Topic Create Plugin

This Plugin allows you to automatically create topics or attach files at topic save time. This is typically used by Foswiki applications to create a set of template based topics.

TOPICCREATE - Automatically Create a Set of Foswiki Topics

• The %TOPICCREATE{}% macro is useful for creating topics based on templates
• Example scenario: You have a notebook application where users can create new notebooks based on a notebook template topic. Each time a user creates a new notebook you would like to create a set of child topics, each based on a separate template.
• Syntax: %TOPICCREATE{ <attributes> }%
• Attributes recognized

  Attribute	Meaning	Valid input	Default
  template=""	Name of Foswiki topic to be used as template	Any valid Foswiki topic	(required)
  topic=""	Name of new Foswiki topic to create	Any valid topic name	(required)
  parent=""	Parent of the newly created topic	Any existing topic	Current topic
  disable=""	Name of the template topic containing this use of TOPICCREATE	Any valid topic name (WikiWord)	recommended
  <anything else>=""	Any other parameters are passed to a child topic to initialize any urlparams or set any form field values.	Any string	None

• The action to create the Foswiki topic will not occur until one hits the Save Changes button in preview
• The %TOPICCREATE{}% macro will be removed upon saving of the topic
• Any attachments that are in the template will also be copied to the new topic
• %TOPICCREATE% is recursive
• Write %TOPICCREATE{ template="MyTemplate" topic="%TOPIC%MyNewTopicName" MyParameterName="MyParameterValue" Hello="Goodbye" }% to create a foswiki topic based on another topic MyTemplate with the name %TOPIC%MyNewTopicName. Any %URLPARAM{}% or any form field values with the name MyParameterName and Hello present in MyTemplate will be replaced with MyParameterValue and Goodbye.
• To prevent the action from happening in your template topic you should either include the disable argument, or escape it: %TOPICCRE%NOP%ATE{...}%. The %NOP% gets removed when a topic gets instantiated based on a template.

TOPICATTACH - Automatically Copy Attachments to a Topic

• Example scenario: You have a template topic and would like to attach a file whose content or name is determined by URL parameters at topic creation time. This is usually done for a topic that was just created via TOPICCREATE as described above.
• Syntax: %TOPICATTACH{ <attributes> }%
• Attributes recognized

  Attribute	Meaning	Valid input	Default
  fromtopic=""	Topic (or Web.Topic) that contains the attachment	Any valid Foswiki topic	(required)
  fromfile=""	The attachment to copy from	Any attached file from fromtopic	(required)
  disable=""	Name of the template topic containing this use of TOPICATTACH	Any valid topic name	recommended
  comment=""	Comment to appear for the attachment within this topic, replacing the comment that was in the fromtopic	a one line string	{omit parameter if no change desired}
  name=""	Name to appear for the attachment within this topic, replacing the name that was in the fromtopic	a one line string	{omit parameter if no change desired}

• Write %TOPICATTACH{ fromtopic="SourceTopic" fromfile="Sample.jpg" name="Snoopy.jpg" disable="..."}% to attach Sample.jpg from topic SourceTopic as Snoopy.jpg
• The parameter value comment is used to change the comment (description) that shows for the topic in the table of attachments
• The "hidden" attribute of the topic is removed: the attachment can be hidden in the fromtopic if desired
• The fromtopic can specify a different web if desired. For example Foswiki.SomeTemplate would be valid as a fromtopic
• To prevent the action from happening in your template topic you must provide the disable parameter with the topic name containing the %TOPICATTACH%.

Notes

• Since version 1.7 of this plugin, you can pass a value to a form field on the topic by adding a parameter with the same name as the field.
• Before version 1.4 of this plugin, the extra TOPICCREATE parameters were passed in using a special parameters attribute, as follows:

     %TOPICCREATE{ template="MyTemplate" topic="%TOPIC%MyNewTopicName" parameters="MyParameterName=MyParameterValue&Hello=Goodbye" }%

  This is now deprecated. Instead, extra parameters are automatically passed through, as documented above.
• The TOPICATTACH must be in the 'top level' topic being saved by a TOPICCREATE. It can not be in a recursive/subordinate topic invoked by the TOPICCREATE
• There is a half-baked %TOPICPATCH% implementation which requires completing, testing and documenting. You are more than welcome to implement this if you would find it useful.

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences values. You can override the defaults for these preferences in SitePreferences, the WebPreferences topic of the current web, or in individual topics that use the plugin. Changing them here will have no effect! This allows you to upgrade the plugin without having to worry about losing your settings.

• Debug plugin: (See output in the Foswiki debug log)
  • Set TOPICCREATEPLUGIN_DEBUG = 0

Installation Instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. Use "Find More Extensions" to get a list of available extensions. Select "Install".

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See http://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

Plugin Info

Previous Author(s):	TWiki:Main.StanleyKnutson, TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, Foswiki:Main.PaulineCheung
Change History:
21 Jul 2015:	v1.8: Foswikitask:Item13550: Compatibilty with perl 5.22.0, add uft-8 unit tests.
09 Sep 2012:	v1.7: Foswikitask:Item9367: Ability to pass values to formfields; Foswikitask:Item12071: Ability to change attachments name using TOPICATTACH; Foswikitask:Item11587: Remove calls to deprecated API's; Foswikitask:Item12020: spelling fixes -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
09 Jun 2011:	v1.6: Foswikitask:Item10863 - Expand macros in parameters -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
06 May 2011:	v1.5: No longer load preferences from plugin topic; doc updates -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
08 Feb 2010:	v1.4: Foswikitask:Item8281 - Changed the way extra parameters are passed using %TOPICCREATE%, so that special characters can now be passed -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
08 Feb 2010:	v1.3: Foswikitask:Item8480 - Fix for setting the parent; Fix for using Macros as the parent in %TOPICCREATE% -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
28 Jan 2010:	v1.2: Foswikitask:Item8438 - %TOPICCREATE% now allows you to define a parent for the new topic -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
29 Sep 2009:	v1.1: Foswikitask:Item4757 - Fixed warning when using %TOPICATTACH% -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
31 Mar 2009:	v1.0: Foswikitask:Item1262 - Ported to Foswiki and released as 1.0; Removed dependency on Unix utilities cp and mkdir, should now work on any OS that Foswiki does; Improved code to make it cleaner and use more of the official API; Removed deprecated API calls -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
11686	TWikibug:Item2956 - Freeze TWikiRelease04x00 and copy it to new branch MAIN
10613	TWikibug:Item2473 - files in pub and data directories shouldn't be marked executable in svn (Ordnung muss sein)
7960	TWikibug:Item1238 - plugins cleanup: added BuildContrib support/infrastructure
7585	TWikibug:Item1016 - initial import of TopicCreatePlugin (thanks TWiki:Main.StanleyKnutson and others)
21 Nov 2005:	Initial TOPICCATTACH
30 Apr 2005:	Initial version
Dependencies:	None
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)

Related Topics: DefaultPreferences, SitePreferences, Plugins