On 4/20/05, Matthew England <mengland(a)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.
--
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]