Extension talk:SidebarEx

In the installation section, "* 5) Apply any page protection deemed necessary " - deemed necessary by whom? The MediaWiki: namespace is already protected by default, so (if the namespace is set to its default value) attempting to lock MediaWiki:Sidebar and the like adds nothing. --Carlb 22:31, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Good point. I must admit I think a lot in terms of BizzWiki extension these days and rights management is a bit different than in stock Mediawiki! &#91;user:jldupont&#124;Jean-Lou Dupont] 22:50, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Create new Sidebars (DONE)
Hey

Thanks a lot for this extension

But I've got a Problem, how do I create new Sidebars for a new User.

I created one for the '*' and it works, but for Example I can't create one for the User: Admin.

I triede to edit LocalSettings and to fill in there: $bwSidebarNs = MediaWiki; $bwSidebarPage = 'Sidebars'; $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'user', '*', 'admin' );

but there is no change.

Can I create a new sidebar for every User, or every User on his own?

I don't know why it works with the not logged in Users ('*') and with the other Users don't.

Please help me, Thanks
 * The order matters for $bwSidebarSearch: if you want 'admin' membership to be checked first, then ('admin', 'user', '*'). If you put 'user' first, all logged users will see the sidebar corresponding to 'user'.

Jean-Lou Dupont 13:26, 6 August 2007 (UTC)


 * So I can define a new sidebar for every User?
 * The User should have the possiblity to edit their pages, on their own. is this possible?
 * And can I leave the field $bwSidebarSearch empty so that every one has his own sidebar or is it just group based?
 * The extension is 'group membership' aware and *not* 'per-user' aware i.e. the extension, currently, can not handle 'per-user' sidebars. Jean-Lou Dupont 15:22, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Too bad but thanks a lot for your help!
 * Took me two minutes to add 'per-user' functionality. Enjoy. Jean-Lou Dupont 15:32, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Could this be used also for Sidebars depending on namespace? (DONE)
I reckon it would not be very hard to adapt this that sidebars depended on namespaces?

--JuhaV 06:35, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Correct. Jean-Lou Dupont 11:06, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Done. Jean-Lou Dupont 12:55, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks! We're planning to use this feature for example wikis with multiple languages etc. --JuhaV 06:41, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Don't Appear? (RESOLVED)
Installed this extension, along with Extension:ExtensionClass which has one error which I have reported on that extension talk page. Now can't seem to get the different Sidebars to appear, have defined MediaWiki:Sidebar/user, MediaWiki:Sidebar/sysop and my own personal one at User:Dr DBW/Sidebar and can't get anything different from the one already defined at MediaWiki:Sidebar

Does this ignore the normal Sidebar at MediaWiki:Sidebar, or do we have to delete that one? If a person is not a member of the groups defined, so it default back to this one? Or do I have to have the MediaWiki:Sidebar/* defined? --Dr DBW 02:22, 30 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Worked it out thanks, didn't realise was using 1.9.3. Upgraded to 1.10.1 and starting to work now.  For clarification, do these sidebars totally replace the default one, or append it on the end of the default? --Dr DBW 03:58, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Replaces the default one. Jean-Lou Dupont 12:04, 30 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Strange, because I have done the following, Sidebar contains a list of menus, Sidebar/user /sysop does not have those menus, but has some extra ones and it appends it to the end? Then if I have my own personal one, then that is also appended on the end again? BTW, thanks for this extension, it is a very good one :-) --Dr DBW 23:55, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Undefined offset: 0 in Namespace.php on line 96 (RESOLVED)
Recently upgraded to Mediawiki 1.10.1 from 1.9.3 and now the above error has appeared, and it is due to this extension (i.e. the error disappears when it is removed from LocalSettings.php). The contents of line 96 in Namespace.php is below. --Dr DBW 04:12, 10 September 2007 (UTC) return $wgCanonicalNamespaceNames[$index];
 * I just did a quick 1.10.1 install on my Windows machine + just installed this extension without anything else & no customization except for MediaWiki:Sidebar/* : it works on my side without an error. Please provide backtrace debug info. Jean-Lou Dupont 11:32, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Turned on the debugging, nothing in there stands out as being wrong or associated with this error. What should I be looking for do you think?  Is there something additional with debugging that I should be turning on? --Dr DBW 23:06, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * How about allowing for more PHP level messages i.e. error_reporting in PHP.ini ? Jean-Lou Dupont 23:26, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * And could you name the error in question, the one you are referring to above? Jean-Lou Dupont 01:07, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I am following the details here How to debug to get the debugging information. It is a shared server and don't have access to the php configuration file to change things.  Not sure what you want by "name the error", since the title for this entry is the error exactly as you see it on the pages, see .   It appears whether you are logged in or not, is not visible in the special namespace, user pages, category pages, non-main namespace pages, MediaWiki namespace --Dr DBW 01:13, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Could you try the trunk version in the SVN repository? I believe I have found the 'bug': in stock MediaWiki, the NS_MAIN namespace is not given a 'canonical name' as with the other namespaces... Jean-Lou Dupont 01:42, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Downloaded the version from here and error has now gone :-)  Thanks for that, much appreciated :thumbsup: -- Dr DBW  |  talk  02:03, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Another happy customer, great! Jean-Lou Dupont 02:13, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Does it work with mediawiki 1.11.0 ? (TODO)
If yes, then I must be stupid as I can't create user specific sidebar. My username is perro1o, could you please clearly state what page I need to create in order to get my own personal sidebar. From the documentation it is not clear if it is: neither of these 2 solutions do actually work.
 * "name/Sidebar" which would be "perro1o/Sidebar" in my case
 * "MediaWiki:Sidebar/user" which would be "MediaWiki:Sidebar/perro1o" in my case

My settings are just the defaults one.

Thanks for your help.
 * I currently do not support 1.11. No timeframe yet. Jean-Lou Dupont 10:46, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

On my 1.11.0 wiki it works! I installed the StubManager extention in  and the SidebarEx files in. I added the requires to. On the Special:Version page I see the following EXTENTIONS Other SidebarEx (version 1.0.0)  - Provides customizable sidebars. - Jean-Lou Dupont StubManager (version 1.0.6) - Provides stubbing facility for extensions handling rare events. - Jean-Lou Dupont Extensions registered: SidebarEx, . I created the page User:Edwin/Sidebar with the following content * navigation And that's instantly my new Sidebar :-) Thanks for this great extention --Edwin 19:23, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * MediaWiki: 1.11.0
 * PHP: 5.1.1 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL: 5.0.17
 * mainpage|mainpage
 * recentchanges-url|recentchanges
 * randompage-url|randompage
 * Special:ExpandTemplates|Expand templates
 * My pleasure ! Jean-Lou Dupont 22:21, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Getting SideBarEx to show up in the navigation side panel ??? [SOLVED]
Thanks Jean-Lou for the advice about changing over to "SidebarEx" ...

I removed the entries from "LocalSettings.php" regarding the "SysopSideBar" extension and installed "SidebarEx" using the PEARS approach .. I see that the directory "MediWiki" was created and the "StubManager" and "SidebarEx" were created and filled ..

If I browse the various "'Sysop', 'User', '*'" pages i get them already filled in with what I assume id the default SideBar navigation information ... This is great because I assume that "SideBarEx" is working ..

But, I cannot see the same information in the SideBar on my wiki ... I still see the original info .. I have refreshed my browser a number of times ..

I also cannot find the extension in the Versions Page (Other) ...

Have I missed something ???

--Dick 19:25, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Have you checked that the page names are : MediaWiki:Sidebar/sysop, MediaWiki:Sidebar/user, MediaWiki:Sidebar/* ? Jean-Lou Dupont 19:31, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, they definitely have the required names .. I can copy and paste the names from your example on this install page and then search for them on my wiki and they show up correctly ..

What I have noticed is that if I search for any file which has "MediaWiki:Sidebar/..." in it, it shows the default navigation list ... The Sysop list I have changed and that shows the changes in the page but not on the SideBar ... I just tried it on this site and see it does the same - so thats not an issue ...

Why can't I see the extensions in the Special Version page ?? Do I need extensionClass to run this version of SideBarEx ?? .. I found the extensionClass script eventually and installed it and it shows up in the Versions page ...

(As a matter of interest I did get SysopSideBar to work before going over to SideBarEx) ...

--Dick 05:43, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Let's start at the beginning: SidebarEx is only currently tested for MW1.10 and 1.11.
 * No you do not need 'ExtensionClass' for SidebarEx.
 * Yes you should see 'StubManager' and 'SidebarEx' (amongst the others) in Special:Version. Do you have the 'require "MediaWiki/StubManager/StubManager.php' line in your LocalSettings.php?
 * Also, do you have any PHP level restrictions for accessing the PEAR directory? (e.g. open base dir, safe mode etc.)
 * Jean-Lou Dupont 07:02, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

OK Jean-Lou,

- I removed "ExtensionClass"

- I added "MediaWiki/StubManager/StubManager.php" to LocalSettings.php (Had not done that)..

"StubManager" now shows up in Versions Page ..

Still no default Sidebar ...

I then added "require_once( "$IP/extensions/SidebarEx/SidebarEx.php" );" to LocalSettings.php .. (I recall that you said that StubManager would handle all tasks and one need not place anything into LocalSettings.php !!)

But SidebarEx now shows up in Versions Page .. (I entered the relevant files into "/extensions/SidebarEx" directory) ..

Even though i added "require_once( "$IP/extensions/SidebarEx/SidebarEx.php" );" to LocalSettings.php, I still don't get the default SideBar on the left-hand side ..

How would i test for any PHP level restrictions for accessing the PEAR directory ? .. I'm using SuSe 10.1 (I'm sure I'm not in 'Safe Mode")... My PEAR directory path is "/usr/share/php5/PEAR/" ...

--Dick 07:49, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I got the default Sidebar to show up ..

Further to my tests here Jean-Lou, I changed the following in LocalSettings.php ... ($bwSidebarNs = NS_MEDIAWIKI and $bwSidebarPage = Sidebar;) $bwSidebarNs = NS_MEDIAWIKI; // must be defined prior $bwSidebarPage = Sidebar; $bwSidebarSearch = array ('Bureaucrat', 'Sysop', 'User', '*' ); #  MediaWiki:Sidebar/Bureaucrat #  MediaWiki:Sidebar/Sysop #  MediaWiki:Sidebar/User #  MediaWiki:Sidebar/* #  User:username/Sidebar #  MediaWiki:Sidebar/Ns/Main #  MediaWiki:Sidebar/Ns/Category require_once( "MediaWiki/StubManager/StubManager.php" ); require_once( "$IP/extensions/SidebarEx/SidebarEx.php" );
 * 1) Define the SideBar Pages for SideBarExt. ##
 * 2) 1) Define (if desired) the base namespace where the pages will be fetched:
 * 1) 2) Define (if desired) the base page where the 'sidebar' pages will be fetched:
 * 1) 3) Define the priority list i.e. group membership search order.
 * 1)    Corresponding sidebar pages for $bwSidebarSearch:
 * 1)    Per-User sidebars - Edit the page
 * 1)    Per-Namespace sidebars - Examples:
 * 1) 4) Include the required scripts to run SideBarEx:

'Sidebar' was 'Sidebars' and this was copied from your install instructions Page ..

The Sysop sidebar does not show up when i log in .. When i log in as a guest the default sidebar shows up .. No matter how i log in, only the default sidebar shows ...

If I remove "require_once( "$IP/extensions/SidebarEx/SidebarEx.php" );", the default sidebar goes back to original sidebar ...

--Dick 08:13, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Oopppsss...
 * Apologies for the documentation... I need to do another pass and correct it! When you install the extensions through PEAR, the only thing you need to do (aside from making sure that the access rights to the PEAR directory is OK with PHP etc.) is to put the following line in LocalSettings.php:


 * that's assuming you are not using Extension:ExtensionManager as you would only put

in your LocalSettings.php. The line:
 * isn't correct because, as I recall, you installed the extension through PEAR and thus the extension's code now resides in the PEAR directory on your system. Jean-Lou Dupont 13:34, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, I found that by putting

require_once( 'MediaWiki/StubManager/StubManager.php' );  *** Note the '/' not '\' - '\' causes blank screen!! require_once( 'MediaWiki/SidebarEx/SidebarEx.php' );      *** Note the '/' not '\' - '\' causes blank screen !!

into LocalSettings.php, I now can see both the StubManager and SideBarEx in the Versions Page .. I've deleted the SideBarEx directory from the extensions directory ... So thats an improvement ..

I have the "MediaWiki:Sidebar/Sysop" setup with extra navigations names, but they don't show up, I'm logged in as Sysop ... When i'm not logged in, I get the same nav bar ...

Any ideas here ?? .. remember that SysopSidebar actually did work on the wiki ???

--Dick 18:55, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

I have done some more experiments ...

If i rem out the Stubmanger in localsettings.php file, I get an error message saying that sidebarex needs the stubmanager .. that suggests that the two scripts are talking to each other (or checking on each other)...

I find that the MediaWiki:Sidebar/* navbar contents are placed into the navbar left-hand side of my wiki ... If i rem out the sidebarex in the localsettings.php file, the navbar goes back to the wiki's default ...

I can't get Sysop navbar contents to show at all ..

From here, i am stuck !!

--Dick 20:24, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
 * If you've got the /* to work, then the extension is working. Are you sure that you are using the /sysop (note the lowercase) page ? Jean-Lou Dupont 21:33, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Where did the lowercase /sysop come from ??? .. i haven't seen any mention of it ..

I copied the contents of MediaWiki:Sidebar/Sysop page to MediaWiki:Sidebar/sysop page but still not working ..

I thought that seeing as it should be in lowercase I changed

$bwSidebarSearch = array ('Bureaucrat', 'Sysop', 'User', '*' );

to

$bwSidebarSearch = array ('Bureaucrat', 'sysop', 'User', '*' );

and immediately the navbar went back to the Wiki default ... I've changed it back to "Sysop" ..

--Dick 21:58, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
 * it should ***ALL*** lowercase for /user, /sysop, /bureaucrat. Jean-Lou Dupont 00:24, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

OK Jean-Lou - I am the only user on my Wiki and I have "bureaucrat" and "sysop" rights - I changed $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'Sysop', 'User', '*' );    to     $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'sysop', 'user', '*' );     in LocalSettings.php

Also I created MediaWiki:Sidebar/sysop MediaWiki:Sidebar/user navbar pages - all different so I could tell them apart ...

I got the default Wiki Navbar on the left-hand side of the screen ... I then changed $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'sysop', 'user', '*' );    to     $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'Sysop', 'user', '*' );     in LocalSettings.php

I got the default Wiki Navbar on the left-hand side of the screen ... I then changed

$bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'Sysop', 'user', '*' );    to     $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'sysop', 'User', '*' );     in LocalSettings.php

and I still got the default Wiki Navbar on the left-hand side of the screen ... I then finally changed $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'sysop', 'User', '*' );    to     $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'Sysop', 'User', '*' );     in LocalSettings.php

and I then got the MediaWiki:Sidebar/* Navbar on the left-hand side of the screen ...

It appears that the line of script is only recognised when they are /Sysop, /User, etc ...

--Dick 05:53, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Jean-Lou - Eureka !!!!

I found the problem ... I had to delete all the "MediaWiki:Sidebar/Sysop" "MediaWiki:Sidebar/User" pages ...

Once I did that and change the $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'Sysop', 'User', '*' );    to     $bwSidebarSearch = array ( 'sysop', 'user', '*' );     in LocalSettings.php it started to show up correctly on the Wiki navbar on the left-hand side of the screen ..

It may be worthwhile to say in the install instructions that there will be a conflict if there "MediaWiki:Sidebar/Sysop" AND "MediaWiki:Sidebar/sysop" pages etc!!

I am a very happy chappy now :-))

Now I can go and set up the actual navbars the way I want them ... Thanks for your assistance ...

--Dick 09:03, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

SidebarEx with 'Wikitext is Sidebar' hack
Is it possible to use this extension (with or without modification) if utilising the hack to enable Wikitext in the sidebar? -AerosAtar
 * I do not know but I strongly suspect the answer is no. Jean-Lou Dupont 23:01, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

using none specialpages on sidebar
Hi Jean-Lou, i there a possibility to include external (none) wiki Pages in the sidebar? The normal sidebar do not support this function, but with the old clipboard extension this was possible (with some modification). --Ozz 19:51, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Have you tried with interwiki links? (I didn't myself)Jean-Lou Dupont 20:56, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

How per-user sidebars can be used in sidebarsearch?
Does per-user sidebar always overwrite other defined sidebars (ie. user belongs to somegroup but per-user defined sidebar is shown)?

$bwSidebarSearch = array ('somegroup', 'sysop', 'user', '*' ); <- per-user?

BR

--JuhaV 06:22, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
 * In the current version of the extension, the configuration modes are accumulated i.e. per-group + per-user + per-namespace. The only overwrite is the default sidebar i.e. the one defined as per the standard MediaWiki process. Jean-Lou Dupont 12:00, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Sidebars by Category?
Is it possible to add the ability to create sidebars based off a category? For instance, if I was in an article that was tagged "Category:States of the United States of America", I would like the sidebar to print out a list of links of states in the US. -- Joe Beaudoin Jr. 00:17, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Diff page breakage
Here's some odd behavior caused by the extension on MW 1.11... Any ideas as to what causes that? -- Joe Beaudoin Jr. 19:23, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Are you trying to put arbitrary wikitext? SidebarEx does not support this. Jean-Lou Dupont 20:10, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * There's no wiki text. It's like something from the diff (particularly if it contains bullet points) bleeds over into the sidebar. It's odd and only happens on the diff/history pages. -- Joe Beaudoin Jr. 23:48, 27 February 2008 (UTC)