MediaWiki:Common

The purpose of MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Common.js is to augment the MediaWiki CSS and JS code, in a way that is effective for all users. Note that changes to MediaWiki:Vector.css and MediaWiki:Vector.js override these general changes for anyone using the default Vector skin. On top of that come any changes made to users' local vector.css and vector.js pages.

Common.css

• Common.css mainly contains fixes for annoying glitches in MediaWiki's appearance or behavior, and minor style tweaks (these are all more or less borrowed from Wikipedia).

• There are also various classes declared here for standard additions to the wiki, such as:
  • infoboxes
  • divhide boxes
  • optional mods for the table of contents (use <div class="nonumtoc"> for an un-numbered TOC and see Template:TOClimit for the use of the "toclimit-*" classes)

• There's also a modified fix brought over from WP for the annoyingly small text MediaWiki uses for monospaced fonts, which show up when you use <code>, <tt>, and <pre> tags.

Common.js

• Common.js allows for a user to add an "&withJS=MediaWiki:__.js" to a URL in order to view that page with a custom JS file that normally does not load for you (untested, so this documentation may be incorrect).

• Next, it looks at whether we're editing a page, and if so, it imports the code from MediaWiki:Common.js/edit.js for customizations to the editing interface. It does the same for the search page with MediaWiki:Common.js/search.js.

• More fixes for Internet Explorer.

• Then we set up hasClass(), which is used by various subsequent code.

• Hover tables are added next, which can display a description of the table cell being pointed to. They are demonstrated here.

• Next is an even more unfinished feature called hover GIFs, which are GIFs that only animate when hovered over. It accomplishes this by swapping a still image with a GIF. However, this method does not work as written because it merely changes the suffix of an image between .gif and .jpg; since images are stored in various "random" sub-directories on the server, the entire path for both images would be needed in order to perform a successful swap. These paths could be supplied using an approach similar to the hover table class "hovertable_descrip", if one was determined to make this feature work.

• The next code uses the NavFrame class from Common.css to create the collapsible tables that divhide boxes use.

• A function called ModifySidebar() is made available for customizing the items listed in the sections on the left of all wiki pages. See Iritscen's custom JS page for a sample usage.
  • Parameter 1: The string "add", "remove", or "sep" (which adds a separator line, however the line is currently not displaying for some reason).
  • Parameter 2: The name of the section; "navigation", "languages" (not displayed on this wiki), or "toolbox".
  • Parameter 3: The display name of the URL you will be adding.
  • Parameter 4: The full URL of the wiki page to add (this should allow the adding of external links as well).

• Finally, there is also an untested fix for table sorting and a tweak to the Upload page for unregistered users (does this do anything?).