo]] takes you to a named anchor in this page. ---++ Inline images For example: http://twiki-test.orchestream.com/~rdonkin/twiki/pub/orchestream.gif * not a new feature - just write a URL to a GIF or JPG in text. * to upload the image, just attach it to a suitable page, not necessarily the one showing the link - e.g. you could create an IconPage topic to hold all icons in a web. You can update such attachments through the normal TWiki attachment support. ---++ InterWiki links This is a way of linking to other Wiki sites, or even non-Wiki sites such as Amazon. For example, Wiki:WelcomeVisitors links to the original Wiki, and TWiki:Main/WebHome links to the TWiki.org site. This shorthand also lets you write ISBN:0471498297 to link to a book on Amazon.co.uk, and Acronym:GPRS to link to an acronym definition page. These shortcut links are defined in Plugins.InterWikis, and adding new ones is very easy, just follow the guidelines there. ---+ Easier formatting Easier quoting using <verbatim> - useful for quoting code: %WIKIWEBLIST% ---++ Easier bold, italic More forgiving syntax for =*bold*, _italic_, __bold italic__= and =fixed= - it is no longer necessary to have a trailing space after =.,;:?!= characters. New ==Bold Constant Width== font formatting using double-equal signs - write ===Foo Bar=== to get ==Foo Bar==. ---++ Tables Tables can have better formatting without needing HTML: | *Name* | *Rank* | *Serial Number* | | Fred | Soldier 1 | 1234 | ---+ Skins and Templates TWiki is now skinnable! As in the previous version, the look of TWiki webs is driven by templates, some of which can be used as skins: * __Skins__ are special templates that alter the header, footer and formatting of a page. Given some HTML expertise, they can radically change the look of TWiki. Skins can be selected on a per-web (WebPreferences) basis, or by the user in their local preferences. The new 'Print' link on every page footer is an example of this, used to select a simpler template that is more suitable for printing. If you'd like to create a new skin, you'll need to know HTML and understand a fair bit about TWiki - please have a look at [[TWiki.TWikiSkins]] and contact %WIKIWEBMASTER%, since installing a new skin requires command line access on the TWiki server. * __Per-topic templates__ work in a similar way to skins, but are automatically selected by the topic name. Fairly specialised but useful for some advanced things. See [[TWiki.TWikiTemplates]] for more information. ---+ Access Control TWiki webs or topics can have read or write access controls applied, allowing specific users or groups to view or change topics. This is mainly useful where more structured TWiki webs are required, e.g. to support a review/approval workflow process - it won't apply to most TWiki webs, in order to preserve the 'anyone can update' approach. #MoreInfo ---+ More info See UpgradeTesting for various tests of this upgrade. This section is taken from [[TWiki.TWikiHistory]], edited to include only features not explained above - to see the full list, consult that topic and read items back to May 2000 (previous TWiki version installed at Orchestream was 'May 2000'). * Added =<verbatim>= ... =</verbatim>= tags to show source code "as is". Unlike the =<pre>= ... =</pre>= tags, it also shows =<=, =>=, =&= characters "as is". * Added a "Minor change, don't notify" checkbox in preview. More in DontNotify. * PeterThoeny - 20 Jan 2001: Format changed of =%GMTIME{"..."}%= and =%SERVERTIME{"..."}%= variables. Format is now ="$hour:$min"= instead of ="hour:min"=. More in TWikiVariables. __Attention:__ Check your existing topics when you upgrade TWiki! * PeterThoeny - 18 Jan 2001: WebChanges, WebSearch and e-mail notification indicate also the revision number of a topic (i.e. 18 Jan 2001 - 16:43 - r1.5), or NEW for a new topic (i.e. i.e. 18 Jan 2001 - 16:43 - NEW). * PeterThoeny - 16 Jan 2001: New variable =%STARTINCLUDE%= and =%STOPINCLUDE%= variables to control what gets included from a topic - basic conditional include support. More in TWikiVariables. * PeterThoeny - 05 Jan 2001: View authorization based on groups. Define who is allowed to see a TWiki web. More in TWikiAccessControl and TWiki:Codev.AuthenticationBasedOnGroups. * PeterThoeny - 05 Dec 2000: Improved include handling. Infinite recursion of includes are prevented; new variables =%BASEWEB%=, =%INCLUDINGWEB%=, =%BASETOPIC%= and =%INCLUDINGTOPIC%= to have more control over include handling. More in TWikiVariables and TWiki:Codev.IncludeHandlingImprovements. * PeterThoeny - 03 Dec 2000: New =noheader="on"= switch in =%SEARCH{...}%= to suppress table header. More in TWikiVariables. * PeterThoeny - 01 Nov 2000: New variable =%VAR{"NAME" web="Web"}%= to get web specific preferences. More in TWikiVariables. * PeterThoeny - 01 Nov 2000: Added a "Cancel" link in edit that releases the edit lock. * PeterThoeny - 16 Aug 2000: New TWikiPreferences variables =%HTTP_EQUIV_ON_VIEW%= , =%HTTP_EQUIV_ON_EDIT%= and =%HTTP_EQUIV_ON_PREVIEW%= that define the =<meta http-equiv="...">= meta tags for the TWiki templates. This can be used for example to set a document expiration time. * PeterThoeny - 29 Jul 2000: New variables =%GMTIME{"..."}%= and =%SERVERTIME{"..."}%= . More in TWikiVariables. * PeterThoeny - 23 Jul 2000: Changed include syntax from =%INCLUDE{"Web/TopicName.txt"}%= to =%INCLUDE{"Web.TopicName"}%= . Legacy syntax still supported. * PeterThoeny - 07 Jul 2000: Added a "Release edit lock" checkbox in preview to let other people edit the topic immediately without the one hour lock. * PeterThoeny - 29 May 2000: New =%GMTIME%= variable that shows the current GM time. * PeterThoeny - 28 May 2000: Lock warning shows remaining lock time in minutes. * PeterFokkinga - 15 May 2000: Each topic can have its own template file. TWikiTemplates has more.