documentation:website:namespaces

Namespaces

A namespace is similar to a directory or folder, while pagenames are similar to files. Namespaces are used to categorize the pages and to restrict access to certain users and groups. The right use of namespaces and pages is important for the configuration of the submenu.

The Sitemap provides an overview of all current namespaces and pages.

Pagenames and Namespaces

You may picture namespaces as directories and pagenames as files inside them.

Therefore the a:b:c pagename can be pictured as: 

   root namespace (always present)
     │
     └── 'a' namespace
          │
          └── 'b' namespace
               │
               └── 'c' pagename

Note that you can have a pagename and a namespace with the same name, at the same time, within any namespace. Back to the above example, the a:b pagename can be pictured as: 

   root namespace (always present)
     │
     └── 'a' namespace
          │
          └── 'b' pagename (not to be confused with the 'b' namespace above)

This doesn't lead to conflicts, because DokuWiki treats the final token (the one after the last colon) as the name of the page itself, while all other tokens are namespaces.

  • In a:b:c, a and b are namespaces while c is a page.
  • In a:b, a is interpreted as a namespace and b as a page.

Creating Namespaces

You don't need to create namespaces separately; simply create pages with colons in the pagenames. The token after the last colon will be the name of the page itself, while all other tokens are namespaces. All namespaces used in your pagename that don't exist already will be created by DokuWiki automatically.

A namespace can be created in the media manager after having selected a file on the local computer and before clicking upload.

In DokuWiki pages are created as in every other wiki. Simply create a link to a non existing page, follow this link, and click on Create this page. See also Adding pages.

Again, just like with pages, it is also possible to create a new namespace by manipulating the URL. For creating a new namespace namespaces1 with the startpage start in namespace playground (which is directly under the root namespace), one has to replace documentation/namespaces with playground/namespace1/start and create the new page.

Examples:
example
.example
.:example		refers to the page “example” in the current namespace.
:examplerefers to the page “example” in the root namespace.
..example
..:example
.:..:example		refers to the page “example” in the parent namespace
wiki:examplerefers to the page “example” in the namespace “wiki”. The namespace “wiki” is located beneath the root namespace.
ns1:ns2:example
:ns1:ns2:example		refers to the page “example” in the namespace ns2. The namespace ns2 is located beneath the namespace ns1; the namespace ns1 is located beneath the root namespace.
.ns1:ns2:example
.:ns1:ns2:example		refers to the page “example” in the namespace ns2. The namespace ns2 is located beneath the namespace ns1; the namespace ns1 is located beneath the current namespace.
..ns1:ns2:example
..:ns1:ns2:example		refers to the page “example” in the namespace ns2. The namespace ns2 is located beneath the namespace ns1; the namespace ns1 is located beside the current namespace (i.e. both ns1 and the current namespace are beneath the same parent namespace, wherever according to the root namespace this parent may be located itself).
.ns1:ns2:
.:ns1:ns2:		refers to the page “start” in the namespace ns2. The namespace ns2 is located beneath the namespace ns1; the namespace ns1 is located beneath the current namespace.

(The default page can be named something other than “start” by adjusting the startpage configuration setting.)

:!: Gotcha: The syntax for relative and absolute internal links is non-unique and complex relative to directory and filename conventions.

Paths are absolute if and only if they begin with “/”.

Links are absolute if and only if they have a “:” prefix or have no prefix but do have intermediate (or suffix) “:”

Links relative to the current namespace may also begin with either “.” or “.:” (“..” or “..:” for parent namespace).

Deleting namespaces

When all pages inside a namespace are removed (see delete a page) the namespace logically doesn’t exist anymore. DokuWiki usually deletes the now empty directory as well.