Extension:Cargo

MediaWiki extensions manual

Cargo Release status: stable
Implementation	Special page , API , Parser function
Description	An extension that allows for the storage and querying of data contained within templates.
Author(s)	Yaron Koren <yaron57@gmail.com> (Yaron Korentalk)
Latest version	3.9.2 (June 2026)
Compatibility policy	Master maintains backward compatibility.
MediaWiki	1.42+
Database changes	Yes
Composer	mediawiki/cargo
Tables cargo_tables cargo_pages cargo_backlinks
Parameters $wgCargoFileDataColumns $wgCargoDrilldownLargestFontSize $wgCargoDecimalMark $wgCargoDefaultStringBytes $wgCargoAllowedSQLFunctions $wgCargoHideNamespaceName $wgCargoMaxVisibleHierarchyDrilldownValues $wgCargoDrilldownSmallestFontSize $wgCargoDBTableOptions $wgCargoMaxQueryLimit $wgCargoDefaultMapService $wgCargoStoreUseTemplateArgsFallback $wgCargoPageDataColumns $wgCargoIgnoreBacklinks $wgCargoDigitGroupingCharacter $wgCargoDefaultQueryLimit $wgCargoDrilldownNumRangesForNumbers $wgCargo24HourTime $wgCargoLegacyNullLuaFieldsAsEmptyString $wgCargoTablesPrioritizeReplacements $wgCargoRecurringEventMaxInstances $wgCargoDrilldownUseTabs $wgCargoDrilldownMinValuesForComboBox $wgCargoMapClusteringMinimum
Added rights recreatecargodata deletecargodata runcargoqueries
Hooks used AdminLinks ApprovedRevsRevisionApproved ApprovedRevsRevisionUnapproved CategoryAfterPageAdded CategoryAfterPageRemoved LinksUpdate LoadExtensionSchemaUpdates MakeGlobalVariablesScript PageDeleteComplete PageForms::TemplateFieldEnd PageForms::TemplateFieldStart PageMoveComplete PageSaveComplete PageSchemasRegisterHandlers ParserFirstCallInit ResourceLoaderGetConfigVars ScribuntoExternalLibraries SidebarBeforeOutput SkinTemplateNavigation::Universal UploadComplete
Hooks provided CargoSetFormatClasses CargoBeforeStoreData CargoDisplayExportData CargoTablesSetAllowedActions CargoTablesSetActionLinks
Licence	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Browse repository (Phabricator · GitHub) Gerrit code review Git commit log Download source tarball
Example	Wikimedia Australia's Cargo Tables
Translate the Cargo extension
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

Cargo is an extension to MediaWiki that provides a lightweight way to store and query the data contained within the calls to templates, such as infoboxes. It is similar in concept to the Semantic MediaWiki extension, but offers a number of advantages, including ease of installation and ease of use.

Cargo stores all its data in database tables, which can be placed in either MediaWiki's own database (the default) or a separate database. For the most part, each stored template gets its data stored in a single DB table, with a column for each relevant template parameter. There are a few exceptions to this: the handling of template fields that hold arrays/lists of values, and of fields that hold geographical coordinates, is more complex, due to poor native handling of those data types in most DB systems. And multiple templates can be set to all store their data in one DB table.

The extension defines a number of parser functions; these three are the most important:

• #cargo_declare – placed within the ‎<noinclude> part of a template; it defines the schema for a table.
• #cargo_store – stores one row to a Cargo table; usually placed within the ‎<includeonly> part of a template.
• #cargo_query – queries one or more Cargo data tables, using SQL components.

The other defined parser functions are:

• #cargo_attach – defines a template as adding rows to a table declared elsewhere.
• #cargo_compound_query – displays the results of multiple queries in one place.
• #cargo_display_map – displays a map showing a single point.
• #recurring_event – prints out the dates for a recurring event; for use by #cargo_store.

Cargo also defines various interfaces for viewing and drilling down through this stored data. As such, it adds the following special pages:

• Special:CargoQuery
• Special:CargoTableDiagram
• Special:CargoTables
• Special:Drilldown

Cargo has been tested, and works, with the MySQL and PostgreSQL database systems. In theory, it also supports SQLite, but it has not been well-tested with SQLite and may not work.

This version of the Cargo extension requires MediaWiki 1.42+.

Below are links to the entire documentation.

• Download and installation
  How to download Cargo via either Git, a standard download, or a software package; and how to install it.
• Quick start guide
  A short guide to generate Cargo-based templates and Cargo tables, especially in conjunction with the Page Forms extension.
• Other documentation
  Links to other forms of documentation
• SMW migration guide
  A guide for modifying templates and queries that use Semantic MediaWiki to switch to Cargo instead.
• Storing data
  Using #cargo_declare, #cargo_attach and #cargo_store to create and populate Cargo tables.
• Querying data
  Querying Cargo data with #cargo_query, #cargo_compound_query and other tools.
• Display formats
  The various display formats available, including lists, charts, maps and calendars.
• Browsing data
  Browsing the Cargo data using the built-in tools: Special:Drilldown, Special:CargoQuery, Special:CargoTables
• Exporting data
  Exporting Cargo data into output formats including: CSV, JSON, RSS
• Other features
  Other features of Cargo, including displaying maps and making use of Lua .
• Common problems
  Common issues that people have run into.
• Known bugs and planned features
  Known bugs in the software, and potential workarounds for them; plus features that are planned in the current development roadmap.
• Getting support
  Where to ask questions, submit bug reports, submit feature requests, submit fixes, and add new translations.
• Authors and credits
  The main authors, others who have contributed to the code, and credits to other organizations and software projects.
• Version history
  The release history of Cargo.
• Sites that use Cargo
  A small sampling of the wikis that use Cargo.
• Cargo and Semantic MediaWiki
  A comparison of Cargo to its main alternative, Semantic MediaWiki, in terms of both features and performance.
• FAQ
  Frequently-asked questions.

Configuration

Below are Cargo's global configuration settings along with their default values.

To configure Cargo to use a separate database instead of the MediaWiki database, the following settings are provided:

Separate database configuration settings
Setting	Default	Description
$wgCargoDBtype	null	Database type.
$wgCargoDBserver	null	Host name or IP address of database server.
$wgCargoDBname	null	Name of the database.
$wgCargoDBuser	null	Database username.
$wgCargoDBpassword	null	The password for $wgCargoDBuser.
$wgCargoDBprefix	null	Database table name prefix.
$wgCargoDBRowFormat	null	Database row format.
$wgCargoDBTableOptions	null	Comma-separated options, analogous to $wgDBTableOptions.

For character configuration as related to numbers, the following configuring settings are provided:

Character configuration settings
Setting	Default	Description
$wgCargoDecimalMark	.	Decimal character for numbers.
$wgCargoDigitGroupingCharacter	,	Thousands digit separator.

The remaining global configuration settings are as follows:

Setting	Default	Description
$wgCargoAllowedSQLFunctions		Sets allowed SQL functions.
$wgCargoRecurringEventMaxInstances	100	The number of max instances to store for recurring events with no set end date.
$wgCargoDefaultStringBytes	300	The default number of characters for fields of type Page, String, Wikitext string, File, URL, Email
$wgCargoDefaultQueryLimit	100	Number of results to show for #cargo_query if no limit is set
$wgCargoMaxQueryLimit	5000	The maximum allowed number of results for #cargo_query
$wgCargoQueryMaxExecutionTime	null	The maximum amount of time (in milliseconds) that Cargo queries can run before they are stopped (MySQL/MariaDB only)
$wgCargo24HourTime	false	If true uses 24-hour time for Datetime field types.
$wgCargoDefaultMapService	OpenLayers	Sets the default map service to Google Maps, if set to googlemaps, to Leaflet if set to leaflet, and to OpenLayers if set to openlayers.
$wgCargoGoogleMapsKey	null	API key for Google Maps, for the googlemaps display format.
$wgCargoMapClusteringMinimum	80	If the number of map points displayed is greater than the value of $wgCargoMapClusteringMinimum, the map displays the locations in "clusters" instead of individual points, for readability. If set to a very high number, does not display clustering.
$wgCargoDrilldownUseTabs	true	Displays Special:Drilldown table names as tabs at the top instead of a vertical list at the side.
$wgCargoDrilldownSmallestFontSize	-1	If set to a positive number, sets the smallest font size, in pixels, for a tag-cloud-style display of filter values.
$wgCargoDrilldownLargestFontSize	-1	If set to a positive number, sets the largest font size, in pixels, for a tag-cloud-style display of filter values.
$wgCargoDrilldownMinValuesForComboBox	40	Sets the minimum number of values before their display is converted to a combo box, instead of individual links.
$wgCargoDrilldownNumRangesForNumbers	5	For fields/filters of type Integer or Float, specifies the number of "buckets" into which values are divided.
$wgCargoMaxVisibleHierarchyDrilldownValues	30	If set to a positive integer, specifies the maximum number of values shown at a time for any hierarchy field (All the top-level values are shown irrespective of this value). The values are hidden beyond a certain depth of the hierarchy such that the count of total visible values is at most this number.
$wgCargoTablesPrioritizeReplacements	false	If true, all tables having a replacement appear at the top of the Special:CargoTables page, instead displaying them in alphabetical order.
$wgCargoPageDataColumns	[]	The set of fields to store in the _pageData Cargo table. See Storing page data .
$wgCargoFileDataColumns	[]	The set of fields to store in the _fileData Cargo table. See Storing file data .
$wgCargoHideNamespaceName	[6]	Array of namespaces to hide from query results.
$wgCargoLegacyNullLuaFieldsAsEmptyString	false	Null results to the Lua Cargo query function should return as string rather than nil. This allows you to rollback a breaking change from early 2022. New wikis created after this time should not enable this.
$wgCargoStoreUseTemplateArgsFallback	true	Enable the behavior that looks for template arguments that match the template's declared table to fill columns.

See also

• Manual:Managing data in MediaWiki – An overview and comparison of data management extensions