A couple of weeks ago, Wiki-enthusiast and Wikimedia Commons administrator Brianna Laugher gave a talk at the Victoria (Australia) Linux Users Group entitled “Hacking MediaWiki (For Users)” [video|slides]. Weighing in at just under an hour, the talk provides a lot of opportunities focused on letting community members and editors be able to come to creative solutions to add the functionality they need to a MediaWiki installation without having to add plug-ins or necessarily have admin/sysop access. The talk, not specific to Wikipedia or even any of the Wikimedia Foundation projects, provides a plethora of ideas for the most common open source wiki engine in use.
Because AboutUs uses a heavily modified and enhanced version of the MediaWiki, there are parts of the talk that simply don’t apply to us. With this in mind, we’re providing some of the highlights (and time-codes) so you can skip to relevant ideas in the video. Naturally, if you’re also a user of using other MediaWiki-based wikis (like WikiHow, WikiTravel, Fort Wiki or WikiIndex), you’ll find the whole video to be educational.
Wiki Structure “Hacks”
The talk gives probably the most useful (for AboutUs editors at least) thoughts early in the video (around 2:30) by talking about the various things that can provide structure to a wiki.
• Subpages – Among the simplest thing you can do to give a wiki page some structure is to create subpages. For AboutUs purposes subpages can be very useful to wrangle all your various user test pages, or to organize wiki articles on your business, allowing various aspects to be focused in individual articles all linked from the main article. On a larger level, our portals make extensive use of subpages to organize their vast information.
HINT: To see all the various subpages in a namespace, you can take advantage of the [[Special:Prefixindex]] MagicWord that Laugher talks about in the MagicWords section of the video (around 30:50). For example, check out the complete list of PortlandTech subpages in the PortlandTech portal.
• Backlinks and other links – About 5 minutes into the video, Laugher outlines one of the more unused (and powerful) features of MediaWiki: The ability to see all the pages linked to from a page or set of pages, using the “What Links Here” and “What Redirects Here” options in the sidebar as well as how to find a “Permanent Link” for a page or image (see image for where they are on AboutUs).
• Categories – Often misused as just “tags” like on Flickr or del.icio.us, categories are a great tool to create hierarchy and taxonomy on a wiki. The video discusses this at about 7:05
• Templates – Any good wiki makes great use of templates to incorporate information and functions on multiple pages. The video (9:00) discusses not only this, but how to utilize parameters in your templates as well as special features like “includeonly” and “noinclude”. She also talks a bit about the struggles (and opportunities) of using/copying templates from other MediaWiki installations over to another wiki like AboutUs.
• Namespaces – Back in the early days of wikis, having various “Namespaces” or URLs that defined parts of the wiki was a very en vogue way of structuring wikis. While it’s not as popular now (it creates very long URL and page names), there are some Namespaces built into MediaWiki, like the “User” “Talk” “SpecialPages” and “Images” that are in use. Starting at about minute 16, the video discusses how these Namespaces interact with the rest of the wiki to provide specific structure.
MagicWords
Also interesting for AboutUs editors and community members is the section on the video discussing MagicWords (30:50) which provide a variety of functions, including behavioral switches (turning the Table of Contents on or off, or redirecting page) as well as variables (listing numbers of articles, etc).
The Rest
The rest of the video falls into functionality that isn’t possible using AboutUs, including custom CSS/Javascript and setting access levels for sysops.
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woo! I’m glad you found it useful.
a minor correction, I’m no longer a Wikimedia Commons administrator.
Good afternoon
I AM NOT SURE WHAT A WIKI IS but here I go I am having all this trouble with the FL DCF can someone help. Thank you for all you help in this matter. Mrs. Atiles when we originally applied for assistance on or about Jun 6, 08 we also applied for cash assistance, the nice young man that interviewed me over the telephone told me I would need a doctors letter stating that I was unable to work and that I would receive some information in the mail on where to take the letter. I NEVER received the info. I acquired a letter from the doctor on Sept 25, 2008 describing my disability. It seems like I should be getting these benefits, I am 1 step from loosing my home and will have no Christmas, please help.
James Holloway
16232 NE 154TH LN
FT McCoy, FL 32134
Case# 1290251193
Mr. Holloway, I’m not sure why you think this is the right place for your question. We have no connection to the FL DCF. Please call FL DCF directly. Thank you, Ted Ernst (AboutUs.org)
James, I know this is late for Christmas and I hope you have already found the information – I think you are looking for these folks.
Florida Department of Children and Families
Good luck, Best, Mark