Extension:DynamicPageList3

MediaWiki extensions manual

DynamicPageList3 Release status: stable
Implementation	Tag , Parser function
Description	Create lists of other articles based on their category, namespace, title, references or template usage and include contents or arguments of template calls of those articles into your page.
Author(s)	Universal Omega, Alexia E. Smith, Algorithmix, Dangerville, IlyaHaykinson, Theaitetos, Unendlich~dewiki
Latest version	3.5.2 (2023-01-14)
MediaWiki	1.39.0+
Database changes	Yes
Composer	universal-omega/dynamic-page-list3
License	GNU General Public License 3.0 or later
Download	GitHub: project page git repository URL [help ] commit history
Example	DynamicPageList3 Manual
Parameters $wgDplSettings
Added rights dpl_param_update_rules dpl_param_delete_rules
Hooks used ParserFirstCallInit LoadExtensionSchemaUpdates ParserAfterTidy
Translate the DynamicPageList3 extension

This is a continuation and fork of Extension:DynamicPageList (third-party) . It is a fully reworked object-oriented code base, significant code and database speed improvements, and is fully backward compatible with previous versions.

The DynamicPageList3 extension is a reporting tool for MediaWiki, listing category members and intersections with various formats and details. For full documentation, see the manual.

When invoked with a basic set of selection parameters, DynamicPageList3 displays a list of pages in one or more categories. Selections may also be based on factors such as author, namespace, date, name pattern, usage of templates, or references to other articles. Output takes various forms, some of which incorporate elements of selected articles.

This extension is invoked with the parser function {{#dpl: .... }} or parser tag ‎<DPL>. A Wikimedia-compatible implementation of certain features can be invoked with ‎<DynamicPageList>.

Complex lookups can result in computationally expensive database queries. However, by default, all output is cached for one hour to reduce the need to rerun the query for every page load. The Parameters: Other Parameters manual page contains information on parameters that can be used to disable the cache and allow instant updates.

Manual and Complete Documentation

DynamicPageList3 manual

Source Code

Source code

Bugs and Feature Requests

Issue and request tracker

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called DynamicPageList3 in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'DynamicPageList3' );
  

• If necessary configure as required.
•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

These are DPL3's configuration settings, along with their default values.

To change them, ensure they are defined before including the extension on the wiki.

In release 3.0.4, the configuration variable name was changed from $dplSettings to $wgDplSettings. This was to facilitate compatibility with MediaWiki 1.25's extension registration change.

Setting	Default	Description
$wgDplSettings['allowedNamespaces']	null	By default, all existing namespaces are used when DPL3 initializes. Customize this setting with an array of namespace constants to restrict DPL3 to work only in those namespaces.
$wgDplSettings['allowUnlimitedCategories']	false	Set this to true to ignore 'maxCategoryCount' and allow unlimited categories. Please note that large amounts of categories in a query can slow down or crash servers.
$wgDplSettings['allowUnlimitedResults']	false	Set this to true to ignore 'maxResultCount' and allow unlimited results. Please note that large result sets may result in slow or failed page loads.
$wgDplSettings['alwaysCacheResults']	false	Set this to true to ignore 'allowcachedresults' and always enable the parser cache.
$wgDplSettings['categoryStyleListCutoff']	6	Maximum number of items in a category list before being cut off.
$wgDplSettings['functionalRichness']	3	Set the level of parameters available to end users.
$wgDplSettings['maxCategoryCount']	4	Maximum number of categories to allow in queries.
$wgDplSettings['minCategoryCount']	0	Minimum number of categories to allow in queries.
$wgDplSettings['maxResultCount']	500	Maximum number of results to return from a query.
$wgDplSettings['recursiveTagParse']	false	Do recursive tag parsing on ‎<dpl> parser tags converting tags and functions such as magic words like {{PAGENAME}}. This is similar to the {{#dpl}} parser function call, but may not work the same in all cases.
$wgDplSettings['runFromProtectedPagesOnly']	false	Set this to true to allow DPL3 to run from protected pages only. This is recommended if wiki administrators are having issues with malicious users creating computationally intensive queries.
$wgDplSettings['handleSectionTag']	false	Set this to true to have DPL3 handle ‎<section> tags outside of DPL parser tags.
$wgDplSettings['maxQueryTime']	10000	Maximum allowed time for database queries in milliseconds.
$wgDplSettings['queryCacheTime']	0	Configure query cache time. The query cache cannot be purged. Suggested value between 30 to 600.

The global variable $wgNonincludableNamespaces is automatically respected by DynamicPageList3.

It will prevent the contents of the listed namespaces from appearing in DynamicPageList3's output.

$wgDplSettings['maxResultCount'] is a LIMIT on the SQL query itself. Some DynamicPageList3 query parameters like includematch are applied after the SQL query, however, so results here may easily be misleading.

Functional Richness

DynamicPageList3 has many features unlocked based on the maximum functional richness level.

Some can cause high CPU or database load and should be used sparingly.

• $wgDplSettings['functionalRichness'] = 0 - equivalent to Wikimedia's DynamicPageList (Intersection)
• $wgDplSettings['functionalRichness'] = 1 - adds additional formatting parameters
• $wgDplSettings['functionalRichness'] = 2 - adds performance equivalent features for templates and pagelinks
• $wgDplSettings['functionalRichness'] = 3 - allows more-expensive page inclusion features and regular expression queries
• $wgDplSettings['functionalRichness'] = 4 - permits exotic and potentially dangerous batch update and delete operations; not recommended for public websites. Includes debugging parameters for testing and development.

Usage

Extended DPL Functionality

Extended dynamic page lists are invoked by using the parser function {{#dpl: .... }}, or the parser extension tag ‎<DPL>...‎</DPL>.

See Manual - General Usage and Invocation Syntax and DPL:Parameters: Criteria for Page Selection

Backwards Compatibility

Functionality compatible with Wikimedia's DynamicPageList extension can be invoked with ‎<DynamicPageList>...‎</DynamicPageList>.

Further information can be found on the Compatibility manual page.

Usage Philosophy and Overview

With the assumption there are some articles written about countries those articles will typically have three things in common:

• They will belong to a common category
• They will have a similar chapter structure, i.e., they will contain paragraphs named 'Religion' or 'History'
• They will use a template which is used to present highly structured short data items ('Capital', 'Inhabitants', ..) nicely (e.g., as a wikitable)

Generate a report based on countries

If there was a need to assemble a report of what countries practice a certain religion, this could be easily done with the category and linksto parameters.

{{#dpl:
category=countries
|linksto=Pastafarianism
}}

With DynamicPageList3, one could:

• Generate a list of all those articles (or a random sample)
• Show metadata of the articles (popularity, date of last update, ..)
• Show one or more chapters of the articles ('transclude' content)
• Show parameter values which are passed to the common template
• Order articles appropriately
• Present the result in a sortable table
• Generate multiple column output

Which steps are necessary?

Find the articles you want to list:

• Select by a logical combination (AND, OR, NOT) of categories
• Specify a range for the number of categories the article must be assigned to
• Select by a logical combination (AND, OR, NOT) of namespaces
• Define a pattern which must match the article's name
• Name a page to which the article must or must not link
• Name a template which the article must or must not use
• Name a text pattern that must occur within external links from a page
• Exclude or include redirections
• Restrict your search to stable pages or quality pages ("flagged revisions")
• Use other criteria for selection like the author, date of last change, etc.
• Define regular expressions to match the contents of pages you want to include

Order the result list of articles according to

• Article name
• Article size
• Date of last change
• Last user to make an edit

Define attributes you want to see

• Article name
• Article namespace
• Article size
• Date of last change
• Date of last access
• Last user to make an edit

Define contents you want to show

• Whole article
• Contents of certain sections (identified by headings)
• Text portions (defined by special marker tags in the article)
• Values of template calls
• Use a custom template to show output

Define the output format

• Specify header and footer for the default output
• Use ordered list, unordered list
• Use tables
• Format table fields individually by applying templates to their content
• Use category style listing
• Truncate title or contents to a certain maximum length
• Add a link to the article or one or more of its sections

Considerations

Performance

DPL3's code execution and database access are typically fast for category and article lookups.

However, using loose LIKE and REGEXP match parameters and/or requesting large data sets can result in long database access times.

Parser time should also be taken into consideration.

For example, having the query of image results go into a template that displays them will result in a parser media transform for each one.

This can quickly eat up 2MBs of RAM per media transform.

Version 3.4.0 introduces two new configuration options, $wgDplSettings['maxQueryTime'], which allows configuration of the max execution length for queries, in milliseconds, and $wgDplSettings['queryCacheTime'], which allows configuration of the query cache. It also supports PoolCounter to limit query concurrency.

See also

Further reading

DynamicPageList3 can do much more than we can explain here.

A complete manual is available with full parameter documentation.

• Manual:Managing data in MediaWiki – An overview and comparison.