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This page is part of the Proceedings of Wikimania 2005, Frankfurt, Germany.


Workshop - Getlets: extending the interwiki concept beyond any limits

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About the leader(s): Developer of Enotif, e-mail notification for changed and new pages of MediaWiki

Abstract: Getlets extend the Interwiki technology to allow users the access of other servers' data such as google, sourceforge, national telephonbooks, wikipedia and many more, merely limited by copyright restrictions. They can be best seen as shortcuts with a simplified syntax for queries. Parts of the Getlet are translated on the wiki server to perform a predetermined action on a foreign server. Getlets are designed to fetch and integrate data into the wiki page, but hide the technical details at the same time.


Abstract

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Getlets extend the Interwiki technology, allowing users to access the data of other servers, such as Google, SourceForge, national telephone books, Wikipedia, and many more, merely limited by copyright restrictions. They can be best seen as shortcuts, with a simplified syntax for queries. Parts of the Getlet are translated on the wiki server to perform a predetermined action on a foreign server. Getlets are designed to fetch and integrate data into the wiki page, but hide the technical details at the same time: the wiki server may use complicated wget or curl actions to retrieve the foreign contents, but the user only has to write get:server:item (get:shortcutforserver:searchitem). These contents can dynamically - or as an alternative (user option -p for permanent) - statically be added to the wiki page bearing the Getlet.

As an option for the whole wiki, the content delivering foreign servers are advertised by so-called InterwikiIcons (IntersiteIcons): favicons of the target servers are shown in front of the Getlets or with the delivered contents in order to indicate the information source and link target.

Copyrights and intellectual property rights need to be respected when using Getlet technology, InterwikiIcons, and content copying from other servers.

(1) Getlets, which can copy contents of foreign pages, have only limited applications in the free content-based Wikipedia.

Presentation

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Annex: references and further reading

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  • Getlets
Getlets project page on Sourceforge (under construction)
  • Interwikis (getlets extend interwikis)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interwiki
  • Intermap (Interwiki map):
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interwiki_map
  • Editable Interwiki map (MeatBall):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileReplacement
  • Wibisa/QS/QuickSource disclosure (akin to interwiki concept of [[shortcut:searchitem]] with a wiki-principle based table map)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wibisa
  • IntersiteIcons:
http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiPatches/InterSiteIcons
http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1254
  • MediaWiki extension for RSS integration (akin to the getlet proposal: dynamic foreign content display)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mafs/RSS
  • MediaWiki extension for Googlemap integration (akin to the getlet proposal: dynamic foreign content display)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mafs/GoogleMapExtension
  • MediaWiki Template Substitution {{subst:something}} (akin to getlet proposal, static (local, not foreign) content integration)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Template#subst

Updated information 21.05.2011

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Dates are written indicated here in DD.MM.YYYY form.

The US patent application filed om 06.10.2004 must be seen in the light of techniques some of which were already known at this date:
"...the algorithm being dynamically controlled by the dynamic contents of the first table [..], the second table [..], and the third table [..], these tables being realised as one, two or three wiki pages on an Intranet or on the Internet [..]"
  • Google Maps integration into MediaWiki pages (publication date currently unkown)
  • Detailed proposal to allow Field-value pairs in MediaWiki articles by Evan first published on 07.12.2003
  • Further publications:
  • Detailed proposal to allow Series of articles navigational links rendered automatically on one MediaWiki page by Hashar first published 30.11.2003