This extension contains all PHP, JavaScript, CSS and Lua code specific to Appropedia. We used to have it all scattered in our MediaWiki:Common.js, MediaWiki:Common.css and LocalSettings.php, but we now have it all here for several reasons:
- Simplifies testing and maintenance
- Simplifies documentation and discovery of new features and changes
- Simplifies contributions by new developers via pull requests
- Simplifies development by allowing us to make use of code editors
- Simplifies CSS styling by allowing us to make use of LESS
- Improves performance by allowing us to make use of MediaWiki's Resource Loader and avoiding unnecessary web requests to MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css
- Allows us to translate strings via translatewiki.net, see Translating:Appropedia
- Furthers our commitment to open source code as well as content
Many features that were developed specifically for Appropedia have been turned into standalone extensions (such as CategoryLockdown, PageAuthors, StandardWikitext and SearchParserFunction) but others are so specific that can't be turned into extensions, so we clump them all together in this extension.
Note that template-specific JavaScript and CSS is still hosted at Appropedia (see Category:Template script pages and Category:Template style pages) and should remain there. This is because such scripts and styles should only be loaded on pages where the templates are used, while code in this extension gets loaded on all pages.