Project:Support desk/Archives/Formatting/001

2006

(RESOLVED) Editing 'Expand this page'

How do i change the 'expand this page' html, that is how do i change what it says when i use the {{expand}} command? 24.110.3.148 08:03, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Edit Template:Expand -- Barrylb 18:36, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) change the font size

Hi. How can I change the font size of my own wiki? I cannot find the place to change that.

Browse to the MediaWiki:Common.css page on your wiki and add in your CSS as usual, e.g.

#content p {
   font-size: 11pt;
}

86.134.116.228 04:31, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Hiding some titles

How is Wikipedia hiding the main page's title but not the titles within? I would like to be able to choose whether the title is shown, but cannot figure out how it is done, despite Wikipedia clearly doing so on the main page. I know how to hide the titles completely using my .php file for my skin, but I am not figuring out how to make the title disappear at will. It would be nice to have a __NOTITLE__ magic word that would just do this for me.

Short answer; JavaScript. Take a look at w:en:MediaWiki:Monobook.js. A magic word as discussed was not implemented because some of the developers felt it would be abused and was not needed. 86.134.116.228 04:23, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

See also Manual:FAQ#How do I hide the main page title? --:bdk: 07:23, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

2007

(RESOLVED) How can i remove the external.png arrow from appearing next to external links?

How can i remove the external.png arrow from appearing next to external links? --2007

In /skins/monobook/main.css Ctrl+F "this can be used in the content area to switch off" and uncomment (remove the #). Also remove the following code:

#bodyContent a.external,

#bodyContent a[href ^="gopher://"] {

background: url(external.png) center right no-repeat;

padding-right: 13px;

}

(RESOLVED) How can I make the categories box appear on top of an article page instead of the bottom?

How can I make the categories box appear on top of an article page instead of the bottom? --2007

This is handled by the "catlinks". Edit the skin. E.g. skins/Monobook.php: Find this section:

<!-- start content --> <?php if($this->data['catlinks']) { ?><div id="catlinks"><?php $this->html('catlinks') ?></div><?php } ?> <?php $this->html('bodytext') ?> <!-- end content -->

Switch the 2 lines to:

<!-- start content --> <?php $this->html('bodytext') ?> <?php if($this->data['catlinks']) { ?><div id="catlinks"><?php $this->html('catlinks') ?></div><?php } ?> <!-- end content -->

(RESOLVED) Background color on namespaces

Hi,

How do we change the background color on namespaces? For example, on mediawiki the "Manual" namespace has a grey background, and normal articles has a white one. It's the same on wikipedia. So how can we do this?

Thank you. --83.68.199.212 19:12, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Edit MediaWiki:Common.css --:bdk: 07:23, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

2008

(OUTDATED) Navbox

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.1.4 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-log
• Database: Unknown, if you know how to figure it out please tell me.
• URL: Red Orchestra Wiki

http://www.maporchestra.com/wiki/index.php?title=Template:Navbox

I don't know why there is that extra </div> and </span> there, any help?

—-PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 23:36, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

The template transcludes [1] which in turn transcludes [2]. The problem is in one of these two subtemplates, not in the main template:navbox --Carlb 02:31, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Alright it seems that if you look at this end of Tnavbar there are parser functions for these tags, but if I take them out the entire template stops working. Are there any MediaWiki: definitions that this template needs (i.e. system messages). -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 16:36, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Variables not expanded to value

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1 and 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.3-1ubuntu6 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-Debian_1ubuntu3-log
• URL: private

I have a problem with MediaWiki standard variables like SITENAME which to not get expanded to their value on certain occasions. For instance, SITENAME in the footer doesn't get expanded and the wiki displays "About {{SITENAME}}" literaly. The weird thing is that the same variable gets expanded correctly on the window title / page name. I have absolutely no idea what is going on and have tried debuging the Parser a bit but without any success. I have the GeSHi - Generic Syntax Highlighter extension installed but disconnecting it doesn't change anything.

—195.154.168.90 15:44, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Only certain MediaWiki messages allow for wiki code to be placed into them. Most do not, which is why you are experiencing that issue. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 21:07, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Well in fact, appart from the page titles, variables like {{SITENAME}} don't work in any of the wiki pages that I edit so I'm a bit puzzled. Is there something to enable in LocalSettings.php? 195.154.168.90 15:25, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

We got exactly the same mistake, 'resolved' by creating a new account, one of the administrator/Bureaucrate account was causing that trouble ... Why ? We don't know. We also use the GeSHi extension. Maybee is-it comming from there ... --84.101.142.60 09:22, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Problem not resolved ... 1 hour after ower change, the variables are bugging again ... --84.101.142.60 09:26, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

This could be a side issue but which extension for GeSHi were you using? If it was Extension:GeSHiCodeTag, there are some issues with Tags conflicting with HTML tags, for example the <div> tag, as that is a language specified in GeSHi. You could check out what tags surround the non rendering {{SITENAME}} in the source code. You may need to purge server side caching aswell with the query string key/value pair &action=purge in a long url request to see changes taking effect--Zven 01:15, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

No changes, I guess it is a charset problem, because when it bug, chars are saving in ISO and they have to be in UTF ... (Rhombus with Question mark) --84.101.142.229 08:45, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

is it possible the problem to come from mysql 5 ? cause when i see other wiki like wikipedia they are still on mysql 4! --unsigned

It seems the problems is coming from apache / php and mbstring functions, we have a website in UTF8 and mediawiki on the same server, and when a client connect to the site, it makes the wiki go wrong because it doesnt like mbstring functions. We set mbstring.func_overload in each .htaccess with the value 6 for the site and 0 for the wiki, but sometime it seem that the value stay to 6 when we connect to the wiki. In fact, we don't have any solution --86.71.108.138 10:40, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

I have exactly the same problem and it is very frustating... I don't use GeSHI extension. Is there a way to resolve this nasty problem ? Thanks Okparanoid 15:31, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Here is the bug report dated to 2004. Seems that a patch for php has just been proposed... http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=27421

I will report the bug to launchpad in hope that it comes with ubuntu hardy (on peut rever !). Any workaround are welcome Okparanoid 16:04, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Lining up the table text correctly...

Can someone take a look at this page's source: http://www.windrep.org/Community

and perhaps tell me what I have to do in order to get all the columns to line up. I realise that some of the rows won't line up because some have more lines than others, but...I thought I had enough space to make the columns work out.

—74.128.207.61 02:18, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Set the table row style so that they each take 1/3 of the width, which should solve your problem. --Skizzerz ^{talk - contribs} MediaWiki Support Team 03:05, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Currently, I have the tables set like this:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;width:90%"
|- style="background-color:#efefef;"

which leaves me with a 10% buffer. Is there something else I can do?

-74.128.207.61 05:15, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

See W:Help:Table#Setting your column widths, you can specify each header or column as a relative percentage or pixel width --Zven 05:38, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) A different sort of Tables question...

Ok, another question regarding lining up materials. First, take a look at this page:

www.windrep.org

You'll notice that the first column of portal links in the category sections line up...but then everything kind of goes haywire and some line up in the second columns, and none in the third columns. I've messed around with the code a bunch, and I suspect it has to do with the length of the links but would dearly love for them to be lined up vertically.

Is there a way I can do this while maintaining this "look," or is it impossible?

—74.128.207.61 02:20, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

You have more than one table there, so the browser parses the column widths independently. You could try setting col widths manually, but it's be a tough call with text like that. I suggest making it all into one table, and everything will line up easily that way, although you will lose the white space between rows and you'll have to settle for something else (like a white-background row spanning all columns).--Töff 17:17, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

How would I go about setting the col widths manually? I've tried doing it the same as I would in a regular table, but that does not work. -74.128.207.61 16:12, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Some of your tables do not have the opening {| ... maybe that's the problem.--Töff 15:08, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I'll just soapbox briefly and say that the reason I don't care for manual col width is that text of varying length often "just doesn't look right" in even-width columns. Long text strings looked cramped and short text strings look lonely. Browsers seems to understand this (don't ask me how) and they vary the width of the columns to balance the text better (as you can see on your own tables!) This is why I would choose to make this a single table, and let the browser set the col widths, rather than set manual col widths on several separate tables. (Plus, one other minor thing, if you want to change a col width later, you have to do so for every table. Not atrocious when you have only 3-4 tables, but I have a pet peeve against a single value set in more than one place.) Okay, /end rant--Töff 15:16, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Large font size in table headings cutting off top and bottom of text

Media:Example.ogg*MediaWiki: 1.11.1

• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community-nt
• URL: Intranet (unreachable on the web)

I'm using Wiki version 1.11.1 and trying to create a bit of a heading for a page. I want the font size larger than normal (not as large in the sample below but this is to show the problem I'm getting). When I specify a large font size it appears to be doing this correctly but for some reason the height of the heading row does not adjust to accommodate the font and therefore it appears to be cut off at the top and bottom.

I want orange text so I've used the font tag. Is there another (better?) way?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Darren. 203.134.124.36 05:38, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Example:

Large Text being cut off top and bottom

—203.134.124.36 05:38, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Hey... Which browser are you using? IE? On my Opera, Firefox and Konqueror on Linux exerything's OK :). Maybe you should add some fixes for your browser in css files. Peter de Sowaro 12:02, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

The above looks broken fro me in FireFox on Linux... odd. Same when using style="font-size:370%; color:orange" btw:

Large Text being cut off top and bottom!

Try to set the line hight: style="font-size:370%; color:orange; line-height:1.7ex;" (this is a hack - check if it makes things worse in other browsers):

Large Text being cut off top and bottom!

-- Duesentrieb ⇌ 14:34, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Custom CSS Pages

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.0-8+etch5~pu1 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.32-Debian_7etch1-log
• URL: TribalWars Wiki

When using the custom CSS for each user, it does not load the CSS so does not effect the CSS at all. To use the custom CSS you use [[User:Username/Monobook.css]] but for some reason it does not load the CSS :S Any Help?

—212.135.1.53 13:28, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello. If I understood correctly, you must set $wgAllowUserCss to true. Just go to the end of your LocalSettings.php and add following line:

$wgAllowUserCss = true;

 mgrabovský | talk  (DJ Jeri)  MW Support Team 13:39, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Ah ok... There is no other way possible, or some technician that can do this as i only run the wiki, the actualy Codes etc are on a different server. The Tribalwars wiki is on Innogames's server, but i of course do not have access to that page. Any help? --212.135.1.186 15:39, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Also. Is there a way to check if

$wgAllowUserCss = true;

is true/false? --212.135.1.57 15:42, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

I have done what was suggested above, set the allowcustomskin to true. I know its true because the information about clearing your cache is at the top. Why then when i add CSS coding, that is correct, does it not work? I reload the cache, and it reloads the page without making the chances i code. Why? If you want a link, to the website, here it is: Tribalwars Wiki

Thanks! --212.135.1.53 13:35, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeh anyone want to answer? --84.68.167.86

Yeh really need an answer. --217.205.107.69

I guess some of you used upper case for the first letter of /monobook.css. Please note that User:Foo/Monobook.css doesn't work, only User:Foo/monobook.css will do what it should. --:bdk: 18:17, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Purging all logs

• MediaWiki: 1.11
• PHP: 5.2.3
• MySQL: 5.0.41

Hi there, I was wondering if there's a way to purge all the logs under the Special:Log window without leaving the database corrupt or inconsistent. I mean, if I delete all the rows in the "logging" table will something bad happen? -Juanan 18:14, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Deleting the rows from the logging table won't delete the corresponding entries in special:recentchanges (which uses the recentchanges table) so the recent log entries would still be on that page. Other than that, no, it shouldn't cause your server to explode and burst into flames. --Carlb 20:14, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Templates + MW1.12alpha equals SLOW page rendering

• MediaWiki: 1.12alpha (r30976)
• PHP: 5.2.2 (apache)
• MySQL: 5.0.22
• URL: desciclopedia.pt

I'm finding that pages that make heavy use of templates (or templates combined with extension or parser functions) are taking significantly longer to generate on MediaWiki 1.12alpha than on previous versions, including 1.11

For instance, this appears (based on the <!-- Served by sophia.uncyclomedia.org in 42.645 secs. --> at the bottom of the HTML source) to be taking ten times as long to generate as this (four to seven seconds, in MW1.11). Both are the same page, generated from the same data, same server, same extensions - the only difference is that one of the URL's points to a MediaWiki 1.11 installation and the other to 1.12alpha.

I've been seeing this in various 1.12alpha revisions over the last two months or more. A page like this which uses many template inclusions seems too slow to be usable.

I'd presume that there have been major changes in the way template transclusion is handled in the code, but would like to know if there is a fix (other than rolling affected sites back to 1.11) at this time.

—Carlb 19:06, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

You should use a supported version. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 17:26, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Oddly, reverting to other recent versions (as far back as October) didn't seem to help. This leaves one wiki (whichever had the highest traffic) still on an unsupported 1.11alpha from May'07, as that seemed to run more quickly. Go figure. I've back-ported bits of 1.12 (such as the ability to directly protect non-existent pages) until I can determine why this is happening, but the issue does remain unresolved. --Carlb 02:09, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) infobox template code

I was wondering if some one can help me with this Infobox thing.. How can i create a template for infobox? I wan this K2 template from here

w:en:Wikipedia:List_of_infoboxes/Geography

I need the source/code for that template so i can have something similar to that in my wiki (i won't be using it for mountain but i need that)

thank you —Ghorzang 19:19, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

You can always view the source code of a wiki template page. Smaug 20:30, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

thanks buddy.. so how exactly does this work?? i mean how do you create an infobox? I just want to know what you do.. Ghrozang 20:30, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Coding a Navbox from scratch

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.5 (isapi)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community-nt
• URL: http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=Template:Navbox The Official Exalted Wiki]

Is there any guide/suggestions/example code that would help someone code a collapsible navbox from scratch? - Bodhisattva 16:32, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

You have to configure your MediaWiki:Common.css and install Extension:ParserFunctions to get your Navbox to work correctly. I did this but I still have extra div and span tags, :( -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 06:22, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

I gave full installation instructions here. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 21:02, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Bodhisattva 22:43, 27 March 2008 (UTC): I appreciate the full instructions. However, I'm also getting extra </span> and </div> tags, and I'm not getting the Show/Hide link, so the template isn't displaying the contents.  :(

Bodhisattva 20:32, 25 April 2008 (UTC): Can I please get some follow-up help on this?

Did you try finding where that is coming from in the actual code? Maybe if you remove it/play around with it you will get success. Thats what I did when I was installing advertisement. --Truetech (Talk) MediaWiki Support Team 20:43, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Modèle:Début des onglets; #if function isn't working

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 5.0.x
• URL: http://www.firmalog.com/index.php/%C5%9Eablon:Metakutu#Netice

I want to do Modèle:Début des onglets w:ca:Plantilla:Metacaixa#Resultat but parserfunctions didin't work. I upload css and js. What will I do? --81.213.165.83 14:13, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) template to put a div around the articles

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.4 (cgi)
• MySQL: 4.1.11-Debian_4sarge7
• URL: http://www.wikijava.org/

Hello,

I would like to insert in my page a div to enclose the whole article, to do so I am trying to do like in mediawiki's Template:TalkFromMeta and Template:endTalkFromMeta.

It seems that the opening DIV gets automatically closed at the end of the template containing it. So the div box is confined to the size of the area occupied by the template in the page.

At the end of the page I see a lonely </div>. Which tries to close a div that is not open anymore.

Any idea on how to solve this?

thank you,

—DonGiulio 22:59, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

There was a change in the way templates are handled, as of MW1.12 is is possible to open a <div> in one template and close it in another somewhere further down the page. The older versions of MediaWiki would see the unmatched opening <div> in the first template and close it automatically, so that approach won't work.

This means that, on upgrading to 1.12 or 1.13, many wikis will find that templates with incorrectly-constructed HTML and unintended mismatched or unclosed tags will no longer display correctly.

One option that may work consistently across multiple versions: use <table> codes instead of div's where possible. The old MediaWiki will allow a table to be started in one template and ended in another. --Carlb 02:15, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) template variables and parser extension tags

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.4 (cgi)
• MySQL: 4.1.11-Debian_4sarge7
• URL: http://www.wikijava.org/

Hello,

I would like to use a template to insert some google Banner in a page.

This is the content of the template:

<includeonly>
 <div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; right: 0px;">
  <adsense>
   google_ad_client = "{{{1}}}";
  </adsense>
  {{{1}}}
 </div>
</includeonly>

(RESOLVED) Double transclusion problem

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community-nt
• URL: Intranet wiki

I created a complex template. This 'god' template serves as a dummy for 'child' templates, which are created by passing parameters. The 'god' template is in the Category:God. Because I don't want the 'child' templates to appear in the same category I embraced Category:God with a <noinclude /> tag. I want the 'child' template to appear in the category 'child', without the need to type Category:Child in each 'child' template. Additionally to this I dont want the pages that include 'child' templates being collected in the 'child' category.

Is there a way to place an information in the 'god' template, so that the 'child' template has the following markup in it: <noinclude>[[Category:Child]]</noinclude>?

I hope the descirption is not to confusing. The sense behind this dynamic categories. Thank you very much in advanced. —84.60.24.154 21:27, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Try <onlyinclude>[[Category:Child]]</onlyinclude>. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 22:53, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I think you may try something like:

<onlyinclude><noinc</onlyinclude><onlyinclude>lude>[[Category:Child]]</noinc</onlyinclude><onlyinclude>lude></onlyinclude>

Eloy 17:34, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Setting up infobox templates

• MediaWiki: 1.12
• PHP: 4.2
• MySQL: 4.1
• URL: www.marinecorpspedia.com

I am having issues setting up infobox templates, actually templates in general. I understand that you create the template then use a code on other pages to utilize it. But i can't seem to figure out the format of the base code. Ive tried to utilize other templates for examples, but end up needing other templates to create my template. I want to make a simple person infobox for my wiki. How do i do it? Every page i've gone to for instructions only goes over how to utilize the template on their site. I need help for setup on my site. firehawkv8@yahoo.com Thanx. —71.99.148.153 22:54, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Alright so what are you having trouble on setting up the Wikicode? Try looking here and here. You need ParserFunctions enabled for most templates. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 17:52, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) distorted page due to infobox

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.4 (cgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community
• URL: http://starshiptracker.com/guide

I've installed a wiki for a friend, where infoboxes are critical to the purpose of the site. I have infoboxes working just fine on my private wiki, so I did a fresh install for my friend and then copied & pasted code from my wiki (including MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Monobook.css). I figured that I could set up the 2nd wiki to be near identical to mine, for the most part.

My infoboxes utilize hidden fields. Since I'm not certain of the right term for this, let me describe: the template for the infobox includes all the possible fields but only displays the fields where data is provided. This does work on my wiki. However, on the second site, it gets heavily distorted. I narrowed it down to the hidden fields, because it accepts just fine an entry that includes the name of the starship class being focused upon (as shown here where only the standard field is used).

To me, this means it relates to some change I made to the server-bound files on the original wiki at some point, and were not yet made to the new install. Where should I start looking?

Any help would be much appreciated!

—LeyteWolfer 22:08, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

This happens on a lot of custom styles. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 04:56, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

What about plain-vanilla Monobook? Do you have a suggestion? --LeyteWolfer 16:06, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

The comment was made quickly as I think I had to go somewhere, and if it was meant to be a solution I would have marked this thread as resolved, the point was that completely custom skins are not flawless. As for plain good old monobook you will need to edit MediaWiki:Monobook.css for display. I know no CSS but would suggest coping that of Wikipedia. -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 03:46, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

(see here for tangential discussion on CustomStyle skins; original problem remains unaddressed)

The problem is that you don't have class="infoboxrow" defined in Monobook.css or Common.css. Check that and come back to tell us if it worked. -Pat Peter, MediaWiki Support Team 17:49, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Pat, I went to my original site and couldn't find it to copy to the site with the distorted infoboxes. So went to Wikipedia, where infoboxes also work, and didn't find it at Monobook nor at Common. Where do you think the class="infoboxrow" code might be at Wikipedia? --LeyteWolfer 00:59, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

(Unindented) Issue resolved thanks to the wizards (specifically Lejonel) at Bugzilla. The error was from an inadvertant line break in the Template:!. --LeyteWolfer 18:22, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

and I call it in the pages with:

{{banner|XYZXYZ}}

but what I see is like the {{{1}}} between the quotes has been passed to the extension unparsed, and with the literal string "{{{1}}}".

While outside the Parser extension tag the {{{1}}} gets normally parsed and I see the "XYZXYZ" string as expected.

I have a similar problem with other templates that call the variables from inside other parser extension tags.

Any idea on how to solve this?

thank you,

--DonGiulio 23:27, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Solved by using the TagParser extension. --DonGiulio 23:01, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) CSS/Stylesheets used on user created pages

• MediaWiki: 1.6.8
• PHP: 5.2.4 (apache)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community
• URL: http://www.evolution-rpg.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I'd like to be able to either use CSS coding on pages or be able to link to a CSS stylesheet hosted from my domain. Can this be accomplished and if so, how would I go about doing this? —75.167.200.148 00:42, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Issue with "=" Equals sign in URL

• MediaWiki: 1.6.10
• PHP: 5.0.4 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 4.1.20
• URL: KHU Wiki, Template:Worldplot

In this template, we wish to link to the edit page of whatever page the template is on, but whenever we enter the required =, between action=edit and title=Project:Support desk/Archives/Formatting/001. Using the URL-encoding makes the title of the page Whateverthepageis&action=edit instead of acting on these. It reads the ampersand fine but for some reason it kooks out when an = sign is entered, which is compulsory for the edit.

I'm rather new to Wiki coding, so perhaps it's an issue with that, I'm not sure. Thanks.

Declan Wiki Administrator at KHUWiki

—222.154.22.127 07:25, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Do you have Manual:Short URLs enabled? -PatPeter, MediaWiki Support Team 03:50, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I was having the same issue as you and remembered that you have to use the character code "& # 6 1 ;" (remove the spaces and the quotes) of the "=" symbol. Hope that sorts it out for you.

—Tonyk 12:29, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) HTML in wiki?

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0rc1
• PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.44-log

Hi, I'm french so sorry for writing mistakes

i would like to use Markups, but they are not interpreted ... exemple : <tr><th style="background: #e6e9ff;">Name</th><td>Value</td></tr> is not interpreted

do i have to set up a parameter ? or add an extension ?

thanks for you answers. —82.251.190.210 18:19, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) forcing location of TOC without forcing TOC to necessarily appear

• MediaWiki: 1.13.0
• PHP: 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.3
• MySQL: 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.1

Is there any way to put wikitext on a page or template such that it means, "This is the location of the TOC, but it will only appear if it would appear anyway." This is different from __TOC__, which forces the TOC to appear in addition to designating location. Thanks. Smaug 22:31, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Any ideas? Smaug 17:52, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Highlight Cite (aka references)

• MediaWiki: 1.11.2
• PHP: php 5
• MySQL: 4.**
• URL: http://l3ga.ferrywijsman.nl

How does Wikipedia let references links highlight at the References part? Example: w:en:Fitna (film), when I click on [1], the references called become blue.

I want to embed it at my website too.

86.90.194.103 19:03, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

There is an addition to MediaWiki:Common.css:

/* Highlight clicked reference in blue to help navigation */
ol.references > li:target {
    background-color: #DEF;
}
 
sup.reference:target { 
    background-color: #DEF;
}

But I don't know, if this is all. --89.55.156.49 20:05, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Formatting Errors in IE 7

• MediaWiki: Version 1.12
• PHP: PHP 5
• MySQL: MySQL 5
• URL: http://www.teachanddiscover.net/wiki/

I recently installed Media Wiki 1.12 on my site (http://www.teachanddiscover.net/wiki, with PHP5 and MySQL 5, Hosted on Linux thru Powweb) and make most of my updates on Mac OS X. My home PC uses IE 7, and I noticed tonight that the page formatting (for some pages) is incorrect when viewed in IE 7.

Here is a sample page that shows the error in IE7 (Win XP SP2) but not in Firefox or Safari (on Mac):
http://www.teachanddiscover.net/wiki/index.php?title=Doctor_Who

Suggestions and corrections are welcomed and appreciated. Thank you, in advance!
Email: captain_mills(at)yahoo(dot)com

Taken Care of... Thanks anyway! :) - CMills —71.36.6.253 06:14, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Templates and calculating

• MediaWiki: 1.12alpha (r26409)
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.50sp1a-enterprise-gpl-log
• URL: RuneScape wikia

I mentioned the {{#expr: ....}} method. It is used for calculating. BUT I want to use it with another template, that template is a number. That number is autmaticly creating a comma (","). But this method doesnt work with a comma. Could it work with a comma?

(OUTDATED) Help editing internal broken links

• MediaWiki: (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP: 4.4.4
• MySQL: 4.1.22
• URL: http://www.wrestlerpedia.com

Hi,

I am having issues regarding internal wiki links that do not have an existing page. I have trying editing around but have been unsuccesful so far. My issue regards the red links that show up (in Monobook?) when an internal link is present but no page has been populated for that link yet. What I would like know how to do is a) change the color of these empty/broken links and b) know how to effectively unlink these links (or make these links appear as normal text, and if possible, have them still be links).

Thanks, Omar —69.108.109.83 22:42, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Templates: replace paramter if ...

Parameters: I use [[:File:{{{1}}}|(desc)]] to create a link to desc page of {{{1}}} which is the file name. Now sometimes it can happen that this parameter is an external link. In this case the desc link shouldn't show up. I dunno much about #if so is there a way to e.g. if param1 = http... then "(desc)" = "-" or something? --Subfader 09:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

The #ifeq] parser function may be able to do what you want. Smaug 13:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks checking. Didn't know these options. I also see #if. Yay ;) --Subfader 21:06, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Importing templates from wikipedia to an independent wiki.

Hello, I am working on an independent wiki that uses the MediaWiki software. I would like to import templates that exist on wikipedia to my wiki. To start, and for an example, I would like to import template:reflist. How can I do this?

Thank you. —Jtowsen 03:05, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Use Special:Export on Wikipedia and Special:Import on your wiki. --:bdk: 15:09, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Main page title

Hello, how to remove page title and subtitle from the main page (likes mediawiki.org or en.wiki). Thank you. Rytis; 88.222.212.231 14:10, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Don't know how they do it, but Extension:NoTitle might work as well. --Flominator 12:41, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

See this section of the FAQ: Manual:FAQ#Mediawiki_version_1.9.2B.2C_solution_to_hide_the_main_page_title. Smaug 17:48, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Please help! How can I make my table as wide as needed?

• MediaWiki: Version 1.12.0 (Reported by your Wiki's Special:Version page)
• PHP: 5.2.3 (Apache)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community
• URL: http://tuwiki.ansi-usa.com/index.php/Test_table

Hi Folks,

I'm new to creating wiki pages, so please bear with me. I recently become responsible for posting a huge collection of Excel tables onto a new company wiki, and I'm hoping you can help me with a few questions about the format. I've searched through the various online references, but haven't found the info I need.

I've used the Excel-to-wiki converter, and the sample results can be found at this link:

http://tuwiki.ansi-usa.com/index.php/Test_table

Here's my main issue: I'd like to make several table columns wider using the column width command, but seem restricted by the page width. (The column width command works find on smaller tables with just a few columns.) Unfortunately, this is a crucial table, and I'd really like to have the flexibility to make the columns wider. It's okay if the viewer has to scroll off the main screen to see the columns on the right. The main thing is to include all the columns, and make them wide enough to show all the required info.

Secondary issue: I realize the table lines are not the way they should be. I think I can figure out this out from the online help info.

I have about 200 Excel tables to convert and post with the same format, so any shortcuts are really appreciated. (My current thinking is to copy and paste the header information, and then paste the content for each individual table.)

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreaciated!

Thanks,

Steve Saxon tel. 978-670-1907 (Mass.) steve_saxon@comcast.net —24.62.138.73 21:52, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Template or include ?

From what I understand, Template in mediawiki behaves like a include. Define a content once then include it as often as you want in your wiki.

I look for somethings that can behaves like the skeleton of a content. I need to document software and databases and I know I will use the same document structure every time.

Does MedaWiki support such feature ? —Sroy 12:47, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

You can use a template with parameters, such that certain parts of the template (the paramters, defined during what you call the "include," and what wikis call "transclusion") change per each use and the rest of it stays the same. See Help:Templates Smaug 03:18, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) template:clickpic

• MediaWiki: 1.12alpha (r26409)
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.50sp1a-enterprise-gpl-log
• URL: RuneScape wikia

Hello, i am an editor on one of the Wiki's (RuneScape) and i mentioned the TEMPLATE:CLICKPIC template. Can you change the code to get a hover over image added?

(Buzz 9 1990)

—192.249.36.3 09:19, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Problem with wikimedia dump - not sure it's about Template

• MediaWiki: 1.7.1
• PHP: 5.2.1 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-log
• URL: http://wikiabout.com/wiki/index.php/The_Black_Cat

I have a very well working wiki installed as described above. I did an install of wikisource dump, but I get bizarre characters showing up in pages as the following:

{{#ifeq:The Black Cat|The Black Cat||{{#ifexist::The Black Cat|}}}}
{{#ifeq:{{#expr:}}|Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character "�"|}}{{#ifeq:{{#expr:1}}|Expression error: Unexpected ( operator|}}

they come quite differently from page to page but almost all page will display some of those. i did try before with a Wikipedia dump was the same. I made a complete new install (wikimedia + mysql database) and now stuck again here.

My final project is to use a wikipedia dump as a start for a wiki project about travel ...

Thanks for any help available ... Lagoonfish 21:41, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Class 'Sortable' for table sorts dates as strings

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.51
• URL: n/a (locally hosted intranet)

Class 'Sortable' for table sorts dates as strings. I've updated common.js (copied from wikipedia), is there anything else that needs to be done to get this working? Seems to work here fine, but not on our intranet.

Date sort mode
07 Apr 2007
16 Apr 2007
16 Mar 2007
05-04-2007
04-05-2007
18 Mar 2007
27 Mar 2007
20 Aug 2006
22 Jul 2006

—202.7.166.174 15:41, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Wikitable does not look right

• MediaWiki 1.12.0
• PHP 5.2.5 (apache2handler)
• MySQL 5.0.41

I included a table into a page using class="wikitable". But the resulting table is white with no lines and looks different than in the Sandbox of Wikipedia. Did I miss something in the configuration of my own Wiki?

Thanks Tobias —217.5.177.110 12:47, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I guess you don't have defined the class "wikitable" in your css yet (Common.css recommended). --:bdk: 15:09, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Table Configuration Issues

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community
• URL: wiki.mojaveunderground.com

The tables I've created are exactly what I'm looking for. However, I'm trying to change the Internal links under each ! Column header to not be bold, and be a smaller file size. I've tried adding css to the code, but have not had any success reducing the font size and properties.

(RESOLVED) change Link color

• MediaWiki: 1.7.1
• PHP: 5
• MySQL: 5

Hello, is it possible, to change the linkcolor? I have a Textfield with Backgroundcolor but in the area you can not read the Text which is a link. I want now change only the linkcolor for this Link not for the whole Page. It this possible? Thanks

Does no one has any Idea for me???:-(

—87.154.139.191 10:34, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

I have just tested a little bit with MediaWiki:Common.css (on 1.9.6). Try something like

a {color: color;}
#bodyContent a.external {color: color;} /* for external links */
#bodyContent a.new {color: color;}      /* for pages not yet created */

where color is a defined color name, color hexadecimal code or color rgb code. But without any warranty. --89.55.188.43 09:41, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Try editing main.css in your skin directory--Truetech (Talk) MediaWiki Support Team 20:57, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) How to get influence on print output (e.g. subpress system messages)?

• MediaWiki: 1.9.6
• PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-community
• URL: http://joergmaske.de/wikip/

Hello!

When printing out a page from MediaWiki, there is not only put the pages text content on this output, but also the page's footer and some additional system messages (I think I can identify them as MediaWiki:Tagline and MediaWiki:Retrievedfrom). How can I influence these outputs (subpress footer and system messages)? I found some lines in skin.php, but as a non-programmer I don't dare to try it on my own in those heart files. Regards JörgM

—89.55.189.229 08:38, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I have found a solution by adding some lines to MediaWiki:Common.css now :-), something like

@media print{
   h1.firstHeading, h3#siteSub, div#contentSub, div.printfooter, #footer {
       display: none;
   }
}

(IDs and classes found at source text of a page.) --89.55.153.223 20:31, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Infobox Help

• MediaWiki: 1.12.0
• PHP: 5.2.3 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.24a-standard-

Hi, I was wondering how do you create an infobox?

I have searched mediawiki, wikimedia, and wikipedia. And all the answers I get aren't clear. All the answers that I get are like "enter such and such code on a template, and you should get this result" and when I do it, the results are not the same.

I tried making a table, but it ends up not being on the right side, where an infobox should go.

Is there a clear step by step instructions of creating an infobox? —169.233.29.252 07:50, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know infoboxes on Wikipedia are a combination between a template with a special table and cascading style sheets (css). For example, on German Wikipedia there is the template w:de:Vorlage:Infobox and css code at least at w:de:MediaWiki:Common.css, but I don't know if there is some more css code which you need located in other files. Perhaps ask some members of w:en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Infoboxes to get some more specific help? --89.55.188.43 07:51, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Additionally I realized that in those infoboxes there are used functions ("#if" & co), for example to hide elements which are not filled in. Those functions need the Extension:ParserFunctions. --89.55.140.95 06:32, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) single curly brace syntax

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.4
• MySQL: 5.0.45
• URL: Issue not specific to my wiki

My question is about the Template:Main Page and how the single curly brace syntax. There are several places that begin with a single curly brace followed by a pipe character, and then style="border:0; etc. I could find anything documenting any sentax that uses a single curly brace. I would just like to learn how it is used and what it is if someone can point me to some resources. I hope I've made this posting correctly, sorry if I didn't.

—146.201.25.212 23:55, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

{| is the starting code for Tables. Templates start with {{. --:bdk: 15:09, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Print link in template, not the sidebar

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.5
• MySQL: 4.1.15-log
• URL: Not public

Right now there's a link to "printable version" in the sidebar. But I'd like to move that into the template in a completely different part of the page. It needs to be set up inside of the skin php page in order to do this. However, I can't figure out how to link to it so that it's templated for every article in the wiki.

Thanks. I searched for a long time for this and couldn't find anything. —208.69.4.18 00:18, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Troubles with formatting pictures "UNFRAMED", as suggested by de:Hilfe:Bilder#Rahmenloses Bild mit Bildunterschrift

Hi, this is my first edit here -- so please be patient in case of any inconvenience.

I noticed, when for the first time following the suggested hint in de:Albert Richter, today, that this way "to do it" is incompatible with relative scaling of a thumbnail by "|thumb|upright=...".

Question: Can this be repaired at "reasonable" expense, or is that kind of formatting to be considered as some "national gadget" anyways?

(In case, I ask on the wrong place, please give a wikilink to the right place, here.) TX.

—whwö 11:07, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Common.js

• MediaWiki: 1.13alpha (r35529)
• PHP: 5.2.1 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.22
• URL: http://reformedword.org/

All of a sudden, three or four days ago, Common.js quit being auto-loaded with my pages. I've never understood the mechanism whereby it gets included, but I assume it must be the line

<script type="text/javascript" src="/index.php?title=-&action=raw&smaxage=0&gen=js&useskin=monobook"><!-- site js --></script>

However, I tried going to this address manually, and I end up with an error that an articles named "-" does not exist.

At first I thought this was a problem with the gazillion extensions I've installed, but even with them commented out in LocalSettings.php, the problem persists. I thought it was only related to the "show/hide" functionality of navbox's, but my custom JS buttons for editing pages are gone too. Strangely, "Common.css" seems to still be there. All my code is just copied from Wikipedia's pages of the same names.

I tried upgrading via SVN to no avail. I'll do anything, as my site is very reliant on navigational templates that use "show/hide"! —Aquatiki 09:31, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Update: I tried adding alert('Hello World!'); to Common.js and it never makes a pop-up. It doesn't seem, therefore, to even be loaded. I found the variable $wgUseSiteJs, but the default is true and I never touched it. I set it again in LocalSettings.php, but to no avail. --Aquatiki 16:38, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Final Update : Turns out there was an error in the version of Common.js I copied from Wikipedia and I didn't know it. In fact , the only way I found out about it was I used my parents MSN which reports JS errors on every load. --Aquatiki 19:14, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Collapsible tables

• MediaWiki: 1.10.1 (patched to enable page access restriction)
• PHP: 5.2.5 (cgi-fcgi)
• MySQL: 5.0.45-log
• URL: [3]

Trying to get collapsible tables to work on this wiki, but not having any success.

So far I know it's controlled by the Common.js, and it can be found here [4]

Tested a table here [5] (at the bottom) but it's just not working.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

—92.21.165.55 09:16, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

You have to put it in MediaWiki:Commons.js, not on project page. iAlex 14:09, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Woooooooooooo! Thanks very much! 92.21.165.55 14:31, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

(OUTDATED) Embedding external media without extensions

• MediaWiki: 1.11.0
• PHP: 5.2.2 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 4.1.20-standard-log

I originally posted the question below to the "unsorted" support desk section. I realize now that might not be the best way to get an answer. I've looked at questions in the various other sections and this seems like the best place for my question. I hope I'm not committing a faux pas by reposting my question here.

My organization runs a secure MediaWiki wiki. Users must be on a list of allowed users to read or edit wiki content. Authentication is handled with an Apache module and a wrapper for MW.

With these security features in place, we decided that rather than installing extensions to help us with embedding YouTube videos or Google maps in MW articles, we would set the configuration variable $wgRawHtml to true. Since we've done that, we are able to put a larger range of HTML tags in our MW articles.

However, it doesn't work with the "object" tags for embedding a YouTube video or the "iframe" tags for embedding a Google map. Instead, MW just displays the HTML in the article. Using "nowiki" tags around the HTML doesn't help, either.

How can I make this work?

--Lance E Sloan 19:18, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Have you looked through the Extensions here on MW.org to see if one fits one of your needs? Smaug 20:35, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. Yes, there are some good extensions available that could do this. However, I'm not the admin of the server that hosts MW at my organization, so I can't install any extensions. The admins here *might* install one or more of those extensions at some time, but for now they have configured my wiki to use "$wgRawHtml=true". We all expected that to work. So the problem has become: why doesn't MW's wgRawHtml flag really allow raw HTML? --Lance E Sloan 15:03, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Template Transclusion Tribulations

• MediaWiki: 1.11.1
• PHP: 5.2.3 (apache2handler)
• MySQL: 5.0.51a
• URL: DishiWiki

All my wiki's recipe articles will display one image of its respective dish. These images will always be JPEGs and are to be named to match the title of the recipe article it belongs to. (The "Hot_Chocolate.jpg" image file belongs to the recipe article titled "Hot_Chocolate," e.g.)

Therefore, my template for recipe articles -- {{Recipe}} -- is:

<includeonly>
[[Image:{{{PAGENAME}}.jpg]]
[[Category:Recipes]]
<includeonly>

Next, [[Category:Main Dishes]] and [[Category:Salads]] are subcategories of [[Category:Recipes]].

My template for main dishes -- {{Main}} -- is:

<includeonly>
{{Recipe}}
[[Category:Main Dishes]]
</includeonly>

and my template for salads -- {{Salad}} -- is:

<includeonly>
{{Recipe}}
[[Category:Salads]]
</includeonly>

With this hierarchy / technique, I can markup a recipe article with just one template -- {{Salad}}, e.g. -- so that the recipe article gets categorized as both a salad, and a recipe, and includes an image of the salad. So far so good.

Sometimes, though, a salad can be a main dish, too, as in the case of, say, "Turkey, Bacon and Feta Salad." (belch).

If I markup that recipe article with both {{Main}} and {{Salad}}, the recipe displays two images of the dish, the image being invoked once by the transclusion of {{Recipe}} from {{Main}} and once by the transclusion of {{Recipe}} from {{Salad}}.

I'm going blind (and crazy) from rereading and experimenting with placement of the <includeonly>,<noinclude>, and <onlyinclude> tags in the {{Recipe}} template. For the life of me, I cannot find a combination and arrangement of those limited-transclusion tags to prevent double images when a recipe article belongs to two categories. Is it possible? How? Or should I abandon what I had hoped would be a hat trick? (And sorry, I can't follow "Double transclusion problem," above.) Brian7632416 00:12, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

First of all, I like the alliteration. Now, as for solving your problem, there are two solutions, one low-tech and one medium-tech.

Low tech: How about creating a third template on the level of main course/salad, this one being both. I.E. a template {{SaladMD}} that was

<includeonly>
{{Recipe}}
[[Category:Main Dishes]]
[[Category:Salads]]
</includeonly>

Medium tech: If the above way does not work because you have more than two instances on that hierarchy level, you want to prepare for expansion, or you like this way better, you can install Extension:ParserFunctions and do what you want in a single template. Make a template {{RecipeType}}. Since you have two possibilities (salad or MD) this template will have two possible paramaters (see Help:Templates if you need to), "salad" and "MD". Here is what the template should be:

<includeonly>
[[Image:{{{PAGENAME}}.jpg]]
[[Category:Recipes]]

{{#ifeq: {{{salad}}} | yes | [[Category:Salads]] }}
{{#ifeq: {{{MD}}} | yes | [[Category:Main Dishes]] }}

<includeonly>

Now {{RecipeType|salad=yes}} will give you salad, {{RecipeType|MD=yes}} will give you Main Dish, and {{RecipeType|salad=yes|MD=yes}} will give you both with only one picture. As an added benifit, {{RecipeTypes}} with no parameters acts like your old {{Recipe}} template did. Parser functions are pretty cool. Smaug 00:39, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I think your "medium-tech" solution is the ticket, Smaug. And thanks for the lesson on templates with parameters. Yes, I'll add the parser functions and shoot for a format of {{Category|Main|Salad}}. That seems clean and intuitive, to me, and I'll let the parsser function(s) sort it out. Thanks again. Brian7632416 01:44, 6 July 2008 (UTC)