Last modified: 2013-12-07 05:36:35 UTC
The installer in 1.17 lists the extensions found by name, but does not select any by default. There are checkboxes beside each one. I'd like to see some of those checkboxes on by default (like ParserFunctions), a description of the extension added (not just the name), and maybe allow us to specify two extensions as performing the same function but as alternatives (old wiki editor vs new wiki editor, but still as checkboxes so you can install more than one option). Being able to bundle a group of extensions into a single checkbox with 'expand' would be great too. Most of this seems so-so usefull right now but as we bundle more extensions with the distro, or as packages like SMW+ include a lot, these would be great.
Not a bad idea :) We've got the descriptions already available via $wgExtensionCredits and such, so it shouldn't be too difficult to add those. As far as grouping similar extensions -- that's a bit harder. We don't have any defined groups of extensions (or any way of tracking dependencies yet). The "enabling some by default" option would be ok iff: the admin doing the installation goes to the "more options" page where they can review the extensions. If someone says "I'm bored now, just install," we should not enable any extensions since they had no chance to peruse the list (least surprise).
For the default-on and 'similar' and 'groups' I was more thinking that this would be be a package file, like InstallerSettings.php or something, where the package maintainer would define the options based on what extensions they were deciding to include. If the extensions defined in InstallerSettings.php are not found then don't show their similar/groups, or for example if there is only one extension in the similar/group then just display it as a regular extension. I don't think extension authors should be able to decide these things (always install my extension, of course!)
(In reply to comment #2) > For the default-on and 'similar' and 'groups' I was more thinking that this > would be be a package file, like InstallerSettings.php or something, where the > package maintainer would define the options based on what extensions they were > deciding to include. > > If the extensions defined in InstallerSettings.php are not found then don't > show their similar/groups, or for example if there is only one extension in the > similar/group then just display it as a regular extension. > I've had similar ideas, but a different approach. I think there should be a base "MWExtension" class that handles a lot of this, and each extension should subclass it to provide their config, dependencies, etc etc. > I don't think extension authors should be able to decide these things (always > install my extension, of course!) So who decides what's "always enabled?"
This is just about the installer. Per my previous post. > where the package maintainer would define the options based on what extensions they were deciding to include. So in the case of the mediawiki*.tar.gz package it would be the MediaWiki community who puts it together. In the case of SMW+ it would be ontoprise, etc... config+dependencies are a great idea and something we also need, but this bug is not about that. That would be a seperate enh request https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30234 https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16595
