Wikinews:Technical solutions/DynamicPageList

This page is no longer current and/or valid. It is kept for historical record or interest. Do not assume content on this page is still technically correct. This page has been superseded by: → Wikinews:DynamicPageList

DynamicPageList (DPL) is a Mediawiki extension which allows for the creation of lists of links to articles based on categories, with the most recently edited articles are on top. A list may be created where article must be a part of multiple categories in order to be found, for example a list of all articles about Africa and Sports would find the following:

• India wins T20 men's cricket world cup against South Africa
• Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli stripped of championship for doping
• China leads medal race after day two of competition at London Paralympics
• Kenya's Brigid Kosgei sets new world record at Chicago Marathon
• 2007 Rugby World Cup: Georgia claim first World Cup victory

How to use it

With the extension properly installed (as it is on the Wikinews projects), there are two parameters, categories and count.

Category

category=Category to search for

Very simply, you list the names of the categories you plan to search for. There are both minimum and maximum number of categories you may currently search for. The current maximum is set at 3 by default, and the minimum is 1. To search for more than one category, list each on a new line.

 

Count

count=10

This is the maximum number of articles to returen from a search. There is a default maximum of 50; most cases a number from 3-10 is probably appropriate.

Example

<DynamicPageList>
category=Africa
category=Sports
count=5
</DynamicPageList>

History

The extension grew out of a need to automate the Wikinews main page (which has not yet been implemented.) That need led to a feature request, and IlyaHaykinson (goaded by Amgine) was able to build an initial script to meet the need.

The script is still being developed, but improvements have not yet been implemented.