Allow setting which filetype to search with the MediaSearch InputBox (default tab) (Community Wishlist/W439)
On Wikimedia Commons, the default MediaSearch search has tabs 'Images', 'Audio', 'Video', 'Other Media', and 'Categories and Pages' where each tab only shows results of that type. Now when using a template that uses InputBox, one should be able to specify which of these tabs should open when searching something with an input box.
For example, I'd like to change c:Template:Search inside category, a searchbox for categories, so that one can specify which of those five tabs to open. This is so that in a category specific to videos like c:Category:Time-lapse videos (see that page for an example search box), the tab that opens when searching is the Videos tab and a category specific to pages like c:Category:Other versions templates, the tab that opens is the Pages and Categories tab. Likewise, a searchbox of this kind on a meta page to search through archives of the page should also have the Pages and Categories tab as default. A searchbox in c:Category:Spoken English Wikipedia should open the audio tab by default.
Currently, it always opens the first tab which is Images.
If this gets implemented, many categories could get a functional search box by which also people not very experienced with Commons search or entirely new to the site can search through files anywhere underneath the given category, which is useful in many cases. It can't be added to all categories such as via some new default content of category pages because the search box currently uses the deepcategory search operator which fails for large categories where it only searches a fraction but not all the files and for very large categories with many layers and counts of subcategories underneath, like c:Category:Life.
Unassigned
Everybody searching Commons who also uses category pages and Commons editors searching through eg archives & meta pages
- Created: 23:53, 13 October 2025
- Last updated: 14:41, 5 December 2025
- Author: Prototyperspective (talk)