On Friday, February 26, 2016, Rudolf Großmann rg58@gmx.de wrote:

The GeoGebra MediaWiki Extension was published at mediawiki.org [1] in 2008. It allows to embed dynamic geometry applets into MediaWiki pages.

The extension was refined year by year. In 2015, Zbynek Konecný, member of the GeoGebra team, adapted it to the so-called GeoGebraWeb [2]. The applets don't use Java any more (as in 2008), but use JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS instead. Good for mobile devices.

We (Zbynek and me) and Prof. Markus Hohenwarter [3], the father of GeoGebra, would be very happy to get the extension deployed with the MediaWiki software.

The GeoGebra MediaWiki Extension can be found at Git/Gerrit[4], respectively at phabricator [5]. Wikiapiary [6] counts 62 wikis with GeoGebra MediaWiki Extension already installed. (There may be some experimental or unused wikis on the wikiapiary list, and the different wikis of zum.de are counted several times, although technically the same.) No serious bugs were reported at [7].

One of the first topics at [8] (Writing an extension for deployment) is: "Get community support for your idea... Post your idea to the wikitech-l mailing list [9]." So we hope to get our idea supported here at this list.

Thanks, Rudi

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[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GeoGebra [2] http://dev.geogebra.org/trac/wiki/GeoGebraWeb [3] http://www.jku.at/idm/content/e82460/index_html? team_view=section&emp=e82460/employee_groups_wiss82461/employees82462 [4] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/q/project:mediawiki/ extensions/GeoGebra,n,z [5] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/r/project/mediawiki/ extensions/GeoGebra [6] http://bit.ly/1WE1qfD [7] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_talk:GeoGebra [8] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Writing_an_extension_for_deployment [9] http://news.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/ _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

Hi,

Can you clarify what you mean by deployed with mediawiki? Do you mean deployed on a wikimedia project (e.g. Wikipedia)? If so, which ones? Or all of them? Or do you mean have it be included in the default mediawiki tarball release?

Thanks, Bawolff

On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 4:28 PM, Rudolf Großmann rg58@gmx.de wrote:

Brian Wolff <bawolff <at> gmail.com> writes:

...

Hi,

Can you clarify what you mean by deployed with mediawiki? Do you mean deployed on a wikimedia project (e.g. Wikipedia)? If so, which ones? Or all of them? Or do you mean have it be included in the default mediawiki tarball release?

Thanks, Bawolff

Hi,

The GeoGebra team and I would be glad to be able to enhance Wikipedia by GeoGebra drawings. (I avoid the word "applet", because Java isn't used any more.) I though a way to achieve this is to get the GeoGebra extension deployed with the MediaWiki software, to be more precise, the software you get at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download - what you call "default mediawiki tarball release", I think.

Please let me know if there is a better way. You mentioned the "wikimedia project Wikipedia". Will it be easier just to get the extension installed at Wikipedia (e.g. like it is at wikis.zum.de) and not bothering with MediaWiki?

Rudi

The extensions that are included with https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download have no bearing on which extensions are used on Wikipedia. We don't have a fixed process for deciding which extensions should be included with the MediaWiki tarball. So far we've basically included just the extensions that are both super-popular and super-general. I'm not sure if GeoGerba would be a good choice for the MediaWiki tarball, since its somewhat of a specific use case, that a great many wikis do not have (But that's just my opinion).

For Wikipedia in general: Getting an extension deployed on Wikipedia can be a challenging process, a process that often is very frustrating. Usually it has to pass a code review check, and a security check (among other things). Even getting people to do those reviews can be challenging, (There's only a small number of people who can do deployment reviews, they are very busy people, and deployment reviews are generally the sort of thing that takes a reviewer a long time to do. Especially in this case, it involves what is probably a very large javascript library).

In order to get it deployed on Wikipedia, it would probably help (This is just a stage 1 list of things, there would be other things to do after this. I didn't even look at any of the js code): *The php code followed MediaWiki core coding conventions *Javascript was loaded via resource loader (external js libraries don't have to follow MW coding conventions, but it would help if any js specific only to the extension did). All loaded javascript should be included in the extension (Loading js hosted on other sites is not allowed on Wikipedia in order to protect user privacy) *Given that (Assuming I'm understanding correctly) this is basically for viewing a fixed file (As opposed to something that people edit in their browser), it would probably be better to implement this as a MediaHandler extension, as opposed to a tag extension. I doubt that embedding base64 encoded files directly into pages is going to be ok.

Ultimately, you'd also have to get Wikipedia editors to agree that the extension would be useful (Getting Wikipedia editors to agree on anything is harder than it looks)

-- -bawolff

bawolff <bawolff+wn <at> gmail.com> writes:

The extensions that are included with https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download have no bearing on which extensions are used on Wikipedia. We don't have a fixed process for deciding which extensions should be included with the MediaWiki tarball. So far we've basically included just the extensions that are both super-popular and super-general. I'm not sure if GeoGerba would be a good choice for the MediaWiki tarball, since its somewhat of a specific use case, that a great many wikis do not have (But that's just my opinion).

Thank you for clarifying. I will stop my efforts to get the GeoGebra extension into the MediaWiki tarball.

For Wikipedia in general: Getting an extension deployed on Wikipedia can be a challenging process, a process that often is very frustrating. Usually it has to pass a code review check, and a security check (among other things). Even getting people to do those reviews can be challenging, (There's only a small number of people who can do deployment reviews, they are very busy people, and deployment reviews are generally the sort of thing that takes a reviewer a long time to do. Especially in this case, it involves what is probably a very large javascript library).

Ok, I'm a patient person.

In order to get it deployed on Wikipedia, it would probably help (This is just a stage 1 list of things, there would be other things to do after this. I didn't even look at any of the js code): *The php code followed MediaWiki core coding conventions

Hope this is ok. If not, I will ask the GeoGebra team for help.

*Javascript was loaded via resource loader (external js libraries don't have to follow MW coding conventions, but it would help if any js specific only to the extension did).

The extension uses $out->addScript(). Are this MW coding conventions?

All loaded javascript should be included in the extension (Loading js hosted on other sites is not allowed on Wikipedia in order to protect user privacy)

That is very hard. I have no access to the GeoGebra JS, although it is basically open source. This is in contradiction to the concepts of GeoGebra - load its JavaScript from geogebra.org to get always the newest version.

*Given that (Assuming I'm understanding correctly) this is basically for viewing a fixed file (As opposed to something that people edit in their browser), it would probably be better to implement this as a MediaHandler extension, as opposed to a tag extension.

I will RTFM about MediaHandler extensions...

I doubt that embedding base64 encoded files directly into pages is going to be ok.

Use of base64 encoded files is only for legacy reasons. You are able to embed a GeoGebra drawing from http://tube.geogebra.org/ by passing the file ID as a parameter. Example (German): http://wikis.zum.de/wikihilfe/GeoGebra/GeoGebraTube_einbinden Syntax is simple and user friendly: <ggb_applet width="964" height="478" version="4.2" id="16778" />

Ultimately, you'd also have to get Wikipedia editors to agree that the extension would be useful (Getting Wikipedia editors to agree on anything is harder than it looks)

-- -bawolff

I am used to hard work. -- - Rudi

Hope this is ok. If not, I will ask the GeoGebra team for help.

See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Coding_conventions for details. A lot of this is super-ficial stuff, but having the code look like the rest of MediaWiki can really make it easier for us to figure out what's going on at a glance.

...

*Javascript was loaded via resource loader (external js libraries don't have to follow MW coding conventions, but it would help if any js specific only to the extension did).

The extension uses $out->addScript(). Are this MW coding conventions?

Since MediaWiki 1.17, we now prefer scripts to be loaded using the ResourceLoader mechanism instead of $out->addScript(). See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ResourceLoader

...

All loaded javascript should be included in the extension (Loading js hosted on other sites is not allowed on Wikipedia in order to protect user privacy)

That is very hard. I have no access to the GeoGebra JS, although it is basically open source. This is in contradiction to the concepts of GeoGebra - load its JavaScript from geogebra.org to get always the newest version.

This is definitely a hard requirement. We need all code loaded by Wikipedia and friends to be in in the repo, to ensure that other sites don't collect inappropriate analytics (violating our privacy policy), or deliver malicious content. Well I'm sure that GeoGebra would not do either of those things, the general principle is that we want to be sure to be in control of all code, so that we know for sure we would never have to worry about that sort of thing.

...

*Given that (Assuming I'm understanding correctly) this is basically for viewing a fixed file (As opposed to something that people edit in their browser), it would probably be better to implement this as a MediaHandler extension, as opposed to a tag extension.

I will RTFM about MediaHandler extensions...

The manual for MediaHandler extensions is kind of non-existent (sorry). But basically they are registered with the $wgMediaHandlers variable and subclass MediaHandler. PagedTiffHandler, PDFHandler, and TimedMediaHandler extensions are all examples (TimedMediaHandler isn't the best example as the code is kind of messy, but its one of the few that involves loading custom js).

...

I doubt that embedding base64 encoded files directly into pages is going to be ok.

Use of base64 encoded files is only for legacy reasons. You are able to embed a GeoGebra drawing from http://tube.geogebra.org/ by passing the file ID as a parameter. Example (German): http://wikis.zum.de/wikihilfe/GeoGebra/GeoGebraTube_einbinden Syntax is simple and user friendly:

<ggb_applet width="964" height="478" version="4.2" id="16778" />

Probably we'd want people to be able to upload GeoGebra files to the wiki, and then include them on pages with code like [[File:Foo.ggb|964px|version=4.2]]. I'm unsure how people would feel about having a separate repository of geogebra files.

I am not sure what you mean by "some esoteric visualisation template". Which wiki do you mean by "a Wikimedia wiki"? Wikipedia?

Wikimedia wiki = Any wiki operated by the Wikimedia foundation. The most relevant to your case is either the Wikipedias or the Wikibooks (We generally consider each language to also be a separate wiki, so english Wikipedia is a separate wiki from German Wikipedia, etc). The full list is at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:SiteMatrix

Which test wiki should I use? I have installed two test wikis to test the extension with different versions of MediaWiki software, but there are only "proof of concept" examples. Is it possible to get a kind of clone of Wikipedia with my extension installed, using "Tool Labs" or "Wikimedia Labs", to play around and replace some static geometric drawings by dynamic GeoGebra drawings?

Wikimedia labs is basically a hosting environment for things related to Wikimedia. Wikipedia is really big, so you can't really setup a full clone there (Or at least, its just as difficult there as anywhere else). You can set up a wiki though, and import a couple pages from Wikipedia so you have some examples for demos.

-- -bawolff

bawolff <bawolff+wn <at> gmail.com> writes:

[...]

...

...

All loaded javascript should be included in the extension (Loading js hosted on other sites is not allowed on Wikipedia in order to protect user privacy)

That is very hard. I have no access to the GeoGebra JS, although it is basically open source. This is in contradiction to the concepts of GeoGebra - load its JavaScript from geogebra.org to get always the newest version.

This is definitely a hard requirement. We need all code loaded by Wikipedia and friends to be in in the repo, to ensure that other sites don't collect inappropriate analytics (violating our privacy policy), or deliver malicious content. Well I'm sure that GeoGebra would not do either of those things, the general principle is that we want to be sure to be in control of all code, so that we know for sure we would never have to worry about that sort of thing.

[...]

-- -bawolff

Hi, bawolff,

let me summarize: * The problem how to embed GeoGebra into a Mediawiki is technically solved. The solution is tested on different wikis and has been refined over years. * Installing the GeoGebra extension at Wikipedia should be a win-win situation: Wikipedia could be improved by many dynamic geometric drawings instead of static pictures. GeoGebra could improve its publicity. * Nevertheless the GeoGebra extension may not be installed at Wikipedia for security reasons (and avoiding inappropriate analytics).

On Friday 03/04/2016 I visited the ZUM workshop [1] at Schweinfurt, Germany. ZUM = Zentrale für Unterrichtsmedien im Internet [2] The OER-AWARD 2016 was awarded to the ZUM Wiki at Berlin. [3], [4]

I had the opportunity for some talks with other members of ZUM, and finally made up my mind: * I am no member of the GeoGebra team. * I am no Mediawiki hacker and no member of Wikimedia. * It should be easier for the GeoGebra team and the Mediawiki team to collaborate directly and solve the security issue problem. * I will stop my personal efforts to get GeoGebra into Wikipedia. -- -Rudi

[1] http://www.zum.de/portal/blog/ZUMTeam/ZUM-Workshop-2016-zumworks16 [2] http://www.zum.de/portal/ [3] http://open-educational-resources.de/16/award/ [4] http://wikis.zum.de/zum/OER-Award_2016_f%C3%BCr_das_ZUM-Wiki