Item2292: System topics authored by WikiGuest instead of ProjectContributor

A recent Web Changes scan of the foswiki.org System web shows WebLeftBarSearch created by WikiGuest. Was this a missed login by an init script, or ... ?

A heads up.

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I updated the title and lowered priority.

-- PaulHarvey - 26 Oct 2009

seems as though topics without %META:TOPICINFO{author="..." ...}% render as =WikiGuest. many topics are missing this info; i will generate a list.

-- WillNorris - 22 Mar 2010

here's the list:

wbniv@wbniv-laptop:~/foswiki/Release01x00/core/data$ grep -RL '%META:TOPICINFO{author=' . | grep -v '.svn' | grep -v '/TestCases/'
./_empty/WebPreferences.txt
./System/WysiwygPluginSettings.txt
./System/UnitTestContrib.txt
./System/JSCalendarContribInline.txt
./System/PreferencesPlugin.txt
./System/DefaultPreferencesForm.txt
./System/TinyMCEQuickHelp.txt
./System/MailerContrib.txt
./System/TinyMCEPlugin.txt
./System/TopicUserMappingContrib.txt
./System/JSCalendarContrib.txt
./System/WebLeftBarSearch.txt
./System/WysiwygPlugin.txt
./System/WysiwygPluginTopicLister.txt
./System/SmiliesPlugin.txt
./System/TWikiCompatibilityPlugin.txt
./System/BuildContrib.txt
./System/EmptyPlugin.txt

wbniv@wbniv-laptop:~/foswiki/trunk/core/data$ grep -RL '%META:TOPICINFO{author=' _default/ _empty/ Main/ Sandbox/ System/ Trash/ TWiki/ | grep-v '.svn'
_empty/WebPreferences.txt
System/WysiwygPluginSettings.txt
System/UnitTestContrib.txt
System/VarEXPAND.txt
System/JSCalendarContribInline.txt
System/PreferencesPlugin.txt
System/DefaultPreferencesForm.txt
System/TinyMCEQuickHelp.txt
System/MailerContrib.txt
System/TinyMCEPlugin.txt
System/TopicUserMappingContrib.txt
System/JSCalendarContrib.txt
System/WebLeftBarSearch.txt
System/WysiwygPlugin.txt
System/WysiwygPluginTopicLister.txt
System/VarSHOWPREFERENCE.txt
System/SmiliesPlugin.txt
System/TWikiCompatibilityPlugin.txt
System/BuildContrib.txt
System/EmptyPlugin.txt

-- WillNorris - 22 Mar 2010

This, and the parent meta, is something that BuildContrib perhaps should be doing automatically for us.

-- PaulHarvey - 23 Mar 2010

I'm not sure either WikiGuest nor ProjectContributor are correct if a topic has no TOPICINFO - the topic might have been created from the usual copy any random text file into the web method - and it'd be nice if the difference showed (tho guest is better than ProjectContributor as a default)

-- SvenDowideit - 30 Apr 2010

Personally I'd rather drop the TOPICINFO from these topics completely. The topic history is recorded in subversion, and the TOPICINFO just confuses the issue - it is rarely correct.

At the moment a view without topicinfo or other source of history shows wikiguest as the author. This is OK as a default, though for topics in System web I'd rather not show an author.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 17 May 2010

i'm no longer sure what the task is here... am i adding or deleting TOPICINFO for system documentation topics? no "attribution" on the page itself does sound less confusing.

-- WillNorris - 11 Sep 2010

Deleting it. TOPICINFO in system topics is impossible to maintain.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 16 Oct 2010

it looks like Crawford did not get his way - most of the topic we distribute still have TOPICINFO's in them.

I'm going to mark this as urgent for 1.2.0 - so that someone can decide if they should have or have not.

I kind of like the idea that receivers of our topics know what the date of the last modification was - so I'd not only leave them in, I'd make the build have an update from svn/git log step.

-- SvenDowideit - 08 Mar 2012

Removing all TOPICINFOs from System web. They'll contributed to UnknownUser on trunk. Most dates were not correct since they weren't kept up to date.

-- StephanOsthold - 13 Mar 2014

Turns out removing those TOPICINFOs was not a good idea since it will cause the full revision to be loaded. However now all topics are contributed to ProjectContributor.

-- StephanOsthold - 13 Mar 2014