Last modified: 2014-05-29 15:44:17 UTC
This is considered a blocker to bug 40446, I guess. There should be a way to either have a separate sidebar for particular namespaces or it should be possible to inject a sidebar section (or have it be dynamic) based on which namespace you're in. I guess this could go in an extension? It could also be done in PHP or in JavaScript, maybe.
I've recently bumped into [[mw:Extension:SideBarMenu]]. I've no idea what it actually does, but it might be related.
What sort of links would go in this namespace-specific sidebar section?
(In reply to comment #2) > What sort of links would go in this namespace-specific sidebar section? [[m:Research:Index]] and other pages in the Research namespace might have [[m:Research:Projects]], [[m:Research:FAQ]], and other high-level pages in a sidebar section.
Sidebars already appear to be site specific, can you give more clarity around what you're asking? Is it just that you feel there are additional pages that would benefit from having access from the sidebar that already are there?
(In reply to comment #4) > Sidebars already appear to be site specific, can you give more clarity around > what you're asking? site != namespace
(In reply to comment #4) > Is it just that you feel there are additional pages that would benefit from > having access from the sidebar that already are there? On any MediaWiki wiki, there is a high-level content separation system called namespaces. By default, MediaWiki has a Template namespace, a User namespace, a Category namespace, etc. And each of these namespaces come in pairs, so there's also Template talk, User talk, Category talk, etc. This bug is requesting sidebars on a per-namespace basis, rather than the current per-site basis.
Thank you for clarifying. At this time I would say that the Design group does not support this change as it decreases consistency site-wide, something we are actively striving to fix. While I see the value in having contextual tools and information more readily available, this does not feel like the most ideal place for this.
(In reply to comment #7) > Thank you for clarifying. At this time I would say that the Design group does > not support this change as it decreases consistency site-wide, something we > are actively striving to fix. The Wikimedia Foundation design team can certainly feel that way, but this bug is about having the ability to do this within MediaWiki. Unless you feel that this feature shouldn't exist on any MediaWiki wiki, it's a valid enhancement request. It's marked as a low/enhancement request, though I imagine many Wikimedia wikis (and non-Wikimedia wikis) would find use in this as long as Vector and Monobook (with their large navigation-focused sidebars) are still so popular. Re-opening this bug for now. Feel free to remove the design keyword if this bug is cluttering up a list you're working on.
There's no way something this bad for general usability will be part of core. Moving this to an extension request.
(In reply to comment #9) > There's no way something this bad for general usability will be part of core. If you have usability concerns, stating them here would be helpful. :-) > Moving this to an extension request. I'm not sure this is an extension request. The sidebar in Monobook and Vector is currently site-wide navigation. The request here is basically to add subnavigation on a per-namespace basis. This seems like a fairly reasonable request.
(In reply to comment #9) > There's no way something this bad for general usability will be part of core. > Moving this to an extension request. Please clarify how this would be bad for general usability.
Note: some, as a workaround, use navigational templates instead, with basically all the pages in the namespace.
