Changes

The goal of this wiki is to provide information on the facilities, equipment, tools, supplies, and software available in the George Fox University Maker Hub. If you have never edited a Wiki before, you should reference the documentation on the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki] site - specifically the page on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing Editing].

The goal of this wiki is to provide information on the facilities, equipment, tools, supplies, and software available in the George Fox University Maker Hub. If you have never edited a Wiki before, you should reference the documentation on the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki] site - specifically the page on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing Editing].

This site makes use of the standard extension, [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki Semantic MediaWiki]. This extension allows us to set one or more [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Properties_and_types properties] on unique wiki pages. These properties can then be queried within other pages and the results can be dynamically displayed in a variety of [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Result_formats result formats]. The main benefit is that a lot of entries can be auto-generated to allow easy navigation of the site as the site develops and evolves. The editors can add new pages, attach properties to those pages, and then have those pages automatically show up on other pages. This saves the editors from having to maintain a variety of lists on multiple pages.  

This site makes use of the standard extension, [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki Semantic MediaWiki]. This extension allows us to set one or more [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Properties_and_types properties] on unique wiki pages. These properties can then be queried within other pages and the results can be dynamically displayed in a variety of [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Result_formats result formats]. The main benefit is that a lot of entries can be auto-generated to allow easy navigation of the site as the site develops and evolves. The editors can add new pages, attach properties to those pages, and then have those pages automatically show up on other pages. This saves the editors from having to maintain a variety of lists on multiple pages.  

The value in this particular setup is that, when a new facility is added to the space, it will automatically show up in this list. Now, one might argue that facilities are not going to show up at frequent intervals, and, this is true. However, we can extend this practice to create new lists, and [[Equipment]] is one of the major ones. The use of properties allows us to have properties that mark pages as equipment ([[Property:Is equipment|Is equipment::True]]), and to say that the equipment is located in a particular facility ([[Property:Is located in facility|Is Located in facility::Machine Shop]]), and to indicated that the equipment is used in a particular domain ([[Property:Is used in domain|Is used in domain::Metal]]). The use of properties rather than page structure gives us tremendous flexibility in expanding to future groupings. Imagine that we might want to see all equipment that is used on Wood that is located in the Machine Shop or the Wood Shop. This can be easily generated with a query.  

The value in this particular setup is that, when a new facility is added to the space, it will automatically show up in this list. Now, one might argue that facilities are not going to show up at frequent intervals, and, this is true. However, we can extend this practice to create new lists, and [[Equipment]] is one of the major ones. The use of properties allows us to have properties that mark pages as equipment ([[Property:Is equipment|Is equipment::True]]), and to say that the equipment is located in a particular facility ([[Property:Is located in facility|Is Located in facility::Machine Shop]]), and to indicated that the equipment is used in a particular domain ([[Property:Is used in domain|Is used in domain::Metal]]). The use of properties rather than page structure gives us tremendous flexibility in expanding to future groupings. Imagine that we might want to see all equipment that is used on Wood that is located in the Machine Shop or the Wood Shop. This can be easily generated with a query.  

==Properties==

==Properties==

  }} </nowiki>

  }} </nowiki>

When you have saved this property, reference the [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Factbox Factbox]] located at the bottom of the screen. If this is not visible, insert the line  

When you have saved this property, reference the [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Factbox Factbox] located at the bottom of the screen. If this is not visible, insert the line  

  <nowiki> __SHOWFACTBOX__ </nowiki>

  <nowiki> __SHOWFACTBOX__ </nowiki>

at the bottom of the wiki page. Remember to remove this line when you have completed it. This will show you the properties created on this page and their values. You can click on the links to the new properties to open their wiki pages. Conversely, you could simply navigate to Property:Property_1_Name in the Wiki if that is easier (and skip the whole factbox thing - but - I like to see the values). On the property page, you will want to declare the property [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:List_of_datatypes dataype]. The default type is Page, but it is still useful to set this. You can see the datatypes specified or our properties in the table above. It is a good idea to look at the Wiki markup on these pages and copy it from a similar property.  

at the bottom of the wiki page. Remember to remove this line when you have completed it. This will show you the properties created on this page and their values. You can click on the links to the new properties to open their wiki pages. Conversely, you could simply navigate to Property:Property_1_Name in the Wiki if that is easier (and skip the whole factbox thing - but - I like to see the values). On the property page, you will want to declare the property [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:List_of_datatypes dataype]. The default type is Page, but it is still useful to set this. You can see the datatypes specified or our properties in the table above. It is a good idea to look at the Wiki markup on these pages and copy it from a similar property.  

Also - in the sidebar of the Wiki, there is a ''Browse properties'' link that shows the properties of the Page. This has some useful information as well.  

Also - in the sidebar of the Wiki, there is a ''Browse properties'' link that shows the properties of the Page. This has some useful information as well.

===Restricting Property Values===

===Restricting Property Values===

This autogenerates the correct ordered list for everything marked [[Property:Is domain]]. One might think that using the |format=ul would create the appropriate unordered list format (with the * in front), but it apparently does not. Therefore, this query removes the page link (link=none) and reduces the entry to simple text, and then it uses the template [[Template:Starlist_for_allow_value_list]] to render the text with a * in front of it (''See [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates help on templates] for an explanation of templates''). This works well.  

This autogenerates the correct ordered list for everything marked [[Property:Is domain]]. One might think that using the |format=ul would create the appropriate unordered list format (with the * in front), but it apparently does not. Therefore, this query removes the page link (link=none) and reduces the entry to simple text, and then it uses the template [[Template:Starlist_for_allow_value_list]] to render the text with a * in front of it (''See [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates help on templates] for an explanation of templates''). This works well.  

If, for some reason, you do enter a value that is not on the allowed list of values, the page will render a small warning icon like this: [[File:small_warning_icon.png|12px|Small Warning Icon]]..  

If, for some reason, you do enter a value that is not on the allowed list of values, the page will render a small warning icon like this: [[File:small_warning_icon.png|12px|Small Warning Icon]]..

 

There are some other lurking gotchas that can show up. The default list size is 50. This can be set by $smwgQDefaultLimit in the CustomSettings.php file (on the server, not the wiki). I have asked to have this changed - but you would need to check to see what the actual value is. This can be overridden on a case by case basis by using the limit=100 (or limit=500) or whatever value you want - as one of the parameters in the ask wiki. So - wherever you ask for something like equipment, you certainly want more than 50. Likely the same for software. This showed up in the ask section for [[MediaWiki:Smw_allows_list_Equipment]]. This "ask" has been changed to have a limit of 500.

===Philosophy on New Properties===

===Philosophy on New Properties===

==Equipment==

==Equipment==

Adding new equipment is fairly simple. Start by copying another Equipment page and edit to suit. The structure of each equipment page is not fixed, and will likely evolve. However, the header should be fairly similar. Below is an example of the [Weller WES51] soldering iron page.  

Adding new equipment is fairly simple. Start by copying another Equipment page and edit to suit. The structure of each equipment page is not fixed, and will likely evolve. However, the header should be fairly similar. Below is an example of the [[Weller WES51]] soldering iron page.  

  <nowiki>

  <nowiki>

  {{#set:

  {{#set:

   |Is equipment=True

   |Is soldering iron equipment=True

   |Has make=Weller  

   |Has make=Weller  

   |Has model=WES51

   |Has model=WES51

</nowiki>

</nowiki>

The first section is used to set a large number of page properties. The first of these sets the page to be an "equipment" page. Others set images and icons and such. Notice the duplicate "Is located in facility" entries to show how the equipment is located in more than one facility. This can also be done with domains.  The #show sections are generic and display the icon and the image with the appropriate descriptions. These are the same on every equipment page. There is then some explanatory text followed by an ''optional'' table of contents with a line break before it. The table of contents will show up automatically if there are 3 or more headings, but this makes it show up explicitly at this point - and the line break is just for visual effect.

The first section is used to set a large number of page properties. The first of these normally sets the page to be an "equipment" page using the [Property:Is equipment] property. However, as the Weller is a subset of Soldering Irons, it doesn't set this property, it instead sets the [Property:Is soldering iron equipment]. Others properties set images and icons and such. Notice the duplicate [Property:Is located in facility] entries to show how the equipment is located in more than one facility. This can also be done with domains.  The #show sections are generic and display the icon and the image with the appropriate descriptions. These are the same on every equipment page. There is then some explanatory text followed by an ''optional'' table of contents with a line break before it. The table of contents will show up automatically if there are 3 or more headings, but this makes it show up explicitly at this point - and the line break is just for visual effect.

 

 

 

 

 

In this case, the search is for the same pages, but the query is being asked to return the icon from the [[Property:Has icon|Has icon]] property, and also the image from the [[Property:Has image|Has image]] property. The format is not one of the preformatted types, but a template, which is provided as the [[Template:EquipmentListTable|EquipmentListTable]] template. This template is a little tricky in that it embeds CSS tags to render the table. To make this work, a CSS head and tail are required, which are provided by the [[Template:EquipmentListTableIntro|EquipmentListTableIntro]] and [[Template:EquipmentListTableOutro|EquipmentListTableOutro]]template. Finally, to make the CSS references connect with something, CSS entries have to be installed in the MediaWiki CSS structure. This can be done via the [[MediaWiki:Common.css]] page where we have created some special CSS entries for use by this table.