Wiki Site-Level Preferences

This topic defines site-level settings that apply to all users and webs on this site.

Note: This topic should be regarded as read-only, so that upgrades can safely overwrite it without risk to your customizations.

Preference settings local to your site should be set in Main.SitePreferences (this topic is pointed to by {LocalSitePreferences}, which is set by the admin in the configure interface). Settings in Main.SitePreferences will override settings in this topic, and should be used for defining custom settings.

Read more on how to set preferences.

Default Web Preferences

NOTE: These are just defaults; don't change them here. Instead, add them to the WebPreferences topic in each web

• List of selected topics in a web (used in menus)
  • Set WEBTOPICLIST = Changes  |  Index  |  Search  |  Go

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

• favicon: Attach a favicon.ico to a web's WebPreferences or add a FAVICON setting to WebPreferences
  • Set FAVICON = /pub/System/ProjectLogos/favicon.ico

• Image, URL and alternate tooltip text of web's logo.
  • Set WEBLOGOIMG =
  • Set WEBLOGOURL = https://iactwiki.ethz.ch/Main/WebHome
  • Set WEBLOGOALT = Powered by Foswiki, The Free and Open Source Wiki

• List this web in the SiteMap:
  • If yes, set SITEMAPLIST to on, do not set NOSEARCHALL, and add the "what" and "use to..." description for the site map. Make sure to list only links that include the name of the web, e.g. System.Topic links.
  • Set SITEMAPLIST = on
  • Set SITEMAPWHAT = Describe what this web does.
  • Set SITEMAPUSETO = ...to do something.

• Copyright notice:
  • Set WEBCOPYRIGHT = Copyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
    Ideas, requests, problems regarding Wiki? Send feedback

• Simplified Copyright notice for the WebRss feed (don't use any special characters, html tags, entities, wiki markup 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) Note it is much better to use AccessControls in individual webs to control who can and can't view the contents of a web. NOSEARCHALL is retained for compatibility, but you should avoid using it.
  • 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.
• If you use non WikiWords for topic names (for example "Expenses" or "Mighty1") and if you use bracket notation to link to those topics, it is useful to turn of all warnings (like: "WARNING: This topic name is not recommended because it will not be linked automatically") and checkboxes ("Allow non WikiWord for the new topic name"). Can be overwritten by web preferences. Set to on to activate:
  • Set HIDE_NON_WIKI_WORD_WARNINGS =

• Warn if %INCLUDE{}% of topic fails: Fail silently if empty or off. Output warning message (defined in templates/oopsalerts.tmpl) if set to on. Otherwise output specific text (use $topic for topic). You can override this in web preferences, or by using a warn="..." parameter with %INCLUDE{}% :
  • Set INCLUDEWARNING = on

• Generated Table of Contents (TOC) settings
  • The first header level to appear in the TOC:
    • Set TOC_MIN_DEPTH =
      • If not set: 1
      • Possible values: 1 to 6
  • The last header level to appear in the TOC:
    • Set TOC_MAX_DEPTH =
      • If not set: 6
      • Possible values: 1 to 6
      • Can be overridden by depth parameter of TOC
  • The default TOC title:
    • Set TOC_TITLE =
      • If not set: nothing
      • Possible values: any string, for example On this page:
      • Can be overridden by title parameter of TOC
  • Do not show a TOC if the topic it contains is included in another topic:
    • Set TOC_HIDE_IF_INCLUDED =
      • If not set: included TOC is shown
      • Possible values: on or nothing

Default User Settings

NOTE: They are typically redefined in topics of individual WikiUsers

• 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 - $date - r$rev: $summary
    • This is exactly equivalent to:
  • #Set LINKTOOLTIPINFO = on

• 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 = 22

• Style of text edit box. Set to width: 99% for full window width (default; this will override 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%

• Work-around for sluggish/erratic wikitext editing in Internet Explorer 8. When this browser is in standards mode, at least some versions suffer sluggish response to keystrokes and erratic scrolling. For skins that are aware of it, this setting forces IE8 into compatibility mode for the edit template only.
  • Set EDIT_FORCE_IE8_COMPATIBILITYMODE = on

• Default state of the Force New Revision (ForceNewRevision) check box in preview. Check box is initially checked if Set FORCENEWREVISIONCHECKBOX = checked="checked", or unchecked if empty: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
  • Set FORCENEWREVISIONCHECKBOX =

• 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)
  • NOTE: Keyword $name gets expanded to filename; $comment to comment; \t to tab (3 spaces for bullets).

      * Set ATTACHEDFILELINKFORMAT = \n   * [[%ATTACHURL%/$name][$name]]: $comment

• Format of images when the link check box is checked: (can be overwritten by user preferences)
  • NOTE: Keyword $name gets expanded to filename; $comment to comment; $size to width="..." height="..." attribute of img tag; \t to tab and \n to linefeed (3 spaces for bullets).

      * Set ATTACHEDIMAGEFORMAT = \n   * $comment: <br />\n     <img src="%ATTACHURLPATH%/$name" alt="$name" $size />

Platform Settings

• Site name:
  • Set WIKITOOLNAME = Foswiki

• Image, URL and alternate tooltip text of the logo for this installation: you should change these settings for your site, or they can be overwridden in WebPreferences for individual webs by defining these settings there.
  • Set WIKILOGOIMG =
  • Set WIKILOGOURL = https://iactwiki.ethz.ch/Main/WebHome
  • Set WIKILOGOALT = Powered by Foswiki, The Free and Open Source Wiki

• Home page of this site
  • Set WIKIHOMEURL =

• List of Wiki webs - on the first line of the upper toolbar (to add a new web, see ManagingWebs and SiteMap):
  • Set WIKIWEBLIST = Main  |  System  |  Sandbox
  • NOTE: To automatically list all non-hidden webs in alphabetical order, use the %WEBLIST{}% macro instead:
    Public | System

• Maximum size of FileAttachments in KB, 0 for no limit:
  • Set ATTACHFILESIZELIMIT = 10000

• 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 Wiki maintenance.

• Users or groups allowed to create new top-level webs: (ex: WebCreatorsGroup?). If set to nothing, only administrators will be able to do this.
  • Set ALLOWROOTCHANGE = AdminGroup

Search Settings

• Default type for search bin script, one of: keyword (for search engine like syntax), regex (for RegularExpression search), or literal (for verbatim search). It does not influence the default for the WebSearch
  • Set SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE = keyword
• Default for %SEARCH{}% macro, 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

E-mail Settings

• 'Mail this topic' mailto: link - can be included in topics, templates or skins
  • Set MAILTHISTOPIC = Send a link to this page

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

• URL for current topic
  • Set TOPICURL = https://iactwiki.ethz.ch/System/DefaultPreferences

HTTP-EQUIV Settings

• NOTE: Changing cache behaviour with these settings should not be necessary and may cause cache-related problems. These settings do not affect proxy caches.
• NOTE: The current values of these preferences are not displayed in view mode (values are <link>-tags).

• http-equiv meta tags for view, rdiff, attach, search* scripts:
  • #Set HTTP_EQUIV_ON_VIEW =
  • Set HTTP_EQUIV_ON_VIEW =

• 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 templates: (can be overwritten by WebPreferences and user preferences)
  • Set SKIN = pattern

• Note: See SkinBrowser for currently installed skins

PatternSkin

• Global skin styles. To change the look of the site, point these variables to custom CSS attachments.
  • Set FOSWIKI_LAYOUT_URL = /pub/System/PatternSkin/layout.css
  • Set FOSWIKI_STYLE_URL = /pub/System/PatternSkin/style.css
  • Set FOSWIKI_COLORS_URL = /pub/System/PatternSkin/colors.css

• Themes that add upon the global skin styles. Choose from the Theme Browser at PatternSkin.
  • Set PATTERNSKIN_THEME = /pub/System/PatternSkin/theme_foswiki_noframe.css
  • Set PATTERNSKIN_COLUMNS = /pub/System/PatternSkin/column_left.css

• Overriding styles that add upon the global and theme styles. Enabled by default but empty to prevent browsers from fetching %USERLAYOUTURL%-style URLs.
  • Set USERLAYOUTURL =
  • Set USERSTYLEURL =
  • Set USERCOLORSURL =
  • Set WEBHEADERART =
  • Set WEBHEADERBGCOLOR =

Skin icons

• Topic containing the icon graphics library. Icons can easily be rendered with %ICON{name}%.
  • Set ICONTOPIC = DocumentGraphics

Legacy support

• Support for legacy "EDITTOPIC", used to be hard-coded, now replaced by TMPL:P conditional instantiation
  • Set EDITURL = /bin/edit/System/DefaultPreferences?t=1735067362
  • Set EDITTOPIC = Edit

Plugins Settings

• You can enable/disable Plugins using the configure interface.
• You can also disable installed plugins in individual webs/topics by defining the DISABLEDPLUGINS preference setting to be a list of plugins to disable e.g.
  • Set DISABLEDPLUGINS = SpreadSheetPlugin,EditTablePlugin
  • Currently, %DISABLEDPLUGINS% is set to "%DISABLEDPLUGINS%"
• Currently activated Plugins: TWikiCompatibilityPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin, AutoViewTemplatePlugin, BreadCrumbsPlugin, CalendarPlugin, ChartPlugin, CommentPlugin, DBCachePlugin, EditChapterPlugin, EditTablePlugin, ExplicitNumberingPlugin, ExternalLinkPlugin, FilterPlugin, FlexWebListPlugin, GluePlugin, HeadlinesPlugin, IfDefinedPlugin, ImagePlugin, InterwikiPlugin, JQueryLibPlugin, JQueryPlugin, LatexModePlugin, LdapNgPlugin, MathModePlugin, NatEditPlugin, NatSkinPlugin, NewUserPlugin, PreferencesPlugin, RedirectPlugin, RenderListPlugin, RenderPlugin, SendEmailPlugin, SetVariablePlugin, SlideShowPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, SubscribePlugin, SyntaxHighlightingPlugin, TablePlugin, TagMePlugin, TwistyPlugin, UploadPlugin, VarCachePlugin, VotePlugin, ZonePlugin

• NOTE: You can enable/disable Plugins by passing a comma-separated list of Plugin names in the debugenableplugins url parameter; for example, https://iactwiki.ethz.ch/System/DefaultPreferences?debugenableplugins=SmiliesPlugin will display this topic with all Plugins disabled except the SmiliesPlugin.
• Detailed diagnostics can be found in InstalledPlugins
• Legacy settings:
  • Set INSTALLEDPLUGINS = The INSTALLEDPLUGINS macro is no longer supported. You can set the Plugins execution order using the configure interface.

Rendering Shortcuts Settings

• Line break: Note that the setting has an intentional trailing space
  • Set BR =
    

• Bullet sign:
  • Set BULLET = •

• Vertical bar / pipe symbol:
  • Set VBAR = |

• Vertical caret symbol:
  • Set CARET = ^

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

• Hint: Above shortcuts are useful in tables where you cannot use newlines

• Macros for graphics used in documentation - view all images in DocumentGraphics:
  • Set H =
  • Set I =
  • Set M =
  • Set N =
  • Set P =
  • Set Q =
  • Set S =
  • Set T =
  • Set U =
  • Set X =
  • Set Y =

• 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>

Miscellaneous Settings

• Format of a NewWikiWord? link:
• Note that $text is the topic link text, $topic is the name of the new topic, and $web is the name of the web for the new topic. Values for the 3 are taken from the link syntax [[$web.$topic][$text]]. For normal plain WikiWord links $text and $topic are the same. The value of $web is the current web unless the link is in the format $web.$topic.
  • default setting:
    • Set NEWLINKFORMAT = $text?
  • alternative setting:
    • #Set NEWLINKFORMAT = $text

• PreviewBackground image:
  • Set PREVIEWBGIMAGE = /pub/System/PreviewBackground/preview2bg.gif

• User-friendly synonyms for system webs
  • Set DOCWEB = System

• show extra help for ApacheLogin users for AdminUser login
  • Set ADMINLOGIN = internal admin login (use the username suggested and the password set in configure).

Access Control Settings

• No-one (except admins) should change this topic
  • Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = AdminGroup
  • Set ALLOWTOPICRENAME = AdminGroup

Creating New Preference Settings

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

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

• 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 Wiki administrator e-mail address.
• In order to protect your custom preferences from being overwritten when upgrading the System.DefaultPreferences topic, it is recommended that all custom settings are defined in Main.DefaultPreferences?.

Protected System Settings

The following macros are declared final to protect them as read only. These are system macros that should never be attempted set or altered in any preference topic or topic settings.

• Set FINALPREFERENCES = WEB, TOPIC

Related Topics

• WebPreferences has preferences of the System web.
• User topics in Main can have optional user preferences.
• Macros has a list of common %MACROS%.
• AccessControl explains how to restrict access by users or groups.
• Foswiki:Extensions.PreferencesPlugin makes editing preferences a snap.

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