Wikibooks:Reading room/Technical Assistance
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Welcome to the Technical Assistance reading room. Get assistance on questions related to MediaWiki markup, CSS, JavaScript, and such as they relate to Wikibooks. This is not a general-purpose technical support room.
To submit a bug notice or feature request for the MediaWiki software, visit Phabricator.
To get more information about the MediaWiki software, or to download your own copy, visit MediaWiki
There are also two IRC channels for technical help: #mediawikiconnect for issues about the software, and #mediawiki-coreconnect for WMF server or configuration issues.
Proposal to merge all Common.css subpages to the main Common.css page
[edit source]As the section title suggests, this is because both @import and screen are bad to use in CSS (regarding performance), so I would suggest merging all of their code into Common.css for faster performance. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 05:05, 14 December 2025 (UTC)
- Unfortunately, I don't really know enough about this to comment :/ —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 02:44, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
- Guess I'll have to do this myself... 😒 JJPMaster might also know about this. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 05:13, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
- @Codename Noreste: It seems you forgot to merge some subpages into MediaWiki:Common.css. For example, the contents of MediaWiki:Common.css/Autocount.css and MediaWiki:Common.css/Infobox.css are not shipped to users now. I noticed this because Template:Chess Opening Theory/Position lacks styling. Dexxor (discuss • contribs) 10:34, 13 January 2026 (UTC)
- @Codename Noreste: Thanks for re-adding the CSS code. The content of the following subpages is still missing
- MediaWiki:Common.css/Lists.css (used by {{New}} and {{Unbulleted list}} among others)
- MediaWiki:Common.css/Messages.css (Only the messagebox styles are missing. They are used by several templates, including {{mbox-side}}, {{SharedIP}}, and {{Future}}, and sometimes even inline.)
- Technically, it might be better to use TemplateStyles for this, but for now the easiest solution is to re-add the CSS. Dexxor (discuss • contribs) 16:36, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- @Codename Noreste: Thanks for re-adding the CSS code. The content of the following subpages is still missing
- @Codename Noreste: It seems you forgot to merge some subpages into MediaWiki:Common.css. For example, the contents of MediaWiki:Common.css/Autocount.css and MediaWiki:Common.css/Infobox.css are not shipped to users now. I noticed this because Template:Chess Opening Theory/Position lacks styling. Dexxor (discuss • contribs) 10:34, 13 January 2026 (UTC)
- Guess I'll have to do this myself... 😒 JJPMaster might also know about this. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 05:13, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
Visual Editor Implementation
[edit source]I feel like I've asked this in the past, but I can't actually track it down, so I'm throwing it here again. Is there a way to implement the visual editor on more namespaces than just Main? I use visual and source editing for specific different purposes, and it's a little inconvenient to not be able to use the visual sometimes. Thanks! —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 02:56, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
- Have you enabled the visual editor in your global preferences, under the tab
Editing
? Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 05:12, 9 January 2026 (UTC)- Yep, it's enabled there. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 13:06, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
- I'm not sure if they'll allow this, but we will have to submit a Phabricator request. Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 15:25, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
- I'm sure you might be aware of this, but enabling the visual editor on discussion pages is impossible, per Limits to configuration changes. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 19:24, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
- For clarification, I think I mostly just want to be able to use the visual editor on non-talk pages in the Wikibooks namespace, specifically so I can more easily edit and maintain policy pages. I know some pages in that namespace (e.g. the reading rooms) are set up as talk pages—would this then prevent all pages in this namespace from having VisualEditor enabled? —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 22:06, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
some pages in that namespace (e.g. the reading rooms) are set up as talk pages—would this then prevent all pages in this namespace from having VisualEditor enabled?
From finding mw:Help:VisualEditor/FAQ#WPNS & (e.g.) this Phab comment, my current understanding is that this wouldn't prevent pages in theWikibooks:namespace from having VisualEditor enabled -- those links provide some additional context/information on that subject. Best, —a smart kitten (discuss • contribs) 11:32, 11 January 2026 (UTC)
- I don't think there'd be much use with the reply tool now either. Would've made a lot of sense before this tool was rolled out, though. --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 22:19, 12 January 2026 (UTC)
- For clarification, I think I mostly just want to be able to use the visual editor on non-talk pages in the Wikibooks namespace, specifically so I can more easily edit and maintain policy pages. I know some pages in that namespace (e.g. the reading rooms) are set up as talk pages—would this then prevent all pages in this namespace from having VisualEditor enabled? —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 22:06, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
- Do we think this would be a new feature request or a generic task? New feature request feels incorrect. @A smart kitten so sorry to bug you, but do you know which is best? —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 22:26, 10 January 2026 (UTC)
- @Kittycataclysm In this case, I'd probably say a 'generic' task would be more fitting than a feature request (though, with regard to Phab task types in general, I'd say it's generally not a big deal if a task gets filed as the 'wrong' type -- there is some overlap between some of the task types, and it can always be changed after a task's been filed if someone wants to do so
:)). - However, from reading what's written above, I believe that a Phab task filed at the moment might not currently be actionable. This is because I believe that a request to enable VisualEditor in more namespaces would fall under being a 'site configuration change request', which first need a proposal to be made/accepted on the wiki in question before the change can be made. (m:Requesting wiki configuration changes § How to request a change has some more information/detail about this process)
- If you're interested in VisualEditor being enabled in more namespaces, I'd therefore probably suggest starting a discussion (maybe at Wikibooks:Reading room/Proposals) for that proposal, noting the specific namespaces that you'd like it to also be enabled for. If there's consensus (or no objection) after - say - a couple of weeks (the timescales here are a bit loose/unclear; m:SITECONFIG just says to
give time for a consensus to develop
), you (or someone else) could then file a request for that change to be made. - No worries about pinging me btw, and let me know if you have any questions! Best, —a smart kitten (discuss • contribs) 11:31, 11 January 2026 (UTC)
- @A smart kitten thank you so much! This is very helpful, and I appreciate it. I'll move forward as indicated —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 16:06, 11 January 2026 (UTC)
- @Kittycataclysm In this case, I'd probably say a 'generic' task would be more fitting than a feature request (though, with regard to Phab task types in general, I'd say it's generally not a big deal if a task gets filed as the 'wrong' type -- there is some overlap between some of the task types, and it can always be changed after a task's been filed if someone wants to do so
- Yeah I see no reason why it shouldn't be allowed in the Wikijunior and Cookbook namespaces at the very least. Projectspace would also be nice. //SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 22:18, 12 January 2026 (UTC)
- @SHB2000 to clarify, it is enabled there (see my proposal). —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 22:51, 12 January 2026 (UTC)
- Okay interesting, only just noticed haha. --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 22:56, 12 January 2026 (UTC)
- @SHB2000 to clarify, it is enabled there (see my proposal). —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 22:51, 12 January 2026 (UTC)
- I'm sure you might be aware of this, but enabling the visual editor on discussion pages is impossible, per Limits to configuration changes. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 19:24, 9 January 2026 (UTC)