Last modified: 2010-05-15 15:59:51 UTC

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Bug 12753 - Empty captions in MediaWiki:Sidebar result in PHP errors
Empty captions in MediaWiki:Sidebar result in PHP errors
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: MediaWiki
Classification: Unclassified
User blocking (Other open bugs)
1.11.x
All All
: Normal blocker (vote)
: ---
Assigned To: Nobody - You can work on this!
http://ninethsense.best4service.net/
:
Depends on:
Blocks:
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2008-01-23 09:18 UTC by Praveen.V.Nair
Modified: 2010-05-15 15:59 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Web browser: ---
Mobile Platform: ---
Assignee Huggle Beta Tester: ---


Attachments
includes\skin.php (12.13 KB, image/pjpeg)
2008-01-23 09:18 UTC, Praveen.V.Nair
Details

Description Praveen.V.Nair 2008-01-23 09:18:36 UTC
Created attachment 4570 [details]
includes\skin.php

In a fresh installation of 1.11.0, after I edit "* navigation" on MediaWiki:Sidebar, the website stopped working and it started to show:

PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\ninethsense.best4service.net\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643
PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\ninethsense.best4service.net\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643
PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\ninethsense.best4service.net\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643
PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\ninethsense.best4service.net\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643
PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\ninethsense.best4service.net\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643
PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\ninethsense.best4service.net\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643
PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\ninethsense.best4service.net\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643
PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\ninethsense.best4service.net\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643

After adding a line $heading = ""; at 1612 on includes\Skin.php, site working fine.

This issue is a blocker since the website stops working.
Comment 1 Huji 2008-01-24 11:48:11 UTC
The format of MediaWiki:Sidebar is as follows:

* Caption
** Item
** Item
** Item

If you remove the first line (* Caption), wiki software will be unable to find a caption to show above the navigation box. I think it is the user who should avoid this. The caption is mandatory, because one can have more than one such sidebar box like this:

* Caption1
** Item
** Item
* Caption2
** Item
** Item

and MediaWikis needs the captions to store the items in different arrays and show them on differnt boxes, correctly.

If you want to have a sidebar which doesn't have a caption use " " for its caption (without quotes).

As this not a bug of MediaWiki but a result of incorrect use of the Wiki software, I'm suggesting it to be closed as INVALID.
Comment 2 Praveen.V.Nair 2008-01-24 12:09:16 UTC
Hi Huji,
 
"..As this not a bug of MediaWiki but a result of incorrect use of the Wiki
software, I'm suggesting it to be closed as INVALID...."
 
A perfect software must show userfriendly error message when such situation occur. As you know not all users (content managers) of mediawiki are techies. Atleast we can prevent the website to load without blocking.
 
All up to you. I just comments :)

Best Regards

PraVeeN
blog.ninethsense.com/
Comment 3 Huji 2008-01-24 12:53:42 UTC
With r30115 MediaWiki will use a blank caption when it finds no caption.
Comment 4 Huji 2008-01-24 17:07:13 UTC
With r30125, even if the whole caption line is missing, the wiki will still survive!
Comment 5 Praveen.V.Nair 2008-01-25 04:12:25 UTC
>> "even if the whole caption line is missing, the wiki will still survive!"

If you need I can demonstrate this issue on my website. It is easily reproducible. It blocks the the loading of website after showing error :

PHP Notice: Undefined variable: heading in E:\Domains\digitalmanic.com\wwwroot\includes\Skin.php on line 1643
Comment 6 Huji 2008-01-25 08:25:30 UTC
Praveen,

With the above patches I fixed the bug you reported here. However, if you want "your" wiki to be fixed too, you will have to update your wiki to the latest version. The bug I mentioned here is "not" fixed in 1.11; it is fixed in 1.12-svn. If you have questions about updating, you can contact me directly, rather than posting here.

Regards,

Huji

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