[Mediawiki-l] Any leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?

[Gary Kirk]

Ahem.

Go to Special:Allmessages on your wiki. You know how to do this.

There a large (as in length and file size) page will display, showing
every single piece of text in MediaWiki's interface, taken from
MessagesXX.php in /languages, in the wiki's default language. The
blocks of green show a non-default message is used - that is, it has
been edited.

Simple, I would've thought, no?

On 05/06/07, Monahon, Peter B. <Peter.Monahon at uspto.gov> wrote:
>
> >> Peter Blaise wrote: ... I'm trying to compile a
> >> "see this on a MediaWiki screen, edit it ... HERE"
> >> ... listing for MediaWiki administration.
> >> Can anyone link me to a list that
> >> addresses these on-screen MediaWiki
> >> words and their synonyms, and shows
> >> where to edit/control their appearance ...
>
> > Jan wrote: I'm not exactly clear on what
> > you want. Perhaps you're looking for
> > [[Special:Allmessages]]?
>
> Thanks for your question and suggestion, Jan.
>
> Wow, there's 145 pages of unintelligible documentation at
> http://yourwiki.com/index.php?title=Special:Allmessages&ot=html and
> http://yourwiki.com/index.php?title=Special:Allmessages&ot=php - no
> wonder it's hard to find quick answers for MediaWiki inquires.
>
> By the way, that series of pages is also a good example of the
> misaligned jargon syndrome within MediaWiki community:
>
> Go to [[Special:Allmessages]] and find a screen that says not
> "Special:Allmessages" but instead says "System messages"
>
> ... so someone would find it by searching for ... which term?
>
> Anyway, there are some synonyms in it which help resolve some
> ambiguities, but no directions to where to control the on-screen
> MediaWiki parts (not the contents of user contributed articles, but the
> on-screen parts of MediaWiki itself).
>
> What I want is to know how to find what controls anything on a MediaWiki
> screen.
>
> Say a user asks me to change the logo - where do I find the control for
> that?
>
> Say the next user wants me to change the wording of the tabs across the
> top - where's the control for that?
>
> And so on, for everything we can see in a default MediaWiki
> installation.
>
> Example: I open the manual for my camera and the first thing it does is
> tell me the "names of the parts".  Then when they say, "open the battery
> door," I can look at their map and see what they are talking about.  And
> they don't sometimes refer to it as the "power source compartment".  No,
> it's always the "battery door".  When they say, "look at the top panel
> lcd," I then know they call it the "top panel lcd" when I contact anyone
> for help.  It's never the "horizontal display".  No, it's always the
> "top panel lcd" wherever it's referred to.
>
> MediaWiki, however, has no such master "names of parts" page that I can
> find, making it hard to find the control for any MediaWiki screen
> element I'm staring right at!  And when we do have something on screen
> with an apparent name, it seems to be controlled by something under
> another name, such as, "discussion" is really "talk" and:
>
> on-screen "navigation"
> ... = MediaWiki:Sidebar
> ... = http://{your wiki's URL}/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Sidebar
>
> And so on.  That's why I asked for help finding the names of the
> MediaWiki parts, such as:
>
> - on-screen "search"
> ... = (synonym?)
> ... = place for a wiki admin to edit/control it
>
> - on-screen "toolbox" =
> ... = (synonym?)
> ... = place for a wiki admin to edit/control it
>
> Because I want to CONTROL those on-screen MediaWiki elements, and I
> can't find what that are called.  As, as exampled above, the name on
> screen is not used in any support documentation I can search at
> MediaWiki.org.  So, c'mon folks, if you know or can find it, please
> share links at MediaWiki.org or create it and then share links!  Thanks!
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> >> Peter B. wrote: ... and so on for ALL
> >> editable page elements in a MediaWiki
> >> installation.
>
> > Michael wrote: Install a utility like
> > Firebug for Firefox and enable it.
> > That will allow you to see every
> > element on the screen and see what
> > bit of CSS it uses.  Useful if you want
> > to change the skin in any way.  It will
> > also allow you to see any other
> > HTML/CSS/Script stuff you can
> > search for in the various php files
> > that make up Mediawiki.
>
> Great, Mike!
>
> ... now if I can only get permission to install Firefox ...!!!
>
> However, some MediaWiki page elements are controlled directly by typing
>
> mediawiki:xxxxx
>
> or
>
> speciak:xxxxxxxx
>
> and son on, for some entries into the
>
> "search _____
> [go] [search]"
>
> area (whatever that area is called), yet some on-screen MediaWiki
> elements require finding, creating or changing lines in
>
> xxxsetting.php
>
> and now you suggest looking for
>
> xxxx.cs
>
> files as they may be the source
>
> ... dang, Mike, spread the target w-i-d-e so it's impossible for me to
> hit, why dontchya?
>
> :-(
>
> I'll see if I can install Firefox on a USB drive ...
>
> - Peter Blaise
> ...fighting the good fight, trying to make MediaWiki taste good for the
> users around me...
>
>
>
>
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>


-- 
Gary Kirk