Data Forms
Table of Contents
Basics
A wiki page with a data form holds structured data ("fields") based on YAML1.
Have a go at Rob's post to learn what they are useful for.
Example(s) of use
Troubleshooting
- Be careful to properly indent fields and parameters. Example: 3 spaces are needed before the values otherwise they do not show up.
I've created a data form to support diary entries in a fantasy-rpg site. My code looks like this
and it works fine EXCEPT that in the dropdown menus both items for property 08 are missing. I don't get it at all.
Edit: fixed it by using "a, b, c, d etc." as properties. Now also in the ListPages module the "order=_year" function works. That's weird.
When you type: 01, 02, 03… parser treats it as octal numbers. as there are no 08 and 09 in octal, they become 0 and overrides each other.
Use "01", "02", …
Bartłomiej Bąkowski @ Wikidot Inc.
';.;' TeRq (Write PM)
omg, how could I have ever figured that out? ;-)
Thanks for the quick reply!
This is touched on in the dataforms documentation at http://www.wikidot.com/doc:data-forms#toc10
Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.
Now it is indeed ;-)
@TeRq: Great that you updated the doc already, this section was indeed causing my problems.
I want to determine what tags a created pages gets by the values a person fills in in the form.
So if I ask "What type op level is client"? The options are 'low' 'medium' and 'high'
Depending on the input I want to add a tag to the page called low medium or high, so I can list them on a different page.
Is that possible? Or is there any other / easier way?
So i want to control the creation of tags, based on the input of a user.
Have a look at the thread here which shows you how to do it. Then come back with any other questions.
Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.
Thanks, it has been of great help Rob!
I can't for the life of me figure out what I've done wrong here, but when I try to create a test page to see my data form, it simply won't load. I'm taken to the '(this page) does not yet exist' message, which usually you see flash briefly before being taken to the data form. But the process goes no further, even if I'm offered the 'intercept the lock' option.
Is there a size limit on data forms? Mine is rather large. But it was working perfectly well earlier. :/
Looking at it now, but immediately I see one problem in that you've got 5 fields all called version. Field names must be unique.
Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.
Derp. Thank you :D Fixed that! Still not loading for me, though.
The problem was caused by
version:
type: static
value: __**ATTRIBUTES**__
If you remove the underscore characters so it is just **ATTRIBUTES** it will work.
Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.
How bizarre! Thanks bunches. Again lol
Last I played with forms, you could neither 1) display raw data on the page without the attending label (field type: raw?) nor 2) place a particular field in it's own division of the page. I assume these are both still true.
I see that, rather than pushing a data field into a page division, they appear to be creating new properties (i.e. %%form_raw{name}%%, instead of %%content{n}%%). That seems unfortunate. ListPages + Live Templates is a dreamy combo, and I'd really rather data forms really be another way to let end users input data and to let admins craft clearer input instructions — not a whole new page type. All the right elements are present in the LP + LiveTemp scheme to make data forms work with creating nearly so much new ballast.
I suppose it's 6 of one, half a dozen of the other once these new properties work in Live Templates, it just seems like the developers are making more work for themselves doing it this way. Also, for the record, I'm thrilled forms are finally here. They'll be a great addition to the wikidot toolset.
When I first looked at forms when they were first released, I thought they looked really crappy. Not to pick on Only Joking, but that was my first exposure to a site that used the new forms and it just seemed really limiting in what you could do with the layout. Now that some CSS classes have been thrown into the mix, I think the look and feel can be improved dramatically.
After getting more acquainted over the weekend, I see a lot of promise, but until a few things that are still on the Planned implementation list get done, data forms won't be able to reach their full potential.
As you said, getting them working in live templates will be huge. That, along with the other things on the drawing board for ListPages Improvements (like being able to list a page by a specific name) will really make data forms a desirable feature and I think we'd see them really proliferate among Wikidot sites.
-Ed
Community Admin
Has anyone a live example of data form and pagepath ?
I have the same question. I tried to play at http://forms.wikidot.com/ b creating a new genre in the pagepath form field, but it does not save.
Steven is trying to help me and we've had a short PM discussion:
I'm not sure I've "got it" yet, but I'm going to play some more and try to sort this out in my brain.
-Ed
Community Admin
I played a lot this afternoon, too much I think, just because I could not understand the doc, as a silly guru I am, but now, I begin understand. Stay tuned for my feedback!
Me too. It's slowly starting to sink in…
Community Admin
Yes, I had the same problem until I realised that I had to press Enter before saving the page.
Problem is that Backlinks development has been in standstill mode for years.
There is an upcoming design to integrate backlinks in listpages so that you could list all backlinks of a page on a random page… could be something like this
Well I am hoping for this in any way… Hopefully it came across at wikidot http://projects.wikidot.com/thread:263
A - S I M P L E - P L A N by ARTiZEN a startingpoint for simple wikidot solutions.
To try to use a real "use case", I've been playing with a list of members in my golf league. I'm using a pagepath field for the member "status" to build a path like this:
I realize that a simple layout like this would be better served by using simple radio button options, but I'm trying to learn how pagepath works. ;)
It works really well to create the structure, but I just don't see the usefulness until the unfinished design sketches for both data forms and ListPages are completed. If I can't filter or sort on the data I'm collecting, I might as well use the methods we have available today (hidden tags, etc.)
Can we count on the items described in the design sketches to actually be implemented? If so, any idea how soon?
-Ed
Community Admin
In your example… What do you wish to filter?
A - S I M P L E - P L A N by ARTiZEN a startingpoint for simple wikidot solutions.
Speaking before Ed has a chance to reply… if I was creating a website with that type of content, I would see myself wanting to list all members. I would then want to be able to filter them into active/inactive or full-time/part-time lists.
Much further than that (e.g. filter by suburb that the member lives in) is probably redundant IMO
Or were you thinking about going that far Ed? Being able to use Wikidot like a database is an interesting concept… and being able to create a list of contacts and to sort and filter that list would be very powerful.
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Exactly. The ListPages improvements documents a selection method of Select by form data field: property="property-selector" and the ability to use multiple selectors. Futhermore, the data forms planned implementation features will give us the ability to set tags and parents through a data form, giving us even more options for controlling how our form data is displayed.
Yes it would and it would spring loose a multitude of other new and interesting applications!
-Ed
Community Admin
Hmm… how about this.
Use a pagepath to set this up:
Then just use ListPages as parent="status:active" and parent="status:full-time" … would that work?
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Indeed… That is a quick way to filter. The backlinks module also on the pages of the pagepath…
they will give you a list of persons who are active if you consult the page "active"
Must say I don't know what it will give if you for example would include that page somewhere else…
Let's say… you need the backlinks of the "active"-page, but as an include in an other page… I need to try that… looks interesting…
A - S I M P L E - P L A N by ARTiZEN a startingpoint for simple wikidot solutions.
No.
Player:ed
or
Player:leiger
have no parents such as status:active or status:full-time
They currently link only to these pages.
I tested this, just this morning, and was surprised to find that it doesn't work, as you said Gerdami. I thought PagePath set the parent of the page you were on… but it seems I was mistaken.
Is this a bug or design decision? Based on the name "page path", I'd naturally expect the current page to be included as part of the path… and therefore the final item to the far right of the page path field should be made to be the page's parent.
Yes? No?
Now that I'm starting off on a design tangent… I should probably start this discussion in the projects forum where it belongs.
If you are going to reply to this message, please post here instead.
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Could any of you Leiger or Gerdami tell me what the problem is. Pagepath has a correct working… I really don't see the problems you are making… tell me what you wish to do in a clear question, not refering to some other post that sombody made somewhere. And I will try to explain.
A - S I M P L E - P L A N by ARTiZEN a startingpoint for simple wikidot solutions.
I'm not sure if it's a problem as such, but pagepath does not set a parent on the form page itself. If it did I could use something like ListPages as parent="status:active" and parent="status:full-time" as Shane suggested. I like how pagepath and data forms in general are set up now. I think I'll just wait for a few more enhancements to be implemented in data forms and ListPages before using them too much. Additional features that I think will be important for usability include:
Once these and the other features are implemented, data forms will really be ready for prime time.
-Ed
Community Admin
http://pagepath.wikidot.com/start
A - S I M P L E - P L A N by ARTiZEN a startingpoint for simple wikidot solutions.
Thanks, Steven. This is very helpful.
-Ed
Community Admin