Manual:Skin configuration

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

This documentation applies to MediaWiki 1.24 and greater.

Downloading skins
The download>Special:MyLanguage/Download|MediaWiki tarball download doesn't come bundled with any skins. The following used to be bundled: vector>Special:MyLanguage/Skin:Vector|Vector (the default skin), monobook>Special:MyLanguage/Skin:MonoBook|MonoBook, modern>Special:MyLanguage/Skin:Modern|Modern and cologne>Special:MyLanguage/Skin:Cologne Blue|Cologne Blue.

Therefore, whether you have just downloaded MediaWiki or if you want to install cat-skins>Special:MyLanguage/:Category:All skins|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 [http://git.wikimedia.org/tree/mediawiki%2Fskins here]).

You can download tarballs of skins from the skin distributor.

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/[name of skin].git

e.g.: To get the default skin Vector, you should give the following from the  directory:

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

If your install is a versioned tarball, and you've just cloned a skin, your skin's git repository will be pointing at master. This may cause problems. Therefore it's strongly recommended to checkout the branch compatible with your version. For example if you're running WikiMedia 1.24.1, from the directory of the skin you cloned: git branch -a git checkout REL1_24

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).

Enabling skins
For any skin in your /skins directory that you wish to use, you must add a  line for it to your  file.

For example, to enable Vector, add the following:

(This is equivalent to ext>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Extensions#Installing_an_extension|enabling an extension, only in a different directory.)

Additional steps may be required depending on the choice of skin.

Detailed installation instructions are available on each skin's page on mediawiki.org; for example, for Vector see vector>Special:MyLanguage/Skin:Vector#Installation|Skin:Vector#Installation. 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 <tvar|DefaultSkin> </> in <tvar|LocalSettings> </> to the lowercase skin name specified in the skin file. Users can still change their skin by going to their pref>Special:Preferences</>|preferences page, unless you uninstall or suppress all other skins, or disable the preference altogether (see below). For example:

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 maint-script>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Maintenance scripts</>|maintenance script to change users' preferences (useropt>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:userOptions.php</>|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 pref>Special:Preferences</>|user's preferences by listing skin(s) to suppress in the <tvar|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 <tvar|localsettings> </>:

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

Site-wide CSS modifications
MediaWiki allows administrators to specify site-wide CSS rules to be added to every page rendered.

These rules can be added by editing the page <tvar|Common>Common.css</> on your wiki, if <tvar|UseSiteCss> </> is set to true.

In addition to a global stylesheet, one can also specify CSS rules to be used only in certain skins (see stylesheets>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Interface/Stylesheets</>|Manual:Interface/Stylesheets).

User CSS modifications
Users can also specify their own CSS rules by creating the page "User:Username/common.css".

The CSS on this page is then applied to whatever skin the user is using.

If the website is changed to a different default skin, the user's custom CSS will continue to work just as before.

This feature can be enabled by setting <tvar|AllowUserCss> </> to true in.

A user can also apply CSS to a specific skin by creating the page "User:Username/skinname.css".

If a user uses the MonoBook skin for example, they would edit the page Special:MyPage/monobook.css.

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 <tt>useskin</tt> parameter in the URL.