Consider the "All files in this package search" on
<http://packages.debian.org>.  The URL for such a search looks like this:

    http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=packagename&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=unstable&arch=i386

To create a "debfiles" [[shortcut|shortcuts]] that takes a package name, you
could just hardcode the architecture and distribution:

    \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=unstable&arch=i386"]]
    \[[debfiles ikiwiki]]

But what if you could have them as optional parameters instead?  The syntax
for the invocation should look like this:

    \[[debfiles ikiwiki dist=testing]]

Some possible syntax choices for the shortcut definition:

    \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%(dist)s&arch=%(arch)s" dist="unstable" arch="i386"]]
    \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%(dist=unstable)s&arch=%(arch=i386)s"]]
    \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%{dist=unstable}&arch=%{arch=i386}"]]
    \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=$*&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=${dist=unstable}&arch=${arch=i386}"]]

--[[JoshTriplett]]

Well, you can already do this kind of thing with templates. Invocation does
look different:

    \[[template id=debfiles package=ikiwiki dist=testing]]

--[[Joey]]

> I think I would find templates sufficient, if:
>
> 1. I could use the name of the template as a preprocessor directive
>    (`\[[templatename ...]]`), rather than using the `template` directive
>    with an `id` argument (`\[[template id=templatename]]`).
> 2. Template invocation allowed bare values in addition to `key=value`
>    arguments, and template definition supported some means to access the
>    value.  This would allow `\[[debfiles ikiwiki]]` rather than
>    `\[[debfiles package=ikiwiki]]`.
> 3. I could use ikiwiki syntax in the template, not just HTML and
>    HTML::Template.  (If I can already do that, then [[/plugins/template]]
>    should make that more clear.)
>
> --[[JoshTriplett]]
