Extension:CountingMarker

The CountingMarker extension provides functionality for monetising a wiki with the Verwertungs&shy;gesellschaft Wort (Copyright collective).

Description
Anyone who is a member of the Verwertungs­gesellschaft Wort (Copyright collective) and operates a wiki faces several problems when they want to participate in the METIS programme, i.e. registering their online texts for monetization.

METIS stands for „Meldesystem für Texte auf Internet­seiten“ (“Reporting System for Texts on Internet Pages”). VG Wort requires a minimum length of the texts as well as a minimum number of article views (“hits”), which must be proven by the installation of “counting pixels” on the article page. For the installation of these pixels you can order “counting markers” from VG Wort, each of which consists of a set of public and private keys and a URL to a counting pixel on a VG Wort server.

A snippet of HTML code on how to include this counter in an HTML page is included. For web pages from the 1980s, which consisted of self-made HTML pages, it is a simple matter to insert this HTML code via copy and paste into the HTML code of the page. But how can these counters be integrated into modern content management systems, which in a very complex way assemble the pages finally delivered to the reader from database queries, templates and skins?

This task, as well as the administration of the counter marks, the assignment of the counter marks to the articles and the annual report to VG Wort are part of the functional scope of this enhancement.

Installation
Since MediaWiki 1.25 the extension should be installed to use the full range of functions. However, there is a basic version in which the HitCounters extension is not required.

Tested
The branches REL1_23 and REL1_25 were tested with MediaWiki versions: 1.23, 1.25, (1.27), 1.31, (1.33), 1.35.13

The branch REL1_35 was tested with MediaWiki versions: 1.35.13, (1.36), (1.37), (1.38), 1.39.5, 1.40.1

Localisation
The extension is provided in "de", "en", "es".

Version history

 * Version 0.2.0
 * MediaWiki v1.23-1.33
 * First public release


 * Version 0.2.3/0.3.3
 * Multi-author support added und user groups with individual rights defined.


 * Version 0.4.0
 * MediaWiki v1.35+
 * Adaptations regarding MediaWiki 1.37.
 * Added the ability for the author to select his articles in the statistics table.


 * Version 0.5.0
 * Add a tag.


 * Version 0.5.1/0.5.2/0.5.3/0.5.4/0.5.5/0.5.6/0.5.7
 * See Change log


 * Version 0.5.8
 * Add hook, offering custom settings to the user.


 * Version 0.5.9
 * Changed the prefix of the configuration variables from default to.
 * Changed "configuration schema", replaced manifest version 1 with version 2. (REL1_35 branch only)
 * Replaced class “CountingMarkerHooks” (extends “Hooks”) with “HookHandler” with implementation of interfaces. (REL1_35 branch only)


 * Version 0.6.0
 * New database support for “sqlite”.

Other issues
If you run a and manage the extensions centrally (via soft links), you have the problem that the  of this extension are not found. Currently, to solve this problem, these maintenance scripts can be copy & paste into the folders of the MediaWiki installations.

Backward compatibility

 * REL1_23
 * This branch (current version 0.6.0 ) is compatible up to with PHP versions 5.6-7.x.
 * This branch in all its versions is fully backwards compatible with MediaWiki 1.24, and except for a helping function even compatible with MediaWiki 1.23.


 * REL1_25
 * This branch (current version 0.6.0 ) is compatible up to MediaWiki 1.35.x with PHP versions 5.6-7.x.
 * Removed backward compatibility with versions prior to MediaWiki 1.25 is removed.


 * REL1_35
 * This branch (current version 0.6.0 ) is tested up to MediaWiki 1.40.x with PHP versions 7.3-8.x.
 * Removed backward compatibility with versions prior to MediaWiki 1.35.3 is removed.