TWiki CGI Scripts

TWiki uses a set of scripts in the bin directory. This topic describes the interfaces to some of those scripts.

All the scripts can be called from the CGI environment or from the command-line.

General Information

CGI environment

In the CGI environment parameters are passed to the scripts via the URL and URL parameters. Environment variables are also used to determine the user performing the action. If the environment is not set up, the default TWiki user is used (usually guest).

Command-line

You must be cd'd to the twiki/bin directory to run the scripts from the command line.

Parameters are passed using '-name' - for example,

$ cd /usr/local/twiki/bin
$ save -topic MyWeb.MyTopic -user admin -action save -text "New text of the topic"

All parameters require a value.

Default parameters

All the scripts accept a number of common parameters. The first two components of the URL after the script name are taken as the web and the topic, respectively. Standard URL parameters are:

topic	If this is set to a URL, TWiki will immediately redirect to that URL. Otherwise it overrides the URL and is taken as the topic name (you can pass Web.TopicName)
user	Command-line only; set the name of the user performing the action. Note: this usage is inherently insecure, as it bypasses webserver login constraints. For this reason only authorised users should be allowed to execute scripts from the command line.
skin	Overrides the default skin path (see TWikiSkins)
cover	Specifies temporary skin path to prepend to the skin path for this script only (see TWikiSkins)

save

The save script performs a range of save-related functions, as selected by the action parameter.

action=save	default; save, return to view, dontnotify is OFF
action=quietsave	save, and return to view, dontnotify is ON
action=checkpoint	save and redirect to the edit script, dontnotify is ON
action=cancel	exit without save, return to view
action=preview	preview edited text
action=add form	Redirect to the "change form" page.
action=replace form...	Redirect to the "change form" page.
action=delRev	Administrators only delete the most recent revision of the topic - all other parameters are ignored
action=repRev	Administrators only replace the text of the most recent revision of the topic with the text in the text parameter. text must included embedded meta-data tags. All other parameters are ignored.
onlynewtopic	If set, error if topic already exists
onlywikiname	If set, error if topic name is not a WikiWord
dontnotify	if defined, suppress change notification
templatetopic	Name of a topic to use as a template for the text and form
text	New text of the topic
forcenewrevision	if set, forces a revision even if TWiki thinks one isn't needed
topicparent	If 'none' remove any current topic parent. If the name of a topic, set the topic parent to this.
formtemplate	if defined, use the named template for the form
editaction	When action is checkpoint, add form or replace form..., this is used as the action parameter to the edit script that is redirected to after the save is complete.
originalrev	Revision on which the edit started.

Any errors will cause a redirect to an oops page.

The parameters are interpreted in according to the following rules.

1. The first sequence of ten or more X characters in the topic name will be converted to a number such that the resulting topic name is unique in the target web.
2. When the action is save, checkpoint, quietsave, or preview:
   1. The new text is taken from the text parameter, if it is defined,
      • otherwise it is taken from the templatetopic, if it is defined,
      • otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if it exists,
      • otherwise it is assumed to be empty, and forcenewrevision is set.
   2. The name of the new form is taken from the formtemplate, if defined
      • otherwise it is taken from the templatetopic, if defined,
      • otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if any,
      • otherwise no form is attached.
   3. The value for each field in the form is taken from the query, if it is defined
      • otherwise it is taken from the templatetopic, if defined,
      • otherwise it is taken from the previous version of the topic, if any,
      • otherwise it defaults to the empty string.

Merging is only enabled if the topic text comes from text and originalrev is > 0 and is not the same as the revision number of the most recent revision. If merging is enabled both the topic and the meta-data are merged.

Form field values are passed in parameters named 'field' - for example, if I have a field Status the parameter name is Status.

oops

This script is mainly used for rendering pages containing error messages, though it is also used for some functional actions such as manage pages (move topic etc).

oops templates are used with the oops script to generate system messages. This is done to make internationalisation or other local customisations simple.

The oops script supports the following parameters:

template	Name of the template file to display
def	Optional, can be set to the name of a single definition within template. This definition will be instantiated in the template wherever %INSTANTIATE% is seen. This lets you use a single template file for many messages. For an example, see oopsmanagebad.tmpl.
paramN	Where N is an integer from 1 upwards. These values will be substituted into template for %PARAM1% etc.

edit

The edit scipt understands the following parameters, typically supplied by HTML input fields:

action	Optional. Use the editaction template instead of the standard edit, and if action=text, then hide the form
onlynewtopic	If set, error if topic already exists
onlywikiname	If set, error if topic name is not a WikiWord
templatetopic	The name of the template topic, copied to get the initial content
text	Initial text for the topic
topicparent	The parent topic
formtemplate	Name of the form to instantiate in the topic. Overrides the form set in the templatetopic if defined.
contenttype	Optional parameter that defines the application type to write into the CGI header. Defaults to text/html. May be used to invoke alternative client applications
anyname	Any parameter can passed to the new topic; if the template topic contains %URLPARAM{"anyname"}%, it will be replaced by its value
breaklock	If set, any lease conflicts will be ignored, and the edit will proceed even if someone is already editing the topic.

Form field values are passed in parameters named 'field' - for example, if I have a field Status the parameter name is Status.

1. The first sequence of ten or more X characters in the topic name will be converted on save to a number such that the resulting topic name is unique in the target web.

view

Used for viewing topics.

raw=text	View the raw, unprocessed source of the topic
raw=on	View the source of the topic
raw=debug	As raw=on, except that it shows meta-data as embedded tags
contenttype	Allows you to specify a different content type
rev	Revision to view
template	Allows you to specify a different base template. The default template is view. For example, you could specify http://www.socialscience-ed.org/pages/bin/view/TWiki/TWikiScripts?template=edit to view the rendered HTML of the topic.

%W% The view script has a special interpretation of the text skin. If the skin=text parameter is given, it is used like this: http://.../view/MyWeb/MyTopic?skin=text&contenttype=text/plain&raw=on which shows the topic as plain text; useful for those who want to download plain text for the topic. skin=text is deprecated; use raw=text instead.

viewfile

Used for viewing attachments. Normally, a site will publish the attachments (pub) directory using a URL. However if it contains sensitive information, you will want to protect attachments using TWikiAccessControls. In this case, you can use the viewfile script to give access to attachments while still checking access controls.

filename	name of attachment
rev	Revision to view

preview

This script is deprecated. Its functions are covered by the save script.

rest

This script can be invoked via http in a similar way as the view script (see Invocation Examples, bellow) to execute a plugin method. It'll print the result directly to the stream unless the endPoint parameter is specified, in which case the control is redirected to the given topic.

The rest script can receive one parameter:

endPoint

Where to redirect the response once the request is served, in the form "Web.Topic"

Any additional parameter is passed directly to the method (i.e: The method can get any other parameter using the $query object)

Invocation Examples:

http://my.host/bin/rest/EmptyPlugin/testRest

Will invoke TWiki::Plugin::EmptyPlugin::testRest, and print the result directly to the stream.

http://my.host/bin/rest/EmptyPlugin/testRest?endPoint=SomeWeb.SomeTopic

Will invoke TWiki::Plugin::EmptyPlugin::testRest, and redirect the control to SomeWeb.SomeTopic

rdiff

configure

register

rename

attach

upload

search

changes

manage

mailnotify

passwd

resetpasswd

Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory, DeveloperDocumentationCategory