Extension:StructuredNavigation

MediaWiki extensions manual

StructuredNavigation Release status: stable
Implementation	ContentHandler , Tag
Description	Allows creating machine-readable navigation templates
Author(s)	Samantha Nguyen
Latest version	2.0.0
MediaWiki	1.34+
Database changes	No
License	MIT License
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Parameters $wgStructuredNavigationEnableExperimentalAPI $wgStructuredNavigationReservedUsername
Added rights structurednav-create structurednav-edit
Hooks used BeforeDisplayNoArticleText CodeEditorGetPageLanguage ParserFirstCallInit UserGetReservedNames
Translate the StructuredNavigation extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Check usage and version matrix.

The StructuredNavigation extension allows users to create machine-readable navigation templates.

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called StructuredNavigation in your extensions/ folder.
• Only when installing from git run Composer to install PHP dependencies, by issuing composer install --no-dev in the extension directory. (See task T173141 for potential complications.)
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

  wfLoadExtension( 'StructuredNavigation' );
  

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

Usage

You can play with an example in /docs/examples (from the source code repository). For this example, let's try using wikipedia-en-dontnod-entertainment.json.

1. Create a new page at Navigation:Dontnod Entertainment, import the JSON into that page, then save your edit.
2. At a separate wikitext page, add <mw-navigation title="Dontnod Entertainment"> and press save.

History

In December 2018, I thought that creating navigations were annoying, especially considering every wiki had a different way of creating those navigations. This resulted in me creating the StructuredNavigation extension. However, there are some pitfalls:

• This XKCD is really relevant here: https://xkcd.com/927/
• Currently, there is no caching in place
• There is no warning yet if you try delete a navigation and it's currently embedded on existing pages
• As far as I know for, since the content is written in JSON:
  • It's currently impossible to add categories to the navigation page itself when it exists in the Navigation namespace.
  • all the links (as far as I know) are not tracked in the pagelinks table. This in turn, makes links in a navigation not included/considered in the following:
    • Special pages: Special:WhatLinksHere, Special:MostLinked, Special:LonelyPages, Special:DeadendPages(?), Special:Export(?), Special:WantedPages(?)
    • API modules: API:Alllinks, API:Backlinks, API:Links
• There is no custom visual editor/UI to edit these navigations, which may pose difficulties to editors who are not familiar with JSON

This extension is still stable and currently works. Please note that this extension is free and open source, and I only work on this extension when I have free time. However, if you like this extension and enjoy using it, or have any feedback, please let me know and post them on the discussion page. Thank you!