====== MediaWIki ======

===== Using =====

Notes from a regular user's perspective.

==== Signature ====
<code>&mdash;[[User:Rylie_James_Thomas|rjt]]&nbsp;([[User_talk:Rylie_James_Thomas|talk]])</code>
<code>—&nbsp;[[User:Rjt|rjt]]&nbsp;([[User_talk:Rjt|talk]])</code>

==== See Also ====

  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Searching#Search_string_syntax


===== Running =====

Note's from an admin's perspective.

==== Setup ====

  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgAllowDisplayTitle
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgCategoryMagicGallery
  

=== Interwiki ===

Like [[Dokuwiki]], Mediawiki has a dedicated syntax for interwiki links. Practically, they're a quick way to link to other sites, so useful for one's you link to often.

  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Interwiki
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Interwiki
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Guide_to_setting_up_interwiki_linking

The easiest way to add links is to use the included Interwiki extension, which requires a little manual setup: Just add these lines to your LocalSettings.php file

<code php>
wfLoadExtension( 'Interwiki' );
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['interwiki'] = true;
</code>

If you want to add little icons before/after links like in Dokuwiki, you can use the [[CSS]] '':before'' or '':after'' 

=== Search ===

The default Mediawiki search is pretty shit. Autocomplete doesn't work unless you get the page name right (including case), and it seems to miss stuff in the results page.

  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Search_extensions
  * Wikipedia uses: [[ https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CirrusSearch|CirrusSearch]], which makes use of Elasticsearch.
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SearchExtraNS

==== Templates ====

Templates are a really useful tool for inserting information on multiple pages. They can be simple---like insert a single word; or complex---like the 'infoboxes' you see on [[Wikipedia]] pages, and even using conditional statements.

  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates/en
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Transclusion
  * https://template.miraheze.org/wiki/Miraheze_Template_Wiki

To save people the hassle of having to copy+paste the template text each time, you can add a button to the editor:

  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:InsertTemplate

And include 'template data' into your templates so they'll show up.

  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TemplateData 

=== Infobox ===

==== Theming ====

There are a few different ways to theme MediaWiki.

  * The most complex is to create a //skin//. This is the base that determines the appearance of the wiki.
  * Next is a //theme//. Themes are applied on top of skins, and a theme will rely on a particular skin. They change less, but can still do a lot.
  * The other option is to just insert a little bit of custom CSS for basic changes; changing text properties and such. You can add rules directly to the page ''MediaWiki:Common.css'' (which is also handy if you're having trouble with your wiki's caching, etc.).

My theme for the [[game_making_tools#Wiki|Game Making Tools Wiki]] is built on top of the Timeless skin. [[tildegit>rjt/mediawiki-theme-timeless-gmt]]

My theme for the [[videogame_interface_wiki]] is built on the new Vectorr 2022 skin, but it's arse and breaks often. I'm going to switch to Timeless for that one too.

=== Skins ===
Mediawiki skins are way too complicated, I think I've given up on ever creating one.

Looking for Mediawiki skins is annoying! MediaWiki's wiki has [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:All_skins|a section that collects some together]], but there's no gallery of screenshots.

== Notes ==

These notes are from when I was looking for a new skin for [[Game Making Tools]]'s wiki (ended up going with Timeless). Looking for something with a narrower reading area((default skins expand to fill width of the browser window, and are fiddlier than they should be to fix)), produces nice markup, and uses ''grid''.

  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Timeless|Timeless]] - I like that the search input in prominent, responsive, already included with MediaWiki (have to activate), narrower content section, I have themed this in the past.\\ NB: [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Timeless-DarkCSS|Dark version]]
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:PureCss|PureCSS]] - I thought the name was appealing :) but it's actually some Yahoo framework. Still, the skin's code is easy to read, so might be a good starting point for developing a custom skin.
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Nimbus|Nimbus]] - Similar to the default, but a bit nicer.
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Nostalgia|Nostalgia]] - Like earlier wiki engines.
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Pivot|Pivot]] - Could be a good base for themeing.
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Foreground|Foreground]] - Another one that might be a good fit. Not so keen on not having sidebar/s.((This is the innocuous-looking line that's making this {{tagpage>external-edit-only}}))

Vetoed:

  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Tweeki|Tweeki]] - Bootstrap.
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Medik|Medik]] - ``
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Strapping|Strapping]] - ``
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Material|Material]] - puke material puke design puke


== See Also ==
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skinning_Part_1
  * [[https://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Skin:Skins|Skins]] section on Wikiapiary. Data on skin usage across different Mediawiki wikis.

==== Extensions ====
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CategoryTree
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SyntaxHighlight
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:WikiEditor
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:YouTube
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MsUpload
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MsCatSelect
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:OpenID
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Tabs
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ArticleCreationWorkflow
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:3D
  * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Page_Forms

===== See Also ====
  * [[https://www.mediawiki.org/|mediawiki.org]]

{{tag>external-edit-only theming wiki}}