Manual:Namespace

Namespaces divide a wiki into different areas. This can be used to stop some areas appearing in search results, to assign permissions differently in different areas and to give these areas different designs. Assigning permissions can be very important to give different groups in a wiki different areas to work in. Nevertheless,

What is a namespace?

A namespace defines an area in a wiki. You can recognize a namespace by the namespace prefix in the page title:

<namespace>:Page title

In a wiki, you will find predefined namespaces. In addition, wiki administrators can create custom namespaces as needed.

There are certain aspects of namespaces that are important to consider before creating a namespace. It is therefore important to understand the characteristics of namespaces and the reasons for using a custom namespace.

Characteristics of a namespace

• Rights management
   : Each namespace can contain its own user rights/roles assignments. However, we recommend flat user hierarchies for wikis.

• Search function
   : Search can be limited to individual namespaces.

• Design
   : Namespaces can be styled differently.

• Flat structure
   :Namespaces cannot contain other namespaces

• One namespace per page
   : The same page name in a different namespace creates a new page.
• Special namespaces:
  • Main (Pages) - No namespace prefix in page titles
  • Special pages (Special)
  • Images (File)
  • Documents (Media)
  • Discussions (Talk)

Reasons for using namespaces

• Rights management: To assign different user permissions to separate content. For example, a company's HR department can use its own namespace to grant only Human Resources personnel access to the pages in that namespace. Here, rights management is the main reason for creating namespaces. However, flat hierarchies are recommended for wikis.

Compare namespaces to cupboards helps to make the principle clear

• Search function: To exclude pages and files from the search.
• Design: To format pages in different wiki areas differently.

We often use the example of cupboards to make clear the principle of namespaces. There are shelves which and everyone can look at and change the contentsthem and work on something. There are locked glass-fronted cabinets which everyone glass cupboards with a lock that you can look into, but only those with a key can some people have the key to change the contents. Finally, Then there are locked closed wooden cabinets with locks and only selected people can look at them or change the contents. Every cupboard, of course, can look different.

Namespaces in MediaWiki

inside and work in them. And each of these cupboards can look differently.

Note: While users cannot view the pages or files in a namespace for which they have no access rights, they will still see the pages and files listed on the wiki's special pages. They will also see the page names in the search results if the namespace has not been excluded from the search.

BlueSpice standard namespaces

The standard installation of MediaWiki has 15 namespaces, the standard (main) namespace, and 2 pseudo namespaces, which are listed below in the table. Every page will be assigned to the main namespace, unless it is specifically assigned somewhere else.

Although the pseudo namespace are used like normal namespaces, no pages can be created and no existing pages can be changed.

Most of the pages in the namespaces are automatically generated: special BlueSpice uses, among others, the 15 standard and the two so-called pseudo namespaces from MediaWiki:

ID	Namespace	Function
	Media	Pseudo-namespace for uploaded images and files. Will be replaced by path of the files.
	special	Pseudo-namespace for special pages.
0	(pages)	These are given without a prefix.
1	Talk	talk page. Is created in addition to each article (also in the following namespaces) to speak about its contents. Additional tab (+).
2	User	User page. Will be created for every logged in user.
3	User talk	Cf. talk
4	[Wiki-Name]	Information about the wiki or the current project. Here: BlueSpice.
5	[Wiki-Name]_Talk	Cf. talk
6	Image	Description of a picture and other files. Is automatically supplemented with version information and information about the occurrence of the file
7	File_Talk	Cf. talk
8	MediaWiki	system messages. A complete list can be found under Special: AllMessages. Can only be changed by registered users.
9	MediaWiki_Talk	Cf. talk
10	Template	Templates can be integrated into other pages.
11	Template_talk	Cf. talk
12	Help	Help pages describe how to perform actions in the wiki. No clear separation from the [wiki name] namespace.
13	Help_talk	Cf. talk
14	Category	Pages can be assigned to categories, which are then accessible in this namespace.
15	Category_talk	Cf. talk

Standard namespace: A page is assigned to the "Main" namespace, as long as no other namespace is specified.

Pseudo namespaces: The two pseudo namespaces (Media, Special) are used like normal namespaces, but you cannot edit them or add pages to them.

Most pages in the namespaces are created automatically:

• Special pages are generated by the system during installation

; media

• .
• Media and image pages

when data is uploaded.

• are created during file uplad.
• User pages are created

when

• whenever a user acts

in

• on the wiki.
• Discussion pages are

generated alongside the article they belong to. This leaves only those pages in main, [Wiki-Name], templates, help and category to be freely drawn up. All the pages belonging to an individual category can be called up using the special page "All pages"

• also created with the corresponding pages.

This leaves only the default namespaces (Main), [wiki name], Template, Help and Category namespaces where pages can be freely created.

Note: In the

standard

default MediaWiki

distribution

, the names of these areas are "hard-coded". This means that they

are

have been set in the source code of the MediaWiki and cannot be changed by users.

Call Accessing pages in namespacesa namespace

In order to address To access or create a page in a particular specific namespace or, if it does not exits, to create it, simply place the namespace's name before the page name, separating them with , its name is simply placed in front of the page title and separated by a colon:

[[CategorySetup:BlueSpice_free|All the Extensions of BlueSpice freeInstallation|]]

In the example, the pipe symbol (the vertical straight line) is added to the end as well. This will then not show the namespace when the link is displayed. Instead a text can be entered following the pipe symbol to be displayed which might be easier to read. If you enter a namespace which is not part of the wiki, then the page will be created in the main namespace. The part of the link given as the namespace will be was also added. It has the effect that the namespace won't be displayed for the link label.

If you provide a namespace that is not known to the wiki, the page is created in the standard namespace Main. The portion of the reference specified as the namespace is then added to the title of the article rather than item instead and is not recognized as a namespace label for an area. A page can only be put in a single namespace. The same page name in different areas creates different pages.

Namespaces are all on the same level, this means that an area cannot be further divided up into namespaces. Therefore the discussion pages for a namespace belong to another new namespace instead of being part of an overall discussion area.
The search function lets you restrict your search to individual namespaces.

Your own Creating a new namespace

You can create additional namespaces by using the Namespace manager under Global actions > Management > Namespace manager. The menu item "Category manager" loads the page Special:NamespaceManager.

Organizing content without namespaces

Creating your own namespaces is also only possible in BlueSpice with access to the scripts. However, one If you simply want to group pages in your wiki without the need for controlling access rights, you can use the namespace syntax and so simulate namespaces within the main namespace by giving syntax of the namespaces to simulate a namespace in the namespace Main. Simply prefix the pages that should belong to a specific area the prefix group with a colon attached to the name. The general advantages of using namespaces are preserved. In this name and a colon. If no namespace with this name exists, the prefix simply becomes part of the page name.

That way, it is possible to use pages that have with the same name in the main namespace and thus let different groups work on content "spaces"and so get different groups working in one wiki. As these sets". Since these own "namespace" prefixes you create are actually a part of the page name, one you can search in now display all pages within this "namespace" by simply in a simulated namespace by searching for the prefix .

Show all pages within

in the search field.

Since you can also organize pages with categories and subpages, you should start by planning how you would like to organize the content in your wiki.

After installing your wiki, you can visualize this with the BlueSpice draw.io Plugin directly in your wiki and discuss it with your team.

Viewing all pages of a namespace

It is possible to showing all the pages within You can view all pages in a namespace:

Call up

1. Go to the Special page "All

pages

1. Pages"
2. Leave the

text boxes

1. input field empty

Choose

1. Select a namespace

and click on

1. from the Namespace drop-down menu
2. Click "Go"
   

Table of namespaces

Related info

• Namespace CSS manager

Function Media Pseudo namespace for uploaded images and files. It is replaced by the path of the file. Special Pseudo namespace for special pages. (Main) Normal pages These are given without prefix. Talk Talk pages. These are created alongside articles (including in the namespaces that follow) to give a space for the contents to be discussed. Additional tab (+). User User pages. These are created for each logged on user. User talk Cf. talk. [Wiki-Name] Data concerning the wiki or the project involved. Here: BlueSpice. [Wiki-Name]_Talk Cf. talk. Image Description of an image or other file. Information about the version and the uses of the file is automatically included. File_talk Cf. talk. MediaWiki System notifications. A complete list is available at Special:AllMessages. This can only be edited by users who are logged on. MediaWiki_Talk Cf. talk. Template Templates can be included in other pages. Template_talk Cf. talk. Help Help pages are there to describe how to get things done in the wiki. There is no clear division of contents between this and the [Wiki-Name] namespace. Help_talk Cf. talk. Category Pages can be assigned categories which are then accessible in this namespace. Category_talk Cf. talk.

• Namespace manager