Extension:UsabilityInitiative

MediaWiki extensions manual

UsabilityInitiative Release status: beta
Description	Features developed by the Wikipedia Usability Initiative to enhance the usability of MediaWiki
Author(s)	Trevor Parscal, Roan Kattouw
MediaWiki	1.16
License	GPL v2
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review Template:WikimediaDownload/svn README
Example	Wikipedia Prototype
Hooks used BeforePageDisplay MakeGlobalVariablesScript
Translate the UsabilityInitiative extension if it is available at translatewiki.net

The components of this extension have all now been moved out to their own extensions. Some have been made compatible with ResourceLoader and are no longer compatible with MediaWiki 1.16. ClickTracking PrefSwitch PrefStats UserDailyContribs Vector WikiEditor

The development of this extension was driven by the Wikipedia Usability Initiative. The features this extension provided were either core features of the objectives of this initiative, or supporting features which assisted in the deployment of the core features and statistics gathering for analysis.

Installation

If you need to install Vector and WikiEditor on MediaWiki 1.16 (or 1.16.5), you will need to use the 1.16 release branch version.

Installation for 1.16

1. Get the 1.16 release branch version and drop it into MediaWiki directory /extensions.
2. Setup your LocalSettings.php as explained in 1.16 release branch README file.
3. To activate WikiEditor for everyone, instead of having the users turn it on explicitly, in LocalSettings.php change the $wgWikiEditorModules global values to true so that it looks like the source below.
4. To active a Vector module for everyone, like collapsiblenav (for the left nav menu), add it as an array entry to $wgVectorModules. E.g add 'collapsiblenav' => array( 'global' => true, 'user' => false ). Ensure the global value is set to true. See below for an example.
5. Edit any page in your wiki and you should see the WikiEditor.
6. No need to run php maintenance/update.php.

This is an example of how you can activate WikiEditor and the Vector collapsiblenav module (amongst others) for everyone in your LocalSettings.php file for 1.16.5 (using the 1.16 release version of the UsabilityInitiative). Tested on a 1.16.5 install:

$wgVectorModules = array(
    'collapsibletabs' => array( 'global' => true, 'user' => false ), // Doesn't have a user pref
    'collapsiblenav' => array( 'global' => true, 'user' => false ),
    'editwarning' => array( 'global' => false, 'user' => true ),
    'simplesearch' => array( 'global' => true, 'user' => false ), // Doesn't have a user pref
);
$wgWikiEditorModules = array(
    'highlight' => array( 'global' => true, 'user' => true ),
    'preview' => array( 'global' => true, 'user' => true ),
    'toc' => array( 'global' => true, 'user' => true ),
    'toolbar' => array( 'global' => true, 'user' => true ),
);

This is an example configuration of Vector modules and WikiEditor in your LocalSettings.php file for the 1.16 (using the 1.16 release version of the UsabilityInitiative):

// UsabilityInitiative/Vector
require_once("$IP/extensions/UsabilityInitiative/Vector/Vector.php");
$wgVectorModules['editwarning']['global'] = false; // Don't enable EditWarning globally
$wgVectorModules['editwarning']['user'] = true; // Allow users to enable EditWarning in their preferences
$wgVectorUseSimpleSearch = true; // Need this as well for SimpleSearch
$wgDefaultSkin = 'vector'; // If you want to change the default skin for new users
$wgVectorUseIconWatch = true; //Enable star icon to add/remove page from watchlist
// UsabilityInitiative/WikiEditor
require_once("$IP/extensions/UsabilityInitiative/WikiEditor/WikiEditor.php");
$wgDefaultUserOptions['usebetatoolbar-cgd'] = 1;  // Default user preference to use toolbar dialogs
$wgWikiEditorModules['toolbar']['global'] = true;  // Enable the WikiEditor toolbar for everyone
$wgWikiEditorModules['toolbar']['user'] = false;  // Don't allow users to turn the WikiEditor toolbar on/off individually

Installation for 1.17.0

1. Get the extension with distributor or svn and drop it into MediaWiki directory /extensions
2. Setup your LocalSettings.php as explained in README file.
3. Run php maintenance/update.php from the command line (see update.php and also here)