NOTE:	This plugin is obsoleted; its functionality is covered by TWiki's internal variable setting, such as:    * Set MYVAR = anything

Feedback on VariablesPlugin

-- MikeEggleston - 20 Nov 2006

Thank you Mike for sharing this plugin. What was the reason to create this plugin? How does it differ from TWiki's internal topic variable settings? Or, how does it compare to the SpreadSheetPlugin's $SET() and $GET()?

Some feedback:

• I fixed some text (added required SHORTDESCRIPTION) and removed redundant text on the plugin topic, please feel free to take this back into the next release.
• The syntx rules document %VARIABLE{}% for setting and using variables; the examples show %VARIABLEDEFINE{}% and %VARIABLERETURN{}%, respectively. Which syntax is correct?
• How about measuring and documenting the PluginBenchmarks numbers?
• TWiki Dependency lists $TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1, which is TWiki 4.0. The form lists the Sep 2004 version, which is $TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.024.
• The zip file contains an extra twikiVariables directory, e.g. the perl module is at twikiVariables/lib/TWiki/Plugins/VariablesPlugin.pm. The standard for TWiki plugins is to package from the TWiki root, e.g. lib/TWiki/Plugins/VariablesPlugin.pm.

-- PeterThoeny - 20 Nov 2006

Thanks Peter for fixing my stuff above. I quickly did put together this package and the HidePasswordPlugin. I have a topic that has 90+ tables of three primary colors meaning the device is owned, leased, or retired. I copied the topic from an HTML page and kept the hard coding for the colors. Then I wanted to change the colors some to better visually separate the three categories. I needed to change the color in each table, so I wrote this plugin to meet that need. If TWiki's internal topic variables (which I missed searching for this functionality) will do the task, I'm happy to have this plugin deprecated.

-- MikeEggleston - 21 Nov 2006

Mike, please read the description on TWikiVariables, to determine whether and how this enhancement goes beyond the capability of referencing arbitrary variables via the following statement

• Set MYVAR = and using them in VariablesPluginDev later.

Note the above line reads

or in topic preferences %MYVAR%

-- ThomasWeigert - 21 Nov 2006

The only difference I see, good or bad, is this plugin hides the variable definition with %VARIABLEDEFINE% instead of using the = * Set VARIABLE #FFFFFF= syntax. Again, I'm ok with deprecating this plugin once I've tested the built-in variables on my topic.

-- MikeEggleston - 21 Nov 2006

I concur the internal variables work for my need. Please deprecate this plugin.

-- MikeEggleston - 21 Nov 2006

You can also use topic local settings (in the more screen) to hide the variable setting from ordinary view....

-- ThomasWeigert - 21 Nov 2006

You can also hide the setting with HTML comments, such as:

<!--
   * Set MYVAR = something
-->

I obsoleted the plugin.

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Nov 2006