suggestions for closing this todo

[ikiwiki.git] / doc / todo / adding_new_pages_by_using_the_web_interface.mdwn

diff --git a/doc/todo/adding_new_pages_by_using_the_web_interface.mdwn b/doc/todo/adding_new_pages_by_using_the_web_interface.mdwn
index 57ee99eb05238eeba230027824cea9fa0783f1c9..915f8a2a100b53b5b6f4b1195aad301f955810a2 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/todo/adding_new_pages_by_using_the_web_interface.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/adding_new_pages_by_using_the_web_interface.mdwn
@@ -35,3 +35,47 @@ Maybe a very simple PHP frontend for serving the
 statically generated pages, that would display a page editing form or
 something like that for non-existent pages, wouldn't be too bad a thing
 and resource hog? Just a thought... --[[Tuomov]]
+
+----
+
+A quick round-up of how other wikis address this problem:
+
+ * mediawiki *used* to Offer a search box with two buttons: 'Go'
+   and 'Search'.  'Go' brought you to a page with the name you
+   typed if it exists, and searches otherwise.  In the latter case,
+   you get a link like this at the top of the search results:
+
+> There is no page titled "Testing". You can create this page.
+
+ * wikia mediawikis have an "add a page" button that pops-up a JS
+   pseudo-window asking for a page name. On submission, you end
+   up at an edit window for the page.
+
+ * wikipedia now makes it quite hard to create new pages. The old
+   'go' button is gone, nearly all search terms end up at an actual
+   article, a "no results" match does not have helpful create link
+   options.
+
+ * Moin Moin has a two-button search: "Titles" and "Text".  Neither
+   offer a "create page" option for 0-match searches.
+
+ * the original c2.com wiki has no helpful link for this either.
+
+So - the direction of travel would appear to be *away* from having
+"new page" functionality.
+
+I would suggest the following for ikiwiki:
+
+ * Extend the search results page to include a "create this page" link,
+   perhaps toggleable, perhaps only if the search term matches some
+   criteria for what makes a sensible page name
+
+ * Some combination of JamesWestby's "create" plugin, extracting the
+   current stuff inside [[ikiwiki/plugins/inline]] (see also:
+   [[more flexible inline postform]]) -- more generally, rationalising
+   where that code lives so it can be used in more contexts.
+
+ * documenting the `inline` hack above (which I use extensively on my
+   private wikis, by the way!) as a [[tip]].
+
+-- [[Jon]]