Mediawiki Extension: Special:ExtensionStatus
This extension creates a special page Special:ExtensionStatus (an extension to Special:Version page) which shows users information about any updates in the extensions they are using.
The extensions that are checked must have a gerrit repository to be tested-against. The extension will first check local git information to see if there is a 'last update' date, but if git is unavailable, or if the extension was manually downloaded, the code will fall back to checking the file last modification date.
This isn't entirely accurate, but it can give users (and developers) some idea of whether or not they should upgrade their extensions. This is especailly important for MediaWiki developers, since some bugs that appear may be solved by an extension upgrade (and sometimes those extensions haven't been updated in months)
Note
This is my very first MediaWiki extension! (woohoo), and I am pretty sure what I've done can be done better. I took great care to try and follow the conventions, but please bear with me on errors and fixes, and if you find any, please add them to the GitHub issues -- I'd love to have good criticism that can make this extension useful to people!
You can also contact me through moo[at]smarterthanthat[dot]com, or on IRC (irc.freenode.net) as mooeypoo
Screenshots
Here are two screenshots of the extension in action. There are two options: if git is installed, the system will use it to verify local repositories. Otherwise, it will fallback to check local file modification time. Notice, also, that since the "ExtensionStatus" entry doesn't have a gerrit account, its commit status is simply empty.
Note: The two screenshots below were taken from two different systems that have different updates, which is why the dates and number of lagging commits is different.
With Git
Notice you can see the SHA1 and latest update date as you do in the Special:Version page:
Without Git
Here the SHA1 wasn't available, the system fell-back to reading file modification time:
Installation
This extension is installed the usual way:
- Download the latest version into your mediawiki/extensions/ folder, call the new folder "ExtensionStatus". Or you can use git:
git clone git://github.com/mooeypoo/MediaWiki-ExtensionStatus.git- Add this to your LocalSettings.php
require_once( "$IP/extensions/ExtensionStatus/ExtensionStatus.php" );Usage
After installation, browse to Special:ExtensionStatus page:
http://yourmediawiki.com/wiki/Special:ExtensionStatusPlease report bugs and suggestions in the issues!
Future / "To Do" list
There are a couple of improvements I'm consiering adding for futrue versions:
- Possibly adding an option to notify the admin if certain amount of extensions are behind on updates
- Adding an option to check other repositories than Gerrit
- Checking into using glip (https://github.com/patrikf/glip) for git functionality for users without git installed
Ideas are welcome!
Credits
- Author: Moriel Schottlender (mooeypoo)
- GNU General Public License http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html