View source for Part 3.0 - Organising Content

[[Category:MediaWiki for Content Editors|020]]
{{Cat|MediaWiki}}
{{Cat|course_code_mwedit1}}
==Sidebar⌘==
The sidebar that appears on the left of every page contains a number of useful tools.

A link to the main page.

A link to recent changes - this shows all recent changes made on the wiki in a similar way to pay history.

Random page - takes you to a random page on the wiki.

Help - an external link to the MediaWiki help page. very useful if you forget how to do something.

What links here - shows all pages that link to the current page. This can be useful for many reasons, i.e fixing redirects.

Related changes - shows all changes made related to the current page.

Upload file - allows you to upload a file, this is disabled by default.

Special Pages - takes you to a list of special pages.

Printable Version - generates a printable version of the page.

Permanent link - link.

Page Information - Gives generally useful information about a page.



==Special Pages⌘==
Contains special pages, that allow you to view or edit certain parts of the wiki.

For example,

All pages - view all pages

Block users - allows you to block a user from the wiki

User rights management - allows you to see permissions of different user groups.

==Localsettings.php⌘==
While you probably won't be touching code, its important to be aware of this file as all important changes are made here.

In your mediawiki directory, normally located in /var/www/mediawiki, there will be a file Localsettings.php.

This is your for a number of configuration options, from enabling extensions to defining user permissions.

==Categories⌘==
A category is a page in the Category namespace 
 <nowiki>[[Category:category name]]</nowiki>

To include a page in a Category:
 <nowiki> put [[Category:category name]] anywhere on the page</nowiki>

==Preferences⌘==
There are many User preferences that can be changed in Special:Preferences.

Theres also a link at the top right of all pages.

This can allow you to change a number of options that will only effect your account,

such as skin changing, gadgets, timezone and alot more.


==creating a template⌘==
To create a template, we simply create a page prefixed with Template:

The template can contain anything you like.

Templates are stored in the Template: namespace.

==Using a template⌘==
To include a template:

 <nowiki>{{TemplateName}}</nowiki>

we can use tags <nowiki><noinclude> and <includeonly></nowiki> to specify which parts of the template are included.

we can also pass paramenters into a template:

<nowiki>Written by : {{{Name|}}}</nowiki>

we include it with a parameter:

<nowiki>{{Footer|Name=David}}</nowiki>

==When to use a template⌘==
Footer/Header

Info box

Navigation boxes

Generally items that will appear on more than 1 page

Wikipedia uses info box templates on many pages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Infobox_person

== Templates ==

Create new page Template:Footer in Template namespace:

<pre>
----
Made from organic source code.
</pre>

Use it on normal page:

 <nowiki>{{Footer}}</nowiki>


Create Template:Table template:

<pre>
{| class="wikitable" width="500"
! colspan="2" | {{{ Title }}}
|-
| Description
| {{{ Description }}}
|-
| Duration
| {{{ Duration | 7 hours }}}
|-
| Prerequisites
| {{{ Prerequisites | Basic knowledge of computer use.}}}
|}
</pre>

Use it and assign values to the variables:

<pre>
{{
Table
| Title=MediaWiki for Content Editors
| Description=MediaWiki course for power users
| Duration=14 hours
}}
</pre>

==Namespaces⌘==
Namespace's are used to distinguish between different types of content.

Namespace is shown as a prefix to the page name, e.g Talk:MyPage

A Namespace seperates out your content, so a page MyPage in the Talk namespace is different to MyPage in the Main namespace.

You can't create a namespace by trying to create any page with a prefix.

It needs to been created in your Localsettings.php file, and should rarely be done.

define("NS_NAME", 44);

$wgExtraNamespaces[NS_NAME] = "Name";


It's important to make sure that the number is not used by any other namespace, by default -1 - 15 are used.

==Skins⌘==
You can a skin to change the appearance of your wiki.

You can set a default skin, and by default users can choose there own skin in [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering]]

==Custom CSS and JavaScript⌘==
Custom CSS can be added on MediaWiki:Custom.css and MediaWiki:custom.js pages.

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:CSS

==Exercise ⌘==
*Move date into a footer Template.
*Add footer template to all your pages.
*Create a cheese category and add your pages to it.
*create a Food Category and add your "cheese" page to it.

== Links ==
Internal link to another page:
[[Main Page]]
 <nowiki>[[Main Page]]</nowiki>

Internal link to another page with custom name:
[[Main Page| Go to Main Page]]
 <nowiki>[[Main Page| Go to Main Page]]</nowiki>

Internal link to section on current page:
[[#Templates| Go to Templates section]]
 <nowiki>[[#Templates| Go to Templates section]]</nowiki>

Internal link to section on another page:
[[MediaWiki for Content Editors#Templates| Go to Templates section on MediaWiki for Content Editors page]]
 <nowiki>[[MediaWiki for Content Editors#Templates| Go to Templates section on MediaWiki for Content Editors page]]</nowiki>

External link with custom name:
[http://apple.com Apple Inc.]
 <nowiki>[http://apple.com Apple Inc.]</nowiki>

Image link:
 <nowiki>[[File:Arduino logo.png| link=http://arduino.cc]]</nowiki>

== Magic words and variables ==
Disable edit section on page:
 <nowiki>__NOEDITSECTION__</nowiki>

Force showing Table of Contents:
 <nowiki>__FORCETOC__</nowiki>

Get number of pages:
 <nowiki>{{NUMBEROFPAGES}}</nowiki>

== Redirects ==
Create redirect:
 <nowiki>#REDIRECT [[New Page]]</nowiki>

== Customization ==
* Custom CSS styles can be added to MediaWiki:Common.css page in MediaWiki namespace.
* Custom JavaScript code can be placed on MediaWiki:Common.js page in MediaWiki namespace.
* Sidebar can be changed on page MediaWiki:Sidebar in MediaWiki namespace.