For a MediaWiki modification I'm working on I added a hook to the SkinTemplate.php file and specifically the outputPage function. As the name implies I inserted it before the execute() function is called. The code now looks like this:

$tpl->set( 'sidebar', $this->buildSidebar() ); $tpl->set( 'nav_urls', $this->buildNavUrls() );

// Hook that allows last minute additions to the // template, before it is executed. wfRunHooks( 'BeforeTemplateExecution', array( &$tpl ) );

// execute template wfProfileIn( "$fname-execute" ); $res = $tpl->execute(); wfProfileOut( "$fname-execute" );

This allows me to add a function to the hook in LocalSettings.php the normal way: $wgHooks['BeforeTemplateExecution'][] = 'fnExtendTemplate';

The function looks like this: function fnExtendTemplate( &$tpl ) { $tpl->set( 'mainmenu', buildMainMenu() ); return true; }

And the buildMainMenu function, which is also added to the LocalSettings.php file: function buildMainMenu() { return "Hello World!"; }

With these functions I can simply add the following line to the Skin file: <?php print($this->data['mainmenu']); ?>

I made this because I have a mainmenu and a submenu on the site I'm working on, located on different places in the HTML part of the site.

The buildMainMenu and the buildSubMenu function both call a function that gets the content of the menu structure (similar to MediaWiki:Sidebar) and parses it. buildMainMenu and buildSubMenu then render their part of the menu, depending on the page title.

This hook is useful to me, because it lets me add elements to the template in a quick, clean and simple way. Is this also useful to the developers community?

Boris