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 < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 > > ---------------- > ___ > // \\ @@ "De Chelonian Mobile" > / \_/ \/._) TortoiseSVN > <\_/_\_/ / The coolest Interface to (Sub)Version Control > /_/ \_\ Check out http://tortoisesvn.net > _______________________________________________ > MediaWiki-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l > _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
