Hi,
Is it possible to access Wikipedia by a mobile phone? (That is, without it looking awful, squashing up, having a huge download size, etc). Is there a WAP or reduced version a phone can access? If not, why not?
Virgil
On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 18:59 +0000, Virgil Ierubino wrote:
Is it possible to access Wikipedia by a mobile phone? (That is, without it looking awful, squashing up, having a huge download size, etc). Is there a WAP or reduced version a phone can access? If not, why not?
Most interesting, however I posted to this list to effectively suggest a feature - native support for WAP/mobile versions built into the MediaWiki software. This couldn't be that hard to do. Flick a switch in the PHP and deliver a simplified version of the page - almost like a skin (or the early wikipedia).
Possible?
On 18/12/2007, David A. Desrosiers desrod@gnu-designs.com wrote:
On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 18:59 +0000, Virgil Ierubino wrote:
Is it possible to access Wikipedia by a mobile phone? (That is, without it looking awful, squashing up, having a huge download size, etc). Is there a WAP or reduced version a phone can access? If not, why not?
-- David A. Desrosiers desrod@gnu-designs.com Skype...: 860-967-3820
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
I posted to this list to effectively suggest a feature - native support for WAP/mobile versions built into the MediaWiki software.
Basic support is already there - all that's needed is a style sheet.
This couldn't be that hard to do.
Someone would still have to do it - remember that this is an open-source project developed in great part by volunteers.
-- F.
As I am interested as well:
When you say basic support is already there, what are you thinking of? As I look at it, it would require more than just a stylesheet, especially as many handhelds default to having style sheets turned off (e.g. my blackberry 8830 ). The way I see it, we would want to do something like detect the browser on page load and swap themes from normal "monobook" (or whichever) to a theme and style sheet designed for handhelds.
Given that, I agree, it should not be too complicated, but one question I would have is the appropriate place to put the check for browser type. Is there a hook that would be appropriate?
Joseph Hagerty
-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Frederik Dohr Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:18 AM To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] WAP ?
I posted to this list to effectively suggest a feature - native support for WAP/mobile versions built into the MediaWiki software.
Basic support is already there - all that's needed is a style sheet.
This couldn't be that hard to do.
Someone would still have to do it - remember that this is an open-source project developed in great part by volunteers.
-- F.
_______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
Hi, Making a website "magically" work on all mobile phones is certainly not as easy as "flicking a switch". Despite the widespread belief among developers that have not actually worked with mobile browsers, even serving a scaled-down XHTML-MP version of the markup would not solve the problem fully. There is still huge fragmentation among device manufacturers, browser software developers, and network operators, which means there is a wide variety of support (or lack of) for markup standards. This means a developer has to adapt her markup to various subsets of cHTML, WML, and XHTML-MP based on the User-Agent accessing the site. If someone were to undertake such a project for mediawiki, I'd suggest using libraries such as WURFL (wurfl.sf.net), a project which attempts to document devices' capability trees in a structured fashion, and WALL-4-PHP (wall.laacz.lv), a project which uses the WURFL to adapt the output markup based on the client's User-Agent. This would require building a skin that uses WALL-4-PHP's tag markup exclusively. Another approach is to use an existing transcoder that makes a best-effort to convert web pages into markup that will render on the phone. Two examples are Skweezer (commercial) and Phonifier (open source): -- Skweezer: http://www.skweezer.net/ http://www.skweezer.net/s.aspx/-/en~wikipedia~org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Alliso... -- Phonifier: http://www.phonifier.com/ http://www.phonifier.com/phonify.php?i=1&m=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikip... Because mediawiki's output markup is well structured, both transcoders do a very good job of transcoding the markup. Anyway, those are my $0.02. I've dealt extensively with mobile browser incompatibility and the headaches of multiserving N-markups for mobile content, and I don't think this problem is as simple as people are making it out to be. Best, Garth
On Dec 19, 2007 10:24 AM, Joseph Hagerty revjoe@revjoe.com wrote:
As I am interested as well:
When you say basic support is already there, what are you thinking of? As I look at it, it would require more than just a stylesheet, especially as many handhelds default to having style sheets turned off (e.g. my blackberry 8830 ). The way I see it, we would want to do something like detect the browser on page load and swap themes from normal "monobook" (or whichever) to a theme and style sheet designed for handhelds.
Given that, I agree, it should not be too complicated, but one question I would have is the appropriate place to put the check for browser type. Is there a hook that would be appropriate?
Joseph Hagerty
-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Frederik Dohr Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:18 AM To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] WAP ?
I posted to this list to effectively suggest a feature - native support for WAP/mobile versions built into the MediaWiki software.
Basic support is already there - all that's needed is a style sheet.
This couldn't be that hard to do.
Someone would still have to do it - remember that this is an open-source project developed in great part by volunteers.
-- F.
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
On Dec 19, 2007 6:14 AM, David A. Desrosiers desrod@gnu-designs.com wrote:
On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 18:59 +0000, Virgil Ierubino wrote:
Is it possible to access Wikipedia by a mobile phone? (That is, without it looking awful, squashing up, having a huge download size, etc). Is there a WAP or reduced version a phone can access? If not, why not?
I'm not sure why people people always link to that external wap site instead of to Wikipedia's own at http://en.wap.wikipedia.org/
The code for this is at http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/wap/
Angela
On Thu, 2007-12-20 at 20:23 +1100, Angela wrote:
I'm not sure why people people always link to that external wap site instead of to Wikipedia's own at http://en.wap.wikipedia.org/
Because it shows up as #4 in the SERP for "wap wikipedia", while en.wap.wikipedia.org shows up #69, well below the fold.
??? Google: #2 :
Wikipedia:WAP access - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia As of June 2007, Wikipedia now provides official access for wireless devices such as mobile telephones and PDAs. The site is at en.wap.wikipedia.org. ...
Maybe it's because people don't actually read any more, but just click? ;-)
B.
On 20-Dec-07, at 11:08 AM, David A. Desrosiers wrote:
On Thu, 2007-12-20 at 20:23 +1100, Angela wrote:
I'm not sure why people people always link to that external wap site instead of to Wikipedia's own at http://en.wap.wikipedia.org/
Because it shows up as #4 in the SERP for "wap wikipedia", while en.wap.wikipedia.org shows up #69, well below the fold.
-- David A. Desrosiers desrod@gnu-designs.com Skype...: 860-967-3820
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
Angela wrote:
On Dec 19, 2007 6:14 AM, David A. Desrosiers desrod@gnu-designs.com wrote:
I'm not sure why people people always link to that external wap site instead of to Wikipedia's own at http://en.wap.wikipedia.org/
Probably because they don't know that it exists. It isn't linked from www.wikipedia.org or en.wikipedia.org ; I haven't noticed any news release about the subdomain; there isn't even anything on Meta but http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_subdomain and from it it couldn't even be seen that the proposal is actually implemented. Links on main pages and perhaps <link rel="handheld"> links on every MediaWiki page would help.
Hello,
I added a local extension for a tag <Status>. Under one condition (logic inside the extension php code) I need to pop a user interface page for user to input updates. I created the form (contains inputtext fields and submit button) in the extension code. The user interface page does come up and I can input my updates and click the submit button. However, MW does not get any user inputs from the form. In other words, the $wgRequest is not defined for the user interface page. It seems that MW did not recognize the page (did get displyed) at all. Can anybody tell me how to get the user inputs from the displayed form?
Nelson
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