Item13889: Processing of dynamically generated META in a new topic template is displayed as plain text until saved.

When creating a new topic I would expect a META generated within %STARTSECTION{type="expandvariables"}% to be processed by the edit script and used in the process of topic creation.

For example, for the following template I would expect the Permissions tab 'Users who may edit' section to be set to groups where current user belongs:

%STARTSECTION{type="expandvariables"}%
%USERINFO{format="$percentMETA:PREFERENCE{name=$quotALLOWTOPICCHANGE$quot title=$quotALLOWTOPICCHANGE$quot type=$quotSet$quot value=$quot$groups$quot}$percent$n()$percentMETA:PREFERENCE{name=$quotPERMSET_CHANGE$quot title=$quotPERMSET_CHANGE$quot type=$quotLocal$quot value=$quotdetails$quot}$percent$n$percentMETA:PREFERENCE{name=$quotPERMSET_CHANGE_DETAILS$quot title=$quotPERMSET_CHANGE_DETAILS$quot type=$quotLocal$quot value=$quot$groups$quot}$percent$n"}%
%ENDSECTION{type="expandvariables"}%

But in fact the META generated by this code simply makes it into the edit box of a newly created topic as is. I.e. it's not being parsed and is visible to the user in clear text with no impact on the Preferences tab.

The issue is not limited to the permissions only but also makes it impossible to dynamically set data form fields, for instances, in cases where passing form fields as URL parameters might be considered unacceptable. There might be other reasons to generate field values or any other META data inside the template.

-- VadimBelman - 08 Dec 2015

The issue is that META statements appearing in the topic text are processed when the topic is deserialised on initial read, and are not processed again until the topic is saved and read. So the embedded META in the template is ignored in the "first pass" and becomes active after save.

Fix is simple. After the template is expanded and all the meta applied, serialise and de-serialise the object to re-process any embedded meta.

diff --git a/core/lib/Foswiki/UI/Edit.pm b/core/lib/Foswiki/UI/Edit.pm
index 8e15e25..7646df9 100644
--- a/core/lib/Foswiki/UI/Edit.pm
+++ b/core/lib/Foswiki/UI/Edit.pm
@@ -318,6 +318,12 @@ sub init_edit {
         }
     }
 
+    # The template might contain embedded META data,  so serialize it
+    # and deserialize it to pick up the embedded meta.
+    Foswiki::Serialise::deserialise(
+        Foswiki::Serialise::serialise( $topicObject, 'Embedded' ),
+        'Embedded', $topicObject );
+
     $tmpl =~ s/%TEMPLATETOPIC%/$templateTopic/;
     $tmpl =~ s/%REDIRECTTO%/$redirectTo/;
 

-- GeorgeClark - 08 Dec 2015

Crawford, Could you review this. I think it's pretty safe, it's only doing what would happen in the round-trip through save.

-- GeorgeClark - 08 Dec 2015

Got a review on IRC. Checked into 2.0 & master. Waiting for release.

-- GeorgeClark - 09 Dec 2015

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