Extension talk:Page Forms

Blank Page on Edit Save After Installation
I installed Semanatic MediaWiki with no extra configuration and waited until the database was finished updating until installing Semantic Forms. Upon my first save of a page edit, the system brought me to a blank page a with the URL: http://www.Example.com/index.php?title=TestPage&action=submit I realized after the fact that certain install requirements regarding name spaces MAY not have been met. I have Extension:SocialProfile installed but didn't think it had any new names paces, but I added the following line to my LocalSettings.php anyway. $smwgNamespaceIndex = 150; Also, I commented out the following line and saving worked for a while. include_once('extensions/SemanticForms/includes/SF_Settings.php'); I tried later and now I'm getting more errors like the following line on only some saves. Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 1966080 bytes) in /home/example/public_html/sitename/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/languages/SMW_Messages.php on line 4843 At this point I'm figuring as a first time wiki admin that I might be doing something wrong. I can't find any uninstall features in order to reinstall Semantic Forms if I have to. Any ideas? Thanks ahead of time.

Jephrei 02:03, 3 May 2009 (UTC)


 * That last message just means that the system ran out of memory; see here for one way to fix it. Yaron Koren 03:55, 4 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah. i figured that out after i posted. but nope....that fixes the mem but only with semantic forms disabled. I TRIED to disbable both or uninstall completely to reinstall but there's no uninstall documentation. if i comment out the settings in localsettings.php will it be "disabled" or do i have to rollback the database or undo the changes somehow? Also, if i didn't set the custom name space addition lines in localsettings.php before the install and instead added the lines AFTER the install, will SMW and SF work? Jephrei 20:41, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I found that removing languages that I didn't need from SF_Messages.php solved all my problems.

SemanticMediaWiki installation
I'm in trouble with the SemanticMediaWiki installation. It seems that even a brand new installation (from scratch) doesn't create two essential tables smw_relations, and the smw_attributes.

I tried to search some solutions to this problem but the best I've found is the following (standard?) procedure that doesn't work at all (for me):

If you get an error on any page reading something like "Table 'smw_relations' doesn't exist" or "Table 'smw_attributes' doesn't exist", it means you haven't installed, or haven't  finished installing, the Semantic MediaWiki extension. If you've set up the SMW code and added the right lines to LocalSettings.php, probably all you need to do is create the new semantic database tables - go to 'Special:SMWAdmin' and press the button.

I've an up to date installation (1.14 for mediawiki and 1.4.2 for semantic) on a windows machine running (x)AMP. Is there something that I've missed?

I discovered this (presumed) bug while I was trying to configure filters with the DrillDown extension.

Silkwood 22:21, 19 March 2009 (UTC)


 * This has been resolved; it was actually a bug in Halo, of all things. Yaron Koren 12:28, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Recently Upgraded to semantic2 forms 1.6.
Getting the following error: arguement #1 is not an array in /global/www_protal/wiki/extension/semantic-forms/includes/SF_LinkUtils.Inc on line 295.

Error results on:
 * Not rendering* - the form used to edit this article: neither the default form for a category that uses the form, ... also, template displays format distortion.

Please *help* ?

FCK Editor
I'm having trouble getting the FCK Editor to work with free text. I have mediawiki 1.12.0, Semantic Mediawiki 1.4.1 and Semantic Forms 1.4. The FCK Editor does work on blank pages with no forms. Which versions of the FCK Editor are known to work with Semantic Forms? Thanks. Bluethorn 08:09, 12 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Does it not work on any browser? Yaron Koren 16:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Not Firefox 3.0.5 or IE7.


 * Well, let me know if there's any way I can view the wiki myself. Yaron Koren 18:04, 12 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks Yaron, I finally got around to upgrading to the latest version FCKeditor. It works now. Thanks for your help. Bluethorn 05:34, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

fails in IE
The default text area for free text imput fails in Internet Explorer. When I'm going to create a page with the form, the text box doesn't display and IE shows a JavaScript error. In Firefox works fine. I have also installed FCKEditor.
 * Free text is special. Try . It is not a field in a template but a separate entity. Bluethorn


 * is what it used to be called, and that still works (or should work). Yaron Koren 16:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Date format problem
I'm having a little problem, when I run the "semantic forms" this shows me the date format on correctly format "dd/mm/yyyy" but when I finished it, data is presented accordly ISO 8601 for default "yyyy/mm/dd", any idea please?

--Neoshinji 22:52, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Wiki Version
 * Form to test


 * I don't know if anything can be done about that. Is it a problem? Yaron Koren 00:18, 8 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I understand that is a "little" thing, but really it is a problem for us :( spanish users usually write dates on this format then it would be very confusing for us. But we are not alone, if you check a global map use, practically more than the 50% of the people in the world uses this format and only this. I'm very interested to apply in our wiki to make more easy adding articles and your forms are the perfect tool, it have enormeous capacities. Maybe I would ask into Semantic Mediawiki forum because the problem I think it is in the Semantic Mediawiki treatment & conversion. Although I will mantain informed you, thanks for your fast response U.u --Neoshinji 01:05, 8 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I have found the response, right now it is not possible ... U.u
 * "The customised date formatting of MediaWiki cannot be used due to its restriction to a rather short period of time.". --Neoshinji 01:51, 8 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, practically all the things on this world have a solution, if you has some troubles with SemanticMediawiki or Forms with the dates format, you can use the extension ParserFunctions and the parser function time, then make a template that contain the following code and voilà! Problem solved ^,^ --Neoshinji 18:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi, I don't understanding how and where aply this parser function, could you explain better? Thanks in advanced.--Knight Rider 21:16, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi, I don't understanding how and where aply this parser function, could you explain better? Thanks in advanced.--Knight Rider 21:16, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Form Stopped Working
I had a very intresting problem recently. I have a form that uses a chooser function, and it worked well. But then all of a sudden, without any changes to the templates or form, it stopped working. The dropdown simply doesn't load anything, and neither do the "add another" buttons. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. After hours of working on it I cannot find what is wrong. If someone could check I out I would truly appreciate it. You can find the form here. Thank you very much --168.103.48.98 22:16, 11 January 2009 (UTC)


 * This is a Javascript problem, that I think (I hope) has been fixed in more recent versions of Semantic Forms. Yaron Koren 23:29, 11 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you. I will install the new version, then. As always, you are fantastic, thank you very much.


 * We have a similar Problem. The checkbox for a boolean Property all of a sudden disappeared. Instead of the checkbox the form now displays a field with the texts "True", "False" or "Ja", "Nein" respectively. We have the latest versions of SMW (1.4.1) and SF (1.4.2) installed. You can have a look here (WikiProducts). Any ideas? Thank and Greetings, --Kasimir Katowitsch 09:26, 21 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Actually, your problem looks not at all similar. :) It looks like you've found a bug in SF's template parsing - in your case, it's triggered by the inclusion of one "Bild" tag within another right above the "Nicht mehr im Handel" property in the "Handys" template. You could change that, or you can always hardcode the input type in the form definition; I don't think SF's parsing will ever be perfect. Yaron Koren 14:29, 21 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Great! That helped! Thank you very much for all this amazing work you are doing! My best, --Kasimir Katowitsch 17:16, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

One example with arraymaptemplate - A bit of help please ...
Well I have the following complex scenario:

I have a main template does it contain several conditional templates inside, to hide when they are empty, all it is made on format table. Then one of these "auxiliaries" templates, that call from the main, uses the function "arraymaptemplate", but apparently it did not run correctly. The values sent by the arraytemplate do not arrive to the auxiliary template. Maybe I am making something wrong, or the arraymaptemplate do not support this kind of function like I want. Otherwise the case, using data.

The | is equal to  It is to avoid some limitations with tables and function #if.

The main template: AutoAnimanga/Anime

The problematic row has the following code.

Auxiliar template: AutoAnimanga/Anime/AuxCadena

This templates calls some values from the main template, like background colour, text colour and the important "variable value" otras_cadenas like.

colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background: ;" |

Then trying to apply the arraymaptemplate, I get the following result, apparently the values are not connected :( (For example, background colour, text and otras_cadenas are not showed.

Don't care if you want to test or save all these templates are on beta test. Any help would be appreciated thanks for advance. --Neoshinji 03:53, 14 January 2009 (UTC)


 * That's a very strange-looking call you have to #arraymaptemplate - it's supposed to only have four arguments, but yours seems to have eight. Yaron Koren 04:33, 14 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I know its something strange, but the peculiarity of these templates will be the capacity to customize anytime with no effort. Fortunately I have found one solution avoiding the limitation of function parser #if, then it is not necessary to use the auxiliary template and I dont need the arraymaptemplate, if you need some help check Extension:Pipe Escape.


 * If you accepts a suggestion Yaron, personally I think 4 arguments maybe its too limitated, because if you want to use a "simple" arraymaptemplate it consume two arguments (Am I wrong?). It is a constructive opinion please consider this ^,^ --Neoshinji 01:17, 16 January 2009 (UTC)


 * What is each of these additional arguments supposed to hold? Yaron Koren 02:52, 16 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Sorry for my late reply, I was a few days without internet. It should have to hold the template "variables" at least. Maybe my use of SMW and Forms it's too far from the original purposes, but I think the flexibility it's an essential thing If you want to develop a good website. For example; Imagine a template with 6 variables (primary background colour, secondary background colour, primary font colour, secondary font colour, text header, text content). --Neoshinji 09:53, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi - so you want to handle a template field that looks like "myfield=color1, color2, color3, color4, text1, text2, color1," etc.? That seems like quite a bit of complexity for one field. I think you'd be better off using multiple-instance templates. Yaron Koren 15:57, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you Yaron, well I did it. It's very candy to see the results combining MW + SMW + Forms :D

Now moving more far, sorry for this ;P do you have any idea to combine two variables for multiple values? (both using properties) For example, the form ask for nationality and name of animation studio, then I would like to join both results to show "Studio one is japanese, studio two is american, studio three is spanish ..." something like (value1 variable1 + value1 variable2), (value2 variable1 + value2 variable2), (value3 variable1 + value3 variable2) ... all in the same field XD I know seem a bit crazy but it is to show the info in the same field, using the "nationality" to add country flag to the studio.--Neoshinji 12:01, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't think there's any way to do that right now, unfortunately... if/when SMW supports n-ary relations, it'll probably be a different story. Yaron Koren 16:36, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Well it is so sad :'( but I will follow the SMW movements, thank you for your help Yaron. --Neoshinji 18:24, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Namespace "Form" in SMW 1.4.0
In contrast to earlier versions SMW 1.4.0 automatically sets the namespace "Form" to the namespace index 106/107. Therefore, if you upgrade and have already an index assigned for "Form" (e.g. 150) you will lose this space and with it the access to your existing forms. This can be circumvented by putting "$sfgNamespaceIndex = 150;" AFTER the indexes of your other custom namespaces and BEFORE the trigger "include_once" of Semantic Forms, as well as BEFORE the "include_once" of Semantic Mediawiki. If you put it after SMW has been triggered it will have no effect because the namespace "Forms" will have been assigned already to 106/107. I hope this helps somebody. My best, --Kasimir Katowitsch 10:21, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Installation ... Upgrading?
Is there any issue upgrading SF? It seems that upgrading SMW can impact SF in some cases, but I wonder if there is any problem when upgrading SF? --Dmb 15:01, 22 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Over time, versions of SF have dropped support for old versions of SMW; when that happens, it's specified in the version history. Yaron Koren 15:41, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Eliminate braces on article
Is there a way to eliminate, on articles, the triple-braced variables which have NOT been specified in the form? I hope this isn't a feature of MW which I am not aware of. --Bsmithme 06:37, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe specifying a default will work e.g. --Zven 07:07, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Interesting Proposal
I have run into an issue with adding categories to articles. I want to add a form variable that will allow adding categories to articles, and I would preferably really like it to have a nested set of popup selections to filter down to the correct list of subcategories. Can anyone think of some good ways of doing this? I realize there are other extensions to allow this, but since they modify the edit page, it will not work with semantic forms (to my knowledge). --Bsmithme 17:34, 29 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I personally don't think adding categories to articles is a good idea, but if you want to discuss it, I'd say the mailing list is a better location than this talk page. Yaron Koren 20:30, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Validation/Required fields
How does the validation work in Semantic Forms? Is there any way to specify 'required fields' in a form? I couldn't find answers to these questions in the doumentation (but it's late and I'm tired, so perhaps I missed it). -- Tegeal 04:50, 1 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Ahh, I can use the parameter 'mandatory' (I was searching for 'required'). -- Tegeal 04:55, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Running multiple scripts on Commons.js and SFUpload
Well I have the following situation, I have some scripts loaded on the Common.js file, then to avoid problems I am using the below code to load multiple scripts.

The problem occurs when I try to use the Semantic Form Upload, due to nature of the mentioned script, the page of SFUpload don't load correctly, apparently the error showed it is "wgScript is not defined", then when you add a file to upload the fields are not loaded automatically and the form don't run properly. I have updated the Floatbox files (css, js), and the SFUpload ran properly when I have disabled the Commons.js file.

One form to make tests.

Any idea to "dodge" the problem? --Neoshinji 16:58, 2 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, a temporary solution to the "problem", it is to use a html code to open new window, I know it's a little rude U.u --Neoshinji 20:05, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Creating table using template
I am trying to create a table that resides in another template. The code looks like this:

But this gives me wrong output (It shows the code itself and not the table)

When I take the table outside the wrapping template it still does not work:

Only the following works (but I cannot use it inside a template ;-(

For me it seems the parser is too greedy and reads {| as a form-field instead of a table.

Is there any known workaround?

--Fez 07:37, 3 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Look one of my tables as example. Sometimes large arguments into a table make impossible to run, then If you can't solve your problems check the Extension:Pipe_Escape, I hope it will be useful for you ^,^ --Neoshinji 12:47, 3 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Remember to create a template  as.

Text field "collapsed"
In one of our forms the field for free text entries is being reduced to the hight of one line. It had been working for months but "all of a sudden" the field got smaller... Any ideas? My best, --Kasimir Katowitsch 22:21, 16 February 2009 (UTC)


 * It just came to my mind that this could be connected to my attempts to add a Multiple-instance template for the field "Herstellungsland" which precedes the free text field. However, since I could not get it working, I removed everything again. But since then the free text field is broken (I think). Hope that is not too complicated. Cheers, --Kasimir Katowitsch 22:29, 16 February 2009 (UTC)


 * You can adjust manually the width and height desired, for example you can define the cols and rows like this:
 * I hope it would be useful for you ^,^ --Neoshinji 22:43, 16 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I hope it would be useful for you ^,^ --Neoshinji 22:43, 16 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the answer, but the problem is that this doesn't work in our case. :-( --Kasimir Katowitsch 00:02, 17 February 2009 (UTC)


 * What do you mean, "all of a sudden"? It looks like you were making a lot of changes to the form before it happened. Including, it seems, the one that caused this error - taking out the "end template" tag. Yaron Koren 13:54, 17 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh yes, you are so right! Sorry for that. Now it works again! Thanks so much, --Kasimir Katowitsch 23:22, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Incremental number for a field
I'm thinking in something similar to ' ' but it would implemented into the forms. Would it possible to add "an incremental function" for a field to build lists?

For example, SMF has the possibility to add multiple templates, then the function would be applied adding one number for each template added. It would have possible to avoid the tidy work of typing 01, 02, 03, 04 ... for each template field. Well if you have any suggestion feel free thank you for advance. --Neoshinji 23:44, 17 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Why do you need a number for each template instance? Yaron Koren 13:06, 18 February 2009 (UTC)


 * It is to have a form to build an episode list easily. Result into something like this. Form view.




 * Okay, I understand. No, that seems like too specific a need to support in SF. Yaron Koren 14:18, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your response!! Well I will try to found another solution ... U.U


 * Well I'm working on an incremential tag extension I will let you know when I'm done...
 * You'll be able to use roman numbers (i, ii, iii. iv), numbers, and letters (a,b,c,...,aa,ab,ac,...). So in the parser, they will be change into incremented numbers , , and  (it's for the samething) I will post it as an experimental extension friday next week. But as it will be a tag, you won't be able to use it as semantical datas --Kronoxt 19:00, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
 * so I did it... check Extension:NumerAlpha --Kronoxt 15:02, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Change the name of the button 'Add another'
How to change the name of the button 'Add another' in multiple instances?
 * You can change the text in the wiki page "MediaWiki:Sf_editdata_addanother". Yaron Koren 00:30, 24 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you, but it changes the name for all forms. Is there any way to change for only one form?
 * I see - no. Yaron Koren 15:00, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Templates in Form input
I have a form with a textarea field. When I use the form and try to input a call to a template with a parameter (e.g. ), the resulting page will be cut at that call, any following text will be erased. Is there a workaround? F.trott 09:40, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Works fine with latest version (1.5.3). F.trott 12:34, 10 March 2009 (UTC)


 * That's great to hear. Yaron Koren 13:05, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks !
Congratulations and thanks for that extension, it's working wonderfully well !!! --Alagache 17:57, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Setting a non-constant default
Is there a way to set a non-constant default for fields? E.g. I have a property with a default form and want to preset a field in that form to when the user clicks on a redlink. F.trott 13:49, 12 March 2009 (UTC)


 * There are two non-constant defaults that can be set - "default=now" and "default=current user". That's it, though. Yaron Koren 14:33, 12 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, thx. F.trott 14:43, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

How do I set a field to the page name I'm creating?
This seems like a trivial thing so I'm embarrassed to ask, but how do I set a form field to the page name? For example, if I use the two step process to create a new form, how do I use the page name in step one as a field name in step two, automatically?


 * Well, you're not the first person to ask. There's no way to do it, but you can instead set the field directly within the template, using . Yaron Koren 14:49, 17 March 2009 (UTC)


 * This worked. Clever. Thanks.

allowed values in properties
Instead of: This field allows the following values:
 * Allows value:= Afghanistan (AF)
 * Allows value:=Islands Åland Islands (AX)
 * Allows value:=Albania (AL)

I'd like to use anything like that: Allows value:= Is it possible? - kind regards --Ulli 757 23:27, 25 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I wouldn't recommend anything like that - I'd use "values from category" or "values from concept" in the form instead. Yaron Koren 01:41, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * You're absolutely right! Have a lot of thanks - --Ulli 757 05:35, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

"None" for mandatory radiobutton inputs?
The option "None" always appears for radiobutton inputs. That's ok if $possible_values is empty or the input is not mandatory (or both). But, if the input is marked as mandatory and possible values are given, the user should only be able to choose one of those values, i.e. "None" should not appear as an option, IMO. I changed the respective function in my installation to look like this:

F.trott 11:35, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * The "None" value was recently added in for mandatory radiobuttons. The thinking behind it was that it forces the user to choose one of the values: they can't just ignore that field and have the first value be selected automatically. Yaron Koren 13:25, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I can see your point. I still think the solution to the problem should be left to the form designer (i.e. add the "None" to the list of allowed values and deal with it in the template, e.g. write it in screaming red letters) instead of forcing the "None" onto everybody. In fact, in my case it is quite all right to have one value preselected, as it is the one applicable most of the time and thus adds convinience to the form. Alternatively you could preselect no value at all unless a default is given in the form's definition. F.trott 13:58, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that no-preselected-value solution would be ideal, although HTML doesn't require it and some browsers don't support it (i.e., they select the first value anyway). Adding "None" to the allowed values wouldn't work either, since a "mandatory" setting would allow that value as well. The only other workable solution I can think of is a new parameter like "include none" in the field tag. Yaron Koren 15:20, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Actually, I just thought of another solution: maybe if "mandatory" is specified and a "default=" value is added as well (in your case, I guess it would correspond to the first value), the "None" option can be eliminated. Yaron Koren 14:05, 27 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I think that would work fine. And it would have the additional benefit that it would be possible to specify a default that is not the first in the list. Good work! F.trott 00:12, 28 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks... this is now implemented in version 1.6. Yaron Koren 18:14, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

{{subst:'ing with Forms?
Is it possible to use Semantic Forms for Templates which need to get substituted into an article?

In my case, I'd like to use the Form simply as an aid in creating a page, editing is not neccessary.

In said template the are ~3 properties (to be set by the form fields) and tons of following freetext, which I'd like to be displayed in the free text field.

Finally when saving, the form would have to include the template by using, instead of the normal inclusion.


 * Sorry, this can't be done. Yaron Koren 20:14, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Onestep Process: Pagename by Semantic Query
Currently I'm using a syntax like to name subpages of a the article "Name" consistently. However, an article has many abbreviations, which would be more straightforward to use, e.g. the article "Long Articlename nobody can remember" is redirected to from "Looong" and "Larticle".

I tried using to enable the user to type in one of the abbreviations and still give the subpage the proper name, i.e. "Long Articlename nobody can remember/Subpage", but it resulted in following error:

Catchable fatal error: Argument 1 passed to Article::__construct must be an instance of Title, null given, called in .../extensions/SemanticForms/includes/SF_Utils.inc on line 45 and defined in .../includes/Article.php on line 50

Did I somehow mess up the syntax or is this currently impossible? It would really make forms more user friendly if this were possible.

--84.138.10.119 17:28, 12 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It's not possible, but - correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like the real issue here might be that you want the form to create two pages at the same time: the real page, and the redirect. If so, that's not possible either. Yaron Koren 17:05, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Using Magic words on Form, slow charge
I have discovered an interesting thing. When you try to use some magic words directly on a form, the time to load is increased a lot. I know it is something recursive, but it is useful to show to the user the "template link" to copy, after the edition. I have checked this behaviour on the following magic words.



This behaviour do not happen when you use a template that include magic words. --Neoshinji 17:09, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Inclusion of template in template
Hi, so I need to include a template in a field... But it fails when I post it in the form... replacing "}" by the unknown character "�" Is there a way to do that or... I didn't really verify your work but... That's a problem... So if I want to use  it doesnt work either... Anybody fixed it?

Pointing red links to 'add data' form also for username in top-right-corner
Would it be possible to enable the feature with pointing red links to the add-data-form also for the userpage-link in the personal toolbar (the link with the small person icon next to it). We would like to see this feature so users who are new to our wiki can simply click on their (red) username and get the form.

I browsed around the code a bit and it seems to me that this link is generated in includes/SkinTemplate.php:buildPersonalUrls from the data contained in the array userpageUrlDetails, which in turn is filled by a call of the form: makeUrlDetails( $this->userpage ). Further down the call tree the hook for this function seems to be GetLocalUrl, but I guess there will be some filtering necessary to track down this link (or class of links).

Or is there any other way to make the link point to the form?? - LosWochos 08:24, 20 May 2009 (UTC)


 * You seem to have uncovered a bug - when you click on a user page, if the "User" namespace has been assigned a form, next to the "create" tab there should be an "edit with form" tab (or even better, "create with form"); but it's not there. I've found a fix, that will go into the next version; let's see how it looks after then. Yaron Koren 03:54, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Uh .. yeah .. right .. this bug seems familiar to me :) I discovered it a few days before, but it didn't seem that important since we have a category defined by the template that is filled with the form and assigning the form to the category works once the user page contains the template call. We're really looking forward to the next version ;) - LosWochos 07:42, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Problem with the database
While saving the form I'm getting the error

A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was: (SQL query hidden) from within function "". MySQL returned error "1146: Table 'wikidb2.test_smw_ws_articles' doesn't exist (localhost)". Retrieved from "http://localhost/mediawiki-1.14.0/index.php/3"

I am using MediaWiki-1.14.0, SMW-1.4.2, Halo-1.4.3, SF-1.6


 * That's a Halo database table - you should talk to them about it. Yaron Koren 15:19, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Dynamic dropdown lists
Hi Yaron!

Is there a plan about to extend possibilities of values parameter of parsers? My problem is that I have got a page type based on the next template: ... : ... In the form I can't filter the values of property values field by allowed values of property: ...

... standard inputs ... I think the solution needs Javascript, but because I'm not a JS magician I was looking for something else: I think I need something like this:
 * values from category needs to create a category (Category:Allowed values of property name), but some properties have String type.
 * values from concept needs a concept, but I can't create a concept that lists allowed values of a property (or can I?)
 * I can cut create page operation described above in two steps:
 * 1) When I create the new page (with a create page form) than I fill in the property name only and create a link to another form (add property value form).
 * 2) I send the property name in query string of this link to add property value form, but I can't use this value in values parameter of  parser.

Sorry about my bad english and long post, I hope it was understandable (I'm undestanding less and less). Pipi69e 23:19, 24 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi - there's no plan to have Semantic Forms handle the kind of free-form property-addition you're talking about. Yaron Koren 23:45, 24 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank You for your reply, Yaron! Now I'm trying to insert a dropdown to a form with parser function of Extension:Simple_Forms. It puts a select element in HTML source of form with suitable id and name values, but SF doesn't process the selected option. What I'm doing wrong?
 * Many thanks for your patience :) Pipi69e 10:31, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I'm not surprised that doesn't work; Semantic Forms only processes those inputs it knows about... I can't think of any solution to your problem, unfortunately. Yaron Koren 20:27, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Hmmm... I think I must redesign my data model. Many thanks once more! Pipi69e 20:49, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Feature request: Tool Tips on Form fields
It would be nice to have a possibility to define a tooltip text for form fields so I could give a description what the user should put into that field. F.trott 07:16, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi, this is a very under-documented feature, but you can already do that using SMW's #info function: just add . Yaron Koren 13:06, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Probably never meant to be used by anybody outside SMW, hence undocumented, but it blends in really nice with the Look&Feel of SMW and I would go for it. Alas, it does not work inside a form: The inclusion of SMW_tooltip.js is missing in the AddData special page. Could you give me a pointer where I should start hacking? F.trott 14:28, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, got something figured out for myself. I just changed addJavascriptAndCSS in SF_Utils.inc: Add $smwgScriptPath to the global statement and add near the end. Works like a charm - as long as you don't use autocompletion. With autocompletion you get the info-icon on a new line. Hmm... F.trott 15:19, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * That's strange; I thought I fixed that problem in 1.6 (by making a change like the one you did). What version are you using? Yaron Koren 16:04, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Still on 1.5.4, sorry. I'll try 1.6 then. Thanks. F.trott 18:17, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, I installed 1.7.1. The info-function ist available now. I still have the problem, that the info-icon appears on a new line if I use a text field with autocompletion. Do you have suggestions? F.trott 07:41, 3 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Hm, that's a CSS issue... how about putting the #info call after the the input "label", and before the input itself? Yaron Koren 16:40, 3 June 2009 (UTC)


 * CSS was a good hint. I just put the input fields in a . Thx. F.trott 08:34, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

ERROR -- YAHOO is 'undefined'
I am receiving an error (YAHOO is 'undefined') when I navigate to any form that I have created within my wiki. I believe that the error has to do with autocomplete, but I do not have any properties that are typed as a 'Page' (in which autocomplete is the default). I do know that you are supposed to be able to add the "no autocomplete" parameter to the field's definition, but this effort was unsuccessful.

I am thinking that the error has something to do with the following piece of code: YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(window, "load", attachAutocompleteToAllDocumentFields); To me this looks like it is making autocomplete the default for all fields and overriding all other efforts.

Someone please give me a clue. I have searched everywhere for an answer.


 * The problem is coming from the YUI library. Did you modify your value of $sfgYUIBase, by any chance? Yaron Koren 23:47, 5 June 2009 (UTC)


 * No modifications have been made. Dgennaro 16:31, 8 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Are you using some special skin? If so, try switching to 'MonoBook' and see if the problem is still there. If not, what version of Semantic Forms are you using? Yaron Koren 17:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Everything is working great now. We have been using the Ionic's Isapi Rewrite Filter and if I don't fully qualify the $sfgYUIBase (/wikiCode/extensions/YUI/build/" the re-write rules were building the url as 'wikiCode/Special:AddData/extensions/YUI/build/yahoo/yahoo-min.js'.  If I don't define a fully qualified path for $sfgYUIBase I need to determine a re-write rule. Wolcott 18:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Question/Problem...
MediaWiki 1.14.0 PHP 5.2.9-2 (cgi-fcgi) MySQL 5.1.34-community Semantic MediaWiki (Version 1.4.2) Semantic Forms (Version 1.7.1)

I am having a problem with form parsing. Basically I have a form that Uses the same templates over and over again. For example:

I use this template subsubsection to layout these sections on the final page and classify for TOC. What is happening is that all of my sections/subsections/subsubsections are accounted for on the final page, however only the values given to the final instance of those templates are loaded for all of them. So in this instance the final page will have, given i dont enter anything on for the details field:

any thoughts besides going back and only allowing a single instance of each template on this form?

67.97.209.36 18:23, 8 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You can't have a "for template" call more than once for the same template in a form; that seems to be the problem. Yaron Koren 19:09, 8 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Anyway to add this? or is my only option to create separate templates? 67.97.209.36 20:15, 8 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I think that's your only option. What's so bad about separate templates? Yaron Koren 23:19, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * The sheer number of them. I think I need to go a different route, this could become unmanagable. 67.97.209.36 13:05, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
 * My main issue is have this page with mutiples of these sections/subsection/subsubsections, but also scattered around it a few multiple instance templates that i use to build a table on the final page. I could move this all to a single template if i were able to embed mutliple instance templates inside the main template. is that possible? an example below.

lets say my section template looks like this



lets say the page created looks like this

is this possible?


 * I don't really understand the example - you want to embed form-definition code in actual pages? In any case, the SF mailing list might be a better venue for this discussion. Yaron Koren 14:25, 9 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I have added what the page would like created, i hope that helps. 67.97.209.36 14:40, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I have also sent an email to the users list for assistance.


 * Apparently I am not the first to want this.
 * http://groups.google.com/group/semantic-forms/browse_thread/thread/131fbc09a3dd3c55/ccf9bd970c19a093?lnk=gst&q=embed#ccf9bd970c19a093
 * 67.97.209.36 15:36, 9 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Don't know if this is any help, but you could create a dedicated page for each of your documentreferencerows (or whatever you want to include more than once) and then in the UISection template do an for all documentreferencerows pertaining to that UISection. Of course for that every documentreferencerow would have to know its UISection.


 * Or - if you want to push it a bit further - you could create pages for the documents (with name, date, author) and pages for the references (with "Has UISection", "Has document"). Thus you could reuse the documents for different UISections. Might save some effort on maintainance when a referenced document changes. F.trott 06:55, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I am not sure i understand how i could create pages for these items separately. My understanding is a single form can only create a single page. these are items that are entered by a user, they are to be presented as table rows. The idea here is a single form, it is actually presented the same as our existing word doc that it used for documentation. I am actually figured out how using templates i could build this into a single template call in the resulting page, problem is with the new parser in media wiki you cannot build a template call from other templates, the result of the templates ends up being a literal string.97.100.99.167 11:45, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Periods not used in automatic pagenames
I have a form, where the page name of the created page is derived from a text field. Alas, periods are not used and replaced by whitespaces instead. Is this a known problem? Or even a feature? :) Is there a known work around? F.trott 14:27, 19 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Any Suggestions on this? F.trott 15:02, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Have you tried using the urlencode template? http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Parser_function#URLENCODE 67.97.209.36 15:09, 9 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Leads to closing curly braces appearing in the form and an infinite loop when I try to save the form. Since other characters are no problem (e.g. parantheses, ampersands, etc.) I do not think it's an encoding problem. I believe only the period gets replaced somewhere. F.trott 05:11, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, found the responsible str_replace in SF_FormPrinter.inc and just commented it out. Everything seems fine. Question is: The replace was put there explicitly. Why though? Did I just open a new problem? F.trott 06:07, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi, sorry for not responding before. Yes, I've seen that same str_replace, and the thing is, I can't remember in the least why it's there. I'll try to figure it out, although I might take out that line anyway. I'm glad it worked for you. Yaron Koren 19:10, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * No problem. I'll report if I encounter any problems. F.trott 11:41, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Illegal mix of collations
We installed SMW and Sematic Forms on MediaWiki 1.11.1. Installation went fine but when we attempted to use Special:CreateTemplate we received the following error:


 * Database error
 * A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:


 * (SQL query hidden)


 * from within function "SMW::getUnusedPropertySubjects". MySQL returned error "1267: Illegal mix of collations (latin1_swedish_ci,IMPLICIT) and (latin1_bin,IMPLICIT) for operation '=' (***.***.com)".

I found bug 14931 which sounded related.

Our database was latin1 so we locked down MediaWiki ( $wgReadOnly = "..."; in LocalSettings.php) and connected to mysql and submitted

alter database wikidb CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_bin;

then unlocked. This resolved the problem for us. --DavidBiesack 16:17, 12 June 2009 (UTC)