Help:MediaWiki namespace: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|MediaWiki: prefix, such as MediaWiki:Noarticletext}}

{{redirect|Wikipedia:MediaWiki|information about the entire MediaWiki software application|MediaWiki}}

{{Information page|WP:MWN|WP:MEDIAWIKI|WP:INTERFACE}}

{{namespaces}}

The '''MediaWiki namespace''' is a [[Wikipedia:Namespace|namespace]] containing system messages, the text to be displayed in certain places in the interface. Only [[Wikipedia:Administrators|administrators]], [[Wikipedia:Interface administrators|interface administrators]] and [[m:interface editors|interface editors]] can edit pages in this namespace. In addition, pages in this namespace ending with <code>.css</code> or <code>.js</code> are furthermore restricted to interface administrators and interface editors. However, all editors can propose changes on appropriate talk pages.

== Overview ==

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Because the changes to these pages have a global effect, they are [[WP:PROT|protected]] from editing, and '''only administrators and interface editors have the ability to edit them'''.<ref>By default, all messages are protected. This is necessary for a number of reasons:

* Many messages are in plain HTML, so users could insert malicious scripts

* Vandalism of some messages would be extremely disruptive,; for example, changes to the text of the links in the sidebar would immediately be visible to all users

* A few messages can in theory cause the software to stop working if they are changed. In practice the software ignores the database contents for the changed page, taking the regular expression straight out of the message files, for performance and stability reasons.

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The template {{tl|MediaWiki messages}} (shown below) lists a selection of key messages. Not included are

* [[WP:Abusefilter|Edit filter]] warnings, as there are many of these, and they can be found [[Special:PrefixIndex/MediaWiki:Abusefilter-|here]].

* [[Wikipedia:tags|Tags]] added automatically to [[help:edit summary|edit summaries]] by [[wp:edit filter|edit filters]], which are listed at [[Special:Tags]].

* Messages describing Preferences options (<kbd>Mediawiki:Tog-</kbd>) – [{{fullurl:Special:AllMessages|prefix=tog-}} search for these].

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==== With parameters ====

MediaWiki messages may have parameters as '''$1''', '''$2''', ... and they are variables used in the software. When transcluding it with custom changed parameters, {{tlc|int:}} transclusions would be preferedpreferred.

===Interlanguage links===

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The MediaWiki namespace was introduced on December 6, 2003. Before this time, user interface text was part of the PHP software and could only be changed by software developers. Since the introduction they have been editable by normal administrators.

Until June 2004, the MediaWiki namespace was also used for creating other boilerplate text messages, to be used in articles. This function was replaced with the [[Wikipedia:Template namespace|Template namespace]]; a conversion script running as "[[User:{{u|Template namespace initialisation script]]}}" was run by developer [[User:Tim Starling|Tim Starling]], which moved all non-system messages to the new namespace, and replaced MediaWiki: (via the {{Magic word|msg:}} magic word) references in articles with Template: in order to bypass the redirects. In October and November 2005, these redirects were deleted. This background explains why the concept now known as "templates" is sometimes referred to as "messages".

For a short time, before the renaming from votes for deletion (VfD) to [[Wikipedia:articles for deletion|articles for deletion]] (AfD), deletion debates used MediaWiki: messages named in the format "MediaWiki:VfD-''articlename''". These were moved to the Template: space in June 2004 and are now (as of January 2006) subpages of [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion]] or [[Wikipedia:Votes for deletion]].

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==See also==

*[[m:Help:MediaWiki namespace/old|MediaWiki namespace in version 1.2.6]]

*[[Template:MediaWiki redirectinterface message]]

*[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Usability/MediaWiki]]

*[[MediaWiki talk:Sitenotice]] - creating sitenotices