Talk:MediaWiki Project

MediaWiki Project Forum Opened 20:50, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Namespace debate

Wikiversity:Namespaces/Proposals for new namespaces presents some interesting questions. I tend to try to distill multiple questions and problems to a singular argument:

• What is the fundemental relationship between MediaWiki architecture and Wikiversity architecture?

I think addressing that sort of question could shed some light on the problem of slicing and dicing Wikiversity content in a reasonable way. I'm big on diagramatics, especially the UML variety, so here are what I think are helpful illustrations:

MediaWiki General Architecture

User Layer	Web Clients
Network Layer	Apache Webserver
Logic Layer	MediaWiki's PHP scripts PHP
Data Layer	File System MySQL Database Caching System

Wikiversity General Architecture

As you can see, the high-level architectures are vastly divergent because the architects have different perspectives:

• The developers see MediaWiki from the perspective of client/server relationships, webserver configuration, scripts, and file system/database/cashe functionality.
• Wikiversity custodians see MediaWiki from the perspective of learner/teacher relationships, namespaces, hierarchical organization (of learning groups and materials) and conventional university standards.

I don't know how to deal with this divergence, but as I stated here, I think MediaWiki has untapped potential out-of-the-box that Wikiversity hasn't yet discovered. When I wrote my description of this project, I directed it toward a Wikiversity:Practicum paridigm in Topic:Applied Computer Science hoping to funnel at least my own learning goals toward understanding how this monster works.

I think of myself as somewhat of a generalist, but I'm in the process of delving into the specific functionalty of MediaWiki. I'm hoping others will do the same, so we can make this a true research collaboration. In my view, the namespace debate is an opportunity for this project to prove itself. Looking at School:Film as a case study may be a good start toward melding the two architectures. CQ 22:18, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Timelines

I've been fascinated with MediaWiki's ability to perform automated tasks using currency Variables like {{CURRENTMONTH}}, {{CURRENTDAY}} and {{CURRENTYEAR}}. I've done some experimenting on various Wikia sites, notably WikiaPerl, where we shall in time do a co-op study with Topic:Perl here for EasyTimeline.pl and other studies. I intuit that it might be cool to design some time-based Templates and Scripts that predicate and facilitate a general study in MediaWiki timelines, even creating some nifty automation tools for local use.

See Meta:

• m:Timeline
• m:Timelines
• m:EasyTimeline
• m:Help:EasyTimeline syntax
• m:Help:EasyTimeline activation
• Grand Unified Timeline of Human History

CQ 17:59, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Toolserver

How do we get something like this: m:RandomText implemented on wikiversity?--Rayc 19:19, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I guess I don't need that now, since I figured out how to access the seconds function. Now I can do stuff like this:

Roll again

monobook.js

I hear a lot about monobook.js. What is this and what can it be used for? CQ 03:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

It allows extra javascript to be added to pages to do all sorts of useful things. There's also a MediaWiki:Monobook.css to change the layout of the page. Those pages are the site-wide CSS jand Javascript, however, a great thing about MediaWiki is that every user has their own Monobook.css/js in their userspace. For instance, I added some javascript to my own Monobook.js file at User:MichaelBillington/monobook.js, and if you wanted to add some yourself you (and any custodians) can edit User:CQ/monobook.js.

They are usually used to make common tasks simpler, but there's some other things as well. For instance, if you don't like a specific system message you can change what it says through javascript. It is also possible to make pages somewhat like special pages, where as soon as it it loaded it will trigger some javascript. This has been used to make an edit counter on the English Wikipedia. Some users have made calendar type things to put a notice on their watchlist when it is a specific day, others have made 'status changers' which edit a user page every time you log in or log out, so ther users know if you're there. It has also been used as a temporary measure to patch bugs, such as where javascript changes the title of 'IPod' to 'iPod' because the software itself can't. The possibilities are endless :-) [note I don't know much javascript so i can't help you make any scripts though :( ] Michael Billington (talk • contribs) 04:18, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• I have once used it to convert all "%" into "|" in a page.Hillgentleman|Talk 12:17, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki markup as a Turing Machine?

(cross-posted from Topic talk:MediaWiki)

• There are a few template-programmes here: w:zh-yue:User:Hillgentleman (press the edit button!) and here (Wiki is not Turing machine) and here (Wiki is Turing machine)---Hillgentleman|Talk 12:17, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Bloom clock could use some help

Or I guess I should say that I need help getting the bloom clock towards its potential, and User:CQ said this project should "be involved". Here's the dream: anyone can take part in logging bloom times, but they should be able to log by scientific name, common name, or through pages like "currently blooming in Pennsylvania" or "plants with yellow flowers", but however they log it, it should all appear on the same log. For the next step (after a few years of data collection), we'd also need bots that can make correlations like "if this plant is blooming somewhere, this other plant will be blooming too", and "if this plant is blooming, this insect/bird/etc. will be found" (the arthropod clock and bird clock will be starting shortly), and more generally "this plant blooms at this time in Georgia, at this time in Pennsylvania, at this time in Toronto, and to this time in Santiago". This data is urgently needed by our friends at wikipedia, [for example].

Am I asking in the right place?--SB_Johnny | ^talk 00:15, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Special:Search checkboxes

I have looked extensively through the code of MediaWiki (which I have installed on my site), but cannot figure out how to acheive what I want to do. I want Special:Search and search results to not display all the namespaces at the bottom, only some of them. All the talks, for example, I wish to do away with, as they are unused. How would I do this?

Thanks. Smaug 22:18, 13 August 2007 (UTC)