API Reference

Document everything!

Information for 3rd party developers working on WackoWiki extensions


... (pls. write changes here)



- DRAFT -

1. Wacko API for version 5.0


[Note: This list actually describes the API for TomG's much-hacked personal version of Wakka 0.1.2, with additions as indicated by the markers [*] (function added) and [=] (functionality and/or API extended). The purpose for these additions was to make Wakka more usable as a general-purpose 'site engine' rather than solely as a (very good) wiki. Unlike the (also good) Wacko variant of Wakka, it's still compact and fast; and perhaps importantly, the additions require no changes to the Wakka 0.1.2 database structure.]

1.1. Main (index.php)


These functions are in the file classes/wacko.php, listed in the same order as in the file.

1.2. DB


int sql_query(string query) -- general-purpose Mysql query

query - query-string in Mysql syntax

array load_single(string query) -- single-record select

query - query-string in Mysql syntax
array is one-dimension indexed by fieldname
returns empty array if record not found

array load_all(string query) -- multi-record select

query - query-string in Mysql syntax
array is two-dimension 0-indexed list of records with each record-array indexed by field

1.3. Misc


float get_microtime() -- return system micro-time


string include_buffered(string filename, string notfoundtext='', string/array vars='', string path='') -- return result of embedded code-fragment

notfoundtext - returned if file is not found
vars - optional array of variables to be passed (via extract()) to the fragment
path - ':'-separated list of directories to be searched
returns result of all print/echo statements in included fragment
note includebuffered is called by action(), method(), format()

1.4. Variables


string get_page_tag() -- return page-tag [shorthand for get_page_value('tag')]


string get_page_time() -- return page save-date [shorthand for get_page_value('time')]


[*] mixed get_page_value(string id) -- return page-property stored in $page array (usally a string)


[*] null set_page_value(string id, mixed value) -- set page-property in $page array


[*] mixed altvalue(mixed main, mixed default) -- return main if non-empty, default if main is empty

is a possibly-easier 'shorthand' for the ( ? : ) construct

string get_method() -- return method for current page


mixed get_config_value(string id) -- return configuration property in $config array


string get_wacko_name() -- return site-name [shorthand for get_config_value('wakka_name')]


string get_wacko_version() -- return current code-version id

1.5. Pages


array load_page(string tag, timestamp time='', bool cache=1) -- load page-data

tag - page-tag
time - if set, gets specific version of page, else most recent version (default)
cache - if set, tries page-cache first (default)
returns $page array, [=] including page-properties from ACLS table
note if time is not set (i.e. not an old version), stores result in page-cache
[=] search for tag is case-independent (i.e. need not be strict wiki-name); tag may include underscores

[*] array load_page_options(string tag='') -- returns array of extended page-properties for tag from ACLS table

tag - page-tag, or current page if absent
returns single-dimension array indexed by property-name, to merge into $page array
effectively, provides arbitrary extension of $page fields

array get_cached_page(string tag) -- retrieve page-array from page-cache


null cache_page(array page) -- store page-array in page-cache

note - uses 'tag' member in page-array as index in cache

null set_page(array page) -- sets the page as the current 'this-page'

note - will not change the current-page if tag (presumably whole array) is empty

array load_page_by_id(int id) -- get page-array (without extra page-properties) for selected page-record

id - unique id for page-record

array load_revisions(string tag) -- get array of page-arrays (without extra page-properties) for all versions of this page, sorted in reverse date-order


array load_pages_linking(string tag) -- get array of array of page-tags linking to this page

returns 0-index array of record-arrays each with single field 'tag'

array load_recently_changed() -- get array of all current pages, sorted in reverse date-order

returns array of page-record arrays
page-record arrays are also stored in cache
warning - this is likely to be very resource-intensive

array load_wanted_pages() -- get array of (intended) tags for links to non-existent pages

returns 0-index array of record-arrays with fields 'tag' (missing page) and 'count' (no. of references)

array load_orphaned_pages() - get array of tags for pages without links to any other page

returns 0-index array of record-arrays with single field 'tag'

array load_page_titles() - get array of tags for all pages

returns 0-index array of record-arrays with single field 'tag'
note tag is page-'title' (as per Wakka) - see also load_page_options() function

array load_allpages() - get array of latest versions of all page-records

returns 0-index array of record-arrays with all standard Wakka page-fields (but not extended page-properties)
warning - this is likely to be very resource-intensive

array fulltext_search(string phrase) - get array of current versions of pages with tag or body containing the search-phrase

returns 0-index array of page-record arrays with all standard Wakka page-fields (but not extended page-properties), sorted in reverse date-order
warning - this is likely to be resource-intensive

[=] null save_page(string tag, string body, comment_on='', array extra='') -- store new/edited page-content

tag - page-tag to use (may or may not already exist)
body - Wakka-format text for page-body
comment_on - if set, body is a comment on the page with this field as tag
[=] extra - optional field-name indexed array of extended page-properties for non-comment pages
extended page-properties are stored in ACLS table
if 'parent' property exists, also updates 'parents', 'siblings' and 'children' properties for self and related pages
[=] this function also triggers optional flushing of outdated page-revisions as per 'pages_purge_time' config-parameter (moved from maintenance() function - same as in Wakka 0.1.2, but triggered on each save-page rather than each page-view)

[*] array get_parent_list(string tag='', string parent='') -- get array of tags in 'parent' tree, sorted highest-parent-first

tag - page-tag of end-point of parent-child tree (i.e. usually self) - default is self
parent - page-tag of this tag's parent, if known
returns 0-index array of page-tags

[*] array get_sibling_list(string tag, string parent) -- get array of 'sibling' tags, sorted in tag order

tag - page-tag to be excluded from sibling-list (i.e. usually self)
parent - tag of 'parent' for siblings of this tag
returns 0-index array of page-tags

[*] array get_child_list(string tag) -- get array of 'child' tags, sorted in tag order

tag - page-tag as 'parent' (i.e. usually self) to identify 'children'
returns 0-index array of page-tags

[*] string make_tree(array taglist, string fieldsep='|', string rowsep='') - return serialised version of tag and shortname, for tags in taglist

taglist - 0-index array of tags (i.e. as returned by get_parent_list() etc.)
fieldsep - field-separator in output string
rowsep - row-separator in output string
(with default fieldsep/rowsep, output is compatible with default settings of menu handlers - see menu_item() function)
if 'shortname' property is absent for a page, standard 'tag' property is used as default (i.e. backward-compatible with Wakka)

1.6. Cookies


null set_session_cookie(string name, mixed value) -- store a session-value

stored as root-value for the domain; expires when the browser closes
also stored in the local COOKIE array

null set_persistent_cookie(string name, mixed value) -- store a persistent client-value

stored as root-value for the domain; expires in 90 days
also stored in the local COOKIE array

null delete_cookie(string name) -- delete a session/client value

stored as null value, 1-second expiry, for the current session
also stored as empty (not unset) in the local COOKIE array

mixed get_cookie(string name) -- retrieve a session/client value from the local COOKIE array

1.7. HTTP / request / link related


null set_message(string message) -- set content for a popup message to be shown on opening the next Wakka page

(actually just stores the session-value 'message')
note - because it's displayed via a Javascript alert-box, the message can only be around 10-20 words maximum
warning - because it's eventually embedded in Javascript in the page tag, the string cannot include " characters, and must not end with a ' character

string get_message() -- retrieve and clear the session-value 'message'


null redirect(string url) -- immediate redirect to the specified URL

note - even though it's output as an HTTP Header, Wakka's output-buffering means that this function still works anywhere in a page

[=] string mini_href(string method='', string tag='', string anchor='') -- return value for page 'wakka' parameter, in tag[/method][#anchor] format

method - optional Wakka method (default 'show' method added in run() function)
tag - optional tag - returns current-page tag if empty
[=] anchor - optional HTTP anchor-fragment (i.e. backward-compatible with Wakka 0.1.2)

[=] string href(string method='', string tag='', string params='', string anchor='') -- return the full URL for a page/method, including any additional URL-parameters and/or anchor

method - optional Wakka method (default 'show' method added in run() function)
tag - optional tag - returns current-page tag if empty
params - optional URL parameters in HTTP name=value[&name=value][...] format
[=] anchor - optional HTTP anchor-fragment (i.e. backward-compatible with Wakka 0.1.2)
returns HREF string adjusted for Apache rewrite_method setting (i.e. Wakka 'rewrite_method' config-parameter)
[=] Wakka 'base_url' config-parameter stays the same regardless of 'rewrite_method' setting
[=] script-name can be set via 'script_name' config-parameter (defaults to self, i.e. index.php)
[=] page-var can be set via 'page_var' config-parameter (defaults to page)

[=] string link(string pagetag, string method='', string text='', bool track=1) -- return full <A href="https://example.com/"> or <IMG/> HTML-tag

pagetag - link content - may be Wakka tag, interwiki wikiname:page tag, http/ftp/https/mailto URL, [=] local or remote image-file for <IMG/> link, or [=] local or remote doc-file; if pagetag is for an external link but not protocol is specified, http:// is prepended
method - optional Wakka method (default 'show' method added in run() function)
text - optional text or [=] image-file for HREF link (defaults to same as pagetag)
track - link-tracking used by Wakka's internal link-tracking (inter-page cross-references in LINK table)
[=] credits - some extension ideas and code adapted from Wacko R3.5 variant of Wakka
[=] pagetag may include a '#' anchor-fragment
[=] if pagetag begins with '#' and text is empty, link is an <A name=".."> tag (i.e. page-anchor)
[=] if pagetag begins with '#' and text is non-empty, link is an intra-page link with text as content (text may be an image-file, for an intra-page image-link - e.g. for 'return to top')
[=] if pagetag is an image- or doc-file and text is not an image-link (see next), text is content for link ALT parameter
[=] text may be name of local or remote image-file - results in image-link
[=] image- and document-files are identified by filetypes listed in 'image_types' and 'doc_types' config-parameters respectively
[=] local image- or document-files are identified by no '/' in the filename, and must be in the folder pointed to by the config-parameter 'image_path' (defaults to /images) or 'doc_path' (defaults to download) respectively
[=] if link-class separator (defined by config-parameter 'link_class', defaults to ||) is found in text, text is split into text (before separator) and class-info (after); class-info is inserted into <IMG/> tag (if either pagetag or text is an image-file) or <A> tag (all other cases), must be HTML-appropriate content (e.g. ALT, HEIGHT, WIDTH, ALIGN etc) and cannot include < or > (to minimise hacking...); class-info may also include useicon or noicon directive (see next)
[=] doc-file links optionally preceded by an icon for the respective doc-type; icons must be in folder pointed to by 'icon_path' (defaults to same as 'image_path') and in GIF format with same name as doc-type (e.g. pdf.gif); will be shown for all doc-files if 'use_icons' config-parameter is set (defaults to Y - i.e. icon-display on); can be overruled by useicon or noicon directive in class-info

bool is_wiki_name(string text) -- return true if text conforms to Wakka's 'camel-case' page-name convention


null track_link(string tag) -- add tag (i.e. page-reference) to current list stored in SESSION link-table

note - used by Wakka's internal link-tracking - is effectively a private-function

array get_link_table() -- return current content of SESSION link-table

array is 0-index array of page-tags
note - used by Wakka's internal link-tracking - is effectively a private-function

null clear_link_table() -- clear and reset the current content of SESSION link-table

note - used by Wakka's internal link-tracking - is effectively a private-function

null start_link_tracking() -- switch on Wakka's internal link-tracking

note - used by Wakka's internal link-tracking - is effectively a private-function

null stop_link_tracking() -- switch off Wakka's internal link-tracking

note - used by Wakka's internal link-tracking - is effectively a private-function

null write_link_table() -- update (clear and refresh) the content of the LINK table for the current page-tag

note - used by Wakka's internal link-tracking - is effectively a private-function
in the LINKS table, the from_tag field is the current page-tag (i.e. from get_page_tag() function), the to_tag field is a reference from the SESSION link-table

string theme_header() -- return the buffered output for the page-header

header-content is derived from the file pointed to by the 'header_action' config-parameter
[=] link-tracking is disabled for the header (otherwise any page referenced in the header is listed as linked to every page)
[=] header-action may be set individually for each sub-site or section, as selected by additional page-properties (see Configuration section)
[=] header is now processed after the page-body (see run() function), so header-action may be selected in page-code (e.g. to output different headers for popup help-pages, or no header at all)

string theme_footer() -- return the buffered output for the page-footer

footer-content is derived from the file pointed to by the 'footer_action' config-parameter
[=] link-tracking is disabled for the footer (otherwise any page referenced in the footer is listed as linked to every page)
[=] footer-action may be set individually for each sub-site or section, as selected by additional page-properties (see Configuration section)
[=] footer is processed after the page-body, so footer-action may be selected in page-code (e.g. to output different footers for popup help-pages, or no header at all)

1.8. Forms


string form_open(string method='', string tag='', string formmethod='POST') -- return a <FORM> HTML-tag for the selected method and tag

method - optional (if empty, defaults to 'show' in run() function)
tag - optional, defaults to current page-tag
FORM 'action' parameter is adjusted for Apache rewrite_method setting (i.e. Wakka 'rewrite_method' config-parameter)
[=] page-var for use when 'rewrite_method' is disabled can be set via 'page_var' config-parameter (defaults to wakka)

string form_close() -- return a </FORM> HTML-tag

1.9. Interwiki stuff


null read_interwiki() -- read and store the content of the 'interwiki.conf' file, for use in interwiki links

note - the interwiki.conf file, if present, must be in the root-directory

null add_interwiki(string name, string url) -- add an interwiki reference to this page's interwiki list

note - this list persists only for the duration of the processing for this page

string get_interwiki_url(string name, string tag) -- return a full interwiki URL

name - name of interwiki reference
tag - text to be appended to the interwiki URL
warning - returns nothing if the interwiki reference is not found - if so, this will result in null (and possibly invisible) HREF links

1.10. Referrers


null log_referrers(string tag='', string referrer='') -- if page-referrer is from outside this wiki, add it to the page's entries in the REFERRERS table

tag - optional Wakka page-tag (defaults to current page)
referrer - page-referrer (defaults to value of HTTP-server 'REFERER' (sic) parameter)
[=] this function also triggers optional flushing of outdated page-referrers as per 'referrers_purge_time' config-parameter (moved from maintenance() function - same as in Wakka 0.1.2, but now triggered on each external-referrer reference rather than each page-view)

array load_referrers(string tag='') -- return array of external referrers for this page-tag, sorted by number of references from each referrer, highest-first

tag - optional Wakka page-tag (defaults to current page)
returns 0-index array of record-arrays, each field-indexed as 'referrer' (URL) and 'num' (number of references)

1.11. Plug-ins


string action(string action, bool forcelinktracking=true) -- return buffered output of a {{..}} page-action

action - name of action-file followed by optional arbitrary-length list of parameters in parameter=".." format
action-file is name of file (without .php - that's added automatically here) in any directory listed in the 'action_path' config-parameter (see Includebuffered() function)
parameter-names are case-sensitive and must be alphanumeric (i.e. '_' is not allowed); each parameter and its value is added to the symbol-table available to the action's code

string method(string method) -- return buffered output of (usually) processing the current page with the selected method

method - name of method-file (without .php - that's added automatically here)
the directory pointed to by the 'handler' config-parameter (defaults to page) is prepended as part of the method, as the 'method-location'
the 'method-location' (with '.php') may be in any directory listed in the 'handler_path' config-parameter (see Includebuffered() function)

string format(string text, string formatter='wacko') -- return buffered output of processing the 'text' parameter with the selected formatter

text - text to be processed (formatted)
formatter - name of formatter-file (without .php - that's added automatically here)
the file must be in the ./formatter directory
the text parameter and its value are added to the symbol-table available to the formatter's code

1.12. Users


array load_user(string name, bool/string password=0) -- return user-record for selected user, with optional password check

name - user-name in USERS table
password - optional; if non-zero, only return values if both user-name and password match
returns fieldname-indexed array of all matching fields in USERS table, or empty array if user not found or if password provided but does not match

array load_users() -- return array of all current user-records, sorted by user-name

returns 0-index array of user-records, each record as fieldname-indexed array of all matching fields in USERS table
warning - this may be resource-intensive

string get_user_name() -- return name of or identifier for current user

returns user-name if user is logged-on, otherwise extracts a host-name or IP address from the HTTP 'SERVER_ADDR' parameter
warning - on a closed intranet or local server, change the gethostbyaddr() function in the code to a simple copy from 'SERVER_ADDR', as the failed gethostbyaddr() search may add many seconds to the page runtime

string user_name() -- same as get_user_name() (deprecated)


array get_user() -- return the user-info (if any) from the current session


null set_user(array user) -- store the user-info for the current user in the current session

note - adds the user-name and password to the user-info as 'name' and 'password' fields respectively
warning - storing the password in a session-parameter may be a security issue where sessions are stored in cookies

null logout_user() -- logs out the current user by deleting the user-info from the current session

warning - the current password is stored in a separate session-cookie - this may be a security issue

bool user_wants_comments() -- return true if the user is logged-on and has set their default 'wants_comments' user-info parameter to Y

1.13. Comments


[=] array load_comments(string tag, bool reverse=false, int limit=0) -- return array of comment-'pages' associated with selected tag

tag - name of page for which to search for associated comments
[=] reverse - optional sort-order selector: if false, sorts earliest-first (default, as per Wakka 0.1.2), if true, sorts most-recent-first
[=] limit - optional limit on number of comments - if non-zero, limits the comment-count as per the specified order
combined, these two additions also support a simple weblog mechanism, with entries as 'comments' to a base-page sorted in reverse date-order and limited to the selected number of entries
returns 0-indexed array of page-records, without additional page-properties (see load_page() function)

array load_recent_comments() -- return array of all comments, in reverse date-order

note - the time used for the sort-order is that of the comment, not the base-page
warning - this function returns all content of all comments, and may be resource-intensive

array load_recently_commented(int limit=50) -- return array of page-records sorted by most-recent-comment

limit - optional limit on number of comments processed
returns 0-indexed array of page-records, without additional page-properties (see load_page() function), but with extra fields 'comment_user', 'comment_time', 'comment_tag' (respectively the user, time and page-tag of the respective comment-'page')

[*] bool allows_comments() -- returns false if no user can write comments to the current page

note - is used by a modified 'show' method to prevent the view/edit comments section of the footer from being displayed if no user can write comments

1.14. Access control


bool is_owner(string tag) -- return true if the current user is the 'owner' of the selected page

tag - optional page-tag - defaults to current page
note - returns false if the current user is not logged on

[*] bool is_admin() -- return true if the current user is a system administrator

system-admins are identified in the (additional) config-parameter 'sysadmin_acl' (comma-separated list of user-ids and/or user-groups - see has_access() function)

string get_page_owner(string tag, string time='') -- return user-id of selected page or page-revision

tag - optional page-tag - defaults to current page
time - optional revision-version time

null set_page_owner(string tag, string user) -- set selected user as the 'owner' of the selected page (i.e. user 'claims' the page)

tag - page-tag of page 'claimed'
user - user-id of user 'claiming' the page

[=] array load_acl(string tag, string privilege, bool usedefaults=true, bool forceload=false) -- return access-control/page-property record for selected page-privilege/property

tag - page-tag for requested privilege/property
privilege - name of privilege/property requested
usedefaults - if true and respective page-privilege record not found, use respective default privilege from 'default_read_acl', 'default_write_acl' or 'default_comment_acl' config-parameter ([=] not used for extended page-properties)
[=] forceload - if false, attempt to read from current page-properties (including privileges) first; if true, force privilege/property to be loaded from ACLS table (as per Wakka 0.1.2)
returns fieldname-indexed array of 'page' (tag), 'privilege' and 'list' - latter is newline-separated list of names ([=] and/or user-groups) for access-control rights ([=] or page-property value for other 'privilege' labels)
[=] note - extended page-properties are stored in the ACLS table, as for ACL access-control privileges

null save_acl(string tag, string privilege, string list='') -- save selected page-privilege/property in ACLS table

tag - page-tag for requested privilege/property
privilege - name of privilege/property to be stored
list - access-control list ([=] or extended page-property) to be stored

[*] null delete_acl(string/array tag, string/array privilege, string/array list='') -- delete page-properties for specified tag(s) and/or property-type(s) and/or content

tag - page-tag or 0-indexed array of page-tags
privilege - extended page-property name or 0-indexed array of page-property names
list - property content or 0-indexed array of content-values
note - this function is mainly used internally to keep the ACLS table free of empty or unused extended page-property records, and also by the added 'delete' method to delete a complete page

[*] string mysql_quote_str(string/array value) - return a string suitable for use in a Mysql 'IN' clause

value - string or array of string to which the PHP mysql_escape_string() function is to be applied
note - for consistency with other code, the string returned does not include the outermost '..' characters needed in the final Mysql query

[*] bool has_rights(string rights) -- return true if current user has any of the specified access-rights

rights - comma-separated list user-ids and/or user-groups (see has_access() function)
note - returns false if current user is not logged on (use less resource-intensive get_user() function to test for logged-on status)

bool has_access(string privilege, string tag='', string user='') -- return true if the specified user has the specified access-rights to the specified page

privilege - type of access-right to be tested - either 'read', 'write' or 'comment'
tag - page-tag on which to test for rights (defaults to current page)
user - user-id if user for access-rights test (defaults to current user)
always returns true if the user-id matches the page-'owner' (see is_owner() function) or [=] belongs to a system-administrator group (see is_admin() function)
returns true if the user-id matches any of the wildcard keys '*' any-user, or '$' any logged-on user, or any of the specific user-ids (or, [=] recursively, any user-groups), listed in the list parameter for this tag and privilege in the ACLS table or, if no record is found in ACLS, in the respective 'default_read_acl', 'default_write_acl' or 'default_comment_acl' config-parameter
returns false if the user-id does not match, is explicitly blocked by a '!' prefix, or the list is present and empty

[*] bool test_access(string list, string user, bool is_registered) -- provides recursive support for access-rights checks

note - this is effectively a private support-function for is_admin(), has_rights() and has_access()

[*] array load_groups() -- return array of names of all user-groups

array is 0-indexed list of user-groups

1.15. XML support


null write_recent_changes_xml() - generate RSS 0.92-spec XML file summarising recent changes

note - generates/overwrites a single hardwired recentchanges_name.xml file in the /xml directory, where name is derived from the sites 'wakka_name'' config-parameter

1.16. Templates


This new [*] section provides support for templates, to separate visual code (HTML/CSS) from logic code (PHP).


Templates are standard HTML files, or just PHP strings, with substitution-markers in the form {marker}, and optional blocks to extract and replace - recursively if required - in the form content. Blocks and substitution markers may be nested as required. For a simple example, see the menu_out() function in the Menu section below.


Handles and markers are case-independent.


The following additional config-parameters are used:

  • 'tpl_unknowns' - substitution of 'undefined' marker-blocks (see tpl_getundefined() function): either 'keep' (leave unchanged - default), 'remove' (delete from the output) or 'comment' (replace with a HTML comment)
  • 'tpl_halt_on_error' - action on error: either 'yes' (halt on error - default), 'report' (insert a warning-message in the output stream) or 'ignore' (ignore the error and try to continue)
  • 'tpl_path' - directory-path for templates: default to ./templates

Credits - this section is based on Kristian Koehntopp's Template library for PHPLib


[*] bool tpl_setfile(string/array handle, string filename='') -- associate a filename with a matching template-handle (or filenames with handles)

handle - template-handle or, if array, array of handle=>filename pairs
filename - name of template file (should be blank if handle is an array)
returns false if any filename is blank or any file is not found
note - this only assigns filenames to handles - file-loading does not take place until a tpl_setblock(), tpl_subst() (usually via tpl_parse()) or tpl_getundefined() function is called

[*] bool tpl_setblock(string parent, string handle, string name='') -- extract a named block from the template-handle

parent - template-handle of parent-block (will attempt to load associated file if not yet loaded)
handle - template-handle in which to store extracted block
name - optional handle-name to insert in parent-block in place of extracted block (if not present, handle value will be used as name)
markers for blocks to extract take the form content, where handle is the name to use here as the value of the handle parameter, and content is the block to be associated with handle
when the function completes, the extracted block is replaced in the parent-block with {handle} or {name}
the name parameter is used when the content will be constructed repeatedly, such as in a table-output loop, and the resultant content finally copied back to handle - see Tpl_parse() function

[*] null tpl_setvar(string/array handle, string value='') -- assign content for a template-handle or a set of template-handles

handle - template-handle or, if array, array of handle=>value pairs
value - content to assign (should be blank if handle is an array)

[*] string tpl_subst(string/array handle) -- return result of substituting content for the respective markers in the block(s) specified by handle

handle - template-handle, or 0-indexed array of template-handles, for block(s) in which to perform substitution
will perform substitution for any markers found in handle's block(s)
note - the key difference between this function and Tpl_parse() is that this does not change the content stored in handle's block(s) - the result of the substitution is returned but not stored by this function

[*] string tpl_parse(string target, string/array handle, bool append=false) -- return result of performing marker/content substitution in handle, also storing the result in target

target - destination-handle to store the result
handle - source-handle for content in which marker-substitution will take place
append - if true, append the result to any existing content held by target
note - append is typically used when markers in content pointed to by handle are to be substituted with new content repeatedly in a loop, such as when processing a recordset from a query; the content held by handle is not changed in the substitution, but the content of target is
note - if append is true, handle must be a string, not an array

[*] string tpl_getvar(string handle) -- return content held by handle


[*] array tpl_getvars(array handles='') -- return array of content-strings content held by handles, or all content

handles -- 0-indexed array of handles for which to return content (if empty, returns content of all current handles)
returns handle-indexed array of strings

[*] array tpl_getundefined() -- return array of apparent handles in template for which no content has been defined

returns handle-indexed array of apparent-handle names
returns false if no 'undefineds' are found
note - 'undefineds' will occur if the text contains any arbitrary {..} blocks

[*] string tpl_out(string handle) -- return content held by handle after processing of any 'unknowns'

note - 'unknowns' (i.e. un-substituted apparent markers) will occur if the text contains any arbitrary {..} blocks: if any part of your template includes code or other probable occurrences of {..} (such as providing a summary of Wakka formatting on a template for an edit-form), you should ensure that the 'tpl_unknowns' config-parameter is set to 'keep'

[*] null tpl_print(string handle) -- print content held by handle after processing of any 'unknowns'

note - this is just a shorthand for print($this->tpl_out($handle))

1.17. Menus


This new [*] section supports automated generation of code for various types of menus, using the Template section above. For example, using the default parameters, the final menu-output call

$out=$this->menu_out('{NAME}=new Array("{TEXT}","{LINK}","",{COUNT},{HEIGHT},{WIDTH});'."\n",'',true);

generates Javascript code compatible with Ger Versluis' well-known HVMenu package for nested popout menus (see http://www.dynamicdrive.com ).


Template parameters for each menu-item are:

  • {NAME} - assigned name, or HVMenu-compatible default of Menu followed by the auto-generated item-handle
  • {TEXT} - text for the link, or copy of the original link (e.g. Wakka tag) as default
  • {LINK} - URL for the menu-item, including any Wakka method defined as default in the menu-initialisation
  • {COUNT} - auto-generated count of any 'child'-items in a sub-menu attached to this item
  • {HEIGHT} - common height-value for all items in this menu or sub-menu (may be different for each sub-menu)
  • {WIDTH} - common width-value for all items in this menu or sub-menu, as for {HEIGHT}

A minimum menu using an item-string $menu returned by make_tree() (see menu_item() function) and using the template-string above (as $tpl) would be as follows:

$this->menu_init(); //initialise menu using standard defaults
$menuhandle=$this->menu_set(20,120); //set typical default cell-sizes for HVMenu
$itemhandle=$this->menu_item($menu); //generate menu-items from make_tree list
$out=$this->menu_out($tpl,''); //generate single-layer menu without recursion##

The handles menuhandle and lastitemhandle returned from the menu_set() and menu_item() functions respectively are not used in this simple example, but would be used to keep track of nesting in multi-layered menus.


[*] null menu_init(string method='', string fsep='|', string rsep="") -- initialise the menu-data store

method - Wakka 'method' to be used for all output links

fsep - field-separator for multi-link strings (see menu_item() function)
rsep - record-separator for multi-link strings

[*] string menu_set(string height, string width, string parent='', string name='') -- return handle for new sub-menu attached to the parent item

height - height for all entries in this sub-menu (required for HVMenu, not required for some other menu-types - will be substituted for any {HEIGHT} marker in the output-template)
width - width for all entries in this sub-menu (required for HVMenu, not required for some other menu-types - will be substituted for any {WIDTH} marker in the output-template)
parent - handle for parent-item to which this menu will be attached; if blank, most-recent menu-item will be used as parent
name - name to be used as menu-descriptor (not used at present, reserved for future use)
returns a menu-id in the form i_j_k..., representing the parent item (see menu_item() function), or the string :root: for the root-level menu

[*] string menu_item(string text, string link='', string parent='', string name='') -- return handle for new menu-item(s) attached to the parent menu

text - text to be shown for the menu-item (but note special ase described below)
link - tag or other URL content for the link, to be output through the href() function
parent - handle for parent-menu to which this item will be attached; if blank, most-recent menu will be used as parent
name - content for the {NAME} output-parameter; if absent, default of Menu followed by the auto-generated item-handle will be used
returns an item-id in the form i_j_k.. (e.g. 2_5_3), where i, j, k and so on are the respective item-numbers of the items in this menu-tree, with the last number representing this item
special case - if link is blank and text contains at least one match to the fsep field-separator string defined in the menu-initialisation, the string is 'unpacked' as a set of menu-item records, separated by the rsep record-separator, and with each record in the form link fsep text (e.g. HomePage|Home page); this is compatible with the output from the make_tree() function

[*] string menu_out(string tpl, string id=":root:", bool recurse=false) -- return the result of processing the menu-data with the specified template

tpl - template-string (as described at the start of this section)
id - menu-id of the sub-menu to which this template will be applied; if blank, applies (or starts) at the root-level menu
recurse - if false, applies the template to this menu only; if true, applies the template recursively to this template and all of its 'children'

[*] array menu_get(string id='', bool type) -- return stored content for a menu or menu-item

id - menu-id or item-id, dependent on type; if empty, return the menu-data array for the root-level menu
type - if false, return menu-data array (default); if true, return item-data array
note - for further details, see the code; this is effectively a private function but may be useful in some cases where direct manipulation is needed

[*] int menu_count(string id='') -- return the item-count for the selected menu

id - menu-id; defaults to :root:, for the root-level menu
note - for compatibility with HVMenu, output the Javascript string
"var NoOffFirstLineMenus=".$this->menu_count();

1.18. Run (and support for Run)


[*] null page_init() -- ensure that absolute defaults are applied to any undefined essential config-parameters

note - see the code for details of these config-parameters - mostly for the amended link() function

null maintenance() -- do basic database housekeeping ([=] deprecated, does nothing)

note - in the original Wakka 0.1.2 code, this does housekeeping for outdated page-versions and referrers; whilst it's necessary that this be done regularly, it's not necessary to do so on every page-view; in this Wakka variant housekeeping for outdated page-versions is handled more appropriately by save_page(), and for referrers by log_referrer()

null run(string tag, string method='') -- generate the output page for the specified tag and method

tag - page-tag for page-content to be output
method - processing method for page-content (see method() function), defaults to 'show' method
[=] a number of minor but significant changes:
  • loads config-parameters in cascaded form, overlaying the basic wacko_config parameters (already defined by this point) with config-parameters for a subsite (if any) specified by a 'section' extended page-property for the current-page, and then overlaying any parameters defined for the section (if any); this provides flexibility to allow directories, menus, templates, layouts, headers, footers all to change on a per-section and per-subsite basis (and also on a per-page basis, in some cases)
  • default show, edit and print methods can also change on a per-subsite/section basis, as defined by optional 'show_method', 'edit_method' and 'print_method' config-parameters respectively
  • the horrible 'method ending in .xml' kludge for outputting null-header pages is bypassed by a cleaner process of setting header- and footer-action to the string 'null' (though the original process is still supported for backward compatibility)
  • although still output in the same header/main/footer sequence, the main content is processed before the header, allowing page-content code to select the output header and footer dependent on run-time context

1.19. Extended page-properties


Although in principle any number of properties could be defined, the following are some typical examples which I've used in my (TomG's) own code, and which I edit through a modified 'edit' page-method:


  • headline - substitute for page-tag as page-headline (defaults to Wakka page-tag)
  • shortname - shorter (usually) version of headline for use in menus and breadcrumb-trails (defaults to Wakka page-tag)
  • title - content for HTML tag
  • description - content for HTML tag
  • parent - tag of 'parent' in a parent/child trail, e.g. for a menu or breadcrumb-trail (default is blank, i.e. a standard Wakka 'everything is at root-level' page)
  • section - specifies the member of the sections config-parameter array to use to overlay the standard config-parameters; this in turn may include a 'site' config-parameter to select the respective member from the sites config-parameter array

The optional sites and sections arrays in the config-parameters contain arrays of overlays for higher-level config-parameters; if absent, the result is exactly the same as the Wakka 0.1.2 standard configuration-file. In principle the sites and sections arrays could contain overlays for any config-parameters, though in practice they will not affect the start-up parameters (Mysql configuration) and should not change key parameters such as 'base_url', 'table_prefix' and 'rewrite_mode' (though there's nothing to stop them from doing so should the need arise!)

2. To Do

  • adaption for WackoWiki API -> core developers