Extension:Spark

MediaWiki extensions manual

Spark Release status: beta
Implementation	Tag , Search, Extended syntax
Description	Adds a <spark /> tag that enables embedding Spark mash-ups. The spark library was created by Denny Vrandecic and Andreas Harth.
Author(s)	Jeroen De Dauwtalk
Latest version	0.1 (2011-05-30)
MediaWiki	1.17+
PHP	5.2+
License	GNU General Public License 3.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Parameters $wgSparkFormat $wgSparkQuery
Hooks used ParserFirstCallInit
Quarterly downloads	1 (Ranked 163rd)
Translate the Spark extension if it is available at translatewiki.net

Spark is a JavaScript library that allows the simple integration of data from all over the Web in any HTML page, using a rich set of visualisations. This extension enabled embedding of spark mashups using <spark /> tags.

About

Spark is a JavaScript library that allows the simple integration of data from all over the Web in any HTML page, using a rich set of visualizations. This extension enabled embedding of spark mashups using <spark /> tags.

Spark as described on the Spark website:

The web is not only growing in sheer size, but it also grows in how much it is interconnected. Where once the Web was a set of more or less separated sites, today sites are more and more being connected. More and more data is being offered on the Web in a way that can be further processed, and more and more sites and applications are using external data. More and more mashups are created, where data from different sources is integrated and displayed with novel visualisations.

Spark is a library that enables HTML authors to create mashups more easily than ever before. Using standard Web technologies like SPARQL, RDF, HTML5, and JavaScript, Spark can query external knowledge sources (so called triple stores or SPARQL endpoints), and then visualise the results.

With Spark, website developers can create visually appealing mashups without having to write a single line of JavaScript, but merely using some markup elements describing the source of the data that is to be shown, a query to select the appropriate data, and selecting one from an expandable set of visualisations and their parameters.

This MediaWiki extension, unsurprisingly titled Spark, adds a <spark> tag to MediaWiki which is equivalent to <div class="spark"> as described in the spark library documentation. All parameters (except the class="spark" one) can just be copied over between spark divs in web pages, and the <spark> tag in MediaWiki.

Feature overview

• Visualization of data obtained via SPARQL queries.
• Support for all Spark visualizations.
• Use of the native Spark syntax, which can be copied from native spark divs to the spark tag and back.

Requirements

Spark requires:

• MediaWiki 1.17 or above
• PHP 5.2 or above

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/Spark/ 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/Spark.git

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called Spark in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  require_once "$IP/extensions/Spark/Spark.php";
  

•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

Configuration of Spark is done by adding simple PHP statements to your LocalSettings.php file. These statements need to be placed AFTER the inclusion of Spark. The options are listed below and their default is set in the Spark settings file. You should NOT modify the settings file, but can have a look at it to get an idea of how to use the settings, in case the below descriptions do not suffice.

As of version 0.1, there are no settings yet.

Version

This is a copy of the release notes file in the repo, which might be more up to date then this page.

Version 0.2 / 201x-0x-xx

• Added README, INSTALL, COPYTING and RELEASE-NOTES

Version 0.1 / 2011-05-30

Initial release with these features:

• ‎<spark> tag

Internationalization

Spark is fully internationalized. Translation of Spark messages is done through translatewiki.net. The translation for this extension can be found here. To add language values or change existing ones, you should create an account on translatewiki.net, then request permission from the administrators to translate a certain language or languages on this page (this is a very simple process). Once you have permission for a given language, you can log in and add or edit whatever messages you want to in that language.

Authors

Spark has been written by Jeroen De Dauw. It includes the Spark library created by Denny Vrandečić and Andreas Harth.

See also

• Spark library - the JavaScript/jQuery library included in this extension to create mash-ups.
• Spark on Ohloh - commit and comitter statistics
• Semantic MediaWiki - extension that lets you store and query data within the wiki's pages and makes it available via the semantic web.