Proposal: Simple Operators in IF: allows, istopic, isweb

I created three simple operators in %IF.

Check access permissions

You %IF{"'%TOPIC%' allows 'change'" then="can" else="cannot"}% change this topic.
You %IF{"'Sandbox.TestTopic' allows 'change'" then="can" else="cannot"}% change Sandbox.TestTopic.
You %IF{"'Sandbox' allows 'change'" then="can" else="cannot"}% change Sandbox web

Check existance

Topic Sandbox.TestTopic %IF{"istopic 'Sandbox.TestTopic'" then="exists" else="does not exist"}%
Web Sandbox %IF{"isweb 'Sandbox'" then="exists" else="does not exist"}%

The work is checked in, and thoroughly unit-tested, but can be reverted if this is rejected; i am concious we are close to a release.

-- Contributors: CrawfordCurrie - 27 Aug 2007

Discussion

Proposal was accepted at FreetownReleaseMeeting2007x08x27. It sort of broke the feature freeze but it was - as an exception - accepted because it was the a means to cure some bugs and it was a very narrow scope contained enhancement followed up by a large set of unit tests.

-- KennethLavrsen - 28 Aug 2007

1. What I would really want is a simple check if the current topic %TOPIC equals a given name.
2. The new selector istopic has a different meaning. Wouldn't exists be a more logical term?

-- ArthurClemens - 04 Sep 2007

What's wrong with %IF{"'%TOPIC%'='SimpleOperatorsInIF'" then="Yes" else="No"}% ? (renders to: Yes)

• Because I got confused again and it didn't work. Until I just realised I need to write %BASETOPIC%... Sorry. -- ArthurClemens - 04 Sep 2007

I used istopic so I could have the symmetrical isweb. I considered topicexists and webexists instead, but decided they were too much typing.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 04 Sep 2007

If we call a topic suddenly page and webs wikis this will become ispage and iswiki right?

-- FranzJosefGigler - 04 Sep 2007

Tip of the iceberg, my dear chap. Just the tip of the iceberg.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 05 Sep 2007

• Request - isattached operator? For checking existence of attachments

%IF{" isattached MyResume.pdf" then="Please Hire Me" else=""}%

Ps. When at work, I will post a code snippet I have tucked into a catchall plugin I use for miscellaneous functions.

-- CraigMeyer - 02 Dec 2007

Why the ambiguity of "'Sandbox' allows 'change'"? What if a Sandbox topic exists in the current web? Why not make it orthogonal to other parts of TWiki and require a dot to indicate a web? In the Go box you type Sandbox. ("sandbox" + dot) to jump to the Sandbox web. I think by aligning the syntax we can avoid confusion.

-- PeterThoeny - 03 Dec 2007

Oh a dot after a name in the jumb box disambiguates webnames from topic names. Did not know that existed

-- MichaelDaum - 03 Dec 2007

TWiki has so many features, it's easy to miss. See the docs of the all mighty GoBox. (BTW I use the Otherweb.partofname syntax all the time. Especially useful to navigate a TWiki with > 50K pages.)

-- PeterThoeny - 03 Dec 2007

Still not mighty enough, as it needs a second input field to do searching ... which is bad from a usability point of view. Have a look at NatSearch for a solution. Give it a try at the WikiRing.

-- MichaelDaum - 03 Dec 2007