Jean-Marc,
Simply think of them as "universal wiki templates".
For example, [[MediaWiki:Common.css]] and [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]] are
"transcluded" into a blank wiki page and then called in the header of
index.php. Another example is [[MediaWiki:Tagline]], which will change the
little tagline/sub-title of your wiki. Using Wikipedia as an example, the
tagline is the "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" message you see below
each page title.
Pages in the MediaWiki namespace can affect ALL wiki pages so edit with
caution. The only place I know of that has full details is at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:System_message
Hope that helps!
--Walter Mazza
On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 2:07 PM, Jean-Marc van Leerdam <
j.m.van.leerdam(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
My first post to this list, apologies if the answer to this one is obvious
(even though I've missed it):
Where do I find documentation on the purpose of all the available pages in
the MediaWiki: namespace?
I've looked at the FAQ on
Mediawiki.org; I went to
meta.wikimedia.org;
browsed through wikibooks (and found just a couple of the pages from the
MediaWiki namespace explained there).
I stumbled on these pages on my search for ways to improve the printable
output of mediawiki pages. So if someone can point me to the right source
for doing that I would be grateful.
Basically, I am at a loss where to start reading and experimenting. I would
like to become accustomed to the inner working of mediawiki wikis (at main
editor/administrator level, not as a developer and not as a casual
reader/editor).
What is the general approach to finding out how stuff works in mediawiki?
(if it is not searching on the three sites I mentioned and hoping the words
chosen properly describe what one is looking for -- I would never have come
up with 'transcluding pages' ;-) )
Thanks for you time.
--
Regards,
Jean-Marc
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