Hacking MediaWiki (for users)

Presented at Linux Users of Victoria usergroup, 2008.

Transcript

1. Brianna Laugher
   Linux Users of Victoria
   November 2008 meeting
   Hacking MediaWiki
   (For Users)
   http://www.mediawiki.org/
   

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2. ●
   Me: 2005—now Wikimedia editor,
   Wikimedia Commons administrator
   ~ 2 years, frustrated wannabe hacker
   ●
   You: Use MediaWiki outside of
   Wikimedia, comfortable
   with basic editing
   Who are we?
   

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3. ●
   MediaWiki/Wikimedia
   ●
   Wiki structure
   ●
   Magic words, access levels
   ●
   User JS/CSS – Gadgets
   ●
   “Uselang” hack
   Outline
   

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4. Open­source (GPL) wiki engine
   software (uses LAMP)
   MediaWiki
   Wikimedia
   MediaWiki
   Name of a social movement;
   also US charity
   (Wikimedia
   Foundation)
   

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5. ●
   Subpages
   Wiki structure
   

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6. By default only in
   talk, user pages
   Subpages
   Help:Subpages
   

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7. ●
   Subpages
   ●
   Links
   Wiki structure
   

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8. Special:MostLinked
   Special:WhatLinksHere
   Special:RecentChangesLinked
   Special:WantedPages
   Links
   Help:Links
   

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9. ●
   Subpages
   ●
   Links
   ●
   Categories
   Wiki structure
   

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10. Categories
    Help:Categories
    Nine special pages for categories
    

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12. ●
    Subpages
    ●
    Links
    ●
    Categories
    ●
    Templates
    Wiki structure
    

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13. Page transclusion: {{foo}}
    ,
    ,
    {{subst:foo}}
    Parameters
    Templates
    Help:Templates
    

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16. Special:ExpandTemplates
    

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17. Special:ExpandTemplates
    

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18. ●
    Subpages
    ●
    Links
    ●
    Categories
    ●
    Templates
    ●
    Namespaces
    Wiki structure
    

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19. “Front” page + talk page
    ●
    Main, Project, Help
    ●
    Template
    ●
    Category
    ●
    Special*
    ●
    Image, Media*
    ●
    MediaWiki
    (* = psuedo namespace)
    Namespaces
    Help:Namespaces
    

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20. Special:RecentChanges
    Special:SpecialPages
    Special pages
    Help:Special pages
    

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21. Special:Upload
    Image namespace ­> File (soon!)
    [[Image:foo.jpg]]
    to embed
    [[:Image:foo.jpg]]
    to link to image page,
    not embed
    [[Media:foo.jpg]]
    to link to file directly
    Images (uploaded files)
    

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22. “System [interface] messages”
    Edit MediaWiki: pages to overrride
    defaults (sysops only)
    Search on Special:Allmessages to
    find the right message/page
    MediaWiki namespace
    Manual:System message
    

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24. MediaWiki:sidebar
    MediaWiki:welcomecreation
    MediaWiki:copyrightwarning, 2
    MediaWiki:searchresulttext
    MediaWiki:uploadtext
    Interesting pages
    

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25. About the sidebar...
    Manual:Interface/Sidebar
    

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26. About the sidebar...
    Move search box
    to top for
    usability
    

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27. About the sidebar...
    MediaWiki:Mainpage
    Main Page
    Move search box
    to top for
    usability
    

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28. About the sidebar...
    MediaWiki:Mainpage
    Main Page
    Move search box
    to top for
    usability
    Delete defaults,
    Add your
    own links
    

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29. MediaWiki:Common.css
    MediaWiki:Common.js
    Monobook skin: (same for others)
    MediaWiki:Monobook.css
    MediaWiki:Monobook.js
    Look & feel
    

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30. Modify an existing one:
    User:Foo/monobook.css,js
    Myskin – empty to start with
    Skins – roll your own
    Your
    user
    page
    Name of skin.
    Must start with
    lowercase
    

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31. “Behaviour switches”:
    __NOTOC__,__TOC__
    #REDIRECT [[Foo]]
    __HIDDENCAT__ (on category pages)
    Magic words
    Help:Magic words
    

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32. __HIDDENCAT__
    Help:Magic words
    

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33. Look like {{CAPS TEMPLATES}}
    Especially used in templates ­ context.
    ●
    Time, revision related
    ●
    Stats!
    {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}
    {{NUMBEROFEDITS}}
    {{NUMBEROFUSERS}}
    {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Foo}}
    Variables
    Help:Magic words
    

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34. Special:ListGroupRights
    ●
    “Anonymous”/IP editor
    ●
    (registered) User
    ●
    ­> Autoconfirmed!
    ●
    Sysop (==”admin”)
    ●
    Bureaucrat
    ●
    Bot
    User access levels
    Manual:User rights
    

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35. Time ­ $wgAutoConfirmAge
    Edit count ­ $wgAutoConfirmCount
    After passing both, User automatically
    graduates to Autoconfirmed
    (On Wikipedia thought to
    be ~ 4 days)
    Autoconfirmed?
    

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36. Semi/protection
    Manual:Administrators
    

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37. Semi/protection
    Manual:Administrators
    AND
    non-
    autoconfirmed
    users!
    

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38. Massively simplify user JS/CSS sharing:
    no more copying user subpages
    MediaWiki:Gadgets­definition
    ­> New Preferences tab
    JS/CSS Gadgets
    Extension:Gadgets
    

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39. MediaWiki:Gadgets­definition
    MediaWiki:Gadget-section-browsing-gadgets
    MediaWiki:Gadget-Navigation popups
    List of file names
    MediaWiki:Gadget-foo.js/css
    

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40. Special:Preferences ­> Gadgets
    

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41. Gadget rec: HotCat
    Instead of this:
    [[Category:Melbourne Cricket Ground]]
    Try this:
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
    MediaWiki:Gadget­HotCat.js
    

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42. Make your edit box less scary:
    Gadget rec: wikEd
    http://enwp.org/WP:WIKED
    

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43. (This is not really recommended...)
    Use it to make different versions of special pages,
    eg upload form
    Uselang parameter overrides user language prefs
    Special:Upload?uselang=fr – I can see the
    French version of the form without changing
    my prefs
    “Uselang” hack
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
    Commons:Redesigning_the_upload_form
    

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44. What if I make a link to
    Special:Upload?uselang=blah ?
    For each message 'Foo', MW checks
    ●
    MediaWiki:Foo/blah (localised message)
    ●
    MediaWiki:Foo (localised default wiki lang
    message)
    ●
    MessagesBlah.php file (MW defaults)
    “Uselang” hack
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
    Commons:Redesigning_the_upload_form
    

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45. ●
    http://mediawiki.org is half­decent now
    ●
    Still lots of info on http://meta.wikimedia.org/
    ●
    IRC is popular: irc://irc.freenode.net/mediawiki
    ●
    MLs: mediawiki-l
    ●
    Forum: http://mwusers.com/ (unofficial)
    Support
    

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46. Questions?
    Brianna Laugher
    brianna@modernthings.org
    These slides are dual­licensed GFDL1.2+,
    CC­BY­SA­3.0.
    Screenshots are GFDL/GPL, WMF logo is all rights reserved,
    MediaWiki logo is public domain.
    Thankyou!
    http://brianna.modernthings.org/
    

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