Help:Inputbox

Template:H:h The inputbox extension is a MediaWiki extension by Erik Möller to add predefined HTML forms to wiki pages. It was originally created for the purpose of adding a Create an article box to Wikinews. It requires MediaWiki 1.5 and an extensions script (see Installation below).

General syntax

Inputboxes are constructed like this:

 <inputbox>
 type=box type
 parameter1=value
 parameter2=value
 </inputbox>

The type parameter is mandatory. All other parameters are optional.

Box types

Type	Example
type=search
Generates a search box with a default width of 50 characters. The button labels can be specified, see below; defaults MediaWiki:Tryexact and MediaWiki:Searchfulltext. The text field specifies the search criteria.
type=create
Allows creating a new page. The button label can be specified, see below; default MediaWiki:Createarticle. The text field specifies which page is to be edited.
type=comment
Add one or more sections to an existing page, or create a page, with an edit summary that is automatically the same as the (first) new section header. The button label can be specified, see below; default MediaWiki:Postcomment also used in the sidebar of the "Standard" skin. The text field specifies which page is to be edited.

Parameters

Parameter Scope	Description	Example
bgcolor= All types	Sets the table background color (HTML color values). Do not use quotes.	<inputbox> type=search bgcolor=#eeeeff </inputbox> produces:
width= All types	Sets the width of the inputbox in characters, required for old browsers (see above).	<inputbox> type=create width=6 </inputbox> produces:
default= All types	Default text to put in the inputbox.	<inputbox> type=comment default=User talk:Eloquence </inputbox> produces:
preload= comment, create	The text of the page under this title will be loaded into the blank editbox when a new page is created. Enter the title of a non-existent page in the example inputbox, and click "Create" to test this effect.	<inputbox> type=create width=20 preload=MediaWiki:Editthispage </inputbox> produces:
editintro= comment, create	The text of the page under this title will be added, as instructions, before the submission form for new pages. Enter the title of a non-existent page in the example inputbox, and click "Create" to test this effect.	<inputbox> type=comment width=20 editintro=MediaWiki:Missingcommenttext </inputbox> produces:
buttonlabel= All types	This label will be used for the main button of the form.	<inputbox> type=comment buttonlabel=Add new rumor </inputbox> produces:
searchbuttonlabel= search	This label will be used for the "Search full text" button of the search form.	<inputbox> type=search searchbuttonlabel=Dig deeper </inputbox> produces:
break= yes	Whether or not to insert a line break between the input box and the button(s). Defaults to using the line break unless set to no.	<inputbox> type=create break=no </inputbox> produces:

Applying create to an existing page simply gives the edit page. In that case editintro and preload are ignored. Applying comment for a new page works, if the page already exists editintro is ignored.

The texts taken from the MediaWiki: namespace are of course only examples, any existing page can be used for editintro or preload. Unfortunately preload does not yet work for the Special:Upload summary.

Caveats

Variables, parameters, and templates are not allowed in values of parameters of inputbox; see Template talk:Inputbox demo.

Installation

Download and save the file inputbox.php to the extensions folder of your MediaWiki installation. Make sure you use this link to download the extension, as the latest version in CVS does not work with the current MediaWiki release branch.
Open and edit the LocalSettings.php file by adding the following line near the bottom:

require_once("extensions/inputbox.php");

NOTE: Make sure that it is still above the closing php tag so that it looks like this:

require_once("extensions/inputbox.php");
?>

Examples

Template:H:f