Manual talk:Namespace

Examples of "namespace" features and benefits needed, please!
Peter Blaise responds:

Great, and thank you, Rob.

Now all we need are examples. For instance:
 * How to export or print all articles in a namespace or group of namespaces?
 * How to control who can see or edit the articles in a particular namespace or group of namespaces?
 * How to restrict search to include or exclude a particular namespace or group of namespaces?
 * How to auto-build a table of contents for all articles in a namespace or group of namespaces?
 * How to export and import one or more namespaces?
 * ... more?!?

In other words, what are the features and benefits of using the "namespace" function, and how (examples, please) can a wiki admin or wiki user take advantage of those features and benefits?


 * Thanks -- Peter Blaise peterblaise 14:07, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

PS - Same needs for examples in understanding "categories" and "sub-pages".

Namespace vs. Category vs. Sub-page
Peter Blaise says:

I understand what I've read about each MediaWiki feature:
 * Namespace vs. Category vs. Sub-page.

But I'm not sure I understand the benefits of each feature, especially comparatively. Here's my goal (of any database system): I want to read, create, save, edit, search, sort, print, export, and import (is there more?) and I wonder how the features of Namespace vs. Category vs. Sub-page (or other - Special:page-features?) assist in organizing the contents of any MediaWiki such that I can execute each of those tasks over my own choice of a subset of the main data.

An example: say I have a wiki with job descriptions, and each job description has a series of tasks. I may want to see or print, say, all job descriptions, with no sub-tasks. Or, I may want to see and print only one entire job description and all it's tasks, but no other job descriptions. How would I organize that information best using Namespace vs. Category vs. Sub-page (or other)? Each job description goes on it's own page (I presume). Should I create a separate namespace for each job? Should I create sub-pages for each job's tasks? Would categories be helpful? What search, sort, and select tools in the MediaWiki software have powers over Namespace vs. Category vs. Sub-page such that I would know in advance before I enter or organize all the data? I'm not asking you to build my database and queries for me, I'm asking for examples of the MediaWiki features and benefits so I or anyone can know in advance how MediaWiki can manipulate it's contents (or not).

I'm imagining a table, but I may be way off base:

How would YOU recommend organizing a Table of Benefits for every MediaWiki Feature?

I guess what I'm asking in a backwards way is, how powerful are the search, sort, select, report, print features, and also any auto-features such as auto table of contents or auto index features in MediaWiki? How would anyone using a MediaWiki database say, "show me and print all and only ... such and such"?

Or, has no one evolved the search/sort/select and auto features over the database contents of a MediaWiki yet, and these are SQL/PHP challenges as yet unaddressed inside MediaWiki?

-- Thanks. Peter Blaise peterblaise 10:47, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Reversion
I reverted this edit on the grounds that


 * it's quite clear the technical overview relates to namespaces
 * the first table headings were, I felt, quite clear
 * the addition of a lot of "(see...)" seemed quite useless; either create useful links, or don't bother
 * there is no such thing as an "SQL database" - SQL is the language used to communicate with a DBMS, a database is a logical collection of items

Feel free to discuss below. robchurch | talk 13:55, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

NOOB questions about category vs pages
Question 1. I am constructing a wiki and am confused about how to customise an article. I want every article to provide an auto list of sub-categories. I understand that this can easily be done by using Category namespace. I want to avoid my users having to type "Category:Topic" for every topic they search. Or every time they want to add a parent tag to a category article.

Question 2. I have created a new Namespace and would like the search to default to that namespace after articles. How would I do that?

Thanks

Socratic

How to prevent viewing of a particular namespace
I have observed in wikis, that certain namespaces are locked from even viewing to the users. Can someone please help me on that. Use of the the Extension: Lockdown has not yielded any result as expected.

Thanks


 * In Mediawiki edit rights (for a group) can be handled very well for each NS but you can not grant read rights on a specific NS. If you have a private Wiki then all users (logged in) can read every page on the Wiki, except some special pages. What you want is a Access Control List and there are extensions that can handle this, see Category:Page specific user rights extensions for help on that. When you decide to use one of these extensions you have to ask yourself what you are trying to "hide", is it necessary to hide the NS or pages? We used Extension:Access Control List on our company Wiki in the past and it does exactly what you want. We stopped using it because on a private Wiki (in our case) we found out that there really was no need for the extra hassle and it makes it more complicated. It is also incompatible with the current MW software, it only works on MW-1.17.2 or a earlier version. Like said before, in the beginning the wish (a feeling) was there to have the functionality but in the end there was really no content that needed it, in our case.


 * Some stuff to read:
 * Security issues with authorization extensions
 * Manual:$wgNamespaceProtection
 * Manual:Image Authorization
 * Manual:User rights
 * Manual:Preventing access


 * If you really want to be able to specify read rights on NS or pages you are probably better of with Wiki software that has a Access Control List by default, like TikiWiki. Best regards --Jongfeli (talk) 14:45, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Moving a namespace index
Is it possible to change the index of a custom namespace without effectively removing access to its pages? Thanks in advance