Manual:Extension.json/Schema: Difference between revisions

This page documents the schema used by extension.json. All fields are optional unless otherwise specified. It is currently incomplete.

name

This field is required.

This is the extension's canonical name. It should not be changed once set, as it is used as an API for other extensions to detect what is installed.

{
    "name": "FooBar"
}

manifest_version

This field is required.

This specifies the version of the extension.json file format that is being used. In the future if breaking changes are made to the file format, this number will be incremented to continue supporting extensions using the older format.

• 1: 1.25+
• 2: 1.29+

{
    "manifest_version": 1
}

Note: This field is typically placed at the bottom of extension.json files.

namemsg

A localized version of the extension's name. Typically the message key is named in the format <name>-extensionname or <name>-skinname.

{
    "namemsg": "foobar-extensionname"
}

type

The type of extension it is, for sorting on Special:Version. The following types are supported:

• api — API extensions
• antispam — antispam extensions
• media — media handlers
• parserhook — extensions that modify, add or replace functionality in the MediaWiki parser
• skin — extensions that modify skins
• specialpage — extensions that add special pages
• variable — make a new variable
• other — does something else

Note: custom types can be added by using the ExtensionTypes hook. If not set, the extension will default to the "other" section.

{
    "type": "specialpage"
}

author

The authors of the extension, may contain wikitext. This can either be a single string, or a list of strings. Additionally, the special string ... may be used to add a generic "and others" suffix using the version-poweredby-others message.

version

The current version of the extension. Should be in a format supported by composer.

url

URL to the extension's "homepage" or documentation. Typically points to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:<extensionname>.

description

Description of the extension, may contain wikitext. Note: it is recommended to use descriptionmsg instead.

descriptionmsg

Localization message key for the extension's description, typically in the format <extensionname>-desc. This will override description.

license-name

The SPDX license identifier for the license the source code is licensed as. If you create a file named "COPYING" in the extension root directory with the contents of the license, it will also be linked and visible from Special:Version.

requires

The requires section allows you to document dependencies on versions of MediaWiki core and other extensions.

{
    "requires": {
        "MediaWiki": ">= 1.27.0",
        "extensions": {
            "FooBar": "*",
            "Baz": ">= 1.2.3"
        }
    }
}

You can use any version specifier that composer supports. For MediaWiki, it is best practice to specify a >= for the minimum supported version, unless you know a future version is explicitly broken. For extensions, if they don't have a version specifier set, or don't use a versioning system, use a plain * to indicate any version is acceptable.

config

The config section is where you can define configuration settings that sysadmins can change to configure the extension. This section should only be used for things that are configured in LocalSettings.php - if it is supposed to be modified by other extensions, you should use attributes, or if it is just class metadata, use a private static variable or something like that. The format of config changed in manifest_version 2, this documentation covers its usage in manifest_version 1.

A simple example:

{
    "config": {
        "FooBarUseExtraFeature": false
    }
}

This is equivalent to writing $wgFooBarUseExtraFeature = false; in PHP. Note that the typical "wg" prefix is not included, as that will be added by default. If your settings start with a different prefix like $eg, you can use the magic _prefix key:

{
    "config": {
        "_prefix": "eg",
        "FooBarUseExtraFeature": false
    }
}

This is now equivalent to writing $egFooBarUseExtraFeature = false; in PHP. A more complex example:

{
    "config": {
        "FooBarEnabledNamespaces": {
            "0": true,
            "2": true,
            "4": true,
            "_merge_strategy": "array_plus"
        },
        "FooBarCoolStuff": {
            "sysop": {
                "foo": true,
                "bar": false
            },
            "_merge_strategy": "array_plus_2d"
        }
    }
}

The first setting, $wgFooBarEnabledNamespaces, has keys that are numbers, so PHP will turn them into integers, even though they are strings in JSON. Because of how PHP treats integer keys when merging arrays, we need to use a different type of merge here, so we set a different "merge strategy" using the magic key. In the second example, we have a nested array, which requires a different type of merging, since we want to allow people to continue writing $wgFooBarCoolStuff['user']['foo'] = true; in their LocalSettings.php.

Merge strategies

The following merge strategies are available:

• array_merge: Default, does not need to be explicitly set. Any keys that are integers will be re-numbered when merging.
• array_plus: Handles keys with integers properly.
• array_plus_2d: Handles nested arrays to a depth of 2 properly (e.g. $wgGroupPermissions).
• array_plus_recursive: Handles arrays even deeper than 2, though realistically, a configuration setting that is nested more than 2 arrays suggests too many things are being configured in one setting, and splitting it into multiple might be a good idea.
• array_replace_recursive: TODO why should this be used?

ResourceModules

ResourceLoader modules to register.

This option corresponds directly with the global variable $wgResourceModules . Please refer to the documentation there on how to configure it.

ResourceFileModulePaths

Specifies the default paths to use for all ResourceLoader file modules.

The allowed properties are:

• localBasePath
• remoteExtPath
• remoteSkinPath

These correspond to the same options in each module definition in ResourceModules. If a value is not specified in the module definition, the default value specified here will be used.

{
    "ResourceFileModulePaths": {
        "localBasePath": "resources",
        "remoteExtPath": "FooBar/resources"
    }
}

ResourceModuleSkinStyles

ResourceLoader modules for custom skin styles.

This option corresponds directly with the global variable $wgResourceModuleSkinStyles . Please refer to the documentation there on how to configure it.

ResourceLoaderSources

ResourceLoader sources to register.

This option corresponds directly with the global variable $wgResourceLoaderSources . Please refer to the documentation there on how to configure it.

ResourceLoaderLESSVars

ResourceLoader LESS variables.

This option corresponds directly with the global variable $wgResourceLoaderLESSVars . Please refer to the documentation there on how to configure it.

ConfigRegistry

Registry of factory functions to create Config objects.

This option corresponds directly with the global variable $wgConfigRegistry . Please refer to the documentation there on how to configure it.

SessionProviders

Session providers

This option corresponds directly with the global variable $wgSessionProviders . Please refer to the documentation there on how to configure it.

AuthManagerAutoConfig

AuthManager auto-configuration.

This option corresponds directly with the global variable $wgAuthManagerAutoConfig . Please refer to the documentation there on how to configure it.

CentralIdLookupProviders

Central ID lookup providers.

This option corresponds directly with the global variable $wgCentralIdLookupProviders . Please refer to the documentation there on how to configure it.

ChangeCredentialsBlacklist

RemoveCredentialsBlacklist

namespaces

TrackingCategories

DefaultUserOption

HiddenPrefs

GroupPermissions

RevokePermissions

GrantPermissions

GrantPermissionsGroups

ImplicitGroups

GroupsAddToSelf

GroupsRemoveFromSelf

AddGroups

RemoveGroups

AvailableRights

ContentHandlers

RateLimits

RecentChangesFlags

MediaHandlers

ExtensionFunctions

ExtensionMessagesFiles

MessageDirs

ExtensionEntryPointListFiles

SpecialPages

AutoloadClasses

Hooks

JobClasses

LogTypes

LogRestrictions

FilterLogTypes

ActionFilteredLogs

LogNames

LogHeaders

LogActions

LogActionsHandlers

Actions

APIModules

APIFormatModules

APIMetaModules

APIPropModules

APIListModules

ValidSkinNames

FeedClasses

SkinOOUIThemes

PasswordPolicy

FileExtensions

callback

config_prefix

ParserTestFiles

ServiceWiringFiles

load_composer_autoloader