Extension:Interwiki

This extension comes with MediaWiki 1.21 and above. Thus you do not have to download it again. However, you still need to follow the other instructions provided.

MediaWiki extensions manual

Interwiki Release status: stable
Implementation	Special page
Description	Adds a special page to view and manipulate the interwiki table
Author(s)	Stephanie Amanda Stevens, SPQRobin
Latest version	3.2 (2019-07-15)
MediaWiki	1.36+
Database changes	No
License	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (Phabricator · GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Example	Special:Interwiki
Parameters $wgInterwikiViewOnly InterwikiCentralDB
Added rights interwiki
Quarterly downloads	113 (Ranked 51st)
Public wikis using	4,929 (Ranked 181st)
Translate the Interwiki extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The Interwiki extension adds the "Special:Interwiki" page to MediaWiki , to view and edit the interwiki table, and a log of any actions made with it.

It was merged into MediaWiki core in MediaWiki 1.44.

This extension works with the $wgInterwikiCache variable. Changes made with it to the interwiki table can affect the behavior of both transclusion and interwiki links .

The list of "Special:Interwiki" is identical to the API api.php?action=query&meta =siteinfo&siprop=interwikimap, except the iw_api field is not available.

Installation

• Download and move the extracted Interwiki folder to your extensions/ directory.
  Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:cd extensions/
git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/Interwiki
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'Interwiki' );
  // To grant a group (e.g., the "sysop" group) permission to edit interwiki data
  $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['interwiki'] = true;
  

•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

• The configuration that comes with MediaWiki will not grant permission to any user group. Thus, you will need to add the configuration yourself or no one will be able to edit interwikis.
• To enable transclusion from other sites, you'll need to enable $wgEnableScaryTranscluding .
• To disable adding prefixes through the Special:Interwiki interface, set $wgInterwikiViewOnly to true.

This extension's entry in the list of Special pages is not the name of the extension. The entry in the list is defined by the interwiki message item defined per locale in SpecialInterwiki.i18n.php. Its value is View and edit interwiki data.

Setting up interlanguage links

To set up interlanguage links using this extension, make sure that $wgInterwikiMagic is set to true and $wgHideInterlanguageLinks is set to false (they are like this by default, you don't need to change them usually). The $wgInterwikiViewOnly also needs to be set to false (which it is by default). Then go to Special:Interwiki as a user with the ability to edit interwikis. That is controlled by the interwiki permission, and by default, no user group has this permission, so it needs to be added to a user group with, e.g.

$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['interwiki'] = true;

Once on Special:Interwiki, you can either click the "Add an interwiki or language prefix" link at the top of the table, or click the "Edit" or "Delete" links in the table row of an existing interwiki prefix.

Choosing to add or edit an interwiki prefix will take you to a separate page with a form with various fields to be filled. The main fields are "name", which is the prefix that would be used for the links, and "URL", where you put the full URL pattern. For example, setting name=foowiki and URL=http://fr.foowiki.tld/wiki/$1 would make [[foowiki:Blah]] point to http://fr.foowiki.tld/wiki/Blah.

There are also two checkboxes labeled "Forward" and "Transclude". See Manual:Interwiki table for a full explanation of the forward (iw_local) and transclude (iw_trans) bits.

In brief:

• Enabling forwarding ('local' true) is normally done between all languages and projects in the same group, as it allows a link to any one of the languages to be used as a gateway to the others. The English-language Wikipedia, for instance, sets the 'local' bit true for all of the other-language Wikipedias and for projects like commons:, wikinews: or wikivoyage:. A user on a wiki outside Wikipedia where the wikipedia: interwiki prefix points to en.wikipedia.org could create a link like wikipedia:fr:Encyclopédie. That link goes initially to "fr:Encyclopédie" on the English-language Wikipedia. The en.wikipedia server immediately recognises fr: as a 'local' interwiki link, so replies with a redirect to la Wikipédia where fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopédie displays the requested French-language Wikipédia page [[Encyclopédie]] et voilà.
• Enabling transclusion is rarely done, as it allows an article on one wiki to use templates from some other wiki. This is referred to as 'scary transclusion' as it will cause problems if the other wiki changes the template unexpectedly. A few wiki farms use this to create one 'central wiki' with various templates which are made available to other wikis in the same farm. If you don't need this, don't enable it.

Global interwikis

Since version 3, Interwiki supports defining a global/central database and pulling defined interwikis from there as well as from the local table. This functions essentially as a table merge, with local interwiki definitions overriding central. Language links are not pulled from the central table; these are set up as local-only due to a central table likely serving more than one project (with each having its own languages).

The central table is the interwiki table of the central wiki. This means that as far as the central wiki is concerned, it is basically just a normal non-global setup. There are therefore no special rights associated with the central (global) table, though it is likely you may want to be more picky about how you assign the 'interwiki' edit right on this wiki.

• This was decided by looking at current possible use cases (ShoutWiki's hub, Uncyclomedia's central wiki, and Meta-Wiki) where the central wiki isn't going to have anything extra anyway.
• This might change in the future, but anything more intelligent will require schema updates.
• This probably doesn't work with table prefixes because of how the table is accessed.

To set up a central interwiki table, simply provide the name of the database of the wiki you want to use:

// Enable pulling global interwikis from a central database
$wgInterwikiCentralDB = 'mw_central';

Replace 'mw_central' with the name of the database.

For those using table prefixes here is an alternative solution for "pool_example_wiki" tables.

$wgSharedDB = 'example_wiki'; # The $wgDBname for the wiki database holding the main interwiki table
$wgSharedPrefix = 'pool_'; # The $wgDBprefix for the database. Defaults to the prefix of the current wiki if not specified
$wgSharedTables = ['interwiki'];

Protocol-relative URLs

You can use protocol-relative URLs (PRURLs), so that users accessing your wiki over either HTTP or HTTPS can use that same protocol to access interwiki links. To use a PRURL, first ensure the destination server supports HTTPS; if it does, then simply remove the https: portion of the URL in the link table. For example, change

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$1

to:

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$1