CustomSidebar

The CustomSidebar extension provides an easy way to customize the sidebar on a per-page basis. You may define the sidebar in-page or reference another page which contains the text. The sidebar text takes the same format as Mediawiki:sidebar, and also supports templates and Magic words.

Usage

<sidebar>sidebartext</sidebar>

sidebartext may contain the following elements. If the text does not return any valid elements, the default sidebar MediaWiki:Sidebar is used.

Standard MediaWiki:Sidebar syntax

You may specify the main layout of the sidebar using standard sidebar syntax.

Example:

<sidebar>
* Menu
** link1|Text 1
** link2|Text 2 
</sidebar>

Reference to another page

If the sidebartext only contains a page name and no asterisks, that page will be used as the sidebar text. Any page in any namespace may be used.

Example:

<sidebar>wiki page name</sidebar>

Magic words and Template Support

Version 0.3.0 adds full template support.

Version 0.2.0 adds Magic words and simple template.

Magic Words

You may use any of the default Magic words within the sidebar text, or custom magic words listed below:

Custom Magic Words

• {{#__USERNAME}} - Returns the current username.

Simple Template Support in v0.2.0

Versions 0.3.0 and higher support full template syntax. The code is processed by Mediawiki itself.

In v0.2.0, a custom processing engine was used. Templates with zero or one unnamed parameter will be transcluded as expected. Nested calls are not allowed, but included template pages will be processed recursively.

Example:

# OK
{{TemplateName}}
{{TemplateName|parameter}}

# Not ok in v0.2.0
{{TemplateName|param = parameter}}
{{TemplateName|1|2|3}}
{{{{NAMESPACE}}:TemplateName}}

Parameters

$wgDefaultSideBarText

Added in v0.1.0

The text $wgDefaultSideBarText is similar to setting MediaWiki:Sidebar, only it can be set within LocalSettings.php and can use variables and templates. Example: This sidebar text will allow you to specify a sidebar for each "sub directory"

$wgDefaultSideBarText = '{{NAMESPACE}}:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Sidebar'

Using the above example, the contents of foo/Sidebar would be applied to the following pages as sidebar text

• foo
• foo/page 1
• foo/page 2
• foo/page 3
• foo/etc

You can also use the default sidebar, though it is recommended to use a different page as the default sidebar, so that MediaWiki:Sidebar can be used in case the processed sidebar text does not return a valid sidebar.

$wgDefaultSideBarText = 'MediaWiki:Sidebar'

$wgDefaultSidebarNSText

Added in v0.3.0

Defines an additional sidebar based on the namespace. Syntax is the same as $wgDefaultSideBarText

$wgDefaultSideBarGroupText[NS_TALK] = "Template:CustomSidebarTalk";

$wgDefaultSideBarGroupText

Added in v0.3.0

Defines an additional sidebar based on groups. Syntax is the same as $wgDefaultSideBarText

$wgDefaultSideBarGroupText['sysop'] = "Template:CustomSidebarSysop";

Testing Area

Anonymous users are welcome to try out the sidebar extension in the sandbox area.

Downloads

• CustomSidebar v0.3.0 - 22:23, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
• CustomSidebar v0.2.0 - 05:37, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
• CustomSidebar v0.1.0 - 08:18, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Installation

To install this extension:

1. Place CustomSidebar.php in the folder yourwikifolder/extensions/CustomSidebar/
2. Add the following to LocalSettings.php:

require_once("$IP/extensions/CustomSidebar/CustomSidebar.php");

Change Log

v.0.3.0

• Added full template support
• Added Custom sidebars based on user groups and namespaces

v.0.2.0

• Added magic word and template support

v.0.1.0

• First public release