Hash Magic URIs / URLs for Wikidot

08 Sep 2011 12:22 | module wikidot

The Wikidot Team just sneaked in a new feature - and it's extremely useful! ;-)

Blog post written for: Advanced users. Most site owners will never use these directly.

Previously, if you wanted to open the page editor using a URI, you would type something like this into a live template or ListPages module body:

[/%%fullname%%/edit/true Edit this page]

Thanks to Hash Magic URIs, recently implemented by Wikidot, you can achieve the same result using a slightly different method:

[/%%fullname%%#_editpage Edit this page]

So, what's the difference? I've run a few tests and it seems that both methods work - so if the intent is to phase out the older and more established /edit/true links, it isn't happening any time soon. Wikidot is likely to continue supporting that method.

What is most interesting are the other options that are available. Editing the page via URI was already possible, it's nothing new. But Hash Magic URIs introduces a number of new options that we haven't had access to until now:

Option	Description	Scope	Previous (URI)	Previous (other)
#_editpage	Opens the editor	Page	`/edit/true`	`[[button edit]]`
#_edittags	Opens the tag editor	Page	`/tags/new-tags`	`[[button tags]]`
#_history	Displays the history	Page	None	`[[button history]]`
#_files	List files	Page	None	`[[button files]]`
#_sitetools	Opens the site tools information	Site	None	None
#_wantedpages	Lists wanted pages	Site	None	`[[module WantedPages]]`
#_orphanedpages	Lists orphaned pages	Site	None	`[[module OrphanedPages]]`
#_draftpages	Lists draft pages	Site	None	`[[module ListDrafts]]`¹

That's right… you can now link directly to the tag editor, history list and file list using the link syntax! In addition, a number of other options are available which display general information about the site.

For the Wikidot Community, this new feature is particularly useful. You can access information about a user's website, even if their permissions are not set up correctly. The end result is that problems can be solved faster than ever before!

Even with a JavaScript-based bookmark, information about attached files and orphaned pages was not accessible unless you had access to the page-options link and clicked on that.

_{Image source: PhotoBucket: PhntmBlackIce (unmodified version)}

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tsangk 08 Sep 2011 13:09

Too bad the page doesn't dynamically check for the hash value. Otherwise, I can think of a lot of applications for this feature!

Kenneth Tsang (@jxeeno)

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tsangk, 08 Sep 2011 13:09

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leiger 08 Sep 2011 23:07

Agreed. Seems I need to force-reload the page before it's recognised.

~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, made for Wikidot users (available early 2023)

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leiger, 08 Sep 2011 23:07

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Brunhilda 08 Sep 2011 17:24

Can this feature be seen in action somewhere?

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegan. - Paul McCartney

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Brunhilda, 08 Sep 2011 17:24

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leiger 08 Sep 2011 22:51

Sure. Instead of using the ListDrafts module, I can just post a link that does the exact same thing!

Show drafts

[/blog:127#_draftpages Show drafts]

Is that what you mean?

~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, made for Wikidot users (available early 2023)

Last edited on 08 Sep 2011 22:55 by leiger Show more

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leiger, 08 Sep 2011 22:51

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Brunhilda 09 Sep 2011 08:34

Hm, I am sorry, but I don/t know what drafts stands for. :)

Something that I know? You mentioned something about Recent Changes…

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegan. - Paul McCartney

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Brunhilda, 09 Sep 2011 08:34

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leiger 09 Sep 2011 10:06

When you modify a page, you can save a draft of the page now :) This is basically an early, unpublished copy of the page.

According to dictionary.com, this is one definition:

a first or preliminary form of any writing, subject to revision, copying, etc.

Look for the "Save Draft" button at the bottom of your pages when you are editing. Automatically, a draft is saved every 1 minute as well in case you lose Internet connection.

~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, made for Wikidot users (available early 2023)

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leiger, 09 Sep 2011 10:06

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Brunhilda 09 Sep 2011 21:41

hehe… I know what is the meaning of the word "draft", and I know for the button Save draft, and also I know more or less whats it for. What I dont know is why one would want to list drafts. What do you get with it?

Then, if theres a module for it, then what does this have that a module doesnt have?

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegan. - Paul McCartney

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Brunhilda, 09 Sep 2011 21:41

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leiger 11 Sep 2011 13:46

This means that you can show a list of drafts without having to waste a page. If you care about keeping your site clean and using the minimal number of pages as possible, this is one way to avoid creating yet another administration page.

It also means that you can check the list of drafts even when you don't have permission to edit pages. On someone else's site, for example.

~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, made for Wikidot users (available early 2023)

Last edited on 11 Sep 2011 13:46 by leiger Show more

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Brunhilda 11 Sep 2011 20:27

Thanks, Shane. This sounds excellent. I will check it out as soon as I can (I´m going back home in a week).

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegan. - Paul McCartney

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Brunhilda, 11 Sep 2011 20:27

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Ed Johnson 11 Sep 2011 20:42

To further clarify, the #_draftpages hash tag gives you the same result as the new function that was added under "Site tools" in the page options (we now have wanted pages, orphaned pages and draft pages). Using the hash tag allows to to easily make that option available in cases where you've hidden the page options, but want an easy link to list them. The same logic would apply to creating links to #_wantedpages and #_orphanedpages.

Community Admin

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Ed Johnson, 11 Sep 2011 20:42

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Arotaritei Vlad 09 Sep 2011 08:00

I think i can use this new feature in my "page manager":

[[module ListPages]]
* %%title_linked%% {{/%%fullname}}
[[size x-small]]Options: ([/%%fullname%%#_editpage Edit]) | ([/%%fullname%%#_edittags Edit tags]) | ([/%%fullname%%#_history Show history]) | ([/%%fullname%%#_files Manage attachaments])[[/size]]
[[/module]]

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leiger 09 Sep 2011 10:11

Yes, that should work ;-)

~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, made for Wikidot users (available early 2023)

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leiger, 09 Sep 2011 10:11

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tabviewAnonymousSteven Heynderickx

19 Oct 2012 10:41

If I understand this good… All these functions basically start some javascript, no?
Well I say this because if you put a "button" on your page and you hover it, your statusbar will say javascript:; …. I've noticed the same behaviour with tabview. If you hover a tab… the same happens: javascript at the bottom.

So I was wondering what the difficulty would be to get this working for tabview and let in this way a developer be able to create a link like this [/%%fullname%%#_tabview3 Tab3]… which would open the third tab from the tabview directly from URL?

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Anonymousleiger

19 Oct 2012 11:19

Good question. The best people to answer that would be the Wikidot team themselves.

If it were to be implemented, I would start using TabView more often.

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Helmut_pdorfAnonymousHelmut_pdorf

28 Dec 2016 14:45

I like today the #_history - ist shows me the history and the possibility for the source also for pages where I as a nott-member am not allowed to see anything of the source…!
:)

This is a little secret only for the administration gurus of the community …
Regards
Helmut

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Anonymousleiger

29 Dec 2016 13:49

I've used it a few times to see what's going on with someone's site, when they ask for help on the community but they've disabled those links :) Very useful.

Although, there is a Javascript method of triggering the same thing that has been around much longer. Just not as easily accessible as appending something to the page URL.

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