Extension:ExternalArticles

Usage
Preload text from external MediaWiki's on edit.

version 0.1

 * preloads text into an edit box on article edit.
 * Configure external wiki to draw text from (defaults to Wikipedia)
 * Configure perl-compatible regular expression to include or exclude certain pages (defaults to Templates only)

Installation

 * 1) Create a new folder in your MediaWiki extensions folder named "ExternalArticles"
 * 2) Create a new file in the just created folder "extensions/ExternalArticles/ExternalArticles.php"
 * 3) Copy the source below into the file "ExternalArticles.php"
 * 4) Add the following to your "LocalSettings.php

Configuration
This extension currently has only one configuration variable "$eagRules".

Feedback
I'm looking for feedback on this extension. Security, performance, etc...

Please post feedback to the Extension_talk:ExternalArticles page.

Security

 * This extension just fetches external wiki-text and inserts it to preload the edit box. No checking is done to validate or verify wiki-text.

Future development
The long term goal of this extension is to allow any wiki to use templates from Wikipedia or other wikis without having to import the template and all the templates it depends on manually. When an article is demanded (viewed, created, linked-to, transcluded) it is automatically downloaded from the external wiki and cached.


 * 'Demand' above means (This will be configurable by MediaWiki permissions)
 * the article is viewed.
 * the article is created.
 * any article is saved that links to the article. (will cascade with limits)
 * any article is saved that transcludes the article. (will cascade with limits)
 * Data about the cached page are stored in the articles ExternalArticles/articlename and may be displayed on the page itself.
 * Extensions can be updated automatically on demand or on a schedule
 * The extension list of the foreign wiki can be detected (but never imported)