2011/8/20 Łukasz Garczewski <[email protected]>: > On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 11:23 AM, Martijn Hoekstra > <[email protected]> wrote: >> On wikimedia projects that are not Wikipedia (Wikia in specific comes >> to mind) I often find myself using templates that have not been >> defined on that installation. The English Wikipedia (which I am most >> familiar with) has many very usefull templates, especially the >> {{citeFoo}} templates, but numerous others as well. Trying to 'import' >> one is a bit of a pain though. Many templates depend on other >> templates, and it is not often very clear how (as a fun exercise for >> the reader, try to import the {{convert}} template to a new wiki, and >> see how easy it is!). I was wondering if it might be a good idea to >> include a standard template library to Wikimedia installations, >> containing a set of utility templates along with the Wikimedia >> distribution. I'm cross-posting foudation, for possible discussion if >> this is desirable, and wikitech, for possible discussion if this is >> feasable. > > Since Wikia was mentioned in this post, I thought I'd outline how > we've tackled this problem, as it might be interesting to the > discussion. > > When a new wiki is created at Wikia, we don't start with an empty > database. Instead, we copy the contents of what we've called a > "starter wiki" into the newly created database. > > Apart from the special role they play in the creation of new wikis, > starter wikis are pretty much normal wiki sites (with the exception of > tighter edit permissions to prevent vandalism). > > Have a look at the English starter wiki: > http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special%3AAllPages&from=&to=&namespace=10 > > As you can see it has a ton of different templates. All of these exist > at every new wiki when it's created. > > Martijn: if your Wikia wiki doesn't have some (or all) of those, that > might be because it was created before the starter system or because > it's in a language other than English and that language's starter wiki > doesn't have the template(s) you want (yes, we have per language > starters, too). > > Mail me off-list, I'm sure I can help include the needed templates in > future wikis. :) > > -- > Lucas 'TOR' Garczewski > Community Engineer > [email protected] >
Lucas, thanks for the offer, and I will take you up on it! In the mean time, where this may (partially) solve the problem for Wikia, it's the more general problem that is more important. A user creating a new wiki with our software shouldn't have to lug through a difficult import process, or have to built some system that easily manages imports the way Wikia did. It's no coincidence I named this 'a' standard template library in the subject line. Like the STL is not part of the C++ language, the fact that it is freely available, and standard, makes C++ much more easy to develop for, as there are many building blocks readily available for programmers. Likewise, defined templates are not part of MediaWiki, but could greatly enhance the user experience. Wikia made the import module for a reason, and the reason is users are greatly helped by having a standard library of templates available to them. Regards, Martijn _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
