Gift season! We have launched structured data on Commons, available from
all wikis.
TLDR; One data store. Use everywhere. Upload table data to Commons, with
localization, and use it to create wiki tables, lists, or use directly in
graphs. Works for GeoJSON maps too. Must be licensed as CC0. Try this
per-state GDP map demo, and select multiple years. More demos at the bottom.
US Map state highlight
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Graph:US_Map_state_highlight>
Data can now be stored as *.tab and *.map pages in the data namespace on
Commons. That data may contain localization, so a table cell could be in
multiple languages. And that data is accessible from any wikis, by Lua
scripts, Graphs, and Maps.
Lua lets you generate wiki tables from the data by filtering, converting,
mixing, and formatting the raw data. Lua also lets you generate lists. Or
any wiki markup.
Graphs can use both .tab and .map directly to visualize the data and let
users interact with it. The GDP demo above uses a map from Commons, and
colors each segment with the data based on a data table.
Kartographer (<maplink>/<mapframe>) can use the .map data as an extra layer
on top of the base map. This way we can show endangered species' habitat.
== Demo ==
* Raw data example
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data:Weather/New_York_City.tab>
* Interactive Weather data
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Graph:Weather_monthly_history>
* Same data in Weather template
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Yurik/WeatherDemo>
* Interactive GDP map
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Graph:US_Map_state_highlight>
* Endangered Jemez Mountains salamander - habitat
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemez_Mountains_salamander#/maplink/0>
* Population history
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Graph:Population_history>
* Line chart <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Graph:Lines>
== Getting started ==
* Try creating a page at data:Sandbox/<user>.tab on Commons. Don't forget
the .tab extension, or it won't work.
* Try using some data with the Line chart graph template
A thorough guide is needed, help is welcome!
== Documentation links ==
* Tabular help <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Tabular_Data>
* Map help <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Map_Data>
If you find a bug, create Phabricator ticket with #tabular-data tag, or
comment on the documentation talk pages.
== FAQ ==
* Relation to Wikidata: Wikidata is about "facts" (small pieces of
information). Structured data is about "blobs" - large amounts of data like
the historical weather or the outline of the state of New York.
== TODOs ==
* Add a nice "table editor" - editing JSON by hand is cruel. T134618
* "What links here" should track data usage across wikis. Will allow
quicker auto-refresh of the pages too. T153966
* Support data redirects. T153598
* Mega epic: Support external data feeds.