X-Git-Url: https://sipb.mit.edu/gitweb.cgi/ikiwiki.git/blobdiff_plain/06829be296aec1f2bc1775d3051eb56458f3c9b3..8b6c1089f52fa95433f297ad03fa4b49c7f6b08b:/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 57ee99eb0..9a502a852 100644
--- a/doc/todo/adding_new_pages_by_using_the_web_interface.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/adding_new_pages_by_using_the_web_interface.mdwn
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ and show an edit page. Ikiwiki can't do that (unless its web server is
 configured to do smart things on a 404, like maybe call ikiwiki.cgi which
 could be modified to work as a smart 404 -> edit handler).
 
+> Since this todo was opened, the [[plugins/404]] plugin has been added;
+> it does exactly that. Only if you have Apache, at the moment, though. --[[smcv]]
+
 Some wikis also provide a UI means for creating a new page. If we can find
 something good, that can be added to ikiwiki's UI. --[[Joey]]
 
@@ -35,3 +38,42 @@ 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 [[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|tips]].
+
+-- [[Jon]]