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.Help:Contents|Help
..Help:Contents|General Help
..Help:Adding Article|Adding Article
..Help:Adding Function Reference|Adding Function Reference
..Help:Adding General Function Reference|Adding General Function Reference
..Help:Adding VCOM Function Reference|Adding VCOM Function Reference
..Help:Adding VectorScript Function Reference|Adding VectorScript Function Reference
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Here are some brief instructions to help you add content to the Wiki.  It is fairly easy to do, and once you get the hang of it, new content can be added in very little time.


== Adding to the Wiki ==

Adding a new page is easy.
# Go to the page you want the new page to be linked ''from''. 
# Click on the ''edit'' tab to edit the page. Add a link to the page you wish to create. 
#: The way to create a link is to place the new page's title in brackets. <nowiki>[[Page title]]</nowiki>
# Save the page. Your link will show up as a red link which, when clicked, will bring you to an edit page for your new page. 
# Edit and save your new page. 

== Page Name ==

The actual type of the reference page (is it VectorScript or SDK or VCOM) is determined by the category in which the page exist.

The category is represented in the name before the semi-colon in the name.

For example "SDK:Something" is a page "Something" in category "SDK".

<b>IMPORTANT</b> Be careful when naming pages. The name is very important!

The first category in the page name denotes the where the page belogs:

*VCOM<b>:</b>page_name -- 'page_name' is a page in [[VCOM:VCOM (VectorWorks Component Object Model)]]
*SDK<b>:</b>page_name -- 'page_name' is a page in the SDK
*VS<b>:</b>page_name -- 'page_name' is a page in the VectorScript

[[VCOM:VCOM (VectorWorks Component Object Model)]] reference pages uses categories to denote location of the interface or function.

*VCOM<b>:</b>VectorWorks<b>:</b>namespace1<b>:</b>namespace2<b>:</b>IInterface
:<b>':' as delimiter of categories</b>
:'IInterface' is a page in 'VCOM'. The interface is defined in namespace hierarchy  "namespace1::namespace2"
*VCOM:VectorWorks<b>:</b>namespace1<b>:</b>namespace2<b>:</b>IInterface<b>::</b>Function
:<b>':' as delimiter of categories, and '::' as delimieter of function belonging to</b>
:'IInterface::Function' page is a function named 'Function' inside interface 'IInterface'

== Page Contents ==

Every page should have contents at the top. The contents is automatically generated from WIKI. All you have to do is to add the following code at the top of the page:

<pre>
<div class="rightmenu">
__TOC__
</div>
</pre>

== Formatting Text ==

When formatting text in a page, you can use standard HTML formatting syntax.  The Wiki also has its own method of formatting which, in most cases, is easier to use than HTML formatting.

=== Code blocks ===
You can put pascal, python or C++ code blocks by using <nowiki><code lang="pas"></nowiki>, <nowiki><code lang="py"></nowiki> and <nowiki><code lang="cpp"></nowiki>

==== VectorScript (Pascal) ====

 <nowiki><code lang="pas"></nowiki>
 <nowiki>procedure MyTest(a : INTEGER)</nowiki>
 <nowiki>begin</nowiki>
 <nowiki>  Message( 'this is pascal code block' );</nowiki>
 <nowiki>end;</nowiki>
 <nowiki></code></nowiki>

Looks like this:

<code lang="pas">
procedure MyTest(a : INTEGER)
begin
  Message( 'this is pascal code block' );
end;
</code>

==== Vectorscript Python ====

 <nowiki><code lang="py"></nowiki>
 <nowiki>vs.Message('this is python code block');</nowiki>
 <nowiki></code></nowiki>

Looks like this:

<code lang="py">
vs.Message("this is python code block")
</code>

==== C++ ====

 <nowiki><code lang="cpp"></nowiki>
 <nowiki>void myFunciton(int a)</nowiki>
 <nowiki>{</nowiki>
 <nowiki>   function( "this is C++ code block" );</nowiki>
 <nowiki>}</nowiki>
 <nowiki></code></nowiki>

Looks like this:
<code lang="cpp">
void myFunciton(int a)
{
   function( "this is C++ code block" );
}
</code>

==== XML ====

 <nowiki><code lang="xml"></nowiki>
 <nowiki><a></nowiki>
 <nowiki>   <b attr="value"></nowiki>
 <nowiki>     something</nowiki>
 <nowiki>   </b></nowiki>
 <nowiki></a></nowiki>
 <nowiki></code></nowiki>

Looks like this:
<code lang="xml">
<a>
   <b attr="value">
     something
   </b>
</a>
</code>

=== Code block note ===

You can place a note in the code block, that shows up as red text referring to a numbered list after the block

 <nowiki><code lang="cpp"></nowiki>
 <nowiki>%1
 <nowiki>void myFunciton(int a)</nowiki>
 <nowiki>{</nowiki>
 <nowiki>%2
 <nowiki>   function( "this is C++ code block" );</nowiki>
 <nowiki>}</nowiki>
 <nowiki></code></nowiki>
 <nowiki>*Note #1 - explain note 1</nowiki>
 <nowiki>*Note #2 - explain note 2</nowiki>

Looks like this:
<code lang="cpp">
%1
void myFunciton(int a)
{
%2
   function( "this is C++ code block" );
}
</code>
*Note #1 - explain note 1
*Note #2 - explain note 2

=== Function Definitions ===

You can put C++ function definition is special block so it will be formatted each parameter on new line to show the function more clearly:

 <nowiki><funcDef lang="cpp"></nowiki>
 <nowiki>extern “C” long plugin_main(long action, long message, long& userData, CallBackPtr cbp);</nowiki>
 <nowiki></funcDef></nowiki>

<funcDef lang="cpp">
extern “C” long plugin_main(long action, long message, long& userData, CallBackPtr cbp);
</funcDef>

or VectorScript definition:

 <nowiki><funcDef lang="vs"></nowiki>
 <nowiki>FUNCTION Function(objectHd : HANDLE; a, b : REAL; VAR text : STRING) : HANDLE;</nowiki>
 <nowiki></funcDef></nowiki>

<funcDef lang="vs">
FUNCTION Function(objectHd : HANDLE; a, b : REAL; VAR text : STRING) : HANDLE;
</funcDef>

=== Lists ===

For example, to create lists, HTML calls for various tags, like, <nowiki><ol>, <li>, </li>, </ol>,</nowiki> etc.  But the Wiki makes creating lists easy.  For numbered lists, just prepend a '''#''' character at the beginning of each line.  For bulleted lists, prepend a '''*''' character.  For example:

 <nowiki>#One</nowiki>
 <nowiki>#Two</nowiki>
 <nowiki>#Three</nowiki>

becomes:

#One
#Two
#Three

and:

 <nowiki>*One</nowiki>
 <nowiki>*Two</nowiki>
 <nowiki>*Three</nowiki>

becomes:

*One
*Two
*Three

You can combine * and # to achieve increased levels of indentation.  Also, the : character can be used to increase indentation without a bullet or number appearing in front of the text.

=== Indenting ===

Use <nowiki>':'</nowiki> symbol to specify the idention of a block of text.

For example:

 <nowiki>:</nowiki>Text paragraph1
 <nowiki>::</nowiki>Another text paragraph
 <nowiki>:</nowiki>Text paragraph2

Is shown as:

:Text paragraph1
::Another text paragraph
:Text paragraph2

And you can use it for lists:

 <nowiki>*</nowiki>item 1
 <nowiki>:</nowiki>text
 <nowiki>::</nowiki>more text
 <nowiki>*</nowiki>item 2
 <nowiki>:</nowiki>text
 <nowiki>::</nowiki>more text

Is shown as:

*item 1
:text
::more text
*item 2
:text
::more text

== Creating Tables ==

=== Wiki Style Tables ===

Here is sample code for creation of a table:

 <nowiki>{| border=1</nowiki>
 <nowiki>! col1 !! col2 !! col3</nowiki>
 <nowiki>|-</nowiki>
 <nowiki>|data1-1 || data1-2 || data1-3</nowiki>
 <nowiki>|-</nowiki>
 <nowiki>|data2-1 || data2-2 || data2-3</nowiki>
 <nowiki>|}</nowiki>

Looks like this:

{| border=1
! col1 !! col2 !! col3
|-
|data1-1 || data1-2 || data1-3
|-
|data2-1 || data2-2 || data2-3
|}

=== List Tables ===

In this wiki you can use 'listTable' tag to create sorted or unsorted tables of values. Every line defines an entry in the table.

The tag has following parameters. If you don't specify parameter, it's default value will be used:

:{| border=1
! Parameter !! Default Value !! Description
|-
|indent || 0 || Indend of the table from the base level.
|-
|cols || 4 || Number of columns in the table.
|-
|sorted || true || If 'true' the table is textually sorted; 'false' the table is not sorted.
|}


Here is example of sorted table, indented once, with four columns:

 <nowiki><listTable indent="1" cols="2"></nowiki>
 <nowiki>m</nowiki>
 <nowiki>a</nowiki>
 <nowiki>[[c]]</nowiki>
 <nowiki>[[link_to_b|b]]</nowiki>
 <nowiki></listTable></nowiki>

Looks like this: (Note the links are also sorted by their name. If there is '|' in the link, the visible text is used for sorting)

<listTable indent="1" cols="2">
m
a
[[c]]
[[link_to_b|b]]
</listTable>

== Line Lists ==

List tables is the simplified way of providing tabular lists.

<i>ident</i> parameter to the list table determine the amount of indenting that the table will have against the paragraph in which is defined.

There are two types of table list, two and tree elements:

=== Two elements ===

A <nowiki><line></nowiki> tag defines two following lines that contain the text for each element. As result you get a multi-line table with two columns:

 <nowiki><lineList ident=1></nowiki>
 <nowiki><line></nowiki>
 <nowiki>line1-element1</nowiki>
 <nowiki>line1-element2</nowiki>
 <nowiki></line></nowiki>
 <nowiki><line></nowiki>
 <nowiki>line2-element1</nowiki>
 <nowiki>line2-element2</nowiki>
 <nowiki></line></nowiki>
 <nowiki></lineList></nowiki>

Looks like this:

<lineList ident=1>
<line>
line1-element1
line1-element2
</line>
<line>
line2-element1
line2-element2
</line>
</lineList>

=== Three Elements ===

A <nowiki><line></nowiki> tag defines three following lines that contain the text for each element. As result you get a multi-line table with three columns:

 <nowiki><lineList ident=1></nowiki>
 <nowiki><line></nowiki>
 <nowiki>line1-element1</nowiki>
 <nowiki>line1-element2</nowiki>
 <nowiki>line1-element3</nowiki>
 <nowiki></line></nowiki>
 <nowiki><line></nowiki>
 <nowiki>line2-element1</nowiki>
 <nowiki>line2-element2</nowiki>
 <nowiki>line2-element3</nowiki>
 <nowiki></line></nowiki>
 <nowiki></lineList></nowiki>

Looks like this:

<lineList ident=1>
<line>
line1-element1
line1-element2
line2-element3
</line>
<line>
line2-element1
line2-element2
line2-element3
</line>
</lineList>

== Using Templates ==

Templates are Wiki pages that act like #include files for other Wiki pages.  They are used to reference a common set of text.

To place a template in a page, reference it using double curly braces, such as '''<nowiki>{{MyTemplate}}</nowiki>'''.  Creating a template is very similar to creating a regular Wiki page:

# Go to the page you want the template to be linked ''from''. 
# Click on the ''edit'' tab to edit the page. Add a template link to the template you wish to create.
#: Remember to use curly braces rather than brackets, ie: <nowiki>{{Template title}}</nowiki>
# Save the page. Your template link will show up as a red link which, when clicked, will bring you to an edit page for your new template. 
# Edit and save your template. 

== Specific Pages ==

*[[Help:Adding Article]] -- how to add general article page.
*[[Help:Adding Function Reference]] -- general information on adding reference page.
*[[Help:Adding General Function Reference]] -- how to add general function reference page.
*[[Help:Adding VCOM Function Reference]] -- how to add VCOM function reference page.
*[[Help:Adding VectorScript Function Reference]] -- how to add VectorScript function reference page.

== Additional info ==

[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ#Usage The Media Wiki FAQ] has more explanations of how to do this and other editing processes.

Also useful, is the [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User's_Guide MediaWiki Handbook].

[[Category:Help]]