Special pages
are pages that are created by the software on demand to perform a specific function.
For example, a special page might show all pages that have one or more links to an external site or it might create a form providing user submitted feedback.
Special pages are located in their own
namespace
(
Special:
) and are not editable directly like other pages.
Developers
can also create new special pages.
These pages by default are user-accessible and will generally show up in the list of all special pages at
Special:SpecialPages
.
Some special pages are only accessible to users with certain permissions and accesses.
Other special pages don't show up on the special page list at all and are only used by the wiki internally.
General Information
All built-in special pages that come with MediaWiki are called
SpecialSomename.php
and are located in the
includes/specials
directory.
Core special pages must be registered in the core list located in
includes/specialpage/SpecialPageFactory.php
in order to be loaded by MediaWiki.
Special pages created by third party developers are generally stored in the
extensions
directory in their own file or as part of a larger extension.
All special pages inherit from a class called
SpecialPage
which is defined in
includes/specialpage/SpecialPage.php
.
When a new special page is created, the user rights needed to access the page can be defined.
These rights specify, among other things, whether the page will show up on
Special:SpecialPages
and whether the page is includable in other pages.
Special pages also have unique names that can be customized on a wiki.
The general form is "Special:Pagename" where both "Special" and "Pagename" are customizable.
The Special pseudo
namespace
can be translated in other languages.
This translated namespace can be produced with the wikitext {{ns:special}}, on this wiki giving "Special".
The
name
of the special page can also be redefined in a system message, for the site language, with the generic name of the special page as the ID.
A special page may or may not allow input.
For example,
Special:Export
allows a user to define a specific page to export by calling
Special:Export/Sun
.
If the special page allows complex input, additional parameters will be sent to the
query string
component of the URL for processing, e.g.
https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Recentchanges&days=3&limit=250
.
- There are various ways to make
special pages
, but the one below is used by the bulk of official
extensions
, and adherence to this style is recommended. Also, be sure to include a credits block in the new special page for 'specialpage'. See
$wgExtensionCredits
for more details.
- After making a new special page, be sure to add it to
Category:Special page extensions
so other people can find it.
- Special pages cannot be included within frames unless you use
$wgOut->allowClickjacking();
Basic special page template
MediaWiki 1.25 introduced a
new way
to load an extension. For older unsupported versions of MediaWiki, see an
older revision
.
|
Most special page extensions require three files:
- Small setup file, which loads every time MediaWiki starts.
- File with the bulk of the code.
- Localisation file
MediaWiki coding conventions define the three files like this:
MyExtension/extension.json
- The setup file.
MyExtension/includes/Special.php
- The special page code.
i18n/*.json
- The
localisation file
.
Place all of the files in a new directory inside your MediaWiki
extensions/
directory.
You should name the special page file after the extension. For example,
Extension:Gadgets
contains the file
SpecialGadgets.php
.
If your extension uses more than one special page, you'll need more names.
In the example below, the special page's name is
MyExtension
.
After creating the files listed below, adding the following line to
LocalSettings.php
enables the extension:
wfLoadExtension
(
'MyExtension'
);
The setup file
Example setup file for
MyExtension/extension.json
:
{
"name"
:
"MyExtension"
,
"version"
:
"0.0.0"
,
"author"
:
[
"Your Name"
],
"url"
:
"https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MyExtension"
,
"descriptionmsg"
:
"myextension-desc"
,
"license-name"
:
"MIT"
,
"type"
:
"other"
,
"AutoloadNamespaces"
:
{
"MediaWiki\\Extension\\MyExtension\\"
:
"src/"
},
"SpecialPages"
:
{
"MyExtension"
:
"MediaWiki\\Extension\\MyExtension\\Special"
},
"MessagesDirs"
:
{
"MyExtension"
:
[
"i18n"
]
},
"manifest_version"
:
2
,
"requires"
:
{
"MediaWiki"
:
">= 1.40.0"
,
"platform"
:
{
"php"
:
">= 5.6"
},
"extensions"
:
{
"dependendExtension"
:
"*"
}
}
}
This file registers several important and mandatory things:
- The location of the MediaWiki\Extension\MyExtension\Special class;
- The location of the localisation files;
- The new special page and its class name.
If you get the error
InvalidArgumentException: Provided specification is not an array
, it generally means that MediaWiki could not find the class specified in extension.json that implements your special page.
The special page file
The body file (
MyExtension/src/Special.php
) should contain a subclass of
SpecialPage
or one of its subclasses.
This file loads automatically when someone requests the special page.
The example below implements the subclass SpecialMyExtension.
You need the
__construct()
constructor because its first parameter names your special page.
execute()
is the main function called when a special page is accessed.
This function overrides the function
SpecialPage
::
execute
()
.
It passes the single parameter
$par
, the subpage component of the current title.
For example, if someone follows a link to
Special:MyExtension/blah
,
$par
contains "blah".
You should run Wikitext and HTML output through
$wgOut
. Do not use 'print' or 'echo' directly when working within the wiki's user interface.
However, if you use your special page as an access point to custom XML or binary output, see
Taking over output in your special page
.
<?php
namespace
MediaWiki\Extension\MyExtension
;
class
SpecialMyExtension
extends
\SpecialPage
{
public
function
__construct
()
{
parent
::
__construct
(
'MyExtension'
);
}
public
function
execute
(
$par
)
{
$request
=
$this
->
getRequest
();
$output
=
$this
->
getOutput
();
$this
->
setHeaders
();
# Get request data from, e.g.
$param
=
$request
->
getText
(
'param'
);
# Do stuff
# ...
$wikitext
=
'Hello world!'
;
$output
->
addWikiTextAsInterface
(
$wikitext
);
}
}
The localisation file
- See
Help:System message
for how to get them translated.
All special pages specify a title, like
'My Extension'
.
- The title is used in the
?<
title
>
and
?<
h1
>
elements of the extension's page and on
Special:SpecialPages
.
- It can be anything, but should describe the special page and extension.
- It's specified through a message. The structure of the message is a key-value pair. The key,
'myextension'
,
must
be all lowercase.
An example of a localisation file in
MyExtension/i18n/en.json
:
{
"@metadata"
:
{
"authors"
:
[
"<your username>"
]
},
"myextension"
:
"My Extension"
,
"myextension-desc"
:
"Adds the MyExtension functionality."
,
"myextension-summary"
:
"On this special page, do this simple thing and earn wonders."
,
"group-myextensionrole"
:
"Role of myextension"
,
"group-myextensionrole-member"
:
"Member of role of myextension"
,
"grouppage-myextensionrole"
:
"{{ns:project}}:Role of myextension"
,
"action-myextension"
:
"XYZ doing."
,
"right-myextension"
:
"to do xyz"
}
In
i18n/qqq.json
, the
message documentation
:
{
"@metadata"
:
{
"authors"
:
[
"<your username>"
]
},
"myextension"
:
"The name of the extension's entry in Special:SpecialPages"
,
"myextension-desc"
:
"{{desc}}"
,
"myextension-summary"
:
"Description appearing on top of Special:MyExtension."
,
"action-myextension"
:
"{{doc-action|myextension}}"
,
"right-myextension"
:
"{{doc-right|myextension}}"
}
Note that IDs should not start with an uppercase letter, and that a space in the ID should be written in the code as an underscore.
The -summary message is optional.
It's created automatically by the parent class and shown on top of the special page, usually for a concise description of what the user can do on it.
If you don't define its content, it will only be used when wiki administrators customize it on the wiki.
The aliases file
You can also internationalize the name of the special page by creating aliases for it. The example below uses the file "MyExtension.i18n.alias.php".
In this example, the special page
MyExtension
registers an
alias
so the page becomes accessible at
.../Special:My Extension
and
.../Spezial:Meine_Erweiterung
in German.
Add your alias file to
extension.json
:
...
"ExtensionMessagesFiles"
:
{
"MyExtensionAlias"
:
"MyExtension.i18n.alias.php"
},
...
Add special page aliases to
MyExtension.i18n.alias.php
:
<?php
/**
* Aliases for myextension
*
* @file
* @ingroup Extensions
*/
$specialPageAliases
=
[];
/** English
* @author <your username>
*/
$specialPageAliases
[
'en'
]
=
[
'MyExtension'
=>
[
'MyExtension'
,
'My Extension'
],
];
/** Deutsch
* @author <your username>
*/
$specialPageAliases
[
'de'
]
=
[
'MyExtension'
=>
[
'MeineErweiterung'
,
'Meine Erweiterung'
],
];
Again, you should write a space in the ID and an underscore in the code.
For the page header and linking, the usual rules for page names apply.
If
$wgCapitalLinks
is true, a lowercase letter is converted to uppercase, and an underscore is displayed as a space.
For example, instead of the above, we could use
'my_extension' => 'My extension'
, assuming we consistently identified the extension as
my_extension
elsewhere.
Note that in the associative array for the English language, the string identifying our SpecialPage (
MyExtension
in the example) is
also
a valid title.
Also note, the first element of
$specialPageAliases
[
'en'
][
'MyExtension'
]
must
be the same as the key (
'MyExtension'
)! Otherwise
Special:Specialpages
will not list the page.
Special page group
You can set which group your special page appears under on
Special:SpecialPages
by overriding
SpecialPage::getGroupName()
in your subclass.
/**
* Override the parent to set where the special page appears on Special:SpecialPages
* 'other' is the default. If that's what you want, you do not need to override.
* Specify 'media' to use the <code>specialpages-group-media</code> system interface message, which translates to 'Media reports and uploads' in English;
*
* @return string
*/
function
getGroupName
()
{
return
'media'
;
}
Some common values are 'login', 'maintenance', 'media', 'other', 'pagetools', 'redirects', 'users'.
You can see the accepted values at Special:AllMessages (search for
specialpages-group
) or browse the wiki using the pseudo language 'qqx' by going to Special:SpecialPages?uselang=qqx) and looking at the headings.
Specify the word 'media' to use the interface message 'specialpages-group-media'.
If your special page doesn't fit into any of the preconfigured headings, you can add a new heading by adding it to your localisation file, see
The localisation file
).
The standard page groups that come with MediaWiki are listed in the localisation file. For example, the English messages are in
languages/i18n/en.json
and begin with
specialpages-group-
.
If you want to categorize your special page under
users
, then the message is
specialpages-group-users
.
The value for this key is the text that appears as the name of that category, for example,
Users and rights
.
If your special page does not seem to fit under any of the existing categories, you can always make a new one.
In your extension's localisation file simply insert a new key for the
messages
array.
In this example, we define the
gamification
group:
{
"myextension"
:
"My Extension"
,
"myextension-desc"
:
"Adds the MyExtension functionality."
,
"myextension-summary"
:
"On this special page, do this simple thing and earn wonders"
,
"specialpages-group-gamification"
:
"Gamification"
}
Now, assuming you set the return value for the method
SpecialPage::getGroupName()
as
gamification
in your class definition, reload
Special:SpecialPages
to see your new category.
Other Important Files
SpecialPage.php
Constructor
You can
overload
the constructor to initialize your own data, but the main reason you would want to do it is to change the behavior of the SpecialPage class itself.
When you call the base class constructor from your child class, the following parameters are available:
function
__construct
(
$name
=
''
,
$restriction
=
''
,
$listed
=
true
);
- string
$name
Name of the special page, as seen in links and URLs
- string
$restriction
User right
required, e.g. "block" or "delete"; also see
Restricting page access
- boolean
$listed
Whether the page is listed in Special:Specialpages
This initialises the OutputPage object
$wgOut
with the name and description of your special page.
It should always be called from your execute() method.
SpecialPage->getOutput()
This method returns an OutputPage object which can be accessed as described below.
As in the example code, use
$output
=
$this
->
getOutput
();
$output
->
addWikiTextAsInterface
(
'Hello, World'
);
instead of the deprecated
$wgOut
global variable
SpecialPage->getRequest()
This method returns a WebRequest object which can be accessed as described below.
As in the example code, use
$request
=
$this
->
getRequest
();
$myparam
=
$request
->
getText
(
'myparam'
);
instead of the deprecated
$wgRequest
global variable
SpecialPage->including()
Some special pages can be included from within another page.
For example, if you add {{Special:RecentChanges}} to the wikitext of a page, it will insert a listing of recent changes within the existing content of the page.
Including a special page from another web page is only possible if you declared the page to be includable in the constructor.
You can do this by adding the following in the
__construct()
method after the parent class initialization:
$this
->
mIncludable
=
true
;
You can also define your special page class as extending the IncludableSpecialPage class.
The SpecialPage->including() function returns a boolean value telling you what context the special page is being called from: false if it is a separate web page, and true if it is being included from within another web page.
Usually you will want to strip down the presentation somewhat if the page is being included.
SpecialPage->execute()
This is the function which your child class should overload.
It passes a single parameter, usually referred to cryptically as
$par
(short for $parameter, as it is the parameter the users can feed to your special page).
This parameter is the subpage component of the current title.
For example, if someone follows a link to
Special:MyExtension/blah
,
$par
will contain "blah".
Help page
MediaWiki version:
|
≥
1.25
|
It's useful to add
help pages
on MediaWiki.org, where they'll be
translatable
.
To make sure users find your help page, it's advisable and very simple for your special page to link the help page in question:
$this
->
addHelpLink
(
'Help:Extension:MyExtension'
);
OutputPage.php
OutputPage.php contains the class definition for objects of type
OutputPage
.
You can get an object of this class from your SpecialPage using
$output
=
$this
->
getOutput
();
The variablename $output is, of course, arbitrary.
Whatever you call it, this is the variable you will use the most, because it is the way to send output to the browser (no, you don't use
echo
or
print
).
If you want to use it somewhere, declare the variable global:
function
randomFunction
()
{
$output
=
$this
->
getOutput
();
$output
->
addHTML
(
'<b>This is not a pipe...</b>'
);
}
If you want to, you can create multiple OutputPage objects in different methods in your SpecialPage extension.
They will add to the output in the order they are executed.
You can inspect the OutputPage class by viewing
includes/OutputPage.php
(indeed, all of these can be inspected), but there are a few methods you should definitely know about.
OutputPage->addHTML()
Essentially the quick and dirty substitute for
echo
.
It takes your input and adds it to the buffer: no questions asked.
In the below action, if
$action
contains user-data, it could easily have XSS, evil stuff, or the spawn of
Satan
injected in.
You're better off using escaping (such as with the php function htmlentities) or the XML builders class to build trusted output.
$output
->
addHTML
(
'<form action="'
.
$action
.
'" method="post">'
);
OutputPage->addWikiText()
For most output, you should be using this function.
It's a bit of a black magic function: wikitext goes in, HTML comes out, and a whole lotta arcane code and demon summonings happen in between.
$output
->
addWikiText
(
"This is some ''lovely'' [[wikitext]] that will '''get''' parsed nicely."
);
What's worth noting is that the parser will view your chunks as cohesive wholes and paragraph accordingly. That is...
$output
->
addWikiText
(
'* Item 1'
);
$output
->
addWikiText
(
'* Item 2'
);
$output
->
addWikiText
(
'* Item 3'
);
Will output three lists with one item each, which probably wasn't intended.
Warning:
| If your special page is intended to be included in other pages, you should probably not use
addWikiText()
(or any other function that calls the parser except for message related functions that parse ($this->msg()) which are OK to call on modern versions of MediaWiki). Due to
a bug in MediaWiki
(
phab:T18129
), an included special page will mess up any inclusion before it on the same including page, showing strings like UNIQ10842e596cbb71da.
|
Note however, if you just want to insert a system message and have it treated like parsed wikitext, you can use code like
$this
->
getOutput
()
->
addHtml
(
$this
->
msg
(
'key-of-message'
)
->
parse
()
)
.
This will not have the issue with nested parser calls mentioned above.
workaround #1
Important: these work arounds are only needed if you are making a transcludable special page. Normal special pages do not need these.
As a workaround, you can have your extensions convert Wikitext to HTML using a separate Parser object and then use
addHTML()
.
Example:
$wgOut
->
addHTML
(
$this
->
sandboxParse
(
"Here's some '''formatted''' text."
)
);
# Assuming this is inside the same class as the rest of your special page code
function
sandboxParse
(
$wikiText
)
{
$myParser
=
new
Parser
();
$user
=
$this
->
getUser
();
$title
=
self
::
getTitleFor
(
'YourCanonicalSpecialPageName'
);
$myParserOptions
=
ParserOptions
::
newFromUser
(
$user
);
$result
=
$myParser
->
parse
(
$wikiText
,
$title
,
$myParserOptions
);
return
$result
->
getText
();
}
workaround #2
I tried the above, and found that the same problem now applied to any tags in the transcluded text.
This won't be a problem for a lot of extensions, but the extension I was writing was intended to show wikitext from another page as part of its functionality, so this was a problem.
The process for parsing a page which transcludes a special page seems to be this:
- Replace {{Special:MyExtension}} with a
UNIQ-QINU marker
(because SpecialPage output is expected to be ready-to-output HTML)
- Replace any tags with
QINU markers
as above
- Parse everything else from wikitext to HTML
- Replace all
QINU markers
with their respective stored values, in a single pass
The process for parsing a page which transcludes a
non
-special page, though, is apparently like this:
- Replace {{:Normal Article Name}} or {{Template Name}} with contents of transcluded page (because transcluded pages contain unparsed wikitext)
- Replace any tags with
QINU markers
as above
- Parse everything else from wikitext to HTML
- Replace all
QINU markers
with their respective stored values, in a single pass
The problem is apparently that in the earlier case, the parsing of the SpecialPage's wiki text is lacking the final QINU decoding step (why?), so all the
QINU markers
are left undecoded.
(This may be a leftover from using the same syntax to invoke transclusion of a wikitext page, which is just pasted straight into the host page's wikitext contents and parsed, as is used to invoke transclusion of a SpecialPage, which must not be parsed at all. Wherever the code is that decides "wait, this is a special page -- replace it with a QINU", it should be doing the extra unstripGeneral before doing the QINU substitution.)
So I just did the following -- after this line:
$htOut
=
$wgParser
->
recursiveTagParse
(
$iText
);
...I added these lines (the second one is only because the function definition for the first one recommends it):
$htOut
=
$wgParser
->
mStripState
->
unstripGeneral
(
$htOut
);
$htOut
=
$wgParser
->
mStripState
->
unstripNoWiki
(
$htOut
);
Since I have now documented this, of course, I will now find a tragic flaw with it and feel really stupid... but as long as it seems to be working, I had to note it here.
(It is also important to note the problem with work-around #1.)
Also, I have only tested this with MediaWiki 1.10.1.
The problem still exists under MW 1.14, but this solution may or may not work.
--
Woozle
18:26, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
OutputPage->showErrorPage()
An error page is shown.
The arguments
$title
and
$msg
specify keys into $this->msg(), not text.
An example:
$output
->
showErrorPage
(
'error'
,
'badarticleerror'
);
- 'error' refers to the text
"Error"
.
- 'badarticleerror' refers to the text
"This action cannot be performed on this page."
.
You can also specify message objects or add parameters:
$output
->
showErrorPage
(
'error'
,
'badarticleerror'
,
[
'param1'
,
'param2'
]
);
$messageObject
=
new
Message
(
...
);
...
$output
->
showErrorPage
(
'error'
,
$messageObject
);
$titleMessageObject
=
new
Message
(
...
);
$messageObject
=
new
Message
(
...
);
...
$output
->
showErrorPage
(
$titleMessageObject
,
$messageObject
);
WebRequest.php
The
WebRequest
class is used to obtain information from the GET and POST arrays.
Using this is recommended over directly accessing the superglobals.
The WebRequest object is accessible from extensions by using the
RequestContext
.
Database.php
MediaWiki has a load of convenience functions and wrappers for interacting with the database, using the
\Wikimedia\Rdbms\Database
class.
It also has an interesting load balancing scheme in place.
It's recommended you use these wrappers.
Check out
Database.php
for a complete listing of all the convenience functions, because these docs will only tell you about the non-obvious caveats.
See
Manual:Database access
.
User.php
The
User
class is used to represent users on the system.
SpecialPage->getUser() should be used to obtain a User object for the currently logged in user.
The use of the global
$wgUser
is deprecated
Title.php
Title represents the name of a page in the wiki.
This is useful because MediaWiki does all sorts of fun escaping and special case logic to page names, so instead of rolling your own convert title to URL function, you create a Title object with your page name, and then use
getLocalURL()
to get a URL to that page.
To get a title object for your special page from outside of the special page class, you can use
SpecialPage
::
getTitleFor
(
'YourCanonicalSpecialPageName'
)
.
It will give you a localised title in the wiki's language.
Custom special pages
There are various ways to provide your own special pages not bundled within MediaWiki:
- One method is to install an extension that generates a form to create or edit an article. A list of extensions currently available, can be found at
Category:Special page extensions
.
- You can also write an extension which provides your own special page. Writing your own extension requires
PHP
coding skill and comfort with object oriented design and databases also is helpful. You will also need to know how to use code to create and edit MediaWiki articles. For more information, please see
this discussion
.
- You can also display a custom page through JavaScript, in place of the default error message "Unknown special page" (or the "This page is intentionally left blank." message, if using a subpage of
Special:BlankPage
). In MediaWiki:Common.js, check for
wgPageName
, then hide the MediaWiki-generated content (just appendCSS
{visibility:hidden;}
), and inject custom HTML (
innerHTML
) into the
document.getElementById('bodyContent')
or
document.getElementById('mw_contentholder')
. For an example, see
meta:User:Krinkle/Tools/Real-Time Recent Changes
.
FAQ
Setting an Extension Title
MediaWiki does not set the title of the extension, which is the developer's job.
It will look for the name of the extension when
Special:Specialpages
is called or the special page is loaded.
In the
function execute( $par )
section, use OutputPage methods to title the extension like:
$this
->
getOutput
()
->
setPageTitle
(
"your title"
);
The place where the extension can be found (as specified by what is passed into the SpecialPage constructor) is the key--
except
that it is not capitalized because of
getDescription()
, the internally used function that finds out the title (or, what they call description) of the special page,
strtolower
the name.
"ThisIsACoolSpecialPage"'s key would be "thisisacoolspecialpage."
Theoretically,
getDescription
can be overloaded in order to avoid interacting with the message cache but, as the source code states: "Derived classes can override this, but usually it is easier to keep the default behavior.
Furthermore, this prevents the MediaWiki namespace from overloading the message, as below.
Localizing the Extension Name
So you've just installed a shiny new MediaWiki extension and realize: "Oh no, my wiki is in French, but the page is showing up as English!"
Most people wouldn't care, but it's actually a quite simple task to fix (as long as the developer used the method explained on this page).
No noodling around in source code.
Let's say the name of the page is
DirtyPages
and the name comes out to "List of Dirty Pages" but you want it to be (and
excuse my poor French
) "Liste de Pages Sales".
Well, it's as simple as this:
- Navigate to
MediaWiki:DirtyPages
, this page may not exist, but edit it anyway
- Insert "Liste de Pages Sales" and save
And
voila
(pardon the pun), the change is applied.
This is also useful for customizing the title for your wiki within your language: for instance, the developer called it "List of Dirty Pages" but you don't like that name, so you rename it "List of Pages needing Cleanup".
Check out
Special:Allmessages
to learn more.
Also, if your extension has a large block of text that does change, like a warning, don't directly output the text.
Instead, add it to the message cache and when the time comes to output the text in your code, do this:
$wgOut
->
addWikiText
(
$this
->
msg
(
'dirtypageshelp'
)
);
Then this message too can be customized at
MediaWiki:Dirtypageshelp
.
See also
Help:System message
.
Restricting page access
Sometimes you may want to limit the visibility of your Special Page by removing it from
Special:SpecialPages
and making it visible to only those users with a particular right.
You can do this in the
constructor
by passing in a
$restriction
parameter; e.g., “editinterface”, a right only assigned to sysops by default; see the
User rights manual
for other available user rights.
function
__construct
()
{
parent
::
__construct
(
'MyExtension'
,
'editinterface'
);
// restrict to sysops
}
Or you can create your own right in
the setup file
and assign it to sysops, e.g.:
"AvailableRights"
:
[
"myextension-right"
],
"GroupPermissions"
:
{
"sysop"
:
{
"myextension-right"
:
true
}
}
and then call the constructor with your right:
function
__construct
()
{
parent
::
__construct
(
'MyExtension'
,
'myextension-right'
);
}
Prevent access to your Special Page
Even if you restrict your page in the constructor, as mentioned above, it will still be viewable directly via the URL, e.g. at Special:MySpecialPage.
In order to actually limit access to your SpecialPage you must call
$this
->
checkPermissions
()
in the
execute
method.
If you need more fine-grained control over permissions, you can override
$this
->
checkPermissions
()
, and/or add whatever permissions-checking is required for your extension.
Disabling Special:UserLogin and Special:UserLogout pages
In LocalSettings.php you can use the
SpecialPage_initList hook
to
unset
unwanted built-in special pages.
See
"making a few SpecialPages restricted"
if you need
conditional
unsetting of special pages for example for certain user groups.
The general message "You have requested an invalid special page." is shown if users try to access such unset special pages.
$wgHooks
[
'SpecialPage_initList'
][]
=
function
(
&
$list
)
{
unset
(
$list
[
'Userlogout'
]
);
unset
(
$list
[
'Userlogin'
]
);
return
true
;
};
A different approach would be to use the DisabledSpecialPage callback.
This approach may be preferred if you're only disabling the special page "temporarily", because the default message in this case would say: "This page has been disabled by a system administrator." instead of pretending the page does not exist at all.
This gives clear hint that the page maybe activated at a later time.
$wgSpecialPages
[
'Userlogout'
]
=
DisabledSpecialPage
::
getCallback
(
'Userlogout'
);
$wgSpecialPages
[
'Userlogin'
]
=
DisabledSpecialPage
::
getCallback
(
'Userlogin'
);
It is also possible to add custom lengthy explanation of why you're disabling the special page, by giving a message key as the second argument of the callback.
To do so first create a system message "MediaWiki:Userlogout-disable-reason" and write all the explanation there.
The message will be parsed in a block format.
Then in LocalSettings.php add:
$wgSpecialPages
[
'Userlogout'
]
=
DisabledSpecialPage
::
getCallback
(
'Userlogout'
,
'Userlogout-disable-reason'
);
Adding logs
On MediaWiki, all actions by users on wiki are tracked for transparency and collaboration.
See
Manual:Logging to Special:Log
for how to do it.
If you're an extension developer, you have to implement the
getGroupName()
method as described in
the Special page group section
of this page.
Since MediaWiki 1.21, the special page group can be overridden by editing a
system message
.
This method is not intended to be used by extension developers, but by site admins.
The group name must be placed in the
specialpages-specialpagegroup-<special page name>
message, where
<special page name>
is the canonical name (in english) of the special page in lowercase.
For example, if you want to set the group under which "Special:MyLittlePage" is displayed on
Special:Specialpages
to "MyLittleGroup", you just have to create "MediaWiki:Specialpages-specialpagegroup-mylittlepage" with content "MyLittleGroup".
"Special:MyLittlePage" will then show up under the group "MyLittleGroup", which you can name under "MediaWiki:Specialpages-group-mylittlegroup".
If you want to change the group of existing special pages, have a look on
Special:SpecialPages&uselang=qqx
and use those names instead of "mylittlepage".
To remove a special page from the
Special:Specialpages
altogether, pass a
false
as a third parameter to the SpecialPage parent constructor, as described in
the SpecialPage Constructor section
of this page.
If you need more complicated logic to determine whether the page should be listed or not, you can also override the
isListed()
function, but using the constructor parameter is simpler.
Getting a list of special pages and their aliases on a wiki
Simply use the "siteinfo" API module to retrieve the information from the wiki like e.g.
/api.php?action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=specialpagealiases
.
See also
- HTMLForm
? Tutorial on creating checkboxes, text areas, radio buttons, etc. in special pages