Extension:SandboxLink

MediaWiki extensions manual

SandboxLink Release status: stable
Implementation	User interface, MyWiki
Description	Adds a link to user's personal sandbox to personal tools menu
Author(s)	Bartosz Dziewoński (Matma Rextalk)
Latest version	Continuous updates
Compatibility policy	Snapshots releases along with MediaWiki. Master is not backward compatible.
MediaWiki	1.25+
Database changes	No
License	MIT License
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Help	Help:Extension:SandboxLink
Parameters $wgSandboxLinkDisableAnon
Hooks used SkinPreloadExistence SkinTemplateNavigation::Universal
Translate the SandboxLink extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The SandboxLink extension adds a link to user's personal sandbox to personal tools menu. The sandbox is assumed to exist, or will be created, at a "/sandbox" subpage of user's userpage. The extension accurately reflects the existence of the page (redlink, vs always-a-bluelink in the gadget) which will be useful for bringing it to the attention of newcomers. The extension also keeps the link available on restricted special pages (special:preferences and special:userlogin).

More limited version of this functionality can be achieved with a JavaScript snippet: Snippets/MySandbox . This snippet was previously used as a gadget on many Wikimedia wikis, most of which had it set to default=on. The main disadvantages of the gadget are performance and mis-clicks: Because the snippet only loads after everything else is rendered, it causes a distracting "movement" in the personal bar. This also leads to many mis-clicks, when an editor tries to visit their userpage or usertalkpage, and those links moved just before the click. On the other hand, the disadvantage of the extension is that when installed on a wiki, there is no way for a user to opt out of the sandbox link appearing on the personal toolbar.

Usage

See Help:Extension:SandboxLink.

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called SandboxLink in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php :

  wfLoadExtension( 'SandboxLink' );
  

• Configure as required.
•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

To users running MediaWiki 1.24 or earlier:

The instructions above describe the new way of installing this extension using wfLoadExtension(). If you need to install this extension on these earlier versions (MediaWiki 1.24 and earlier), instead of wfLoadExtension( 'SandboxLink' );, you need to use:

require_once "$IP/extensions/SandboxLink/SandboxLink.php";

Configuration

Server-side configuration

This extension provides one configuration option:

$wgSandboxLinkDisableAnon

(Default: true)

Whether to disable the functionality for anonymous users.

On-wiki configuration

The sandbox link generated by this extension can be tweaked by modifying some system messages.

sandboxlink-subpage-name

(Default in English: "sandbox", varies per language)

The name of user's subpage where the sandbox should be created. By default, the page used will be "User:Example/sandbox".

Set this message to '-' to remove the sandbox link for all users.

The value in wiki's content language will always be used, regardless of user's chosen language. If you're running a multilingual wiki, this can be overridden with the $wgForceUIMsgAsContentMsg MediaWiki configuration setting.

sandboxlink-portlet-label

(Default in English: "Sandbox", varies per language)

The label of the link in the user's personal toolbar.

tooltip-pt-sandbox

(Default in English: "Your sandbox", varies per language)

The text contained in the "title" attribute of the link to the sandbox. This text is displayed when the user hovers their mouse over the link.

sandboxlink-editintro-pagename

sandboxlink-preload-pagename

(Default: '-')

When the sandbox page does not exist, the page title to use for the 'editintro' and 'preload' parameters of the link. See Manual:Parameters to index.php#Options affecting the edit form. Not enabled by default.

See also

• Extension:TemplateSandbox