Item13670: TOC settings in System WebPreferences has unwanted side effects on plugin topics

Someone put

   * Set TOC_HIDE_IF_INCLUDED = on
     Hide Table of Contents if the topic is included
   * Set TOC_TITLE = On this page:
     Set default Table of Contents title
   * Set TOC_MIN_DEPTH = 2
     The first header level to appear in the TOC:

in webpreferences of System web. It may have been "smart" for the new 2.0 formatted System default topics. But we plugin authors that made plugin topics with TOC now have a problem with TOCs not showing heading level 1.

I think it is better to set that preference in the specific topics where you need it in System web

-- KennethLavrsen - 03 Sep 2015

2.0 was a major major change to foswiki. In this example, I think it's preferred to bring extensions up to 2.0 compatibility rather than reverting defaults back to the 1.x versions.

-- GeorgeClark - 03 Sep 2015

This is not a compatibility issue. It is a trap. This hidden setting is not obvious and it is not needed. It is the hiding of level 1 that is bad because it means that a plugin author has to know that he must set TOC_MIN_DEPTH back to 1 to enable a TOC that shows the included VarMACRO topics. When you have many of those it is nice with a TOC.

The alternative is to add a !! on 10-15 standard topics in System web after the first headline. Why not just do that? I can do that within the next days. it is not a critical show stopper. It is just something I wasted an hour on today trying to find out why some plugin topic text I am writing did not work. Others will fall in the same trap. We should not setup traps. It does not cost anything to add a few !! in our own docu topics.

I just did a quick count. There are 47 topics in System web with a TOC. And of these half have the !! and half does not. It would take me 15 minutes to add the missing !!. So I volunteer to do that.

-- KennethLavrsen - 03 Sep 2015

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