Help talk:System message

how to "Create new messages"
Front page here says:
 * "... Extensions can (and should) define system messages for any text displayed in the user interface. This assists in the localization of those messages. For an example of how to do this, please see Manual:Special pages..."

... but I can't figure out how to create a new message (as might support Extension:PageNotice, for instance) - are there any examples here on how to create such new mediawiki system messages? thanks peblusto 14:34, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Can't access System Messages
I can't access the System Messages page. It just doesn't load anything, it gives and empty, blank page. What could be wrong? --Nathanael Bar-Aur L. 02:20, 24 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I also can't access the System messages page. Is it available from a specific version of Mediawiki? Thanks -Romina Tulisi 14:38, April 23rd 2009
 * Are you running on a shared host with limited memory? Are you getting any "out of memory" style errors? -Jlerner 13:43, 28 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I am getting blank pages when I go on Special:AllMessages. Is it because I have many extensions installed. Sachein 10:38, 24 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Something like HTTP 500 Internal Server Error. Sachein 10:41, 24 May 2009 (UTC)
 * My AllMessages page just clocks and clocks and cloks until it dies. Caqn't access it at all. I have my $wgLanguageCode = "es"; wich is supposed to be "Es", but changing doesn't do anything. The whole wiki crashes. Any other cases around.--Mark 03:13, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Nothing happens
I changed the MediaWiki:History-feed-title/de to History. The German translation 'Versionsgeschichte' is much to long for my skin.

But nothing happens! The Special:AllMessages page is showing the new entry, but the tab of my customized Vector skin is not showing the new name at all. Do I need to update something?

--Teamghost 15:16, 21 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Yea me too!!!!
 * Can somebodey halp me, please...
 * Example: I changed the MediaWiki:saveprefs but i still get the default value, in this case: Save. I already changed the MediaWiki:saveprefs by editing and now there should be normally: Save Preferences....
 * Could somebodey please help us??
 * --Dennis07; (☎ / √) 22:28, 10 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I believe vector tabs are hard coded and must be changed manually (they don't use a system message to output their text). Hope that helps!

-Stusi


 * I'm having this issue in MW 1.27 running in IE11, but it varies from user to user (each user on their own PC). I only have the Vector skin installed and it is unmodified. It's like something is causing some users to only see the original system message. I must be client side because otherwise it would affect all users. If an affected user tries a different browser then they see the correct messages. So seems to be an IE thing.
 * -- mg169706; 15:15, 21 August 2017 GMT
 * A user just messaged me with a fix. Cleared IE's cache, but also UNCHECKED 'Preserve Favorites website Data'. That seem to have fixed it...
 * -- mg169706; 16:02, 21 August 2017 GMT

Wiki Links in System Messages
I want to create a link in several of the messages to a page that provides additional details about the message. Mainly for the login errors I want to point people to the help page which describes additional help about logging in. I found the correct messages and I was able to edit them, but the wiki links I am using just show up as text in the message instead of a link. For example the links show up like Login Help Page. Is there a way that I can include links to a wiki page within these system messages and if so what do I need to do differently. Thanks Ron Knoebel

Developers how-to
Should this page contain more tips for developers on how to use/create system messages? (What functions are available and how to use them, ...) See also Talk:WfMsg statistics. There doesn't seem to be a page for this, and we already have guidelines on Localisation, general overview on architecture pages and user-oriented stuff on Meta. --Nemo 22:04, 11 October 2012 (UTC)
 * SPQRobin reminds me that we have Manual:Messages API, which could be the way to go. --Nemo 22:07, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Pls assign all "See also" items to translate; translation
I noticed not all items are in tvar clauses. In particular, why are those two items with templates not ready to translate? I want to link them to /ja pages in the translated pages. Reason: In ja mw, the links in English actually have localized pages in ja to them.

How can I handle the following corrections on the original page in /en?
 * should be rewritten as:

* customization>Special:MyLanguage/Customization|Customization
 * should be rewritten as:

* Skins>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Skins|Manual:Skins --Omotecho (talk) 15:19, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Where to report a system message with a typo?
The German translation of hidesection-showall is missing an "n", (alle einblenden is correct) Manuela (talk) 08:33, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Question about the 'Undeleterevdel' system message
Regarding the 'Undeleterevdel' system message, is there anyone that can explain to me what it means?

"Undeletion will not be performed if it will result in the top page or file revision being partially deleted. In such cases, you must uncheck or unhide the newest deleted revision."

Like, I understand the first sentence. And until recently I thought I understood the second sentence. But lately I've been unsure what this bit means:

"In such cases, you must uncheck or unhide the newest deleted revision."

The newest revision that's been deleted with  or the newest revision that's been deleted with  ? I'm assuming it means the latter. I hope that someone on the wiki can confirm that. ― C.Syde  ( talk  |  contribs ) 08:34, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

How to overwrite on-wiki messages correctly?
At the request of the @UOzurumba (WMF), here is a more detailed description. Help:System message documentation is incomplete. It says that a language wiki can replace messages, but it does not say exactly how it can be done (and what the consequences will be) or how it should be done (and how not to do it).

In the beginning we have: We have translate wiki where there is only "message/language" and no "message". We have language wikis (e.g. fr/de/ja/etc.wikipedia) where there are both "message/language" and "message" pages.

In the language wiki, it is possible to create locally: 1) only one: "message/language" 2) only one: "message" 3) both at once: both "message/language" and "message"

How does the Special:AllMessages work? What will the page show if locally created: 1) only one: "message/language" 2) only one: "message" 3) both at once: both "message/language" and "message" ?

If the language wiki permanently changes one of the messages. This wiki should place it in: 1) only one: "message/language" or 2) only one: "message" or 3) both at once: both "message/language" and "message" ?

If the language wiki permanently locally changes any of the messages. For example, it adds links and more explanatory text to it. And makes only one version of this message in one language - the language of this wiki. For example, the fr.wikipedia makes a message in French.

This wiki should place it in: 1) only one: "message/language" or 2) only one: "message"?

For (1), "message/language" will be shown to the readers of this wiki, because the language is set for this wiki by default. For (2), it will be shown generally for everyone. Even if the participant changes the interface language in his settings (or with ?uselang=) to a different language from the default, he will always see this message in the same language. Therefore, how was it intended for this message localization system to work? Is it considered normal that a message in only one language has permanently blocked all other available languages of that message?

If one of the messages has been changed in the translatewiki. I.e., the "message/en" has been changed. For example, seriously changed so that the behavior of the $parameters changed. But we haven't had time to update the translation yet, i.e. the "message/fr" has remained old. With the mediawiki update, the new "message/en" and the old "message/fr" came to the language wiki (for example, now in "message/fr" the $parameters now work incorrectly). The "message/fr" translation in the translatewiki was updated after that, but the language wiki must wait for the arrival of the corrected message with the next media wiki update.

The language wiki has to make a temporary corrected message locally. This wiki should place it in: 1) only one: "message/language" or 2) only one: "message" or 3) both at once: both "message/language" and "message" ? --Sunpriat 18:40, 11 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Short answer: It's complicated.
 * Long answer: See for example T3495. Some general guidance: "message/X" is not used where X is content language of the wiki. For customizing messages in a wiki's content language, use just "message". "message/X" is shown to users who use interface language X, where X is not content language of the wiki. The order of using messages is roughly:
 * When interface language equals content language:
 * MediaWiki:Message page
 * Bundled translations (via translatewiki)
 * When interface language is not content language:
 * MediaWiki:Message/X page
 * Bundled translations (via translatewiki)
 * MediaWiki:Message page
 * For simplicity, I have not included how fallback languages (e.g. pt-br -> pt) are processed. Nikerabbit (talk) 11:26, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

Planning updates to this and related docs
As part of work on the Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal, I've been reviewing this page and identifying ways to improve its utility as a landing page / entry point into the localisation / i18n docs. If you're interested in contributing to or staying updated about this work, please reach out or follow https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T293776 TBurmeister (WMF) (talk) 14:59, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

-- I have now moved content from this page to subpages as outlined in T293776; it's the end of the working day for me now but tomorrow I will review all these changes more closely to try to correct broken links and anchors, and fix other nuances that these major content moves may have made problematic. TBurmeister (WMF) (talk) 22:48, 9 December 2021 (UTC)