This page describes the "variables" that are associated with pages. Page variables have the form {$variable}, and can be used in page markup or in certain formatting strings in PmWiki. For example, the markup "{$Group}" renders in this page as "PmWiki".

Note: Do not confuse these variables (set and used only in PmWiki pages) with PHP variables. Page variables can be read in PHP with the PageVar() function.

Note that these variables do not necessarily exist in the PHP code, because they have to be determined for a specific page. (However, they are usable in FmtPageName strings.)

There is also the form {pagename$variable}, which returns the value of the variable for another page. For example, "{MarkupMasterIndex$Title}" displays as "Markup Master Index".

Special references

Special referenced variables are used to retain the context of the target page or main page for a variable when:

• the variable is included into a destination (target) page)
• the variable is part of a sidebar, header, or footer for a main page

Prefixing the variable name with an asterisk (*) means the variable reflects the value related to the target page or main page.

• *$PageVariablename - prefixed by an asterisk (*) - value reflects target page context

Without the asterisk it reflects the value of the page in which it originates.

• $PageVariablename - retains value in source page context

For example you can test to see if the page is part of another page

(:if ! name {$FullName}:) 
%comment% name of this page is not the same as the page this text was
sourced from
->[[{$FullName}#anchor | more ...]]
(:ifend:)

or refer to the main page in a sidebar, footer, or header

This page is [[{*$FullName}]]

Default page variables

The page variables defined for PmWiki are:

In addition to the above, there are some page-invariant variables available through this markup:

Custom page variables

You may add custom page variables as a local customization. In a local configuration file or a recipe script, use the variable $FmtPV:

$FmtPV['$VarName'] = "'variable definition'";
$FmtPV['$CurrentSkin'] = '$GLOBALS["Skin"]';
$FmtPV['$WikiTitle'] = '$GLOBALS["WikiTitle"]';

Defines new Page Variable of name $CurrentSkin, which can be used in the page with {$CurrentSkin} (also for Conditional markup). It's necessary to use the single quotes nested inside double-quotes as shown above (preferred) or a double-quoted string nested inside single-quotes like '"this"'.

If you want to have a Page Variable that returns the currently used password (more precisely, the last password entered), you can use

$FmtPV['$AuthPw'] = 'reset(array_keys((array)@$_SESSION["authpw"]))';

See also

• Cookbook:More custom page variables
• PmWiki.Variables — about variables internal to PmWiki.
• PmWiki.MarkupMasterIndex — complete list of PmWiki markups.
• PageTextVariables — page variables automatically made available through natural page markup or explicit page markup within the wiki text of the page.
• PmWiki.Markup Expressions — markup expressions can manipulate page variables

# add page variable {$PageCreationDate} in format yyyy-mm-dd
$FmtPV['$PageCreationDate'] = 'strftime("%Y-%m-%d", $page["ctime"])';

 $FmtPV['$Created'] = "strftime(\$GLOBALS['TimeFmt'], \$page['ctime'])";