GIST Support WikiNamespaces are different sections of the wiki. Each page is part of one namespace. Page titles begin with an optional namespace followed by a ":" and then the remainder of the title. For example, this page has the title Help:Namespace, so it is in the Help namespace. A title without a colon, for example Main Page, is in the main namespace.
[edit] Namespaces at GIST Support Wiki
On this wiki, a number of the namespaces normally included with MediaWiki have been disabled. This was done to keep the number more manageable. Most notably, we have removed all of the Talk namespaces, because the community email list serves a similar purpose. The primary namespaces in use on this wiki are:
- Main: This is where most all wiki content goes. Links to the main namespace do not need the text "Main:" in the page title to identify them (e.g., Main Page). Many of the Special Pages only show statistics or pages from the main namespace (e.g., Special:popularpages)
- Help: This page, and other help documents, are in the help namespace.
- Project: The project namespace includes policy pages (e.g., Project:About) and pages intended for the Wiki Team (e.g., Project:Getting_Started and Project:Checklist).
- User: User pages appear in the user namespace.
- Special: Several automatically generated pages on the wiki appear in the special namespace. For example, the Special:Recentchanges page. See them all at Special:Specialpages.
- Category: The category namespace is used for category pages that assist in navigation.
- Image: Contains the [Help:Image page| image pages].
[edit] Namespace Uses
Namespaces allow, among other things, a separation of content from policy. They encourage separation of the pages of a wiki into a core set intended for public viewing, and private information intended for the editing community and administrators. Below are some ways that namespaces can be used.
- Special:Allpages and Special:Recentchanges can be applied to a namespace of choice. For example, a person could view All User Pages) by selecting the desired namespace in the drop-down box of the Special:Allpages page.
- Searching can be restricted to any subset of namespaces. This can be helpful in limiting the content that is searched. For example, if a person was searching for a help page, they could search only the Help: namespace by checking the appropriate box at the bottom of the Search page. Each user can set which namespaces are searched by default in the preferences
- User contributions can show all namespaces or be restricted to a namespace of choice.
[edit] Advanced Topics
Adding a colon to a page name does not automatically create a new namespace. Creating new namespaces is technically possible using other means, but not recommended on MedShelf.org. Rather than creating namespaces to organize content, categories should be used. It is possible to include a colon in a page title (other than it's regular use after a namespace), but is not recommended. If one is used it will be part of the page title and the page will be in the main namespace.
To see the namespace of a page, use {{NAMESPACE}} which returns the namespace. For this page it returns "Help". The same code would return an empty string for a page in the main namespace. Similarly, {{PAGENAME}} returns the page name without prefix. For this page it returns "Namespace". {{FULLPAGENAME}} returns both namespace and pagename; for this page, that is "Help:Namespace".