Manual talk:$wgDefaultUserOptions

Missing variables ?
Hi! Is there an updated list? e.g., i cant find options for "Add pages I create to my watchlist, Add pages I edit to my watchlist, and "Notify per maail for changes on articles on my watch list". --Nyks 11:36, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Hallo! The list seems to be a litttle out of date :) I think you can use every parameter which are stored in the user_options field of the user table in the database. Tried to add extra search namespace with $wgDefaultUserOptions ['searchNs102'] = 1; and it worked. The paramter rcdays for the last x days of recent changes worked also fine and is not documented here. To index the wgDefaultUserOptions array, I just simply use the terms I saw in user_options field of the database.

Recent update
I've just updated the default values with the values explicitly set in DefaultSettings.php for 1.8.0. I am in the process of checking later versions, and as I do so I will document any changes to this default set that have occurred.

I am a little unsure as to how the various default preference settings interact, and how this has changed between versions (as far as I know the only structural change happened in 1.8.0). For example, it appears that in earlier versions, each language defined all settings, and $wgDefaultUserOptions was empty in DefaultSettings.php, allowing you to override the language defaults in LocalSettings.php. However in 1.8.0 this was changed so that the languages are now considered 'overrides' for this default array. However, the code that gets the defaults still gives $wgDefaultUserOptions precedence, so I'm not sure how quickbar settings (for example) can vary between languages. Also, I'm not sure what happens if something is not defined either in the language or in the config setting - is there a hard-coded default that is used?

Anyway, the update is good as far as it goes - I would appreciate any suggestions about how to make this page more complete/accurate (aside from bringing the default values up to date, which I will do). A large part of this is understanding how this setting is used. What the page shouldn't do is give defaults set in the language files, otherwise it will become huge - it might be appropriate to link to SVN for that though?

Note that the settings which I removed from the big table were apparently checked (by me) against HEAD, but I'm not sure what version we were on then. I'm currently thinking that the values as set in DefaultSettings.php are what we should be showing here, as they are the bits that won't change depending on language. If needed, the previous version can be seen here.

--HappyDog 22:46, 17 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Also, I'm not sure how $wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault fits into this. Anecdotally, $wgDefaultUserOptions seems to take precedence, but looking at the code (albeit very briefly) it appears that it is the other way round.  Hmmmm.... --HappyDog 22:52, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Hidden categories
Anyone know the options for 'show hidden categories' in the default user options? --Carelesshx 15:51, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
 * The page needs a major clean up. --Subfader 23:01, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

externaldiff
I was confused by this:

externaldiff 	Use external diff by default

In Wikipedia:Special:Preferences it says "(for experts only, needs special settings on your computer)" - it would help to have an indication of what it means and what those settings are.

I had to hunt to find an explanation: "By external diff tool, I mean you can use any tool that compares two pieces of text (nothing to do with MediaWiki)." It would be helpful to have a page with links or instructions to doing this. I'd start a stub, but unsure of page naming on this site... --Chriswaterguy 00:17, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Add multiple settings example
To complete newbies it is not clear what should be added to LocalSettings.php in order to regulate multiple things. An example with an array would be appreciated.

Added screenshot and text in the watchdefault sections
Add pages the user edits to their watchlist, checking the "Watch this page" by default on all edited pages.

This option can be disabled by editors in preferences >> Watchlist tab >> Advanced options section and unchecking "Add pages I edit to my watchlist"

Igottheconch 21:15, 8 January 2012 (UTC) 

watchlistdays
Heiya, DefaultSettings.php sets. This appears to be 3 days. Why would I set 3.0 instead of just 3? Cheers --&#91;&#91;kgh&#93;&#93; (talk) 10:18, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * If you look in bugzilla, you'll find a bug requesting the preferences to accept also decimal default watchlist length, like 0.125 days (3 hours) and so on, which has been fixed some time ago; probably the .0 is not required but it makes sense. --Nemo 10:35, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Ouch, I just looked at bug 11612. Starting from there it gets really ugly with every further bug. O_o I will have to have a detailed look at all of this. Thank you for your reply. Cheers --&#91;&#91;kgh&#93;&#93; (talk) 10:43, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

is there a way to load server time by default?

right now my default is: Other (specify)

Setting $wgDefaultUserOptions['language'] = 'de'; fails
For technical reasons, I need to set a wiki's (1.27)  to English but want to have the user's default language set to German.

$wgLanguageCode = 'en'; $wgDefaultUserOptions['language'] = 'de';

The  seems to be ignored. New users still get default 'en'. confirms, that the language is still set to 'en'.

Did I miss something?

Language option doesn't seem to work
Hi, our wiki language is 'en' and we want our users to have 'nl' as default user language. We don't succeed however to make the wiki understand that. Could it be that the language option just doesn't work? --AdSvS (talk) 12:24, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Minor Edit Default Value
Hi there,

I'd like to set the default of all page edits (including anonymous user edits, if possible) to NOT minor edits.

As the default value for 'minordefault' is 0, I've tried doing this through:

Update: use  to set minor edit default to NO.

timecorrection
The entry for  says: A fixed timezone offset or ZoneInfo zone, e.g.:
 * -9 (UTC minus 9 hours; will not adjust for Daylight Saving)
 * 'ZoneInfo|-240|America/New_York' (tz database zone for NY; will adjust for Daylight Saving)

What is the "-240" in that? I doesn't appear in any of the  data I've looked at (e.g. in tz database web gateways). If it's supposed to be there, where are these numeric codes accessible without a command line? Various MW installations are on shared/virtualized servers that provide no shell access to customers, only a GUI file manager and [S]FTP. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  22:48, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

how to change skin preference?
I added $wgDefaultUserOptions['skin'] = 'chameleon'; and of course the chameleon skin as selectable for users, but it does not work. New users have to go to the settings and manually select the skin. Krabina (talk) 12:50, 14 September 2023 (UTC)