[Mediawiki-l] Mediawiki data extensions

[Karl Nagel]

We're looking at implementing Mediawiki and would like
to extend its core database functionality to
capture/report some other data elements. (eg Name,
NAIC, state/country, etc.)

After looking through the various MW source
documentation/reference sites, it appears the most
straightforward approach would be to merely add 
appropriate custom special pages as needed (eg data
input/validation & reporting).

Our objective is to eliminate any changes to the base
MW PHP code/MySQL tables so that we can upgrade as new
releases are made available. It seems the way to do
this is to maintain separate custom pages, PHP
functions & MySQL tables and write a few extensions
that link our code to the base MW code to perform the
functions as needed.

Does this seem like the right approach? That is, is
this way everyone else does it and I'm just asking a
real obvious question? If so, can anyone point me to
some various examples? I've looked through the
different MW APIs/hooks/extensions, but haven't really
seen anything as described above.

K