WikiWidgets

What is WikiWidgets?

WikiWidgets is a new user interface feature of Wikiwyg. In Simple Mode, where you previously saw greyed-out uneditable content such as a table of contents, included page, or search, you now see a WikiWidget. Click on the WikiWidget to bring up a form-based editor instead of entering Advanced mode to edit that content. Use the new Insert... pulldown menu to insert new WikiWidgets anywhere in a page in either Simple or Advanced mode. Use Preview to see what your page will look like, and Save to get the final content as usual.

What does a WikiWidget look like?

A WikiWidget is a clickable image containing text that tells you what the widget represents, such as an attached file, an image, or a search. You can find out about WikiWidgets by the example at Adding a link to another workspace .

WikiWidgets - More Options

Every form-based WikiWidget editor contains a More Options link. Click it to expand the interface and expose more fill-in fields for advanced options and for customized link text. Every More Options section also displays the exact wikitext that will be inserted into the page when the form is saved.

Named Links

It is now possible to provide link text for every WikiWidget where that makes sense. For example, if you insert a WikiWidget for an attached file, use More Options in the WikiWidget interface to specify link text for the link to the attachment. Previously, there was no way to do that and the file name was always the link text.

If you provide link text for an attached image, the page will contain a link to the image instead of the image itself.

Help for WikiWidgets

Help has been updated to catalog and describe WikiWidgets. These are the Help pages of interest:

Using WikiWidgets
WikiWidgets Catalog
Adding a link to another workspace

WikiWidgets Screencast

You'll find a four minute screencast on WikiWidgets here. Have a look! The full-screen QuickTime version of the screencast is recommended for clarity.

Advanced mode is still needed

You'll still need Advanced mode for

• editing tables in Internet Explorer. Firefox has a lovely built-in table editor (Add/Delete Row/Column) which you should use if at all possible
• editing custom dynamic content (a.k.a. shortcuts) specific to your site
• .pre and .html blocks
• fixing whitespace issues
• fixing malformed tables and wikitext, but WikiWidgets should prevent creating new malformed wikitext

Editing Hints and Tips

• The WikiWidgets editor is a major upgrade. If you have a wiki page already loaded in your browser, you have to Shift-Reload (force reload) it to get the WikiWidgets editor for that page. If you move to a new page you will get the new editor. If the editor in a previously loaded page is behaving oddly, try Shift Reload.
• You can upload files (and images) during editing using the Upload Files button, and use WikiWidgets to place links to those files exactly where in the page you want them, as a unified operation. When you use Upload Files, UNCHECK the box next to "Add a link to this attachment at the top of the page?" so no link is added automatically. Browse to and select any number of files (or images). Then insert an Attachment Link (or Attached Image) WikiWidget exactly where you want it in the page. When you Save, the files will be uploaded and the links (and images) will appear.
• The browser may not let you place the insertion point next to an image, and WikiWidgets is implemented using clickable images. Instead:
• Use Home to put the insertion point at the very beginning of the current line
• Use End to put the insertion point at the very end of the current line
• Use (multiple) Page Up followed by Home to put the insertion point at the very beginning of the editing window
• Use (multiple) Page Down followed by End to put the insertion point at the very end of the editing window
• To put the insertion point between two adjacent WikiWidgets, put the insertion point in the line above the two widgets just above the rightmost WikiWidget, and use Down Arrow to move the insertion point to between the WikiWidgets.

Known issues

• In Internet Explorer, scrollbars may not appear in Preview mode. This will be fixed in a patch release. There are two workarounds:
• Save, look at your page, then Edit again.
• Use scrolling selection to scroll. To do that, hold down the mouse buttion and drag to either the top or bottom edge of the screen to initiate scrolling. Release the mouse button to stop, then click in the window to eliminate the selection feedback.

Other Changes for Socialtext 2.12

• Socialtext Unplugged was upgraded with a number of bug fixes, particularly to sync when reconnected
• Included pages are better integrated into the look of their including pages
• Page rename will now honor case changes in page titles
• IE 6 no longer freezes when Edit immediately follows Upload files
• GMail no longer ignores Subject during Email To This Page
• Neither page headers nor footers are added during PDF/Word export
• A bug that prevented PDF/Word export under SSL on Internet Explorer was repaired
• Email sent from Socialtext wikis are more robustly formatted to get through spam filters