[Mediawiki-l] How to change defaults for preferences for all users?

[Daniel Barrett]

I believe you have to do this in two steps:

1. Set up default preferences for all NEW users (who have never logged
in yet)

This is done in LocalSettings.php by setting
$wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault.  For example:

# Choose the namespaces
$myAdditionalNamespacesSearchDefault = array(
  NS_MAIN,
  NS_TALK,
  NS_USER,
  NS_USER_TALK,
  NS_PROJECT,
  NS_PROJECT_TALK,
  NS_IMAGE,
  NS_IMAGE_TALK,
  NS_MEDIAWIKI,
  NS_MEDIAWIKI_TALK,
  NS_TEMPLATE,
  NS_TEMPLATE_TALK,
  NS_HELP,
  NS_HELP_TALK,
  NS_CATEGORY,
  NS_CATEGORY_TALK
);
foreach ($myAdditionalNamespacesSearchDefault as $value) {
  $wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault[$value] = true;
}

2. Setting default preferences for all EXISTING users

This is done in the database in the user table.  For example:

UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs1=0', 'searchNs1=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs2=0', 'searchNs2=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs3=0', 'searchNs3=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs4=0', 'searchNs4=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs5=0', 'searchNs5=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs6=0', 'searchNs6=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs7=0', 'searchNs7=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs8=0', 'searchNs8=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs9=0', 'searchNs9=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs10=0', 'searchNs10=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs11=0', 'searchNs11=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs12=0', 'searchNs12=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs13=0', 'searchNs13=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs14=0', 'searchNs14=1');
UPDATE YOUR_PREFIX_user SET user_options = REPLACE(user_options,
'searchNs15=0', 'searchNs15=1');

where "YOUR_PREFIX_" is whatever database table prefix is used for your
wiki.

DanB