MediaWiki talk:Sidebar

MediaWiki:Sidebar forms part of the MediaWiki interface and can only be edited by administrators, stewards and interface editors. To request a change to MediaWiki:Sidebar, add {{Edit request}} to this talk page, followed by a description of your request. This interface message or skin may be documented on mediawiki.org or translatewiki.net.

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Sidebar translations

I wonder why this page uses lots of MediaWiki messages. Seems like it would be simpler if MediaWiki simply displayed the text as-is. dbenbenn | talk 23:53, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

So that the sidebar can be translated to other languages than English. Try changing your user interface to e.g. German. —Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason

Oh, I see. With this setup, you can make changes to MediaWiki:Sidebar and have them show up in all languages. I suppose that's worth the tradeoff of not being able to control the sidebar precisely.

The link messages (the text before each |) are not translated. This is so that the English Wikipedia, for example, can have

mainpage|mainpage

and have the result be "Main Page" translated to another language. On the Commons, however, this business about not translating some messages in some contexts causes problems. It would make more sense for all the messages used by the sidebar to be translated. Then the English Wikipedia could simply use

mainpage-link|mainpage

where w:MediaWiki:Mainpage-link would consist of "Main Page", and there would be no translated versions. (I assume that if w:MediaWiki:Mainpage-link/de doesn't exist, and I am set for German, the software will automatically default to English.) dbenbenn | talk 21:08, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

If you put link|text in the sidebar wfMsgForContent() will be called on link and wfMsg() will be called on text meaning that text will differ based on the user preference for language but link will not. —Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 23:07, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

Right, and here on the Commons we need the ability for the link to vary with the language: the Main Page, Community portal, and Village pump are all language-dependent. dbenbenn | talk 23:23, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

See bugzilla:3413 for a closely related issue. dbenbenn | talk 00:30, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Commons:Help desk

Can we include it, or is the 'support' link to Help:Contents enough? pfctdayelise 09:57, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Improve usability

Hello. I don't like to start a dispute over the menu because it is so much a matter of taste. However, I want to point out that the current way is not optimal because it is awkward compared to what people are used to.

On webpages, there is usually a section called "contact", "assistance", "help", or similar. Currently, you see that section mixed with the section called participate.

Fred Chess 18:51, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I have merged them as otherwise these menues are getting simply too large. So better two list than 3 more narrow (and contact is most times as well participation and in order to participate you need help). Another thing is that I remove the "help desk" as it does not make sense in other languages as English. The localized village pumps can easily handle the content of "Help desk" as well (as it is not possible removing Help desk for a specific language, it's all or nothing). Arnomane 19:28, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

What you say is true (something I didn't consider when it was added initially). But having that visibility really helps enormously in guiding people there which is turn cuts down on cruft at the COM:VP. Is there no hack or tweak we can use so that the link only shows for people who have their lang prefs set to en:? Everyone else by default gets a blank space (although en is the default, so... hmm). I've seen code that lets you ignore other languages, surely there must be some that lets you selectively show it. pfctdayelise (translate?) 10:01, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd be very happy if there is a way. If have tried several things but none of the "standard tricks" did work (like "-" in /de sub pages). At least it does not work directly in MediaWiki as I suppose that I have tried everything possible there (see the history of affected files). I suppose the only way is somehow extracting the interface language setting via CSS and hiding it for all other languages than english in MediaWiki:Common.css (as I have done it with the upload link in the toolbox I can't influence otherwise). Arnomane 10:42, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

translation

Why are there no Sidebar translations? I have a vi: translation. What should I do with it? pfctdayelise (translate?) 23:46, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

That's a rather wired issue which I dislike in MediaWiki. The single strings are single MediaWiki-pages that themselves are translated each one. For example there is MediaWiki:Participate and MediaWiki:Upload-url und MediaWiki:Upload which each one have their translations... I wouldn't have known this if I wouldn't have found meta:Help:Navigation bar which explains it... Arnomane 00:19, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Don't translate this; translate these instead...

Let's hope we never change the menu again. :/ OK so these are the text labels (and some customisable URLs) for the nav menu on the left: (obviously showing the default contents, ie English) (as usual, put your translations at MediaWiki:Pagename/XX where XX is your language code.)

• MediaWiki:navigation -> Navigate
• MediaWiki:mainpage -> Main Page
• MediaWiki:welcome-url -> Commons:Welcome
• MediaWiki:welcome -> Welcome
• MediaWiki:portal-url -> Commons:Community portal
• MediaWiki:portal -> Community portal
• MediaWiki:villagepump-url -> Commons:Village pump
• MediaWiki:villagepump -> Village pump
• MediaWiki:participate -> Participate
• MediaWiki:Upload-url Special page; don't translate
• MediaWiki:Upload -> Upload file
• MediaWiki:recentchanges-url Special page; don't translate
• MediaWiki:recentchanges -> Recent changes
• MediaWiki:latestfiles-url Special page; don't translate
• MediaWiki:latestfiles -> Latest files
• MediaWiki:randomimage-url Special page; don't translate
• MediaWiki:randomimage -> Random file
• MediaWiki:helppage -> Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents
• MediaWiki:help -> Help center
• MediaWiki:contact-url -> Commons:Contact_us
• MediaWiki:contact -> Contact us
• MediaWiki:sitesupport-url -> https://donate.wikimedia.org/?wmf_source=donate&wmf_medium=sidebar&wmf_campaign=commons.wikimedia.org&uselang=en
• MediaWiki:sitesupport -> Donate

Which leaves the burning question: why is there no MediaWiki:mainpage-url????

--pfctdayelise (translate?) 04:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

OK... some weirdness. Look at the main page in Finnish. Notice the third item links to Commons:Community portal and says "Kahvihuone". The fourth item links to Commons:Kahvihuone and also says "Kahvihuone". Kahvihuone = Finnish VP, so this is correct. There is no Finnish community portal. MediaWiki:Portal-url/fi for some reason has a MediaWiki default value (even though usually it just shouldn't exist, but nyeh), MediaWiki:Portal/fi does not even exist and for some reason the value instead of defaulting to English is defaulting to MediaWiki:Village pump/fi... can it be?! Or does this have something to do with the Languages.php file? --pfctdayelise (translate?) 05:12, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Hm, well now it exists and it's fine... don't like the random surprise element, though. pfctdayelise (translate?) 12:52, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Main page is a article namespace page (but I think it would be a good idea at some point moving it like Wiktionary into Commons name space). Thus the full name can be used as interface text as well. Thats why there is "Mainpage|Mainpage" in the sidebar. With regard to the fi-page Sometimes there are other totally not related translations that replace somehow a non existant translation until you set it up. I have never understood how I can predict that bevaviour. Arnomane 20:17, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I've changed village pump to villagepump as the space causes confusion in the software, and for consistency with the other two word things.--Nilfanion 23:34, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

how to translate footer?

So at the page footer we have

• MediaWiki:Copyright -> -
• "GNU Free Documentation License" - where does this come from??? I have a translation for the name. Can't find it in Special:Allmessages.
• MediaWiki:Privacy -> Privacy policy
• MediaWiki:Privacypage (should be privacy-url?) -> foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy policy
• MediaWiki:Aboutsite -> About Wikimedia Commons
• MediaWiki:Aboutpage (about-url?) -> Commons:Welcome
• MediaWiki:Disclaimers -> Disclaimers
• MediaWiki:Disclaimerpage (disclaimer-url?) -> Commons:General_disclaimer

I installed Vietnamese (vi) translations for MediaWiki:Privacy, MediaWiki:Aboutsite and MediaWiki:Disclaimers. The -page equivalents don't exist (no Vietnamese translations). So they should fall back to the English default. But instead they somehow mangle those three messages I did translate. Is this a known bug? How to fix? (Yeah, I could just copy the English URLs into the Vietnamese -page messages. That's not a real fix though.) --pfctdayelise (translate?) 14:30, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

The "GNU Free Documentation License" (the $1 string in MediaWiki:Copyright) is a fixed serverside variable you can enter when you install the wiki on a site. If you make an own private Mediawiki installation you will notice that you get asked during setup which license you want to apply to your wiki. So this variable is quite vital and it's name can't be translated up to now (and I would suggest not to try it somehow on current translations). If a translation of the interface string but not the link target exists it should use the english link target as a fall back normally. :-( Arnomane 20:25, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Problem with "Upload" vs "upload"

The sidebar uses "Upload" instead of "upload", it is the only entry with uppercase. It seems that the matching is case sensitive, because there are defaut translations for "upload" in most languages but they aren't used unless there is a MediaWiki entry. see for example the following two lines in Walloon or Russian

• {{int:upload}}: Upload file
• {{int:Upload}}: Upload file

So, maybe someone with sysop rights should edit MediaWiki:Sidebar and change "Upload" to "upload"

Thanks Srtxg 22:00, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I changed this. Strange, I thought it should be case insensitive. And I wonder how it got to be uppercase in the first place? hm... pfctdayelise (translate?) 12:11, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Hm as German for example is a language which uses first letter capitalisation a lot (all nouns are uppercase) this automatic lowercase looks really strange to a German in German interface ("diskussion" instead of "Diskussion" for example). So i'd like if we can drop this automatic to-lowercase in Commons entirely (and make the strings in english interface lowercase directly). However I have no idea where this can be overridden. Arnomane 20:26, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Vietnamese again

Hi, the Vietnamese-locale sidebar is mangled: the Village Pump link points to the correct page, but the link text reads "#REDIRECT [[MediaWiki:Villagepump/vi]]". You could probably translate it as "Thảo luận" (discussion), since "Trạm bơm nước của làng" is incredibly long and makes little sense to Vietnamese speakers. :^) "Bản để in" should also be "Bản để in ra", for consistency with the other Vietnamese Wikimedia projects. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 02:33, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

I think I fixed the Village pump message. Where does "Bản để in" appear? pfctdayelise (说什么?) 05:04, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Greek interface

Main Page is translated as Αρχική σελίδα (fine) but then this points to the nonexistent Αρχική_σελίδα, that can't be right. And the same thing is happening for the Community Portal (Ο ιστοχώρος της κοινότητας), which leads to the nonexistent translated page, and also Site Support (Υποστήριξη ιστοχώρου). How can I fix this so these fall back to the untranslated pages? ArielGlenn 23:06, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

I think you need to translate MediaWiki:Sidebar/el (just leave translation on talk page). Κύρια Σελίδα (Main Page?) are exists already. Or may be you need to just create redirect. --EugeneZelenko 15:36, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Done, translation is on the talk page as you specified. Thanks. ArielGlenn 05:09, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

mw:Manual:$wgForceUIMsgAsContentMsg

Amazing! This page explains why the sitenotice and this sidebar don't "translate properly" for Commons - they must not be in this array for the Commons localsettings.php. see e.g. bugzilla:9544, bugzilla:8280. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 05:56, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes. Back in the days when I bugged the MediaWiki devs for weeks on IRC enabeling translations for various links and messages in the interface I did forget to request the translation of some of them (and none told me which were missing). Later when I started an own wiki project I discovered this array variable with this very "logical" name by accident...

In order to be complete the array in LocalSettings.php of Commons must be like this:

$wgForceUIMsgAsContentMsg = array( 'mainpage', 'welcome-url', 'portal-url', 'village pump-url', 'helppage', 'contact-url', 'sitesupport-url', 'aboutpage', 'copyright');

I particular remember that I didn't request adding 'helppage', as it doesn't have any translations yet. 'Upload-url' shouldn't be necessary in this array unless people do not create a custom page as it is now in the english interface (special pages don't need translations). So under any circumstances we never should change a link page name just because the name is odd. And every further link entry should be considered very carfully in advance (as it needs to be added to this array). Arnomane 22:35, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Change upload

It seems that changing upload into uploadbtn is the only way to get a small bug fixed mentioned in the VP (06.sept.07). Any objections to this change? --Steinninn 20:00, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

It's been trough the Village pump and now here and no objections. So I'm putting a edit dag. --Steinninn 00:59, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

OK, done. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 10:29, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Uploadbtn is the text on the submit button in Special:Upload. In some languages that text is different from the title of Special:Upload in MediaWiki:Upload. For example, using Swedish interface the sidebar link now says "Upload the file", which is a bit strange when no specific file has been mentioned. And in French the upload submit button has been changed to say "Upload a file", which I think is strange when there is a specific file that will be uploaded. /Ö 23:51, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Link to help

Hello,

Currently, the French sidebar link to the Help mainpge points to Help:Contents. I thought I only needed to change MediaWiki:helppage/fr but it doesn't work. Any clue ?

Thanks, le Korrigan →bla 11:12, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Please see bugzilla:5925, there must be developer intervetion for this. Patrícia ^msg 22:50, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks ! le Korrigan →bla 08:22, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Translating sidebar

I've been trying to find information on translating the sidebar dependent on the user's default language but can't find any decent information. All people ever say is use "$wgForceUIMsgAsContentMsg" which means absolutely nothing for me and other people who are not experts. Where can I get more information on making my own wiki behave the way this wiki does. For example I want my wiki to have a Korean sidebar if someone changes their default language to Korean as well as automatically trying to find a Korean version of the page and linking that page first, otherwise just going to the English page. Help would be greatly appreciated. --Bluesoju (talk) 11:06, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Still haven't gotten any help yet. Is there a better place to ask? Any help would be appreciated --Bluesoju (talk) 09:28, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

"participate " i18n

Hi, among items on Sidebar, only "participate" is not translated yet. Is its translation going on? And where? Cheers, --Aphaia (talk) 02:57, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Otherlanguages section caption local translation

Note for translators: otherlanguages section caption (by defaul means "in other languages") translated in the Commons locally, because it means there "In Wikipedia". See also MediaWiki talk:Otherlanguages#Local translating only and Special:Prefixindex/Mediawiki:Otherlanguages for view all translations. --Kaganer (talk) 11:53, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

outreach

The reason why I added a link to outreach is this project shall increase the number of contributors and to build up connections to cultural or educational institutions. IMHO this is a very important project that needs to be advertised! axp_de^Hello! 23:17, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

The sidebar is not the place to do advertising. Multichill (talk) 22:47, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Ok, then we have to remove "sitesupport-url|sitesupport" as well, it's also advertising.

Btw, this section is called "participate", and you are encouraged to participate in outreach. Please note, it's an official project of wikimediafoundation! axp_de^Hello! 10:38, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

That's been in there for ages. I'm not going to touch that. We have plenty of projects you should participate in, nothing special about this one. Multichill (talk) 14:51, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

But that's not one of our "normal" projects, it is a campaign of wikimedia foundation to acquire new editors! And the whole projects needs editors to stay alive! axp_de^Hello! 12:52, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

That doesn't convince me. Multichill (talk) 15:57, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

Ok, seems we need some more input of other admins, what do you think? axp_de^Hello! 19:31, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Other admins? Admins don't rule this wiki, wmf doesn't rule this wiki, the community does. Multichill (talk) 15:04, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

You're right, input of the community is appreciated ... but maybe noone else cares? axp_de^Hello! 02:25, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

I'm not really convinced of the link either--DieBuche (talk) 10:23, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

Changing one link text

Could you change this line: ** upload-url|uploadbtn

and replace it by: ** upload-url|upload

I think that in some languages translations might be slightly different for one and another message. Moreover, in the rest of the wikis is like that. Why Commons has changed it? Thanks! --Toliño ^{Fala aquí comigo} 13:39, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

It was changed in this edit. Please confirm first that nothing will break. Multichill (talk) 14:49, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

I cannot confirm it for all languages. However it would be OK for Galician. What about creating a localized sidebar (MediaWiki:Sidebar/gl)? Is it possible? --Toliño ^{Fala aquí comigo} 15:14, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

The problem is not “for all languages”, the problem is (or, at least, was, in time of the edit) with the uselang hack, e.g. Special:Upload?uselang=hefromwikimedia. Hard to say the solution is worth it, etc. --Mormegil (talk) 15:03, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

So, is there any solution? --Toliño ^{Fala aquí comigo} 19:37, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

{{Edit request}}

• I am not sure what problem this causes for uselang hacks (btw, do we still use these after the upload wizard?), but we, for sure, shouldn't show the wrong message by default for many languages just to avoid a 'weird' exceptional behavior. This change is needed in Arabic as well, because MediaWiki:Upload is the message that is used with the link and MediaWiki:Uploadbtn is used for the upload button after choosing a certain file. It's like "Upload a file" vs. "Upload the file".--OsamaK 11:46, 3 February 2012 (UTC)
• "to avoid weird menu items when using the uselang hack" Can someone explain? Was ever discovered why? I am going to ask the user in concern. -- RE rillke questions? 20:00, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

It has been too long. I think this issue needs be solved.--OsamaK 06:03, 28 May 2012 (UTC)

---

 Not done. This breaks JavaScripts of a lot of users and I am too lazy to beg them to change. Also, the menu item "upload" would change on Special:Upload dependent on which "uselang-hack" would be used to things like MediaWiki:Upload/ownwork. -- Rillke^(q?) 11:26, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

Tuvan translation

{{Edit request}} Please add Tuvan translation for customized sidebar messages:

• MediaWiki:Welcome/tyv - Кирип моорлаңар!
• MediaWiki:Latestfiles/tyv - Чаа файлдар
• MediaWiki:Randomimage/tyv - Душ файл
• MediaWiki:Contact/tyv - Харылзаа

--Kaganer (talk) 13:24, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

 Done --Steinsplitter (talk) 13:29, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Sorbian translation

{{Edit request}} Please add the following sidebar translations for Upper Sorbian:

• MediaWiki:Latestfiles/hsb - Nowe dataje
• MediaWiki:Randomimage/hsb - Připadna dataja

Thanks! --j.budissin ^/- 16:46, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

 Done --Steinsplitter (talk) 16:47, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. One more is missing:

• MediaWiki:Participate/hsb - Sobu činić

-- j.budissin ^/- 16:54, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for translating :) --Steinsplitter (talk) 17:49, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

FYI

This task looks relevant here. Would anyone please confirm that it makes sense to move forward with a change? TY! --Elitre (WMF) (talk) 19:06, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Add a link to the Commons:VideoCutTool for video files

{{Edit request}}

Per here we now have a tool that can do some simple manipulations to videos. Wondering if we can add it to the sidebar like we do for the "CropTool" for images but of course just for videos. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 23:18, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

 Not done That's a gadget. MediaWiki:Gadget-CropTool --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 20:38, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

In order to fork CropTool's sidebar script gadget, I need the following information:

• Name of the gadget
• Description of gadget
• On-wiki documentation page of the gadget (if any)
• On-wiki talk page of the gadget (if any)
• List of supported file extensions
• Entry point to the tool that prefills a file

--Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 20:38, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

Thanks User:Zhuyifei1999 does this provide what you need Commons:VideoCutTool? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:39, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

No. That's the 'On-wiki documentation page of the gadget'. Others? --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 18:39, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the ping @User:Zhuyifei1999 and @User:Doc James

Name of the gadget: VideoCutTool

Description of the gadget: A tool to cut and trim videos on Wikimedia Commons.

On-wiki documentation page of the gadget (if any): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:VideoCutTool

On-wiki talk page of the gadget (if any): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:VideoCutTool

List of supported file extensions: Webm/OGV/MP4

Entry point to the tool that prefills a file:http://tools.wmflabs.org/video-cut-tool if with filename https://tools.wmflabs.org/video-cut-tool/?title=JeremyNguyen_-_Video_Cut_Tool_Demonstration.webm Gopavasanth (talk) 12:42, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

@Gopavasanth: What should the text of the link in the sidebar be? --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 17:49, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

@Zhuyifei1999: VideoCutTool Gopavasanth (talk) 08:24, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

@Gopavasanth:  Done Special:Gadgets --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 19:13, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

Restore "Print/export" tools section

{{Edit request}}

I don't know what @Putnik: was trying to do, but this change removed the "Print/export" tools section and the "Download as PDF" link. I verified on test.wikipedia.org that reverting it will fix the problem.

In short, please revert [1]. Thanks, Legoktm (talk) 06:47, 18 June 2020 (UTC)

• @Legoktm: It was the fix for phab:T254546 ("Print/export" section was after interwiki section). Since the patch for MediaWiki was already made, I will try to rollback the change. But the fact that the block disappears with the current message also looks like a MediaWiki bug. — putnik 11:15, 18 June 2020 (UTC)

Marking the edit request as done, since it looks like there’s nothing more to do for interface admins here? (Revert if I’m wrong ^^) --Lucas Werkmeister (talk) 20:32, 19 June 2020 (UTC)