Installation
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Revision as of 16:24, 31 March 2015
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One major change in MediaWiki is the new [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor visual editor] ("VE") that has been developed since 2011 and as of spring 2015 still has some way to go. This page is intended to collect information for the particular question of installing and running VE with Semantic Mediawiki (SMW).
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One major change in MediaWiki is the new [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor visual editor] ("VE") that has been developed since 2011 and as of spring 2015 still has some way to go. This page is intended to collect information for the particular question of installing and running VE
simultaneously
with Semantic Mediawiki (SMW).
:'' '''Note:''' As usual everybody is welcome to contribute. Having created this page upon a suggestion on the SMW mailing list in 03/2015 I will be looking frequently on it for the coming weeks and try to make it a helpful resource. I am by no means a VE specialist, yet you are welcome to post questions etc. that might help to enhance this page on the [[Talk:Visual Editor in SMW|talk page of this article]]. This note will be removed in 05/2015. [[User:Hans Oleander|Hans Oleander]] ([[User talk:Hans Oleander|talk]])''
:'' '''Note:''' As usual everybody is welcome to contribute. Having created this page upon a suggestion on the SMW mailing list in 03/2015 I will be looking frequently on it for the coming weeks and try to make it a helpful resource. I am by no means a VE specialist, yet you are welcome to post questions etc. that might help to enhance this page on the [[Talk:Visual Editor in SMW|talk page of this article]]. This note will be removed in 05/2015. [[User:Hans Oleander|Hans Oleander]] ([[User talk:Hans Oleander|talk]])''
== Installation ==
== Installation ==
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It is certainly helpful to read about VE to better understand what this fairly complex and powerful module does and how it works. Installation is possible via git or downloaded archives (as usual). It involves more work than just getting some files/directories and adding one statement to localsettings.php; in particular providing node.js/parsoid support. However the process is well documented. It seems recommendable to use at least MW version 1.24. In order to get the latest master branch of VE (e.g. introducing table editing capabilities) to work MW 1.25 is required. It is necessary to check and obey compatibility requirements of
[
[http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:VisualEditor
|
the VE extension page
]
]. E.g. as of march 2015 VE latest 0.1.0 version does not support current stable MW 1.24.1 version but requires a late alpha build of MW 1.24.
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It is certainly helpful to read about VE to better understand what this fairly complex and powerful module does and how it works. Installation is possible via git or downloaded archives (as usual). It involves more work than just getting some files/directories and adding one statement to localsettings.php; in particular providing node.js/parsoid support. However the process is well documented. It seems recommendable to use at least MW version 1.24. In order to get the latest master branch of VE (e.g. introducing table editing capabilities) to work MW 1.25 is required. It is necessary to check and obey compatibility requirements of [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:VisualEditor the VE extension page]. E.g. as of march 2015 VE latest 0.1.0 version does not support current stable MW 1.24.1 version but requires a late alpha build of MW 1.24.
=== Working configuration ===
=== Working configuration ===
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VE cannot and should not change content whose source is not available on that page. Hovering the mouse over such content will highlight the entire block; clicking on it will accordingly not place a write cursor but rather display a small popup with a jigsaw puzzle icon and the wiki command that is responsible for the content displayed, e.g. a self implemented parser function <code>#myfunction</code> or in case of SMW a <code><nowiki>#ask [[property::value]]...</nowiki></code> statement.
VE cannot and should not change content whose source is not available on that page. Hovering the mouse over such content will highlight the entire block; clicking on it will accordingly not place a write cursor but rather display a small popup with a jigsaw puzzle icon and the wiki command that is responsible for the content displayed, e.g. a self implemented parser function <code>#myfunction</code> or in case of SMW a <code><nowiki>#ask [[property::value]]...</nowiki></code> statement.
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VE recognizes and supports named parameters within such commands or fields by generating an edit form in a popup window. Most prominent example is templates. A page containing a template
containing
a named parameter "Year", e.g. <code>...|Year=2015|...</code> will make that field "Year" editable within the popup that appears when clicking on the jigsaw puzzle icon.
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VE recognizes and supports named parameters within such commands or fields by generating an edit form in a popup window. Most prominent example is templates. A page containing a template
call including
a named parameter "Year", e.g. <code>...|Year=2015|...</code> will make that field "Year" editable within the popup that appears when clicking on the jigsaw puzzle icon.
=== Semantic Forms ===
=== Semantic Forms ===
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:''The main issue is that VisualEditor - unlike WikiEditor, FCKeditor and the rest - is intended as a complete framework for editing a page; it lacks the ability to only edit part of a page. There's actually a feature request for that: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T50429. If you read that page, there's quite a long discussion about it, and Semantic Forms is mentioned a few times.'' (Yaron Koren to SMW mailing list, March 23, 2015)
:''The main issue is that VisualEditor - unlike WikiEditor, FCKeditor and the rest - is intended as a complete framework for editing a page; it lacks the ability to only edit part of a page. There's actually a feature request for that: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T50429. If you read that page, there's quite a long discussion about it, and Semantic Forms is mentioned a few times.'' (Yaron Koren to SMW mailing list, March 23, 2015)
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As a result one can
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As a result one
currently
can
# (edit the wiki source, of course)
# (edit the wiki source, of course)
# use VE to edit a SF page. Use VE's popup form to edit the template part of the page, which is fine for simple things like short strings, but obviously deprives you of features such as date picker, semantically predefined dropdown selections and many more. However in the freetext area you can enjoy VE
# use VE to edit a SF page. Use VE's popup form to edit the template part of the page, which is fine for simple things like short strings, but obviously deprives you of features such as date picker, semantically predefined dropdown selections and many more. However in the freetext area you can enjoy VE
# use SF to edit a page. For the freetext area the "old" wiki editor will be your tool while in the form area you continue to have the full SF feature set.
# use SF to edit a page. For the freetext area the "old" wiki editor will be your tool while in the form area you continue to have the full SF feature set.