Extension:LandingCheck

MediaWiki extensions manual

LandingCheck Release status: stable
Implementation	Special page
Description	Send users to localized landing pages with fallback options
Author(s)	Ryan Kaldari
Latest version	2.1
MediaWiki	>= 1.43
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
Parameters landing_page language country utm_source utm_medium utm_campaign
Hooks used Language::getMessagesFileName
Quarterly downloads	5 (Ranked 134th)
Translate the LandingCheck extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

LandingCheck makes using localized and geotargeted landing pages easy. It was created as a replacement for the GeoLite extension.

When called with a landing page name and a set of user-specific parameters, the extension checks to see if a version of the landing page exists for the user's language and country. If not, it looks for a version localized for the user's language. If that doesn't exist either, it looks for the English version. If any of those exist, it then redirects the user.

Installation

• Download and move the extracted LandingCheck 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/LandingCheck
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'LandingCheck' );
  

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

Configuration

Configuration settings in extension.json

Parameter	Default	Comment
$wgPriorityCountries	array()	If there are any countries for which the country page should be the fallback rather than a language page, add its country code to this array.
$wgLandingCheckPriorityURLBase	null	It is possible to configure a separate server running LandingCheck to handle requests for priority countries and another for non-priority countries. By default, the local instance of LandingCheck will handle both unless these variables are configured. The URLs contained in these variables should be the full URL to the location of LandingCheck - the query string will be appended. For example: $wgLandingCheckPriorityURLBase = '//wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:LandingCheck';
$wgLandingCheckNormalURLBase	null	It is possible to configure a separate server running LandingCheck to handle requests for priority countries and another for non-priority countries. By default, the local instance of LandingCheck will handle both unless these variables are configured. The URLs contained in these variables should be the full URL to the location of LandingCheck - the query string will be appended. For example: $wgLandingCheckNormalURLBase = '//wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:LandingCheck';

How it works

GeoIP lookup: Normally LandingCheck does not perform a GeoIP lookup, but depends on the referring page to supply the user's country. If the country parameter is not supplied, the extension checks to see if the geoip_country_code_by_name() function exists (from the php5-geoip package), and if so, performs its own GeoIP lookup. (As of 2010, all Wikimedia page views perform a GeoIP lookup and record the user's country in the global JavaScript variable Geo.country.)

Language: LandingCheck looks for whatever landing pages correspond to the user's wgUserLanguage variable. If none exist, it tries to find landing pages in the corresponding fallback language. So, for example, if JimmyAppeal/pt-br doesn't exist, it looks for JimmyAppeal/pt, and then JimmyAppeal/en (English is the final fallback for all languages).

Usage

Set up landing pages

First, create a set of localized landing pages using the following naming scheme: <pagename>/<language>/<country>. For a fundraising campaign, you might set up the following pages:

• JimmyAppeal/en - landing page localized to English
  • JimmyAppeal/en/US - landing page localized to English and customized for users in the United States
  • JimmyAppeal/en/GB - landing page localized to English and customized for users in the United Kingdom
  • JimmyAppeal/en/FR - landing page localized to English and customized for users in France
• JimmyAppeal/fr - landing page localized to French
  • JimmyAppeal/fr/FR - landing page localized to French and customized for users in France
  • JimmyAppeal/fr/CA - landing page localized to French and customized for users in Canada

Create link

Next, set up a link that uses JavaScript to construct the LandingCheck URL with user-specific query string parameters.

jQuery example

<script type="text/javascript">
var cn_rewrite_url = function() {
  var baseUrl = 'http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:LandingCheck';
  var queryString = jQuery.param({'landing_page':'JimmyAppeal', 'language':wgUserLanguage, 'country':Geo.country});
  jQuery("a.variable_lp").attr("href", baseUrl + '?' + queryString);
}
jQuery(document).ready(cn_rewrite_url);
</script>

<a class="variable_lp" href="">Read an Appeal by Jimmy Wales</a>

jQuery example with tracking

<script type="text/javascript">
var cn_rewrite_url = function() {
  var baseUrl = 'http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:LandingCheck';
  var queryString = jQuery.param({'landing_page':'JimmyAppeal', 'language':wgUserLanguage, 'country':Geo.country, 'utm_source':'banner22', 'utm_medium':'sitenotice', 'utm_campaign':'2010fundraiser'});
  jQuery("a.variable_lp").attr("href", baseUrl + '?' + queryString);
}
jQuery(document).ready(cn_rewrite_url);
</script>

<a class="variable_lp" href="">Read an Appeal by Jimmy Wales</a>

non-jQuery example

<a href="#" onclick="window.location.href='http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:LandingCheck?landing_page=JimmyAppeal&language='+wgUserLanguage+'&country='+Geo.country">Read an Appeal by Jimmy Wales</a>

Add more landing pages

As additional localized and geotargeted landing pages are created, users will automatically start being directed to them. Make sure that any new landing pages added after your link has gone live are ready to use immediately. If you need to build new localized or geotargeted landing pages gradually, build them under different names and then move them into place once they are complete.

Overrides for level-1 chapters

During the 2010 fundraiser the Wikimedia Foundation was required to send all traffic from chapter countries to chapter-specific landing pages even if they did not support the user's language. To facilitate this, an override mechanism was built into LandingCheck. Level 1 chapters were instructed to build their landing pages using the following naming scheme: <pagename>/<country>/language>. For example:

• JimmyAppeal/GB - default landing page for United Kingdom (in English)
  • JimmyAppeal/GB/fr - landing page for United Kingdom localized to French
  • JimmyAppeal/GB/de - landing page for United Kingdom localized to German

The country codes of the level 1 chapters were then added to the $wgPriorityCountries global variable.