[xwiki-users] Use of variable text in Xwiki pages
Hi, I am proposing to use XWiki to provide context sensitive help for a cloud application. It is likely that our channel partners will require their own branding of the product and supporting wiki, Therefore, my question is: does Xwiki have the functionality to use variables in the text? e.g. Company Name: [ACME | HAL | DEA] Thank You * * *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|* |Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|*
On Nov 21, 2012, at 11:45 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi, I am proposing to use XWiki to provide context sensitive help for a cloud application. It is likely that our channel partners will require their own branding of the product and supporting wiki, Therefore, my question is: does Xwiki have the functionality to use variables in the text? e.g. Company Name: [ACME | HAL | DEA]
Definitely, dynamism and configurability/extensiblity are the main strong points of XWiki. Thanks -Vincent
Hi Vincent, Thank you for your speedy reply. Searching on dynamism got me nowhere, nor did configurability. Can you point me to the place at XWiki.org where the use of variable text is discussed? Please remember, I am a writer and not a developer so, if I have to write code to get a feature, It won't happen. Regards John Murphy On 22 November 2012 18:05, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 21, 2012, at 11:45 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi, I am proposing to use XWiki to provide context sensitive help for a cloud application. It is likely that our channel partners will require their own branding of the product and supporting wiki, Therefore, my question is: does Xwiki have the functionality to use variables in the text? e.g. Company Name: [ACME | HAL | DEA]
Definitely, dynamism and configurability/extensiblity are the main strong points of XWiki.
Thanks -Vincent
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|* |Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|*
On Nov 22, 2012, at 11:35 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Vincent,
Thank you for your speedy reply.
Searching on dynamism got me nowhere, nor did configurability. Can you point me to the place at XWiki.org where the use of variable text is discussed? Please remember, I am a writer and not a developer so, if I have to write code to get a feature, It won't happen.
See http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/WebHome One area you can look at is scripting: http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/Scripting Note that if you explain more specifically what you mean by "variables in the text" maybe can help you further… Thanks -Vincent
Regards
John Murphy
On 22 November 2012 18:05, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 21, 2012, at 11:45 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi, I am proposing to use XWiki to provide context sensitive help for a cloud application. It is likely that our channel partners will require their own branding of the product and supporting wiki, Therefore, my question is: does Xwiki have the functionality to use variables in the text? e.g. Company Name: [ACME | HAL | DEA]
Definitely, dynamism and configurability/extensiblity are the main strong points of XWiki.
Thanks -Vincent
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|*
|Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|* _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
Hi Vincent, By variable text, I mean the use of a field in the text that takes its value from a parameter it receives, or pulls, locally. e.g. I build an online help system for a software product. There are three distributors for the product in Asia, Europe, and US. Each distributor has a different name for the product based on market research conducted in their area. I do not want to maintain three distinct help systems. I want the product name to appear differently to each set of viewers withing the one help system. That is what I mean by variable text. Nothing in the XWiki documentation shows me that this is possible without my writing code. I know nothing about Velocity. I would normally use a dedicated 'single source publishing' product like Madcap Flare, Author-IT, or Help & Manual to achieve this outcome. However my client has requested that I use the wiki format to heighten the user experience. If Xwiki cannot provide the feature, I shall keep looking. Regards John Murphy On 23 November 2012 19:02, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 22, 2012, at 11:35 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Vincent,
Thank you for your speedy reply.
Searching on dynamism got me nowhere, nor did configurability. Can you point me to the place at XWiki.org where the use of variable text is discussed? Please remember, I am a writer and not a developer so, if I have to write code to get a feature, It won't happen.
See http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/WebHome
One area you can look at is scripting: http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/Scripting
Note that if you explain more specifically what you mean by "variables in the text" maybe can help you further…
Thanks -Vincent
Regards
John Murphy
On 22 November 2012 18:05, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 21, 2012, at 11:45 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi, I am proposing to use XWiki to provide context sensitive help for a
cloud
application. It is likely that our channel partners will require their own branding of the product and supporting wiki, Therefore, my question is: does Xwiki have the functionality to use variables in the text? e.g. Company Name: [ACME | HAL | DEA]
Definitely, dynamism and configurability/extensiblity are the main strong points of XWiki.
Thanks -Vincent
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|*
|Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|* _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|* |Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|*
You can do that using scripting macros. It allows to insert in the wiki content any kind of dynamic behaviour. See http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/Scripting for details. On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 11:37 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]>wrote:
Hi Vincent,
By variable text, I mean the use of a field in the text that takes its value from a parameter it receives, or pulls, locally.
e.g. I build an online help system for a software product. There are three distributors for the product in Asia, Europe, and US. Each distributor has a different name for the product based on market research conducted in their area.
I do not want to maintain three distinct help systems. I want the product name to appear differently to each set of viewers withing the one help system. That is what I mean by variable text. Nothing in the XWiki documentation shows me that this is possible without my writing code. I know nothing about Velocity.
I would normally use a dedicated 'single source publishing' product like Madcap Flare, Author-IT, or Help & Manual to achieve this outcome. However my client has requested that I use the wiki format to heighten the user experience.
If Xwiki cannot provide the feature, I shall keep looking.
Regards
John Murphy
On 23 November 2012 19:02, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 22, 2012, at 11:35 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Vincent,
Thank you for your speedy reply.
Searching on dynamism got me nowhere, nor did configurability. Can you point me to the place at XWiki.org where the use of variable
text
is discussed? Please remember, I am a writer and not a developer so, if I have to write code to get a feature, It won't happen.
See http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/WebHome
One area you can look at is scripting: http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/Scripting
Note that if you explain more specifically what you mean by "variables in the text" maybe can help you further…
Thanks -Vincent
Regards
John Murphy
On 22 November 2012 18:05, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 21, 2012, at 11:45 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]
wrote:
Hi, I am proposing to use XWiki to provide context sensitive help for a cloud application. It is likely that our channel partners will require their own branding of the product and supporting wiki, Therefore, my question is: does Xwiki have the functionality to use variables in the text? e.g. Company Name: [ACME | HAL | DEA]
Definitely, dynamism and configurability/extensiblity are the main strong points of XWiki.
Thanks -Vincent
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|*
|Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|* _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|*
|Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|* _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- Thomas Mortagne
Hi, Your need looks a bit like internationalization : http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Features/I18N http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/InternationalizingApplicat... I'm not sure it would fit though, as it would link keys (product names) to specific countries, and not to specific areas (asia, europe ...). You could provide a same translation to all countries part of an area, but it might be boring ;-) BR, Jeremie 2012/11/25 John Murphy <[email protected]>
Hi Vincent,
By variable text, I mean the use of a field in the text that takes its value from a parameter it receives, or pulls, locally.
e.g. I build an online help system for a software product. There are three distributors for the product in Asia, Europe, and US. Each distributor has a different name for the product based on market research conducted in their area.
I do not want to maintain three distinct help systems. I want the product name to appear differently to each set of viewers withing the one help system. That is what I mean by variable text. Nothing in the XWiki documentation shows me that this is possible without my writing code. I know nothing about Velocity.
I would normally use a dedicated 'single source publishing' product like Madcap Flare, Author-IT, or Help & Manual to achieve this outcome. However my client has requested that I use the wiki format to heighten the user experience.
If Xwiki cannot provide the feature, I shall keep looking.
Regards
John Murphy
On 23 November 2012 19:02, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 22, 2012, at 11:35 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Vincent,
Thank you for your speedy reply.
Searching on dynamism got me nowhere, nor did configurability. Can you point me to the place at XWiki.org where the use of variable
text
is discussed? Please remember, I am a writer and not a developer so, if I have to write code to get a feature, It won't happen.
See http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/WebHome
One area you can look at is scripting: http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/Scripting
Note that if you explain more specifically what you mean by "variables in the text" maybe can help you further…
Thanks -Vincent
Regards
John Murphy
On 22 November 2012 18:05, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 21, 2012, at 11:45 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]
wrote:
Hi, I am proposing to use XWiki to provide context sensitive help for a cloud application. It is likely that our channel partners will require their own branding of the product and supporting wiki, Therefore, my question is: does Xwiki have the functionality to use variables in the text? e.g. Company Name: [ACME | HAL | DEA]
Definitely, dynamism and configurability/extensiblity are the main strong points of XWiki.
Thanks -Vincent
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|*
|Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|* _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|*
|Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|* _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
Hi John, As far as I understand it you need to put a placeholder (you call it variable text; we might call it wiki macro) in your documentation pages that, based on the user's IP address or the user's preference, displays one preconfigured text value. As I`ve said, one solution would be using a wiki macro that you insert in your document's content like "The main features of {{productName/}} are: ...". XWiki does not currently provide, out of the box, nor trough any exstension that I know of, such a wiki macro, but it is very easy to create one with minimal scripting knowledge. Here is the link to a short tutorial demonstrating how to create such a macro, initially containing static text, then adding some parameters in the mix, discovering it in the WYSIWYG editor, etc.: http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/WikiMacroTutorial You can use whatever scripting language you find easier to use in writing the wiki macro. If you are having trouble deciding which one to use, refer to http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/Scripting (as the previous answers suggested) to get more details or feel free to ask for help from the XWiki community. After that, you are more than welcomed to contribute your wiki macro as an extension ( http://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome ) to XWiki, so that other people having the same use case as you do might use it and/or improve it. After all, the reason we don`t have it until now is because nobody needed such a macro :) Hope this helps, Eduard On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Jeremie BOUSQUET < [email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
Your need looks a bit like internationalization : http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Features/I18N
http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/InternationalizingApplicat...
I'm not sure it would fit though, as it would link keys (product names) to specific countries, and not to specific areas (asia, europe ...). You could provide a same translation to all countries part of an area, but it might be boring ;-)
BR, Jeremie
2012/11/25 John Murphy <[email protected]>
Hi Vincent,
By variable text, I mean the use of a field in the text that takes its value from a parameter it receives, or pulls, locally.
e.g. I build an online help system for a software product. There are three distributors for the product in Asia, Europe, and US. Each distributor has a different name for the product based on market research conducted in their area.
I do not want to maintain three distinct help systems. I want the product name to appear differently to each set of viewers withing the one help system. That is what I mean by variable text. Nothing in the XWiki documentation shows me that this is possible without my writing code. I know nothing about Velocity.
I would normally use a dedicated 'single source publishing' product like Madcap Flare, Author-IT, or Help & Manual to achieve this outcome. However my client has requested that I use the wiki format to heighten the user experience.
If Xwiki cannot provide the feature, I shall keep looking.
Regards
John Murphy
On 23 November 2012 19:02, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 22, 2012, at 11:35 PM, John Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Vincent,
Thank you for your speedy reply.
Searching on dynamism got me nowhere, nor did configurability. Can you point me to the place at XWiki.org where the use of variable
text
is discussed? Please remember, I am a writer and not a developer so, if I have to write code to get a feature, It won't happen.
See http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/WebHome
One area you can look at is scripting: http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/DevGuide/Scripting
Note that if you explain more specifically what you mean by "variables in the text" maybe can help you further…
Thanks -Vincent
Regards
John Murphy
On 22 November 2012 18:05, Vincent Massol <[email protected]>
wrote:
On Nov 21, 2012, at 11:45 PM, John Murphy <
wrote:
Hi, I am proposing to use XWiki to provide context sensitive help for a cloud application. It is likely that our channel partners will require their own branding of the product and supporting wiki, Therefore, my question is: does Xwiki have the functionality to use variables in the text? e.g. Company Name: [ACME | HAL | DEA]
Definitely, dynamism and configurability/extensiblity are the main strong points of XWiki.
Thanks -Vincent
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|*
|Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|* _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
-- *John Murphy **|* Technical Writer *|* Mobile: 0415324479 *|*
|Telephone: 02 8999 3170 *|*[email protected]*|* _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
_______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
participants (5)
-
Eduard Moraru -
Jeremie BOUSQUET -
John Murphy -
Thomas Mortagne -
Vincent Massol