SubPage/SubPageQuestions

I am having a little trouble with the concept of subpages.

I understand that a subpage starts with a / in front of a link name and there is only one level of subpages for each main page.

Now what happens when you are on a subpage (B) of a main level page (A) and you create another page with a / in front of the link (C)? Is the new page (C) a sibling of (B) or a child of (B) ? Or are both pages (B) and (C) just children of page (A)? See SandBox/MyOwnPage? experiment by someone other than myself.

I understand that the SandBox page (on the main level) is a different page than /SandBox? page (a child of SubPage).

When you write "Subpages of a common topic can easily refer to each other without a prefix, while outside pages require the prefix" - I get lost conceptually. What is the prefix? Is it the name of the top level page? How does a subpage refer to a different top level page? I may have answered my own question in the above paragraph with SandBox and /SandBox?

Thanks for the help -- DaveRaftery

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I think you mostly answered the question yourself, but I'll try to clear things up. The only particularly special thing about subpages is the short form of links like /SandBox? or /SubPageQuestions. For any links like these (beginning with a /), the wiki looks at the current main-level page name (SubPage in this case), and makes these links act as if you had written SubPage/SandBox? or SubPage/SubPageQuestions. (In other words, if you don't specify the main-page name before the slash, it uses the current main-page name.)

If you want to refer to a top-level page (even the main-page of the current subpage), just use the name like a normal link, such as CliffordAdams, SubPage, or SandBox.

For another example, consider a site with pages like:

• BrowserProject?: Overview of the web-browser project
  • BrowserProject/Features?
  • BrowserProject/Bugs?
  • BrowserProject/Schedule?

• EmailProject?: Overview of the email-client project
  • EmailProject/Features?
  • EmailProject/Bugs?
  • EmailProject/Schedule?

...In this case, if one was viewing the BrowserProject? or BrowserProject/Bugs? pages, a "/Schedule?" link would point to BrowserProject/Schedule?. If one was viewing the EmailProject? or EmailProject/Features? pages, a "/Schedule?" link would point to EmailProject/Schedule?. In most cases this is what you want, since the EmailProject? would talk mostly about the email schedule.

Now, suppose you were editing EmailProject/Features?, and you wanted to reference BrowserProject/Schedule?. You would have to write out the full name, since the main page is different.

Sometimes I've wondered if subpages are really worthwhile, but they are useful for some people. They are rather difficult to explain sometimes. --CliffordAdams

I get around this a little bit with WikkiTikkiTavi by not allowing the null-prefix shortcut. This helps me save parsing time, too. :-) You might suggest that null-prefix shortcut doesn't have to be the canonical usage for a particular implementation, even if it can be used. -- ScottMoonen?

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I wonder whether anyone has implemented hierarchical subpages and found a good solution to the syntax problems involved. All solutions conflict either with the current syntax or with the DOS / Windows / Unix directory syntax (but this can't be adapted easily). At least there should be a standard among wiki engines to use a common syntax because otherwise there will be a lot of confusion.

We are currently experimenting and use "//" to indicate "down from current page". Everything else is still compatible to the usemod syntax. We tried the more intuitive "./" but dropped it because of its bad readability.

-- HelmutLeitner

On WikkiTikkiTavi the syntax for SubPage is a moderate change from UseMod's approach, see Tavi:TaviSubPages? (and Tavi:TaviMacros/TitleSearch?). On 'Tavi /SubPageQuestions goes one level deeper than current page. No syntax to go one level up, but the levels above are listed in the toolbar at the top. In addition it's possible to use the title-search macros to make listings of siblings and/or childs. -- Tavi:EvenHolen?