Wikidot Includes: For Experts

Through understanding how the Wikidot engine processes includes, we are able to create highly sophisticated elements of code:

1. Imports the page specified
2. Replaces Variables in the included page only, according to the the definitions in the [[include]] block in the order:
   • From left-to-right
   • From top-to-bottom

This is difficult to grasp at first, so lets put this into practice.

Ordering of Processes

 {$varA} {$varB} {$varC} 

Our Page:

 [[include inc:advanced |varA=Banana |varB=Split ]] 

So the first thing that the Wikidot engine will do is import the page inc:advanced then assign values to the Variables, in the order of left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

Now lets see what happens if we place everything on one line:

Our Page:

 [[include inc:advanced |varA=Banana |varB=Split]] 

The same results.

Temporary Variables

Because of the way the Wikidot engine processes includes, we can actually create our own Temporary Variables within the include code:

Our Page:

 [[include inc:advanced |varA=Banana |varB={$varTemp} |varTemp=Split ]] 

This works because the includes are processed from left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and each variable is replaced in the page before the next variable is processed.
Therefore, the order in which we place our code is VERY important. For example, if we swapped the last two lines around:

Our Page:

 [[include inc:advanced |varA=Banana |varTemp=Split |varB={$varTemp} ]] 

As you can see, by changing the ordering of our code, we have changed the way our Include Variables are assigned.

Reusing Variables

We can also reuse variables in this manner:

Our Page:

 [[include inc:advanced |varA={$varTemp} |varTemp=Go |varB={$varTemp} |varTemp=Bananas ]] 

Including an Include

Through using two includes, we are able to use the value of one variable to set the value of another.

 [[include inc:advanced |varA={$varA} |varB={$varB} |{$varTemp}=**James!** ]] 

Our Page:

 [[include inc:advanced-2 |varA=Go |varB=Bananas |varTemp=varC ]] 

Creating Variables with Variables

We can even build variable names from separate parts.

inc:advanced-3:

 {${$varA}{$varD} {$varB}Apples} {$Eat{$varC}} 

Our Page:

  [[include inc:advanced-3 |varA=Go |varB={$Buy |varC=Bananas |varD=Potty} |EatBananas=Eating Bananas ]] 

What Won't Work

Setting a variable doesn't change variables within the include code. Therefore, if we attempted the following code:

Our Page:

 [[include inc:advanced |varA=Go |varB=Bananas |varTemp=varC |{$varTemp}=James! ]] 

What we wanted to happen is for {$varTemp} to become varC, so that |varC=James!.
This doesn't work, because [[include]]:

Replaces Variables in the included page only, according to the the definitions in the [[include]] block

Related Articles

• Wikidot Includes: For Beginners
• Wikidot Include Techniques

Authors

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Clik here to view.James Kanjo. Please visit his/her userPage.

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Comments

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