Question

I just installed the latest TWiki on a Dreamhost server. I'm trying to set access control, but am bumping into a problem. I'd appreciate anyone's help, to determine if this is a configuration problem, or a perhaps a known bug/limitation. Thanks in advance:

I am unable to use a variable with ALLOWTOPICCHANGE:

e.g. * Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = % TOPIC %

I'd like each user page to be automatically editable ONLY by the user (and superuser, of course).

I have no problem with "* Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = JohnDoe, SamAbrams, SamAbramsGroup"

However if I use any type of variable with ALLOWTOPICCHANGE, then EVERYONE but the superuser gets locked out of the user page.

ALTERNATELY, is there a way to have a user's WikiName inserted into the NewUserTemplate? Then I could have "* Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = SamAbrams" directly inserted into the new user page at the time of registration. Not an ideal alternative, but better than what I've got so far.

Thanks !

-- SamAbrams - 20 Dec 2003

Answer

First of all, please consider if you really need this access restriction. See TWikiAccessControl#An_Important_Control_Considerati

You have not stated the TWiki version you are using. In the latest TWikiBetaRelease you can tweak the NewUserTemplate topic to contain * Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = %WIKINAME%, TWikiAdminGroup

The %WIKINAME% gets expanded to the WikiName of the registered user.

You need to patch TWikiRelease01Feb2003 so that the variable gets expanded. In the register script, add the red part to the # create user topic if it does not exist section:

                $row = $repeat;
                $row =~ s/%KEY%/$name/go;
                $row =~ s/%VALUE%/$value/go;
                $before .= $row;
            }
        }
        $text = "$before$after"; 

        # expand limited set of variables
        # NOTE: Keep it in sync with the edit script
        my $today = &TWiki::getGmDate();
        my $userName = $remoteUser || $wikiName;
        $text =~ s/%DATE%/$today/go;
        $text =~ s/%USERNAME%/$userName/go;               # "jdoe"
        $text =~ s/%WIKINAME%/$wikiName/go;               # "JonDoe"
        $text =~ s/%WIKIUSERNAME%/$webName.$wikiName/go;  # "Main.JonDoe"
        $text =~ s/%URLPARAM{(.*?)}%/TWiki::handleUrlParam($1)/geo;  # expand URL parameters
        $text =~ s/%NOP{.*?}%//gos;  # Remove filler: Use it to remove access control at time of
        $text =~ s/%NOP%//go;        # topic instantiation or to prevent search from hitting a template 

        $meta->put( "TOPICPARENT", ( "name" => $TWiki::wikiUsersTopicname ) );
        &TWiki::Store::saveTopic( $webName, $wikiName, $text, $meta, "", 1 );
    }

-- PeterThoeny - 22 Dec 2003

Thank you for your quick reply, Peter ! I was using the February 2003 release, and am just going to update to the latest stable beta release to get the above functionality.

-- SamAbrams - 23 Dec 2003