Jump to content

Do not begin to migrate content here, it may be wiped without notice. More info.

Wiki Revamp: Difference between revisions

From Debian wiki2025 alpha
← Older edit
VisualWikitext
m 1 revision imported
No edit summary
 
Line 53: Line 53:
-----
-----


[Category:WikiDev]
[[Category:WikiDev]]
 

Latest revision as of 12:54, 6 September 2026

Template:MoinMarkupHeader

MoinMoin 1.9 is no longer supported in Debian and MoinMoin 2.0 is still in development, so we're taking the opportunity to switch this wiki to MediaWiki. This page introduces what we're doing and how you can help.

Get Involved!

Follow the quickstart guide to run an all-in-one container with a live demo. Have a look round and ask yourself - if the wiki actually looked like that, what would I fix first?

There are three broad categories you can work on:

  1. creating new wiki infrastructure (e.g. implementing editorial procedures)
  2. configuring a MediaWiki server (e.g. packaging new extensions)
  3. converting content (e.g. rewriting markup)

Creating new wiki infrastructure means deciding everything from the style for admonitions to the way page deletions will be handled. Notable work includes the dev-pages repository (maintained by AndrewSayers). If you have strong opinions about how the wiki works or enjoy writing MediaWiki templates, this might be a good place for you.

Configuring a MediaWiki server means creating an instance of MediaWiki with all the features we need. Notable work includes the dev-container repository (lead by jmtd) and MediaWiki packaging (lead by TaaviVäänänen). If you run your own MediaWiki instance or maintain packages in Debian, you will probably find something to do here.

Converting content means creating a MediaWiki representation of pages on the current wiki. Notable work includes the mass-edits preparing pages for conversion. This part was running ahead of the other two at the time of writing, but you're welcome to help out if this specifically interests you.

If you're interested, contact debian-wiki@lists.debian.org (contact) or #debian-wiki (webchat) on IRC and let us know what you're interested in.

Current Plan

We're currently doing a series of mass-edits to make the wiki easier to convert. For example, MediaWiki needs homepages to begin with "User:", so we're trying to make CategoryHomepage list all the pages to rename (and no other pages).

Once the content is ready to be converted, we'll create one or more MediaWiki XML dumps to import into the new wiki. We don't have a detailed plan yet, but it will probably include importing the full history with old Moin syntax and creating new revisions with MediaWiki syntax. The editorial team might also decide to add more revisions (e.g. to clean up rough edges in the converted markup).

The conversion process will create references to a lot of templates that resemble MoinMoin functionality, so someone needs to actually write those templates. For example, the current wiki is full of admonitions, so we'll need an equivalent on the new wiki. This will probably involve importing Template:Note, but how exactly should they be styled? Should we stay as close as possible to the admonitions old pages expect, or design something more modern?

The new wiki itself will need to be configured for the new content. For example, Template:Note requires the TemplateStyles extension, which is included by default in MediaWiki 1.44. When an appropriate version is packaged for Debian, we'll need to upgrade the dev-container. But should the new container be based on sid or testing? Or should it just follow forky through its development?

Once the content is ready to be converted, the new wiki can render it, and the server is mature, it will be time to migrate. This will probably involve locking the old wiki for a little while as we do some last jobs, then pointing the domain name at the new site.

See also

Retrieved from "https://wiki2025.debian.org/index.php?title=Wiki_Revamp&oldid=1567"