pWiki/bootstrap/Doc/Path.md

# ![pWiki](img/pWiki-i.jpg) pWiki Path

A Wiki is a set of _pages_, each uniquely defined by it's _title_. Titles 
are traditionally formatted as WikiWords. pWiki closely follows this 
culture, while not restricting either page title formatting nor page 
nesting (nested paths), though in the general case following the Wiki 
style is recommended.



## Basic terminology

**Path**  
_One or more strings (or parts) separated by "/" that identifies a view._

We call the last _part_ in a path sequence a _title_.

We call the sub-path without the _title_ a _basedir_ or simply _dir_.

In pWiki, there is no distinction between a page and a _directory_, thus
we do not use the later term, instead, we may use the term _sub-page_.

Paths are case sensitive.


**Page**  
_A set of data associated with a path._

A page is identified by it's path, but this does not require every
sub-path of that path to exist -- the full path is the identifier.

Not every path _identifies_ a page, but every path _resolves_ to a page.

Some pages are _bootstrapped_, i.e. are predefined in pWiki, these pages
can be overridden but can not be removed. This is done to make it simple 
to revert to the default state if something goes wrong.


**View**  
_A path that resolves to a page that may or may not be at (identified by) 
that specific path._

A _view's_ path may match that of a specific page or may not match any
page directly, but any view will resolve to a page via the _acquisition 
process_

Any page is a view, every view resolves to a page, but not every view 
is a page.

(see: _Page acquisiton_ below)


**\WikiWord**  
_A WikiWork is a specially formated string that is treated as a link in
page text_

In pWiki a simple WikiWord is any string starting with a capital letter,
must contain at least and one more capital letter and can consist of 
letters, numbers, underscores (WikiWord itself is a good example)

A WikiWord path (_WikiPath_) is a set of path parts separated by '/' the
first part must start with a capital letter and the rest can contain 
letters, numbers and/or underscores (example: Path/to/somepage).

_Note that this is not actually a part of the path specification but it 
is part of the Wiki culture and a convenient way to automatically link 
to pages (handled by pWiki macros when rendering pages)._



**Special path characters**  
Titles of _user pages_ must not contain the leading underscore `_` 
character, such paths are used internally.



## Page acquisition

pWiki path system differs from how traditional file system paths are 
handled. In pWiki if a path does not reference a page directly (i.e. 
it's a _view_), a search is conducted to find an alternative page. This 
search is called _page acquisition_.

**Acquisition process:**  
_A set of rules defining how a page is retrieved via a path._


This is used as a simple and uniform mechanism to:
- Get default pages for specific situations  
  Like [Templates/EmptyPage] to handle the _page not found_ condition.
- Define generic templates/pages accessible by multiple pages in path  
  A good example would be the viewer used to show this page [Templates/\_view]
  and all of it's _chrome_ like the path in the header and links in the 
  footer <pwiki-comment>(seen: when viewing through pWiki)</pwiki-comment>
- Overload default templates/pages


### The acquisition order/rules:

1. if _path_ matches a specific page, target _page_ is found 
1. if _path_ does not match a page:
  1. if _title_ matches a page in the parent _path_, _page_ is found
  1. repeat until we either have a match or reach root (empty _basedir_)
1. if no match is found, check if title exists in [Templates] in _basedir_
1. if no match is found, check if title exists in [/System]
1. if no match is found, repeat process for `EmptyPage` instead of _title_


**Example:**  

For path `Path/To/Page` the following paths are checked in order 
and the first matching page is returned:

- _Check path as-is then go up:_
  - `Path/To/Page` 
  - `Path/Page`
  - `Page`
- _Check in `Templates`, in path and up:_
  - `Path/To/Templates/Page`
  - `Path/Templates/Page`
  - `Templates/Page`
- _Check root `System`:_
  - `System/Page`
- _Check `EmptyPage` in path, then in templates:_
  - `Path/To/EmptyPage`
  - `Path/EmptyPage`
  - `EmptyPage`
  - `Path/To/Templates/EmptyPage`
  - `Path/Templates/EmptyPage`
  - `Templates/EmptyPage` _(This is guaranteed to exist)_


**Exceptions:**

- `System/settings` is global and _can not be overloaded_ for use as 
system configuration. This is done for security reasons.



## Default pages

**EmptyPage**  
A page resolved when a page does not exist. Used as a template for 
new/empty pages.

This page is guaranteed to exist by the system.

Located at: Templates/EmptyPage


**EmptyToDo**   
Used as a template for new/empty ToDo pages.

Located at: Templates/EmptyToDo


**EmptyOutline**  
Used as a template for new/empty outline pages.

Located at: Templates/EmptyOutline


**NoMatch**  
Returned when pattern matches no pages.



## Relative and absolute paths

pWiki follows the traditional path semantics with one addition, the "&gt;&gt;"
that is similar to ".." but works in the opposite direction, consuming 
the next, i.e. child, path element instead of parent.

To illustrate the relative and absolute mechanics:

| Title				| Source Page | Path				  | Resolves to				|
|-------------------|-------------|-----------------------|-------------------------|
| "." - current		| \SourcePage | \\./Target/Page		  | \SourcePage/Target/Page |
| ".." - parent		| \SourcePage | \\../Target/Page	  | \Target/Page			|
| "&gt;&gt;"		| \SourcePage | &gt;&gt;\/Target/Page | \SourcePage/Page		|
| "/" - root dir	| \SourcePage | \/Target/Page		  | \/Target/Page			|


_Note that neither a leading ".." at root level, nor a trailing "&gt;&gt;" 
in any path, will have any effect, and will simply be ignored (e.g. 
"\/../Page" is same as "/Page" and "\Path/&gt;&gt;" is the same as "Path")_



## Path patterns

Path patterns are used to match/iterate multiple pages. The syntax is 
similar to path glob patterns.

- "\*" - matches any page in a sub-path on one level
- "\*\*" - matches any page in a sub-path recursively

Note that neither will match parts of paths that do not explicitly 
identify pages.


**Example:**

XXX revise...

For the following paths:

```
WikiHome
SomePage
Path/to/OtherPage
Path/Page
```

Patterns and their matches:
- `*` will match:
	- WikiHome
	- SomePage
- `**` will match:
	- WikiHome
	- SomePage
	- Path/to/OtherPage
	- Path/Page
- `\Path/*` will match:
	- Path/Page

Note that neither `\Path` nor `\Path/to` does not refer to any real pages,
thus neither is matched by any of the patterns explicitly.



## Path actions

XXX path elements that perform actions on pages but do not actually 
correspond to actual pages.



## Path variables

Path variables are resolved when path is resolved or accessed.

**`$NOW`**  
Replaced with the current time.

_Also see the `\@now()` macro: [Doc/Macros]._


**`$PATH`**  
Replaced with current page path.


**`$BASE`**  
Replaced with current page basedir.


**`$TITLE`**  
Replaced with current page title.


**`$INDEX`**  
Replaced with current page index in pattern matching.



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