User talk:HappyDog

Extension categories
Gday HappyDog I'm pretty keen to get started categorizing the extensions, I think they require a much needed sorting out in definable groups. Is there any progress on the template yet? as soon as you set it up I'll gladly follow the ruleset you make. Cheers Bouncingmolar 23:15, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Hi, I've run out of stuff to do with the extensions. Maybe while i wait I can help with the extensions on meta somehow? or if you have another job? Bouncingmolar 14:29, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * hi Happydog, Can we please add the subcategory fields? I'd like to update the categories and make changes that matter. Cheers - Bouncingmolar 13:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * hi again, I'm getting itchy fingers. I now have a basic understanding of how to manipulate templates, Have we agreed to use "extensions by subject"? i don't think anyone else seems to be too worried. If we have agreed, I can add it in if you have other things to do :) Bouncingmolar 01:24, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Dear HappyDog,
One anonymous user:220.245.163.27 created some unnecessary edits to Extension:Anysite. (Making microsoft.com to apple.com and others). Please notify that anonymous user. Thank You. (Also I thank you for fixing my non-sense sentence about my help page! I really thanks!) --Gabeyg 12:32, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

crudeProtection
Im trying to use this extension to allow certain members to view a page and keep others out. After I add the name to a page and click save, it will display the message it should when it keeps someone out, but then that page will be blank from their on. Any ideas? I am using version 1.10 of mediawiki.

Template reversion
Hi happydog,

I recently made some changes to the template which have since been reverted by user:Voice of All. I thought that I provided sufficient discussion in agreement with you on the template page to document these changes. Voice of all has not participated in the discussion at all, but I have not yet commented on Voice of All's talk page nor reverted his changes, as I would like to know first if you also disagreed with my changes. because if so there is no point arguing. Bouncingmolar 05:36, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

MainPage Problem
Hey HappyDog

I've got a question. I want on my Wiki a Mainpage,which looks like the one from MediaWiki. So I designed 5 Templates, and put them on the main page.

I made a little screenshot of my problem. http://img112.imageshack.us/my.php?image=testnm8.jpg

The first template is very well.. its 100%wide so its over the whole browser.

Then I have 2 templates next to each other, They share the browser together. Under them are again 2.

and here's my problem:

Between these 4 template isn't a horizontal blank line..

my source code:

&#160; &#160;

how did you do this? ..

btw sry my English is not so well. I'm German ;)

Thanks for Helping!!

a question on comprehensive technical manual for the MediaWiki software
Hi HappyDog,

I have a question. I am conversant with PHP, but being a newbie to MediaWiki coding, I find the documentation overwhelmingly overwhelming to customise MediaWiki code to suit my needs. Googling for 'customise mediawiki' led me to your post/comment on the Library Web Chic Page where you have mentioned that mediawiki is working towards a comprehensive technical manual.

I wanted to know if there is one available (preferably as a book instead of a wiki). It would be good to have it modeled on the Learning Perl Book, littered with enough code examples that makes one feel confident to make/break MediWiki code - of course on their own installations!!

Thanks in advance for your time.

Anand

Moving Manual:Skinning to Manual:Skins
Could you please move Manual:Skinning to Manual:Skins? Skinning is much more relevant to developers. I moved the old Manual:Skins out of the way but I can't delete the old redirect. Thanks. --Cneubauer 16:07, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * No - the manual is not just for developers. Manual:Skins should be a general page about skins in MediaWiki.  Manual:Skinning should be a more specific page about creating/editing skins.  I have reverted your move.  Note that there is a clear link at the top of Manual:Skins which directs people looking for skinning to the correct place. --HappyDog 16:11, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * No doubt, but currently Manual:Skins is essentially a FAQ with information on three configuration changes. That doesn't help developers or users at all, only administrators.  What I want to do is merge the administrator information on Manual:Skins into the developer information on Manual:Skinning.  There is already a Help:Skins which is information for generic users.  I can move content manually too but Manual:Skinning is a much better starting page.  --Cneubauer 16:16, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * These pages should be kept separate, but I see your point about Manual:Skins. I would suggest that a new Manual:Skins be created from scratch, and to contain a brief introduction plus links to appropriate help pages for (separately) users, admins & developers, as follows:
 * User links: Help:Skins (I think that's the only useful link at present, but there may be more, e.g. to User:Monobook.css)
 * Admin links: New page Manual:Skin configuration which is where the current Manual:Skins should be moved. This page should be reworked to be a bit more readable while we're at it.  There should also be links to all the relevant config. settings and any other pages that admin users would find useful.
 * Developer links: Manual:Skinning, the various parser hooks that apply to skinning, links to Manual:Code and any other relevant code bits.
 * Also, we should link to the Sites using MediaWiki/gallery somewhere - maybe in one of the above or perhaps separately.
 * That would be my suggestion - thoughts?
 * --HappyDog 16:27, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think that's a really good idea. Something similar could be done for the extensions pages.  Right now, Manual:Extensions is more or less information on how to install extensions.  Manual:Tag Extensions and Manual:Parser Functions which used to be Extending wiki markup are developer information.  There are about 5 other pages that have various duplicative or extra information that could be linked too.  I'm heading to lunch but I'll be back in an hour or so.  --Cneubauer 16:44, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Moving Manual:Special pages
Could you please move or delete Manual:Special pages and then move Manual:Special Pages to Manual:Special pages. If you want to keep the content on the current page, you could move it to Manual:Special pages/old or something and I'll merge it in later. I think most of the info covered there is already in the much more robust Manual:Special Pages. Thanks. --Cneubauer 23:16, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Done. I moved the original to Manual:Special pages/old for merging. --HappyDog 23:21, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Manual:Installation_guide
Hi, I left you a note on the talk page here: Manual_talk:Installation_guide. Thanks. --Cneubauer 18:14, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Ah, sorry, I forgot about sentence case. --Cneubauer 18:16, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

GFDL
Ugh, so GFDL'd stuff has to be kept? Is that because we merged some of the content into other pages and we have to maintain the history? Is there anyway to archive pages like that so they are still around but not anywhere that a user would run into them without specifically looking for them? --Cneubauer 20:16, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Yup, that's why. To be honest, if anyone goes to "some page/old" and then sees a massive banner that says THIS PAGE IS OLD and is still under the impression that it is current information, then I don't think there's much we can do to help them. In short, I think it's fine to leave it where it is. --HappyDog 20:53, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Westcoast Tafe wiki pages
Hi, Last night I created a few wiki pages: Hospitatilty and Tourism, and one called Hospitality. I was wondering why these pages had been deleted? Was there something I should have done differently?

I'm a library technician from Westcoast Tafe, and these pages were created to help our students find resources that they need.

I would love to know what I could have done differently? Thanks.

Kirsty Oxwell Westcoast Tafe Joondalup.lrc@westcoasttafe.wa.edu.au


 * You are on the wrong wiki, that's why! See the comment on your talk page by Mormegil. I hope find your home soon! --HappyDog 02:06, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

HI Happy, so how do i go about deleting my user account? as I don't need it?

Thanks.


 * I'm not sure you can - or at least you can't do it without some developer digging into the database. Why not just stop using it?  You can go to your preferences and remove your e-mail address if you're worried about that, but otherwise I don't think there is any personal information that you need to worry about. --HappyDog 02:18, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Hiding Categories
Under Help talk:Categories, you mentioned a CSS trick for hiding the display of categories. I presume this is a wiki-wide or possibly user-level modification? Can one hide the display of categories for a specific page? Even better, can one prevent specific categories from being displayed within a specific page?

A bit of context: This issue arose on the French Wiktionary, where the translation template (used to specify the translations of a French word into another language) categorises the page where it appears under various categories such as "Category:Translations into English", etc. The category pages thus created are very helpful in enriching the vocabulary for the target languages, as translations into that language will usually be far more numerous than Wiktionary entries for those same words. However, the typical Wiktionary word page's listing of categories quickly becomes very cumbersome and hides more relevant categories in the resulting clutter (e.g. "huit", where 24 of the 28 categories are translation ones). I was hoping there existed a means for the template to categorise the page whilst at the same time preventing the display of this categorisation (using a magic word similar to DEFAULTSORT, maybe).

I looked into using the "backlinks trick", which would indeed solve the display problem, but since there is apparently no way to sort the resulting list of backlinks, it makes the pseudo-category listing nearly useless.

Please help.

Urhixidur 18:46, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi! I've got a real problem with my site adminstrator's choice of skins.
Hi! I've done a substantial amount of work on the Shakespeare Wiki, and have now discovered I've been sold, nay, even vandalized, with a rediculous, childish advertisement on every page featuring three little bimbos.

Not only that, but the damn thing doesn't even work, so that it bawks and blocks transferring to monoskin, even if you wanted to endure endless transfers.

This is intolerable, and prevents further development of my unique engine for studying Shakespeare using the Wikia technology. It is no longer a serious Wikia, but a farce which will block future development of your great resource.

Please help. Nothing works on the site. I can't reach anybody.

John (Jagtig)

email me at jagtig@aol.com


 * Well, you're unlikely to reach anybody here either, as this is not Wikia ("Now is the Wikia of our discontent" etc. etc.) --HappyDog 17:21, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Sysop
Hi, I see you are a sysop here. I was over at the wikimedia (meta) wiki, I saw pages that were suppose to be imported into this wiki. It appears I need the sysop right to help with this task. Where do I need to go to to get the sysop rights to be able to help? Monobi 21:31, 15 October 2007 (UTC)


 * You need to speak to one of the Project:Bureaucrats. --HappyDog 19:41, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

PropertyTable
Hi HappyDog,

I'm a new registered user of MediaWiki. I made some modification to PropertyTable Extension by Fernando Correia, in order to add some new options. Thus, I put some information on Extension_talk:PropertyTable and I wrote a note on User_talk:Fernando.correia.

I didn't put the code for two reasons:

1. waiting for a Fernando's opinion 2. do not confuse the users

I made all correctly? Do I must put the code, anyway? BTW I'm still waiting for a response by Fernando... :-)

TKS. --GB 11:30, 6 November 2007 (UTC)


 * That seems like the right way to go about things, as far as I can see. You just need to wait for Fernando to respond. --HappyDog 19:42, 7 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi HappyDog, no answer from Fernando in this last month... but some people ask me (via e-mail and one in a thread on mediawiki mailing list) about this modification. Could be a good idea to put the code in my user page? TIA --GB 23:40, 2 December 2007 (UTC)


 * We are trying to keep all extensions in the extension namespace, so in general a user page is not a good idea. Depending on how different it is, I would either add it as a new extension (if quite extensive) or as a sub-page of the main extension (if not).  In either case indicate that it is an enhanced version of the original extension and that if the original author consents it may end up being merged back into the original.  And of course, provide a link to your new page in a suitable place on the original extension's page (and vice versa).  If the code modifications are uncontroversial and are fully backward compatible, then it may also be acceptable to modify code on the extension page itself, in which case make sure you add a log of what you changed, when and why. (For an example, see the small fix I made to this extension. --HappyDog 08:53, 3 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi HappyDog, sorry for my late... finally I followed your suggestions and create a page for modified PropertyTable: Extension:PropertyTable2. As you can see, this page is based on the original PropertyTable extension page. I decided for a new  extension because the function fnPropertyTable2Tag($input, $argv, &$parser) is quite different from the original one and because I had no response from Fernando during all these months (IMHO probably the best thing to do could be to merge the code). I indicated that it is the enhanced version of the original PropertyTable and placed the wiki link. I upload an image file to show the enhancement that I made.


 * This is my first contribution, thus probably I made some mistake :-) Your opinion and suggestion will be appreciated!!! --GB 14:51, 27 December 2007 (UTC)


 * That's all fine. I also added a note to Extension:PropertyTable so people know that it's there. --HappyDog 19:31, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Reporting any language localization (translation) improvements ?
Is there a unique contact for French language? See details in French below.

A qui faut-il rapporter les améliorations à apporter au fichier MessagesFr.php en ajoutant les déclarations existantes dans MessagesEn.php mais manquantes en français ? Exemple : 'protectedpagetext' => 'Cette page est verrouillée contre l'édition par les visiteurs.',

(le fichier MessagesFr.php ne comporte pas d'adresse @ d'un point unique de contact francophone pour mediaWiki, ni d'adresse de site http dans son en-tete de présentation, ni même d'aucune information sur les auteurs, contributeurs et date de révision ou numéro de version ?)
 * Answered here. i Alex  17:39, 20 November 2007 (UTC)


 * merci :) --HappyDog 17:47, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Kennel17 Abuse
HappyDog. Last night noticed some rather strange additions to your kennel 17 wiki hosting your wonderfull WikiDB extension. See the talk page of WikiDB/Files/Messages.php. - Cocjh1 09:12, 29 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Cheers Cocjh1 - it's been deleted now. --HappyDog 13:11, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Can I prevent users from editing my page?
Hello,

Im new to this site.I was wondering if I can prevent people from editing my pages.

Regards, Georgiateendriver007


 * No. It's a public wiki. --HappyDog 14:00, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Thankyou.

Help! PLz
After copying my wiki under my docroot folder: I go to localhost/wiki/ When clicking on the "Please set up the wiki first." link I get the following error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_NAMESPACE, expecting T_STRING in C:\Programfiler\ApacheSoftwareFoundation\Apache2.2 \htdocs\InnovitWiki\includes\Namespace.php on line 44 My system is : win XP apache2.2 Mysql 5 php5 wiki 1.11


 * Please ask at the support desk. --HappyDog 08:53, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Hallo! Volapük again...
Hi HappyDog (and thanks for the help with the coordinate templates)! As you maybe already know, there's a new proposal against the Volapük Wikipedia: Proposals for closing projects/Radical cleanup of Volapük Wikipedia. Perhaps you would like to help us oppose it? Thanks! --Smeira 03:03 27 December 2007.

You do know...
Moved to Project talk:Support desk/Support team. --HappyDog 12:55, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Extension:MediaWikiLite
I thought you might be interested in this extension, it extends the Database class to allow SQLite. A working example is available at http://www.mediawikilite.org/wiki/index.php/Special:Version. This would allow little unscalable personal wiki on small devices. --Zven 22:59, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

offending user names
Hi,

The first 15 or so users of this wiki have names chosen to offend. I think they should be deleted...

Special:Listusers

Have a nice day
 * yes we know but accounts can't be deleted but it can be renamed which is the job of the Bureaucrats only :) ..-- Cometstyles 12:50, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The maintenance script removeUnusedAccounts.php would also do the job except globally on all unused accounts. Maybe a regular expression parameter could be added to allow specific wildcard selections to remove /^\!Antandrus.+$/  users --19:06, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Milipedia
Please get more people to help me out at the Milipedia.(76.247.222.101 06:13, 21 January 2008 (UTC))

Have you seen...
The support desk? -PatPeter,  MediaWiki Support Team  19:39, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

When a new Extension is not so general...
...which is the best approach? i.e. I developed a simple extension to translate the current terrestrian date in the corresponding day of a fantasy role playing game calendar. This extension can be useful only for all the wiki web site (almost Germans) that "talk" about that game (Das Schwarze Auge).

I think that this extension is not so general to stay in mediawiki extension section... any suggestion? --GB 23:07, 13 April 2008 (UTC)


 * There is no requirement that every extension that anyone writes is placed on MW.org, but there is no harm in putting on extensions that are pretty specific (as it sounds that yours is). Although it may be unlikely that someone else would want to use the extension 'off-the-peg' as it were, they may want something similar enough to use your extension as a starting point from which to make modifications.  They may in turn make it more general, which could end up being useful to others.  Even if it is so obscure that this kind of use is unlikely, it may still serve as a useful learning tool for someone making an extension that uses similar techniques (even though the purpose could be quite different). --HappyDog 07:51, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Installation Snag
Hi HappyDog

I've uploaded MediaWiki1.11.0 onto a hosted server running PHP5 etc. My site also runs vBulletin software with database. I presumed the 150Mb database already set up and in use would handle MediaWiki too.

Having uploaded the files and folders to htdocs folder (Linux server), I browsed to http://www.backyardboatbuilder.co.uk/wiki and got the page just fine telling me to install. So far so good. However, I used the link and got an error message stating that the server requires a log in (I assume this is a database name and password). There's nowhere for me to insert this info. Can you suggest what I need to do please?

Regards

Mike Austen (angels_one_zero@btinternet.com)


 * Hi Mike. The link didn't work for me (maybe you've already resolve the issue?)  Without more details about the error message I can't help much more at the moment.  In general it is better to ask this sort of question at the support desk, where there are more people who will be able to give a greater level of help for this kind of problem. --HappyDog 07:53, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Sysop request
Please see Project:Requests. --JoanneB 11:28, 10 June 2008 (UTC)