[pmwiki-users] Strange pagelist behaviour

Pico pmwiki at ben-amotz.com
Mon Jun 12 20:53:46 CDT 2006


Marc Cooper wrote:
> Pico said...
>>> From: Marc Cooper <gmane at auxbuss.com>
>>> Date: Mon, June 12, 2006 9:47 am
>>> To: pmwiki-users at pmichaud.com
>>>
>>> I noticed that the PmWiki FAQ is presenting different results in a new 
>>> (farm) wiki from the home wiki. Entries are missing from the home wiki. 
>>> They are using the same PmWiki files from wikilib.d. The differences are 
>>> in the section created by:
>>>
>>> (:pagelist trail=PmWiki.DocumentationIndex "[[#faq]]" fmt=#includefaq:)
>>>
>>> To test, I tried this in the sandbox, and get the same results. I'm 
>>> using the latest 2.1.11 release.
>> [snip]
>>
>> Pm did alot of work on 6/2/06, right after he released 2.1.9 moving
>> questions 
>> off of the FAQs page and onto to FAQs sections at the end of the
>> relevant documentation.
>>
>> So, I would expect the results of a faqs pagelist directive to include
>> many more entries 
>> when using the documentation pages distributed in versions 2.1.10 and up
>> than when using 
>> the documentation pages distributed from prior versions.
> 
> I'm not sure what this has to do with this problem? Could you elaborate.
> 
Everything.  You are using 2.1.11, which is right after Pm made changes 
to the documentation that cause the pagelist faq to return links that it 
would not be returned from a site that was using documentation 
distributed prior to 2.1.10.  If you compare the various specific items 
you listed with the history of Pm's changes to the FAQ page on June 2, 
2006, you will see that he was moving FAQs to the same pages that you 
identified in your prior post as "(not on home)"

When I first saw your list, I recognized the documents that were 
appearing on both of your wiki sites as documents that have had faqs 
markup for quite some time and, at the same time, I recognized many of 
the documents that you identified as (not on home) as documents that had 
only recently had faqs markup added to them.  When I go back now and 
compare the "(not on home)" documents that you identified with the 
history of FAQ page, the match is striking.

As they say, when you hear the hoof beats of a thundering herd, think 
horses, not zebras.  (Start with the most common and likely explanations).

>> Anyway, the general answer here is that the faqs pagelist is gathering
>> its entries from pages on the trail defined by DocumentationIndex
> 
> Yes, I know that fact, but it's not the answer.
> 

It was an introduction, and I think it may ultimately provide more of an 
answer than you realize.

>> and I would take a look at the actual content of
>> specific documentation pages to determine whether they contain a faqs
>> division and anchor at 
>> the end.  If they don't, then that will explain why they aren't showing
>> up on the pagelist.
> 
> This is the same source files, the same skin, the same... well the same 
> everything, apart from the fact that the output from one is from the 
> home wiki and the other is not - the farm wiki has no files in it at 
> all, it's only using the shared files. The problem also occurs with 
> every skin that I've tried, so it's not <div>, <a> or skin related 
> related.
> 

Look, I know you said that your two wikis are using the same pmwiki 
files from wikilib.d and that "this is the same source files, the same 
skin, the same... well the same everything".  I know you believe this to 
be true and I assume that you may have put your beliefs to the test by 
taking a look around your directories.

But the fact remains that what you describe sounds like it has a cause 
that can be easily tested and verified, even if it is not so easily 
explained or understood.

The point here is not to test or challenge you, so please don't take it 
personally.  The point is to simply test and challenge the most obvious 
cause for the behavior you are experiencing by taking one step back from 
the pagelist faq to examine what the documents look like that are 
feeding the pagelist faq and to compare the results between your two setups.

So, if you would humor me and just take a look at the documentation 
pages in dispute as they appear when you open them up in your "field" 
and "home" wiki.  Yes, even if you are convinced that they will look the 
same, because they must, because you see no reason why they wouldn't, 
just give it a try for the sake of diagnosing and ruling out the most 
likely cause (different versions of docs resulting in different output 
from the pagelist faq).


Lets start with the first disputed link in your earlier example: Basic 
Editing.  Open that documentation page from your "farm" and from your 
"home" and compare the text that you see at the very end of each page. 
Does the document you see from your "farm" end with one (or two) 
question and answer pairs?  Take a look at the underlying markup, is 
there a faq division and anchor, like this ">>faq<< [[#faq]]" after the 
trail markup and before the first question?

Now look at the Basic Editing documentation page as viewed and normally 
navigated from your "home".  Does it just end with the table and the 
wikitrail markup?  If so, then that would explain why that page does not 
show up on the pagelist when it is run from your "home" wiki.


Don't just assume that they are the same because they must be: give it a 
serious inquiry.  You should be able to repeat the same inquiry with any 
of the other documents that you identified as "(not on home)" and the 
results should be the same: question and answer pairs should appear at 
the end of the documents that you access from your "farm" but not from 
your "home"


> Looks like a potential bug to me, but I thought I'd run it past those 
> who might know first.
> 

Thanks for giving others the benefit of the doubt.


Pico




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