mw.mh370.wiki - User contributions [en]

Using Images from Wikimedia Commons

2026-06-24T05:03:55Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<p>The {{MH370Site}} website uses many images which have been uploaded to the <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html> website. These are listed and referenced on the page <html><a href="https://mh370.net/References/Wikimedia_Commons" target="_blank">References/Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>Images on Wikimedia Commons are generally already in the public domain, or free under <i>Creative Commons</i> licences.</p>
<br />
<p>Wikimedia Commons and the MediaWiki software are projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. Consequently, there is a simple way to include images from Wikimedia Commons into a MediaWiki-based website.</p>
<br />

<h3>InstantCommons</h3>
<p>The variable <html><code>$wgUseInstantCommons</code></html> enables a MediaWiki-based website to use images from <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>In recent versions of MediaWiki, the images are hotlinked and are not downloaded and stored locally. This means the wiki behaves like other Wikimedia projects. For example, Wikipedia (another Wikimedia Foundation Project) extensively uses images from Wikimedia Commons and on any image source page there is likely to be a list of Wikipedia country-based sites which use that image.</p>
<p>To enable Instant Commons, insert the following into LocalSettings.php:-</p>
<pre>$wgUseInstantCommons = true;</pre>
<p>In many installations the value will be true by default and InstantCommons will work without any action needed.</p>
<br />

<h3>Example</h3>
<p>The aircraft which went missing on Flight MH370 (8 March 2014) was a Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines and registered 9M-MRO. Many photos of this aircraft and other images related to the tragedy have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. One chosen for an example here is located on this page <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20140320150428!Boeing_777-200ER_Malaysia_AL_(MAS)_9M-MRO_-_MSN_28420_404_retusche.jpg" target="_blank">Boeing 777-200ER</a></html> (The file name in the URL is too long to show here.)</p>
<p>Every image page on the Wikimedia Commons website has a menu with different options for re-use of the image.</p>
[[File:WikimediaCommonsUseThisFile.jpg]]
<p>Select 'Use this file on a wiki'. Two options will be presented - a link to use the full image, or a thumbnail. The full text is longer than the width of the dialogue box.</p>
[[File:UseThisFileOnAwiki.jpg]]
<p>Select the text for the Image. It looks like this:-</p>
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]
</pre>
<p>To use the image, simply place that text into a page. Here is the example:-</p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]

<h3>Adjusting Image Size</h3>
<p>The MediaWiki documentation <html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">Help:Images</a></html> describes how to format and resize images in the format <pre>[[File:filename.extension|options|caption]]</pre></p>
<p>The same image has been resized to a width of 500 pixels as shown here:-
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
</pre></p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
<br />

<h3>Image in Center of Page</h3>
<p>Text above and below an image can easily be centred using <pre>style="text-align:center;"</pre> on the text element but enclosing both text and image within a <pre><div style="text-align:center;"></pre> has no effect on the image. Neither does similar styles like <pre>margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;</pre> within the <img>section.</p>
<p>The <img element is an inline element. To use margin: auto, add display:block to convert the image to a block element, and define a width. An example from {{MH370Site}} follows:-</p>

<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 40%; display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>

<pre>
<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 90%; display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>
</pre>

<h3>For More Control</h3>
<p>Most of the images used in the {{MH370Site}} website have been downloaded and are then sourced locally. As explained in the article [[Configuring MediaWiki for Images]] these are not stored in the default /w/images directory. Consequently each image is loaded using the html <img tag. In addition, the images are styled using custom css. Most have rounded corners; images of passengers are presented in sepia tones; images may be placed using float; image size is defined by css width; and right-click is generally disabled so various actions are disabled.</p>
<br />

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Images </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images</a></html></dd>

<dt>InstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons</a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Configure]]
[[Category:Use]]
[[Category:Images]]
[[Category:$wgUseInstantCommons]]

Using Images from Wikimedia Commons

2026-06-24T05:02:28Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<p>The {{MH370Site}} website uses many images which have been uploaded to the <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html> website. These are listed and referenced on the page <html><a href="https://mh370.net/References/Wikimedia_Commons" target="_blank">References/Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>Images on Wikimedia Commons are generally already in the public domain, or free under <i>Creative Commons</i> licences.</p>
<br />
<p>Wikimedia Commons and the MediaWiki software are projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. Consequently, there is a simple way to include images from Wikimedia Commons into a MediaWiki-based website.</p>
<br />

<h3>InstantCommons</h3>
<p>The variable <html><code>$wgUseInstantCommons</code></html> enables a MediaWiki-based website to use images from <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>In recent versions of MediaWiki, the images are hotlinked and are not downloaded and stored locally. This means the wiki behaves like other Wikimedia projects. For example, Wikipedia (another Wikimedia Foundation Project) extensively uses images from Wikimedia Commons and on any image source page there is likely to be a list of Wikipedia country-based sites which use that image.</p>
<p>To enable Instant Commons, insert the following into LocalSettings.php:-</p>
<pre>$wgUseInstantCommons = true;</pre>
<p>In many installations the value will be true by default and InstantCommons will work without any action needed.</p>
<br />

<h3>Example</h3>
<p>The aircraft which went missing on Flight MH370 (8 March 2014) was a Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines and registered 9M-MRO. Many photos of this aircraft and other images related to the tragedy have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. One chosen for an example here is located on this page <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20140320150428!Boeing_777-200ER_Malaysia_AL_(MAS)_9M-MRO_-_MSN_28420_404_retusche.jpg" target="_blank">Boeing 777-200ER</a></html> (The file name in the URL is too long to show here.)</p>
<p>Every image page on the Wikimedia Commons website has a menu with different options for re-use of the image.</p>
[[File:WikimediaCommonsUseThisFile.jpg]]
<p>Select 'Use this file on a wiki'. Two options will be presented - a link to use the full image, or a thumbnail. The full text is longer than the width of the dialogue box.</p>
[[File:UseThisFileOnAwiki.jpg]]
<p>Select the text for the Image. It looks like this:-</p>
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]
</pre>
<p>To use the image, simply place that text into a page. Here is the example:-</p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]

<h3>Adjusting Image Size</h3>
<p>The MediaWiki documentation <html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">Help:Images</a></html> describes how to format and resize images in the format <pre>[[File:filename.extension|options|caption]]</pre></p>
<p>The same image has been resized to a width of 500 pixels as shown here:-
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
</pre></p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
<br />

<h3>Image in Center of Page</h3>
<p>Text above and below an image can easily be centred using <code>style="text-align:center;"</code> on the text element but enclosing both text and image within a <code><div style="text-align:center;"></code> has no effect on the image. Neither does similar styles like <code>margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;</code> within the <img>section.</p>
<p>The <img> element is an inline element. To use margin: auto, add display:block to convert the image to a block element, and define a width. An example from {{MH370Site}} follows:-</p>

<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 40%; display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>

<pre>
<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 90%; display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>
</pre>

<h3>For More Control</h3>
<p>Most of the images used in the {{MH370Site}} website have been downloaded and are then sourced locally. As explained in the article [[Configuring MediaWiki for Images]] these are not stored in the default /w/images directory. Consequently each image is loaded using the html <img tag. In addition, the images are styled using custom css. Most have rounded corners; images of passengers are presented in sepia tones; images may be placed using float; image size is defined by css width; and right-click is generally disabled so various actions are disabled.</p>
<br />

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Images </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images</a></html></dd>

<dt>InstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons</a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Configure]]
[[Category:Use]]
[[Category:Images]]
[[Category:$wgUseInstantCommons]]

Using Images from Wikimedia Commons

2026-06-24T05:00:59Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<p>The {{MH370Site}} website uses many images which have been uploaded to the <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html> website. These are listed and referenced on the page <html><a href="https://mh370.net/References/Wikimedia_Commons" target="_blank">References/Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>Images on Wikimedia Commons are generally already in the public domain, or free under <i>Creative Commons</i> licences.</p>
<br />
<p>Wikimedia Commons and the MediaWiki software are projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. Consequently, there is a simple way to include images from Wikimedia Commons into a MediaWiki-based website.</p>
<br />

<h3>InstantCommons</h3>
<p>The variable <html><code>$wgUseInstantCommons</code></html> enables a MediaWiki-based website to use images from <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>In recent versions of MediaWiki, the images are hotlinked and are not downloaded and stored locally. This means the wiki behaves like other Wikimedia projects. For example, Wikipedia (another Wikimedia Foundation Project) extensively uses images from Wikimedia Commons and on any image source page there is likely to be a list of Wikipedia country-based sites which use that image.</p>
<p>To enable Instant Commons, insert the following into LocalSettings.php:-</p>
<pre>$wgUseInstantCommons = true;</pre>
<p>In many installations the value will be true by default and InstantCommons will work without any action needed.</p>
<br />

<h3>Example</h3>
<p>The aircraft which went missing on Flight MH370 (8 March 2014) was a Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines and registered 9M-MRO. Many photos of this aircraft and other images related to the tragedy have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. One chosen for an example here is located on this page <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20140320150428!Boeing_777-200ER_Malaysia_AL_(MAS)_9M-MRO_-_MSN_28420_404_retusche.jpg" target="_blank">Boeing 777-200ER</a></html> (The file name in the URL is too long to show here.)</p>
<p>Every image page on the Wikimedia Commons website has a menu with different options for re-use of the image.</p>
[[File:WikimediaCommonsUseThisFile.jpg]]
<p>Select 'Use this file on a wiki'. Two options will be presented - a link to use the full image, or a thumbnail. The full text is longer than the width of the dialogue box.</p>
[[File:UseThisFileOnAwiki.jpg]]
<p>Select the text for the Image. It looks like this:-</p>
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]
</pre>
<p>To use the image, simply place that text into a page. Here is the example:-</p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]

<h3>Adjusting Image Size</h3>
<p>The MediaWiki documentation <html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">Help:Images</a></html> describes how to format and resize images in the format <pre>[[File:filename.extension|options|caption]]</pre></p>
<p>The same image has been resized to a width of 500 pixels as shown here:-
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
</pre></p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
<br />

<h3>Image in Center of Page</h3>
<p>Text above and below an image can easily be centred using <code>style="text-align:center;"</code> on the text element but enclosing both text and image within a <code><div style="text-align:center;"></code> has no effect on the image. Neither does similar styles like <code>margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;</code> within the <img>section.</p>
<p>The <img> element is an inline element. To use margin: auto, add display:block to convert the image to a block element, and define a width. An example from {{MH370Site}} follows:-</p>

<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 40%; display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>

<pre>
<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 90%; display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>
</pre>

<h3>For More Control</h3>
<p>Most of the images used in the {{MH370Site}} website have been downloaded and are then sourced locally. As explained in the article [[Configuring MediaWiki for Images]] these are not stored in the default /w/images directory. Consequently each image is loaded using the html <img tag. In addition, the images are styled using custom css. Most have rounded corners; images of passengers are presented in sepia tones; images may be placed using float; image size is defined by css width; and right-click is generally disabled so various actions are disabled.</p>
<br />

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Images </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images</a></html></dd>

<dt>InstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons</a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Configure]]
[[Category:Use]]
[[Category:Images]]
[[Category:$wgUseInstantCommons]]

Using Images from Wikimedia Commons

2026-06-24T05:00:02Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<p>The {{MH370Site}} website uses many images which have been uploaded to the <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html> website. These are listed and referenced on the page <html><a href="https://mh370.net/References/Wikimedia_Commons" target="_blank">References/Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>Images on Wikimedia Commons are generally already in the public domain, or free under <i>Creative Commons</i> licences.</p>
<br />
<p>Wikimedia Commons and the MediaWiki software are projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. Consequently, there is a simple way to include images from Wikimedia Commons into a MediaWiki-based website.</p>
<br />

<h3>InstantCommons</h3>
<p>The variable <html><code>$wgUseInstantCommons</code></html> enables a MediaWiki-based website to use images from <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>In recent versions of MediaWiki, the images are hotlinked and are not downloaded and stored locally. This means the wiki behaves like other Wikimedia projects. For example, Wikipedia (another Wikimedia Foundation Project) extensively uses images from Wikimedia Commons and on any image source page there is likely to be a list of Wikipedia country-based sites which use that image.</p>
<p>To enable Instant Commons, insert the following into LocalSettings.php:-</p>
<pre>$wgUseInstantCommons = true;</pre>
<p>In many installations the value will be true by default and InstantCommons will work without any action needed.</p>
<br />

<h3>Example</h3>
<p>The aircraft which went missing on Flight MH370 (8 March 2014) was a Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines and registered 9M-MRO. Many photos of this aircraft and other images related to the tragedy have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. One chosen for an example here is located on this page <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20140320150428!Boeing_777-200ER_Malaysia_AL_(MAS)_9M-MRO_-_MSN_28420_404_retusche.jpg" target="_blank">Boeing 777-200ER</a></html> (The file name in the URL is too long to show here.)</p>
<p>Every image page on the Wikimedia Commons website has a menu with different options for re-use of the image.</p>
[[File:WikimediaCommonsUseThisFile.jpg]]
<p>Select 'Use this file on a wiki'. Two options will be presented - a link to use the full image, or a thumbnail. The full text is longer than the width of the dialogue box.</p>
[[File:UseThisFileOnAwiki.jpg]]
<p>Select the text for the Image. It looks like this:-</p>
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]
</pre>
<p>To use the image, simply place that text into a page. Here is the example:-</p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]

<h3>Adjusting Image Size</h3>
<p>The MediaWiki documentation <html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">Help:Images</a></html> describes how to format and resize images in the format <pre>[[File:filename.extension|options|caption]]</pre></p>
<p>The same image has been resized to a width of 500 pixels as shown here:-
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
</pre></p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
<br />

<h3>Image in Center of Page</h3>
<p>Text above and below an image can easily be centred using <code>style="text-align:center;"</code> on the text element but enclosing both text and image within a <code><div style="text-align:center;"></code> has no effect on the image. Neither does similar styles like <code>margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;</code> within the <img>section.</p>
<p>The <img> element is an inline element. To use margin: auto, add display: block to convert the image to a block element, and define a width. An example from {{MH370Site}} follows:-</p>

<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 90%; display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>

<pre>
<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 90%; display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>
</pre>

<h3>For More Control</h3>
<p>Most of the images used in the {{MH370Site}} website have been downloaded and are then sourced locally. As explained in the article [[Configuring MediaWiki for Images]] these are not stored in the default /w/images directory. Consequently each image is loaded using the html <img tag. In addition, the images are styled using custom css. Most have rounded corners; images of passengers are presented in sepia tones; images may be placed using float; image size is defined by css width; and right-click is generally disabled so various actions are disabled.</p>
<br />

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Images </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images</a></html></dd>

<dt>InstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons</a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Configure]]
[[Category:Use]]
[[Category:Images]]
[[Category:$wgUseInstantCommons]]

Using Images from Wikimedia Commons

2026-06-24T04:58:37Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<p>The {{MH370Site}} website uses many images which have been uploaded to the <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html> website. These are listed and referenced on the page <html><a href="https://mh370.net/References/Wikimedia_Commons" target="_blank">References/Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>Images on Wikimedia Commons are generally already in the public domain, or free under <i>Creative Commons</i> licences.</p>
<br />
<p>Wikimedia Commons and the MediaWiki software are projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. Consequently, there is a simple way to include images from Wikimedia Commons into a MediaWiki-based website.</p>
<br />

<h3>InstantCommons</h3>
<p>The variable <html><code>$wgUseInstantCommons</code></html> enables a MediaWiki-based website to use images from <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></html>.</p>
<p>In recent versions of MediaWiki, the images are hotlinked and are not downloaded and stored locally. This means the wiki behaves like other Wikimedia projects. For example, Wikipedia (another Wikimedia Foundation Project) extensively uses images from Wikimedia Commons and on any image source page there is likely to be a list of Wikipedia country-based sites which use that image.</p>
<p>To enable Instant Commons, insert the following into LocalSettings.php:-</p>
<pre>$wgUseInstantCommons = true;</pre>
<p>In many installations the value will be true by default and InstantCommons will work without any action needed.</p>
<br />

<h3>Example</h3>
<p>The aircraft which went missing on Flight MH370 (8 March 2014) was a Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines and registered 9M-MRO. Many photos of this aircraft and other images related to the tragedy have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. One chosen for an example here is located on this page <html><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20140320150428!Boeing_777-200ER_Malaysia_AL_(MAS)_9M-MRO_-_MSN_28420_404_retusche.jpg" target="_blank">Boeing 777-200ER</a></html> (The file name in the URL is too long to show here.)</p>
<p>Every image page on the Wikimedia Commons website has a menu with different options for re-use of the image.</p>
[[File:WikimediaCommonsUseThisFile.jpg]]
<p>Select 'Use this file on a wiki'. Two options will be presented - a link to use the full image, or a thumbnail. The full text is longer than the width of the dialogue box.</p>
[[File:UseThisFileOnAwiki.jpg]]
<p>Select the text for the Image. It looks like this:-</p>
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]
</pre>
<p>To use the image, simply place that text into a page. Here is the example:-</p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche]]

<h3>Adjusting Image Size</h3>
<p>The MediaWiki documentation <html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">Help:Images</a></html> describes how to format and resize images in the format <pre>[[File:filename.extension|options|caption]]</pre></p>
<p>The same image has been resized to a width of 500 pixels as shown here:-
<pre>
[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
</pre></p>

[[File:20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche.jpg|20140320150428!Boeing 777-200ER Malaysia AL (MAS) 9M-MRO - MSN 28420 404 retusche|500px]]
<br />

<h3>Image in Center of Page</h3>
<p>Text above and below an image can easily be centred using <code>style="text-align:center;"</code> on the text element but enclosing both text and image within a <code><div style="text-align:center;"></code> has no effect on the image. Neither does similar styles like <code>margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;</code> within the <img>section.</p>
<p>The <img> element is an inline element. To use margin: auto, add display: block to convert the image to a block element, and define a width. An example from {{MH370Site}} follows:-</p>

<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 90%; display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>

<pre>
<html>
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharikat_Penerbangan_Malaysia.jpg"
style="border-radius: 10px; max-width: 90%; display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
alt="Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27";
title="foundin_a_attic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons";
onContextMenu="return false;"
/> 
</a> 
</html>
<p style="text-align:center;><b>Malaysia Airlines Fokker F27</b><br /><u>Source</u>: Wikimedia Commons</p>
</pre>

<h3>For More Control</h3>
<p>Most of the images used in the {{MH370Site}} website have been downloaded and are then sourced locally. As explained in the article [[Configuring MediaWiki for Images]] these are not stored in the default /w/images directory. Consequently each image is loaded using the html <img tag. In addition, the images are styled using custom css. Most have rounded corners; images of passengers are presented in sepia tones; images may be placed using float; image size is defined by css width; and right-click is generally disabled so various actions are disabled.</p>
<br />

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Images </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images</a></html></dd>

<dt>InstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseInstantCommons</a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Configure]]
[[Category:Use]]
[[Category:Images]]
[[Category:$wgUseInstantCommons]]

Main Page

2026-06-22T05:09:29Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}
<h3>2026</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>A revolution has occurred in web browsing. Instead of using a search engine to provide a list of possible sources containing a match to a keyword or phrase, AI is collating a response from training data and/or live websites to produce a summary and invites exploration by suggesting additional lines of enquiry or facilitates a conversation. Instead of personally browsing established websites, AI provides an interactive response. This is more engaging.</p>
<p>The AI models, however, can 'get it wrong' and the summaries may lead to incorrect conclusions. For example, in the context of flight MH370, one AI model produced an authoritative-looking response to a question but confused times expressed as MYT and UTC, misrepresenting events on a time scale.</p>
<p>A review of my website statistics recently showed that the overwhelming majority of 'hits' were from AI bots, not individuals. But they didn't stay long. Although the site has a site map, a lot of content is transcluded from hidden namespaces. Apparently a page filled with transcluded content rates low from an SEO perspective. Unfortunately, the MH370wiki site was designed with a majority of public content transcluded from hidden namespaces.</p>
<p>So the goal for an upgrade commenced in mid-2026 is to make the website authoritative for AI and improve SEO to be more highly ranked for AI, including these steps:-</p>
<ol>
<li>Redesign the interface so it is just colours with nothing fancy.</li>
<li>Reduce the use of transclusion.</li>
<li>Convert embedded .pdf documents to html (but provide a link to the .pdf original).</li>
<li>Remove custom horizontal menus and expand the sidebar menu.</li>
<li>The timeline(s) are a core feature of the MH370wiki site but the timeline and event page URLs are unfriendly, so figure out a way to improve the URL and, consequently, SEO.</li>
</ol>
</div> 

<h3>2025</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>This is an instructional website about MediaWiki based on what I have learned during the development of a website about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on 8 March 2014.</p>
<p>Construction of the website mh370wiki.net started in 2015 and I chose MediaWiki as the platform. With over ten years of development that site now has significant content. But is the structure of the site and the way MediaWiki has been configured or customised that will be the focus of this one, mw.mh370.wiki.</p>
<p>Along the way I faced many challenges, made quite a few mistakes, and spent a lot of time working with MediaWiki instead of adding content. I hope that what I present here may be encouraging and helpful to new developers.</p>
<p>Unlike a purely tutorial site, this one is written in 'first person' using 'I' a lot. The journey has been personal and the experience is mine, but I want to share it.</p>
<p>Even the colours on this website have been selected for instructional purposes, not for elegance in graphical design. See below:-</p>
{{Signature}}
</div> 
<div style="margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;>
<h3>Website Theme - Colours</h3>
{{Snippets:Colour Theme table}}
<p>For more detail, see [[Apply a Custom Colour Scheme]].</p>
</div> 
<br />
<p style="text-align:center;"><u>Note</u>: This site is 'under construction'. Development started in July 2025.</p>
</br>

Main Page

2026-06-22T05:08:28Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}
<h3>2026</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>A revolution has occurred in web browsing. Instead of using a search engine to provide a list of possible sources containing a match to a keyword or phrase, AI is collating a response from training data and/or live websites to produce a summary and invites exploration by suggesting additional lines of enquiry or facilitates a conversation. Instead of personally browsing established websites, AI provides an interactive response. This is more engaging.</p>
<p>The AI models, however, can 'get it wrong' and the summaries may lead to incorrect conclusions. For example, in the context of flight MH370, one AI model produced an authoritative-looking response to a question but confused times expressed as MYT and UTC, misrepresenting events on a time scale.</p>
<p>A review of my website statistics recently showed that the overwhelming majority of 'hits' were from AI bots, not individuals. But they didn't stay long. Although the site has a site map, a lot of content is transcluded from hidden namespaces. Apparently a page filled with transcluded content rates low from an SEO perspective. Unfortunately, the MH370wiki site was designed with a majority of public content transcluded from hidden namespaces.</p>
<p>So the goal for an upgrade commenced in mid-2026 is to make the website authoritative for AI and improve SEO to be more highly ranked for AI, including these steps:-</p>
<ol>
<li>Redesign the interface so it is just colours with nothing fancy.</li>
<li>Reduce the use of transclusion.</li>
<li>Convert embedded .pdf documents to html (but provide a link to the .pdf original).</li>
<li>Remove custom horizontal menus and expand the sidebar menu.</li>
<li>The timeline(s) are a core feature of the MH370wiki site but the page URLs are unfriendly, so figure out a way to improve the URL and, consequently, SEO.</li>
</ol>
</div> 

<h3>2025</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>This is an instructional website about MediaWiki based on what I have learned during the development of a website about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on 8 March 2014.</p>
<p>Construction of the website mh370wiki.net started in 2015 and I chose MediaWiki as the platform. With over ten years of development that site now has significant content. But is the structure of the site and the way MediaWiki has been configured or customised that will be the focus of this one, mw.mh370.wiki.</p>
<p>Along the way I faced many challenges, made quite a few mistakes, and spent a lot of time working with MediaWiki instead of adding content. I hope that what I present here may be encouraging and helpful to new developers.</p>
<p>Unlike a purely tutorial site, this one is written in 'first person' using 'I' a lot. The journey has been personal and the experience is mine, but I want to share it.</p>
<p>Even the colours on this website have been selected for instructional purposes, not for elegance in graphical design. See below:-</p>
{{Signature}}
</div> 
<div style="margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;>
<h3>Website Theme - Colours</h3>
{{Snippets:Colour Theme table}}
<p>For more detail, see [[Apply a Custom Colour Scheme]].</p>
</div> 
<br />
<p style="text-align:center;"><u>Note</u>: This site is 'under construction'. Development started in July 2025.</p>
</br>

Main Page

2026-06-22T05:07:44Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}
<h3>2026</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>A revolution has occurred in web browsing. Instead of using a search engine to provide a list of possible sources containing a match to a keyword or phrase, AI is collating a response from training data and/or live websites to produce a summary and invites exploration by suggesting additional lines of enquiry or facilitates a conversation. Instead of personally browsing established websites, AI provides an interactive response. This is more engaging.</p>
<p>The AI models, however, can 'get it wrong' and the summaries may lead to incorrect conclusions. For example, in the context of flight MH370, one AI model produced an authoritative-looking response to a question but confused times expressed as MYT and UTC, misrepresenting events on a time scale.</p>
<p>A review of my website statistics recently showed that the overwhelming majority of 'hits' were from AI bots, not individuals. But they didn't stay long. Although the site has a site map, a lot of content is transcluded from hidden namespaces. Apparently a page filled with transcluded content rates low from an SEO perspective. However, the MH370wiki site was designed with a majority of public content transcluded from hidden namespaces.</p>
<p>So the goal for an upgrade commenced in mid-2026 is to make the website authoritative for AI and improve SEO to be more highly ranked for AI, including these steps:-</p>
<ol>
<li>Redesign the interface so it is just colours with nothing fancy.</li>
<li>Reduce the use of transclusion.</li>
<li>Convert embedded .pdf documents to html (but provide a link to the .pdf original).</li>
<li>Remove custom horizontal menus and expand the sidebar menu.</li>
<li>The timeline(s) are a core feature of the MH370wiki site but the page URLs are unfriendly, so figure out a way to improve the URL and, consequently, SEO.</li>
</ol>
</div> 

<h3>2025</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>This is an instructional website about MediaWiki based on what I have learned during the development of a website about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on 8 March 2014.</p>
<p>Construction of the website mh370wiki.net started in 2015 and I chose MediaWiki as the platform. With over ten years of development that site now has significant content. But is the structure of the site and the way MediaWiki has been configured or customised that will be the focus of this one, mw.mh370.wiki.</p>
<p>Along the way I faced many challenges, made quite a few mistakes, and spent a lot of time working with MediaWiki instead of adding content. I hope that what I present here may be encouraging and helpful to new developers.</p>
<p>Unlike a purely tutorial site, this one is written in 'first person' using 'I' a lot. The journey has been personal and the experience is mine, but I want to share it.</p>
<p>Even the colours on this website have been selected for instructional purposes, not for elegance in graphical design. See below:-</p>
{{Signature}}
</div> 
<div style="margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;>
<h3>Website Theme - Colours</h3>
{{Snippets:Colour Theme table}}
<p>For more detail, see [[Apply a Custom Colour Scheme]].</p>
</div> 
<br />
<p style="text-align:center;"><u>Note</u>: This site is 'under construction'. Development started in July 2025.</p>
</br>

Main Page

2026-06-22T05:07:12Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}
<h3>2026</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>A revolution has occurred in web browsing. Instead of using a search engine to provide a list of possible sources containing a match to a keyword or phrase, AI is collating a response from training data and/or live websites to produce a summary and invites exploration by suggesting additional lines of enquiry or facilitates a conversation. Instead of personally browsing established websites, AI provides an interactive response. This is more engaging.</p>
<p>The AI models, however, can 'get it wrong' and the summaries may lead to incorrect conclusions. For example, in the context of flight MH370, one AI model produced an authoritative-looking response to a question but confused times expressed as MYT and UTC, misrepresenting events on a time scale.</p>
<p>A review of my website statistics recently showed that the overwhelming majority of 'hits' were from AI bots, not individuals. And they didn't stay long. Although the site has a site map, a lot of content is transcluded from hidden namespaces. Apparently a page filled with transcluded content rates low from an SEO perspective. However, the MH370wiki site was designed with a majority of public content transcluded from hidden namespaces.</p>
<p>So the goal for an upgrade commenced in mid-2026 is to make the website authoritative for AI and improve SEO to be more highly ranked for AI, including these steps:-</p>
<ol>
<li>Redesign the interface so it is just colours with nothing fancy.</li>
<li>Reduce the use of transclusion.</li>
<li>Convert embedded .pdf documents to html (but provide a link to the .pdf original).</li>
<li>Remove custom horizontal menus and expand the sidebar menu.</li>
<li>The timeline(s) are a core feature of the MH370wiki site but the page URLs are unfriendly, so figure out a way to improve the URL and, consequently, SEO.</li>
</ol>
</div> 

<h3>2025</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>This is an instructional website about MediaWiki based on what I have learned during the development of a website about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on 8 March 2014.</p>
<p>Construction of the website mh370wiki.net started in 2015 and I chose MediaWiki as the platform. With over ten years of development that site now has significant content. But is the structure of the site and the way MediaWiki has been configured or customised that will be the focus of this one, mw.mh370.wiki.</p>
<p>Along the way I faced many challenges, made quite a few mistakes, and spent a lot of time working with MediaWiki instead of adding content. I hope that what I present here may be encouraging and helpful to new developers.</p>
<p>Unlike a purely tutorial site, this one is written in 'first person' using 'I' a lot. The journey has been personal and the experience is mine, but I want to share it.</p>
<p>Even the colours on this website have been selected for instructional purposes, not for elegance in graphical design. See below:-</p>
{{Signature}}
</div> 
<div style="margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;>
<h3>Website Theme - Colours</h3>
{{Snippets:Colour Theme table}}
<p>For more detail, see [[Apply a Custom Colour Scheme]].</p>
</div> 
<br />
<p style="text-align:center;"><u>Note</u>: This site is 'under construction'. Development started in July 2025.</p>
</br>

Main Page

2026-06-22T05:06:41Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}
<h3>2026</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>A revolution has occurred in web browsing. Instead of using a search engine to provide a list of possible sources containing a match to a keyword or phrase, AI is collating a response from training data and/or live websites to produce a summary and invites exploration by suggesting additional lines of enquiry or facilitates a conversation. Instead of personally browsing established websites, AI provides an interactive response. This is more engaging.</p>
<p>The AI models, however, can 'get it wrong' and the summaries may lead to incorrect conclusions. For example, in the context of flight MH370, one AI model produced an authoritative-looking response to a question but confused times expressed as MYT and UTC, misrepresenting events on a time scale.</p>
<p>A review of website statistics recently showed that the overwhelming majority of 'hits' were from AI bots, not individuals. And they didn't stay long. Although the site has a site map, a lot of content is transcluded from hidden namespaces. Apparently a page filled with transcluded content rates low from an SEO perspective. However, the MH370wiki site was designed with a majority of public content transcluded from hidden namespaces.</p>
<p>So the goal for an upgrade commenced in mid-2026 is to make the website authoritative for AI and improve SEO to be more highly ranked for AI, including these steps:-</p>
<ol>
<li>Redesign the interface so it is just colours with nothing fancy.</li>
<li>Reduce the use of transclusion.</li>
<li>Convert embedded .pdf documents to html (but provide a link to the .pdf original).</li>
<li>Remove custom horizontal menus and expand the sidebar menu.</li>
<li>The timeline(s) are a core feature of the MH370wiki site but the page URLs are unfriendly, so figure out a way to improve the URL and, consequently, SEO.</li>
</ol>
</div> 

<h3>2025</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>This is an instructional website about MediaWiki based on what I have learned during the development of a website about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on 8 March 2014.</p>
<p>Construction of the website mh370wiki.net started in 2015 and I chose MediaWiki as the platform. With over ten years of development that site now has significant content. But is the structure of the site and the way MediaWiki has been configured or customised that will be the focus of this one, mw.mh370.wiki.</p>
<p>Along the way I faced many challenges, made quite a few mistakes, and spent a lot of time working with MediaWiki instead of adding content. I hope that what I present here may be encouraging and helpful to new developers.</p>
<p>Unlike a purely tutorial site, this one is written in 'first person' using 'I' a lot. The journey has been personal and the experience is mine, but I want to share it.</p>
<p>Even the colours on this website have been selected for instructional purposes, not for elegance in graphical design. See below:-</p>
{{Signature}}
</div> 
<div style="margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;>
<h3>Website Theme - Colours</h3>
{{Snippets:Colour Theme table}}
<p>For more detail, see [[Apply a Custom Colour Scheme]].</p>
</div> 
<br />
<p style="text-align:center;"><u>Note</u>: This site is 'under construction'. Development started in July 2025.</p>
</br>

Main Page

2026-06-22T05:05:41Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}
<h3>2026</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>A revolution has occurred in web browsing. Instead of using a search engine to provide a list of possible sources containing a match to a keyword or phrase, AI is collating a response from training data and/or live websites to produce a summary and invites exploration by suggesting additional lines of enquiry or facilitates a conversation. Instead of browsing established website, AI provides an interactive response. This is more engaging.</p>
<p>The AI models, however, can 'get it wrong' and the summaries may lead to incorrect conclusions. For example, in the context of flight MH370, one AI model produced an authoritative-looking response to a question but confused times expressed as MYT and UTC, misrepresenting events on a time scale.</p>
<p>A review of website statistics recently showed that the overwhelming majority of 'hits' were from AI bots, not individuals. And they didn't stay long. Although the site has a site map, a lot of content is transcluded from hidden namespaces. Apparently a page filled with transcluded content rates low from an SEO perspective. However, the MH370wiki site was designed with a majority of public content transcluded from hidden namespaces.</p>
<p>So the goal for an upgrade commenced in mid-2026 is to make the website authoritative for AI and improve SEO to be more highly ranked for AI, including these steps:-</p>
<ol>
<li>Redesign the interface so it is just colours with nothing fancy.</li>
<li>Reduce the use of transclusion.</li>
<li>Convert embedded .pdf documents to html (but provide a link to the .pdf original).</li>
<li>Remove custom horizontal menus and expand the sidebar menu.</li>
<li>The timeline(s) are a core feature of the MH370wiki site but the page URLs are unfriendly, so figure out a way to improve the URL and, consequently, SEO.</li>
</ol>
</div> 

<h3>2025</h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>This is an instructional website about MediaWiki based on what I have learned during the development of a website about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on 8 March 2014.</p>
<p>Construction of the website mh370wiki.net started in 2015 and I chose MediaWiki as the platform. With over ten years of development that site now has significant content. But is the structure of the site and the way MediaWiki has been configured or customised that will be the focus of this one, mw.mh370.wiki.</p>
<p>Along the way I faced many challenges, made quite a few mistakes, and spent a lot of time working with MediaWiki instead of adding content. I hope that what I present here may be encouraging and helpful to new developers.</p>
<p>Unlike a purely tutorial site, this one is written in 'first person' using 'I' a lot. The journey has been personal and the experience is mine, but I want to share it.</p>
<p>Even the colours on this website have been selected for instructional purposes, not for elegance in graphical design. See below:-</p>
{{Signature}}
</div> 
<div style="margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;>
<h3>Website Theme - Colours</h3>
{{Snippets:Colour Theme table}}
<p>For more detail, see [[Apply a Custom Colour Scheme]].</p>
</div> 
<br />
<p style="text-align:center;"><u>Note</u>: This site is 'under construction'. Development started in July 2025.</p>
</br>

MediaWiki:Common.css

2025-12-24T10:55:27Z

GrantM:

/* CSS placed here will be applied to all skins */

/* #ca-nstab-ns_3400 { display:none !important; } */

/* body.ns-0 #ca-talk { display:none !important; } */ /* this works */

/* body.ns-0 #ca-nstab { display:none !important; } doesn't work */

body.ns-3400 #ca-talk { display:none !important; } /* this works */

body.ns-3400 #ca-nstab-snippets { display:none !important; }

/* 5 August 2025 Added Colors for use in Sidebar and MediaWiki interface */

/* Steel Blue */
:root { --SteelBlue-80: #B6CEE2;
--SteelBlue-70: #91B6D4;
--SteelBlue-60: #6C9DC6;
--SteelBlue-50: #4785B8;
--SteelBlue-40: #396A93;
} /* End Steel Blue */

/* Tan */
:root { --Tan-90: #F1E7DA;
--Tan-80: #E2CFB6;
--Tan-70: #D4B791;
--Tan-60: #C69F6C;
--Tan-50: #B88747;
--Tan-40: #936C39;
} /* End Tan */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added shades of Light Steel Blue #b0c4de (for catlinks) */
:root { --LightSteelBlue: #B0C4DE;
--LightSteelBlue-80: #B7C9E1;
--LightSteelBlue-85: #C9D7E8;
--LightSteelBlue-90: #DBE4F0;
} /* End Light Steel Blue */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added shades of Light Sky Blue #99CCEF for use in page headers */
:root { --LightSkyBlue: #99CCFF;
} /* End Light Sky Blue */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added variables for greys */
:root { --PageBackground: #F2F2F2;
--QuoteBackground: #FAFAFA;
--BlackText: #000000;
}

/* Black and White as used on MH370 site for tables */
:root { --clr-white: #FFFFFF;
--clr-black: #000000;
}

:root { --clr-grey-base-50: #808080; } /* exactly half way between black and white */

/* Items sorted with lightest color shade first, approximating a Z order */

#mw-head { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-80); } /* full width at top of screen, behind logo */

/* mw-body-content is in front of mw-body */
.mw-body-content { background-color: var(--PageBackground); border-radius: 1em; padding-top:2em; padding-bottom:2em; padding-left:2.5em; padding-right:2.5em; }

.mw-body { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-70); } /* is background for everything below header and right of left panel and down to footer */

.mw-footer { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-60); } /* does not extend to bottom of the screen */
.mw-footer { padding-bottom:2em; } /* added 24 Dec 2025 */

#mw-panel.vector-legacy-sidebar.collapsible-nav { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-50); } /* background for menu but extends to top of screen and behind logo and in front of header */

body { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-40); } /* everything below mw-head, full width of screen, to bottom of screen */

.catlinks { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue); } /* border on category row. was #bdccdb */
.mw-normal-catlinks { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-90); padding-left:20px; } /* was #ced8e4 */

/* 17 Sept 2025 added classes for different background color pages */
.BluePage { color: #9900CC; } /* Purple text on blue background */
.GreenPage { color: #000099; } /* Blue text on green background */

.mw-body-content:has(.BluePage) { background-color: #E6F5FF; }
.mw-body-content:has(.GreenPage) { background-color: #E6FFF2; }

/* 2 August added class to standardised margins when displaying a category tree */
.displayCatTree { margin-left:4em; }

/* 1 August 2025 Added a class to standardise page headers, plus a variant for category pages */

.header { width:90%;
margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; margin-bottom:1em; padding-top:10px; padding-bottom:10px;
text-align:justify;
background-color: var(--LightSkyBlue); border-color: var(--LightSkyBlue); border-radius: 10px;
} /* colors were #cce6ff */

.cat { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-85); border-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-85); } /* pale shade of blue for header on category pages. was #e8f2fc */

/* 28 July 2025 attempt to indent unordered lists */
.mw-body-content ul { display:block; position:relative; left:1em; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; text-align:justify; } /* mw-body-content limits scope */
/* .ulNormal { display:block; position:relative; left:2vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; text-align:justify; } */

/* 28 July 2025 added style for quoted text, adapted from mh370wiki.net, used instead of blockquote */

.quote { width: 90%; background: var(--QuoteBackground); /* contrast against page background */
padding-left: 1em;; padding-right: 1em; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.5em; /* was px */
margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em;
text-align:justify; color: var(--BlackText); /* black */
}

/* 27 July 2025 added left margin to images */
.mw-default-size { margin-left: 2em; } /* this is the container. applies to all images */

/* 25 July 2025 added style to indent <pre> Note: No dot required before pre */

pre { width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }

/* 22 July 2025 Added style to enlarge fonts on Tooltips but currently unable to change tooltip width */

.mw-lingo-definition-text { font-size:125%; } /* Tooltip is also styled as a qtip in jquery.qtip.css */

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* 20 July 2025 Fluid Typography and Font Variables */
/* Copied from mh370wiki.net and adapted for use here */

/* Fluid Typography - see Responsive And Fluid Typography With vh And vw Units
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/05/fluid-typography/
Unlike responsive typography, which changes only at set breakpoints,
fluid typography resizes smoothly to match any device width.
*/
/* Variables for font size ( to be used in Vector.css ) see https://foxland.fi/naming-typography-css-variables/ */

/* Clamp() for min, preferred, max font size see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/clamp() */
/* Notes on font sizes
The default text size in browsers is 16px. So, the default size of 1em is 16px.
rem (root em) references the base font size of the document.
Assuming that the base font size is 16px, we get the following values:
1rem = 16px
1.5rem = 24px
0.5rem = 8px
*/

/* Use clamp ( min preferred max ) */
:root { font-size: clamp( 1vw, 1.05rem, 1.2vw ); }

/* Font sizes using variables from https://foxland.fi/naming-typography-css-variables/ */
/* Example font-size: var(--font-size-100); */
:root { --font-size-625: 62.5%; /* 62.5% of root font size */
--font-size-875: 87.5%; /* 87.5% x root font size */
--font-size-090: 90%; /* 90% x root font size */
--font-size-095: 95%; /* 95% x root font size */
--font-size-100: 100%; /* 100% = root font size */
--font-size-105: 105%; /* 105% x root font size */
--font-size-110: 110%; /* 110% x root font size */
--font-size-115: 115%; /* 115% x root font size */
--font-size-120: 120%; /* 120% x root font size */
--font-size-125: 125%; /* 125% x root font size */
}

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* Text Styles using Font Variables */

/* Font Sizes */
body { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
p { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
dl dt dd { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
dd { margin-bottom: 1em; } /* added 11 Oct 2022 to space between a dd and the next dt */
/* ul ol li { font-size: var(--font-size-100); } */

/* Headings are sized by percentage over the base font and also resize based on viewport width */
h1 {font-size: var(--font-size-125);}
h2 {font-size: var(--font-size-120);} /* h2 was previously not defined */
h3 {font-size: var(--font-size-115);}
h4 {font-size: var(--font-size-110);}
h5 {font-size: var(--font-size-105);}
/* h6 {font-size: var(--font-size-100);} modified 4 Jan 2025 */
h6 {font-size: var(--font-size-090);}

h1, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: var(--clr-DeepPurple-base-30);
font-weight: 600;
}

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* Text layout using padding - use vw for responsive */
/* 10px = 0.625rem; 20px = 1.25rem; 30px = 1.875rem; 40px = 2.5rem; */
/* h1, h2, h3 align with left of page. h4 is rarely used */
/* h1, h2, h3 align with left of page. h4 is rarely used */
h5 { padding-left: 0.5vw; }
h6 { padding-left: 0.5vw; }
p { padding-left: 1vw; padding-right:1vw; }

/* Margin above, added 14 Dec 2025 to avoid need for <br /> before a major heading (h3) */
h3 { margin-top: 0.2vh; } /* started with .5vw */

/* padding below added 15 Dec 2025 */
li { padding-bottom: 0.2vh; }

/* ordered list ol and altered padding for a nested list */
ol { display:block; position:relative; left:0.9vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; padding-right:0.9vw;
& ol { display:block; position:relative; left:-0.9vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; list-style-type:lower-roman; }
}

/* Definition List */
dl { padding-left: 2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; }
dt { padding:right:2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; text-align:justify; }
dd { padding:right:2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; text-align:justify; }

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* 11 July 2025 Rows and Columns */

/* 26 July 2020 New row/column layout */
/* July 2025 Copied from www.mh370wiki.net ( with minor adjustments ) */
.Row { display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; justify-content: flex-start; justify-content: space-between; width: 100%; }
.row { display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; justify-content: flex-start; justify-content: space-between; width: 100%; }
.column-left { display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; padding-right: 1em; }
.column-center {display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; }
.column-right {display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; padding-left: 1em; }

/* flex-basis determines column width */
.col-width-75 { flex-basis: 75%; flex-shrink: 15;} /* usually main column 75% and Comments or Notes 25% */
.col-width-70 { flex-basis: 65%; flex-shrink: 13;} /* added 28 Oct 2020 to use with col-width-30 even though that is actually 33% */
.col-width-60 { flex-basis: 60%; flex-shrink: 12;} /* two columns in ratio 3:2 */
.col-width-50 { flex-basis: 50%; flex-shrink: 10;} /* two equal columns */
.col-width-40 { flex-basis: 40%; flex-shrink: 8;}
/*.col-width-30 { flex-basis: 33%; flex-shrink: 7;} */
/* .col-width-30 { flex: 1 1 0;} /* 16 Nov 2020 If columns are equal then flex should be 1 1 0 */
.col-width-30 { flex-basis: 0; }
.col-width-25 { flex-basis: 25%; flex-shrink: 5;} /* usually right column */

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/
/* Tables - adapted from MH370 site 10 Dec 2025 */
/* flex-font-base removed */

th { font-weight:bold; }

th, td { padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; } /* added 29 Oct 2020. will apply to all types of table */
th, td { vertical-align: top; } /* added 31 Oct 2020. will apply to all types of table */
/* Custom Tables */
/* w=width Use class in conjunction with tbl or tblB */
.w100 { width: 100%; } /* Table width 100% with no margins */
.w90 { width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 90% centred */
.w80 { width: 80%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 80% centred */
.w75 { width: 75%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 75% centred */
.w70 { width: 70%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 70% centred */
.w60 { width: 60%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 60% centred */
.w50 { width: 50%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 50% centred */
.w40 { width: 40%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 40% centred */
.w30 { width: 30%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 30%centred */
.w25 { width: 25%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 25% centred */
.w20 { width: 20%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 20% centred */
.wauto { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }

/* Table centred */
/* tbl = table. B=bordered. tblB is a bordered table with white background */
/* tblBcenter = table with border and columns centered */

.tbl { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black); /* Background is white for a table with no borders. */
vertical-align: top; }
.tbl th td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
text-align: left; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top; }
.tbl td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
text-align: left; vertical-align: top; }

.tbl tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tbl tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

.tblB { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse;
border: 1px solid var(--clr-grey-base-50); }

.tblB th { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: left; font-weight: bold; }

.tblB td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: left; }

.tblB tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tblB tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

.tblBcenter { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50); }

.tblBcenter th { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: center; font-weight: bold; }

.tblBcenter td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: center; }

.tblBcenter tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tblBcenter tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

/* Overflow for Custom Tables - added 30 Dec 2020 */
.table { overflow-x: auto; } /* this works */
/* .tbl .tblB .tblBcenter { overflow-x: auto; } /* should not show vertical scrollbar and horizontal only when needed */
.tblB { overflow-x: auto; }

MediaWiki:Common.css

2025-12-24T10:53:59Z

GrantM:

/* CSS placed here will be applied to all skins */

/* #ca-nstab-ns_3400 { display:none !important; } */

/* body.ns-0 #ca-talk { display:none !important; } */ /* this works */

/* body.ns-0 #ca-nstab { display:none !important; } doesn't work */

body.ns-3400 #ca-talk { display:none !important; } /* this works */

body.ns-3400 #ca-nstab-snippets { display:none !important; }

/* 5 August 2025 Added Colors for use in Sidebar and MediaWiki interface */

/* Steel Blue */
:root { --SteelBlue-80: #B6CEE2;
--SteelBlue-70: #91B6D4;
--SteelBlue-60: #6C9DC6;
--SteelBlue-50: #4785B8;
--SteelBlue-40: #396A93;
} /* End Steel Blue */

/* Tan */
:root { --Tan-90: #F1E7DA;
--Tan-80: #E2CFB6;
--Tan-70: #D4B791;
--Tan-60: #C69F6C;
--Tan-50: #B88747;
--Tan-40: #936C39;
} /* End Tan */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added shades of Light Steel Blue #b0c4de (for catlinks) */
:root { --LightSteelBlue: #B0C4DE;
--LightSteelBlue-80: #B7C9E1;
--LightSteelBlue-85: #C9D7E8;
--LightSteelBlue-90: #DBE4F0;
} /* End Light Steel Blue */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added shades of Light Sky Blue #99CCEF for use in page headers */
:root { --LightSkyBlue: #99CCFF;
} /* End Light Sky Blue */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added variables for greys */
:root { --PageBackground: #F2F2F2;
--QuoteBackground: #FAFAFA;
--BlackText: #000000;
}

/* Black and White as used on MH370 site for tables */
:root { --clr-white: #FFFFFF;
--clr-black: #000000;
}

:root { --clr-grey-base-50: #808080; } /* exactly half way between black and white */

/* Items sorted with lightest color shade first, approximating a Z order */

#mw-head { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-80); } /* full width at top of screen, behind logo */

/* mw-body-content is in front of mw-body */
.mw-body-content { background-color: var(--PageBackground); border-radius: 1em; padding-top:2em; padding-bottom:2em; padding-left:2.5em; padding-right:2.5em; }

.mw-body { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-70); } /* is background for everything below header and right of left panel and down to footer */

.mw-footer { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-60); } /* does not extend to bottom of the screen */
.mw-footer { padding-bottom:20px; } /* added 24 Dec 2025 */

#mw-panel.vector-legacy-sidebar.collapsible-nav { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-50); } /* background for menu but extends to top of screen and behind logo and in front of header */

body { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-40); } /* everything below mw-head, full width of screen, to bottom of screen */

.catlinks { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue); } /* border on category row. was #bdccdb */
.mw-normal-catlinks { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-90); padding-left:20px; } /* was #ced8e4 */

/* 17 Sept 2025 added classes for different background color pages */
.BluePage { color: #9900CC; } /* Purple text on blue background */
.GreenPage { color: #000099; } /* Blue text on green background */

.mw-body-content:has(.BluePage) { background-color: #E6F5FF; }
.mw-body-content:has(.GreenPage) { background-color: #E6FFF2; }

/* 2 August added class to standardised margins when displaying a category tree */
.displayCatTree { margin-left:4em; }

/* 1 August 2025 Added a class to standardise page headers, plus a variant for category pages */

.header { width:90%;
margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; margin-bottom:1em; padding-top:10px; padding-bottom:10px;
text-align:justify;
background-color: var(--LightSkyBlue); border-color: var(--LightSkyBlue); border-radius: 10px;
} /* colors were #cce6ff */

.cat { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-85); border-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-85); } /* pale shade of blue for header on category pages. was #e8f2fc */

/* 28 July 2025 attempt to indent unordered lists */
.mw-body-content ul { display:block; position:relative; left:1em; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; text-align:justify; } /* mw-body-content limits scope */
/* .ulNormal { display:block; position:relative; left:2vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; text-align:justify; } */

/* 28 July 2025 added style for quoted text, adapted from mh370wiki.net, used instead of blockquote */

.quote { width: 90%; background: var(--QuoteBackground); /* contrast against page background */
padding-left: 1em;; padding-right: 1em; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.5em; /* was px */
margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em;
text-align:justify; color: var(--BlackText); /* black */
}

/* 27 July 2025 added left margin to images */
.mw-default-size { margin-left: 2em; } /* this is the container. applies to all images */

/* 25 July 2025 added style to indent <pre> Note: No dot required before pre */

pre { width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }

/* 22 July 2025 Added style to enlarge fonts on Tooltips but currently unable to change tooltip width */

.mw-lingo-definition-text { font-size:125%; } /* Tooltip is also styled as a qtip in jquery.qtip.css */

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* 20 July 2025 Fluid Typography and Font Variables */
/* Copied from mh370wiki.net and adapted for use here */

/* Fluid Typography - see Responsive And Fluid Typography With vh And vw Units
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/05/fluid-typography/
Unlike responsive typography, which changes only at set breakpoints,
fluid typography resizes smoothly to match any device width.
*/
/* Variables for font size ( to be used in Vector.css ) see https://foxland.fi/naming-typography-css-variables/ */

/* Clamp() for min, preferred, max font size see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/clamp() */
/* Notes on font sizes
The default text size in browsers is 16px. So, the default size of 1em is 16px.
rem (root em) references the base font size of the document.
Assuming that the base font size is 16px, we get the following values:
1rem = 16px
1.5rem = 24px
0.5rem = 8px
*/

/* Use clamp ( min preferred max ) */
:root { font-size: clamp( 1vw, 1.05rem, 1.2vw ); }

/* Font sizes using variables from https://foxland.fi/naming-typography-css-variables/ */
/* Example font-size: var(--font-size-100); */
:root { --font-size-625: 62.5%; /* 62.5% of root font size */
--font-size-875: 87.5%; /* 87.5% x root font size */
--font-size-090: 90%; /* 90% x root font size */
--font-size-095: 95%; /* 95% x root font size */
--font-size-100: 100%; /* 100% = root font size */
--font-size-105: 105%; /* 105% x root font size */
--font-size-110: 110%; /* 110% x root font size */
--font-size-115: 115%; /* 115% x root font size */
--font-size-120: 120%; /* 120% x root font size */
--font-size-125: 125%; /* 125% x root font size */
}

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* Text Styles using Font Variables */

/* Font Sizes */
body { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
p { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
dl dt dd { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
dd { margin-bottom: 1em; } /* added 11 Oct 2022 to space between a dd and the next dt */
/* ul ol li { font-size: var(--font-size-100); } */

/* Headings are sized by percentage over the base font and also resize based on viewport width */
h1 {font-size: var(--font-size-125);}
h2 {font-size: var(--font-size-120);} /* h2 was previously not defined */
h3 {font-size: var(--font-size-115);}
h4 {font-size: var(--font-size-110);}
h5 {font-size: var(--font-size-105);}
/* h6 {font-size: var(--font-size-100);} modified 4 Jan 2025 */
h6 {font-size: var(--font-size-090);}

h1, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: var(--clr-DeepPurple-base-30);
font-weight: 600;
}

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* Text layout using padding - use vw for responsive */
/* 10px = 0.625rem; 20px = 1.25rem; 30px = 1.875rem; 40px = 2.5rem; */
/* h1, h2, h3 align with left of page. h4 is rarely used */
/* h1, h2, h3 align with left of page. h4 is rarely used */
h5 { padding-left: 0.5vw; }
h6 { padding-left: 0.5vw; }
p { padding-left: 1vw; padding-right:1vw; }

/* Margin above, added 14 Dec 2025 to avoid need for <br /> before a major heading (h3) */
h3 { margin-top: 0.2vh; } /* started with .5vw */

/* padding below added 15 Dec 2025 */
li { padding-bottom: 0.2vh; }

/* ordered list ol and altered padding for a nested list */
ol { display:block; position:relative; left:0.9vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; padding-right:0.9vw;
& ol { display:block; position:relative; left:-0.9vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; list-style-type:lower-roman; }
}

/* Definition List */
dl { padding-left: 2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; }
dt { padding:right:2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; text-align:justify; }
dd { padding:right:2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; text-align:justify; }

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* 11 July 2025 Rows and Columns */

/* 26 July 2020 New row/column layout */
/* July 2025 Copied from www.mh370wiki.net ( with minor adjustments ) */
.Row { display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; justify-content: flex-start; justify-content: space-between; width: 100%; }
.row { display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; justify-content: flex-start; justify-content: space-between; width: 100%; }
.column-left { display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; padding-right: 1em; }
.column-center {display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; }
.column-right {display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; padding-left: 1em; }

/* flex-basis determines column width */
.col-width-75 { flex-basis: 75%; flex-shrink: 15;} /* usually main column 75% and Comments or Notes 25% */
.col-width-70 { flex-basis: 65%; flex-shrink: 13;} /* added 28 Oct 2020 to use with col-width-30 even though that is actually 33% */
.col-width-60 { flex-basis: 60%; flex-shrink: 12;} /* two columns in ratio 3:2 */
.col-width-50 { flex-basis: 50%; flex-shrink: 10;} /* two equal columns */
.col-width-40 { flex-basis: 40%; flex-shrink: 8;}
/*.col-width-30 { flex-basis: 33%; flex-shrink: 7;} */
/* .col-width-30 { flex: 1 1 0;} /* 16 Nov 2020 If columns are equal then flex should be 1 1 0 */
.col-width-30 { flex-basis: 0; }
.col-width-25 { flex-basis: 25%; flex-shrink: 5;} /* usually right column */

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/
/* Tables - adapted from MH370 site 10 Dec 2025 */
/* flex-font-base removed */

th { font-weight:bold; }

th, td { padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; } /* added 29 Oct 2020. will apply to all types of table */
th, td { vertical-align: top; } /* added 31 Oct 2020. will apply to all types of table */
/* Custom Tables */
/* w=width Use class in conjunction with tbl or tblB */
.w100 { width: 100%; } /* Table width 100% with no margins */
.w90 { width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 90% centred */
.w80 { width: 80%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 80% centred */
.w75 { width: 75%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 75% centred */
.w70 { width: 70%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 70% centred */
.w60 { width: 60%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 60% centred */
.w50 { width: 50%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 50% centred */
.w40 { width: 40%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 40% centred */
.w30 { width: 30%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 30%centred */
.w25 { width: 25%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 25% centred */
.w20 { width: 20%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 20% centred */
.wauto { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }

/* Table centred */
/* tbl = table. B=bordered. tblB is a bordered table with white background */
/* tblBcenter = table with border and columns centered */

.tbl { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black); /* Background is white for a table with no borders. */
vertical-align: top; }
.tbl th td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
text-align: left; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top; }
.tbl td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
text-align: left; vertical-align: top; }

.tbl tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tbl tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

.tblB { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse;
border: 1px solid var(--clr-grey-base-50); }

.tblB th { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: left; font-weight: bold; }

.tblB td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: left; }

.tblB tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tblB tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

.tblBcenter { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50); }

.tblBcenter th { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: center; font-weight: bold; }

.tblBcenter td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: center; }

.tblBcenter tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tblBcenter tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

/* Overflow for Custom Tables - added 30 Dec 2020 */
.table { overflow-x: auto; } /* this works */
/* .tbl .tblB .tblBcenter { overflow-x: auto; } /* should not show vertical scrollbar and horizontal only when needed */
.tblB { overflow-x: auto; }

MediaWiki:Common.css

2025-12-24T10:53:22Z

GrantM:

/* CSS placed here will be applied to all skins */

/* #ca-nstab-ns_3400 { display:none !important; } */

/* body.ns-0 #ca-talk { display:none !important; } */ /* this works */

/* body.ns-0 #ca-nstab { display:none !important; } doesn't work */

body.ns-3400 #ca-talk { display:none !important; } /* this works */

body.ns-3400 #ca-nstab-snippets { display:none !important; }

/* 5 August 2025 Added Colors for use in Sidebar and MediaWiki interface */

/* Steel Blue */
:root { --SteelBlue-80: #B6CEE2;
--SteelBlue-70: #91B6D4;
--SteelBlue-60: #6C9DC6;
--SteelBlue-50: #4785B8;
--SteelBlue-40: #396A93;
} /* End Steel Blue */

/* Tan */
:root { --Tan-90: #F1E7DA;
--Tan-80: #E2CFB6;
--Tan-70: #D4B791;
--Tan-60: #C69F6C;
--Tan-50: #B88747;
--Tan-40: #936C39;
} /* End Tan */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added shades of Light Steel Blue #b0c4de (for catlinks) */
:root { --LightSteelBlue: #B0C4DE;
--LightSteelBlue-80: #B7C9E1;
--LightSteelBlue-85: #C9D7E8;
--LightSteelBlue-90: #DBE4F0;
} /* End Light Steel Blue */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added shades of Light Sky Blue #99CCEF for use in page headers */
:root { --LightSkyBlue: #99CCFF;
} /* End Light Sky Blue */

/* 10 Dec 2025 added variables for greys */
:root { --PageBackground: #F2F2F2;
--QuoteBackground: #FAFAFA;
--BlackText: #000000;
}

/* Black and White as used on MH370 site for tables */
:root { --clr-white: #FFFFFF;
--clr-black: #000000;
}

:root { --clr-grey-base-50: #808080; } /* exactly half way between black and white */

/* Items sorted with lightest color shade first, approximating a Z order */

#mw-head { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-80); } /* full width at top of screen, behind logo */

/* mw-body-content is in front of mw-body */
.mw-body-content { background-color: var(--PageBackground); border-radius: 1em; padding-top:2em; padding-bottom:2em; padding-left:2.5em; padding-right:2.5em; }

.mw-body { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-70); } /* is background for everything below header and right of left panel and down to footer */

.mw-footer { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-60); } /* does not extend to bottom of the screen */
.mw-footer { margin-bottom:20px; } /* added 24 Dec 2025 */

#mw-panel.vector-legacy-sidebar.collapsible-nav { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-50); } /* background for menu but extends to top of screen and behind logo and in front of header */

body { background-color: var(--SteelBlue-40); } /* everything below mw-head, full width of screen, to bottom of screen */

.catlinks { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue); } /* border on category row. was #bdccdb */
.mw-normal-catlinks { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-90); padding-left:20px; } /* was #ced8e4 */

/* 17 Sept 2025 added classes for different background color pages */
.BluePage { color: #9900CC; } /* Purple text on blue background */
.GreenPage { color: #000099; } /* Blue text on green background */

.mw-body-content:has(.BluePage) { background-color: #E6F5FF; }
.mw-body-content:has(.GreenPage) { background-color: #E6FFF2; }

/* 2 August added class to standardised margins when displaying a category tree */
.displayCatTree { margin-left:4em; }

/* 1 August 2025 Added a class to standardise page headers, plus a variant for category pages */

.header { width:90%;
margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; margin-bottom:1em; padding-top:10px; padding-bottom:10px;
text-align:justify;
background-color: var(--LightSkyBlue); border-color: var(--LightSkyBlue); border-radius: 10px;
} /* colors were #cce6ff */

.cat { background-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-85); border-color: var(--LightSteelBlue-85); } /* pale shade of blue for header on category pages. was #e8f2fc */

/* 28 July 2025 attempt to indent unordered lists */
.mw-body-content ul { display:block; position:relative; left:1em; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; text-align:justify; } /* mw-body-content limits scope */
/* .ulNormal { display:block; position:relative; left:2vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; text-align:justify; } */

/* 28 July 2025 added style for quoted text, adapted from mh370wiki.net, used instead of blockquote */

.quote { width: 90%; background: var(--QuoteBackground); /* contrast against page background */
padding-left: 1em;; padding-right: 1em; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.5em; /* was px */
margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em;
text-align:justify; color: var(--BlackText); /* black */
}

/* 27 July 2025 added left margin to images */
.mw-default-size { margin-left: 2em; } /* this is the container. applies to all images */

/* 25 July 2025 added style to indent <pre> Note: No dot required before pre */

pre { width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }

/* 22 July 2025 Added style to enlarge fonts on Tooltips but currently unable to change tooltip width */

.mw-lingo-definition-text { font-size:125%; } /* Tooltip is also styled as a qtip in jquery.qtip.css */

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* 20 July 2025 Fluid Typography and Font Variables */
/* Copied from mh370wiki.net and adapted for use here */

/* Fluid Typography - see Responsive And Fluid Typography With vh And vw Units
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/05/fluid-typography/
Unlike responsive typography, which changes only at set breakpoints,
fluid typography resizes smoothly to match any device width.
*/
/* Variables for font size ( to be used in Vector.css ) see https://foxland.fi/naming-typography-css-variables/ */

/* Clamp() for min, preferred, max font size see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/clamp() */
/* Notes on font sizes
The default text size in browsers is 16px. So, the default size of 1em is 16px.
rem (root em) references the base font size of the document.
Assuming that the base font size is 16px, we get the following values:
1rem = 16px
1.5rem = 24px
0.5rem = 8px
*/

/* Use clamp ( min preferred max ) */
:root { font-size: clamp( 1vw, 1.05rem, 1.2vw ); }

/* Font sizes using variables from https://foxland.fi/naming-typography-css-variables/ */
/* Example font-size: var(--font-size-100); */
:root { --font-size-625: 62.5%; /* 62.5% of root font size */
--font-size-875: 87.5%; /* 87.5% x root font size */
--font-size-090: 90%; /* 90% x root font size */
--font-size-095: 95%; /* 95% x root font size */
--font-size-100: 100%; /* 100% = root font size */
--font-size-105: 105%; /* 105% x root font size */
--font-size-110: 110%; /* 110% x root font size */
--font-size-115: 115%; /* 115% x root font size */
--font-size-120: 120%; /* 120% x root font size */
--font-size-125: 125%; /* 125% x root font size */
}

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* Text Styles using Font Variables */

/* Font Sizes */
body { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
p { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
dl dt dd { font-size: var(--font-size-100); }
dd { margin-bottom: 1em; } /* added 11 Oct 2022 to space between a dd and the next dt */
/* ul ol li { font-size: var(--font-size-100); } */

/* Headings are sized by percentage over the base font and also resize based on viewport width */
h1 {font-size: var(--font-size-125);}
h2 {font-size: var(--font-size-120);} /* h2 was previously not defined */
h3 {font-size: var(--font-size-115);}
h4 {font-size: var(--font-size-110);}
h5 {font-size: var(--font-size-105);}
/* h6 {font-size: var(--font-size-100);} modified 4 Jan 2025 */
h6 {font-size: var(--font-size-090);}

h1, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: var(--clr-DeepPurple-base-30);
font-weight: 600;
}

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* Text layout using padding - use vw for responsive */
/* 10px = 0.625rem; 20px = 1.25rem; 30px = 1.875rem; 40px = 2.5rem; */
/* h1, h2, h3 align with left of page. h4 is rarely used */
/* h1, h2, h3 align with left of page. h4 is rarely used */
h5 { padding-left: 0.5vw; }
h6 { padding-left: 0.5vw; }
p { padding-left: 1vw; padding-right:1vw; }

/* Margin above, added 14 Dec 2025 to avoid need for <br /> before a major heading (h3) */
h3 { margin-top: 0.2vh; } /* started with .5vw */

/* padding below added 15 Dec 2025 */
li { padding-bottom: 0.2vh; }

/* ordered list ol and altered padding for a nested list */
ol { display:block; position:relative; left:0.9vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; padding-right:0.9vw;
& ol { display:block; position:relative; left:-0.9vw; overflow-wrap: normal; word-wrap: normal; max-width:90%; list-style-type:lower-roman; }
}

/* Definition List */
dl { padding-left: 2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; }
dt { padding:right:2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; text-align:justify; }
dd { padding:right:2.5vw; padding-right:2.5vw; text-align:justify; }

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/

/* 11 July 2025 Rows and Columns */

/* 26 July 2020 New row/column layout */
/* July 2025 Copied from www.mh370wiki.net ( with minor adjustments ) */
.Row { display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; justify-content: flex-start; justify-content: space-between; width: 100%; }
.row { display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; justify-content: flex-start; justify-content: space-between; width: 100%; }
.column-left { display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; padding-right: 1em; }
.column-center {display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; }
.column-right {display: flex; flex-flow: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; padding-left: 1em; }

/* flex-basis determines column width */
.col-width-75 { flex-basis: 75%; flex-shrink: 15;} /* usually main column 75% and Comments or Notes 25% */
.col-width-70 { flex-basis: 65%; flex-shrink: 13;} /* added 28 Oct 2020 to use with col-width-30 even though that is actually 33% */
.col-width-60 { flex-basis: 60%; flex-shrink: 12;} /* two columns in ratio 3:2 */
.col-width-50 { flex-basis: 50%; flex-shrink: 10;} /* two equal columns */
.col-width-40 { flex-basis: 40%; flex-shrink: 8;}
/*.col-width-30 { flex-basis: 33%; flex-shrink: 7;} */
/* .col-width-30 { flex: 1 1 0;} /* 16 Nov 2020 If columns are equal then flex should be 1 1 0 */
.col-width-30 { flex-basis: 0; }
.col-width-25 { flex-basis: 25%; flex-shrink: 5;} /* usually right column */

/* _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________*/
/* Tables - adapted from MH370 site 10 Dec 2025 */
/* flex-font-base removed */

th { font-weight:bold; }

th, td { padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; } /* added 29 Oct 2020. will apply to all types of table */
th, td { vertical-align: top; } /* added 31 Oct 2020. will apply to all types of table */
/* Custom Tables */
/* w=width Use class in conjunction with tbl or tblB */
.w100 { width: 100%; } /* Table width 100% with no margins */
.w90 { width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 90% centred */
.w80 { width: 80%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 80% centred */
.w75 { width: 75%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 75% centred */
.w70 { width: 70%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 70% centred */
.w60 { width: 60%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 60% centred */
.w50 { width: 50%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 50% centred */
.w40 { width: 40%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 40% centred */
.w30 { width: 30%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 30%centred */
.w25 { width: 25%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 25% centred */
.w20 { width: 20%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } /* Table width 20% centred */
.wauto { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }

/* Table centred */
/* tbl = table. B=bordered. tblB is a bordered table with white background */
/* tblBcenter = table with border and columns centered */

.tbl { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black); /* Background is white for a table with no borders. */
vertical-align: top; }
.tbl th td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
text-align: left; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top; }
.tbl td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
text-align: left; vertical-align: top; }

.tbl tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tbl tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

.tblB { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse;
border: 1px solid var(--clr-grey-base-50); }

.tblB th { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: left; font-weight: bold; }

.tblB td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: left; }

.tblB tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tblB tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

.tblBcenter { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50); }

.tblBcenter th { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: center; font-weight: bold; }

.tblBcenter td { background-color: var(--clr-white); color: var(--clr-black);
border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; border-color: var(--clr-grey-base-50);
text-align: center; }

.tblBcenter tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */
.tblBcenter tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: var(--clr-white); } /* overwrite the zebra striping default */

/* Overflow for Custom Tables - added 30 Dec 2020 */
.table { overflow-x: auto; } /* this works */
/* .tbl .tblB .tblBcenter { overflow-x: auto; } /* should not show vertical scrollbar and horizontal only when needed */
.tblB { overflow-x: auto; }

Template:PageHeader

2025-12-24T10:50:33Z

GrantM:

<includeonly> 
{{#seo:
|title_mode=replace
|title={{PAGENAME}}
|keywords=MediaWiki, {{PAGENAME}}, hosted, hosting, instructional, guide
|description=A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment
|site_name=mw.mh370.wiki
|locale=en_EN
|type=website
|modified_time={{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}
}}
</includeonly>
<div class="header">
<p style="font-size:150%; text-align:center;">A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment</p>
<p style="font-size:120%; text-align:center;">An instructional website by the developer of <html><a href="https://www.mh370wiki.net" target="_blank"><b>mh370wiki.net</b></a></html> - a MediaWiki site about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.</p>
</div>
__NOTOC__

Template:PageHeader

2025-12-24T10:42:21Z

GrantM:

<includeonly> 
{{#seo:
|title_mode=append
|title={{PAGENAME}}
|keywords=MediaWiki, {{PAGENAME}}, hosted, hosting, instructional, guide
|description=A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment
|site_name=mw.mh370.wiki
|locale=en_EN
|type=website
|modified_time={{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}
}}
</includeonly>
<div class="header">
<p style="font-size:150%; text-align:center;">A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment</p>
<p style="font-size:120%; text-align:center;">An instructional website by the developer of <html><a href="https://www.mh370wiki.net" target="_blank"><b>mh370wiki.net</b></a></html> - a MediaWiki site about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.</p>
</div>
__NOTOC__

Template:PageHeader

2025-12-24T10:39:53Z

GrantM:

<includeonly> 
{{#seo:
|title_mode=append
|title={{PAGENAME}}
|keywords=MediaWiki, hosted, hosting, instructional, guide, {{{PAGENAME}}}
|description=A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment
|site_name=mw.mh370.wiki
|locale=en_EN
|type=website
|modified_time={{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}
}}
</includeonly>
<div class="header">
<p style="font-size:150%; text-align:center;">A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment</p>
<p style="font-size:120%; text-align:center;">An instructional website by the developer of <html><a href="https://www.mh370wiki.net" target="_blank"><b>mh370wiki.net</b></a></html> - a MediaWiki site about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.</p>
</div>
__NOTOC__

Template:PageHeader

2025-12-24T10:36:33Z

GrantM:

<includeonly> 
{{#seo:
|title_mode=append
|title={{{PAGENAME}}}
|keywords=MediaWiki, hosted, hosting, instructional, guide, {{{PAGENAME}}}
|description=A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment
|site_name=mw.mh370.wiki
|locale=en_EN
|type=website
|modified_time={{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}
}}
</includeonly>
<div class="header">
<p style="font-size:150%; text-align:center;">A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment</p>
<p style="font-size:120%; text-align:center;">An instructional website by the developer of <html><a href="https://www.mh370wiki.net" target="_blank"><b>mh370wiki.net</b></a></html> - a MediaWiki site about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.</p>
</div>
__NOTOC__

Template:PageHeader

2025-12-24T10:31:19Z

GrantM:

<includeonly> 
{{#seo:
|title_mode=append
|title={{{PAGENAME}}}
|keywords=MediaWiki, hosted, instructional, {{{PAGENAME}}}
|description=A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment
|site_name=mw.mh370.wiki
|locale=en_EN
|type=website
|modified_time={{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}
}}
</includeonly>
<div class="header">
<p style="font-size:150%; text-align:center;">A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment</p>
<p style="font-size:120%; text-align:center;">An instructional website by the developer of <html><a href="https://www.mh370wiki.net" target="_blank"><b>mh370wiki.net</b></a></html> - a MediaWiki site about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.</p>
</div>
__NOTOC__

Template:PageHeader

2025-12-24T10:15:57Z

GrantM:

<div class="header">
<p style="font-size:150%; text-align:center;">A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment</p>
<p style="font-size:120%; text-align:center;">An instructional website by the developer of <html><a href="https://www.mh370wiki.net" target="_blank"><b>mh370wiki.net</b></a></html> - a MediaWiki site about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.</p>
</div>
__NOTOC__


<includeonly> 

{{#seo:
|title_mode=append
|title=Example SEO Wiki
|keywords=WikiSEO, SEO, MediaWiki
|description=An example description for this wiki
|image=Wiki_Logo.png
|image_alt=Wiki Logo
|site_name=Example SEO Wiki
|locale=en_EN
|type=website
|modified_time={{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}
|published_time=2020-11-01
}}

</includeonly>

Namespaces

2025-12-24T09:35:38Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<div class="quote">
<p>Pages on a MediaWiki wiki are grouped into collections called “namespaces” which differentiate between the purpose of the pages at a high level. Pages in certain namespaces can also have special properties or behave differently when they interact with other pages.</p>

<p>Namespaces are indicated in page titles by prefixing the page name with <namespace>:, so the prefix Help: in this page's title (Help:Namespaces) indicates that this page is in the Help namespace. Each namespace is identified by a number and a name, which can be translated and can also have some aliases.</p>

<p>A page whose name is not prefixed by a namespace lies in the mainspace. Note, however, that colons and prefixes can also appear in page titles without indicating a namespace: the page Foo:Namespaces is a page located in the mainspace because the namespace “Foo” does not exist. Similarly the page Help:Foo:Namespaces is in the “Help” namespace. </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><b>Source</b>: MediaWiki <html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Namespaces" target="_blank">Help:Namespaces </a></html></p>
</div> 
<br />

<p>The concept of Namespaces is probably unique to MediaWiki. It is certainly a powerful and useful feature. Security can be assigned to each Namespace so that it can be public or restricted; content can be segregated into 'collections' by topic, and access controlled.</p>

<h3>Namespaces are Numbered</h3>
MediaWiki ships with 18 built-in namespaces:
<ul>
<li>16 "real" namespaces, corresponding to actual pages, numbered 0 to 15, and grouped in subject/talk pairs<ref name="Man_Namespace" /></li>
<li>2 "virtual" namespaces (one for dynamically generated special pages, and one serving as an alias for direct file links), numbered -1 and -2, respectively. Since these namespaces don't correspond to pages stored in the database, one cannot create or delete pages in these namespaces, and there are no corresponding discussion namespaces.<ref name="Man_Namespace" /></li>
<li>Namespaces numbered 100-199 are reserved for site-specific namespaces, although there are some extensions that don't follow this convention. Extension writers use higher numbers, up to 32767.<ref name="Man_Custom_Namespace" /></li>
<li>Numbers from 3000 to 4999 are reserved for system administrators to define their custom namespaces.<ref name="Man_Custom_Namespace" /></li>
</ul>

<p>Namespaces are identified by a Number and allocated a name or an alias: names can be changed but the Number must remain constant.</p>
<p>Content namespaces are allocated an even number; associated Talk or discussion pages are allocated an odd number.</p>
<p>Custom Namespaces are defined in LocalSettings.php.</p>
<p>A list of namespaces is shown when opening Tools --> Special Pages --> All Pages.</p>
<p>Content can be moved between namespaces.</p>

<h3>Namespaces and the {{MH370Site}} website</h3>
<p>The table below lists the Namespaces used for content which is publicly accessible.</p>

<table class="tblB w90">
<tr>
<th>Section</th>
<th>Description</th>
<th>Namespace Prefix</th>
<tr>
<tr>
<td>Main Content</td>
<td>Contains all general articles<br />Includes the Timeline.</td>
<td><i>No prefix</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>News</td>
<td>News and Media Statements from official sources, related to MH370</td>
<td>MH370News:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Safety Investigation Report (2018)</td>
<td>Includes extracts from the <i>Safety Investigation Report</i> which are then used as references or quoted in other articles.</td>
<td>SIR 2018:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Factual Information (2015)</td>
<td>Contains extracts from the <i>Factual Information</i> documents which were released in 2015.<br />These extracts were used as references or quoted in other articles but have mostly been superseded by the <i>Safety Investigation Report</i> (2018)</td>
<td>FI 2015:</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Communications</td>
<td>This section contains transcripts of voice communications, text of ACARS messages, metadata from satellite communications and information related to communications with flight MH370.</td>
<td>Communications:</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Passengers</td>
<td>This section contains information about each passenger from Passenger Manifests and Seating Plans plus other details published in media articles.</td>
<td>Passenger:</td>
</tr>

</table>

<h3>Hidden Namespaces and Transclusion</h3>
<p>In addition to the default namespaces in the MediaWiki installation, the {{MH370Site}} website there are several 'hidden' namespaces; content namespaces which require a user account and log-in to access.</p>
<p>However, a significant proportion of the 'hidden' content is actually visible to anonymous users because it is transcluded into pages with visible namespaces.</p>
<p>For example:-</p>
<ul>
<li>Reusable content, such as a Table from an official report, may be stored in a 'hidden' content namespace but transcluded into other pages as required. This ensures that a 'master' copy is formatted correctly and will always be the same when re-used.</li>
<li>The visible content in the MH370News: namespace is mostly transcluded from a content namespace which holds more than the visible content. For example, a media statement obtained from an original page source code will likely include custom css, or links which are outdated or not functional. The original is stored unchanged, and an edited version stripped of custom formatting is transcluded into the publicly accessible page.</p>
<li>The information displayed for each Passenger, or Crew Member on-board MH370 is collated from many sources. The displayed information is a transcluded subset of all that has been collected and stored in a 'hidden' content namespace.</li>
<li>Tooltips are transcluded into Glossary pages, and appear in context on all visible pages, but the tooltips (using the Extension Lingo) are in pages organised by topic in their own 'hidden' namespace. Instead of just one page for a glossary the {{MH370Site}} website has over 50 pages in the tooltips section.</p>
<li>References are in the Main namespace, or NS_Main, but the references are indexed or cross-linked by Reference IDs. Each ReferenceID is a page in a 'hidden' content namespace. The content is transcluded as required.</li>
</ul>
<p>To use a floating iceberg as an example, the visible content of the {{MH370Site}} website is like the tip of the iceberg; a significant proportion of the website is not visible but supports the accessible pages through transclusion.</p>
<br />

<h3>Hidden 'Workspaces'</h3>
<p>Based on experience with the {{MH370Site}} website, this website also has a hidden namespace for draft content. This is like a workspace where articles can be started but remain unpublished, where ideas can be kept before they are developed into an article format, and where formatting or features can be tested before being applied.</p>
<p>However, instead of moving a completed article from the draft area I found it better to copy the content into the final page. This avoids a redirect.</p>
<br />

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=creating Namespaces
|CatName=Namespaces
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">Namespaces</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Namespaces </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Namespaces" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Namespaces</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Namespace </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Using custom namespaces</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Using_custom_namespaces" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Using_custom_namespaces</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Namespace constants</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace_constants" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace_constants</a></html></dd>
</dl>

<h3>Notes</h3>
<references>


<ref name="Man_Namespace">See <i>Manual:Namespace</i></ref>
<ref name="Man_Custom_Namespace">See <i>Manual:Using custom namespaces </i></ref>
</references>

[[Category:Configure]]
[[Category:Namespaces]]
[[Category:Transclusion]]

Namespaces

2025-12-24T09:34:54Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<div class="quote">
<p>Pages on a MediaWiki wiki are grouped into collections called “namespaces” which differentiate between the purpose of the pages at a high level. Pages in certain namespaces can also have special properties or behave differently when they interact with other pages.</p>

<p>Namespaces are indicated in page titles by prefixing the page name with <namespace>:, so the prefix Help: in this page's title (Help:Namespaces) indicates that this page is in the Help namespace. Each namespace is identified by a number and a name, which can be translated and can also have some aliases.</p>

<p>A page whose name is not prefixed by a namespace lies in the mainspace. Note, however, that colons and prefixes can also appear in page titles without indicating a namespace: the page Foo:Namespaces is a page located in the mainspace because the namespace “Foo” does not exist. Similarly the page Help:Foo:Namespaces is in the “Help” namespace. </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><b>Source</b>: MediaWiki <html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Namespaces" target="_blank">Help:Namespaces </a></html></p>
</div> 
<br />

<p>The concept of Namespaces is probably unique to MediaWiki. It is certainly a powerful and useful feature. Security can be assigned to each Namespace so that it can be public or restricted; content can be segregated into 'collections' by topic, and access controlled.</p>

<h3>Namespaces are Numbered</h3>
MediaWiki ships with 18 built-in namespaces:
<ul>
<li>16 "real" namespaces, corresponding to actual pages, numbered 0 to 15, and grouped in subject/talk pairs<ref name="Man_Namespace" /></li>
<li>2 "virtual" namespaces (one for dynamically generated special pages, and one serving as an alias for direct file links), numbered -1 and -2, respectively. Since these namespaces don't correspond to pages stored in the database, one cannot create or delete pages in these namespaces, and there are no corresponding discussion namespaces.<ref name="Man_Namespace" /></li>
<li>Namespaces numbered 100-199 are reserved for site-specific namespaces, although there are some extensions that don't follow this convention. Extension writers use higher numbers, up to 32767.<ref name="Man_Custom_Namespace" /></li>
<li>Numbers from 3000 to 4999 are reserved for system administrators to define their custom namespaces.<ref name="Man_Custom_Namespace" /></li>
</ul>

<p>Namespaces are identified by a Number and allocated a name or an alias: names can be changed but the Number must remain constant.</p>
<p>Content namespaces are allocated an even number; associated Talk or discussion pages are allocated an odd number.</p>
<p>Custom Namespaces are defined in LocalSettings.php.</p>
<p>A list of namespaces is shown when opening Tools --> Special Pages --> All Pages.</p>
<p>Content can be moved between namespaces.</p>

<h3>Namespaces and the {{MH370Site}} website</h3>
<p>The table below lists the Namespaces used for content which is publicly accessible.</p>

<table class="tblB w90">
<tr>
<th>Section</th>
<th>Description</th>
<th>Namespace Prefix</th>
<tr>
<tr>
<td>Main Content</td>
<td>Contains all general articles<br />Includes the Timeline.</td>
<td><i>No prefix</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>News</td>
<td>News and Media Statements from official sources, related to MH370</td>
<td>MH370News:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Safety Investigation Report (2018)</td>
<td>Includes extracts from the <i>Safety Investigation Report</i> which are then used as references or quoted in other articles.</td>
<td>SIR 2018:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Factual Information (2015)</td>
<td>Contains extracts from the <i>Factual Information</i> documents which were released in 2015.<br />These extracts were used as references or quoted in other articles but have mostly been superseded by the <i>Safety Investigation Report</i> (2018)</td>
<td>FI 2015:</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Communications</td>
<td>This section contains transcripts of voice communications, text of ACARS messages, metadata from satellite communications and information related to communications with flight MH370.</td>
<td>Communications:</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Passengers</td>
<td>This section contains information about each passenger from Passenger Manifests and Seating Plans plus other details published in media articles.</td>
<td>Passenger:</td>
</tr>

</table>

<h3>Hidden Namespaces and Transclusion</h3>
<p>In addition to the default namespaces in the MediaWiki installation, the {{MH370Site}} website there are several 'hidden' namespaces; content namespaces which require a user account and log-in to access.</p>
<p>However, a significant proportion of the 'hidden' content is actually visible to anonymous users because it is transcluded into pages with visible namespaces.</p>
<p>For example:-</p>
<ul>
<li>Reusable content, such as a Table from an official report, may be stored in a 'hidden' content namespace but transcluded into other pages as required. This ensures that a 'master' copy is formatted correctly and will always be the same when re-used.</li>
<li>The visible content in the MH370News: namespace is mostly transcluded from a content namespace which holds more than the visible content. For example, a media statement obtained from an original page source code will likely include custom css, or links which are outdated or not functional. The original is stored unchanged, and an edited version stripped of custom formatting is transcluded into the publicly accessible page.</p>
<li>The information displayed for each Passenger, or Crew Member on-board MH370 is collated from many sources. The displayed information is a transcluded subset of all that has been collected and stored in a 'hidden' content namespace.</li>
<li>Tooltips are transcluded into Glossary pages, and appear in context on all visible pages, but the tooltips (using the Extension Lingo) are in pages organised by topic in their own 'hidden' namespace. Instead of just one page for a glossary the {{MH370Site}} website has over 50 pages in the tooltips section.</p>
<li>References are in the Main namespace, or NS_Main, but the references are indexed or cross-linked by Reference IDs. Each ReferenceID is a page in a 'hidden' content namespace. The content is transcluded as required.</li>
</ul>
<p>To use a floating iceberg as an example, the visible content of the {{MH370Site}} website is like the tip of the iceberg; a significant proportion of the website is not visible but supports the accessible pages through transclusion.</p>
<br />

<h3>Hidden 'Workspaces'</h3>
<p>Based on experience with the {{MH370Site}} website, this website also has a hidden namespace for draft content. This is like a workspace where articles can be started but remain unpublished, where ideas can be kept before they are developed into an article format, and where formatting or features can be tested before being applied.</p>
<p>However, instead of moving a completed article from the draft area I found it better to copy the content into the final page. This avoids a redirect.</p>
<br />

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=creating Namespaces
|CatName=Namespaces
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">Namespaces</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Namespaces </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Namespaces" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Namespaces</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Namespace </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Using custom namespaces</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Using_custom_namespaces" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Using_custom_namespaces</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Namespace constants</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace_constants" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace_constants</a></html></dd>
</dl>

<h3>Notes</h3>
<references>


<ref name="Man_Namespace">See <i>Manual:Namespace</i></a></html></ref>
<ref name="Man_Custom_Namespace">See <i>Manual:Using custom namespaces </i></a></html></ref>
</references>

[[Category:Configure]]
[[Category:Namespaces]]
[[Category:Transclusion]]

Transclusion and Subpages

2025-12-24T09:33:04Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Subpages and Namespaces</h3>
<p>Although the concept of transcluding content from a subpage into a parent page sounds useful, by default MediaWiki does not allow subpages in the Main Namespace.</p>
<p>To enable subpages in both the Main and Template namespaces the following lines must be added to LocalSettings.php.</p>
<pre>
# Enable subpages in the main namespace
$wgNamespacesWithSubpages[NS_MAIN] = true;

# Enable subpages in the template namespace
$wgNamespacesWithSubpages[NS_TEMPLATE] = true;
</pre>

<p>In the {{MH370Site}} website I have enabled the use of subpages in most of the custom namespaces and describe transclusion between namespaces in this article [[Namespaces]].</p>
<p>I also use subpages in the Template namespace and describe the purpose in this article [[Templates]].</p>
<p>Below is the description of transclusion used with subpages on the {{MH370Site}} website.</p>

<h3>Transclusion and Subpages example from {{MH370Site}}</h3>
<p>The <i>Safety Investigation Report</i> for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 released in 2018 is a substantial document and I have included some sections in the {{MH370Site}} for reference purposes.</p>
<p>I basically 'deconstructed' this report into small sections. As an example, the Findings from the official Investigation is on this page: <html><a href="https://www.mh370.net/SIR_2018:3_Findings_and_Conclusion/3.1_Findings" target="_blank">SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings</a></html>.</p>
<p>Each numbered section, however, is on a sub-page.</p>
<p>The <i>Findings</i> page actually looks like this:-</p>
<pre>
<noinclude>{{SIR2018/Header}}</noinclude>

<h4 style="margin-left:30px;">3.1 Findings</h4>
{{SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.1}}

{{SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.2}}

{{SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.3}}

{{SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.4}}

{{SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.5}}

{{SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.6}}

{{SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.7}}

{{SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.8}}

<noinclude>{{SIR2018/Footer}}</noinclude>
</pre>
<p>Each subpage has both a header and a footer but these are not included when the page is transcluded.</p>

<p>Also, each transcluded section contains a link to itself, so on the page <i>3.1 Findings</i>, each section number is actually a link. <i>3.1.1</i> links to the sub-page <i>SIR 2018:3 Findings and Conclusion/3.1 Findings/3.1.1</i>, for example.</p>
<p>I find that useful because if a section does not display correctly I can open that section easily instead of manually typing the full subpage name in the Search box.</p>
<p>In the subpage, the heading including the link looks like this:-</p>
<pre>
<p><b>[[SIR_2018:3_Findings_and_Conclusion/3.1_Findings/3.1.1|3.1.1]] Diversion from Filed Flight Plan Route</b></p>
</pre>
<br />

[[Category:Transclusion]]
[[Category:Subpages]]
[[Category:$wgNamespacesWithSubpages]]

Templates

2025-12-24T09:32:22Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<p>Templates are stored in the Template namespace, or NS_Template:</p>
<p>Templates are intended to be transcluded. When using a template it is not necessary to prefix the template name with the template namespace.</p>
<br />

<h3>Templates and the {{MH370Site}} website</h3>
<p>Templates have been developed for many purposes, separated here into simple and complex examples:-</p>

<h5>Simple Templates</h5>
<p>Templates with no variables. The content is transcluded just as it is stored. Some examples are:-</p>
<ul>
<li>Dates are displayed by templates stored as a Day Number.<br />
For example, Day 001 in the story of flight MH370 is Saturday, 8 March 2014. Throughout the website day numbers have been used and the corresponding dates have been transcluded from the Template nmamespace.</li>
<li>Page headers and footers. Standardised text is stored as templates and re-use ensures consistency.</li>
<li>Menus and Buttons. Each button, and each button state, is stored as a template. Buttons are transcluded into Menus. Menus are transcluded into pages.</li>
<li>Abbreviations. Within the website there are many references to the final Report. Instead of writing the report name each time, a template is used instead. Two version of the report name are frequently used:-<br />
<ol>
<li>A short form, transcluded as <html><code>{{SIR2018/Ref}}</code></html> which returns <i>Safety Investigation Report MH370/01/2018</i>, and</li>
<li>A long form, transcluded as <html><code>{{SIR2018/FullRef}}</code></html> which returns Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370, 02 July 2018, <i>Safety Investigation Report MH370/01/2018</i></li>
</ol>
<p>To reference a specific section, the instruction written with the template says:</p>
<pre>
<p>To use this reference use the following syntax:-</p>

<p><u>Source</u>: {{SIR2018/Ref}} [[Section N.n|Section N.n]] </p>
</pre>
</li>
</ul>
<p>See also: [[Simple Templates]].</p>
<br />

<h5>Complex Templates</h5>
<p>These templates include variable parameters. Each parameter is enclosed by triple brackets {{{ and separated by the pipe symbol |.</p>
<p>The format is explained in the MediaWiki article <html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates" target="_blank">Help:Templates</a></html></p>
<p>For each of these templates there are two parts:-</p>
<ol>
<li>The actual template, which is the code required to format and present the information on a page, and</li>
<li>An instruction, which explains how the template is used and includes the code to be placed on a page to get the template to work.</li>
</ol>
<p>Without the saved instructions, the template would become useless because I would forget why it is written the way it is, and how to actually implement it.</p>
<p>In addition, there may be variants of the template for different contexts.</p>
<p>For example, each page in the Passenger namespace provides known information about each person on-board the ill-fated flight MH370. For each passenger we have several variants of a passenger manifest or seating plan. Some passengers had public or social media profiles which were tapped by mainstream media to create the human interest stories related to the flight. Some of the media reports included photograps, often extracted from social media pages.</p>
<p>So<br />
<ul>
<li>every passenger has basic information collated from official passenger manifests</li>
<li>some passengers have additional information or profile provided by mainstream media</li>
<li>some mainstream media profiles include a photo.</li>
<li>For some passengers, additional notes have been created. For example those travelling on stolen passports.</li>
</ul>
</p>

<h3>Subpages in the Template Namespace</h3>
<p>The default setting is that subpages are not allowed in the Template namespace. However, I find it useful to create variants of a template as subpages of an instruction page in the Template namespace.</p>
<p>For example, passenger templates are subpages, named like this:-</p>
<ul>
<li>Passenger/Summary - this is the basic template for those with minimal data</li>
<li>Passenger/Media - for passengers with basic plus media profile</li>
<li>Passenger/Image - for passengers with basic plus media profile including an image</li>
</ul>
<p>And three more variants:-</p>
<ul>
<li>Passenger/Summary/Notes - for passengers with minimal data but additional clarification necessary with notes added</li>
<li>Passenger/Media/Notes - for passengers with basic plus media profile and additional clarification necessary with notes added</li>
<li>Passenger/Image/Notes - for passengers with basic plus media profile including an image and additional clarification necessary with notes added</li>
</ul>
<p>This might seem complicated but remember, there were 227 passengers on-board. The goal is to present relevant information in a consistent format.</p>
<p>An extract from the Template for Passenger/Media/Notes is shown below. The menu and page background is not included.</p>
<pre>
<html> <details open> <summary></html>{{PAGENAME}}<html></summary> </html>
<div style="margin-left:2.5em;">{{{Summary| }}}</div>
<html> </details> </html>

<html> <details> <summary>Media Sources</summary> </html>
<div style="margin-left:2.5em;">{{{Media| }}}</div>
<html> </details> </html>

<html> <details> <summary>Passenger Manifest Data</summary> </html>
<div style="margin-left:2.5em;">{{{Manifest| }}}</div>
<html> </details> </html>

<html> <details> <summary>Notes:-</summary> </html>
<div style="margin-left:2.5em;">{{{Notes| }}}</div>
<html> </details> </html>
</pre>
<p>Instructions for using this template looks like this:-</p>
<pre>
{{Template:Passenger/Media/Notes
|Summary={{Pass_Data:{{PAGENAME}}/Summary}}
|Media={{Pass_Data:{{PAGENAME}}/Media}}
|Manifest={{Pass_Data:{{PAGENAME}}/Manifest}}
|Notes={{Pass_Data:{{PAGENAME}}/Notes}}
}}
</pre>
<p>And that's all there is on every page where the available information about a passenger is based on the passenger manifests, plus one or more extracts from the media, plus an explanatory note.</p>
<p>All of the information presented is automatically transcluded from associated pages in the hidden namespace, written here as Pass_Data, where each page has the same name so that PAGENAME links to the correct page, and sub-pages hold the data to be transcluded. But there may be additional content on each sub-page which is not transcluded.</p>
<br />
<p>See also: [[Complex Templates]].</p>

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Templates </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates</a></html></dd>

<dt>Transclusion </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Transclusion" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Transclusion</a></html></dd>
</dl>
<br />

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=MediaWiki Templates
|CatName=Templates
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">Templates</categorytree>
}}

[[Category:Use]]
[[Category:Templates]]
[[Category:Transclusion]]
[[Category:Subpages]]

Terminal

2025-12-24T08:23:28Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>cPanel Terminal </h3>
<p>Many tasks related to the installation or upgrade of MediaWiki involve access to a 'command-line'. </p>
<p>In MediaWiki Manuals, when command-line access is required there are usually references to Secure Shell, SSH, a utility called puTTY and other obscure things.</p>
<p>The good news is that for account holders for a hosted website there is a much simpler method.</p>
<p>In cPanel -->Advanced there is an option called Terminal.</p>
<p>The Terminal page has the message 'This interface provides command line access to your account on the server.'</p>
<p>The interface is unfriendly, just like Command Prompt on a Windows desktop.</p>
<p>A big difference, however, is that the commands are different. Windows commands are a legacy from a DOS prompt; Terminal commands are consistent with Linux and Unix.</p>

<h3>Default Prompt</h3>
<p>Each account holder has an abbreviated account name. This forms part of the prompt. I your name was James Smith you may have an account name jamith, for example.</p>
<p>When opening Terminal, the prompt would be like this:-</p>
<pre>
[jamith@cpl84 ~]$
</pre>
<p>$ is the home directory. Type ls and press Enter to get a directory listing.</p>
<p>Type cd followed by a directory name, to change directory</p>
<p>For other commands, see resources linked below.</p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=cPanel Terminal
|CatName=Terminal
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">Terminal </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Terminal for cPanel </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/advanced/terminal-in-cpanel/" target="_blank">https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/advanced/terminal-in-cpanel/ </a></html><br />This documentation simply explains what the Terminal is; it does not explain how to use it.</dd>

<dt>Top 60 Linux commands: What they are and how to use them effectively </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/linux-commands" target="_blank">https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/linux-commands</a></html><br />Useful documentation by Hostinger, a popular hosting service provider.</dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Terminal]]
[[Category:Configure]]

Terminal

2025-12-24T08:20:13Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>cPanel Terminal </h3>
<p>Many tasks related to the installation or upgrade of MediaWiki involve access to a 'command-line'. </p>
<p>In MediaWiki Manuals, when command-line access is required there are usually references to Secure Shell, SSH, a utility called puTTY and other obscure things.</p>
<p>The good news is that for account holders for a hosted website there is a much simpler method.</p>
<p>In cPanel -->Advanced there is an option called Terminal.</p>
<p>The Terminal page has the message 'This interface provides command line access to your account on the server.'</p>
<p>The interface is unfriendly, just like Command Prompt on a Windows desktop.</p>
<p>A big difference, however, is that the commands are different. Windows commands are a legacy from a DOS prompt; Terminal commands are consistent with Linux and Unix.</p>

<h3>Default Prompt</h3>
<p>Each account holder has an abbreviated account name. This forms part of the prompt. I your name was James Smith you may have an account name jamith, for example.</p>
<p>When opening Terminal, the prompt would be like this:-</p>
<pre>
[jamith@cpl84 ~]$
</pre>
<p>$ is the home directory. Type ls and press Enter to get a directory listing.</p>
<p>Type cd followed by a directory name, to change directory</p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Terminal for cPanel </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/advanced/terminal-in-cpanel/" target="_blank">https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/advanced/terminal-in-cpanel/ </a></html><br />This documentation simply explains what the Terminal is; it does not explain how to use it.</dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category: ]]

Terminal

2025-12-24T08:17:22Z

GrantM: Created page with "{{PageHeader}} <h3>cPanel Terminal </h3> <p>Many tasks related to the installation or upgrade of MediaWiki involve access to a 'command-line'. </p> <p>In MediaWiki Manuals, when command-line access is required there are usually references to Secure Shell, SSH, a utility called puTTY and other obscure things.</p> <p>The good news is that for account holders for a hosted website there is a much simpler method.</p> <p>In cPanel -->Advanced there is an option called Termina..."

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>cPanel Terminal </h3>
<p>Many tasks related to the installation or upgrade of MediaWiki involve access to a 'command-line'. </p>
<p>In MediaWiki Manuals, when command-line access is required there are usually references to Secure Shell, SSH, a utility called puTTY and other obscure things.</p>
<p>The good news is that for account holders for a hosted website there is a much simpler method.</p>
<p>In cPanel -->Advanced there is an option called Terminal.</p>
<p>The Terminal page has the message 'This interface provides command line access to your account on the server.'</p>
<p>The interface is unfriendly, just like Command Prompt on a Windows desktop.</p>
<p>A big difference, however, is that the commands are different. Windows commands are a legacy from a DOS prompt; Terminal commands are consistent with Linux and Unix.</p>

<h3>Default Prompt</h3>
<p>Each account holder has an abbreviated account name. This forms part of the prompt. I your name was James Smith you may have an account name jamith, for example.</p>
<p>When opening Terminal, the prompt would be like this:-</p>
<pre>
[jamith@cpl84 ~]$
</pre>
<p>$ is the home directory. Type ls and press Enter to get a directory listing.</p>
<p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category: ]]

HTTP Code 404

2025-12-24T08:03:05Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Required but not found URLs (HTTP code 404) </h3>
<p>Statistics for a hosted website are available using cPanel --> Metrics --> Awstats.</p>
<p>Select the Domain, and View. For the selected Month, scroll down to a section headed HTTP Status Codes.</p>
<p>On the current page for this website only code 404 has a link. Apparently there were over 19000 recent 'hits' for which the web server returned HTTP Code 404.</p>
<p>The link on 404 opens the list of page requests which were 'not found'.</p>
<p>According to Awstats a total of 2350 URLs were requested, most of them around 50 times. Stats for the {{MH370Site}} website are worse - see below.</p>

<h3>Invalid Requests which are WordPress URLs</h3>
<p>Many of the requested URLs look like WordPress files, for example:-</p>
<ul>
<li>/Wp-content/admin.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/customize/chosen.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/themes/about.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/html-api/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/languages/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/admin-header.php</li>
<li> and the list goes on...</li>
</ul>
<p>I find this annoying, and the web server does not know that these pages are invalid, so my MediaWiki installation has to cope with the request, search the database and inform the web server that the page cannot be found. So I decided (experimentally) to put a stop to it.</p>
<p>The pattern for these WordPress style URLs is reduced to three main directories:-</p>
<ul>
<li>wp-admin</li>
<li>wp-content</li>
<li>wp-includes</li>
</ul>
<p>A variant for each directory is a capital W. For each of these directories the files requested can be replaced by a *. </p>
<p>I added the following lines to a .htaccess file:-</p>
<pre>
RewriteEngine On
# Serve an error without loading a custom page
RewriteRule ^wp-admin(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-admin(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-content(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-content(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-includes(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
</pre>

<p>Next month when I look at the site metrics I should see a substantial drop in the number of 404 errors and less of these invalid URLs in the list.</p>

<h3>Valid Requests for a page not found</h3>
<p>Another use for these statistics is to identify pages which are requested and which should be there, or did exist and maybe were moved.</p>
<p>The {{MH370Site}} website has undergone several significant structural changes over the development period and I deliberately did not fill the site with Redirects. I believed that if a new version was internally correct and had few if any 'wanted pages' then people browsing the site would rarely be looking for pages that were not there.</p>
<p>That assumption has been reasonably correct but a review of the Error 404 page requests showed about 20 pages which were frequently requested and do not currently exist at that URL (they were moved). The solution was to re-create the page and add a redirect to the current resource.</p>
<p>The syntax is simple:-</p>
<pre>
#REDIRECT [[pagename]]
</pre>
<p>Comments can be placed on the page without affecting the redirection. This can be useful to document why the redirect was added and when.</p>

<h3>Valid Requests and Searches, not found</h3>
<p>Another use for the statistics is to see which Search Keyphrases and Keywords have been requested.</p>
<p>If these requests are valid, consistent with the website topic or content, and a matching resource does not exist, it shows what people want.</p>
<p>The solution is to create a resource that meets the need.</p>

<h3>Error 404 and the {{MH370Site}} Website</h3>
<p>In November 2025 the {{MH370Site}} website apparently attracted 409,929 unique visitors, a total of 511,160 hits, and absorbed a bandwidth of 4.23 GB.</p>
<p>Unbelievable! The number of people viewing the site can be estimated from the average duration, the number of views on specific pages, and for interest, the country of origin. Most of the bandwidth was probably used by robots, bots or crawlers. Some of the new AI crawlers made the list in November. Actions were taken!</p>
<p>48 different robots crawled the site, probably accounting for most of the hits.</p>
<p>292,340 hits resulted in an HTTP Status Code 404 (Not Found).</p>
<p>Error 404 for about 20 of the frequently requested pages or URLs can be fixed using redirects - future statistics will show how effective that was.</p>
<p>The next large group of requests are pages /Special:WhatLinksHere which are normally restricted to logged-in users. The odd thing about those requests is that the option is in the Tools Menu and for anonymous users that is not visible at all.</p>
<p>Reviewing trends in search terms and page requests is part of site maintenance.</p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=HTTP Error Codes
|CatName=HTTP Error Codes
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">HTTP Error Codes</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Redirects </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Redirects" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Redirects</a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Secure]]
[[Category:File htaccess]]
[[Category:HTTP Error Codes]]
[[Category:Maintain]]

Category:HTTP Error Codes

2025-12-24T07:56:31Z

GrantM: Created page with "{{CategoryPage |ParentCategory=Maintain |CategoryDescription=HTTP Error Codes are returned to a user by the web server }}"

{{CategoryPage
|ParentCategory=Maintain
|CategoryDescription=HTTP Error Codes are returned to a user by the web server
}}

HTTP Code 404

2025-12-24T07:55:12Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Required but not found URLs (HTTP code 404) </h3>
<p>Statistics for a hosted website are available using cPanel --> Metrics --> Awstats.</p>
<p>Select the Domain, and View. For the selected Month, scroll down to a section headed HTTP Status Codes.</p>
<p>On the current page for this website only code 404 has a link. Apparently there were over 19000 recent 'hits' for which the web server returned HTTP Code 404.</p>
<p>The link on 404 opens the list of page requests which were 'not found'.</p>
<p>According to Awstats a total of 2350 URLs were requested, most of them around 50 times. Stats for the {{MH370Site}} website are worse - see below.</p>

<h3>Invalid Requests which are WordPress URLs</h3>
<p>Many of the requested URLs look like WordPress files, for example:-</p>
<ul>
<li>/Wp-content/admin.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/customize/chosen.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/themes/about.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/html-api/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/languages/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/admin-header.php</li>
<li> and the list goes on...</li>
</ul>
<p>I find this annoying, and the web server does not know that these pages are invalid, so my MediaWiki installation has to cope with the request, search the database and inform the web server that the page cannot be found. So I decided (experimentally) to put a stop to it.</p>
<p>The pattern for these WordPress style URLs is reduced to three main directories:-</p>
<ul>
<li>wp-admin</li>
<li>wp-content</li>
<li>wp-includes</li>
</ul>
<p>A variant for each directory is a capital W. For each of these directories the files requested can be replaced by a *. </p>
<p>I added the following lines to a .htaccess file:-</p>
<pre>
RewriteEngine On
# Serve an error without loading a custom page
RewriteRule ^wp-admin(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-admin(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-content(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-content(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-includes(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
</pre>

<p>Next month when I look at the site metrics I should see a substantial drop in the number of 404 errors and less of these invalid URLs in the list.</p>

<h3>Valid Requests for a page not found</h3>
<p>Another use for these statistics is to identify pages which are requested and which should be there, or did exist and maybe were moved.</p>
<p>The {{MH370Site}} website has undergone several significant structural changes over the development period and I deliberately did not fill the site with Redirects. I believed that if a new version was internally correct and had few if any 'wanted pages' then people browsing the site would rarely be looking for pages that were not there.</p>
<p>That assumption has been reasonably correct but a review of the Error 404 page requests showed about 20 pages which were frequently requested and do not currently exist at that URL (they were moved). The solution was to re-create the page and add a redirect to the current resource.</p>
<p>The syntax is simple:-</p>
<pre>
#REDIRECT [[pagename]]
</pre>
<p>Comments can be placed on the page without affecting the redirection. This can be useful to document why the redirect was added and when.</p>

<h3>Valid Requests and Searches, not found</h3>
<p>Another use for the statistics is to see which Search Keyphrases and Keywords have been requested.</p>
<p>If these requests are valid, consistent with the website topic or content, and a matching resource does not exist, it shows what people want.</p>
<p>The solution is to create a resource that meets the need.</p>

<h3>Error 404 and the {{MH370Site}} Website</h3>
<p>In November 2025 the {{MH370Site}} website apparently attracted 409,929 unique visitors, a total of 511,160 hits, and absorbed a bandwidth of 4.23 GB.</p>
<p>48 different robots crawled the site, probably accounting for most of the hits.</p>
<p>292,340 hits resulted in an HTTP Status Code 404 (Not Found).</p>
<p>Error 404 for about 20 of the frequently requested pages or URLs can be fixed using redirects - future statistics will show how effective that was.</p>
<p>The next large group of requests are pages /Special:WhatLinksHere which are normally restricted to logged-in users. The odd thing about those requests is that the option is in the Tools Menu and for anonymous users that is not visible at all.</p>
<p>Reviewing trends in search terms and page requests is part of site maintenance.</p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=HTTP Error Codes
|CatName=HTTP Error Codes
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">HTTP Error Codes</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Redirects </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Redirects" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Redirects</a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Secure]]
[[Category:File htaccess]]
[[Category:HTTP Error Codes]]
[[Category:Maintain]]

HTTP Code 404

2025-12-24T07:39:30Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Required but not found URLs (HTTP code 404) </h3>
<p>Statistics for a hosted website are available using cPanel --> Metrics --> Awstats.</p>
<p>Select the Domain, and View. For the selected Month, scroll down to a section headed HTTP Status Codes.</p>
<p>On the current page for this website only code 404 has a link. Apparently there were over 19000 recent 'hits' for which the web server returned HTTP Code 404.</p>
<p>The link on 404 opens the list of page requests which were 'not found'.</p>
<p>According to Awstats a total of 2350 URLs were requested, most of them around 50 times.</p>

<h3>Invalid Requests which are WordPress URLs</h3>
<p>Many of the requested URLs look like WordPress files, for example:-</p>
<ul>
<li>/Wp-content/admin.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/customize/chosen.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/themes/about.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-includes/html-api/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/languages/index.php</li>
<li>/Wp-content/admin-header.php</li>
<li> and the list goes on...</li>
</ul>
<p>I find this annoying, and the web server does not know that these pages are invalid, so my MediaWiki installation has to cope with the request, search the database and inform the web server that the page cannot be found. So I decided (experimentally) to put a stop to it.</p>
<p>The pattern for these WordPress style URLs is reduced to three main directories:-</p>
<ul>
<li>wp-admin</li>
<li>wp-content</li>
<li>wp-includes</li>
</ul>
<p>A variant for each directory is a capital W. For each of these directories the files requested can be replaced by a *. </p>
<p>I added the following lines to a .htaccess file:-</p>
<pre>
RewriteEngine On
# Serve an error without loading a custom page
RewriteRule ^wp-admin(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-admin(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-content(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-content(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule ^Wp-includes(/.*)?$ - [R=404,L]
</pre>

<p>Next month when I look at the site metrics I should see a substantial drop in the number of 404 errors and less of these invalid URLs in the list.</p>

<h3>Valid Requests for a page not found</h3>
<p>Another use for these statistics is to identify pages which are requested and which should be there, or did exist and maybe were moved.</p>
<p>The {{MH370Site}} website has undergone several significant structural changes over the development period and I deliberately did not fill the site with Redirects. I believed that if a new version was internally correct and had few if any 'wanted pages' then people browsing the site would rarely be looking for pages that were not there.</p>
<p>That assumption has been reasonably correct but a review of the Error 404 page requests showed about 20 pages which were frequently requested and do not currently exist at that URL (they were moved). The solution was to re-create the page and add a redirect to the current resource.</p>
<p>The syntax is simple:-</p>
<pre>
#REDIRECT [[pagename]]
</pre>
<p>Comments can be placed on the page without affecting the redirection. This can be useful to document why the redirect was added and when.</p>

<h3>Valid Requests and Searches, not found</h3>
<p>Another use for the statistics is to see which Search Keyphrases and Keywords have been requested.</p>
<p>If these requests are valid, consistent with the website topic or content, and a matching resource does not exist, it shows what people want.</p>
<p>The solution is to create a resource that meets the need.</p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=HTTP Error Codes
|CatName=HTTP Error Codes
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">HTTP Error Codes</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Help:Redirects </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Redirects" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Redirects</a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Secure]]
[[Category:File htaccess]]
[[Category:HTTP Error Codes]]

HTTP Code 404

2025-12-24T07:32:27Z

GrantM:

HTTP Code 404

2025-12-24T07:05:35Z

GrantM: Created page with "{{PageHeader}} <h3> </h3> <p> </p> {{DisplayCategoryTree |Topic= |CatName= |CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree> }} <h3>Links</h3> <dl> <dt> </dt> <dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd> <dt> </dt> <dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd> <dt> </dt> <dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd> <dt> </dt> <dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>..."

{{PageHeader}}

<h3> </h3>
<p> </p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Security]]
[[Category:Htaccess File]]

Securing MediaWiki

2025-12-24T07:04:44Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Securing a MediaWiki-based Website</h3>

<p>Please refer to the official MediaWiki documentation linked below - I'm not a security expert!</p>
<br />

<p>MediaWiki is an application written in php which runs on Linux/Unix servers, stores data in databases like MySql and MariaDB, and content is presented to users by web servers, typically Apache or Ngiinx.</p>
<p>This used to be referred to by an acronym LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.</p>
<p>It can also be used to visualize a stack where each of the above is a layer and data is transferred from the layer below and transferred to a layer above. This concept fits with the layers in the TCP/IP model, and theoretically also the OSI Model.</p>
<p>These models, and the layer concept, are also useful from the perspective of Security.</p>
<p>For hosted websites, physical security is obviously a responsibility of the hosting provider, and the advantage of using a hosting service is that we do not need to maintain and secure the operating system, or the web server application. So, to a great extent, two layers in the LAMP stack are secured by the hosting provider - Linux and Apache, or the operating system and web server.</p>
<p>However:-</p>
<ul>
<li>The web server will allow anonymous users to view the contents of MediaWiki directories, unless prevented.</li>
<li>Anonymous users can create new user accounts, unless prevented.</li>
<li>Anonymous users, or those with self-created accounts, can add, alter or delete website content, unless prevented.</li>
<li>Anonymous users, or those with self-created accounts, can view website content which should be restricted, unless prevented.</li>
<li>A MediaWiki-based website could be used by malevolent actors to send spam and as a vehicle for other dangerous actions, unless prevented.</li>
</ul>
<p>Responsibility for preventing these actions is our responsibility.</p>
<br />

<h3>A Spam Example</h3>
<p>One evening (a long time ago) I installed MediaWiki through a hosting service but didn't finish configuring it because it was late but didn't think that would matter.</p>
<p>The next day I received a phone call from the service provider to say that they had to shut my sites down because there was too much traffic.</p>
<p>I had made a simple mistake: the following lines should have been in LocalSettings.php:-</p>
<pre>
$wgGroupPermissions["*"]["createaccount"] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions["*"]["edit"] = false;
</pre>
<p>Bots obviously scan the Internet looking for vulnerabilities. My incomplete installation was found and probed. The absence of the above settings meant that anonymous users could create accounts. Lots of accounts were created, perhaps by a script. Those accounts were then used to send email. The emails were spam. The traffic volume grew to a level where it was noticed by the hosting service systems administrators. All within 12 hours!</p>
<p>Recent versions of MediaWiki may include the above settings in LocalSettings.php by default. But now it is the first thing I check when creating a new installation or implementing an upgrade.</p>
<br />

<h3>Security Tools</h3>
<p>Some of the tools available to us which can be used to secure a MediaWiki-based website include:-</p>
<ul>
<li>The .htaccess file in the root directory. This provides instructions to the web server. There is another .htaccess file in the /w/images directory to prevent direct access.</li>
<li>Configuration in LocalSettings.php, such as defining user rights, access levels for user groups, and namespace permissions.</li>
<li>The extension Lockdown which provides more security than available using MediaWiki settings.</li>
<li>Securing the database settings and passwords.</li>
<li>Using strong passwords for access to the hosting service account, and the MediaWiki installation.</li>
</ul>
<br />

<h3>Security and the {{MH370Site}} website</h3>
<p>To my knowledge security on this website has not been compromised, but people try.</p>
<p>The most common attempts are visible by reviewing logs and the statistics pages provided within cPanel.</p>
<p>It is well known that administrative access to Wordpress sites is the URL <i>domain name</i>/wp-admin. A common search, which results in a 404 message, is the potential login page at <i>the MH370 site</i>/wp-admin. If successful this probe would inevitably lead to attempts to bypass the administrator password. These probes, and attempts to probe the site logins directly, are undoubtedly automated and malevolent, but not successful. See article [[HTTP Code 404]]</p>
<br />

<h3>Backup</h3>
<p>If the site security was breached, what is the worst that could happen? Beyond the spam example above, it would lead to a loss of trust in the integrity of the site content or database. I couldn't check every page. MediaWiki does allow for some changes to be rolled back. But my preferred option would be to delete the potentially corrupted database and connect to a previous version. For that, one would need a suitable backup. And therefore it makes sense to create regular database backups, and test them, so there is always a fall-back option.</p>
<br />

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=securing MediaWiki
|CatName=Secure
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">Secure</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Security </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security</a></html><br />This page on the MediaWiki website is like a portal leading to other resources, many of which are listed below.</dd>

<dt>Manual:Security </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Security" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Security</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:User rights </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:User_rights" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:User_rights</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Preventing access</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security for developers </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security for developers/Architecture </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers/Architecture" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers/Architecture</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security for developers/Tutorial </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers/Tutorial" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers/Tutorial</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security checklist for developers</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_checklist_for_developers" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_checklist_for_developers</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security/Training resources </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security/Training_resources" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security/Training_resources</a></html></dd>

</dl>

[[Category:Secure]]

Securing MediaWiki

2025-12-24T07:01:03Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Securing a MediaWiki-based Website</h3>

<p>Please refer to the official MediaWiki documentation linked below - I'm not a security expert!</p>
<br />

<p>MediaWiki is an application written in php which runs on Linux/Unix servers, stores data in databases like MySql and MariaDB, and content is presented to users by web servers, typically Apache or Ngiinx.</p>
<p>This used to be referred to by an acronym LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.</p>
<p>It can also be used to visualize a stack where each of the above is a layer and data is transferred from the layer below and transferred to a layer above. This concept fits with the layers in the TCP/IP model, and theoretically also the OSI Model.</p>
<p>These models, and the layer concept, are also useful from the perspective of Security.</p>
<p>For hosted websites, physical security is obviously a responsibility of the hosting provider, and the advantage of using a hosting service is that we do not need to maintain and secure the operating system, or the web server application. So, to a great extent, two layers in the LAMP stack are secured by the hosting provider - Linux and Apache, or the operating system and web server.</p>
<p>However:-</p>
<ul>
<li>The web server will allow anonymous users to view the contents of MediaWiki directories, unless prevented.</li>
<li>Anonymous users can create new user accounts, unless prevented.</li>
<li>Anonymous users, or those with self-created accounts, can add, alter or delete website content, unless prevented.</li>
<li>Anonymous users, or those with self-created accounts, can view website content which should be restricted, unless prevented.</li>
<li>A MediaWiki-based website could be used by malevolent actors to send spam and as a vehicle for other dangerous actions, unless prevented.</li>
</ul>
<p>Responsibility for preventing these actions is our responsibility.</p>
<br />

<h3>A Spam Example</h3>
<p>One evening (a long time ago) I installed MediaWiki through a hosting service but didn't finish configuring it because it was late but didn't think that would matter.</p>
<p>The next day I received a phone call from the service provider to say that they had to shut my sites down because there was too much traffic.</p>
<p>I had made a simple mistake: the following lines should have been in LocalSettings.php:-</p>
<pre>
$wgGroupPermissions["*"]["createaccount"] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions["*"]["edit"] = false;
</pre>
<p>Bots obviously scan the Internet looking for vulnerabilities. My incomplete installation was found and probed. The absence of the above settings meant that anonymous users could create accounts. Lots of accounts were created, perhaps by a script. Those accounts were then used to send email. The emails were spam. The traffic volume grew to a level where it was noticed by the hosting service systems administrators. All within 12 hours!</p>
<p>Recent versions of MediaWiki may include the above settings in LocalSettings.php by default. But now it is the first thing I check when creating a new installation or implementing an upgrade.</p>
<br />

<h3>Security Tools</h3>
<p>Some of the tools available to us which can be used to secure a MediaWiki-based website include:-</p>
<ul>
<li>The .htaccess file in the root directory. This provides instructions to the web server. There is another .htaccess file in the /w/images directory to prevent direct access.</li>
<li>Configuration in LocalSettings.php, such as defining user rights, access levels for user groups, and namespace permissions.</li>
<li>The extension Lockdown which provides more security than available using MediaWiki settings.</li>
<li>Securing the database settings and passwords.</li>
<li>Using strong passwords for access to the hosting service account, and the MediaWiki installation.</li>
</ul>
<br />

<h3>Security and the {{MH370Site}} website</h3>
<p>To my knowledge security on this website has not been breached, but people try.</p>
<p>The most common attempts are visible by reviewing logs and the statistics pages provided within cPanel.</p>
<p>It is well known that administrative access to Wordpress sites is the URL <i>domain name</i>/wp-admin. A common search, which results in a 404 message, is the potential login page at <i>the MH370 site</i>/wp-admin. If successful this probe would inevitably lead to attempts to bypass the administrator password. These probes, and attempts to probe the site logins directly, are undoubtedly automated and malevolent, but not successful.</p>
<br />

<h3>Backup</h3>
<p>If the site security was breached, what is the worst that could happen? Beyond the spam example above, it would lead to a loss of trust in the integrity of the site content or database. I couldn't check every page. MediaWiki does allow for some changes to be rolled back. But my preferred option would be to delete the potentially corrupted database and connect to a previous version. For that, one would need a suitable backup. And therefore it makes sense to create regular database backups, and test them, so there is always a fall-back option.</p>
<br />

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=securing MediaWiki
|CatName=Secure
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">Secure</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Security </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security</a></html><br />This page on the MediaWiki website is like a portal leading to other resources, many of which are listed below.</dd>

<dt>Manual:Security </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Security" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Security</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:User rights </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:User_rights" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:User_rights</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Preventing access</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security for developers </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security for developers/Architecture </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers/Architecture" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers/Architecture</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security for developers/Tutorial </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers/Tutorial" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers/Tutorial</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security checklist for developers</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_checklist_for_developers" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_checklist_for_developers</a></html></dd>

<dt>Security/Training resources </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security/Training_resources" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security/Training_resources</a></html></dd>

</dl>

[[Category:Secure]]

CrawlerProtection

2025-12-24T06:54:42Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Extension: CrawlerProtection </h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>The CrawlerProtection extension blocks anonymous users from performing actions and accessing special pages which are most frequently abused by AI crawler bots. </p>
</div> 
<p>This Extension was released in 2025. Once installed, the extension requires no configuration.</p>
<p>Before installing a new extension on a live website such as {{MH370Site}} I prefer to test it with the same version of MediaWiki.</p>
<p>In this instance, I have installed it on this website, as a trial, and if there are no issues will install it on the {{MH370Site}} later.</p>
<br />
<p>When the extension was downloaded the file was named CrawlerProtection-main.tar.gz</p>
<p>Consequently, the expanded version was in a folder named CrawlerProtection-main.</p>
<p>This was renamed simply CrawlerProtection prior to upload to the hosting site via FTP.</p>
<p>As I may reuse this upload I copied an instance of the CrawlerProtection folder to the /extensions directory for this website.</p>
<p>I added the following to LocalSettings.php, as per the instructions:-</p>
<pre>
## Added (date entered)
wfLoadExtension( 'CrawlerProtection' );
</pre>
<p>Using MediaWiki Tools --> Special pages --> Data and tools --> Version, I can see that the extension is installed.</p>
<p>Unlike other installed extensions there is no hyperlink to the extension's page on the MediaWiki website.</p>
<p>There was no noticeable affect on the operation of this website.</p>

<h3>Extension Performance</h3>
<p>How do you know what the CrawlerProtection extension is doing, how effective it is and what it has blocked?</p>
<p>When I know the answer I will publish it here...</p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=MediaWiki Extensions
|CatName=Extensions
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">Extensions</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Extension:CrawlerProtection </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CrawlerProtection" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CrawlerProtection</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Handling web crawlers </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Handling_web_crawlers" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Handling_web_crawlers</a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Extensions]]
[[Category:Robots]]

CrawlerProtection

2025-12-24T06:53:57Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Extension: CrawlerProtection </h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>The CrawlerProtection extension blocks anonymous users from performing actions and accessing special pages which are most frequently abused by AI crawler bots. </p>
</div> 
<p>This Extension was released in 2025. Once installed, the extension requires no configuration.</p>
<p>Before installing a new extension on a live website such as {{MH370Site}} I prefer to test it with the same version of MediaWiki.</p>
<p>In this instance, I have installed it on this website, as a trial, and if there are no issues will install it on the {{MH370Site}} later.</p>
<br />
<p>When the extension was downloaded the file was named CrawlerProtection-main.tar.gz</p>
<p>Consequently, the expanded version was in a folder named CrawlerProtection-main.</p>
<p>This was renamed simply CrawlerProtection prior to upload to the hosting site via FTP.</p>
<p>As I may reuse this upload I copied an instance of the CrawlerProtection folder to the /extensions directory for this website.</p>
<p>I added the following to LocalSettings.php, as per the instructions:-</p>
<pre>
## Added (date entered)
wfLoadExtension( 'CrawlerProtection' );
</pre>
<p>Using MediaWiki Tools --> Special pages --> Data and tools --> Version, I can see that the extension is installed.</p>
<p>Unlike other installed extensions there is no hyperlink to the extension's page on the MediaWiki website.</p>
<p>There was no noticeable affect on the operation of this website.</p>

<h3>Extension Performance</h3>
<p>How do you know what the CrawlerProtection extension is doing, how effective it is and what it has blocked?</p>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=MediaWiki Extensions
|CatName=Extensions
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages">Extensions</categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Extension:CrawlerProtection </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CrawlerProtection" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CrawlerProtection</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Handling web crawlers </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Handling_web_crawlers" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Handling_web_crawlers</a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:Extensions]]
[[Category:Robots]]

Category:Robots

2025-12-24T06:52:04Z

GrantM: Created page with "{{CategoryPage |ParentCategory=Configure |CategoryDescription=Pages relating to robots, bots, crawlers etc. }}"

{{CategoryPage
|ParentCategory=Configure
|CategoryDescription=Pages relating to robots, bots, crawlers etc.
}}

Robots.txt

2025-12-24T06:51:05Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Directives to Robots</h3>
<p>The most common method for website administrators to control web crawlers is by creating a robots.txt file. This is placed in the website root directory, usually with a sitemap.</p>
<p>The robots.txt file tells search engine robots where to find a Site Map, and instructions which allow or disallow robot's access to parts of the website. For example, some Namespaces may be accessible and search is allowed; others are disallowed.</p>
<p>Google provides some insight into how their web crawler will interpret a robots.txt file, and also provides a tool to assist in the creation and testing of a robots.txt file.</p>
<p>However, MediaWiki presents some interesting problems because of the Namespaces and Talk namespaces, Special Pages and maybe other areas which should be specifically denied.</p>

<h3>Robots and MediaWiki</h3>
<p>MediaWiki has several methods to control robots:-</p>
<ol>
<li>A robots.txt file can be placed in the root directory. This can also link to a sitemap.</li>
<li>Robot policies can be defined using variables in LocalSettings.php - see <i>Manual:Robot policy</i></li>
<li>Magic Words can be added to specific pages to control indexing.</li>
</ol>

<h3>Robots.txt File is Visible</h3>
<p>Because the robots.txt file is known to be placed in a root directory anyone can browse to a website <i>websiteURL/robots.txt</i> and the text will be displayed in a browser window.</p>
<p>For a normal webnsite if you list files or directories which you don't want bots or robots to scan then you are also listing files or directories which exist but now have listed for anyone who is reading this file.</p>
<p>For a MediaWiki-based website the 'files or directories' are virtual - they are pages or articles and namespaces.</p>
<p>To prevent crawlers from accessing specific namespaces it is probably better to rely on the variables which can be configured in LocalSettings.php, and avoid publishing the namespace names in a robots.txt file.</p>

<h3>Manual:Robot policy</h3>
<p>Although this Manual has limited information, it does list the variables which can be configured to tell web crawlers and other tools what to exclude. The use of the directive 'allow' in robots.txt is not really supported - robots.txt works by exclusion. Basically, anything not denied is allowed.</p>
<p>The configuration settings listed in the <i>Manual:Robot policy</i> are:-</p>
<ul>
<li><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgDefaultRobotPolicy" target="_blank">$wgDefaultRobotPolicy</a></html> - Default robot exclusion policy for the wiki</li>
<li><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgArticleRobotPolicies" target="_blank">$wgArticleRobotPolicies</a></html> - Allow customization of robot policies on a per-article basis</li>
<li><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgExemptFromUserRobotsControl" target="_blank">$wgExemptFromUserRobotsControl</a></html> - An array of namespace keys in which the __INDEX__/__NOINDEX__ magic words will not function</li>
<li><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgNamespaceRobotPolicies" target="_blank">$wgNamespaceRobotPolicies</a></html> - Allow customization of robot policies on a per-namespace basis</li>
</ul>

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Manual:Robot policy </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Robot_policy" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Robot_policy</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:robots.txt</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Robots.txt" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Robots.txt</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Noindex</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Noindex" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Noindex</a></html></dd>

<dt>Introduction to robots.txt (Google Search Central) </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro" target="_blank">https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro</a></html></dd>

<dt>How to write and submit a robots.txt file (Google Search Central) </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/create-robots-txt" target="_blank">https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/create-robots-txt</a></html></dd>

<dt>The Ultimate 2025 List of Web Crawlers and Good Bots: Identification, Examples, and Best Practices </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.humansecurity.com/learn/blog/crawlers-list-known-bots-guide/" target="_blank">https://www.humansecurity.com/learn/blog/crawlers-list-known-bots-guide/ </a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Handling web crawlers</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Handling_web_crawlers" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Handling_web_crawlers</a></html>
This is a relatively new resource on the MediaWiki website and also mentions a new Extension:[[CrawlerProtection]].</dd>

</dl>

[[Category:$wgDefaultRobotPolicy]]
[[Category:$wgArticleRobotPolicies]]
[[Category:$wgExemptFromUserRobotsControl]]
[[Category:$wgNamespaceRobotPolicies]]
[[Category:LocalSettings.php]]
[[Category:Robots]]

CrawlerProtection

2025-12-24T06:44:15Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Extension: CrawlerProtection </h3>
<div class="quote">
<p>The CrawlerProtection extension blocks anonymous users from performing actions and accessing special pages which are most frequently abused by AI crawler bots. </p>
</div> 
<p>This Extension was released in 2025. Once installed, the extension requires no configuration.</p>
<p>Before installing a new extension on a live website such as {{MH370Site}} I prefer to test it with the same version of MediaWiki.</p>
<p>In this instance, I have installed it on this website, as a trial, and if there are no issues will install it on the {{MH370Site}} later.</p>
<br />
<p>When the extension was downloaded the file was named CrawlerProtection-main.tar.gz</p>
<p>Consequently, the expanded version was in a folder named CrawlerProtection-main.</p>
<p>This was renamed simply CrawlerProtection prior to upload to the hosting site via FTP.</p>
<p>As I may reuse this upload I copied an instance of the CrawlerProtection folder to the /extensions directory for this website.</p>
<p>I added the following to LocalSettings.php, as per the instructions:-</p>
<pre>
## Added (date entered)
wfLoadExtension( 'CrawlerProtection' );
</pre>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Extension:CrawlerProtection </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CrawlerProtection" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CrawlerProtection</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:Handling web crawlers </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Handling_web_crawlers" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Handling_web_crawlers</a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category: ]]

CrawlerProtection

2025-12-24T06:37:27Z

GrantM:

CrawlerProtection

2025-12-24T06:29:45Z

GrantM:

CrawlerProtection

2025-12-24T06:29:26Z

GrantM: Created page with "{{PageHeader}} <h3>Extension: CrawlerProtection </h3> <div class="quote;"> <p>he CrawlerProtection extension blocks anonymous users from performing actions and accessing special pages which are most frequently abused by AI crawler bots. </p> </div>  {{DisplayCategoryTree |Topic= |CatName= |CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree> }} <h3>Links</h3> <dl> <dt> </dt> <dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>..."

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Extension: CrawlerProtection </h3>
<div class="quote;">
<p>he CrawlerProtection extension blocks anonymous users from performing actions and accessing special pages which are most frequently abused by AI crawler bots. </p>
</div> 

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category: ]]

Category:$wgShowExceptionDetails

2025-12-24T04:13:38Z

GrantM: Created page with "{{CategoryPage |ParentCategory=Variables |CategoryDescription=A variable used for troubleshooting }}"

{{CategoryPage
|ParentCategory=Variables
|CategoryDescription=A variable used for troubleshooting
}}

Runtime Exception Errors

2025-12-24T04:12:55Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Runtime Exception Errors </h3>
<p>Here is an example of a typical runtime exception error message:-</p>
<html>
<img src="/w/MyImages/Trouble/RuntimeExceptionError.jpg"
height: auto;
onContextMenu="return false;">
</html>

<p>To get more detail, add the following line to the end of the LocalSettings.php file:-</p>
<pre>
$wgShowExceptionDetails = true;
</pre>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=Troubleshooting
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Manual:Common errors and symptoms</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Common_errors_and_symptoms" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Common_errors_and_symptoms</a></html></dd>

<dt>Manual:$wgShowExceptionDetails </dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgShowExceptionDetails" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgShowExceptionDetails</a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category:$wgShowExceptionDetails]]
[[Category:Troubleshooting]]

Runtime Exception Errors

2025-12-24T04:09:25Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Runtime Exception Errors </h3>
<p>Here is an example of a typical runtime exception error message:-</p>
<html>
<img src="/w/MyImages/Trouble/RuntimeExceptionError.jpg"
height: auto;
onContextMenu="return false;">
</html>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=Troubleshooting
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Manual:Common errors and symptoms</dt>
<dd><html><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Common_errors_and_symptoms" target="_blank">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Common_errors_and_symptoms</a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category: ]]

See image for Runtime Exception Error

<p>Add <html><code>$wgShowExceptionDetails = true;M/code></html> at the bottom of LocalSettings.php</p>
<p>This gives a more detail about error message.</p>

Runtime Exception Errors

2025-12-24T04:06:20Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Runtime Exception Errors </h3>
<p>here is an example of a typical runtime exception error message:-</p>
<html>
<img src="/w/MyImages/Trouble/RuntimeExceptionError.jpg"
height: auto;
onContextMenu="return false;">
</html>

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=Troubleshooting
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category: ]]

See image for Runtime Exception Error

<p>Add <html><code>$wgShowExceptionDetails = true;M/code></html> at the bottom of LocalSettings.php</p>
<p>This gives a more detail about error message.</p>

Help:Manual/Images

2025-12-24T04:05:24Z

GrantM: Created page with "<h3>Images are stored in a sub-folder MyImages</h3> <p>Older images were uploaded to the default images folder and its a mess.</p> <p>This code works:-</p> <pre> <h3>Website Analytics or Statistics</h3> <p>cPanel has a section headed <b>Metrics</b>. </p> <html> <img src="/w/MyImages/cPanel/Metrics.jpg" height: auto; onContextMenu="return false;"> </html> </pre>"

<h3>Images are stored in a sub-folder MyImages</h3>
<p>Older images were uploaded to the default images folder and its a mess.</p>
<p>This code works:-</p>
<pre>
<h3>Website Analytics or Statistics</h3>
<p>cPanel has a section headed <b>Metrics</b>. </p>
<html>
<img src="/w/MyImages/cPanel/Metrics.jpg"
height: auto;
onContextMenu="return false;">
</html>
</pre>

Runtime Exception Errors

2025-12-24T03:58:53Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Runtime Exception Errors </h3>
<p>here is an example of a typical runtime exception error message:-</p>
[[File:../MyImages/Trouble/RuntimeExceptionError.jpg]]

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=Troubleshooting
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category: ]]

See image for Runtime Exception Error

<p>Add <html><code>$wgShowExceptionDetails = true;M/code></html> at the bottom of LocalSettings.php</p>
<p>This gives a more detail about error message.</p>

Runtime Exception Errors

2025-12-24T03:58:38Z

GrantM:

{{PageHeader}}

<h3>Runtime Exception Errors </h3>
<p>here is an example of a typical runtime exception error message:-</p>
[[File:/MyImages/Trouble/RuntimeExceptionError.jpg]]

{{DisplayCategoryTree
|Topic=
|CatName=Troubleshooting
|CatTree=<categorytree mode="pages"> </categorytree>
}}

<h3>Links</h3>
<dl>
<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>

<dt> </dt>
<dd><html><a href=" " target="_blank"> </a></html></dd>
</dl>

[[Category: ]]

See image for Runtime Exception Error

<p>Add <html><code>$wgShowExceptionDetails = true;M/code></html> at the bottom of LocalSettings.php</p>
<p>This gives a more detail about error message.</p>