User:Dantman/Skinning system/Link lists rewrite

Current link structure

This is our current structure for tools links:

• personal_tools
  • userpage
  • mytalk
  • preferences
  • watchlist
  • mycontris [sic]
  • logout
  • anonuserpage
  • anontalk
  • anonlogin
  • login
  • createaccount
• content_navigation / actions
  • namespaces
    • subject
    • talk
    • special
  • views
    • view
    • edit
    • addsection
    • viewsource
    • history
  • actions
    • delete
    • move
    • protect
    • unprotect
    • undelete
    • watch
    • unwatch
  • variants
    • *
• toolbox
  • whatlinkshere
  • trackbacklink
  • feeds
  • contributions
  • log
  • blockip
  • emailuser
  • upload
  • specialpages
  • print
  • permalink
  • ispermalink

Proposed link structure

This is an alternative idea. Instead of grouped by ui element, we group things by context. Then instead of these themselves being ui elements, we have a tools definition that defines ui elements and notes what links go where then outputs those ui elements into the skin.

• user (links relevant to who is logged in)
  • links
    • userpage
    • talk
  • tools
    • preferences
    • watchlist
    • contribs
  • actions
    • logout
    • login
    • createaccount
• page (links relevant to what page is being viewed)
  • namespaces
    • subject
    • talk
    • special
  • views
    • view
    • edit
    • addsection
    • viewsource
    • history
  • actions
    • delete
    • move
    • protect
    • unprotect
    • undelete
    • watch
    • unwatch
  • links
    • whatlinkshere
    • recentchangeslinked
    • print
    • permalink
    • ispermalink
    • feeds (~Do feeds need a separate feature?)
  • user
    • contributions
    • log
    • blockip
    • emailuser
• related (links on or off site to things with some relation to the current page)
  • variants (variants of the current page in different scripts, etc...)
    • *
  • languages (other language versions of the same page)
    • *
  • ... (extensions can define other types of relations, such as version relations for software documentation, sister wiki links, etc...)
    • *
• global (links relevant to the entire site)
  • specialpages
  • upload

Comments

In addition to tools we will likely incorporate 'related' links into this structure (see User:Dantman/Skinning system/Customization#Alternative page links). The only default list being related.languages.*.

The syntax likely goes something like:

• UI element names are marked inside []'s.
• Each item starting with * notes where a series of links should go.
• An item that points to a link inserts that link, and item that points to an array inserts that array. While the foo.* syntax matches everything with that pattern. ie: user.* where user.talk, etc... are links will insert all the links on the same level, while page.* where page.namespaces, etc... are arrays will insert a 'namespaces' arrayed key, etc...
• The system parses the whole thing and distributes links in a weighted system. eg: If you have user.* in one area, and user.userpage in another, then user.userpage will go to the spot that defined user.userpage, while every other link inside user will go to where user.* was defined.
• Rather than * a line can also start with - or +. Using + will add an item separately from the weighted * system (ie: Using '+ user.userpage' will add a userpage link while leaving user.userpage to go wherever it fits in the weighted system meaning that user.userpage exists in two separate lists as duplicates). Using - will eliminate a link from a list in such a way that unless you explicitly + it the link will not show up in any list (If you want to remove a link from a list and have it elsewhere you should use the weighted * system for that).
• An 'as' syntax is also supported. 'page.namespaces as foo' will add the page.namespaces array using the key 'foo' instead of 'namespaces'.
• Using x.** rather than x.* will do a recursive match that will flatten any hierarchy and create a flat list of links.
• A tool map should consider containing a * or ** somewhere in the definition that will take new features we add into account. The latter will of course flatten it to a single list of links instead of making it a hierarchy.

Vector Map:

[personal_links]
* user.*.*
[content_navigation]
* page.namespaces
* views:
** page.views.*
** page.actions.watch
** page.actions.unwatch
* page.actions
* related.variants
[related]
* related.*
[toolbox]
* page.*.*
* global.*
* **

MonoBook Map

[personal_links]
* user.*.*
[content_actions]
* page.namespaces.*
* page.views.*
- page.views.view
* page.actions.*
* related.variants.*
[related]
* related.*
[toolbox]
* page.*.*
* global.*
* **

Note how MonoBook uses - to erase the redundant view link.

Also note the [related] section. A "[language_urls]\n* related.languages.*" would be more recognizable, but [related] would ideally replace that and be used by the sidebar widget to create boxes like language_urls for other types of relations.