And having to copy the query result manually into the property page is not my idea of "automated"...
From: "Eep²" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 5:45 PM From: "S Page" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 3:21 PM > Eep² wrote: >> I need a way to automatically pull in a list of articles and/or >> subcategories in a category for use as a select/drop-/pull-down >> listbox for use in a form. I tried to get Semantic Forms to do this but >> Yaron insists it's an SMW issue, > > I insist it's a Semantic Forms issue :-) > >> so I need this functionality in SMW then, I guess. ... >> I just need to populate select lists automatically without having to >> mindlessly enter in everything manually every time a >> category gets a new article/subcat. >> >> As far as I can tell, only the SMW enumeration type is capable of doing this, > > As I understand, Semantic Forms can determine that a template field is > Type:Enumeration , and then displays its allowed values in > a listbox. > > It would sure be nice if you could point an entry form at part of a wiki's > category hierarchy and say "give me a tree of > checkboxes for category "Effects" and its subcategories", or "give me > checkboxes for every page in category "Effects" with the > property [[Covers topic:=videogames]]" That seems a feature of a form > generator for MediaWiki, not SMW. Sure, pass off the problem like Yaron did with Semantic Forms to SMW. Wee... >> but requires manually entering in "[[allows value:=value]]" for every value >> ... Anyway, if I can at least get something to pull >> the articles from a category and add the "[[allows value:="value"]]," part >> around it that would > > You can run a scratch inline query that uses the sep parameter to output wiki > markup around results, and then copy the query > results into a property page. See > http://ontoworld.org/wiki/Help:Inline_queries#Using_a_query_to_produce_wikitext_for_annotations > E.g., > <ask sep=" ]] [[allows value:=">[[Category:Effects]]</ask> > will output wiki text listing pages in the main namespace in the Effects > category. > > To just show subcategories, add the Category namespace as a wildcard; you > have to put a ':' in front of it to avoid confusion. > E.g., > <ask sep=" ]] [[allows value:="> > [[Category:Effects]] [[:Category:+]]</ask> > > (queries like this are briefly up on http://ontoworld.org/wiki/Sandbox ) Unfortunately, the first and last results aren't properly linked and commas need to separate the values. > *However*, if your goal is to assign a subcategory, i.e. put > [[Category:Weather effects]] into the page, I have no idea if that > will work in Semantic Forms. Type:Enumeration is for properties, not > categories. When parsing a page SMW does not enforce what > annotations make sense, so you can put [[Type:Enumeration]] and [[allows > value:=Realistic fog]] on a category page (see > http://ontoworld.org/wiki/Category:Weather_effects_in_videogames ), but that > doesn't make them meaningful. Not my goal but I can (and already) do that via the semantic form. >> (vs. a more logical list of values like "[[allows >> value:=value,value1,value2,etc]]"). > > I liked that syntax originally but you run into the 255 character maximum > string length, and it's harder to enter values like > "Mild, with chance of rain". Why is there a 255-character limit? How can it be increased for just this enumeration type at least? >> What I want to do, for those who may not know, is to replicate >> http://tnlc.com/eep/compare/gameform.html in MediaWiki but have >> the form elements dynamically generated relative to category contents (so I >> don't have to continually edit the form with new >> options). > > Right. I think that Semantic Forms generates form elements according to > "What does SMW tell me about the properties in this > template". But current SMW, like wiki text, is open-ended: users write > [[property:=pretty much anything]]. > > You can request enhancements to wiki forms editors to get information from > other sources (annotations in the template, category > hierarchy, additional special properties, etc.). Been there, done that, tried on the t-shirt (didn't like it), and was told to wait until the new t-shirt line came out with features I didn't ask for. > You can also request enhancements to SMW to enforce additional restrictions > on types, properties, and categories. Generalizing > [[allows value]] to other properties besides enumeration seems doable. Would > this help you? Enforcing restrictions like "If > object A is in category C then its property P can only take values that are > subcategories D/E/F of C" seems cutting-edge ontology > research; maybe one day SMW will be able to do it, but I foresee it'll be in > the form of complicated sets of special properties. Of course...<eyeroll> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Semediawiki-devel mailing list Semediawiki-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/semediawiki-devel
