Help:Custom namespaces

For information on custom namespaces on the Meta-Wiki, see m:Meta:Namespaces.

If you want to add a custom namespace, you need to do the following:

Pick the names of your namespaces and their associated talk pages. Do not include spaces in the name, but instead use an underscore character. Then pick the namespace numbers. Even numbers are for namespaces containing actual articles, odd numbers are reserved for talk pages. Numbering for custom namespaces start at 100.
Goto /includes/DefaultSettings.php and copy the variables $wgExtraNamespaces, $wgNamespacesWithSubpages, and $wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault into LocalSettings.php
Note: If $wgExtraNamespaces is not in DefaultSettings.php, you probably have a very old version of MediaWiki (1.3.2 or older). You should upgrade to the current release, as there have been bug and security fixes since then.
To $wgExtraNamespaces, add the name of your namespace and its talk page, using the names and numbers chosen in step 1.
- Example:

$wgExtraNamespaces =
       array(100 => "Foo",
             101 => "Foo_Talk");

If you want sub pages, add them to $wgNamespacesWithSubpages

Example for MediaWiki 1.4.x and older:

$wgNamespacesWithSubpages = 
       array( -1 => 0, 0 => 0, 1 => 1, 2 => 1, 3 => 1,
              4 => 0, 5 => 1, 6 => 0, 7 => 1, 
              8 => 0, 9 => 1, 10 => 0,11 => 1,
              100 => 1, 101 => 1 );

Example for MediaWiki 1.5.x:

$wgNamespacesWithSubpages = array(
	NS_TALK           => true,
 	NS_USER           => true,
 	NS_USER_TALK      => true,
 	NS_PROJECT_TALK   => true,
 	NS_IMAGE_TALK     => true,
 	NS_MEDIAWIKI_TALK => true,
 	NS_TEMPLATE_TALK  => true,
 	NS_HELP_TALK      => true,
 	NS_CATEGORY_TALK  => true,
 	100               => true,
 	101               => true
);

The new namespaces can be searched by default, by enabling their variables in $wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault

Example for MediaWiki 1.4.x and older:

$wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault =
       array( -1 => 0, 0 => 1, 1 => 0, 2 => 0, 3 => 0,
               4 => 0, 5 => 0, 6 => 0, 7 => 0,
               8 => 0, 9 => 1, 10 => 0, 11 => 1,
               100 => 1, 101 => 1 );

Example for MediaWiki 1.5.x:

$wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault = array( -1 => 0, NS_MAIN => 1, NS_USER => 0,
  NS_USER_TALK => 0, NS_PROJECT_TALK => 0, NS_IMAGE_TALK => 0, 
  NS_IMAGE_TALK => 0, NS_TEMPLATE_TALK => 0, NS_HELP_TALK => 0, 
  NS_CATEGORY_TALK => 0, 
  100 => 1, 102 => 1 );

Further information on Namespaces

Other pages for further Namespaces information: