===== Adding Buttons to DokuWiki =====

==== What I Wanted ====

I wanted to add a "custom" button in dokuwiki, so my template would have a clearly indicated link to the legal information ("mentions légales" in French).  

==== What I Discovered ====

  * one cannot use a call to tpl_button() because it only works for actions that are hard-coded into its select/case structure.
  * one can use 
  %%html_btn($name,$id,$akey,$params,$method='get',$tooltip='')%%

^ $name :| important, this is concatenated to 'btn_'  to use as a key in a lookup in the active lang file to obtain the label for the button. |
|  *| must therefore ensure the label key/value pair is in the lang file. |
|  *| probably must also ensure it ($name) doesn't have any whitespace in it.|
^ $id :| page_name (I think), like 'mentions_legales' |
^ $akey :| access key (probably not always useful nor obvious). |
^ $params :| array('do' => 'show') |
^ $method='get' :|  |
^ %%$tooltip=''%% :| skip, to remain language independent? |


==== What I Did ====

  - Added the following statement to the list of buttons in my template sidebar:  %% <li> <?php print html_btn('legal','mentions_legales','b',array('do' => 'show')); ?></li>
%%
  - Added key/value entries to ''lang.php'' for each of the languages I (might) use: EN, FR:
    * EN : ''$lang['btn_legal']  = 'Legal';''
    * FR : ''$lang['btn_legal']  = 'Mentions Legales';''

=== Problem! ===

The labels added to ''lang.php'' will be lost when the file is overwritten at the next version change! It seems there are few options for "fixing" this:
  - Lobby DokuWiki to include this ''btn_legal'' as a standard label in all language files
  - Leave it as it is, and remember to re-enter the labels at each upgrade
  - Make a ''plugin'' for this button, so the label can be separately maintained (seems like the wrong thing to do: overkill)
  - Add a button_maker function and language files to the template: probably worth considering, if (1) fails.