More Revisions to go

As the project goes we have revisions on process. This time we want to remove the Home (Main) title in front page and should add (From Wikipiniana, the free Philippine Encyclopedia under each article titles. This is to maximize the space in front page. Here's how:

following revision to not display title for main page and for the rest it will display (included also the text "From Wikipiniana, the free Philippine Encyclopedia")

under editskin.php add this line

data['displaytitle']!=""?$this->text('title'):$this->html('title')?>

From Wikipiniana, the free Philippine Encyclopedia

Then I created a banner inside the masthead (front page). You have to go to main.css and start editing:

main.css //found in editskin folder

//add this code before the globalWrapper class

#Header {
position:absolute;
margin-top:10px;
margin-left:100px;
background-image:url(../../Wikipiniana_ad.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
cursor:pointer;
width:100%;
height:100px;
}
//replace the globalWrapper class to
#globalWrapper {
font-size: 127%;
position:absolute;
margin-top:120px;
width:100%;
}

Then, I change the background by simply copying new headbg.jpg that I have created using Photoshop in editskin folder. After that, I have decided to have a looping banner instead of a static. It cycles every 1 minute. (assuming you have done the display already)


main.css //found in editskin folder

//change this code from
#Header {
position:absolute;
margin-top:10px;
margin-left:100px;
background-image:url(../../Wikipiniana_ad.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
cursor:pointer;
width:100%;
height:100px;
}

//to
#Header1 {
position:absolute;
margin-top:10px;
background-position:center;
background-image:url(../../Wikipiniana_ad.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
cursor:pointer;
width:100%;
height:100px;
}

//add following code right after the code above
#Header2 {
position:absolute;
margin-top:10px;
background-position:center;
background-image:url(../../828663-lg.jpg);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
cursor:pointer;
width:100%;
height:100px;
}

Now, I have another in mind. If you like to add an advertisement box. This is the example that I have made. (I have put banner link to my other project).

under editskin.php copy these codes

advertisement title

//after the following code

msg('toolbox') ?>

...................

//add the following codes inside the tag
function adv()
{
window.location="http://www.google.com";
}

main.css //found in editskin folder

//add these codes
#advertise {
position:absolute;
background-position:left;
background-image:url(../../Wiki_volunteers.png);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
border-collapse: collapse;
border: 1px solid #aaa;
padding: 0 .8em .3em .5em;
cursor:pointer;
width:128.5px;
height:128.5px;
}

Updating your MediaWIki Skins

Wikipiniana is a project in progress and sometimes it needs to evolve in terms of interface as presentation to its user. Gus wants to redesign some part of the presentation to accommodate some pertinent informations that he wants to show on the front page. In times like this, you should be ready and make your immediate decision on how to protect your old skin template. In mediawiki, skins should be back-up so that the skin won't be overwritten for future updates in mediawiki make new skin and if your re-engineering its skin. Now, here's the method:

1. make a copy of MonoBook.php under skin folder; then rename MonoBook.php to desired file name (for my example "editskin.php").
2. make a copy of monobook folder and rename it to deired name(for my example "editskin")
3. open editskin.php then replace all MonoBook strings to editskin.
4. open LocalSettings.php then reset the $wgDefaultSkin to "editskin".

Wikipiniana:The Operation

Planning the process for Wikipiniana is not easy. Content generation is something that can be described as team work. I have been to Wikipedia's pages since January this year and I can say that I have familiarized myself the in's and out of the site. I have tested all the code templates inside Wikipiniana to simulate Wikipedia so that when aggregation started no error should took place while on the operation.

These things should be look upon and should be well planned. So I have devised a work flow to simulate the real process of a collaborative work flow over the internet. I have created a team of wiki programmers to act as support when templates are screwed and should be patched up. ( I have pick those who have background in HTML and trained them with wiki tags). Then I have chosen three content generators for contents and two image generators for downloading images and assigning the proper attributions. Here's the breakdown:

CG1 - Download pages from categories
CG2 - Download pages from links in the pages made by CG1
CG3- Counter check the pages generated by CG1 and CG2
CG4 - Download related images from the generated pages of CG1 and CG2
CG5 - Counter check works of CG4 and add image attributions
CG6 - Counter check works of CG1-CG5 and add missing contents if needed
Team Leader - prepares report of everyday progress

Our official telecommunicator is Skype. We use this for real time monitoring thru chat and voice conference calls for other instructions needed. Skype is also superior in file transfer and its fast.