TWiki Site-Level Preferences

The following are site-level settings that affect all users in all webs on this TWikiSite?. They can be selectively overwritten on the individual web level (see WebPreferences in each web), topic level (the topic being rendered), and on the user level (create preferences in your user account topic in the Main web, ex: TWikiGuest?).

  • ALERT! NOTE: You can lock individual settings at the site or web levels using User & Group Access Control - see section below.

Local Variables

  • Construcing the left bar:
    • Set VTFMENUHST =
    • Set VTFMENUHEN =
  • Set VTFMENU =

    ALERT! NOTE: They are typically redefined in individual WebPreferences topics

    • List of selected topics in a web - the second line of the upper toolbar (usually overwritten in individual WebPreferences):

    • Web specific background color: (is overwritten by web preferences)
      • Set WEBBGCOLOR = #FFD8AA

    • Copyright notice:
      • Set WEBCOPYRIGHT = Copyright © 1997-2024 California Institute of Technology.

    • Simplified Copyright notice for the WebRss feed (don't use any special characters, xml tags or WikiWords?)
      • Set WEBRSSCOPYRIGHT = Copyright 2024 by contributing authors

    • Exclude web from a web="all" search: (Set to on for hidden webs; is overwritten by web preferences)
      • Set NOSEARCHALL =

    • Prevent automatic linking of WikiWords? and acronyms (if set to on); link WikiWords (if empty); can be overwritten by web preferences:
      • Set NOAUTOLINK =
      • Note: Use the [[...][...]] syntax to link topics in case you disabled WikiWord linking. The <noautolink> ... </noautolink> syntax can be used to prevents links within a block of text.

    • Warn if %INCLUDE{}% of topic fails: Fail silently (if empty or off); output "Warning: Can't INCLUDE Topic, topic not found" (if set to on); else, output specific text (use $topic for topic). You can override this setting by web preferences and by a warn="..." parameter in %INCLUDE{}% :
      • Set INCLUDEWARNING = Note: Included topic $topic? does not exist yet

    Default User Settings

    ALERT! NOTE: They are typically redefined in topics of individual TWikiUsers?

    • Show tool-tip topic info on mouse-over of WikiWord? links. Setting can be on, off, or customized. An empty setting or off setting disables the tool-tips (for better performance). The setting can contain $summary to show the topic summary, $date for the last change date, $rev for the revision, $username for the login name of the last editor, $wikiname for the WikiName, $wikiusername for Main.WikiName, $topic for the topic name, and $web for the web name
      • Set LINKTOOLTIPINFO = off
      • #Set LINKTOOLTIPINFO = $username - $date - $rev: $summary

    • Horizontal size of text edit box: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
      • Set EDITBOXWIDTH = 70

    • Vertical size of text edit box: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
      • Set EDITBOXHEIGHT = 15

    • Style of text edit box. Set to width: 99% for full window width (default; this will overwrite the EDITBOXWIDTH setting), or width: auto to disable. This setting works for IE and some other recent browsers. (can be overwritten by user preferences)
      • Set EDITBOXSTYLE = width: 99%

    • Default state of the Release edit lock (UnlockTopic?) check box in preview. Checkbox is initially checked if Set RELEASEEDITLOCKCHECKBOX = checked="checked", or unchecked if empty. If checked, make sure to click on Edit to do more changes; do not go back in your browser to the edit page, or you risk that someone else will edit the topic at the same time: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
      • Set RELEASEEDITLOCKCHECKBOX =

    • Default state of the Minor Changes, Don't Notify (DontNotify?) check box in preview. Check box is initially checked if Set DONTNOTIFYCHECKBOX = checked="checked", or unchecked if empty: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
      • Set DONTNOTIFYCHECKBOX =

    • Default state of the link check box in the attach file page. Checkbox is initially checked if Set ATTACHLINKBOX = checked="checked", or unchecked if empty (Set ATTACHLINKBOX =). If checked, a link is created to the attached file at the end of the topic: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
      • Set ATTACHLINKBOX =

    • Format of file link when the link check box is checked: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
      • HELP NOTE: Keyword $name gets expanded to filename; $comment to comment; \t to tab (3 spaces for bullets).
      • Set ATTACHEDFILELINKFORMAT = \t* $name: $comment

    • Format of images when the link check box is checked: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
      • HELP NOTE: Keyword $name gets expanded to filename; $comment to comment; $size to width="..." height="..." attribute of img tag; \t to tab (3 spaces for bullets). 
          * Set ATTACHEDIMAGEFORMAT = \t* $comment: <br />
        <img src="%ATTACHURLPATH%/$name" alt="$comment" $size />

    TWiki Platform Settings

    • TWiki site name:
      • Set WIKITOOLNAME = TWiki

    • Image, URL and alternate tooltip text of TWiki logo: (can be overwritten by web preferences)

    • Maximum size of FileAttachments in KB, 0 for no limit:
      • Set ATTACHFILESIZELIMIT = 100000

    • Broadcast message for skins supporting a %BROADCASTMESSAGE% at the top of the page: (IMPORTANT: Set to empty message if not used; #Comment out unused messages)
      • Set BROADCASTMESSAGE =
      • #Set BROADCASTMESSAGE =
        NOTE: Edit and Attach will be disabled today between 05:00 PM and 06:00 PM PDT (00:00 to 01:00 GMT) for a scheduled TWiki maintenance.
      • If you use PatternSkin?:
      • #Set BROADCASTMESSAGE =
        NOTE: Edit and Attach will be disabled today between 05:00 PM and 06:00 PM PDT (00:00 to 01:00 GMT) for a scheduled TWiki maintenance.

    Search Settings

    • Default type for search, one of: keyword (for search engine like syntax), regex (for RegularExpression search), or literal (for verbatim search)
      • Set SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE = keyword
    • Default for %SEARCH{}% variable, one of: keyword, regex, or literal
      • Set SEARCHVARDEFAULTTYPE = literal
    • Stop words, e.g., common words and characters to exclude from a keyword search:
      • Set SEARCHSTOPWORDS = a, all, am, an, and, any, as, at, b, be, by, c, d, e, for, from, g, h, how, i, i'm, i.e., in, is, isn't, it, it's, its, j, k, l, m, n, o, of, on, or, p, q, r, s, t, that, that's, the, this, to, u, v, w, was, wasn't, what, what's, when, where, who, who's, will, with, x, y, z

    Email and Proxy Server Settings

    • TWiki webmaster name (first name and last name, e.g. Fred Smith):
      • Set WIKIWEBMASTERNAME = Ralf Deiterding

    • Mail host for outgoing mail. This is used for WebChangesAlert if Perl module Net::SMTP is installed. If not, or if SMTPMAILHOST is empty, the external sendmail program is used instead (defined by $mailProgram in TWiki.cfg). Examples: mail.your.company or localhost
      • Set SMTPMAILHOST =

    • Mail domain sending mail. SMTP requires that you identify the TWiki server sending mail. If not set, Net::SMTP will guess it for you. Ex: twiki.your.company
      • Set SMTPSENDERHOST =

    • Proxy Server. Some environments require outbound HTTP traffic to go through a proxy server. Set the host in PROXYHOST (example: proxy.your.company), and the port number in PROXYPORT (example: 8080). No proxy is used if PROXYHOST or PROXYPORT is empty.
      • Set PROXYHOST =
      • Set PROXYPORT =

    Email Link Settings

    • 'Mail this topic' mailto: link - can be included in topics, templates or skins

    • 'Mail this topic' link text
      • Set MAILTHISTOPICTEXT = Send a link to this page

    HTTP-EQUIV Settings

    • TIP NOTE: Changing cache behaviour with these settings should not be necessary and may cause cache-related problems (e.g. TWiki:Codev/BackFromPreviewLosesText or TWiki:Codev/RefreshEditPage). These settings do not affect proxy caches.

    • http-equiv meta tags for view, rdiff, attach, search* scripts: 
          * #Set HTTP_EQUIV_ON_VIEW = 
      * Set HTTP_EQUIV_ON_VIEW =  <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS Feed" href="%SCRIPTURL%/view%SCRIPTSUFFIX%/%WEB%/WebRss?skin=rss&amp;contenttype=text/xml" />

    • http-equiv meta tags for edit script: 
          * Set HTTP_EQUIV_ON_EDIT =

    • http-equiv meta tags for preview script: 
          * Set HTTP_EQUIV_ON_PREVIEW =

    Skin Settings

    • Skin overriding the default TWiki templates: (can be overwritten by WebPreferences and user preferences)
      • Set SKIN = VTF

    • Note: See TWikiSkinBrowser? for currently installed skins

    VTFSkin

    DragonSkin?

    • Theme: (gray, monochrome, tabstyle)
      • Set DS_THEME = gray
    • Quicklinks headings:
      • Set DS_QUICKLINKSHEADING =
    • Quicklinks submenu:
      • Set DS_QUICKLINKS =

    Plugins Settings

    Miscellaneous Settings

    • Line break:
      • Set BR =

    • Bullet sign:
      • Set BULLET = •

    • Line break and bullet with different levels of indentation:
      • Set BB =
        •
      • Set BB2 =
          •
      • Set BB3 =
            •
      • Set BB4 =
              •

    • Colored text: (see more StandardColors?)
      You type: %RED% red text %ENDCOLOR% and %GREEN% green text %ENDCOLOR%
      You get: red text and green text
      • Note: %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
      • Set YELLOW = looks like this
      • Set ORANGE = looks like this
      • Set RED = looks like this
      • Set PINK = looks like this
      • Set PURPLE = looks like this
      • Set TEAL = looks like this
      • Set NAVY = looks like this
      • Set BLUE = looks like this
      • Set AQUA = looks like this
      • Set LIME = looks like this
      • Set GREEN = looks like this
      • Set OLIVE = looks like this
      • Set MAROON = looks like this
      • Set BROWN = looks like this
      • Set BLACK = looks like this
      • Set GRAY = looks like this
      • Set SILVER = looks like this
      • Set WHITE = looks like this (with gray background)
      • The following color settings are enclosed in verbatim tags to avoid incorrect nesting of XHTML tags: 
          * Set YELLOW = <font color="#ffff00">
      * Set ORANGE = <font color="#ff6600">
      * Set RED = <font color="#ff0000">
      * Set PINK = <font color="#ff00ff">
      * Set PURPLE = <font color="#800080">
      * Set TEAL = <font color="#008080">
      * Set NAVY = <font color="#000080">
      * Set BLUE = <font color="#0000ff">
      * Set AQUA = <font color="#00ffff">
      * Set LIME = <font color="#00ff00">
      * Set GREEN = <font color="#008000">
      * Set OLIVE = <font color="#808000">
      * Set MAROON = <font color="#800000">
      * Set BROWN = <font color="#996633">
      * Set BLACK = <font color="#000000">
      * Set GRAY = <font color="#808080">
      * Set SILVER = <font color="#c0c0c0">
      * Set WHITE = <font color="#ffffff">
      * Set ENDCOLOR = </font>

    • Graphics used in TWiki documentation - view all images in TWikiDocGraphics?. (There are various ways to set up common icons as text variables. This is simply one quick approach.):
      • Set H = HELP
      • Set I = IDEA!
      • Set M = MOVED TO...
      • Set N = NEW
      • Set P = REFACTOR
      • Set Q = QUESTION?
      • Set S = PICK
      • Set T = TIP
      • Set U = UPDATED
      • Set X = ALERT!
      • Set Y = DONE

    • Background color of non existing topic: ( default cornsilk or #FFFFCE )
      • Set NEWTOPICBGCOLOR = #FFFFCE

    • Font color of non existing topic: ( default #0000FF )
      • Set NEWTOPICFONTCOLOR = #0000FF

    • PreviewBackground? image:
      • Set PREVIEWBGIMAGE = /asc/wiki/pub/TWiki/PreviewBackground/preview2bg.gif

    Access Control Settings

    • Users or groups allowed to change or rename this TWikiPreferences topic: (ex: TWikiAdminGroup?)
      • Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = TWikiAdminGroup?
      • Set ALLOWTOPICRENAME = TWikiAdminGroup?

    • Users or groups allowed to create new webs?: (ex: TWikiAdminGroup?)
      • Set ALLOWWEBMANAGE = TWikiAdminGroup?

    Preferences Control Settings

    • Allow topic level preferences, on or off: If set to on, topic preferences will be read, and will override any web- or site-level preferences not set as FINALPREFERENCES. By default, user preferences will override topic preferences.
      • Set READTOPICPREFS = on

    • Topic level overrides user level preferences, on or off: If set to on, topic preferences will override user preferences. The user can in turn override this behavior by setting further FINALPREFERENCES in his or her user topic.
      • Set TOPICOVERRIDESUSER = off

    • Site-level preferences that are not allowed to be overridden by WebPreferences and user preferences:
      • Set FINALPREFERENCES = ATTACHFILESIZELIMIT, PREVIEWBGIMAGE, WIKITOOLNAME, WIKIWEBMASTER, SMTPMAILHOST, SMTPSENDERHOST, ALLOWWEBMANAGE, READTOPICPREFS, TOPICOVERRIDESUSER

    Creating New Preference Variables

    You can introduce new VARIABLES and use them in your topics and templates. There is no need to change the TWiki engine (Perl scripts).

    • A preference is defined in a TWikiShorthand? bullet item: [3 spaces] * [space] Set NAME = value
      Example (as a nested bullet item, indented 6 spaces):
      • Set WEBBGCOLOR = #FFFFC0
    • Preferences are used as TWikiVariables? by enclosing the name in percent signs: %. Example:
      • When you write variable %WEBBGCOLOR%, it gets expanded to #FFD8AA .

    • ALERT! The sequential order of the preference settings is significant. Define preferences that use other preferences FIRST. For example, set WEBCOPYRIGHT before WIKIWEBMASTER since the copyright notice uses the webmaster email address.

    Related Topics

    • WebPreferences has preferences of the TWiki.TWiki web.
    • TWikiUsers? has a list of user topics. User topics can have optional user preferences.
    • TWikiVariables? has a list of common %VARIABLES%.
    • TWikiAccessControl? explains how to restrict access by users or groups.

    Note: Can't edit? View raw topic

    • TWiki > TWikiPreferences
    Copyright © 1997-2024 California Institute of Technology.