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