History of the TWiki Implementation (version 01 Feb 2003)

• PeterThoeny - 23 Jul 1998: Installed initial version, based on the JOS Wiki. See WikiWikiClones for details.
• PeterThoeny - 27 Jul 1998: Added automatic links to topics in other TWiki webs by specifying <web name>.<topic name>, e.g. Know.WebSeach .
• PeterThoeny - 28 Jul 1998: Topic WebSearch allows full text search and and topic search with/without regular expressions.
• PeterThoeny - 28 Jul 1998: Topic index. (Technically speaking a simple '.*' search on topic names.)
• PeterThoeny - 28 Jul 1998: Topic WebChanges shows Wiki username instead of Intranet username, e.g. PeterThoeny instead of thoeny in case the Wiki username exists. Implementation: Automatic lookup of Wiki username in topic TWikiUsers.
• PeterThoeny - 28 Jul 1998: Added TWiki variables, enclosed in % signs: %TOPIC% (Topic name), %WEB% (web name), %SCRIPTURL% (script URL), %DATE% (current date), %WIKIWEBMASTER% (Wiki webmaster address), %WIKIVERSION% (Wiki version), %USERNAME% (user name), %WIKIUSERNAME% (Wiki user name).
• PeterThoeny - 31 Jul 1998: Support for quoted text with a '>' at the beginning of the line.
• PeterThoeny - 04 Aug 1998: Warn user if new topic name is not a valid Wiki name. (template file templates/Web/notwiki.tmpl)
• PeterThoeny - 04 Aug 1998: Separate templates for text of non existing topic and default text of new topic. (template file templates/Web/notedited.tmpl)
• PeterThoeny - 05 Aug 1998: Signature and date is inserted automatically when creating a new topic.
• PeterThoeny - 06 Aug 1998: Added server side include of files. Syntax is %INCLUDE:"filename.ext"%
• PeterThoeny - 07 Aug 1998: Automatic email notification when something has changed in a TWiki web. Each web has a topic WebNotify where one can subscribe and unsubscribe.
• PeterThoeny - 13 Aug 1998: WikiNotation allows also numbers after the AaA sequence, e.g. AaA1 is a valid WikiTopic name, but not Aa1.
• PeterThoeny - 24 Sep 1998: Corrected templates for automatic email notification so that MS Outlook can display attachment as an HTML file.
• PeterThoeny - 13 Oct 1998: Alphabetical topic index in WebSearch.
• PeterThoeny - 14 Oct 1998: Refered-By: Find out which topics have a link to the current topic. Each topic has a |Ref-By| link for that. Note: Only references from the current web are shown, not references from other webs.
• PeterThoeny - 26 Oct 1998: Added revision control using RCS. Each topic has now a list of revisions at the bottom and a revision info, e.g.
  Topic TWikiHistory . { Edit | Ref-By | r1.3 | r1.2 | r1.1 }
Revision r1.3: 1998/10/26 01:34:00 by PeterThoeny
• PeterThoeny - 26 Oct 1998: Added preview of topic changes before saving the topic. This was necessary to prevent unneeded revisions.
• PeterThoeny - 10 Nov 1998: View differences between topic revisions. Each topic has a list of revisions (e.g. r1.3) and differences thereof (e.g. >) at the bottom:
  Topic TWikiHistory . { Edit | Ref-By | r1.3 | > | r1.2 | > | r1.1 }
Revision r1.3: 1998/11/10 01:34 by PeterThoeny
• PeterThoeny - 10 Nov 1998: The email notification and the Changes topic have now a topic date that is linked. Clicking on the link will show the difference between the two most recent topic revisions.
• PeterThoeny - 18 Nov 1998: Internal log of topic save actions to the file data/logYYYYMM.txt, where YYYYMM the year and month in numeric format is. Intended for auditing only, not accessible from the web.
• PeterThoeny - 07 Dec 1998: Possible to add a category table to a TWiki topic. This permits storing and searching for more structured information. Editing a topic shows a HTML form with the usual text area and a table with selectors, checkboxes, radio buttons and text fields. TWikiDocumentation has more on setup. The TWiki.Know web uses this category table to set classification, platform and OS version.
• PeterThoeny - 08 Dec 1998: Signature is shown below the text area when editing a topic. Use this to easily copy & paste your signature into the text.
• PeterThoeny - 04 Jan 1999: Fixed bug when viewing differences between topic revisions that include HTML table tags like <table>, <tr>, <td>.
• PeterThoeny - 03 Feb 1999: Possible to view complete revision history of a topic on one page. Access at the linked date in the Changes page, or the Diffs link at the bottom of each topic, e.g.
  Topic TWikiHistory . { Edit | Ref-By | Diffs | r1.3 | > | r1.2 | > | r1.1 }
Revision r1.3: 1998/11/10 01:34 by PeterThoeny
• PeterThoeny - 09 Feb 1999: No new topic revision is created if the same person saves a topic again within one hour.
• PeterThoeny - 09 Feb 1999: New text formatting rule for creating fixed font text . Words get showns in fixed font by enclosing them in "=" equal signs. Example: Writing =fixed font= will show up as fixed font .
• PeterThoeny - 26 Mar 1999: New variables %PUBURL% (Public directory URL) and %ATTACHURL% (URL of topic file attachment).
• PeterThoeny - 26 Mar 1999: File attachments: Upload and download any file as a topic attachment by using the browser. FileAttachment has more.
• PeterThoeny - 15 Apr 1999: Topic locking: Warn user if a topic has been edited by an other person within one hour. This is to prevent contention, e.g. simultaneous topic updates.
• PeterThoeny - 20 May 1999: New variables %WIKIHOMEURL% (link when pressing the icon on the upper left corner) and %WIKITOOLNAME% (the name of the wiki tool: TWiki ).
• PeterThoeny - 20 May 1999: Added meta tag so that robots index only /view/ of topics, not /edit/, /attach/ e.t.c. Tag: <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX">
• DavidWarman - 21 May 1999: Externalize copyright text at the bottom of every page into a web-specific webcopyright.inc file. This is to easily customize the copyright text.
• PeterThoeny - 23 Jun 1999: Separate wiki.pm into configuration (wikicfg.pm) and TWiki core (wiki.pm) . This is to ease the upgrade of TWiki installations, it also allows customized extensions to TWiki without affecting the TWiki core.
• PeterThoeny - 23 Jun 1999: New TextFormattingRules to write bold italic text by enclosing words with double underline characters.
• ChristopheVermeulen - 07 Jul 1999: Link a plural topic to a singular topic in case the plural topic does not exist. Example: TestVersion / TestVersions , TestPolicy / TestPolicies , TestAddress / TestAddresses , TestBox / TestBoxes .
• PeterThoeny - 15 Jul 1999: Search path for include files in %INCLUDE:"file.inc"% variable. Search first in the current web, then in parent data directory. Useful to overload default include text in the data directory by web-specific text, like for example webcopyright.inc text.
• PeterThoeny - 21 Jul 1999: Flag $doRemovePortNumber in wikicfg.pm to optionally remove the port number from the TWiki URL. Example: www.some.domain:1234/twiki gets www.some.domain/twiki .
• PeterThoeny - 22 Jul 1999: Flags $doLogTopic* in wikicfg.pm to selectively log topic view, edit, save, rdiff, attach, search and changes to monthly log file.
• PeterThoeny - 03 Aug 1999: Online registration of new user using web form in TWikiRegistration. Authentication of users.
• PeterThoeny - 08 Aug 1999: New text formatting rule for creating tables. Text gets rendered as a table if enclosed in "|" vertical bars. Example line as it is written and how it shows up:
  | This | is | a table | with | cells |

  This

  is

  a table

  with

  cells

• PeterThoeny - 31 Aug 1999: Fixed Y2K bug. (Date in year 2000 had wrong format.)
• PeterThoeny - 03 Oct 1999: Limit the number of revisions shown at the bottom of the topic. Example:
  Topic TWikiHistory . { ..... | Diffs | r1.10 | > | r1.9 | > | r1.8 | > | r1.7 | >... }
  Additional revisions can be selected by pressing the >... link.
• PeterThoeny - 10 Jan 2000: No more escaping for '%' percent characters. (Number of consecutive '%' entered and displayed is identical.)
• PeterThoeny - 24 Jan 2000: Fixed bug where an email address starting with a WikiName was rendered as an internal Wiki link instead of an email address, i.e. SomeWikiName@somewhere.test .
• PeterThoeny - 29 Jan 2000: Fixed bug where TWiki would not initialize correctly under certain circumstances, i.e. when running it under mod_perl. Sub initialize in wiki.pm did not handle $thePathInfo correctly.
• PeterThoeny - 04 Feb 2000: Access statistics. Each web has a WebStatistics topic that shows monthy statistics with number of topic views and changes, most popular topics, and top contributors. (It needs to be enabled, TWikiDocumentation has more.)
• PeterThoeny - 07 Feb 2000: Inline search. New variable %SEARCH{"str" ...}% to show a search result embedded in a topic text. TWikiVariables has more on the syntax. Inline search combined with the category table feature can be used for example to create a simple bug tracking system.
• PeterThoeny - 07 Feb 2000: Changed the syntax for server side include variable from %INCLUDE:"filename.ext"% to %INCLUDE{"filename.ext"}% . (Previous syntax still supported. Change was done because of inline search syntax)
• PeterThoeny - 11 Feb 2000: New variable %SCRIPTURLPATH% / $scriptUrlPath containing the script URL without the domain name. Templates have been changed to use this variable instead of %SCRIPTURL% . This is for performance reasons.
• PeterThoeny - 11 Feb 2000: New variable %SCRIPTSUFFIX% / $scriptSuffix containing an optional file extension of the TWiki Perl script. Templates have been changed to use this variable. This allows you to rename the Perl script files to have a file extension like for example ".cgi".
• PeterThoeny - 25 Feb 2000: Edit preferences topics to set TWiki variables. There are three level of preferences: Site-level (TWikiPreferences), web-level (WebPreferences in each web) and user-level preferences (for each of the TWikiUsers). With this, discontinue use of server side include of wikiwebs.inc , wikiwebtable.inc , weblist.inc , webcopyright.inc and webcolors.inc files.
• PeterThoeny - 25 Feb 2000: New preference variables %EDITBOXWIDTH% and %EDITBOXHEIGHT% to specify the edit box size.
• PeterThoeny - 11 Mar 2000: Better security with taint checking ( Perl -T option )
• PeterThoeny - 20 Mar 2000: Uploading a file (topic file attachment) will optionally create a link to the uploaded file at the end of the topic. The preference variable %ATTACHLINKBOX% controls the default state of the link check box in the attach file page.
• JohnAltstadt, PeterThoeny - 21 Apr 2000: TWikiRegistration is done separately for Intranet use (depends on remote_user) or Internet use (depends on .htpasswd file).
• PeterThoeny - 21 Apr 2000: New TWikiVariables %HTTP_HOST% , %REMOTE_ADDR% , %REMOTE_PORT% and %REMOTE_USER% .
• KevinKinnell, PeterThoeny - 02 May 2000: Advanced search features like search multiple webs; sort by topic name / modified time / author; limit the number of results returned. More in TWikiVariables.
• PeterFokkinga - 15 May 2000: Each topic can have its own template file. TWikiTemplates has more.
• PeterThoeny - 28 May 2000: Lock warning shows remaining lock time in minutes.
• PeterThoeny - 29 May 2000: New %GMTIME% variable that shows the current GM time.
• CrisBailiff, PeterThoeny - 21 Jun 2000: Fixed security issue to prevent a server side %INCLUDE% of arbitrary files.
• PeterThoeny - 21 Jun 2000: Fixed problem that a page redirect on some server environments is not working (host name is needed in URL).
• PeterThoeny - 07 Jul 2000: Fixed problem of losing carriage returns when editing topics with KDE KFM browser or W3M browser.
• PeterThoeny - 07 Jul 2000: Added an "Release edit lock" checkbox in preview to let other people edit the topic immediately without the one hour lock.
• PeterThoeny - 22 Jul 2000: Split the TWiki.Main web into TWiki.Main (users, company data) and TWiki.TWiki (TWiki related documentation, registration)
• PeterThoeny - 22 Jul 2000: More forgiving syntax for *bold*, italic, __bold italic__ and fixed , where it is not necessary anymore to have a trailing space before .,;:?! characters.
• PeterThoeny - 23 Jul 2000: BookView search allows you show a set of topics for easy printing.
• PeterThoeny - 23 Jul 2000: Changed include syntax from %INCLUDE{"Web/TopicName.txt"}% to %INCLUDE{"Web.TopicName"}% . Legacy syntax still supported.
• PeterThoeny - 29 Jul 2000: New variables %GMTIME{"..."}% and %SERVERTIME{"..."}% . More in TWikiVariables.
• PeterThoeny - 16 Aug 2000: New TWikiPreferences variables %HTTP_EQUIV_ON_VIEW% , %HTTP_EQUIV_ON_EDIT% and %HTTP_EQUIV_ON_PREVIEW% that define the <meta http-equiv="..."> meta tags for the TWiki templates. This can be used for example to set a document expiration time.
• PeterThoeny - 19 Aug 2000: Ref-By link searches all webs (not just the current web.)
• AlWilliams, ManpreetSingh, PeterThoeny - 18 Sep 2000: Added forced internal links. Write [[text formatting FAQ]] to get the link text formatting FAQ that points to topic TextFormattingFAQ.
• PeterThoeny - 19 Sep 2000: Fixed TWiki:Codev.AttachedNotificationLinksBug.
• ManpreetSingh - 20 Sep 2000: New -q switch in mailnotify to suppress all normal output.
• HaroldGottschalk, AndreaSterbini, PeterThoeny - 26 Sep 2000: Allow nesting of variables, i.e. %INCLUDE{"%TWIKIWEB%.TWikiWebsTable"}%. More in TWiki:Codev.BetterTWikiTagTemplateProcessing
• AlWilliams, PeterThoeny - 26 Sep 2000: Fixed TWiki:Codev.UppercaseAttachments bug and added png image support.
• PeterThoeny - 05 Oct 2000: Remember user by IP address so that view "knows" the user once authenticated in edit. More in TWikiAuthentication?.
• PeterThoeny - 23 Oct 2000: Authorization based on groups. Define fine graned control who is allowed to change or create topics. More in TWikiAccessControl and TWiki:Codev.AuthenticationBasedOnGroups.
• PeterThoeny - 01 Nov 2000: Added a "Cancel" link in edit that releases the edit lock.
• PeterThoeny - 01 Nov 2000: New variable %VAR{"NAME" web="Web"}% to get web specific preferences. More in TWikiVariables.
• PeterThoeny - 03 Nov 2000: Flag $doHidePasswdInRegistration in wikicfg.pm to hide plain text password in registration email.
• PeterThoeny - 03 Dec 2000: New noheader="on" switch in %SEARCH{...}% to suppress table header. More in TWikiVariables.
• PeterThoeny - 05 Dec 2000: Improved include handling. Infinite recursion of includes are prevented; new variables %BASEWEB%, %INCLUDINGWEB%, %BASETOPIC% and %INCLUDINGTOPIC% to have more control over include handling. More in TWikiVariables and TWiki:Codev.IncludeHandlingImprovements.
• PeterThoeny - 05 Jan 2001: View authorization based on groups. Define who is allowed to see a TWiki web. More in TWikiAccessControl and TWiki:Codev.AuthenticationBasedOnGroups.
• StanleyKnutson - 07 Jan 2001: Better error handling when saving a topic.
• PeterThoeny - 16 Jan 2001: TWiki skins: Define a different page layout with a customized header and footer layout, i.e. a print skin for a printable view of a topic. More in TWikiSkins and TWiki:Codev.TWikiSkins.
• PeterThoeny - 16 Jan 2001: New variable %STARTINCLUDE% and %STOPINCLUDE% variables to control what gets included of a topic. More in TWikiVariables.
• PeterThoeny - 18 Jan 2001: WebChanges, WebSearch and e-mail notification indicate also the revision number of a topic (i.e. 18 Jan 2001 - 16:43 - r1.5), or NEW for a new topic (i.e. i.e. 18 Jan 2001 - 16:43 - NEW).
• PeterThoeny - 20 Jan 2001: Format changed of %GMTIME{"..."}% and %SERVERTIME{"..."}% variables. Format is now "$hour:$min" instead of "hour:min". More in TWikiVariables.

Related Topics

• TWikiDocumentation has implementation details.
• TWikiPlannedFeatures has a list of planned features.
• TWikiEnhancementRequests is the place where you can add your enhancement requests.

-- PeterThoeny - 08 Nov 2000