Project:Support desk/Sections/Formatting

Formatting Support

How Do I change the link on successful login to another page other than main?

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.67-community-nt
• URL: private wiki on a usb key

I've installed the Mowes mediawiki package to test/learn and play with it.

What I want to be able to do is have a main page and after successful login instead of the link pointing back to the main page have it point to another page. I understand that Special pages are not editable like the rest.

Thanks Alan —Dragos 21:28, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Probably it's the system message MediaWiki:Returnto which you have to customize, accessible also via Special:AllMessages. It does not pointing back to the main page, but to the last page you have seen before logging in. Be careful, I don't know, if this message is just used after login. In doubt don't replace the link variable, just add the page you want to have a link to. -- JörgM 84.156.191.245 18:06, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

In 1.15rc1 there's a new configuration setting $wgRedirectOnLogin, which I think will fit to this need. See http://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/tags/REL1_15_0RC1/phase3/RELEASE-NOTES -- JörgM 84.156.181.134 10:10, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Existing pages with table code doesn't work in mediawiki 1.13.2

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
• PHP version: 5.2.6
• MySQL version: 5.0.51a
• URL: localhost

I have upgraded mediawiki version 1.10.0 with 1.13.2. I have executed update.php and refreshLinks.php. But the pages which have table code has broken. The data is in text table. All the pages are working good with 1.10.0 version. But doesn't work with 1.13.2.

So, I have edited the page which was not working on 1.13.2 and copied the data from other system where it is working with 1.10.0 and saved the changes. but the page is not saving properly and it is removing the '|' and also placing some extra characters to the data.

Even the table format is good also the page is not getting displayed in tabular form.

It works good when i create a new page with table format.

Please help me that what's wrong with version 1.13.2 that doesn't support existing page table code? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.88.84.10 (talk • contribs) 20:49, 31 December 2008. Please sign your posts with ~~~~!

I really need your help in finding this problem. Actually, it looks like there is some encoding problem some where with mediawiki version 1.13.2. This is corrupting the page display. If you are already aware of the problem then please let me know what could be the solution? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.88.85.100 (talk • contribs) 18:21, 13 January 2009. Please sign your posts with ~~~~!

formatting PHP/CSS code

• MediaWiki version: 1.13
• PHP version: latest
• MySQL version: latest
• URL: http://www.bandwiki.net/

I want to edit my wiki's code so that I can place a banner down the right side of the page. I am not PHP proficient, and can't seem to figure out which mediawiki document to edit.

What I image in either I need to place a table with a fixed with (allowing for the size of the banner to its right) on the page, or modifying the div's so that the content of each page would only have a width of x00px.

Also wondering, if there would be anyway for me to use our main sites (ASP/SQL) banner rotation script to run within the mediawiki page. This probably can be down using inline-frames; right?

—64.91.123.139 15:34, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Haven't tried this yet, but how about a try with Extension:DynamicSkin, for example? If I understand it's usage right, you could add templates and scripts to your site without changing code, just by using standard wiki markup on a standard wiki page. But of course you would have to play with it to find the right way. -- JörgM 84.156.161.134 08:52, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

nowiki tags appear

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.3
• PHP version: 5.5
• MySQL version: 5
• URL:

Hi all,

I have a certain issue which makes < nowiki ></ nowiki > appear on the results of an mssql query below are the source

{{{1}}}

== Fixed Issues ==

The table below lists all issues fixed since the last release.
{{#mssql: 10.5.1.5 | WikiUser | Redmap | TrackPlus360 | Select [Issue Number], Subsystem, Build, Synopsis FROM ReleaseNotes WHERE (Project LIKE '{{{1}}}') AND ([Release Scheduled] LIKE '{{{2}}}') AND ([Release Scheduled] NOT LIKE [Release Noticed]) ORDER BY [Issue Number]}}

== Delete all templates or undo import ==

* MediaWiki version: 1.13.3
* PHP version: 5.2.8 (cgi)
* MySQL version: 5.0.67-community
* URL: http://adbandonados.info

Hi.
I've tried to import a lot (a lot!) of templates of wikipedia.org. The thins went wrong (php timeout, etc) and I've imported serval times same templates.
Now everything is a complete mess. Templates with loops all over arround. There is anyway to delete all templates at once, to start creating/importing it like it should be?

Thank you in adavance

—[[User:Luminoso|Luminoso]] 18:56, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

: No site with this URL. Given it up? -- JörgM [[Special:Contributions/84.156.161.134|84.156.161.134]] 08:54, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

== include a path and transfer a excel table ==

* MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
* PHP version: 5.2.0-8+etch13 (cgi-fcgi)
* MySQL version: 5.0.32-Debian_7etch8-log
* URL:

Hello
I'm trying to include the path on the top of a site (example wiki>help>diskussions>). Are there a command? <br/>
I'm looking for a tool to transfer excel tabel in a wiki table?<br/>
Thanks for help {{unsigned|212.101.18.161|08:23, 22 January 2009}}

== Main Page Edit ==

<!-- IMPORTANT: Fill out the "Subject/headline" box above. Then go to your wiki's [[Special:Version]] page and note your software version info below. -->
* MediaWiki version: 1.13.3
* PHP version: 5.2.42-servage8
* MySQL version: 5.0
* URL: http://wiki.tdltinc.com

<!-- Now, please report your error, or ask your support question below. (You can remove this line before saving.) -->
How can I remove the "Main Page" header at my Main Page? Like you did to your Main Page, there's no "Main Page" header on it. The "Welcome to MediaWiki.org" comes first. How can I customize my site? Please help... And how you did those like tables blocks?

Thanks for an advance reply. Please e-mail the answer to "tdltinc@yahoo.com".

<!-- The following bit will be converted to a signature with timestamp. (You can remove this line before saving.) -->
—[[Special:Contributions/125.60.209.72|125.60.209.72]] 03:09, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

: Try adding
<pre>.page-Main_Page h1.firstHeading {display: none !important;}

to your MediaWiki:Common.css. And the blocks looking like derived from tables are tables, though a little bit more complex than a simple wiki table. (Have a look below under #"Split" main page.) -- 84.156.161.134 09:20, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Sections

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.3
• PHP version: 5.0
• MySQL version:
• URL:

Hi I am trying to find information for creating sections within articles that are constant throughout all articles (but not the homepage) and appear when someone is creating a new article.

For example if you look at http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Restaurant-Manager you will see sections such as 'Steps' and 'tips'. The same sections will appear if you try and create new page. All of these sections are also editable on their own. I am dying to find out how you create them, where you need to put code and what code...

Please help!!

Thanks Warren

—81.171.227.211 14:58, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Have a look above under #Can I force every user to use the same template when creating a new page?. -- JörgM 84.156.161.134 09:23, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Subsection edit

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
• PHP version: 5.2.0-8+etch11 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.32-Debian_7etch6-log
• URL:

Hi, i wanna create two subsections side by side, is this possible ? and if yes how can i manage this ??

For example == H2 == defined space length == H2 ==

thanks for ur Help

—84.179.142.87 10:39, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Probably just with a table. The following code

{| cellpadding="20"
|-
| width="350px" |
=== Headline ===

A lot of text ...
| width="350px" |
=== Headline ===

A lot of text ...
|}

gives the following result:

Headline A lot of text ...

Headline A lot of text ...

-- JörgM 84.156.161.134 09:38, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Changing Colors in links

I would like to change the colors pf the links in my wiki. Well, I could fix the 'usual' links, to existing pages, but not the red links to not (yet) existing pages. Where can I do that?
—77.165.129.87 01:31, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Have a look below at #(RESOLVED) Link color. -- JörgM 84.156.188.3 20:45, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Language template does not work

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.4
• PHP version: 2.11.7
• MySQL version: 5.0.51b
• URL:

I have set up mediawiki in our intranet, but when I use language template, I have typed the {{languages}} in the edit page ,but it does not working. After saving source, it just show Template:Languages link in the page. Could you help me solve this? After I click show preview button, I can see the "{{languages}}" button is working in this site.

but it failed on mys —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 167.230.38.118 (talk • contribs) 08:41, 23 February 2009. Please sign your posts with ~~~~!

Hm. Have you added a template named Template:Languages to your wiki? You have to do this first before using it. It's not delivered with MediaWiki. -- JörgM 84.156.188.3 20:45, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Page is not displayed

• MediaWiki version: 1.14.0
• PHP version: 5.2.8
• MySQL version: 5.0.67
• URL: http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.php/Enforcement_FAQ (protected; this page is editable and also affected but you need an account to edit pages.)

The page is simply not rendered at all. But the problem is pretty weird.

Here's an outline of the page:

1. What's new
2. Pook's Rules of Conduct for Dummies
3. Players' FAQ
   1. Boots
   2. Bans
   3. Issues management
4. Commanders' FAQ
   1. Boot On Sight
   2. Acceptance of Players
   3. Newbie boot protection
   4. Lobby booting
   5. Commanders' rights
5. Veteran Conduct
   1. Newbie Servers
   2. Veteran Players & New Accounts
6. Directives to @Alleg
   1. Balanced teams and accepting newbies
   2. Misc

Sections 1 to 4.2 render just fine. Sections 1 to 4.3 give a blank page. Sections 4.1 to 6.2 render just fine, though! There are longer pages on the wiki, and pages with more templates. There currenly is some trouble with the database; however, this seems unrelated.

—Bp 10:31, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Hm. Difficult. But there are three things that let me (! I may be wrong, very wrong!) think about database, not formatting:

1. All three pages "Enforcement FAQ", "Enforcement FAQ/Sanbox" and "Enforcement FAQ/Sandbox" are affected.
2. I can't see ANY revisions of "Enforcement FAQ", "Enforcement FAQ/Sanbox" and "Enforcement FAQ/Sandbox", not only the actual revisions.
3. Texts/codes of the actual revisions of "Enforcement FAQ" and "Enforcement FAQ/Sandbox" (the third I haven't tested) render fine when copying it to a page at my 1.13.4 wiki (except for the templates I don't have).

By the way, the headline "What's new" is missing in the actual source code of "Enforcement FAQ".

I don't know what to do, but I would at least try the following, if there are no better suggestions:

1. Saving the texts of all the three pages. (At least those parts of the text which you want to use for these FAQ.)
2. Deleting all three pages. (Best if they could be deleted from the database as well, but this needs command line access to the wiki for its maintenance tools, I think. Never have done this. Or use of Extension:SpecialDeleteOldRevisions2 or something like that. Or killing it directly in the database ;-).)
3. Building the page new, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph.

But of course, there may be better suggestions. And if it's a problem with the database, there might be more problems, perhaps not detected yet. As it's probably no formatting problem, you might also ask in another section of the support desk (system or database). -- JörgM 84.156.129.191 12:54, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll try and take it there. --Bp 13:21, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

You have an unfinished upgrade; run the update script. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 13:23, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How do I create tables like those on the home page of MediaWiki?

• MediaWiki version: 1.14
• PHP version: 5.2
• MySQL version:
• URL:

How do I create tables like those on the home page of MediaWiki? I really like the boxed with pics.

I have searched hi and low, please help?

Sorry I just found the answer in a post above.

—59.167.230.18 07:08, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Ordered lists broken by code listings

• MediaWiki version: 1.14.0
• PHP version: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.4 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4
• URL:

Hello,

I have a problem with formatting the text. Probably this is not a problem at all but I didn't find the answer on your website.

I want to add the source code extract to ordered list. But it is breaks the list due the new lines in source code. And there is no indent for code block. Please help.

Example below:

1. Item1
2. Item2
3. Item3

some code here

1. Item4

—213.184.254.169 12:23, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Does probably not work just with wiki markup, but list tags are also allowed in MediaWiki (see meta:Help:HTML in wikitext). Your example works with the following code:

<ol>
<li>Item1</li>
<li>Item2</li>
<li>Item3</li>
<source lang="text">
some code here
</source>
<li>Item4</li>
</ol>

which results in the following list:

1. Item1
2. Item2
3. Item3

some code here

4. Item4

or – less elegant – with combining:

#Item1
#Item2
#Item3
<source lang="text">
some code here
</source>
#<li value="4">Item4</li>
#Item5

which results in the following list:

1. Item1
2. Item2
3. Item3

some code here

4. Item4
5. Item5

Indent for source code can be done by adding : in front of the line:

#Item1
#Item2
#Item3
::<source lang="text">
some code here
</source>
#<li value="4">Item4</li>
#Item5

which results in the following list:

1. Item1
2. Item2
3. Item3

some code here

4. Item4
5. Item5

Additionally, have a look at wikipedia:en:Help:List or wikipedia:de:Hilfe:Listen. -- JörgM 84.156.195.119 19:12, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Problem in 1.13.0 with links to pages with :: in the name.

• MediaWiki version: 1.13.0
• PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.67-log
• URL: (internal)

I'm in the final throes of migrating our wiki from 1.8.2 to 1.13.0 and have discovered a quirk in the handling of links such as [[This::That]]. These are handled correctly here (1.15alpha) but in 1.13.0 that link points to "That". I've looked but not found this change documented - is there a patch available that I could apply?

—Andthepharaohs 13:22, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

I just tried this on my wiki which is 1.13.4 and on two test wikis which are 1.11.0 and 1.9.6 – [[This::That]] gave This::That like here. -- JörgM 84.156.193.13 18:35, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

code and source tag in articles

Moved from Project:Forum Happy‑melon 21:51, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I'm trying to insert so code sample into my articles. Unfortunatly, it seems that the code, source and poem tags do not work at all. For example, if I try to insert some CSS sample, the # becomes a list. And I loose of course the standard coding incrementation. I saw multiple mediawiki implementations working with these tags , so I wonder what I do (or did) wrong.

Thanks for your help.

--SOnO 13:22, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

The "code" tag is not meant to be used for multi-line code examples. You may either use "pre" instead, or use "source" after installing Extension:SyntaxHighlight GeSHi. For "poem" you should install Extension:Poem. – rotemliss – Talk 14:08, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

What is the "proper" way to modify the toc (table of contents) box to add html to the right of it?

• MediaWiki version: 1.14.0
• PHP version: 5.2.9 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version: 5.0.67-log
• URL: http://www.solarpneumatichybrid.com/wiki/Breaking_News

I love the toc (Automatically generated Table of Contents). I would like to customize my mediawiki so that anytime the toc is displayed, a div and some javascript is added after it (so that the div is displayed to the right of the toc). I'm sure a lot of people have done this already. What would be the proper way to do this? Should I write an extension? Or should I just append the code that displays the toc? I want to do this as quick and easy as possilble while ensuring that when I upgrade mediawiki in the future I won't have to re do my customization.

Thanks in advance,

—Losmurfs 15:56, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Problem with ordered list and an indented table

• MediaWiki version: 1.11.0
• PHP version: 5.2.9-2 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL version: 5.0.24a-community-nt
• URL: http://wiki.smarthome.com/index.php?title=Remotely_Setting_the_Ramp_Rate_for_an_X10_Scene_Address

1) Cannot resume numbering of an ordered list (using # character at beginnig of line), after a table. Is there a way to do this without using HTML?

2) Content after the second indented table is not returning the left margin. List item numbers 4,5 and 6 should be flush left with items 1,2 and 3. The table between list items 4 and 5 should be flush with the first two tables. After each table, I restart list item numbering with the HTML ol tag. As you can see, this seems to work for the first part of the page, but after the second table everything gets indented further. NOTE: the large table on this page is actually 3 tables embedded in another 3-cell table.

Can anyone help me fix this?"

—198.173.162.2 17:11, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

There's no wikimarkup way of starting an ordered list at a number other than 1; as you've found, the solution is to use the <ol> tag directly. Try adding a linebreak between the end of the table and the <ol start=4>; that should reset the indentation. Happy‑melon 21:42, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

I would suggest: Use ONE ordered list with HTML tags from the beginning and don't indent the tables (they are indented by the list - at least with my FF 1.5). The following code (just simplified)

<ol>
<li>Text
{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
| Text
| Text
| Text
| Text
| Text
|}
<li>Text
<li>Text
{| border="0" cellpadding="2" width="50%"
|
{| border="1" cellpadding="0" width="100%"
! Text
! Text
|-
| Text
| Text
|-
| Text
| Text
|}
|
{| border="1" cellpadding="0" width="100%"
! Text
! Text
|-
| Text
| Text
|-
| Text
| Text
|}
|
{| border="1" cellpadding="0" width="100%" valign="top"
! Text
! Text
|-
| Text
| Text
|-
| Text
| Text
|}
|}
<li>Text
{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
| Text
| Text
| Text
| Text
| Text
|}
<li>Text
<li>Text
</ol>

gives the following result:

1. Text

   Text

   Text

   Text

   Text

   Text

2. Text
3. Text

   Text Text Text Text Text Text

   Text Text Text Text Text Text

   Text Text Text Text Text Text

4. Text

   Text

   Text

   Text

   Text

   Text

5. Text
6. Text

If you want to indent the tables more than this, add something like style="margin-left: XXpx;" to the tables' heads.

Concerning resuming numbering of lists with wiki markup, see also above #Ordered lists broken by code listings. -- JörgM 90.179.238.201 20:32, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Alternative to MediaWiki:Talkpagetext for all non-Talk edit pages?

• MediaWiki version: 1.14.0
• PHP version: 5.2.9
• MySQL version: 5.0.67
• URL: n/a

Just a quick question. I want to post a link to my "article guidelines" page on each non-talk edit form in my wiki. I already found MediaWiki:Talkpagetext which does this for the talk edit forms, but I haven't found a similar page for the non-talk edit forms yet. Does it exist and if so, what's it called? Thanks! —78.20.48.49 14:57, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

You can make your own editnotices for any namespace: MediaWiki:Editnotice-0 for the mainspace, MediaWiki:Editnotice-2 for userspace, etc. So you just need to put a copy of (or a template containing, make sure it's protected!) the guidlines, in the editnotice for each even-numbered namespace. Happy‑melon 21:27, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! That is exactly what I was looking for! —81.82.72.97 20:29, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

• MediaWiki version:1.15alpha (r48892)
• PHP version:5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version:5.0.51a-community-nt 
• URL: Still localhost

i want to make a wikipage got an background color like the light purple at the manual pages. how do i do this? :)

—84.27.52.84 14:13, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Wikipage Background

• MediaWiki version:1.15alpha (r48892)
• PHP version:5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL version:5.0.51a-community-nt 
• URL: Still localhost

i want to make a wikipage got an background color like the light purple at the manual pages. how do i do this? :)

—84.27.52.84 14:14, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

The background colour here on mediawiki.org is set in our MediaWiki:Common.css file, which applies CSS to all wiki pages. For the Manual: namespace, we have

/* NS Manual + Manual_talk (light bluish violet) */
.ns-100 #content, .ns-101 #content { background: #f3f3ff; }
.ns-100 div.thumb, .ns-101 div.thumb { border-color: #f3f3ff; }

You may need to look up the syntax of CSS in order to understand what this code is doing. Hope this helps, Happy‑melon 16:02, 27 May 2009 (UTC)