Environment Survey/MediaWiki Extensions/Nomination

From Wikimedia Usability Initiative

If you would like to nominate a MediaWiki compatible extension for inclusion in our Environment Survey, please feel free to add it below. We also welcome you to explore existing nominations and provide feedback by giving ratings or through the discussion page.

Resources

  • An excellent comparison has already been done on a much broader range of extensions.
  • Information about varied approaches to editing in a more visual manner.

Nominations

Editing

Extension Example License Summary
FCKeditor (Official) <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="FCKeditor" /> [1] GPL v2 / LGPL v2 / MPL WYSIWYG editor with markup fallbacks and good cross-browser compatibility. Developed by the official FCKEditor team.
Wikia Wysiwyg <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="WikiaWysiwyg" /> [2] No license specified WYSIWYG editor with markup fallbacks and good cross-browser compatibility. Based on FCKEditor with additional improvements aimed at enhancing usability.
MarkitUp MW<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="MarkitUp MW" /> [3] GPL v2 / MIT Markup editor, similar to existing functionality with good cross-browser compatibility. New and possibly unstable.
Wikiwyg<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="Wikiwyg" /> [4] No license specified WYSIWYG editor with limited browser compatibility. Seems to be abandoned in favor of the FCKeditor.
Uniwiki<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="Uniwiki" /> [5] GPL v2 Functionality developed by UNESCO to make MediaWiki usable. These tools are based on genuine usability tests.
wikEd<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="WikiEd" /> Gadget on enwiki Public Domain Text editor with syntax highlighting, instant diff/preview, find/replace, and MS Word conversion. Widely used, including as gadget on many Wikipedias. Stable and under active development. Translated/localized for many languages. Avoids less user friendly aspects of WYSIWYG. (more).
MeanEditor<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="MeanEditor" /> [6] GPL v2 WYSIWYM editor
Semantic Forms <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="Semantic Forms" /> [7], [8], [9] GPL Allows users to add and edit data using forms. It creates dynamic forms based on Form description pages and semantic properties (provided by Semantic MediaWiki) and as a result simply fills out templates with all collected parameters. This is just perfect for infoboxes and such. Features include field auto-completion, standard input types, map interface for coordinate picking, inline file uploads and more.

Users include Wikia, Referata, Creative Commons Wiki, OLPC Wiki and more

Tiny MCE MW <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="TinyMCE" /> [10] LGPL (extension and editor) TinyMCE is not naturally a Wikitext editor. TinyMCE is a javascript WYSIWYG editor. With this extension, you can easily use TinyMCE with Mediawiki and provide users with a toolbar editor they may be more familiar with. The extension is not stable and no longer developed.
Wikizzle <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Editing" title="Wikizzle" /> [11] No license specified While not providing true WYSIWYG (editing is done directly to wikitext), Wikizzle includes AJAX WYSIWYM editing features similar in purpose to WYSIWYG such as real-time rendering of the article. Runs in Mozilla.

Discussion

Extension Example License Summary
LiquidThreads<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Disucssion" title="LiquidThreads" /> [12] GPL v2 A new discussion page system. Unclear on how existing discussion pages would be converted. Still pending additional code review to determine its suitability for large-scale deployment.
DPLforum<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Disucssion" title="DPLforum" /> [13] [14] GPL v2 or later DPLforum is a heavily-adapted derivation of DynamicPageList 1.12, geared toward displaying forum-style layouts. It is used on many Wikia Wikis.


Other

Extension Example License Summary
Semantic MediaWiki<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Semantic MediaWiki" /> [15] GPL Helps to make explicit relations between concepts expressed as MediaWiki articles.
LilyPond<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="LilyPond" /> [16] No license specified This extension adds the option to typeset music directly in the wiki code, using the sintax <lilypond>...</lilypond>. This would be a better way of deal with articles about music than uploading images. Additionally, using <lilymidi>...</lilymidi> it is possible to click on the image to download the midi file. See also: bugzilla:189 and lilypond-devel list
Add Media Wizard <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Add Media Wizard" /> - GPL2 Tool for adding media to pages or sequences. Includes abstracted remote media import; (currently commons, archive.org, and metavid supported); includes image edit tools. Works with images & video. Staged deployment possible as user Gadget. Uses script loader for localization and performance. Blog post review here

code here

Vorlagenmeister (Template Master)<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Template Master" /> [17] GFDL? Gadget which allows adding/editing of templates through web forms, with help texts and some basic validation, based on an XML description.
Babel<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Babel" /> [18] GPL An extension to have the Babel information ready for use in any wiki. Templates do not scale and are not maintained.
DynamicPageList<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="DynamicPageList" /> [19] GPL Create dynamic article lists in many ways, most importantly from category intersections. (Would allow a more reasonable, tag-like approach to categories instead of the current bloat.)
BreadCrumbs<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="BreadCrumbs" /> - GNU (?) Facilitates the navigation of content, making it very easy to go back and also have an idea of the recent pages you've visited. (It really looks better situated at the top of the page, with white background colour).
OpenID<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="OpenID" /> [20] GNU (?) Single Signon for websites on the Internet. Saves us from the current password hell.
Labeled Section Transclusion<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Labeled Section Transclusion" /> [21] No license specified Allows for the transclusion of labeled sections (anchors). Not intended for use on mainspace. One potential use is to monitor active threads on noticeboards from the user space. Another use is to group similar templates using sections of only one template.
Drafts<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Drafts" /> [22] GPL v2 Adds the ability to save a draft of an article on the server while editing. Users must be logged in to save drafts, as they are tied to their user account. Drafts are always discarded when they are used to save the article they came from.
PSINoTocNum<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="PSINoTocNum" /> - No license specified Adds the ability to suppress irritating automated numbering in tables of contents.
MagicNoNumberedHeadings<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="MagicNoNumberedHeadings" /> - GPL Adds the ability to suppress irritating automated heading numbers.
MagicNumberedHeadings<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="MagicNumberedHeadings" /> - GPL Adds the ability to unconditionally show automated heading numbers.
ExtendAnchorTags<ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="ExtendAnchorTags" /> - No license specified Allows added class values to be included in anchor tags, to support POSH and microformats.
TransformChanges <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="TransformChanges" /> [23] GPL Changes how recent changes and watchlist pages display lists of information, converting unordered lists to tables and providing CSS classification of output for more control over style customization.
Interlanguage <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Interlanguage" /> [24] GPL Allows centralized management of interlanguage a.k.a. interwiki links.

Features from Wikia

Extension Example License Summary
Simpler image upload <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Simpler image upload" /> [25], [26] GPL Provides guided image uploading and selection including cross linking to flickr.
More obvious edit buttons <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="More obvious edit buttons" /> [27], [28] GPL Increases the visibility of section edit links.
Search suggest <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Search suggest" /> [29] GPL Provides suggestions for search terms as the user enters text into the search box.
Link suggest <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Link suggest" /> [30] GPL Automatically completes internal links as the user types. (code)
Edit Page Enhancements <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Edit Page Enhancements" /> [31], [32], [33], [34] GPL Includes wide-screen mode and floating action buttons (such as edit and preview) which are always visible independent of scroll position (code)
Editing tips <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Editing tips" /> [35], [36] GPL Small help box displayed when editing. The help tips are editable and can be internationalized (code)
Ajax login <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Ajax login" /> - GPL Allows logging in without navigating away from the page you are at (code)
Social Profile <ratings:scale category="Extension Survey/Extension Nomination/Other" title="Social Profile" /> [37] GPL These package of extensions will incorporate a social profile, user board, and basic profile information into MediaWiki. (code)