Feature Proposal: Forbidding a subweb name same as a topic name

Motivation

Currently, even if the topic Solar.Mars exists, you can create the subweb Solar/Mars and vice versa. Partly because of this, you cannot view the home page of the subweb Solar/Jupiter by http://server/cgi-bin/view/Solar/Jupiter (without a trailing slash) even if the page Solar.Jupiter does not exist. This is inconsistent with the fact that you can view the home page of the Solar with by http://server/cgi-bin/view/Solar.

That's just a small inconvenience. But things get strange if you rename the topic Solar.Mars when there is the subweb Solar/Mars. This causes all attachments of Solar/Mars subweb topics inaccessible. A similar thing happens when the subweb Solar/Mars is renamed while the topic Solar.Mars has attachments.

Description and Documentation

If topic names and subweb names are guaranteed not to conflict, the issues mentioned above are gone. Specifically:

• Attachments don't go missing due to a subweb-topic name conflict.
• The following enhancements can be implemented and turned on
  • Allowing to access the home page of a subweb by its name without a trailing slash in URL.
  • Solar.Mars and [[Solar.Mars]...] are regarded as links to the home page of the Solar/Mars subweb
    • This makes UserSubwebs more transparent than otherwise. Main.FirstLast keeps working as a link to the user's page.

For backward compatibility, TWiki behaves conservatively.

• If Solar.Mars topic exists,
  • http://server/cgi-bin/view/Solar/Mars shows the topic.
  • Solar.Mars and [[Solar.Mars]...] become links to the topic.
• If the topic does not exists,
  • http://server/cgi-bin/view/Solar/Mars shows the home page of Solar/Mars subweb.
  • Solar.Mars and [[Solar.Mars]...] become links to the home page of Solar/Mars subweb.

Examples

Impact

Implementation

-- Contributors: HideyoImazu - 2012-07-03

lib/TWiki/Render.pm

• _renderWikiWord() now when the specified topic doesn't exist, it checks if the subweb exists.

lib/TWiki/UI/Manage.pm

• _createWeb() checks web-topic name conflict, throwing the topic_exists_new_web exception
• rename() checks topic-web name conflict, throwoing the web_exists_topic_rename exception
• renameWeb() checks web-topic name conflict, throwing the topic_exists_web_rename exception

lib/TWiki/UI/Edit.pm

• init_edit() checks topic-web name conflict, throwing the web_exists_topic_edit exception

lib/TWiki/UI/Save.pm

• buildNewToipc() checks topic-web name conflict, throwing the web_exists_topic_save exception

templates/messages.tmpl

• topic_exists_new_web
• web_exists_topic_rename
• topic_exists_web_rename
• web_exists_topic_edit
• web_exists_topic_save

Discussion

I consider this a bug that needs to be fixed. Yes, good spec to disallow web if topic of same name exists, and vice versa. I would not worry about backward compatibility and configure flag. Default behavior for legacy content in case both exist could be to ignore the topic?

-- PeterThoeny - 2012-07-03

I agree. I updated the Description section accordingly.

-- HideyoImazu - 2012-07-04

Looks good.

-- PeterThoeny - 2012-07-04

This is now accepted by 7 days feedback period.

-- PeterThoeny - 2012-07-11