Skins

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.

MediaWiki Skins

Skins define the look and feel of the user interface for the MediaWiki-based website.

MediaWiki is currently supplied with four skins: MinervaNeue, MonoBook, Timeless, and two versions of Vector (Vector and Vector 2022).

The default installation loads all of these skins but one is selected as the default by the variable $wgDefaultSkin.

If allowed, users (with accounts) can select a skin, according to their preference, from the loaded available skins.

Skins and the mh370wiki.net website

The mh370wiki.net website currently uses the Vector skin with the CollapsibleVector extension which enables drop-down menus in the Sidebar.

The website has previously used the Foreground skin and the Pivot skin, both of which are based on the Zurb Foundation CSS Framework. The advantage is that functional CSS is included.

However, the Vector skin is bundled with MediaWiki so is less of a risk when it is time to upgrade. And the CollapsibleVector extension is very usable. And I learned how to create my own CSS so no longer need the Foundation code.

Vector is a plain skin, visualise Wikipedia for example, but it has been significantly customised for the mh370wiki.net website. This process is described in these articles:-

1. Choosing a MediaWiki Skin
2. Choosing a Colour Scheme
3. Identifying the various CSS Classes used by both MediaWiki and the active Skin
4. Applying a Custom Colour Scheme to appropriate Classes in MediaWiki:common.css and the skin CSS, for example MediaWiki:Vector.css, as used here.

Articles which relate to MediaWiki Skins

Articles which relate to MediaWiki Skins are included in Category:Skins.

The CategoryTree Extension enables a listing of relevant sub-categories and pages:-

Skins

Vector

Skins

Links

Help:Skins

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Skins

Manual:Skins

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skins

Manual:$wgDefaultSkin

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgDefaultSkin

Bundled extensions and skins

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bundled_extensions_and_skins#Skins

Category:All skins

A MediaWiki category page listing skins currently registered at MediaWiki.
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:All_skins

Cascading Style Sheets - definitions for style and layout of web pages. Enables separation of presentation and content.

Styles used to format webpages. MediaWiki users can store custom css in the page MediaWiki:Common.css.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)