NewsPlugin < TWiki

---+!! %TOPIC% v1.5

The News plugin implements a simple "Headlines" view, or summary, of a list of
news or a weblog.   Add a =%<nop>NEWS%= variable in a news topic named *Xxx*
to generate a headline topic named *Xxx<nop>Headlines*.

%TOC%

------

---++ Syntax Rules

One enters news as items of a bulleted list in a single source topic, most
recent first. If somewhere in the topic, the keyword ==%<nop>NEWS%== appears,
then a new topic is created with the first line of the most recent news.
Ending punctuation is removed from the headlines for a sleeker look.

Recommended usage is to =%<nop>INCLUDE%= the generated topic in some panel in
a front page, and put a "More..." link in it to the source topic.  The
=%<nop>NEWS%= variable can be set in an HTML comment to hide it in the source
topic: 

=&lt;!-- %<nop>NEWS% -->=

To change the default, use the syntax =%<nop>NEWS{parameter="value" ...}%= syntax
with the following available parameters:
| *Parameter* | *Value* |
| count | The number of headlines to keep. Defaults to 5. |
| pattern | Gives a (partial) regular expression pattern to use to extract the news items. This pattern must occur at the beginning of a line in order to select a news item. The headline then becomes everything following the pattern until the end of the line. Defaults to =(\t&#124;   )\*\s= (i.e., a first-level bullet). \
<!-- Note that the pattern is given using the HTML entity for the vertical bar in order to avoid it being interpreted as a column marker in the table.--> |
| postsep | Appends this text to each headline. Defaults to =newline= |
| prefix | This text will be prepended to the generated topic. Defaults to nothing. |
| presep | Prepend each headline with this text. Defaults to =&lt;tab>*&lt;space>= |
| suffix | This text will be appended to the generated topic. Defaults to nothing. |
| topic | Name of generated headlines topic. Defaults to the name of the source topic with =Headlines= appended to it. |
| trim | If set to "no", trailings punctuation marks ( =.,:;= ) are not removed from headlines. Defaults to "yes" |

---++ Examples

Example: Set the prefix, presep, and suffix to produce an HTML unordered (bullet) list:
=%<nop>NEWS{presep="&lt;li>" prefix="&lt;ul>" suffix="&lt;/ul>"}%=

Example: If the topic <tt>MyCompanyNews</tt> contains:
<pre style='background:#ffffe0; border:solid; width=80%; border-width: thin;'>
%<nop>NEWS%
   <nop>* NewsPlugin released - 18 Feb 2003.
   The great news plugin has been debugged
   <nop>* NewsPlugin devel started - 02 Jan 2003.
   I think this is really needed, 
   I will try to keep it simple
</pre>
Then on saving the topic <tt>MyCompanyNewsHeadlines</tt> will contain:
<pre style='background:#ffffe0; border:solid; width=80%; border-width: thin;''>
   <nop>* NewsPlugin released - 18 Feb 2003
   <nop>* NewsPlugin devel started - 02 Jan 2003
</pre>

Example: This is the same example above, except the news headlines are specified as level-2 headings:
<pre style='background:#ffffe0; border:solid; width=80%; border-width: thin;'>
%<nop>NEWS{pattern="---\+\+(!!)?"}%
<nop>---++ NewsPlugin released - 18 Feb 2003.
The great news plugin has been debugged
<nop>---++ NewsPlugin devel started - 02 Jan 2003.
I think this is really needed, 
I will try to keep it simple
</pre>
Then on saving the topic <tt>MyCompanyNewsHeadlines</tt> will contain:
<pre style='background:#ffffe0; border:solid; width=80%; border-width: thin;''>
   <nop>* NewsPlugin released - 18 Feb 2003
   <nop>* NewsPlugin devel started - 02 Jan 2003
</pre>

---++ Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write ==%<nop>&lt;plugin&gt;_&lt;setting&gt;%==, i.e. ==%<nop>INTERWIKIPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%==

   * One line description, is shown in the %TWIKIWEB%.TextFormattingRules topic:
      * Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = %<nop>NEWS% generates a short headlines topic from a list of news

   * Debug plugin: (See output in =data/debug.txt=)
      * Set DEBUG = 0

---++ Plugin Installation Instructions

__Note:__ You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this plugin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the server where TWiki is running. 

   * Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
   * Unzip ==%TOPIC%.zip== in your twiki installation directory. Content:
     | *File:* | *Description:* |
     | ==data/TWiki/%TOPIC%.txt== | Plugin topic |
     | ==data/TWiki/%TOPIC%.txt,v== | Plugin topic repository |
     | ==lib/TWiki/Plugins/%TOPIC%.pm== | Plugin Perl module |
     | ==data/Sandbox/NewsPluginExample.txt== | Example news source topic |
     | ==data/Sandbox/NewsPluginExampleHeadlines.txt== | Example generated news headlines topic |
     | ==data/Sandbox/NewsPluginExampleInclusion.txt== | Example =%<nop>INCLUDE% usage of a generated headlines topic |
   * Test if the installation was successful:
      * see Sandbox.NewsPluginExample

---++ Plugin Info

|  Plugin Author: | TWiki:Main/ColasNahaboo |
|  Plugin Version: | 07 Feb 2006 (V1.5) |
|  Change History: | <!-- versions below in reverse order -->&nbsp; |
|  07 Feb 2006 | 1.5 Add "pattern" parameter. |
|  20 Feb 2003 | 1.4 trim option for removing ending punctuation: . , : ; |
|  19 Feb 2003 | 1.3 small bugfix |
|  17 Feb 2003 | 1.2 Initial version |
|  TWiki Dependency: | $TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1%BR% TWiki version of 01 Feb 2003 or better, or the 01 Dec 2001 version with the TWiki:Codev/PluginHookOnSavePatch patch. |
|  CPAN Dependencies: | none |
|  Other Dependencies: | none |
|  Perl Version: | 5.005 |
|  License: | GPL ([[http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html][GNU General Public License]]) |
|  [[TWiki:Plugins/Benchmark][Benchmarks]]: | %TWIKIWEB%.GoodStyle 100%, %TWIKIWEB%.FormattedSearch 99%, %TOPIC% 100% |
|  Plugin Home: | http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/%TOPIC% |
|  Feedback: | http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/%TOPIC%Dev |
|  Appraisal: | http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/%TOPIC%Appraisal |

__Related Topics:__ %TWIKIWEB%.TWikiPreferences, %TWIKIWEB%.TWikiPlugins

-- TWiki:Main/ColasNahaboo - 17 Feb 2003%BR%
-- TWiki:Main/DavidBright - 07 Feb 2006%BR%
This topic: TWiki > NewsPlugin
History: r10 - 07 Feb 2006 - 20:51:04 - TWikiContributor
Copyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding TWiki? Send feedback
Note: Please contribute updates to this topic on TWiki.org at TWiki:TWiki.NewsPlugin