First I do not understand what this page should here on the root of moinmoin. because it has no specific moinmoin help for user or developer. you may move this page under your profile or even out of this wiki (on your own moinmoin wiki!)... well just my humble opinion :-)

Second your solutions are outdated, because there is no section parser anymore needed you just can simple write { { { #!wiki <class>

Another solution would to use some theme with a individual sidebar function, see ThemeMarket/Gugiel.. so can easily include another wikipage.. sure only using the include macro works, too.

bye -- MarcelHäfner 2009-02-22 10:15:18

Maybe a candidate to: DeleteThisPage

.

Reproducing nicely designed front page in a maintainable way

See also MultiColumns, SectionParser

druidwiki had a very nice theme and front page - now [http://blog.yibble.org/2006/09/16/druidwiki-is-kaput/ DruidWiki is Kaputt!). This is exactly the the type of design that front pages or other main pages need, and is possible with current moin code, but with great pain. If you look into the source you see the horrible mess of tables and includes:

||<tablestyle="width: 100%; background: #c1d9c1; font-size: 1.5em;">
'''Utterly confused? See ["Getting Started"], now.''' ||

||<class="highlighted-table"> ["Welcome To The DruidWiki"]. The
DruidWiki offers an opportunity to investigate the feasibility and
practicality of providing an oral-like communication mechanism for
collaborative projects within the WikiPedia:Druid community, using
WikiPedia:Wiki technology and principles. All articles are published
under the ["GNU Free Documentation License"] (see ["DruidWiki
Copyrights"] for more details). ''Please also take time to read the
["Site Disclaimer"].'' [[BR]][[BR]] If you want to learn more about
Wikis in general, first read about WikiWikiWeb, then about
MoinMoin:WhyWikiWorks, the MoinMoin:WikiNature and the
MoinMoin:WikiWikiWebFaq. [[BR]] ||

||<width="40%" align="left" valign="top"
rowspan="2">[[Include(FrontPage/Explore, , , sort=ascending,
items=1)]]||<align="left" valign="top">[[Include(FrontPage/Featured
Page, , , sort=ascending,items=1)]]|| ||<align="left"
valign="top">[[Include(FrontPage/News, , , sort=ascending, items=1)]]||

[[Include(FrontPage/How to Use the DruidWiki, , , sort=ascending,
items=1)]]

==== Random Quote ====
||<class="quote-table"> [[RandomQuote(RandomQuotes)]]||<class="quote-
table-embedded-edit-link"> [[wiki:Self/RandomQuotes?action=edit edit]]||

||<tablestyle="width: 100%;"> '''Create a New Article''' [[BR]]
[[NewPage(DruidWikiArticleTemplate,Create article)]]||

These are the problems with this design:

* Need to edit many pages to update the front page, this may be right for some cases, if users can add data to a simple sub page without having to fight with the mess in the front page itself, or if the page is locked.

What we need:

Using SectionParser, its possible to create similar design with very little effort. Have a side bar with few sections using 30% of pages width. Other data can be at the main column. If you want to integrate data from differnt pages, use include macro in the main section (might be painful if you expect too much from this macro).

Here is an example - almost the full text of the front page:

= Welcome To The DruidWiki =

The DruidWiki offers an opportunity to investigate the feasibility and
practicality of providing an oral-like communication mechanism for
collaborative projects within the WikiPedia:Druid community, using
WikiPedia:Wiki technology and principles. All articles are published
under the ["GNU Free Documentation License"] (see ["DruidWiki
Copyrights"] for more details). ''Please also take time to read the
["Site Disclaimer"].''

If you want to learn more about Wikis in general, first read about
WikiWikiWeb, then about MoinMoin:WhyWikiWorks, the MoinMoin:WikiNature
and the MoinMoin:WikiWikiWebFaq.

{ { {
#!section
#class front-sidebar

= Utterly confused? =
See ["Getting Started"], now.

= Explore =
 * [wiki:Self/RecentChanges Recent Changes]: see where people are
 currently working
 * [wiki:Self/WikiSandBox Wiki Sand Box]: feel free to change this page
 and experiment with editing
 * [wiki:Self/FindPage Find Page]: search or browse the database in
 various ways
 * [wiki:Self/SyntaxReference Syntax Reference]: quick access to wiki
 syntax * [wiki:Self/SiteNavigation Site Navigation]: get an overview
 of this site and what it contains
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryCategory Categories]: most pages belong to at
 least one category

= Knowledge base =
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryCelebration Celebration]: honouring the turn of
 the wheel
  * [wiki:Self/CategorySacredSites Sacred Sites],
  [wiki:Self/CategoryRitual Ritual]
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryConcepts Concepts]: concepts applicable to
 druidry * [wiki:Self/CategoryPlantLore Plant Lore]: articles relating
 to any plant lore/herbalism
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryDruidryInAction Druidry in Action]: projects,
 charities and community work
  * [wiki:Self/CategoryEnvironment Environment],
  [wiki:Self/CategoryInterFaith Interfaith],
  [wiki:Self/CategoryEthicalLiving Ethical Living]
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryDruidOrganisations Druid Organisations]: a
 listing of Druid groups
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryEvents Events]: details of events throughout the
 year
  * [[Link(Events Board, accesskey="V")]], ["Regular Events"]

= Off Topic =
 * [wiki:Self/CategoryHomepage Users' Home Pages]: more about the
 people of the DruidWiki

= Random quote =
[[RandomQuote(RandomQuotes)]]

= Create new page =
You are invited to create new pages:
[[NewPage(DruidWikiArticleTemplate,Create)]]
} } }

= Featured Page =
## include the top of some page
[[Include(SomePage)]]
Visit SomePage...

= News =
## include the top of the news page
[[Include(NewsPage)]]
Read more at NewsPage...

= How to use DruidWiki =
Help text...

In the theme screen css:

.section-front-sidebar {float: right; width: 30%}
.section-front-sidebar h2 {font-size: 1.2em}

Note that this is a simplified design. The side bar contain the little things, and the main column the main content. Also, I put the sidebar on the right, not on the left, because I think the main content should come first, then the different exits from the page. I would also use shorter text in items of the side bar, simple list of links if possible. The page names should give enough information in most cases.

MoinMoin: DruidWikiTestCase (last edited 2009-02-22 10:58:43 by MarcelHäfner)