[pmwiki-users] Re: Alternate Solution to Case-Sensitive URL Problem

chr at home.se chr at home.se
Fri Jan 28 23:46:31 CST 2005


On Fri, 28 Jan 2005, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:

> So, here's what I propose.  If someone is on a case-sensitive OS
> and wants case-insensitive urls, then support for this is going
> to be provided through an optional Cookbook script.  This doesn't
> burden sites where these issues aren't present.
> 
> The cookbook script will check to see if the requested page name
> (case-sensitive) exists; if not then it will do a case-insensitive
> scan of the page stores to find a matching page, and if one is found
> the script will set the $pagename to correspond with the name of the
> found page.  Processing continues as normal.  If no matching
> page is found then the $pagename is left alone, as now, and whatever
> case is there becomes the case of the new page.

I would like to suggest that we change our perspective here and generalize
what the script would do. Assume that the URI in question is as follows:

	http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/MAin/Somepage

and let us consider the part 'MAin/Somepage' as a search criteria rather 
than a specific addres. For this particular case, it would be a question 
of a case insensitive search where we look for an exact match.

If we think like this, we allow this metaphor to be extended. Let's say
there is no page called 'MAin/Somepage', but 'Main/SomePage1' exist. Maybe 
it would be useful if this page was shown instead (with an appropriate 
banner at the top indicating that the user was automatically redirected to 
this page, and "click here if you want to create 'MAin/Somepage'").

I'm not so sure the search I described above would be so useful, but I do 
know that people are getting more and more accustomed to thinking in terms 
of "googling the web". So why shouldn't we consider the last part of the 
URI as a "google of the wiki"?

On a more personal reflection, I've noted that I more and more stop trying 
to remember the exact name of a page. Instead, I usually search for a few 
words I know should be on that page. It also has the advantage that if the 
page has been renamed, I've got a better chance at finding it.

/Christian

PS. It just struck me that the 'finding a page' could perhaps be 
introduced by entereing a URI such as:

	http://www.pmwiki.org/pmwiki.php/find/MAin/somepage


-- 
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44               http://www.md.kth.se/~chr





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