$wikiusername not working with perperl

I have a problem with $wikiusername on my TWiki installation. After some changes on TWiki 4.2.3 it is not working as expected any more.

found effects so far:

1. User name in pattern skin view is displayed, but leading Main. is missing, therefore a '?' is added and link is broken.
2. users in Main.TWikiGroups are missing
3. searches display "UnknownUser"

everything is working fine if:

1. perperl is desabled for view script
2. I am logged in as TWikiAdmin (my admin name is MatthiasThullnerAdmin)

I also found out that my name is displayed correctly (on change comment, search and TWikiGroups) after my UserTopic is changed

The changes that have been made:

• conditional content in WebTopBar (dependent if user name contents 'Admin', see a. ?!?!)
• installed NaviPlugin (treebrowser like navigation for WebLeftBar with automatic include of original WebLeftBarContent dependent on the current web)
• moved 2 webs with AdvancedManageContrib into one new Web

I do not know what change caused the trouble, and cannot undo the changes. Disableing perperl nevertheless lets all above described problems disapear, but increases time to display topics in the browser (so this is only aimed to be a temporary workaround).

Has anybody experienced similar problems or has an idea where to start debugging.

• I think $wikiusername returns UserName instead of Main.UserName and
• search displays UnknownUser if UserName topic does not exist (which does not, because it would have to be Main.UserName)
• Main.TWikiGroups only displays UserNames with existing topics

The question is

• why is it working as UserNameAdmin/admin.
• why is it working without perperl.

so how can I fix it.

-- MatthiasThullner - 21 Feb 2009

The only significant difference between "with perperl" and "without perperl" is that the global namespace persists between script runs in perperl. Since TWiki has nothing in the global namespace (the TWiki object is created anew with each request) I can only guess that you are using an extension (plugin or contrib) that is leaving something in the global namespace that is affecting subsequent requests. Though TBH I'm not sure what $wikiusername means in the context of this report. Are you using it in the format argument to a SEARCH, perhaps?

-- CrawfordCurrie - 22 Feb 2009

$wikiusername is used in view.pattern.tmpl to display the username for the current (last changed) version of the topic.

-- MatthiasThullner - 22 Feb 2009

... where it is used in the format parameter to %REVINFO. Are you using a non-standard user mapper? For example, are you using LdapContrib? if not, did you try to rename the Main web? (Check that $TWiki::cfg{usersWebName} is still Main).

-- CrawfordCurrie - 22 Feb 2009

Closing it unanswered due to inactivity. Please re-open it, if necessary.

-- OliverKrueger - 26 Sep 2009