mediawiki-mark-up-issues

MediaWiki mark-up issues

Issues with adding microformat mark-up to sites using MediaWiki (such as this wiki, and Wikipedia).

If you know of a solution, or work-around, please post it!

Author

Andy Mabbett

Contributor(s)

Jeff McNeill

URLs

• Wiki mark-up such as [http://example.com sample text] (which displays as sample text) cannot have a class="url" added to the output "A" element.
  • Workaround (if display of the URL is acceptable): use <span class="url">http://example.com</span> (which displays as http://example.com)
  • Workaround (if display of the URL is not acceptable): ???
    • Why not just use <span class="url">[http://example.com sample text]</span>? --Tgr^{talk / home} 06:16, 9 Aug 2007 (PDT)
      • Returns a value of "sample text" Andy Mabbett 02:12, 10 Aug 2007 (PDT)

• The ExtendAnchorTags extension provides a work around using <xa></xa> tags, e.g.

<xa class="fn org" href="http://microformats.org/">microformats</xa>

will produce

<a fn class="fn org" href="http://microformats.org/>microformats</a> --jeffmcneill 17:22, 20 Oct 2007 (PDT)

Rel

• Similarly, MediaWiki does not appear to support the use of the rel attribute on internal or external links.
  • See ExtendAnchorTags extension --jeffmcneill 17:22, 20 Oct 2007 (PDT)

Tables

• In the following code snippet (from an "infobox" table with an included hCard):

{| class="infobox vcard" 
| class="fn org" | '''{{{name}}}'''
|-
{{#if: {{{address|}}} |
! Address
{{!}} <span class="street-address">{{{address}}}}}</span>
|-
{{#if:{{{city|}}} |
! City
{{!}} <span class="locality">{{{city|}}}}}</span>
|-
{{#if:{{{country|}}} |
! Country
{{!}} <span class="country-name">{{{country|}}}}}</span>
|-
{{#if:{{{latitude|}}} |
!
{{!}} <{{Coord|{{{latitude}}}|{{{longitude}}}|display=title}} }}
|}

there is nowhere to hang the required class="adr", such that it wraps the three relevant table rows, and no others.

• you can give a row a class (or any other valid HTML attribute) with {{!}} class="adr" {{!}} <span... --Tgr^{talk / home} 06:16, 9 Aug 2007 (PDT)
  • The need is not to apply a class to a single row, but (as stated) to apply it to (in this example) "the three relevant table rows, and no others". Andy Mabbett 02:14, 10 Aug 2007 (PDT)
    • It seems this is a challenge with HTML tables and not necessarily MediaWiki? Please advise --jeffmcneill 17:22, 20 Oct 2007 (PDT)
      • Partly; but in HTML you can hang an intermediate class on <tbody>. Andy Mabbett 15:42, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)

Abbr

• MediaWiki supports the use of the abbr element, but this is disabled by some implementations (e.g. Wikipedia)
  • See title-trigger for a proposed alternative to the abbr-design-pattern, which would work on Wikipedia.
    • A mediawiki extension EnableAbbrTags can support abbr by using a new xabbr command

Dtend

• The work-around for date-time pattern on Wikipedia (for example, birthdays in hCard) has been to use templates to output something like:

24 February 1993 (<span class="bday" style="display:none">1993-02-24</span>)

which degrades gracefully if CSS is not available. It is not acceptable to do so, to show the date advanced by one day for end-dates in hCalendar.

• • See this proposal to resolve exclusive end-date issue, for a proposal which would allow inclusive end dates to be marked up.

XMDP

• As with many CMSs, there is no facility for an editor to add an XMDP URI to (or in any other way to alter) the head element.

• • Extensions can do this, working on it... --jeffmcneill 17:22, 20 Oct 2007 (PDT)

Address

Address elements cannot be added to page content.

<address class="vcard">The <span class="fn org">Microformat community</span></address>

displays as:

<address class="vcard">The Microformat community</address>

• Not sure how this is a problem, which microformat uses this format? Markup within divs such as

  <div class="adr"></div>

  work fine. --jeffmcneill 01:14, 21 Oct 2007 (PDT)

• • hAtom uses <address>. Andy Mabbett 15:42, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)

Mediawiki extension development

• Are there any generic xml parsers/other extensions under development to provide support for some (most?) of the microformat needs? Is semantic mediawiki a possible candidate for microformat support?
  • It appears that semantic mediawiki is trying to do something different, namely OWL compliance. Based on the mediawiki description of the semantic mediawiki project, hacks are to some extent discouraged (which to my mind is the orientation of Microformats). --jeffmcneill 13:41, 18 Oct 2007 (PDT)

• Am working out the extensions needed to address this. --jeffmcneill 17:22, 20 Oct 2007 (PDT)