BlueSpiceSocial
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- Last edited 5 years ago by Florian Bäckmann
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Contents
What is BlueSpiceSocial?
BlueSpiceSocial is a package consisting of a set of extensions, that add social media features to the wiki. It allows users to quickly communicate on the wiki and to express their opinion on pages more clearly and easily accessible.
Parts of BlueSpiceSocial
BlueSpiceSocial integrates to many aspects of the wiki.
User profile
Every user has a profile on the wiki, provided by BlueSpiceSocial. It is located on each user's user page (User:Username), available from the user's personal menu (by clicking on user image in top right corner), by selecting the "My profile" item. This page displays a modern overview of the user's basic information (depending on the wiki setup) and user's profile image.
Also, below the user info, a list of the user's activity is presented. This list shows comments the user made, actions on pages, and in general the user's activity on the wiki. It also allows other users to leave comments on the user's profile page.
Classic user page
MediaWiki's standart view of the user's profile page is still available and users can switch between BlueSpiceSocial view and classic view by clicking on the "arrows" icon in the page tools (at the top of the page).
Timeline
Timeline is a special page that provides an overview of all social conversations on the wiki. It is available from the left navigation, in the "Main navigation" tab or directly by navigating to Special:Timeline.
Once on the page, users can sort and filter the items displayed based on various critiria or create new Timeline entries.
Creating new entries
To create a new entry, click on the "Plus" icon on the top of the page. A menu will open which offers different types of entries to create:
- Blog entry - Blog is used for topics to be shared with other users on the wiki
- Microblog - very similar to blog entry, but intended for short, concise announcments.
- Discussion topic - raises a discussion point related to a certain page.
Interacting with social entities
Every entry in the timeline (and anywhere else on the wiki) is called a social entity. Depending on the type of the entity, following options are available in the bottom part of the entity:
- Comment - shows the number of comments related to the entity; clicking on it opens all current comments and allows users to add a comment (if user has appropriate permissions).
- Recommend - shows the number of users that recommended the entity; users can add a recommendation by clicking on this button.
- Linked articles - shows the number of articles linked to this entity and shows the list of linked articles when clicked.
- Watch/Unwatch - shows if the user is currently watching the entity (user will receive notifications when the entity is changed); clicking on this button will change the state of watching.
- Resolved/Unresolved - shows the status of the entity. Some entities, like discussions on a question can have a status attached to them, so that other users know if the question is answered.
Editing and deleting entities
Users can edit and delete their own entities (created by them) by clicking on the "3 dots" icon in the top right corner of the entity.
Blog
Blog is a special page showing an overview of all blog entities available on the wiki. It is availble from the left navigation, in the "Main navigation" section, or by navigating directly to Special:Blog.
The list of blog entries can be sorted and filtered by clicking on the icons above the list.
Page attachments
Under every content page on the wiki, BlueSpiceSocial integrates an attachments section. This section shows the files that are related to the particular page. Users can add or remove files to and from this section by clicking on the "..." icon at the bottom of the section.
Clicking on this icon will lead to Special:Attachments/Page_name, which allows managing the files attached to a particular page. Users can attach files that are already uploaded to the wiki by clicking on the "Plus" button and selecting a file, or upload new files to be attached by dropping files into the marked area or clicking the same area to select the files to upload.
This page also shows the history of file attachements for the page.
Page discussions
Same as for the page attachments, BlueSpiceSocial integrates a discussion section on every content page on the wiki. This section offers users to comment on the page content. Users with appropriate permissions will be able to create new topics or comment on existing ones.
See also
Reference pages for each extension is this package:
Reference:SocialTimelineUpdate