On 4/20/05, Matthew England mengland@mengland.net wrote:
Ok, I'm getting a lot of helpful input on how to do this (including the email below and some private emails not shown), but it's a bit piecemeal and not comprehensive.
I don't know how to make it any more comprehensive. * the interface is translated and customised through named messages * each language has a file called LanguageXX.php containing the _initial_ values of these messages * on install, the appropriate language's messages are copied into the database, as pages on the wiki called MediaWiki:<messagename> * once copied, the messages can be editted in the same way as any other wiki page, as long as you are logged in with an account that has "sysop" privileges * changing the php files won't have any effect, because the software will look in the database instead * to help you find the right messages to change, you can go to the page Special:Allmessages (linked on the "Special pages" page as "All system messages") which displays the default and current versions of each message
There are other situations, and other ways of doing things, but if you just want to customise your interface, it really is a 4-step process: 1) make sure you're logged in, with "sysop" priveleges 2) visit path/to/your/wiki/Special:Allmessages 3) find the message you want to customise, and follow the link to the page for that message 4) edit that page
Is there a bona fide procedure somewhere in a wiki page, manual, handbook, etc that speaks to this?
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents is the "official" help, but it's kind of rather bitty and "unfinished" in itself at the moment. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_localization covers the basics of this question.