MediaWiki development

From binaryoption
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Баннер1
  1. MediaWiki Development: A Beginner’s Guide

MediaWiki is the free and open-source wiki software that powers Wikipedia and countless other websites. While many users interact with MediaWiki as readers or editors, a robust community actively *develops* the software itself. This article provides a comprehensive introduction to MediaWiki development, geared towards beginners, covering everything from setting up a development environment to contributing code and understanding the core architecture.

What Does MediaWiki Development Entail?

MediaWiki development isn't just about writing PHP code. It's a multifaceted process encompassing:

  • **PHP Coding:** The core of MediaWiki is written in PHP. Understanding PHP, particularly object-oriented programming, is fundamental.
  • **JavaScript Development:** Modern MediaWiki relies heavily on JavaScript for interactive elements and a richer user experience. Familiarity with JavaScript frameworks like jQuery is beneficial.
  • **CSS Styling:** Customizing the look and feel of MediaWiki involves CSS. Knowledge of CSS and responsive design principles are important.
  • **Database Interaction:** MediaWiki uses a relational database (typically MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL) to store its data. Understanding SQL is crucial for working with data.
  • **API Development:** MediaWiki provides a powerful API that allows external applications to interact with the wiki.
  • **Testing:** Rigorous testing is essential to ensure the quality and stability of the software. Unit tests, integration tests, and user acceptance testing are all important.
  • **Documentation:** Clear and concise documentation is vital for both developers and users.
  • **Community Interaction:** MediaWiki is a community-driven project. Collaboration, communication, and participation in discussions are key.
  • **Version Control:** Using Git for version control is mandatory. Understanding branching, merging, and pull requests is essential.

Setting Up a Development Environment

Before you can start contributing, you need a development environment. Here's a basic setup:

1. **Local Web Server:** You'll need a local web server like XAMPP (cross-platform), WAMP (Windows), or MAMP (macOS). These packages typically include Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP. Alternatively, you can use Docker (see Manual:Docker installation). 2. **Git:** Install Git, a distributed version control system. You'll need it to download the source code and submit your changes. [1] 3. **MediaWiki Source Code:** Clone the MediaWiki repository from GitHub: `git clone https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki.git` 4. **Database:** Create a database (MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL) for your development wiki. 5. **Configuration:** Copy `LocalSettings.php.sample` to `LocalSettings.php` and configure it with your database credentials and other settings. Pay close attention to `$wgSitename`, `$wgDBtype`, `$wgDBserver`, `$wgDBname`, `$wgDBuser`, and `$wgDBpassword`. The Configuration settings documentation is invaluable. 6. **Running MediaWiki:** Navigate to the MediaWiki directory in your web browser. You should see the MediaWiki installation script. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Understanding the MediaWiki Architecture

MediaWiki's architecture is complex, but understanding the key components is crucial:

  • **Parser:** The parser takes wiki markup (like `link`) and transforms it into HTML. It’s a core component responsible for rendering content.
  • **Database Schema:** The database schema defines how data is stored. Understanding the key tables (e.g., `page`, `revision`, `user`) is important.
  • **Hooks:** MediaWiki uses a powerful hook system that allows extensions to modify the behavior of the core software without directly changing the core code. Hooks are essential for extensibility. See Hooks for detailed information.
  • **Classes and Objects:** MediaWiki is heavily object-oriented. Understanding the key classes (e.g., `Article`, `User`, `Title`) and their relationships is important.
  • **Special Pages:** Special pages (e.g., `Special:Search`, `Special:RecentChanges`) provide administrative and utility functions.
  • **API:** The MediaWiki API allows external applications to interact with the wiki programmatically. See API:Main page.
  • **Message System:** MediaWiki uses a message system for internationalization (i18n). All user-visible text is stored in message files. See Manual:I18n.

Contributing to MediaWiki

There are many ways to contribute to MediaWiki:

  • **Bug Reporting:** If you find a bug, report it on Bugzilla. Provide detailed steps to reproduce the bug.
  • **Feature Requests:** Suggest new features on Bugzilla. Explain the benefits of the feature and how it would improve the wiki.
  • **Documentation:** Improve the documentation. Clear and concise documentation is vital for both developers and users.
  • **Code Contributions:** Submit patches (code changes) to the Gerrit code review system. See Development/Gerrit.
  • **Translation:** Help translate MediaWiki into other languages. See Translate.
  • **Testing:** Test new features and bug fixes.

The Gerrit Code Review Process

All code contributions to MediaWiki must go through the Gerrit code review process:

1. **Create a Change:** Use `git` to create a branch for your changes. Make your changes and commit them. 2. **Upload to Gerrit:** Use the `git review` command to upload your changes to Gerrit. 3. **Code Review:** Other developers will review your code and provide feedback. Address any issues raised during the review. 4. **Submission:** Once your code has been approved, it will be submitted to the main codebase.

Key Development Tools and Resources

  • **PHPStorm:** A popular PHP IDE with excellent MediaWiki support. [2]
  • **VS Code:** A lightweight and versatile code editor with PHP and JavaScript support. [3]
  • **Gerrit:** The code review system used by MediaWiki. [4]
  • **Bugzilla:** The bug tracking system. [5]
  • **MediaWiki Developer Documentation:** The official documentation for developers. [6]
  • **MediaWiki Wiki:** The wiki itself contains a wealth of information. [7]
  • **IRC:** The MediaWiki community has an IRC channel for real-time communication. [#mediawiki on freenode]
  • **Mailing Lists:** Various mailing lists for different aspects of MediaWiki development. [8]

Advanced Topics

Once you're comfortable with the basics, you can explore more advanced topics:

  • **Extension Development:** Creating extensions to add new features to MediaWiki. See Extension:Example.
  • **Skin Development:** Customizing the look and feel of MediaWiki by creating new skins.
  • **API Integration:** Using the MediaWiki API to interact with the wiki programmatically.
  • **Performance Optimization:** Improving the performance of MediaWiki.
  • **Security:** Addressing security vulnerabilities.
  • **Database Optimization:** Optimizing database queries and schema.

Understanding Technical Analysis and Trends in Wiki Development

Just like financial markets, MediaWiki development follows certain trends and benefits from technical analysis of code changes and community activity.

  • **Trend Following (Feature Adoption):** Observing which new features are gaining traction and being adopted by a larger number of wikis can indicate successful development directions. Analyzing the frequency of commits related to a particular feature is a form of trend analysis.
  • **Support and Resistance (Code Stability):** Areas of code that consistently require fixes (resistance) or are highly stable (support) provide insight into the software’s strengths and weaknesses. Bugzilla reports act as indicators.
  • **Moving Averages (Community Involvement):** Tracking the number of active developers and contributors over time (a moving average) reveals the health and momentum of the development community.
  • **Volatility (Rapid Changes):** Periods of high code churn and frequent releases suggest a volatile development phase, possibly driven by major refactoring or urgent bug fixes.
  • **Indicators (Code Complexity):** Metrics like cyclomatic complexity can act as indicators of potential maintainability issues. High complexity suggests a need for refactoring. [9]
  • **Correlation (Dependency Analysis):** Identifying dependencies between different code modules can reveal potential cascading effects of changes. [10]
  • **Pattern Recognition (Common Bugs):** Analyzing past bug reports to identify recurring patterns can help prevent similar issues in the future. [11]
  • **Risk Management (Security Audits):** Regularly conducting security audits to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities. [12]
  • **Time Series Analysis (Release Cycles):** Analyzing historical release data to predict future release schedules.
  • **Regression Analysis (Performance Impact):** Evaluating the impact of code changes on performance metrics. [13]
  • **Sentiment Analysis (Community Feedback):** Monitoring community forums and mailing lists to gauge developer sentiment towards new features.

These analytical approaches, borrowed from fields like financial trading, help prioritize development efforts, identify potential risks, and ensure the long-term health of the MediaWiki project. Resources like [14] can help track bug resolution and feature development progress. Understanding Software performance monitoring is key to maintaining a stable and responsive wiki. Tools like [15] can help with this. Analyzing the impact of changes on user experience using tools like [16] is also valuable. Further exploration into Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery practices will streamline the development process. Consider studying Agile software development methodologies for effective project management.

Resources for Further Learning

  • **PHP Documentation:** [17]
  • **JavaScript Documentation:** [18]
  • **CSS Documentation:** [19]
  • **MySQL Documentation:** [20]
  • **PostgreSQL Documentation:** [21]
  • **Git Documentation:** [22]
  • **Software Testing Principles:** [23]
  • **Static Code Analysis Tools:** [24] [25]


Manual:Configuration settings Manual:Hooks API:Main page Manual:I18n Development/Gerrit Extension:Example Manual:Docker installation Software performance monitoring Continuous Integration Continuous Delivery Agile software development Translate

Start Trading Now

Sign up at IQ Option (Minimum deposit $10) Open an account at Pocket Option (Minimum deposit $5)

Join Our Community

Subscribe to our Telegram channel @strategybin to receive: ✓ Daily trading signals ✓ Exclusive strategy analysis ✓ Market trend alerts ✓ Educational materials for beginners

Баннер
Retrieved from "https://binaryoption.wiki/index.php?title=MediaWiki_development&oldid=45726"