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)

Bugzilla Consolidation
Hey HappyDog, I just wanted to see if there's any interest on your part in merging the following extensions into one:


 * Extension:BugzillaReports
 * Extension:BugSquish
 * Extension:BugMilestone

I've made some additions to the last and been in contact with the original developer. Perhaps we could start a google code project for central source and discussion, etc.

Thoughts?

Thanks.


 * Although it is currently only working for Bugzilla, my extension is designed with a view to being usable with various different bug-tracking tools. I don't know whether this into with your aims or not.  Personally, my time is scarce at the moment, so I wouldn't be interested in working on this particular project, but the code is CC-By-SA so you are free to integrate it with your own code if you like - providing you include an appropriate credit, and share and share alike! :-)  I'd be interested to see how you get on - and if you have any questions regarding my code, just ask. --HappyDog 05:27, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

GeSHi & Wikipedia
Hey HappyDog,

I see Wikipedia supports syntax highlighting via &lt;source lang='language'&gt; tags. I would like to add support for another language (J).

What steps do I need to take? Where can I find instructions? Thanks for your help!

68.175.31.239 17:30, 2 August 2008 (UTC) (I'm DanBron on Wikipedia; I don't have a Wikimedia account.)


 * Please ask at the support desk. --HappyDog 05:31, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Experiments in Common.css
Could you please do the testing in your personal monobook.css and then transfer the result to global files? Multiple edits make it difficult to follow changes. Thank you. —AlexSm 18:03, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

New ImageSizeInfoFunctions Extension
Hi HappyDog, I've put a new extension on MediaWiki called ImageSizeInfoFunctions. Hoping that all is well done! --GB 11:09, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

pw-head
Heya BureaucratDog ;-) do you remember offhand where  is used? I'm currently playing around with all the stuff in Common.css. -- :bdk:  00:52, 1 September 2008 (UTC)


 * *grin* - Thanks Bdk! And for the comment in the logs :-)
 * .pw-head is the heading within .page-warning, and is used, for example in Deprecated. Let me know if there are any other bits of mine that you can't figure out. --HappyDog 10:41, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Ah, good to know (the rest was clear). I hope you'll easily find again all your (now more or less resorted) bits within Common.css ;-) - :bdk: 11:23, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

WikiDB repeat syntax clarification
Hello Mark, I think your WikiDB is a fantastic idea and this should allow me to make some fantastic wiki pages that emulate some java programs and Windows programs but on my wiki page.

One question: will the REPEAT syntax allow a template to be specified instead of the Variable substitution?

I plan on doing something similar to the following: - define the data somewhere using the DATA definition into a custom Template - elsewhere call upon a subset of the data into another smaller template (there will be various subset templates of different types caling upon various fields in the original data)

Have you tried this and does it work or does the syntax of the REPEAT command only allow for variable substitution?

Could you please email me your answer to: jasonunderscorebrisbaneatwestnetdotcomdotau (to stop spammers)

Thanks you in advance and Great Wiki!


 * Hello, and thanks for your comments! :-) The behaviour you describe is exactly how this feature should work, however I can't fully remember whether this is fully implemented yet (I haven't had a chance to work on it for a while!).  I will look into this next time I get a chance, but it might work out quicker if you gave it a go yourself.  You can test the extension out on my test wiki if you don't want to install it yourself at this stage. --HappyDog 00:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

rm japanese links!
I apologize for any inconvenience.--Schu 11:19, 1 October 2008 (UTC)


 * No probs! :-) --HappyDog 17:59, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

¿Como creo un wiki?
¿Como?--Klevar91 02:16, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

--HappyDog 08:20, 13 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Manual:Installation_guide/es --HappyDog 08:20, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

hello
You are the owner of mediawiki if to help me if I want more wiki user groups as: CheckUser, Coders, Importers transwiki, Developers, Oversighters and other groups--Klevar91 04:05, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Ooh, really? I'm the owner of MediaWiki!  I wish someone had told me before... :-) --HappyDog 08:20, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Meta confirmations
I don't know if you've been to Meta recently, but there are admin confirmations going on m:Meta:Administrators/confirm. There was a note left on your talkpage there about them. I know you're more active here, so thought it might be nice to let you know. Ciao! Kylu 02:08, 12 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Cheers - I've responded there. --HappyDog 08:20, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Help
Hi, i'm Aldrich. I'm an Bureaucrat at a wikisite called Wikicars. Anyway, I've been needing some help with writing templates and infoboxes. Do you know anyone that might be able to help me?

-Red marquis 11:07, 24 October 2008 (UTC)


 * People at the support desk will happily answer any questions you may have. --HappyDog 14:11, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Problem with CrudeProtection Extension.
Hello, my name is Javier Bueno and I would like to use your extension and I found some problems. I am going to show you the steps which I have followed :

1. I have copied the code in the file "/extensions/CrudeProtection.php" 2. I have added at the bottom in LocalSettings.php the following line :

require_once("extensions/CrudeProtection.php");

Now, when I try to create a page with permissions to user "USER1"

USER1 ...     body of the article

Then, I can see the page with USER2 ( for example ). What is the problem ?

Thanks.

Javier Bueno.

<MiSsINg yoU=]

Error with installing mediawiki (Fixed!)
Woot! Sorry to bother you... I fixed it. Say, how do I delete posts on disscussion?


 * If you really want to delete something, just edit the page, delete the offending text, and save the changes. However, normally we just leave old discussions in place.  Certainly, you should not be deleting discussions that involve other people, unless on your own user pages.  Anyway, glad you managed to get your problem solved. --HappyDog 10:25, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

BugSquish not correctly displaying bugzilla links
Hello

I installed BugSquish extension. If I add a bug to a page (ie. via 12), then the bug is strikeout (correctly) but the link points to the wiki edit page form, not to bugzilla page containing that bug. What may be wrong?

Regards


 * Most likely, you have not added the appropriate entry to the interwiki table in your database. --HappyDog 00:23, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Advice needed
Hi! I need your advice: if the third-party site is blocked (blacklisted) in one from Wikimedia projects (as attack-site or spam-based site), remove it from Sites using MediaWiki/ru list or to save? As example, last edit-war of two anonimous users - [http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Sites_using_MediaWiki/ru&diff=259154&oldid=259019 1. removed two blacklisted sites], [http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Sites_using_MediaWiki/ru&diff=262481&oldid=262380 2. restored with comment "the laws of the Russian-speaking Wikipedia does not apply here"]. How to proceed? --Kaganer 11:24, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Not my area of knowledge, I'm afraid. Try one of the other admins. --HappyDog 12:01, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok. Sorry for disturbing ;) --Kaganer 14:53, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
 * No probs - sorry I can't be more helpful. :-) --HappyDog 16:31, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Remove code from Common.js
Hi!

I was looking at your MediaWiki:Common.js and I found the comment "REMOVE THIS LINE AFTER 22/01/2009" here. I think this can be made now... ;-) Helder 11:45, 20 July 2009 (UTC)


 * That edit was made by User:Happy-melon, not me, so it's probably best to talk to them about it. --HappyDog 12:09, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok! Have a nice week! =) Helder 12:26, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

crudeprotection
Hi, I'm using the latest and greatest version of 1.15.1.

I have added your code in extensions directory and added this to localsettings:

require_once( "$IP/extensions/CrudeProtection/CrudeProtection.php" );

include("extensions/CrudeProtection/CrudeProtection.php");

(I added both as I'm not sure which is needed).

I restarted apache, then created a page with the protection flag allowing userX only. When I log in as a different user, userY, I get the access denied as expected. However, if I log out and in as the userX I can access the page, ok, but then if I log out and in as userY, I can see the page. Is there a bug here? Is there a setting needed for the mediawiki general, for cacheing settings? I've tried clearing the browser cache but I can still access the page. Hope you can help.

Project:Language policy
Hi HappyDog, One of your edits puzzles me. I can't clearly figure out what you mean to explain - or rather, whether your interpretation is correct:

To my reading of the first (the original) sentence, this could be a clarification:
 * * Sub-pages should only be used for translations into other languages, not for English content. (E.g. a sub-title in an /fr page must not be  or , but just  .)

which is displayed as:
 * Sub-pages should only be used for translations into other languages, not for English content. (E.g. a sub-title in an /fr page must not be  or , but just  .)

Side-note: Though dictionaries tend to translate English 'table (mathematics, furniture)' to French 'table', apparently one can only 'rédiger une table des matières' (contents table). The French terms for 'to edit' ('rédiger' or 'éditer') are not used with 'une table' but only with 'un tableau' like in 'un tableau de statistiques' or 'un tableau Excel' - even though 'une table Excel' is quite commonly used, it is then just not viewed as something to be edited, though one can update it. (I just googled a bit e.g. on "rédiger un tableau" and on "rédiger une table" etc.)

But unless your French is worth less than I hope for, what you intend to say is:
 * * Sub-pages should only be created for translations into other languages, not for English content. (E.g. do not create a page  to contain the example for an English-language page , create for instance   or   instead.)

which is displayed as:
 * Sub-pages should only be created for translations into other languages, not for English content. (E.g. do not create a page  to contain the example for an English-language page , create for instance   or   instead.)

In theory, to avoid confusion with language indicators, one should only forbid English pages' sub-page names like  (and   because Chinese can be zh-TW or zh-CN). Do you know of a reliable source that clarifies whether your or my reading of the original sentence is the more correct one? For your view, in the original sentence here above I changed 'used' into 'created', which I think can prevent uncertainty about the sample being appropriate. SomeHuman 2010-03-14 21:55-22:21 (GMT)


 * Hi SomeHuman,
 * The second example is how I intended that sentence to be read. In other words, sub-pages should be reserved for translations and should not be used for pages in English.  To be specific: No English-language content should be placed in a sub-page.  The main reason for this is that the we plan, ultimately, to use automated tools to allow easy re-use of this help content, and if this rule were broken it may cause problems with those tools.  For example they may be tricked by the above into thinking there is a language called "example", or they may over-write the "example" language that a down-stream user has set up on their personal wiki for their own use.
 * Hope that answers your question. Note that this policy only applies to the help namespace (in fact there's no hard-and-fast policy with other namespaces at all).
 * --HappyDog 12:09, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Avoiding intermediate caching when using squid
You mentioned on Manual:$wgSquidMaxage that s-maxage should be stripped in the Squid configuration if ESI is not being used, presumably so that it will only be stored in the Squid proxy and not other proxies between the server and the client. Can you explain how this might be done? Wikimedia seems to manage it somehow. ..

I tried this on Squid 3.0.STABLE24, but it didn't work as expected; it just removed it altogether ("allow" didn't change it): acl wiki urlpath_regex ^/wiki/ reply_header_access Cache-Control deny wiki header_replace Cache-Control private,s-maxage=0,max-age=0,must-revalidate I appreciate this is from half a decade ago. :-) GreenReaper 03:10, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Replace Cache-Control header on wiki pages to force them to revalidate with us


 * Hi GreenReaper. Unfortunately I have absolutely no idea about anything to do with Squid (the proxy, that is - I know a bit about squid pleasantly-rubbery sea-food and marine animal, but I doubt that helps).  Although I created that page, I was simply copying information from another source, which was the old Configuration settings index on Meta.  The history of that page was imported to this wiki at Manual:Configuration settings, but it is probably easier to see what you're after in the original history at Meta, and indeed here is the edit where this information was added (by Meta user Astronouth7303).  However, I should imagine that Astronouth7303 was copying this from another source also, most likely the DefaultSettings.php file, so I'm not sure that he/she will be much help either. IRC or mediawiki-l might be the best places to try... --HappyDog 10:07, 20 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Alas. Thanks for the detailed reply, nevertheless! GreenReaper 19:50, 20 March 2010 (UTC)


 * No probs - good luck on your quest! :-) --HappyDog 12:02, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Problem with CrudeProtection, protection not working!
wiki version 1.15.1

I added your extension into the extension directory.

Then in LocalSettings.php I added:

include("extensions/CrudeProtection/CrudeProtection.php");

I then created a new test page, and added at the top of it:

Karl

So as user Karl I created this page and saved it. I am able to view this test page no probs (as you would expect). However, other users of our wiki also see the page. I expected them to get permission denied, but they dont. Any help appreciated.

Karl.


 * Hi Karl. Unfortunately, I no longer maintain the CrudeProtection extension as it has been made obsolete by a more sophisticated extension that I have developed.  Unfortunately this is not yet available to the community, but I plan to release it when I have a bit of time...  I'm sorry I couldn't be more help - however I have now added a note to the Extension:CrudeProtection page so that it the current status of the extension is made clear.  --HappyDog 19:15, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

All the MediaWiki devs seem so happy
We have HappyDog, Happy-Melon... maybe I should change my name to Happy Tisane. Tisane 17:06, 13 June 2010 (UTC)


 * *grin*. We are a happy bunch, aren't we, HappyTis! :-) --HappyDog 21:55, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

some questions
Hi, I found your wikidb extension and it seems very useful and may just be the thing I need in my wiki. I appologize for writing to you about it here but for some reason your personal wiki won't allow registeration or writing anoymous comments (the confirmation code is never confirmed). I'd appreciate it if you would help me despite writing in the wrong place =)

I integrated wikidb in my testing environment to play around with, and some questions arise. I applogize if they were already answered and I did not notice.
 * Is it possible to use parser functions? I'm using the latest version of the extension, and I read here that the latest version should work with. however it doesn't using the #ifeq for example within a tag fails.
 * integer fields - all fields get sorted as string. If I want to sort a table by 3 columns (year, month, day), which I define as int, they get sorted as integer. Using a date field instead is problematic since I also need the day and month fields seperately (especially so if I can't use string functions etc. to extract them from a date field). How is this possible?

I appreciate your help. osi, osishkin at gmail dot com 85.250.187.37 08:43, 3 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi - I recently moved servers, and there was a configuration error on the new server that stopped the captcha working. This is now fixed, so you should be able to post/create an account/whatever on my test wiki now, if you choose.
 * In terms of your questions, I believe that both of these issues will be resolved in the next version of WikiDB, which I am actively working on at the moment. It may be another month or so before it's ready, however.  If you register at my test wiki  then I will make sure you get sent an alert when it is released.
 * Thanks for your interest in WikiDB! :-)
 * --HappyDog 13:37, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

I have a problem with old wiki MediaWiki 1.11.0
Hi, My Linux box was crashed and I copied all wiki folders (mediawiki, mysql, www, spool). I tried to install Apache+php+mysql and upload all folders to a new web server. But I`ve got errors: Please help me I need to restore this version or transfer all documents into a new one.

thank you! - MediaWiki internal error.

Original exception: exception 'DBQueryError' with message 'A database error has occurred Query: SELECT value,exptime FROM `objectcache` WHERE keyname='wikidb:messages-hash' Function: MediaWikiBagOStuff::_doquery Error: 1033 Incorrect information in file: '.\wikidb\objectcache.frm' (localhost) ' in C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Database.php:824 Stack trace:
 * 0 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Database.php(779): Database->reportQueryError('Incorrect infor...', 1033, 'SELECT value,ex...', 'MediaWikiBagOSt...', false)
 * 1 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\BagOStuff.php(405): Database->query('SELECT value,ex...', 'MediaWikiBagOSt...')
 * 2 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\BagOStuff.php(300): MediaWikiBagOStuff->_doquery('SELECT value,ex...')
 * 3 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\BagOStuff.php(234): SqlBagOStuff->_query('SELECT value,ex...', 'wikidb:messages...')
 * 4 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\MessageCache.php(205): SqlBagOStuff->get('wikidb:messages...')
 * 5 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\MessageCache.php(441): MessageCache->load
 * 6 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php(467): MessageCache->get('mainpage', true, true)
 * 7 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php(421): wfMsgGetKey('mainpage', true, true, true)
 * 8 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php(368): wfMsgReal('mainpage', Array, true, true)
 * 9 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Title.php(268): wfMsgForContent
 * 1) 10 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Wiki.php(99): Title::newMainPage('mainpage')
 * 2) 11 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\index.php(58): MediaWiki->checkInitialQueries
 * 3) 12 {main}

Exception caught inside exception handler: exception 'DBUnexpectedError' with message 'Error in fetchObject: Incorrect information in file: '.\wikidb\page.frm' (localhost)' in C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Database.php:953 Stack trace: -
 * 0 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\MessageCache.php(314): Database->fetchObject(false)
 * 1 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\MessageCache.php(251): MessageCache->loadFromDB
 * 2 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\MessageCache.php(441): MessageCache->load
 * 3 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php(467): MessageCache->get('databaseerror', true, false)
 * 4 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php(421): wfMsgGetKey('databaseerror', true, false, true)
 * 5 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Exception.php(23): wfMsgReal('databaseerror', Array)
 * 6 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Database.php(276): MWException->msg('databaseerror', 'Database error')
 * 7 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Exception.php(125): DBQueryError->getPageTitle
 * 8 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Exception.php(88): MWException->htmlHeader
 * 9 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Exception.php(111): MWException->reportHTML
 * 1) 10 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Exception.php(191): MWException->report
 * 2) 11 C:\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\Exception.php(225): wfReportException
 * 3) 12 [internal function]: wfExceptionHandler(Object(DBQueryError))
 * 4) 13 {main}


 * No idea, sorry. Try the support desk. --HappyDog 10:33, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Requesting Help with spam revisions on our wiki.
Hi HappyDog!

My name's Arun, and we used mediawiki, which we really like, as a center-point for our card battle game knowledgebase.

http://www.thehealingblade.com/stratagem.html

clicking on the link will take you to our wiki, that we're really proud of. Lately, we've been spammed regularly and I wanted to inquire about how to go about protecting our wiki from spambots.

Can I request to be made an admin to adjust blocking rules?

Sorry about the noob wiki questions.

Feel free to shoot me a line at arun[at]nerdcorelearning[dot]com

Thanks and keep up the great work!

Arun


 * Please ask at the support desk. --HappyDog 16:32, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks and will do! Best, Arun

BugSquish
Do you have any opposition to me importing your BugSquish extension into the SVN repo? I rather like it, and would love a chance to see it improve :) ^demon 11:14, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Not working: Prevent users from editing : $wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
MY localsettings.php has this line: $wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false; But my wiki continues to allow non-registered users to edit.

Does this have anything to do with the .htaccess file?


 * Probably not. Try asking at the support desk. --HappyDog 19:45, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Block a range of IP address:
I added $wgSysopRangeBans = true; in the localsettings.php

This is the range of the ip address: xx.xx.xx.x - xx.xx.xx.xxx This is the CIDR: xx.xx.xx.x/xx I enter this range in the page: title=Special:Blockip This is what i get: There is no user by the name "xx.xx.xx.x - xx.xx.xx.xxx/ xx.xx.xx.x/xx". Check your spelling.

Help


 * Please ask at the support desk --HappyDog 15:24, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Interested in a trip to improve MediaWiki documentation?
Did you know about the Doc Camp this October?

"Individuals with a passion for free documentation about free software may apply to attend by filling out the application form and submitting before 5 August, 2011.... Accommodation and food will be covered by the GSoC Doc Camp. Part or complete travel costs can also be applied for as part of the application process."

I'm going to send a proposal to get MediaWiki into the Doc Camp and to have us do a Quick Sprint to improve MediaWiki's documentation. Please let me know if you know people I should include in my proposal. Would you be interested?

best, Sumanah 17:09, 22 July 2011 (UTC) Volunteer Development Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation


 * Won't be able to make it as far as California, I'm afraid. I hope the venture is successful - let me know if there is any other useful way I can contribute.  --HappyDog 00:38, 27 July 2011 (UTC)


 * HappyDog, if there's anyone you think I should contact because they're a good or potentially good documenter, please let me know! And if I know what locations might be more suitable for you, I can let you know about future get-togethers in that region.  Thanks!  -- Sumanah 01:13, 31 July 2011 (UTC)


 * I haven't been involved in writing documentation for a while, but I was heavily involved with building MW.org when it was relatively new, and at that time Bdk was similarly hard at-it. He's some-one who might be worth contacting.
 * In terms of future get-togethers, I'm based in London, UK.
 * --HappyDog 10:28, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

Mobile roadmap history
Hi, I wonder if you can help me locate the page history for the former Mobile Roadmap on Meta. The page was transferred to Mediawiki Roadmap, but I am not sure where the history for the original page would be located.

Is it possible to simply see an archive of the page before it was moved? --Pchang (talk) 22:09, 11 June 2012 (UTC)


 * I'm not HappyDog, but I might be able to help anyway. You might be looking for Mobile Projects/Web Features & Roadmap, Mobile Projects/App Features & Roadmap, or possibly Mobile Projects/Localization Roadmap? -- Krenair (talk &bull; contribs) 22:17, 11 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Krenair. --HappyDog (talk) 21:48, 12 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi Krenair, I am talking about a page that used to be at Mobile Projects/Roadmap - it was revised significantly before a redirection to Mediawiki/Roadmap occurred. I really appreciate the help. --Pchang (talk) 22:39, 18 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi, I figured out how to backtrack from the re-direct and found the version of the page in View history, so I'm all good now. Sorry to bug you. --Pchang (talk) 00:37, 21 June 2012 (UTC)


 * No probs. Glad to have helped! :-) --HappyDog (talk) 08:30, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Is WikiDB still developed?
dear HappyDog,

Thanks for WikiDB, it's a great extension. It's really a pithy it lacks a better support of criteria to get closer to mySQL possibilities and database managements, and to set the range of outputs (first 50, next 50, etc.) as these really limit this outstanding extension to very small db and for basic usage. I see these features are in your todo list. However I also see most discussion dates from 2008 or so. Are you still planning to further develop the extension along these lines?

Best. 88.64.113.61 21:49, 21 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi there - thanks for your interest. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time recently to work on WikiDB (though the most recent release was a lot more recent than 2008!!).  The extension is still very much under active-ish development and the two items you mention are at the very top of the priority list.  I have already made the back-end changes that are necessary to implement these features, and the remaining issues are largely relating to UI and wiki-syntax.  If you have any specific suggestions or comments it would be great to hear them. --HappyDog (talk) 21:07, 26 August 2012 (UTC)


 * No specific suggestions, my feeling is that you had a great intuition to work out a design that is both simple to use, intuitive, efficient and powerful. My only frustration is this, that it lacks possibilities to take better advantage of the queries and to limit the output to a certain range; the first limit the usage to very simple things, the second to small databases. But modulo this, it's incredible how clever and easy is the integration with the wiki. I often toyed with possible abstract implementations but even at the level of the design, I hadn't imagined it could be so natural and powerful. I believe if you'd bring the thing closer to the full power of SQL queries, you could really create a new paradigm, a sort of revolution for db management as the wiki itself was for html content. So in any case, congrats for that. Do you have any estimate of the time scale it would take you to implement these features? 150.244.119.135 09:26, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Help pages
My thoughts on the help pages are that I don't see why some of the same logic that applies to MediaWiki and extension code and to Wikipedia articles wouldn't apply to the help pages too. A person might very well say, "I want to enhance this extension (or expand this Wikipedia article) and create a derivative work that is five times the original's length, but I want to have proprietary rights to that derivative work, since I contributed most of the effort." He's out of luck; a large part of the point of copyleft was to put people in that exact position, the theory being that they would generally choose to relinquish the possibility of making that derivative work proprietary for the sake of being able to benefit from the work that had already been done.

I think in most cases, the plan has worked out well. Copyleft is spreading virally, in large part because people are recognizing the benefits of it. I had a wiki whose content was public domain licensed, and I switched it over to CC-by-SA because I wanted to protect its content from, if it got borrowed by someone else, going the way of the Lisp interpreter that Richard Stallman supplied to Symbolics. It also made it possible to legally import content from Wikipedia and create derivative works from it. And lastly, it avoided the legal issues involved in releasing stuff into the public domain that prompted the creation of CC0.

Code can be written to put a different license notification on copylefted pages than on other pages on a wiki. That needs to be done anyway, since there are wikis like this one that have some PD content and some CC content. I don't mind writing an extension to take care of that, if it hasn't been done already.

Despite my disagreement on that issue, I do agree that it would be useful to create a Help pages distributor. Here is what I envision:
 * Make it a checkbox during the Installation process.
 * Create a special page on MediaWiki.org that lets the user view all the page titles of all the pages that he needs to export and then import. Group them in sets of 500, or whatever seems reasonable. Maybe there could be an exception created in the exporter to the usual rule about exporting only 500 pages at a time.
 * Create a maintenance script to be run from the command line that will grab the content and import it.

So, that will create three different ways to get the content. This sounds like a good project for me to work on during times when some of my other stuff is awaiting code review. Which of these three ideas, if any, do you think would have community support for installation on MediaWiki.org? Thanks, Leucosticte (talk) 07:53, 22 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi Leucosticte. Sorry I haven't responded sooner - I've only just seen this.
 * My hunch is that if you implemented a solution, however it were implemented, it would be well received and incredibly welcomed by the community. Whether it would get deployed would - I imagine - depend on whether there were any security or performance concerns, rather than the method used (though these may be linked).  I'm not associated with the foundation though, and ultimately it's their ops team who decides what gets to run on their servers.
 * My suggested implementation at Project:PD help/export still seems like a good way to go, so I would encourage you to use that as a starting point. However, if that seems quite contrary to how you wanted to do things then it is better to have something that is implemented than a great spec. that isn't, so approach it how you like.
 * That said, your options all address the method (actually, the UI) for importing things into your wiki. What needs to be resolved first is the format that the export is provided in.  As my suggested implementation mainly focuses on the export side of things, perhaps these are not mutually exclusive.
 * Anyway - I don't know if you're still interested in working on this, but if so I wish you the best of luck. I will be happy to offer opinions/advice/suggestions if you need any help.  Probably best to contact me via e-mail as I don't always notice edits here.
 * Kind regards,
 * --HappyDog (talk) 18:59, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * PS - One of the main reasons for PD help was to ensure that it could be used in a non-viral situation, e.g. for corporate use, private wikis, etc. We want the help pages to be usable on a wiki without requiring that all other wiki content is also open-sourced, or that people who customise the help pages to suit their own requirements are forced to do so under a particular license.

Invited to join MediaWiki Group Promotion
Thank you for all your work promoting MediaWiki in various forms. You are invited to join the MediaWiki Group Promotion (proposed, waiting for official approval). We are just starting, your questions or feedback about the group itself are priceless. :) --Qgil (talk) 18:31, 11 January 2013 (UTC)