Mailing List Archive

Re: Special Menu on Every Page
Debi wrote:

> I'm new to the list and new to the concept of the wiki. I've been
> learning as I go and have to admit that most of this stuff is way over
> my head at the moment!
>
> Anyway, this is the request of my team for our new wikipedia:

Just a quick note: "Wikipedia" is actually a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, so it's best not
to get into the habit of referring to something as "a Wikipedia" if it isn't part of wikipedia.org.
The generic term is simply "a wiki" or "a WikiWiki".

> We noticed that the Wikipedia.com site had something called a
> #siteNotice in their MediaWiki:Monobook.css, but I have no idea where
> this #siteNotice lives and whether or not links can be engrained in them.

My guess would be that that was the formatting for [[MediaWiki:fromwikipedia]] - but I've just
noticed that that message doesn't appear *at all* under monobook - anyone have any idea why not?
Just an oversight?

> We have a special "categories" menu we'd like to add to every page and
> have it have links to the actual Catetory:xxx pages to enhance navigation.

> We'd like to keep this list of categories up-to-date easily. Right now,
> we have Template:Showcategories, but that has to be put into each article.

Were you thinking of just a list of inline links (and not have many categories) or an actual
drop-down menu (which would be better for a large list of categories)? The former you might be able
to do with strange bits of JavaScript and CSS (although I dread to think how) or by modifying the
monobook skin itself (and, of course, any other skin you let your users select once they log in).
For the latter (and indeed the former, if you don't have any PHP wizards amongst you but want an
auto-updating list) I guess you'll have to lodge a Feature Request at the software's Sourceforge
Tracker (https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=411195&group_id=34373&func=browse) and hope someone
feels like coding it for you.

I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with the skinning and CSS and stuff, so can't be more helpful than
that. Perhaps someone else can shed a bit more light on your options.

--
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]
Re: Re: Special Menu on Every Page [ In reply to ]
> Debi wrote:
>> We noticed that the Wikipedia.com site had something called a
>> #siteNotice in their MediaWiki:Monobook.css, but I have no idea where
>> this #siteNotice lives and whether or not links can be engrained in them.

See this extract from DefaultSettings.php:
# If set, a bold ugly notice will show up at the top of every page.
$wgSiteNotice = "";

Set it in LocalSettings.php. This is intended primarily for emergency
notices of upcoming or current database downtime.

Rowan Collins [IMSoP] wrote:
> My guess would be that that was the formatting for
> [[MediaWiki:fromwikipedia]] - but I've just noticed that that message
> doesn't appear *at all* under monobook - anyone have any idea why not?
> Just an oversight?

The 'fromwikipedia' message appears in printed mode from monobook, but
is hidden in Monobook's screen style sheet. You could override this by
changing the style for #siteSub.

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
Re: Special Menu on Every Page [ In reply to ]
In a message dated 6/20/2004 5:51:12 PM Eastern Standard Time,
siu01rc2@rdg.ac.uk writes:

> Just a quick note: "Wikipedia" is actually a trademark of the Wikimedia
> Foundation, so it's best not
> to get into the habit of referring to something as "a Wikipedia" if it isn't
> part of wikipedia.org.
> The generic term is simply "a wiki" or "a WikiWiki".

Okay, thanks.

Debi
Re: Special Menu on Every Page [ In reply to ]
In a message dated 6/20/2004 5:51:12 PM Eastern Standard Time,
siu01rc2@rdg.ac.uk writes:

> Were you thinking of just a list of inline links (and not have many
> categories) or an actual
> drop-down menu (which would be better for a large list of categories)? The
> former you might be able
> to do with strange bits of JavaScript and CSS (although I dread to think
> how) or by modifying the
> monobook skin itself (and, of course, any other skin you let your users
> select once they log in).
> For the latter (and indeed the former, if you don't have any PHP wizards
> amongst you but want an
> auto-updating list) I guess you'll have to lodge a Feature Request at the
> software's Sourceforge
> Tracker (https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=411195&group_id=34373&
> func=browse) and hope someone
> feels like coding it for you.

Our team is looking mostly for a navigation menu like the current one below
the search box in the monobook skin, but would contain our Category:xxx links.
We are attempting to keep the number of categories to no more than 10. It is a
very small wiki and very specialized. Perhaps as we grow, we might consider a
drop-down menu, but that sounds like it might require more coding time than
what our current team of volunteers can handle.

Debi
Re: Re: Special Menu on Every Page [ In reply to ]
Quoting Rowan Collins [IMSoP], from the post of Sun, 20 Jun:
>
> Just a quick note: "Wikipedia" is actually a trademark of the Wikimedia
> Foundation, so it's best not to get into the habit of referring to
> something as "a Wikipedia" if it isn't part of wikipedia.org. The generic
> term is simply "a wiki" or "a WikiWiki".

Then I think it would be really help not to have "Wikipedia" strings
hard-wired into some of the skins (like I found in cologneblue, at least
in the Hebrew version I'm using), and maybe conider changing the
fromwikipedia page and its ilk to a generic names like fromwikiname or
frommediawikiname.

but most importantly, this deserves to be listed in the installation
guide :-)

Cheers,
Ira.

--
Work of art
Ira Abramov
http://ira.abramov.org/email/
Re: Special Menu on Every Page [ In reply to ]
Ira Abramov wrote:
> Quoting Rowan Collins [IMSoP], from the post of Sun, 20 Jun:
>
>>Just a quick note: "Wikipedia" is actually a trademark of the Wikimedia
>>Foundation, so it's best not to get into the habit of referring to
>>something as "a Wikipedia" if it isn't part of wikipedia.org. The generic
>>term is simply "a wiki" or "a WikiWiki".
>
>
> Then I think it would be really help not to have "Wikipedia" strings
> hard-wired into some of the skins (like I found in cologneblue, at least
> in the Hebrew version I'm using), and maybe conider changing the
> fromwikipedia page and its ilk to a generic names like fromwikiname or
> frommediawikiname.

Hmm, good point - I'll add that point to Bug #922210
(https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=922210&group_id=34373&atid=411192) which
is about exactly those messages.


--
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]