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README for the Gadgets extension
Copyright © 2007 Daniel Kinzler
Licenses: GNU General Public Licence (GPL)
          GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)
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The Gadgets extension provides a way for users to pick JavaScript or CSS
based "gadgets" that other wiki users provide.

<http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Gadgets>

The Gadgets extension was originally written by Daniel Kinzler in 2007
and is released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL). 
The internationalization files may contain contributions by several people;
they should be mentioned in each file individually.

== Installing ==
Copy the Gadgets directory into the extensions folder of your 
MediaWiki installation. Then add the following lines to your
LocalSettings.php file (near the end):

  require_once( "$IP/extensions/Gadgets/Gadgets.php" );

== Usage ==
The list of available gadgets is defined on MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition.
Gadgets defined there show up in the "Gadgets" section of
Special:Preferences, so users can pick the gadgets they would like to use.
An overview of the gadgets defined by MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition is also
shown on Special:Gadgets, along with links to the respective system
messages, for easy editing.

Each line in MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition that start with one or more "*"
(asterisk) characters defines a gadget; it must have the following form:

  * mygadget|mygadget.js|mygadget.css

That is, each line consists of fields separated by a "|" (pipe) character.
The first field ("mygadget" in the example) is the gadgets internal name,
and references a system message (MediaWiki:Gadget-mygadget in the example) 
that contains a short description of the gadget, using wiki syntax.
Note that the internal name must start with a ASCII letter, and must
contain only ASCII letter and numbers, hyphens ("-"), underscores ("_"),
colons (":"), and periods (".") (spaces are also allowed but converted to
underscores ("_"), like for page titles).

The remaining fields on the line refer to the JavaScript or CSS code that
makes up the gadget, contained in system messages
(MediaWiki:Gadget-mygadget.js and MediaWiki:Gadget-mygadget.css in the
example); the names of those messages must end with ".js" or ".css",
respectively. A gadget can use any number of code messages, specifically,
common code can be put into a code message used by several gadgets, in
addition to their own specific code, e.g:

  * frobinator|commonStuff.js|frob.js|frob.css|pretty.css
  * l33t|commonStuff.js|tools.js|l33t.js

The list of gadgets in MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition can be broken into
sections using lines that start and end with two or more "=" (equals)
characters, enclosing the name of a system message that defines the
section's name - for example:

  == editing-gadgets ==

This would define a new section, with the title defined on the page
MediaWiki:Gadget-section-editing-gadgets


== Caveats ==

* Requires MediaWiki 1.11alpha, revision 24477 or later.
* Gadgets do not apply to Special:Preferences, so users can always disable
  any broken gadgets they may have enabled.
* Uses BeforePageDisplay hook, thus only works with MonoBook based skins; 
  specifically, does not work with CologneBlue.
* Gadget code is included after user code - that means that user JS has no 
  access to things defined in gadgets, and user CSS is overwritten by CSS 
  from gadgets. (pending a better way to insert things into the HTML head)