Wikibooks:Reading room/Technical Assistance

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: #mediawiki^connect for issues about the software, and #mediawiki-core^connect for WMF server or configuration issues.

Visual editing project pages

Is there a reason visual editing is not enabled for project pages (e.g. Wikibooks namespace)? I 1) have a harder time using the source editor and 2) tend to make more, smaller edits when using it, which I know can be annoying. Thanks! —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 22:00, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

@Leaderboard @MarcGarver would either of you happen to know? Thanks! —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 16:14, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

@Kittycataclysm: It's not enabled across Wikimedia as far as I'll aware - I think you'll need to check on Phabricator to check if a configuration change is possible. Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 16:18, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

I believe it is possible, with some limitations. There was a discussion here requesting it a year ago, which concluded "As long as there is community consensus (e.g., a discussion on that wiki) and no technical problems (e.g., the namespace does not contain huge pages like w:en:WP:ANI), then the team is happy to honor such requests". MarcGarver (discuss • contribs) 08:17, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

Troubleshooting shelves template

Hello! I've noticed that Template:Shelves seems to interact negatively with the visual editor: the template "object" sort of "eats" the text immediately before the template is called. This makes it impossible to interact with the "eaten" text in the visual editor. See, for example, Introduction to Inorganic Chemistry. I'm wondering if it has to do with Module:TScope, but this is getting beyond my abilities to diagnose. Would love some help here. Thanks! —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 23:03, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

@Kittycataclysm: It seems like I can see that page properly - are you seeing missing text when using VisualEditor? Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 16:21, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Leaderboard! So, I can indeed see the text—it doesn't disappear. In this specific example, you can see the problem when trying to use the visual editor to edit the text under the Chapter 12 heading. If you try to click on any of the text below the heading, you'll notice that there's an overlay element that makes it impossible to interact with the text. Does that help clarify the issue? Thanks! —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 16:35, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

@Kittycataclysm: OK I see. Unfortunately it's one of Pi zero's creations, who hated VisualEditor. A further look will be required, because on the face I don't see why it should interfere. Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 18:19, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

I need help

At first as a non-native speaker to find a place, where I can ask my questions. I miss a page like b:de:Wikibooks:Ich brauche Hilfe. I'm not able to scan an English homepage with an unknown structure and unknown vocabulary to find the needle in the haystack.

Anyhow I need help to insert a functioning navigation to guitar/Campfire Diploma. {{autoheader}} and {{footer}} don't work, and I have no idea how to prepare everything so, that it works. After a lot of try and error I have no idea which navigation is the best. I tried {{Navbox}} but for mobile user this navi is hidden. (compare : Template_talk:Navbox/doc#Mobile_View) For the lessons I use {{Simple Page Navigation}} but this is very cumbersome and error-prone for song examples that are constantly being expanded. I have a lack of advice, although my request for some support is not exactly inconspicuous.

Chord changes G-C-D and Campfire strumming pattern

She’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain  · My Grandmas Going Biking In The Hen House  · Oh, Susanna  · Banana Boat Song (Day-O)  · Oh Marry Don't You Weep  · Down by the riverside  · Banks of the Ohio  · Oh My Darling Clementine  · Cotton Fields

Further examples

Down on the Corner (CCR) //:(G - D G)2x (C G D G)2x://  · Hotel Yorba (White Stripes) G C D G  · Ich und ein Fass voller Wein (Versengold) //:G - D - C D7 G D (4x) G - C - G - D - (2x) C D G -:// 3/4 (Capo=2)  · Leaving On A Jet Plane (John Denver) (!!!) //: G C G C - G C D D :// (D D C D)  · Lord I Lift Your name On High (Rick Founds) G C D C (6x) G / C D Em C/ D G C G  · Tom Dooly G - - D, - - - G

a navbox should be visible here

Greetings from the German Wikibooks team --Mjchael (discuss • contribs) 01:21, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Willkommen. Meine Deutsche ist nicht gut, so I will have to use English. :/ Do you need the navigation to appear on mobile browsers? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 01:34, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Justin! Thanks for trying. My English is for an everyday conversation quite good. Good enough to watch Dr. Who in original or following your answers. But the content and the vocabulary on your English help pages is a completely different matter. And yes, for now, it would help me if the {{Navbox}} shown above would appear in the mobile view. These would help all readers a lot. Of course, I am also happy to accept any advice on how I could do things better. --Mjchael (discuss • contribs) 02:13, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

In that case, you may want to manually make a navbox that doesn't use {{navbox}}, as that is specifically marked up to not display on mobile browsers. Another option is to have little headers and footers that just navigate to the next/previous subpage. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 02:21, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

I was almost afraid it would happen. At some point in the future let a programmer set a parameter to these template. Greetings --Mjchael (discuss • contribs) 02:31, 24 April 2024 (UTC)