Bug: TOC{BASETOPIC} from an included page (eg, WebLeftBar) produces TOC of including page

while trying to add a table of contents in WebLeftBar, adding TOC{BASETOPIC} produces a TOC of WebLeftBar rather than BASETOPIC. each page on the TestCases wiki except http://develop.twiki.org/~develop/cgi-bin/view/TestCases/WebLeftBar demonstrates the bug (as BASETOPIC in that case should be WebLeftBar)

Test case

trying to create a test case at http://develop.twiki.org/~develop/cgi-bin/view/TestCases/TestCaseAutoTocOfBaseTopicInIncludedPage, although any page except http://develop.twiki.org/~develop/cgi-bin/view/TestCases/WebLeftBar demonstrates the bug

Environment

-- WillNorris - 16 Jan 2005

Follow up

Fix record

i haven't fully sussed out the data flow, however, the following patch provides correct (although slower) output

wbniv:~/twiki/DEVELOP2/lib wbniv$ svn diff
Index: TWiki.pm
===================================================================
--- TWiki.pm    (revision 3474)
+++ TWiki.pm    (working copy)
@@ -1507,10 +1507,7 @@
     my $result  = "";
     my $line  = "";
     my $level = "";
-    if( "$web.$topicname" ne "$defaultWeb.$defaultTopic" ) {
-        my %p = ( _DEFAULT => "$web.$topicname" );
-        $text = $this->_handleINCLUDE( \%p, $defaultWeb, $defaultTopic );
-    }
+    $text = $this->_handleINCLUDE( { _DEFAULT => "$web.$topicname" }, $defaultWeb, $defaultTopic );
 
     my $headerDaRE =  $regex{headerPatternDa};
     my $headerSpRE =  $regex{headerPatternSp};

-- WillNorris - 16 Jan 2005

This bug applies to Cairo as well (i.e. DEVELOP inherited the bug from there).

The problem is the way templates are expanded into topics. The value of BASETOPIC is quite correct.

What happens is this:

1. We are rendering FredFlintstone, using pattern skin
2. The template view.pattern.tmpl is expanded
3. The TOCs in the expanded template are processed

Basically we have to persuade it to expand TOC in the template differently to TOC in the including topic. That can be done in View.pm; though it smells like a hack. The root problem is really this semantic confusion between topics, templates, and included files As a workaround, I've made it re-read the topic if the _DEFAULT parameter is explicitly given (i.e. diabled the optimisation for that case). Rev 3509.

I'd be interested to hear whether people think this fix should go in. Basically it changes the semantics so that %TOC{"!TocOfBaseTopicInIncludedPage"}% in a template generates a TOC of the BASETOPIC only, whereas currently it generates a TOC of the template only.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 16 Jan 2005

What about the possibility simply of making all TOC links relative? That way, they would always work with the page as rendered, assuming the targeted anchor is present. I've been wanting to ask about this possibility anyway because it would allow one to send a TWiki topic (with TOC) within body of an html email and have the TOC link to the body of the email and not back to the web site.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 13 Feb 2005

Here's a little hack that cleans up the error without producing TOC when viewing the BASETOPIC:

%%CALC{$IF($EXACT(%BASETOPIC%,%HOMETOPIC%),HOMETOPIC,TOC{"%HOMETOPIC%"})}%%