I'm looking into making settings patchable; it's not that difficult except that getVars/setVars in Everything.pm is hardcoded to use the "vars" field (while patches have the data in a "code" field). Solutions:

1. copy the ?etVars code into patch display/edit pages, adjusted to use code instead of vars
2. make settings patches a new nodetype that uses the setting table instead of (or in addition to) htmlcode.
3. Change Everything.pm something like: (Updated to factor out packVars/unpackVars:)(Updated to de-indent:)

--- Everything.pm.orig    2004-09-13 15:29:13.318740800 -0700
+++ Everything.pm    2004-09-14 09:23:15.763673600 -0700
@@ -258,16 +258,13 @@
 
 
 #####################################################################
+########
-sub getVars
+sub unpackVars
 {
-    my ($NODE) = @_;
-    getRef $NODE;
-
-    return if ($NODE == -1);
+    my ($vars) = @_;
 
-    return {} unless $NODE->{vars};
+    return {} unless $vars;
 
-    my %vars = map { split /=/ } split (/&/, $$NODE{vars});
+    my %vars = map { split /=/ } split (/&/, $vars);
     foreach (keys %vars) {
         unescape $vars{$_};
         if ($vars{$_} eq ' ') { $vars{$_} = ""; }
@@ -277,46 +274,69 @@
 }
 
 #####################################################################
+########
+sub getVars
+{
+    my ($NODE, $field) = @_;
+    getRef $NODE;
+
+    return if ($NODE == -1);
+
+    $field ||= "vars";
+
+    return unpackVars( $NODE->{$field} );
+}
+
+#####################################################################
+########
+sub packVars
+{
+    my ($varsref) = @_;
+
+    # Clean out the keys that have do not have a value.
+    foreach (sort keys %$varsref) {
+        $$varsref{$_} = " " unless $$varsref{$_};
+    }
+
+    return join("&", map( $_."=".escape($$varsref{$_}), keys %$varsre
+f) );
+}
+
+#####################################################################
+########
 #   Sub
 #       setVars
 #
 #   Purpose
-#       This takes a hash of variables and assigns it to the 'vars' o
+f the
-#       given node.  If the new vars are different, we will update th
+e
-#       node.
+#       This takes a hash of variables and assigns it to a field of t
+he
+#       given node.  If the field is changed, we will update the node
+.
 #
 #   Parameters
-#       $NODE - a node id or hash of a node that joins on the
+#       $NODE - a node id or hash of a node, usually one that joins o
+n the
 #       "settings" table which has a "vars" field to assign the vars 
+to.
 #       $varsref - the hashref to get the vars from
+#       $field - the field in which to put the vars; defaults to "var
+s"
 #
 #   Returns
 #       Nothing
 #
 sub setVars
 {
-    my ($NODE, $varsref) = @_;
-    my $str;
+    my ($NODE, $varsref, $field) = @_;
+    $field ||= "vars";
 
     getRef($NODE);
 
-    unless (exists $$NODE{vars}) {
-        warn ("setVars:\t'vars' field does not exist for node ".getId
+($NODE)."
-        perhaps it doesn't join on the settings table?\n");
-    }
-
-    # Clean out the keys that have do not have a value.
-    foreach (keys %$varsref) {
-        $$varsref{$_} = " " unless $$varsref{$_};
+    unless (exists $$NODE{$field}) {
+        warn ("setVars:\t'$field' field does not exist for node "
+            . getId($NODE) . "\n");
+        warn ("\t\tperhaps it doesn't join on the settings table?\n")
+            if $field eq "vars";
     }
 
-    $str = join("&", map( $_."=".escape($$varsref{$_}), keys %$varsre
+f) );
+    my $str = packVars( $varsref );
 
-    return unless ($str ne $$NODE{vars}); #we don't need to update...
+    return unless ($str ne $$NODE{$field}); #we don't need to update.
+..
 
     # The new vars are different from what this user node contains, f
+orce
     # an update on the user info.
-    $$NODE{vars} = $str;
+    $$NODE{$field} = $str;
     my $superuser = -1;
     $DB->updateNode($NODE, $superuser);
 }
[download]

I'm inclined toward number 3.

Once that's resolved, the rest is pretty easy; it will work differently from other patches in a couple of ways. First, there will be just a "Create Patch" button on the setting display page, not a form (since I don't see an easy way to feed op=new an editvars form). Second, it will just display the new settings, not a diff, at least until I figure out diff_strings enough to hack it to the purpose.

---

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