Some people wish they had blog features for their homepage. WikiNature and BlogNature don't mix (Do you need a detailed revision history for a blog entry, or for the blog comments? Do blog pages help build a WikiWikiWeb, or just contribute to WalledGardens? ). If you think they would mix, GarthKidd has a BlogBlog project (with a SourceForge page), where he hopes to add blog features to a MoinMoin fork. It looks like the project has been abandoned, however...

Here is an idea for a simple MoinMoin log, using only existing features (no add-ons):

  1. Create the raw log page (for example, /Log, but it doesn't have to be a subpage).
  2. On the log page, create a few test entries.
  3. At the point where you want to break off the log (1 entry? 3 entries?), type a break phrase, such as ##END_OF_LOG. The double # means that the line is treated like a comment, and not displayed.

  4. On the page where you want to display the log (for instance, your homepage), use the following:

[[Include(/Log,"The Most Recent Log Entries",2,to="^##END_OF_LOG$")]]

Note: this regular expression means look for the line that only has ##END_OF_LOGS on it - no spaces or other text before or after that phrase. A trailing space will cause the line not to match.

Here is what that macro displays:

The Most Recent Log Entries

Entry #6
Test this is a test


Entry #5
Here is the fifth entry.


Entry #4
Here is the fourth entry.


Entry #3
Here is the third entry.


Entry #2
Here is the second entry. It should be the last displayed.


End of Example

The usage of this macro should be valid (according to HelpOnMacros/Include). On some MoinMoin wikis (including, as of August 20th, this wiki), this usage of Include triggers a known bug, MoinMoinBugs/IncludeNotCacheAware, and the whole log is displayed, rather than just up to the break-off point. This should be fixed by MoinMoin release 1.3, but the bug page has a fix you can apply to your MoinMoin wiki today.

Here are some of the useful features:

  1. With access control lists turned on (HelpOnAccessControlLists), you can make the log writable by the user and readable by everyone else.

  2. You can click on the header text to get the full log (but you may have to click the RefreshCache link at the bottom of the page)

  3. You can click on the edit tick at the right side of the header to immediately jump to editing your log and adding a new entry.
  4. You can copy logs to archive locations (/August2004Log, for example), and keep the current log short and sweet (with some regrettable abuse of the change history).

It is not a full-featured blog, but it might be the SimplestThing for your needs.


Here's another idea. No need to fork MoinMoin. Just add one or two macro's and a few templates.

-- PeterKleiweg 2004-08-20 22:18:33

This works, if you have control over what macros are installed on the Wiki. The SimpleMoinLog works with a vanilla 1.2.x installation, except for MoinMoinBugs/IncludeNotCacheAware, which will be fixed in 1.3. -- -- JohnWhitlock 2004-09-01 01:13:12

MoinMoin: SimpleMoinLog (last edited 2007-10-29 19:15:54 by localhost)