Universal TracLinks argument

[Christian Boos]

Currently, each flavor of TracLinks implements its own "sub" syntax.

There is some consistency however, for example, a trailing "#fragment" is used to locate a specific anchor in the targeted objects. This works for section anchors in Wiki pages and more recently for line numbers in repository files.

Also, there's some support for the special "?format=raw" argument which works for attachment: links, and it was suggested that source: links adopt the same convention.

What becomes apparent from the above is that those conventions are pretty much the same as those used for ​URIs.

Therefore, I propose to add the query URI syntax to the TracLinks syntax, for the short and long form of links (but not for the shorthand forms).

Examples:

• source:trunk/README?format=txt Access the README file in "text" mode
• wiki:WikiStart?format=txt Access the WikiStart page in "text" mode
• log:trunk?limit=10 See the last ten changesets on trunk
• query:?milestone=1.0&owner=cboos See my 1.0 tickets (works already)
• search:?q=google&wiki=on Search for "google" in Wiki pages (works already)
• report:14?PRIORITY=highest … works in Trac > r2322

[Christian Boos]

See also #1209, for a similar request concerning milestone: links.

[Christian Boos]

See also #2078, for a similar request concerning changeset: links.

[Christian Boos]

See also #2635 for a discussion about uniform handling of versioning arguments (e.g. type:id@version for addressing a specific version of the object, and type:id@versionx:versiony for addressing a specific change or group of changes for the object).

[Christian Boos]

We should also allow fragment identifiers after tickets (e.g. ticket:2168#comment:5 or #2168#comment:5) and changesets (e.g. r1231#file3, see #2078).

[Christian Boos]

Replying to cboos:

We should also allow fragment identifiers after tickets (e.g. ticket:2168#comment:5 or #2168#comment:5) …

How funny, I just wanted to write a comment here saying just that… again!

I find the current comment link syntax (e.g. comment:ticket:3555:5) a bit irritating… It was initially modelled after the attachment syntax (e.g. attachment:<resource>:<file>), but in the case of comments, it's really annoying to have to split the comment: prefix and the comment number.

Maybe we could change both syntaxes to thing:which_thing:type:id? Ideally, this could even be "recursive", e.g. comment:4:attachment:the_file.txt:ticket:345.

Just brainstorming…

[Christian Boos]

(side-note: the syntax changes suggested in comment:7 were implemented in [3824:3828])

[Christian Boos]

r4364 added argument support for ticket: TracLinks, as well as support for the comment syntax suggested in comment:6.

[Christian Boos]

r4367 added argument and fragment support for changeset: and diff: TracLinks.

[Christian Boos]

r4368 added argument and fragment support for source: and log: TracLinks. export: TracLinks have only support for fragments, as the reason to have export: link was specifically to not have any arguments in URLs (see r4242).

[Christian Boos]

… and finally with r4371 and the milestone: TracLinks, the main purpose of this ticket is fulfilled. If there's any issue with the changes introduced (or omissions), please create new defect tickets.

In future iterations of the Wiki engine, more things could probably be done at the generic level, but until that time, the functionality as at least there.