Extension:RandomArea

The RandomArea extension allows for displaying or including a selected number of random elements from a list on a page.

Note: I was inspired by the RandomText extension to write this, thanks to Martin Rohrbach.

Installation

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

  wfLoadExtension( 'RandomArea' );
  

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

Usage

Insert the lines you want to be randomized and enclosed in <randomArea>...</randomArea> tags; for example:

<randomArea >
Klaus
Mark
Otto
</randomArea>

Only displays one of the following names: {Klaus, Mark, Otto}

You can use this to include patterns or pages.

<randomArea >
{{Template:Aaa}}
{{:Patterns:Aab}}
</randomArea>

You can alternatively add some attributes to the element to save and view letters.

<randomArea include="1" nsPrefix="MyRandPrefix:" count="2" >
Klaus
Mark
Otto
</randomArea>

This chooses two of the elements and includes them from the given namespace. It is equivalent to:

<randomArea count="2" >
{{:MyRandPrefix:Klaus}}
{{:MyRandPrefix:Mark}}
{{:MyRandPrefix:Otto}}
</randomArea>