Help:MediaWiki namespace: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:18, 31 March 2025

Revision as of 11:51, 4 April 2025

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== Overview ==

The MediaWiki namespace allows administrators and interface editors to [[m:Help:System message|customise or translate the MediaWiki web interface]].

{{Caution|text= Some messages ''must'' have HTML links, and others ''must'' have wikilinks. To find out which is which, you must know where the message is used in the interface.}}

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, allNon-admins messageswho arewould protectedlike to request a minor change can do so by using the template on the talk page of the MediaWiki page. ThisMore issubstantive necessarychanges forshould abe numberdiscussed at an appropriate section of reasonsthe Wikipedia:Village pump; an edit request should then be made if there is consensus for the change.

Changes that can benefit other wiki sites and are not specific to Wikipedia can be submitted to [[translatewiki.net]] (also known as TWN, formerly known as BetaWiki). See [[translatewiki:Translating:MediaWiki]]. Since English is the original language of the messages, changes to them cannot be directly edited in translatewiki.net, and have to be discussed in the [[translatewiki:Support|support page there]].

* 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.

MediaWiki pages can not and should not have documentation on the page itself for several reasons: among other things &lt;noinclude> tags usually do not function in this namespace and the amount of data in MediaWiki space needs to be kept low for performance reasons. Instead, a description of the message can be put at the top of the talk page. A template {{tl|interface explanation}} is available for this. Pages using this template can be found in [[:Category:MediaWiki messages with interface explanation]].

If an administrator wishes to allow non-administrators to edit a MediaWiki page, a method is to place the message on a template, and then transclude the template back onto the MediaWiki page. Another method is to redirect the page to one in a non-MediaWiki namespace.</ref> Non-admins who would like to request a minor change can do so by using the {{tlx|editprotected}} template on the talk page of the MediaWiki page. More substantive changes should be discussed at an appropriate section of the [[Wikipedia:Village pump]]; an edit request should then be made if there is [[WP:Consensus|consensus]] for the change.

Some messages have old documentation available by setting the 'language' to <kbd>qqq</kbd>. For instance, [[MediaWiki:Login]] has old, and somewhat incorrect, documentation at [[MediaWiki:Login/qqq]]. Don't update the /qqq messages, instead update the top of the talk page.

Changes that can benefit other wiki sites and are not specific to Wikipedia can be submitted to [[translatewiki.net]] (also known as TWN, formerly known as BetaWiki). See [[translatewiki:Translating:MediaWiki]]. Since English is the original language of the messages, changes to them cannot be directly edited in translatewiki.net, and have to be discussed in the [[translatewiki:Support|support page there]].

The message names for a particular interface element can be found using the "Add a toolbox link to reload the current page with the system message names exposed" Advanced Gadget in the [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets|Special:Preferences]]. Once enabled a "message names" item appears in the tool box, when clicked the names of all items are displayed.

MediaWiki pages can not and should not have documentation on the page itself for several reasons: among other things &lt;noinclude> tags usually do not function in this namespace and the amount of data in MediaWiki space needs to be kept low for performance reasons. Instead, a description of the message can be put at the top of the talk page. A template {{tl|interface explanation}} is available for this. Pages using this template can be found in [[:Category:MediaWiki messages with interface explanation]].

Some messages have old documentation available by setting the 'language' to <kbd>qqq</kbd>. For instance, [[MediaWiki:Login]] has old, and somewhat incorrect, documentation at [[MediaWiki:Login/qqq]]. Don't update the /qqq messages, instead update the top of the talk page.

The message names for a particular interface element can be found using the "Add a toolbox link to reload the current page with the system message names exposed" Advanced Gadget in the [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets|Special:Preferences]]. Once enabled a "message names" item appears in the tool box, when clicked the names of all items are displayed.

==Overview of messages==