Help talk:Sidebar

Special URL strings
This is an attempt to list all available special URL strings. It is based on a search conducted using w:c:central:Special:PrefixIndex and Special:AllMessages then searching those lists for occurrences of "url". Many of these MediaWiki message do not exist at a pristine wiki. Therefore some of these special strings could be red herrings.

In most cases there is a corresponding MediaWiki message that defines the link used. However, in many cases the corresponding MediaWiki message has been deleted circa March 2007. This suggests that maybe this special URL string mechanism might be being phased out in favor of some other method.

It is not clear to me what the mechanism is behind certain "page-focused" special strings gaining focus based on the current pagename. (I suspect some JS may be at work.) So if anybody in the know cares to explain then that would be appreciated. (It is clear to me how this equivalent function can be implemented using a custom widget definition.)


 * Special URL string [MediaWiki message] default value on a pristine wiki
 * blogs-recent-url MediaWiki:blogs-recent-url Blog:Recent posts | MediaWiki:blogs-recent-url-text Recent blog posts
 * Content-url MediaWiki:Content-url Special:Allpages
 * currentevents-url MediaWiki:currentevents-url
 * forum-url MediaWiki:forum-url
 * Helppage MediaWiki:Helppage Help:Contents
 * Irc-url MediaWiki:Irc-url http://irc.wikia.com/
 * mainpage MediaWiki:mainpage
 * policy-url MediaWiki:policy-url Project:Policy
 * Portal-url MediaWiki:Portal-url Project:Community Portal
 * pubmedurl MediaWiki:pubmedurl http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=$1
 * Randompage-url MediaWiki:Randompage-url Special:Random
 * recentchanges-url MediaWiki:recentchanges-url Special:RecentChanges | MediaWiki:recentchanges
 * searchhelp-url MediaWiki:searchhelp-url Help:Contents
 * Shared-problemreport-url MediaWiki:Shared-problemreport-url http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Report_a_problem
 * specialpages-url MediaWiki:specialpages-url Special:Specialpages | MediaWiki:specialpages
 * upload-url MediaWiki:upload-url Special:Upload | MediaWiki:upload Upload image
 * Wikicitieshome-url MediaWiki:Wikicitieshome-url http://www.wikia.com/


 * Page-focus special URL strings:
 * permalink == ???
 * whatlinkshere ==


 * Page-focus links with unknown special strings: possibly JS triggered only at a User page
 * ==  conditional upon User: namespace
 * ==  conditional upon User: namespace
 * ==  conditional upon User: namespace


 * Red herrings (false positives) value at w:c:central
 * Email MediaWiki:Email E-mail
 * Featuredwiki-url MediaWiki:Featuredwiki-url Featured Wikia
 * Hub-url MediaWiki:Hub-url Category:Hubs
 * Listwikis-url MediaWiki:Listwikis-url List of Wikia
 * Lookupuser-email MediaWiki:Lookupuser-email E-mail: $1 more
 * Mailinglist-url MediaWiki:Mailinglist-url  http: //www.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l
 * Mailinglists-url MediaWiki:Mailinglists-url  http: //lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l
 * Problemreport-url MediaWiki:Problemreport-url  http: //www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia:Report_a_problem
 * Randomcategory-url MediaWiki:Randomcategory-url Special:Random/Category
 * Randomwiki-url MediaWiki:Randomwiki-url Special:RandomWiki
 * Sitesupport-url MediaWiki:Sitesupport-url List of Wikia
 * Startwiki-url MediaWiki:Startwiki-url Special:CreateWiki
 * Wikiscategory-url MediaWiki:Wikiscategory-url Category:Wikia categories
 * Wikiscategory-url MediaWiki:Wikiscategory-url Category:Wikia categories


 * Group-lookupcontribs MediaWiki:Group-lookupcontribs
 * Group-lookupcontribs-member MediaWiki:Group-lookupcontribs-member
 * Grouppage-lookupcontribs MediaWiki:Grouppage-lookupcontribs
 * Group-regexblock MediaWiki:Group-regexblock
 * Group-regexblock-member MediaWiki:Group-regexblock-member
 * rfcurl|rfc


 * MediaWiki:
 * MediaWiki:

-- najevi 16:41, November 24, 2009 (UTC)

Possible confusion in first example
The intro says
 * ... In this example, the three top-level items displayed in the sidebar are "Superheroes Wiki", "Characters" and "Comics".

I can see four single-asterisk items. The addition is "#popular#". These instructions are difficult enough when they're right! Maybe one of you experts can decide whether that fourth item should be as it is and change the number - or do whatever else makes the whole thing fit together properly.

— Robin Patterson (Talk) 08:36, December 4, 2009 (UTC)

"most popular articles"
How do you list your "editor's choice", #popular#? "Help" says "You can add articles to the top of this list here: MediaWiki:Most popular articles." - but there's no list there. The default version of MediaWiki:Most popular articles currently says "most popular articles". Do we leave that and show links after it? One line each or run together? — Robin Patterson (Talk) 09:02, December 4, 2009 (UTC)


 * One page name per line with no leading asterisk. Do not use wiki links (i.e. square braces [ and ]). If you try that and it still does not display then try separating each pair of page names with a blank line. viz.

Project:Manual of Style

Project:Templates

Project:Policy
 * yep! the blank line in between successive page names is needed to prevent adjacent page names from merging onto the one line.
 * -- najevi 10:26, December 8, 2009 (UTC)