doc/todo/shortcut_optional_parameters.mdwn



Consider the "All files in this package search" on
http://packages.debian.org.  The URL for such a search looks like this:
http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=packagename&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=unstable&arch=i386

To create a "debfiles" [[shortcut|shortcuts]] that takes a package name, you
could just hardcode the architecture and distribution:
\[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=unstable&arch=i386"]]
\[[debfiles ikiwiki]]

But what if you could have them as optional parameters instead?  The syntax
for the invocation should look like this:
\[[debfiles ikiwiki dist=testing]]

Some possible syntax choices for the shortcut definition:
\[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%(dist)s&arch=%(arch)s" dist="unstable" arch="i386"]]
\[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%(dist=unstable)s&arch=%(arch=i386)s"]]
\[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%{dist=unstable}&arch=%{arch=i386}"]]
\[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=$*&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=${dist=unstable}&arch=${arch=i386}"]]

--[[JoshTriplett]]