User talk:Nicjansma

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The archive of previous Talk is at my Talk Archive

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MediaWiki Upgrade 1.15.0 -> 1.18.0 (December 16, 2011)

2011-12-15: Friday December 16, 2011 at approx 12pm PDT, I will be upgrading MediaWiki from version 1.15.0 to 1.18.0. The update will bring two years worth of better security, performance and features. I have tested the update (which required a few fixes to our extensions and skins), but you never know what will go wrong. Additionally, after the upgrade, I will be looking into better SPAM protection for the wiki. If you see anything out of place, please let me know. Nicjansma 01:09, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

2012-01-18: As of today, I do not know of any outstanding issues with the 1.18.0 upgrade. The previous issues were migrated to my Talk Archive page. If there's still something broken, please create a new topic on this page.

Semantic Wiki

There is a project for this BattlTech Wiki that I would like to work on now that you're running a current version of Mediawiki, but requires the Semantic Bundle extension. The No Cache extension would go great with this too since some pages take a while to update from the database. The Sandbox page describes one of the things I would like to work on.--Seth 23:21, 23 December 2011 (PST)

Can you exlain what it does. I see simple code (the timetable template) that appears to result in three-row, four-column table. Does this mean its pulling data from other pages to create this table?--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 07:56, 24 December 2011 (PST)

I can do one better than that, I can show you what it does. Using the same code with this extension installed, I made a sample page [ http://mwowiki.org/index.php?title=Timetable_Sample here]. It pulls data from other pages and displays it on its own page. The real benefit of this is that you can update multiple tables from the one subject page. On the Category:BattleMechs, you might just want a list of all mechs and fast way to sort them by tonnage or to know which ones are clan or Inner Sphere, but on the timetable page you're just interested in knowing when all the mechs were frst made. It's basically a useful tool for displaying data in an organized way.--Seth 10:40, 24 December 2011 (PST)

Looks pretty interesting, I can probably get it installed. My only concern is the sheer size of the extension. Can you explain the project you want this for? Is it a timeline or something similar? Nicjansma 11:15, 19 January 2012 (PST)

A timeline was something I was thinking would be interesting. I don't think I've seen a centralized page that displays all the production, extinction, and reintroduction years of the mechs. The cool thing about this is that you don't have to actually edit a timetable page continuously, you simply edit the Mech's page and the other page is automatically updated. It's basically a great tool for creating sortable tables of information. For example, this (BattleTechWiki:BattleMech Portal) is a pretty cool page for filtering mechs quickly, but with this extension, you can create a single table of all the mechs and sort them by name, weight, weight class, faction, tech, or battle value with a single click. --Seth 01:20, 22 January 2012 (PST)

OK, extension installed, but I haven't yet enabled all of the sub-extensions. I'm thinking we can enable specific ones as-needed? Here's a list of extensions it includes: Semantic Bundle. Is there a project that you would like to start with that we can test it with? If so, do you know which extensions you would use? Nicjansma 10:13, 10 February 2012 (PST)

I think all the Semantic extensions I am used to are included in the bundle, but if I see something else, I'll let you know here. I've started working on a BattleMech Timetable, but there is one thing you could do that would help me out. The list is currently limited to a maximum of 500, however there are more than 500 Battlemechs and I would like them all listed on one page. Would you mind adding the current line to the LocalSettings.php under where you added Semantic Wiki?

smwgQMaxInlineLimit=1000;

Thanks--Seth 13:28, 15 February 2012 (PST)

Sure, updated Nicjansma 11:53, 1 March 2012 (PST)

Thank you, I was going to ask for this as well!--S.gage 12:26, 1 March 2012 (PST)

Deleting Spam Bot Accounts

Installing the Merge and Delete extension will allow administrators on here to delete all those spam bot accounts--Seth 06:38, 2 February 2012 (PST)

Excellent! Thank you, Seth. --break-- Nic: me want.--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 10:32, 2 February 2012 (PST)

Installed! Nicjansma 10:07, 10 February 2012 (PST)

Idea

Hello Nicjansma, first I will thank you for that great place in the internet where I can find many informations and add further informaion by myself. I find the formating of the mech variant page not so good. I reworked the marauder variant User:Neuling/Variant Formatting‎ as an example: please tell me what do you think about the new look. Tnx Neuling 13:30, 10 February 2012 (PST)

The problem with that is that when you add all the variants to the menu, it makes the menu too tall and you don't see any of the actual text without scrolling down. You could make it so the text is squeezed between the menu box and information box, but it wouldn't look very good that way I think.--Seth 09:14, 17 February 2012 (PST)

Uploading Database info

Hi Nic, hope all is well! I have a database on planet(system) coordinates, relative distances & ownership history(albeit with gaps here and there) in a spreadsheet. The information is first(ownership history), second-hand(coordinates) & third-hand(relative distances) from various CBT sources, and I would like to assist the Project: Planets Team in updating the information on the Planets pages using these data. Doneve advised me to drop you a message to see if there's a way to automate this process of updating the planet pages using the data that I (and others) have collected. Regards! -Volt 16:01, 28 February 2012 (PST)

I think I can help with that, but I would need to know more about what your goal is.--Seth 09:52, 29 February 2012 (PST)

Hi Seth, basically I want to automate updating certain pieces of information on several articles to eliminate the repetitive EDIT PASTE CHECK SAVE, since all the data given are already available but are just in a different medium.-Volt 16:27, 29 February 2012 (PST)

Well, that is certainly possible with Semantic Wiki. Give me an example of what you are looking for and I'll come up with a way to do it.--Seth 22:43, 1 March 2012 (PST)