Extension:Semantic Forms

MediaWiki extensions manual

Semantic Forms Release status: stable
Implementation	Special page, API
Description	An extension, based around Semantic MediaWiki, that allows users to create forms for adding and editing pages that use templates to store semantic data. Forms are defined within wiki pages, written in a custom markup language, and are parsed on-the-fly when a form is displayed.
Author(s)	Yaron Koren <[email protected]>, Stephan Gambke and others
Latest version	2.8 (September 2014)
MediaWiki	1.19 or greater
License	GPL
Download	Download snapshot (Git master) Git [?]: repo summary browse file tree commit history See here
Example	An auto-generated form allowing the user to edit an opinion item
Hooks used MakeGlobalVariablesScript LinkEnd UnknownAction SkinTemplateTabs SkinTemplateNavigation AdminLinks ParserBeforeStrip ParserFirstCallInit ResourceLoaderRegisterModules
Translate the Semantic Forms extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Check usage and version matrix; code metrics

Semantic Forms is an extension to MediaWiki that allows users to add, edit and query data using forms. It is heavily tied in with the Semantic MediaWiki extension, and is meant to be used for structured data that has semantic markup. Having Semantic MediaWiki installed is a precondition for the Semantic Forms extension; the code will not work without it.

Very simply, Semantic Forms allows you to have forms for adding, editing and querying data on your wiki, without any programming. Forms can be created and edited not just by administrators, but by users themselves.

The main components of Semantic Forms functionality are form definition pages, which exist in a new namespace, 'Form:'. These are pages consisting of markup code which gets parsed when a user goes to add or edit data. Since forms are defined strictly through these definition pages, users can themselves create and edit forms, without the need for any actual programming.

The Semantic Forms extension enforces the use of templates in creating semantic data. It does not support direct semantic markup in data pages; instead, all the semantic markup is meant to be stored indirectly through templates. A form allows a user to populate a pre-defined set of templates and sections for a page (behind the scenes, the template data is turned into semantic properties once the page is saved).

Forms can also be used to edit the data in an existing page, and you can enable an 'edit with form' tab to show up on any page.

Semantic Forms also supports autocompletion of fields, so users can easily see what the previously-entered values were for a given field. This greatly helps to avoid issues of naming ambiguity, spelling, etc.

Data in a page that doesn't fit into the form, like a free-form text description of the page's subject, isn't ignored when the page is edited with a form; rather, it is placed into a separate input box called "free text".

Semantic Forms also includes a wide variety of other functionality related to forms.

Below are links to the entire documentation.

• Download and installation

How to download Semantic Forms via either Git, a standard download, or a software package; and how to install it.

• Quick start guide

How to get started with Semantic Forms right away.

• Hosting

Wiki hosting sites that support Semantic Forms, plus public wikis that can be used for trying out the software.

• Special pages

All the "special pages" that Semantic Forms defines: the ones that provide helper forms (Special:CreateProperty, Special:CreateTemplate, Special:CreateForm, Special:CreateCategory, Special:CreateClass), the ones that display lists (Special:Templates, Special:Forms) and the ones used to display actual forms (Special:FormEdit, Special:FormStart, Special:RunQuery, Special:UploadWindow).

• Semantic Forms and templates

The template-based philosophy of Semantic Forms - plus information on the two parser functions that SF defines for templates: #arraymap and #arraymaptemplate.

• Defining forms

This is the major section. How to define a form via a page within the "Form:" namespace. Covers the entire form-definition syntax, including the {{{info}}}, {{{for template}}}, {{{end template}}}, {{{field}}}, {{{section}}} and {{{standard input}}} tags. Also covers how to add tabs and tooltips.

• The "edit with form" tab

How to get the "edit with form" tab to appear on pages, using the "Has default form", "Has alternate form" and "Page has default form" special properties. Plus, how to rename the tab to simply "edit", and how to remove the standard "edit" tab (if you want to).

• Linking to forms

How to bring users to forms, via the #forminput, #formlink and #queryformlink functions. Also, how to associate forms with red-linked pages that don't exist yet, using "Has default form"; and how to have such red-linked pages created automatically, using "Creates pages with form". Also, how to create links that directly modify a page, via the #autoedit function.

• Creating query forms

Creating forms to query data, instead of to modify data, via the Special:RunQuery page.

• Common problems

Common issues people have run into, and their solutions, relating to forms, data structure design, and the use of Semantic Forms with other extensions.

• Known bugs and planned features

Known bugs in the software, and potential workarounds for them; plus features that are planned in the current "development roadmap".

• Getting support

Where to ask questions, submit bug reports, submit feature requests, submit fixes, and add new translations.

• Developers' documentation

Information for developers who want to modify Semantic Forms, or create an extension that works in tandem with it.

• Authors and credits

The main authors, others who have contributed to the code, and credits to other organizations and software projects.

• Version history

A version history of Semantic Forms, from May 2007 to the present.

• Sites that use Semantic Forms

A small sampling of the wikis that use Semantic Forms, plus links to more comprehensive lists.

• Related extensions

Extensions that require the presence of Semantic Forms, extensions that can be used together with Semantic Forms, and extensions that have a similar purpose to Semantic Forms.

Cheat sheet
Links	SMW quick reference · Scratchpad · SMW user manual
Parser functions	{{#arraymap:value|delimiter|var|formula|new_delimiter}} {{#arraymaptemplate:value|template|delimiter|new_delimiter}} {{#forminput:form=|size=|default value=|button text=|query string=|autocomplete on category=|autocomplete on namespace=|placeholder=|popup|query string parameters}} {{#formlink:form=|link text=|link type=|query string=|target=|tooltip=|popup|new window|query string parameters}} {{#queryformlink:form=|link text=|link type=|query string=|tooltip=|popup|new window|query string parameters}} {{#autoedit:form=|target=|link text=|link type=|query string=|reload|query string parameters}}
Input types	text, text with autocomplete, textarea, textarea with autocomplete, combobox, date, datetime, checkbox, dropdown, radiobutton, checkboxes, listbox; from Semantic Forms Inputs: datepicker, timepicker, datetimepicker, menuselect, regexp; from Semantic Maps: map, googlemaps, yahoomaps, openlayers; from Semantic Image Input: instantimage; via CategoryTree: category, categories