Main Page Properties
A Guide to Using MediaWiki in a Hosted Environment
An instructional website by the developer of mh370wiki.net - a MediaWiki site about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Main Page Name and Location
The Main Page has a default name and location. This can be viewed by opening the page MediaWiki:Mainpage. As shown by the capture below, this page does not exist, until you open and save it, or edit it (which is not recommended).
So, the default name in Main Page, and the default location in the Main namespace - if it was located elsewhere there would be a namespace prefix.
Main Page Title
The displayed title of the Main Page can be customised. It could be 'Home Page', for example. The method is described in the Manual:Main Page. My experience is that modifying anything to do with the Main Page name, location or title is problematic and can cause more issues than the value of any expected outcome.
Main Page Title and Browser Tab
The Main Page URL typically looks like this:-
To remove the Main_Page title from the URL and just present the domain name, change the value of $wgMainPageIsDomainRoot from false, which is the default, to true.
Add this line to LocalSettings.php $wgMainPageIsDomainRoot='true';
My version looks like this:-
The result is a clean-looking URL when users browse to your Main Page.
Logo and main Page
The site Logo is automatically linked to the Main Page.
Main Page and Subpages
Subpages are not permitted in the Main namespace by default. However, this can be changed. See Subpages.
Main Page, Subpages, and mh370wiki.net
The Main Page of the mh370wiki.net currently has several subpages. The intention is to draw the reader through several significant events or announcements which define key moments in the saga of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
This is only possible by permitting subpages in the Main namespace.
Main Page and Transclusion
The displayed content in the mh370wiki.net Main Page and subpages is transcluded from a non-public namespace. This may be just a complication and it would be simpler to put the content directly into the Main Page and its' subpages. The point is, however, that content can be transcluded into a main page if you want to do so.
Links
- Manual:Main Page
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Main_Page
- Manual:$wgMainPageIsDomainRoot
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgMainPageIsDomainRoot