GluePlugin

<--
   Contributions to this plugin are appreciated. Please update the plugin page at
   http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/GluePlugin or provide feedback at
   http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/GluePluginDev.
   If you are a TWiki contributor please update the plugin in the SVN repository.
-->

Description

This plugin will help you to write readable markup (TWikiMarkup, HMTL, ...) within TWiki by allowing tags and arguments to be formatted on multiple lines. This is done by removing whitespaces surrounding tilde characters at the beginning of a line and recombine consecutive lines again. Basically, there are two ways of glueing and recombining lines by either removing all whitespaces between two lines using %*~~ or by removing all whitespaces and separateing lines with a single space using %~~~. There's a helper character sequence %~~ that prevents the TWiki engine to interprete tags before the GluePlugin could reformat the text. In addition there's a glue sequence #~~ to insert comments within a TWikiMarkup expression.

While these glue sequences might feel strange at the beginning they help you to format and recognize your markup and make it more readable. That way you will be able to format a TWikiApplications that looked like this

%SEARCH{"..." type="query" header="<table width="100%" border="5px"><thead><tr><th>Name</th><th>Description</th><th>Date</th></tr></thead>" format="<tr><th>$formfield(Name)</th><th>$summary</th><th>$createdate</th></tr>" footer="</table>"}%

somewhat like this

#~~ #################################
#~~ # This is my new TWikiApplication
~~~
%~~ SEARCH{
#~~ #################################
#~~ # this is the search expression
~~~   "..."
~~~
~~~   type="query"
~~~
#~~ #################################
#~~ # this is the header of the result table
~~~ 
~~~   header="
~~~      <table
~~~        width="100%"
~~~        border="5px"
~~~      >
~~~      <thead>
~~~        <tr>
~~~          <th>Name</th>
~~~          <th>Description</th>
~~~          <th>Date</th>
~~~        </tr>
~~~      </thead>"
#~~ #################################
#~~ # every row will be formatted like this
~~~
~~~   format="
~~~      <tr>
~~~        <th>$formfield(Name)</th>
~~~        <th>$summary</th>
~~~        <th>$createdate</th>
~~~      </tr>"
#~~ #################################
#~~ # and finally we close this html table
~~~
~~~   footer="</table>"
~~~ }%
#~~ #################################
#~~ # sure we could have used 
#~~ # | TWikiTables | as well |
#~~ # but these aren't robust against newlines
#~~ # in the $summary field
#~~ #################################

Syntax

The <space> is a literal whitespace blank. The ~~~<space> and *~~<space> sequences are recognized only at the beginning of a line, whereas the %~~<space> escape sequence might appear everywhere. The basic anatomy of writing a TWiki tag using the GluePlugin is exemplified by

%~~ TAG{
~~~ key="
*~~      hello
~~~      world
*~~ "
~~~ }%

%<nop>TAG{ key="hello world" }%

Examples

This is a line
~~~ glued to another line.

This is a line glued to another line.

This is a line glued to another line.

Glue
*~~ Plugin

Apples

~~~  

And

~~~

Oranges

%~~ SEARCH{"GluePlugin"
~~~        nosearch="on" nosummary="on" nototal="on"
~~~        separator=", "
~~~        scope="topic"
~~~        format="$topic"
~~~ }%

Plugin Installation Instructions

• Download the ZIP file from twiki.org (see below)
• Unzip it in your twiki installation directory. Content:

  File:	Description:
  data/TWiki/GluePlugin.txt
  lib/TWiki/Plugins/GluePlugin.pm

• Visit configure in your TWiki installation, and enable the plugin in the {Plugins} section.
• Set the plugins evaluation order to put the GluePlugin in first position, e.g.

  $TWiki::cfg{PluginsOrder} = 'GluePlugin,IfDefinedPlugin,SpreadSheetPlugin';

• If the plugin is installed correctly then the following two fruits will appear joined on one line: Apples and Oranges

Plugin Info

<-- provided for compatibility only 

 Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Enable TML (TWiki Markup Language) to span multiple lines
 
-->

Plugin Author:	TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum
Copyright:	© 2005-2007, Michael Daum http://michaeldaumconsulting.com © 2004-2010, TWiki:TWiki/TWikiContributor
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)
Plugin Version:	v2.1
Change History:	<-- versions below in reverse order -->
2010-04-30:	TWikibug:Item6433 - doc improvements
23 Nov 2007:	added way to add comments in the middle of a TWikiMarkup expression
31 Aug 2006:	added NO_PREFS_IN_TOPIC
28 Jul 2006:	fixed MANIFEST; some minor docu updates; added use strict;
28 Aug 2005:	changed glue syntax; added glue escape sequence to work arround tags been interpreted before lines are recombined
16 Aug 2005:	properly support internal tags; performance improvements; fixed use if uninitialized value
15 Aug 2005:	Initial version
TWiki Dependency:	$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.024
CPAN Dependencies:	none
Other Dependencies:	none
Perl Version:	5.005
TWiki:Plugins/Benchmark:	GoodStyle nn%, FormattedSearch nn%, GluePlugin nn%
Plugin Home:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/GluePlugin
Feedback:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/GluePluginDev
Appraisal:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/GluePluginAppraisal

Related Topics: TWikiPlugins, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory, TWikiPreferences