Help:Generated lists

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Wikis are all about quick[edit]

So as much stuff that can be automatic should be automatic.

Lists that are made that need to be automatic[edit]

  • valid namespace and descriptions
  • wiki syntax (descriptions of what the wiki tags means should be held in a table, with descriptions)
  • all entries in a namespace, e.g. list of templates that are already created:
    • Special:Allpages, select namespace
    • for the main namespace the result can be in-page with {{Special:Allpages}}
    • with the DynamicPageList extension the result can be in-page for any namespace, e.g. all the pages in the MediaWiki namespace; as a workaround for the requirement to specify category or notcategory one can specify a non-existing category with notcategory:
<DynamicPageList>
count=5
namespace=MediaWiki
notcategory=SomethingThatDoesntExist
shownamespace=true
mode=unordered
</DynamicPageList>

gives:


  • BackLinks
  • wikimedia version
  • Rfd (requests for deletion) (one must manually enter the page into the list as far as I can tell)

Lists that are already automatic[edit]

there are more...

Lists with a limited number of potential members[edit]

If the number of potential members of a list is limited, each can be displayed conditionally. Thus various lists can be created depending on the condition. See e.g. Template:If interwiki link show [ talk edit history links ], which tests every letter of the alphabet on being an interwiki link prefix. It is often desirable to avoid a superfluous separator for each potential, non-actual list member. Therefore the start and end of an item are made such that the combination of an end and a start forms a suitable separation between items, while the first start and last end are acceptable. For example, if a blank space or blank line is used as separator it can simply be put at the end of the conditional items, as it is no problem to have it also at the end of the list, while a comma as separator is more problematic in this regard.

Extensions[edit]

Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) and DynamicPageList, DynamicPageList2, and DPLforum provide various in-page automatic lists.

For example, in SMW links are categorized by specifying relations. For a given relation the backlinks of a page can be produced in-page. A series of queries, one for each relation (which seems cumbersome but can be put in a template like [1]), provides an in-page list of backlinks sorted by relation. Moreover, forward links and attributes of the resulting pages can also be provided, and also backlinks of backlinks.