[Mediawiki-l] Any leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?

[Monahon, Peter B.]

>> Peter Blaise wrote: ... I'm trying to compile a 
>> "see this on a MediaWiki screen, edit it ... HERE"
>> ... listing for MediaWiki administration.  
>> Can anyone link me to a list that 
>> addresses these on-screen MediaWiki 
>> words and their synonyms, and shows 
>> where to edit/control their appearance ...

> Jan wrote: I'm not exactly clear on what 
> you want. Perhaps you're looking for 
> [[Special:Allmessages]]?

Thanks for your question and suggestion, Jan.

Wow, there's 145 pages of unintelligible documentation at
http://yourwiki.com/index.php?title=Special:Allmessages&ot=html and
http://yourwiki.com/index.php?title=Special:Allmessages&ot=php - no
wonder it's hard to find quick answers for MediaWiki inquires.  

By the way, that series of pages is also a good example of the
misaligned jargon syndrome within MediaWiki community:  

Go to [[Special:Allmessages]] and find a screen that says not
"Special:Allmessages" but instead says "System messages" 

... so someone would find it by searching for ... which term? 

Anyway, there are some synonyms in it which help resolve some
ambiguities, but no directions to where to control the on-screen
MediaWiki parts (not the contents of user contributed articles, but the
on-screen parts of MediaWiki itself).

What I want is to know how to find what controls anything on a MediaWiki
screen.  

Say a user asks me to change the logo - where do I find the control for
that?  

Say the next user wants me to change the wording of the tabs across the
top - where's the control for that?

And so on, for everything we can see in a default MediaWiki
installation.

Example: I open the manual for my camera and the first thing it does is
tell me the "names of the parts".  Then when they say, "open the battery
door," I can look at their map and see what they are talking about.  And
they don't sometimes refer to it as the "power source compartment".  No,
it's always the "battery door".  When they say, "look at the top panel
lcd," I then know they call it the "top panel lcd" when I contact anyone
for help.  It's never the "horizontal display".  No, it's always the
"top panel lcd" wherever it's referred to.

MediaWiki, however, has no such master "names of parts" page that I can
find, making it hard to find the control for any MediaWiki screen
element I'm staring right at!  And when we do have something on screen
with an apparent name, it seems to be controlled by something under
another name, such as, "discussion" is really "talk" and:

on-screen "navigation" 
... = MediaWiki:Sidebar 
... = http://{your wiki's URL}/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Sidebar

And so on.  That's why I asked for help finding the names of the
MediaWiki parts, such as:

- on-screen "search" 
... = (synonym?)
... = place for a wiki admin to edit/control it 

- on-screen "toolbox" =
... = (synonym?)
... = place for a wiki admin to edit/control it

Because I want to CONTROL those on-screen MediaWiki elements, and I
can't find what that are called.  As, as exampled above, the name on
screen is not used in any support documentation I can search at
MediaWiki.org.  So, c'mon folks, if you know or can find it, please
share links at MediaWiki.org or create it and then share links!  Thanks!



--



>> Peter B. wrote: ... and so on for ALL 
>> editable page elements in a MediaWiki 
>> installation.

> Michael wrote: Install a utility like 
> Firebug for Firefox and enable it.  
> That will allow you to see every 
> element on the screen and see what 
> bit of CSS it uses.  Useful if you want 
> to change the skin in any way.  It will 
> also allow you to see any other 
> HTML/CSS/Script stuff you can 
> search for in the various php files 
> that make up Mediawiki.

Great, Mike!

... now if I can only get permission to install Firefox ...!!!  

However, some MediaWiki page elements are controlled directly by typing 

mediawiki:xxxxx 

or 

speciak:xxxxxxxx

and son on, for some entries into the 

"search _____ 
[go] [search]" 

area (whatever that area is called), yet some on-screen MediaWiki
elements require finding, creating or changing lines in

xxxsetting.php 

and now you suggest looking for 

xxxx.cs 

files as they may be the source 

... dang, Mike, spread the target w-i-d-e so it's impossible for me to
hit, why dontchya?  

:-(

I'll see if I can install Firefox on a USB drive ...

- Peter Blaise
...fighting the good fight, trying to make MediaWiki taste good for the
users around me...