1 In some sites (mine, for example), the pages are quasi-static, while the sidebar must be updated at each commit
2 (because it contains some lists, like "last posts" or "last updates", or a tagcloud). As this sidebar is included
3 in every page of the site, many commits can potentialy leat to a full re-compilation....
5 I think a sidebar included after the compilation (via a SSI mechanism for example) would make sense and
6 reduce the dependencies.
8 Different things could be possible:
10 * output as .shtml instead of .html
11 * ignore the sidebar->page dependency links
12 * consider the *real* dependencies; pageA may include the title (only) of pageB, but don't need to be recompiled
13 after each typo correction on pageB.
15 shtml output with open cgi web access is a potential security hole and can DoS the site, but it's not a problem for a
20 > This is a good idea, though sadly not portable enough to be the default.
21 > Especially if the only way to do it is with .shtml.
22 > But I really like the idea of not rebuilding the sidebar all the time.
23 > Definitly a TODO, for me, if I can figure out how to do it. Patches
26 > I have implemented a htmlext configuration item, that lets you control
27 > what extension ikiwiki uses for output html pages. So in theory, a
28 > sidebar could be done as you describe using .shtml. --[[Joey]]
32 > I have a plan for a way to avoid unecessary rebuilds caused by the
33 > sidebar. The idea is to use wikistate to store what a sidebar renders to.
34 > Then in the needsbuild hook, render sidebar(s) and compare with their
35 > previous stored rendering. If a sidebar's rendered content has changed,
36 > then all pages that display that sidebar need to be forced to be rebuilt.
38 > Also, if there is no previous stored rendering for a sidebar, or
39 > if there is a stored rendering for a sidebar page that no longer exists, then
40 > the pages need to be rebuilt. (This should deal with the [[bugs/Building_a_sidebar_does_not_regenerate_the_subpages]] bug.
42 > This would also save significant time, since the stored sidebar rendering
43 > could just be dumped into the page by the pagetemplate hook. Current code
44 > re-loads and renders the same sidebar file for every page built!
46 > The sticky part is relative links on the sidebar. These would need to
47 > be modified somehow depending on the page that the sidebar is placed on.
48 > Doing that seems hard/tricky. Maybe it would not be worth the optimisation
49 > of using the stored rendering after all, and instead still re-render it for
50 > each page? --[[Joey]]