RevCommentPlugin

This plugin allows entry of a short summary of changes made to a topic for a new revision. This summary can be displayed e.g. in a history page of the topic or on the WebChanges page of a web. Changes may also be marked as "minor" by using the "Quiet save" button.

Since in Foswiki it is possible to make several changes within the edit lock time (normally 60 minutes) which are accumulated in only one new revision, it is also possible to have several comments for one revision.

Furthermore, adding or updating an attachment may also trigger an automatic comment for the current revision. This behaviour can be switched on or off with the help of the preference variable ATTACHMENT_COMMENTS (see below).

Syntax - Show previous comments

Write %REVCOMMENT{attributes}% anywhere in a topic.

Parameters

Name	Description	Default
minor	text to print for a minor change	(minor)
separator	delimiter between 2 comments for the same revision	\n
topic	name of topic	current topic
web	web where topic exists	current web
rev	revision	latest revision
footer	text after the last comment	</ul>
format	format string for each revision comment	<li> $comment $minor
header	text before the first comment	<ul>

The text for the pre and post parameters will only be printed if the list of comments is not empty.

Entering new comments

If the skin setting is enabled, a text input field named comment will be added to the Edit screens. Enter your comment when you save your edits, and it will be saved in the topic.

Examples

%REVCOMMENT% shows the comments for the current revision.

if you have RevCommentPlugin enabled, you should see a comment here:

If you have also the HistoryPlugin installed, the history of a topic may look like this:

Customization

Templates

Note that this extension now ships with 4 templates, and requires a SKIN override to incorporate this extension. Set the SKIN in SitePreferences.

• For a Foswiki 2.0 system, Set SKIN = revcomment,natedit,pattern
• For a Foswiki 1.1 system, Set SKIN = revcom11,pattern

The comment input field and displayed comments are added via skin template overrides.

• Either revcomment or revcom11 substituted for <skin>:

  templates/edit.<skin>.tmpl

  Adds the revcomment parameter to the older Foswiki editor (Plain Text and TinyMCE.)

  templates/edittoolbar.<skin>.tmpl

  Adds the revcomment parameter to the NatEdit editor.

  templates/oopshistory.<skin>.tmpl

  Incorporates the revision comments into the topic history displayed by HistoryPlugin.

  templates/search.<skin>.tmpl

  Adds the revision comments to the default search

CSS

Most of the CSS used to display comments is already embedded in the PatternSkin styles.css and colors.css A small amount of CSS is also contained in-line in the oopshistory template.

Perl API

Third plugins may register a revision comment using the Foswiki::Plugins::RevCommentPlugin::setComment api. See the PerlDoc for more.

internal package Foswiki::Plugins::RevCommentPlugin

base class to hook into the foswiki core

initPlugin($topic, $web, $user) → $boolean

initialize the plugin, automatically called during the core initialization process

finisPlugin()

clean up after session has finished

getCore()

get core of this plugin

beforeSaveHandler($text, $topic, $web, $meta )

called before a topic is saved to the store

beforeUploadHandler(\%attrHash, $meta )

called before an attachment is uploaded or changed

afterRenameHandler( $oldWeb, $oldTopic, $oldAttachment, $newWeb, $newTopic, $newAttachment )

called when a topic or attachment has been renamed

setComment($commentOrObj) → $hash

public api to register a revision comment for the next save operation

example:

my $comment = Foswiki::Plugins::setComment({
                 text => "revision message",
                 minor => 0 / 1, # optional 
              });

my $comment = Foswiki::Plugins::setComment("revision message");

The $comment return value is the object being used in the final store procedure creating the revision comment. It will be invalidated once the save handler have been executed. So don't keep hold of them for too long.

Installation Instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. "Extensions Operation and Maintenance" Tab → "Install, Update or Remove extensions" Tab. Click the "Search for Extensions" button. Enter part of the extension name or description and press search. Select the desired extension(s) and click install. If an extension is already installed, it will not show up in the search results.

You can also install from the shell by running the extension installer as the web server user: (Be sure to run as the webserver user, not as root!)

cd /path/to/foswiki
perl tools/extension_installer <NameOfExtension> install

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See https://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

• Test if the installation was successful:
  • Add the SKIN setting to enable the template modifications.
  • Create a topic in your Sandbox web. Add a %REVCOMMENT% macro to the topic, and save it with a comment.
  • If you have also the HistoryPlugin installed, view the history of the topic you just created. It should contain the comment.

Change History

17 Jan 2025	added translations to this plugin
20 Nov 2020	Michael Daum - fix oopshistory templates; added dependency on latest HistoryPlugin
20 Oct 2020	Michael Daum - rewrite: fix storage format while trying to be backwards compatible; removed plugin settings - these are all in configure now; improve tag handler; performance improvements by converting the plugin to an OO interface; added public api to set the revision comment by other plugins
01 Sep 2015	Foswikitask:Item13657: Regex issues on perl 5.22
15 Aug 2015	Foswikitask:Item11068: RevCommentPlugin conflicts with CommentPlugin Foswikitask:Item13619: Add compatibility for Foswiki 2.0 Foswikitask:Item12880: Preserve rev-comment input across preview
11 Nov 2011	Item11249 - added registerMETA
22 Jan 2009	Kenneth Lavrsen - Added the two example images as attachments to the topic so they also get uploaded to foswiki.org. No need to upgrade from 08 Dec 2008 version if you already installed that.
08 Dec 2008	Kenneth Lavrsen - Changed the author to myself. JChristophFuchs is the original author but announced in 2006 that he no longer maintains this plugin. So now I officially take the task as maintainer. Plugin is changed to Foswiki namespace and tested and works under Foswiki 1.0.0. Policy is now feel free to modify but please do not break compatibility.
14 Apr 2006	<noautolink> added to default pre/post rendering output of REVCOMMENT tag
14 Apr 2006	Minor update for Dakar 4.0.2
22 Apr 2005	Initial version

5META:FIELD{name="Author" title="Author" value="Foswiki:Main.MichaelDaum, Foswiki:Main.KennethLavrsen, Foswiki:Main.SteffenPoulsen"}%