Extension talk:Springboard

A little bit more about what goes on under the hood?

Hello! I run some wikis and have generally been keeping them updated with some scripting that does a mix of git and composer updating, since different extensions like to handle that differently. It is becoming a bigger hassle with each update, so I am glad to see this. But it makes me wonder: will it install from git or tarball or what? This is relevant since, if I wanted to back out of using it, I would want to know what will be in place to start updating manually again.

Also, it's great that it installs the extensions, but does it also keep them updated? Either ongoing, or upon me running a git update of the core mediawiki install? Thanks! Tenbergen (talk) 23:27, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

Extensions and skins are downloaded via Git. In theory, that makes it easy to update any extension or skin, if/when someone changes to a more recent Springboard URL (such as by upgrading to the next LTS version of MediaWiki). Unfortunately, Springboard does not yet support updating - this would have to be done via an "Update" button, which would show up for any Springboard-downloaded extension or skin whose revision number is different from what's in the YAML file pointed to by the current Springboard URL. Hopefully "Update" will be added soon - and definitely it should be added before MW 1.47 is released. Yaron Koren (talk) 22:45, 27 October 2025 (UTC)

Got a fatal error

I have MediaWiki installed through XAMPP on my home computer for local use, so there are no links.

Versions

• Mediawiki: 1.43.0
• PHP: 8.2.12 (apache2handler)
• ICU: 71.1
• MariaDB: 10.4.32-MariaDB
• Lua: 5.1.5
• Python: 3.14.3
• Pygments: 2.20.0
• ImageMagick: 7.1.2-18 Q16-HDRI x64
• xpdf's pdftotext and pdfinfo: 4.06
• Ghostscript: 10.07.0

After I tried installing an extension via Springboard, I got a "configuration error" saying, "MediaWiki is unable to load the extension." Then a bunch of stuff about the files it couldn't find.

I looked in the extensions folder and the extension I tried to install wasn't there. So I added it manually. Still got the same error message. BrigidTheIrish (talk) 17:13, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

What version of Springboard are you running? Yaron Koren (talk) 19:58, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

The Readme says it's version 1.0. BrigidTheIrish (talk) 19:45, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

There is a more recent version, for what it's worth. You should try upgrading Springboard - but if that doesn't work, what's the specific error message? Yaron Koren (talk) 21:31, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

Okay...

MediaWiki is unable to load the extension AdminLinks. Please check that the extension's name is correct and all of its files are properly installed.
::::Details:
:::: Error reading F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\extensions\Springboard/extensions/AdminLinks/extension.json. filemtime(): stat failed for F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\extensions\Springboard/extensions/AdminLinks/extension.json.
::::#0 F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php(57): MediaWiki\Registration\ExtensionRegistry->queue('F:\\Users\\<!--name-->\\...')
::::#1 F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\extensions\Springboard\includes\CustomLoader.php(2): wfLoadExtension('AdminLinks', 'F:\\Users\\<!--name-->\\...')
::::#2 F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\LocalSettings.php(174): require_once('F:\\Users\\<!--name-->\\...')
::::#3 F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\includes\Setup.php(222): require_once('F:\\Users\\<!--name-->\\...')
::::#4 F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\includes\WebStart.php(85): require_once('F:\\Users\\<!--name-->\\...')
::::#5 F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\index.php(50): require('F:\\Users\\<!--name-->\\...')
::::#6 {main}
:::: Fatal error:  Error Loading extension. Unable to open file F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\extensions\Springboard/extensions/AdminLinks/extension.json: filemtime(): stat failed for F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\extensions\Springboard/extensions/AdminLinks/extension.json in F:\Users\<!--name-->\Documents\xampp\htdocs\mywiki\includes\registration\MissingExtensionException.php on line 102

BrigidTheIrish (talk) 18:28, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Ah, this is on Windows. Is that "<!--name-->" thing part of the actual path, or is that just your substitution now for privacy reasons? If the latter, then the issue might be slashes instead of backslashes in the path, i.e. a bug in Windows handling in Springboard. Yaron Koren (talk) 04:43, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

It's a substitution for privacy.

So, I'm guessing there isn't a solution to this problem. At least not one that can be accomplished without a master's degree in computer programming. BrigidTheIrish (talk) 16:54, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Actually, maybe it's not a slashes/Windows issue. Could you look to see if the AdminLinks directory is actually there? If not, it might be a write permissions problem. Yaron Koren (talk) 16:42, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

AdminLinks wasn't there, so this is a problem with Springboard not having permission to add folders to the directory? BrigidTheIrish (talk) 17:12, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

It sounds like it - did you call the "chmod" command listed in the documentation? (Assuming you have command-line access.) Yaron Koren (talk) 21:32, 26 April 2026 (UTC)

I thought I did. And, yeah, I have command-line access. The wiki runs through XAMPP on my personal computer. BrigidTheIrish (talk) 14:57, 13 May 2026 (UTC)