Extension:SelectCategory

**MediaWiki extensions manual**
SelectCategory; Release status: beta
Implementation	Page action
Description	Allows the user to select categories from existing ones when editing a page or uploading a new file.
Author(s)	Leon Weber; Manuel Schneider; Christian Boltz; Daniel Centore; and others;
Latest version	1.2.0 (2025-08-04)
Compatibility policy	Snapshots releases along with MediaWiki. Master is not backward compatible.
License	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; ; README; CHANGELOG
	Parameters $wgSelectCategoryNamespaces; $wgSelectCategoryRoot; $wgSelectCategoryEnableSubpages;
	Hooks used EditPage::showEditForm:initial; EditPage::attemptSave; UploadForm:initial; UploadForm:BeforeProcessing; BeforePageDisplay;
	Translate the SelectCategory extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The SelectCategory extension provides three functions:

It shows a list of all categories (unless a custom root category is configured) in their hierarchical structure on the edit page.
It strips all categories linked within a page upon editing and selects them in the category list list.
It adds selected categories from the list to the text body of the page on saving.

Download

The extension can be retrieved directly from Git ^[?]:

Browse code
Some extensions have tags for stable releases.
- Browse tags
- Select the tag
- Click "snapshot"
Each branch is associated with a past MediaWiki release. There is also a "master" branch containing the latest alpha version (might require an alpha version of MediaWiki).
- Browse branches
- Select a branch name
- Click Continue

Extract the snapshot and place it in the extensions/SelectCategory/ directory of your MediaWiki installation.

If you are familiar with Git and have shell access to your server, you can also obtain the extension as follows:

cd extensions/ git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/SelectCategory.git

Installation

Download and move the extracted SelectCategory folder to your extensions/ directory.
Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:
```
cd extensions/
git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/SelectCategory
```
Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:
```
wfLoadExtension( 'SelectCategory' );
```
Configure as required
Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

$wgSelectCategoryNamespaces

Defines in which namespaces the extension should be active.

All namespaces are already predefined in the array. Set a specific namespace to true to enable or to false to disable the extension.

Active per default are: Media, Main, Project, Image, Help, Category.

$wgSelectCategoryNamespaces[NS_PROJECT] = false;
$wgSelectCategoryNamespaces[NS_CATEGORY] = false;

or

$wgSelectCategoryNamespaces     = array(
        NS_MEDIA                => true,
        NS_MAIN                 => true,
        NS_TALK                 => false,
        NS_USER                 => false,
        NS_USER_TALK            => false,
        NS_PROJECT              => true,
        NS_PROJECT_TALK         => false,
        NS_IMAGE                => true,
        NS_IMAGE_TALK           => false,
        NS_MEDIAWIKI            => false,
        NS_MEDIAWIKI_TALK       => false,
        NS_TEMPLATE             => false,
        NS_TEMPLATE_TALK        => false,
        NS_HELP                 => true,
        NS_HELP_TALK            => false,
        NS_CATEGORY             => true,
        NS_CATEGORY_TALK        => false,
        100                     => true,  // customized namespace, e.g. ''Portal'', c.f. [[Manual:Using custom namespaces]]
        101                     => false  // customized namespace, e.g. ''Portal talk'', c.f. [[Manual:Using custom namespaces]]
);

$wgSelectCategoryRoot

Set a specific root category depending the namespace. Only categories within this root will be displayed when editing a page in a certain namespace.

Useful on big wiki sites to keep the database load down.

If not set (default) the extension searches for all root categories and displays them including all children.

$wgSelectCategoryRoot = array(
       NS_MEDIA                => false,
       NS_MAIN                 => "My Article Root Category",
       NS_TALK                 => false,
       NS_USER                 => false,
       NS_USER_TALK            => false,
       NS_PROJECT              => false,
       NS_PROJECT_TALK         => false,
       NS_IMAGE                => "My Image Root Category",
       NS_IMAGE_TALK           => false,
       NS_MEDIAWIKI            => false,
       NS_MEDIAWIKI_TALK       => false,
       NS_TEMPLATE             => false,
       NS_TEMPLATE_TALK        => false,
       NS_HELP                 => false,
       NS_HELP_TALK            => false,
       NS_CATEGORY             => false,
       NS_CATEGORY_TALK        => false
);

$wgSelectCategoryChosenMode

Defines if Chosen should be used for selection. true by default. Set this to false to use the older treeview-based selector instead.

$wgSelectCategoryEnableSubpages

Defines if the extension should be active when editing subpages.

$wgSelectCategoryEnableSubpages = false;

$wgSelectCategoryEnableOnEditPage

Defines if the extension should be active when editing pages. false by default, i.e. the extension is not active on ?action=edit.

$wgSelectCategoryEnableOnEditPage = false;

$wgSelectCategoryEnableOnUploadForm

Defines if the extension should be active on Special:Upload; true by default.

$wgSelectCategoryEnableOnUploadForm = true;

$wgSelectCategoryToplevelAllowed

Should the top-level category be allowed for selection (false will hide the checkbox for it)? true by default.

Note: if you set this to false, articles in the top-level category will be removed from this category on next edit.

Style

To customize the design of the select box, use the CSS ID "SelectCategoryBox" and attach your own styles to [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]] or your users' [[User:USERNAME/monobook.css]].

Bugs & Feature Requests

Please file bugs and feature requests in the bug tracker on phabricator.wikimedia.org. You might just use this direct link that has these two settings pre-defined: