Revision as of 14:54, 27 January 2020

We use MediaWiki. Below is a list of the most useful elements to work with our wiki. Please add or edit as appropriate, and see MediaWiki for the full documentation.

Getting help

When you edit a page, click on "Editing help" at the bottom right to go to MediaWiki.

Creating pages

To create a new page, first create a link to it from somewhere (it can be anywhere, but make it count), then save the page that points to it, click on the link (where the tooltip reads "page does not exist"), and you'll be taken to an interface to create the page.

Formatting

Headings

Headings are surrounded by equal signs: = top heading =, == sub-heading ==, === sub-sub-heading ===.

Equipment categories

We use these "macros" for categories of equipment: {{RedTool}}, {{GreenTool}}, and {{OrangeTool}}. The wiki will replace that text with a canned box with details on the type of equipment

Links

You can create internal links as [[Working with the wiki]] (result: Working with the wiki). Spaces are converted to underscores. You can add custom text with a pipe (|, or vertical bar), e.g. [[Working with the wiki|wiki help]] (result: wiki help).

You can create external links as [https://mediawiki.org MediaWiki] (result: MediaWiki), where the first space separates the link from the display text, and the remaining spaces are part of the display text.

Notice two brackets for internal links and one bracket for external links. Notice also that external links have no pipes (|, or vertical bar).

If your link is not working, go to a browser such as Firefox, right-click on the link, and click "Inspect element". A pane will open showing you the source of the link and you can then debug why your link is not working as you expect.

Lists

For an unordered list, use asterisks, e.g. * item 1. Double or triple the number of asterisks for sub-lists, e.g. ** sub-item 1. Result:

• item 1
  • sub-item 1

For ordered lists, use hash (#) instead of asterisk (*).

Code

Prefix with two spaces:

 some code

Bold

some bold text

Adding images or files

Basic syntax

You need to be logged in to upload files. On the toolbar at the left, under "tools", click "Upload file", grab its link, then include it with this syntax for a framed image: [[File:Laser-thumb.jpg|framed|link=Equipment/Laser_Cutter|Laser Cutter]]. The result is the laser cutter to the right.

Laser Cutter

Resizing

To resize an image, normally you would use this syntax: [[File:Laser-thumb.jpg|100px|Laser Cutter]]. Our wiki is not currently configured to create thumbnails with different sizes and gives this error:

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to run external programs, passthru() is disabled.

For now, please use the original size, or resize on your machine before uploading.

Documentation

See Media Wiki Image help for more options.