Manual:Skin configuration/en

This page contains comprehensive information for administrators on how to configure skins on a wiki. Please refer to Help:Skins for general skin information and Manual:Skinning for developer information on creating new skins.

This documentation applies to MediaWiki 1.24 and greater.

Downloading skins
The MediaWiki tarball download comes pre-bundled with four skins: Vector (the default skin), MonoBook, Modern and Cologne Blue.

However, if you have downloaded MediaWiki from Git or from a nightly version, or if you want to install additional skins, you will need to separately download the code for that skin or skins.

Many MediaWiki skins are contained in the Wikimedia Git repository (see the full listing here). To download one of the skins in this group via Git, you should make a call like the following:

git clone https://git.wikimedia.org/git/mediawiki/skins/SkinName.git

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to download an additional skin other than via Git, but the mechanism to do such a thing is being developed.

After you have obtained the folder of a skin's files, place it as a subdirectory of  in your MediaWiki installation (you can place the Git repository there directly).

Installing skins
Detailed installation instructions are available on each skin's page on mediawiki.org; for example, for Vector see Skin:Vector. Instructions for all other skins are analogous.

Setting the default skin for a wiki
A default skin should be set for new users of a wiki by setting the variable Changing these value on an existing wiki will automatically change the setting of all users who have been using the previous default skin. There is a maintenance script to change users' preferences (userOptions.php), but you will most likely not need to use it.

If you do not change this value, Vector will be the default skin.

Uninstalling skins
To uninstall a skin, remove the  line from your LocalSettings.php file. You may remove the skin files from the  directory afterwards.

If any users have been using the skin you just uninstalled, MediaWiki will automatically switch them to the default skin of the wiki.

Suppressing skins without uninstalling
The administrator can limit the skin choices that are offered site-wide in user's preferences by listing skin(s) to suppress in the $SkipSkins array. This might be useful if you want to test a new skin without letting users see it. To do this, put something like this in :

You will be able to preview the skin using the useskin URL parameter.

Disable site users' ability to choose skins in user preferences
The system administrator can completely remove the "Skin" option so that it does not show up at all in User Preferences. This makes sense if your site will use a customized skin and would not look right in any other skin.

To do it, add a new line containing the following code to LocalSettings.php. It will remove the "Skin" option from preferences and the possibility to use the useskin parameter in the URL.