Morten Blaabjerg wrote:
Hello Morten,
LANGUAGE
<snip>
When setting up the wiki, I decided to set up with the
english version
of the text, which it seems I am now stuck with?
-is it possible to change the interface language from english to danish
(including all the special messages) after setup and with a growing
database? - which files are relevant?
We are not that evil.
Change your wgLang variable in localsettings then you will have to
rebuild the messages wich are in the database. To do that you have to
use a script in a console:
./maintenance/rebuildMessages.php
You probably want to delete them all and rebuild a new one :/
Is it possible with MediaWiki 1.4 for users to specify
their preferred
site language in their preferences, for the interface and system
messages? - how is this managed more precisely? - Which files will still
be of concern to me, after the install of MediaWiki 1.4?
In 1.4 the messages can be either:
1/ site wide messages using $wgLang . They remain the same for all
users and are used for the interface mostly.
2/ per user preferences.
You can set the default language to be danish and users can override it
in their preferences to something list (ex: chinese, finish, english
..). You can probably test it on
http://test.wikipedia.org/ .
Is it possible to limit the languages available to
users, if one cannot
commit to customizing one's wiki to all kinds of languages? -or the
system messages can be kept to such a minimum, that I won't have to
(which I doubt)?
You can select them (in 1.4) using:
$wgUserLanguages = array('en', 'fr');
Users will only be able to switch between english and french.
IMAGES
<snip: I dont know about php safe :(
>
OTHER QUESTIONS & COMMENTS
How does one best limit the menu items, user preferences or special
pages of no relevance to one's customization? Which files are the
important ones to meddle with, to remove, say, certain skins, from being
selectable by a user? The site has been designed with a site-particular
skin, a modified monobook-css etc. and you don't want the site style to
appear otherwise to the user. How do you do that?
iirc in 1.3 you have to edit ./includes/Skins.php
You can also use $wgDefaultSkin in LocalSettings to change the default
skin (ex: 'nostalgia' ).
Why not keep all the system messages within the file
system, easily
accessible from the root system, - and keep them all out of the wiki?
MediaWiki is developed for wikipedia wich have like 150 languages.
Developers had a hard time patching the languages files other and other.
So someone (Tim Starling / Brion ?) came with the idea to let users edit
the interface themselves instead of begging for the language files to be
updated manually :p
You can use the language files directly with:
$wgUseDatabaseMessages = false;
But you will no more be able to use MediaWiki: namespace to edit the
interface :p
There are quite a few "wikipedia leftovers"
for instance, in the special
messages, such as a number of unneccessary references or links, that are
empty, and a bit of a hazzle to track down and eliminate. No need to
refer in the special messages to a 'policy' if a small site doesn't have
one (yet)... No need either IMO to wet everything in a
copyright/disclaimer context, if the site in question or users has no
need for them, but only loads their base engine with existing links to a
lot of non-creative empty 'paragraph pages' (and all that even before
there's any creative content).
I believe most wikipedia occurences have been removed from 1.4 language
files. As for the copyright you can disable some with:
$wgRightsPage = NULL;
$wgRightsUrl = NULL;
$wgRightsText = NULL;
$wgRightsIcon = NULL
$wgUseCopyrightUpload = false;
$wgCheckCopyrightUpload = false;
As for the messages coming from the languages files, you will have to
edit them. As for the hardcoded link, they will probably filled in a
later version when we add some documentation in MediaWiki :o)
This is just constructive criticism - so far from ever
becoming a
programmer myself, I can only hack, copy n' paste and learn bits
everywhere. I love the power of the wiki concept - I feel I am
witnessing the maturing of the internet and its real creative power
here. Keep up the good work :-)
Thanks Morten ! Keep asking question don't be shy, that's how free
softwares get better :-)
cheers,
--
Ashar Voultoiz - WP++++
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Hashar
Servers in trouble ? noc (at) wikimedia (dot) org
"This signature is a virus. Copy me in yours to spread it."