MediaWiki/Editing

From Bibliotheca Anonoma
Revision as of 19:13, 8 January 2017 by Antonizoon (talk | contribs)

The Bibliotheca Anonoma Wiki has special features and extensions that editors can make use of.

Creating Infoboxes

Infoboxes on the Bibliotheca Anonoma Wiki are created using Capiunto, a Lua module is relatively easier to install and create infoboxes with than the opaque and puzzling template language. It will take a bit of reading to understand how to make one, but it's worth it.

Basic Usage Guide for Capiunto

Cargo (Semantic Infoboxes)

The infoboxes on the Bibliotheca Anonoma are augmented with Cargo, a Semantic Web extension (designed to replace Semantic MediaWiki). This gives the infobox elements the power to be indexed in a semantic metadata database. That way, queries and reports can be made to sort out the data for easier searching.

A full Cargo Cheatsheet can be found here.

Basic Components of a Cargo Subject

A single Cargo subject is made up of a three basic elements:

  1. Template - Defines the table schema.
  2. Table - Indexes the data for queries.
  3. Form - Helps users create a new page with fields for metadata.
  4. Page - Use the form to create a new page.

1. Create a Cargo Template

The Cargo Template defines the table's schema: what kind of columns it has, and how it looks to the user.

2. Create a Cargo Table

  1. Open the Cargo Template you need to create a template for.
  2. Click More at the top right next to the search bar.
  3. Click Create Cargo Table.

The cargo table must be recreated each time the schema is modified in the template.

3. Create a Cargo Form

  1. Go to Special:Forms.
  2. Choose the template to create the form for.
  3. Name the Form with the same base name as the Template. (e.g. for Template:Book, type in Book.)

4. Create a Cargo Page

  1. Go to the page Form:Cargo Title, replacing "Table Title" with the actual title of the cargo subject.
  2. Enter the title of the page you want to create.
  3. Fill out the form. In the "Free Text" box, you can create a normal wikipage.

Creating Templates

Documentation Method 2: Wikipedia-style /doc Subpage

Subpages are a cleaner way of keeping the documentation separate from the main template, while still allowing the documentation to appear on the template page.

While Wikipedia's documentation system has become incredibly complex through the addition of Lua modules, templates from a simpler time still exist out there and we can use them.

http://pathfinderwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Template:Documentation

Documentation Method 1: Arch Wiki-style <noinclude>

When creating a template meant for users to utilize, you should place a {{Template}} header into it.

Note: Templates meant for internal template use only do not need this header.

This template should be added at the very beginning of all template pages between 'noinclude' tags:

<noinclude>
{{Template}}
</noinclude>

A brief description of the template, usage instructions, and output example should also be added between the 'noinclude' tags (as in this template).

The template wikitext must be written between 'includeonly' tags:

<includeonly>...</includeonly>
Note: Template documentation is set up the same way as in the Arch Wiki: inside <includeonly></includeonly> tags. This is simpler than the Wikipedia template documentation, which puts it in a subpage.

Design Models

The Bibliotheca Anonoma is descended from various model wikis that templates were directly copied from, or otherwise inspired the MediaWiki instance.

  • Arch Wiki - The code templates and Note boxes are inherited from here.
  • Chakra Wiki - The i18n templates are inherited from here. We would prefer to use the Translate extension instead, but it has no support for PostgreSQL. Maybe when we need it we will switch to MariaDB.
  • Tanasinn.info - Their VIP quality templates are just plain hilarious.